Are you making excuses for why you’re not more successful? Business success is 100% down to you – there is no shortage of information on how to become successful. All you need to do is implement it, so why aren’t you?
Episode Transcription
Den Lennie (1s):
G’day guys! Den Lennie here with this week’s shorty for the How to Scale a Video Business podcast. We are on an episode 161. I am, I’m reading an amazing book just now, called Ogilvy on advertising by David Ogilvy. And he was an Ad man who wrote this book. I think in the eighties, it’s just an amazing read, amazing read. And I’ve got a few nuggets to share with you on the show today. I loved reading about other people success and I think it helps you to model the other kinds of success, you know, everything that can be done on business has been done.
Den Lennie (54s):
And so like you don’t actually have to reinvent the wheel. You just need to apply. What’s already been successful in your own business. And sort of the thing that I always like to do is, is read something or study something and ask myself the question, how can I implement this into my business, or is just one of my clients with our business. And there’s number of amazing quotes in this book, but one that I’m gonna just share with you is that, he says, you know, concentrate your time, your brain’s and your advertising money on your success, back your winners and abandon your losers.
Den Lennie (1m 34s):
And I just thought that if it was such a powerful tool, because oftentimes you can end up walking with people who are perhaps having relationships with clients that had gone over for many years and as your company has grown, it could be that, you know, that client isn’t necessarily paying the highest or don’t respect your time enough, but you feel this sense of like duty because, you know, they have always been with you and you want to make sure that your, you know, serving them and that is very normal, but you need to make sure that it’s serving You from a profit perspective as well, which really takes me to today’s kind of theme, which is, you know, the fact that you can make money in Business or you can make excuses for not making money.
Den Lennie (2m 23s):
You can’t make Excuses and make money. And that was something that was taught to me by Ben Simkin, who he’s been on the show and a very successful entrepreneur. And, you know, and I suppose, I mean, I don’t listen to tons of podcasts, but I know there’s a few filmmaking podcasts out there. And, you know, a lot of podcasts that I’ve, I’ve come across, tend to be very kind of, you know, they tend to a skirt around some of the more, I think, important topics. And I’m not here to judge anyone else’s Podcast, but, but what I decided, you know, the, I find where would I sit more comfortably? Isn’t being the truth teller. You know, I do think there’s any point in time and, and, and dressing it up.
Den Lennie (3m 7s):
The fact is, you know, to make money in business, you’ve got to be willing to take full responsibility for everything that happens in your business, good and bad and not accept any excuses. And, you know, we had a great planning session this morning, or a monthly planning session with our VBA members. And, you know, those guys had just smashing, it was one of the first things we do on that call. As we ask, you know, people, the people on the call too, to not die at any time. <inaudible> in the last 30 days in any lessons land as a result of that. And it always blows me away just how much success people are having in the group, but it’s actually not an accident.
Den Lennie (3m 48s):
And its not a surprise. It’s actually a predictable ’cause they follow a process. And that process is one of high accountability, maintaining routine and rhythms. We review an audit every 30 days and then we set a course for the next 30 days. So it’s entirely predictable, it’s entirely predictable. And so there’s a high degree of ownership by them. You know, I taught to a lot of people who, who for various reasons to come in and come into contact with it. And it’s interesting that there are two distinct groups of people, those that have all sorts of stories and excuses for why they are not doing better and the people who, who take full responsibility and, and all and our success and they’re failures.
Den Lennie (4m 37s):
And it is fascinating. You know, everyone is on a different journey, but you have to be so vigilant to any default habits around stories around why you’re not more successful. There is a simple equation at this rate, if you are not more successful, it’s because you are not doing enough or it’s as simple as that, it’s a hundred percent on you because all of the information on how to run a successful business has been written about it. It gets spoken about, is shared for free. The information is not the problem. The problem is your interpretation of it or your implementation of it. And so if you are someone who feels like you could be more successful than you are and you are blaming other forces, are you seeing you don’t have enough money to invest in yourself, just look in the cupboard of all the gear you’ve got that is set in currently not making you any money.
Den Lennie (5m 24s):
And that is that, that is a brutal fact that I’ve had some, I’ve heard some horror stories recently, but how much money people have spent on gear and then not putting anything into the marketing, it’s it staggering? So, you know, what you have to do is, is, is plan every 30 days in a review, how you’re doing, there’s a couple of really good books. So I want to suggest to you this week as well and the power of habit by Charles Duhigg is a really great book on why we do what we do in life and business. And, and another is really explores the behind a habit creation and reformation. And another really great because at that point or a book that I’d probably favor is atomic habits by James clear and not say that sub-headline to that as tiny changes, remarkable results.
Den Lennie (6m 10s):
And he talks about if you’re having trouble changing your habits, there probably isn’t so much, you see the problem is your system, bad habits. Repeat themselves again and again, not because you don’t want to change that because you got the wrong system for change. You know, you don’t rise the level of your goal’s, you fault the level of your system’s. And so in that book, you get a real insight into how to create proven systems that can help me take you to new Heights. And that is a heavy emphasis in our mastermind group. Is, is the systems involved in being consistent because it’s consistency that delivers the results. Nothing else.
Den Lennie (6m 50s):
It’s really as simple as that, that aren’t any deep dark secrets as to why you are not more successful, it’s the consistency. And you need to be, you know, obviously mindful of managing your personal expectations. Cause you got to have good days and bad days, but if you track the right data, you can adapt and regroup and focus on the right areas. And so the things that you want to be tracking weekly and monthly is as revenue, how much did you generate profit? How much do you keep half our costs? What your cashflow looks like? Have you got enough fuel and the tank to keep keeping the vehicle moving and traffic sources, you know, are you getting your message in front of the right people?
Den Lennie (7m 32s):
And if so, what methods or working the best. And then, you know, within the mastermind, we’ve got a weekly tracking and we track all sorts of data around, you know, the specific metrics. If we know how many people are you reaching out on LinkedIn, how many website visitors do are you getting? And you know, if you’ve got a funnel running on your website, how many leads are you getting? How many conversations are you having all of these things. And then, and then we look at the constraints and the constraints could be mostly well, actually you, you know, you are usually the, the, the business owners, usually that constraint that causes the most pain, but it, then you got to optimize, you know, the various parts of you and the various parts of your business, make sure you’ve got the energy and the executing power and the processes for delivering results and, and tracking progress as you go.
Den Lennie (8m 24s):
And then of course, implementing that into your business with marketing and prospects and sales and client delivery and delivery of your products and an operational responsibilities. And, and that is something that you can measure on a weekly basis, but the, the key has to be committed to tracking it weekly and, and, and really, you know, making sure you’re focusing on the right areas that your business, because if you don’t, you, you’re just going to be putting a lot of energy into the areas that aren’t necessarily going to deliver any results. And so I want it to be that short Shorty with you this week, just giving you a sense of, you know, what we’ve been walking on this week, but also just to, to kind of, I really ask you to ask yourself the question, are you someone who’s making excuses for why you’re not more successful?
Den Lennie (9m 16s):
And, and if you are just looking at how much gears and the cupboard and ask yourself, is that gear I actually turning your profit or should you be investing in yourself and figuring out if there’s a better way? All right, guys, I’ll see you in the next episode on Thursday, You’ve been listening to the how to scale a video business podcast with me, your host, Den Lennie. If you’re a Video business owner, it’s hit the ceiling we’d benefit from mentorship support and coaching and checkout, how you can walk with me over at denlennie.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the shore over an iTunes. I mean, I really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave review, and don’t forget to share if you feel you’ve gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers, you know, and please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in.
Den Lennie (10m 5s):
So thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.
