Field Guides / About
Den Lennie is an author and business coach for video production company owners, and the founder of VBA (Video Business Accelerator). He helps owners escape the operator ceiling and build a business that scales without them in every seat. He has three decades in the production industry, has written five books for video business owners, and has coached through VBA for eight years.
Yes. Den Lennie started in broadcast television, on news camera work for Reuters, the BBC and ITV, then ran his own production company for around a decade before he began coaching.
In the early 2010s that company turned over about £250,000 to £260,000 a year, and it finished within about ten thousand of that figure every year while he avoided hiring. He learned the hard way that you can't brute-force your way to a business that works. That's the reason he coaches now: so other owners don't have to spend years in the same seat to find it out.
Over the past eight years, VBA clients have generated more than $52M in additional revenue, with average client growth of around $292K in 18 months. Across 178 or more video businesses, the average member stays around 27 months, and many are now in their fifth and sixth year.
A number of Den's former clients have gone on to become business coaches themselves. Den is a certified Systemologist and was a case study in David Jenyns' book Systemology. What members say, in their own words, is on What VBA members say.
Den Lennie is the author of five books for video business owners across more than a decade. The current one is The S.C.A.L.E. Method (2026). His first, Business for Filmmakers, was published in 2014. In between sit 30 Lies You Tell Yourself About Growing a Video Business, A Filmmaker's Guide to Budgets and Quotes and Marketing for Filmmakers Vol III. All five, and where to find them: The books Den Lennie has written.
Den Lennie coaches with the S.C.A.L.E. Method, the framework from his 2026 book. It works out which of five pillars (Survival, Control, Alignment, Leverage, Expansion) is holding a business back right now and puts the work there. The full explanation: What is the S.C.A.L.E. Method?
Underneath it sit a few convictions. Most video business owners don't have a lead problem; they have a positioning, identity and systems problem. Clients care about results, budget and timelines, not gear or codecs. And no business is reshaped in 30 days: the foundation can be rebuilt in a month, and real growth follows over 9 to 18 months.
Since 1 September 2026 Den Lennie works with owners through one programme, the VBA Elite Boardroom: weekly Boardroom calls, direct access to Den between calls, and a peer group of owners held to a written code of conduct. What's included and what it costs: What VBA offers.
Den also writes a weekly Substack and hosts a podcast for video production company owners with more than 400 episodes, at denlennie.com/podcast.
VBA runs inside F-Stop Academy Australia Pty Ltd. Most of Den's clients run video businesses doing between $100K and $1M a year, mostly in Australia, the UK, the US and Canada.