Final show of 2022 – what have we learned this year?

Episode Transcription

Den Lennie (1s):
Well, hey guys and welcome to the final episode of the year. I want today to reflect on some of the lessons I’ve learned this year, and also give you a little bit of a teaser of what’s coming up for the show next year.

Welcome to the Video Business Accelerator podcast. Each week we uncover the secrets to creating a wildly successful and scalable video production business with your host, Den Lennie. Discover how the accelerator program is transforming the lives of our members at www.videobusinessaccelerator.com. Enjoy this episode.

Den Lennie (47s):
So as we get towards the end of the year, it’s 20th of December today, just finished our final VBA Elite call for the year. The Uplevel calls finished up last week, and I’ve got a couple of one-to-ones with clients over the next few days just wrapping up and checking in their three month progress. But really I wanted to just be sharing some of the lessons from this year. And the biggest lesson I can share with you is that consistency wins in virtually every business sense. So I’ve been just looking back at some of my client results from this year inside of the VBA and you know, really some incredible growth happening across both the Uplevel program and the Elite Mastermind.

Den Lennie (1m 35s):
The Elite Mastermind is where, you know, the businesses that are more established are hanging out and if I look at some of the, we’ve got a thread in the community called Ring the Bell, and you know, traditionally December, January are quiet periods in the video industry, and I think that’s something that has typically been the case for video businesses. But what I’m seeing and what I’m noticing in the VBA is that’s not the case. In fact, people are taking time out because they need a break.

Den Lennie (2m 16s):
So, Thomas just posted in the group, $19,172 retainer under the belt for the first six months of next year. That was 17 hours ago. Sam’s just put in two hours ago just when I thought the year was coming to close. $9,194.77 Cents locked in for February for a three day conference. Cory’s saying $20,055 for a 50th anniversary video. Caleb’s just saying he has a $19,500 US brand film. Stu, $97,000 induction series. You know, there’s just next one’s 35k, 14k, 8k, 24,668, 20,200, $15,000, 44,900, $24,000.

Den Lennie (3m 5s):
These are real numbers, real results. And the reason that that my clients get these results is they are super consistent with their marketing and they’re very clear on the markets that they serve. And you know, they say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second best time is today. And so as we wind down the Christmas period for many people, there will be a period of sort of relaxing, and then January will come round and then it’ll be staring into the abyss. And so think of that as you have an opportunity to plant a tree today.

Den Lennie (3m 50s):
So if you are thinking like, how can you do things differently next year, then this is the thing I want you to think about over the next week or two, is what are you doing now that’s working and what are you doing now that’s not working and do you need some help? So I’m a member of a mastermind and it costs me 36,000 US dollars a year, and I’m coming up for renewal in January, and they’ve just got in touch and said, Hey, do you want to continue? And I’m like, 100% because when I look back on the year and that investment now 36,000 US works out to be about 52,000 Australian dollars. It’s not insignificant. But when I look at all of the changes I’ve implemented in my business in the last year, I’ve seen that money come back at me two to three times over.

Den Lennie (4m 36s):
And so when I look at any kind of investment in coaching, it is just that it is an investment, it is something that returns for you over time. And I think that for a lot of people in the video business industry, they’ve never necessarily invested in coaching and so they kind of just see it as this huge cost. But if you ask any of my clients, have they seen a return on investment? The answer is yes. The question is how much? And oftentimes it’s insurmountable, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 times. I think our greatest was Andrew who was with us for two years, and his company was doing 350,000 a year, two years ago sterling, and he was editing all the time.

Den Lennie (5m 28s):
He moved off editing to become sort of business development and production management, started building the team and he finished up with us after two years and his company had done in excess of 2 million pounds. Now, part of that was through one particular job, which was very unique, but if we take that out of the equation, they still would’ve been hitting a million pounds in revenue from video production from 350,000. So that is a 600% improvement, I’ve got that right. So there were three 50, 300%, 300% return, 300% improvement in revenue in two years. The return of investment was something like 600%.

Den Lennie (6m 9s):
It was, it was insane. And as I say, they walked away with, with over a $2.2 million, 2.2 Million pounds a year. Another client, Ben had been with us for three years, and when he started this business with us, he’d been sitting at 180,000 a year for five years running. And when he left this year after three years, he was doing over 550,000 pounds. So there’s some great examples, the other, other clients who have had seen enormous growth. So if you are serious about growing your revenue, then you’ll understand there’s a limit to what you can do alone. And if you want to be involved in a group of phenomenal business owners, then, then I’d be loving to talk to you in January.

Den Lennie (6m 57s):
We have got some spaces opening up in our programs in January. I’m gonna be shutting down now until about the fifth or 6th of January, but I’m gonna be doing a bunch of marketing output to, to kind of encourage some new members to join. We don’t have tons of space and we are very particular about who we work with. And we have our two programs. We have our two programs. Our, our Elite Mastermind is if you are doing 15 to $20,000 a year, sorry, a month and you want to double that or triple that, that’s the Elite Mastermind is for you. But it is, it is an annual commitment and, and it’s gonna involve a reasonably, what I think is a very fair rate of investment, but it’s good, it’s significant.

Den Lennie (7m 43s):
You know, we help people with double and triple our business. So it’s not cheap, but it’s exceptional value. And what that does is it brings in the right kind of people who have very high levels of conversation. Now, if you’re a a an earliest stage of your business growth and you’re doing somewhere between five and 10,000 a month or up to 10,000 a month, then the up-level program is for you. And it is the same fundamental content. It’s just the conversation is different. So the conversations we have in Elite are around team and strategy, around managing team and incentivizing team and what kind of deals to do with team and how to have people either contractor or full-time. And we talk a lot about, you know, how you are nicheing down in your business and adjusting your pricing to, to work less and make more.

Den Lennie (8m 32s):
Whereas Uplevel has a lot more focus on early stages of marketing, how to find clients, how to increase your prices, how to add production fees to your projects. And, and here’s the thing, you know, there, there are so many great valuable lessons in both programs, but I can guarantee you if you were to come and and join Uplevel, the fee for joining up level will be covered by the price increases that will help you implement in the first 30 days. So it will essentially cost you nothing. And we had a quite a large number of people join us in November and we’re seeing a really big shift in the quality people joining the program and the level of conversation that we’re having inside the program as well.

Den Lennie (9m 17s):
So, it is not only an opportunity to learn the fundamentals or the gps of what running a business looks like and, and shifting from a freelancer mindset to a business owner mindset, but more importantly, it actually helps you to feel supported in your business journey. We have weekly calls. We’re on a Christmas break now for a couple of weeks. We have weekly calls, incredible community engagement, you know, great Q & As happening in the group all the time. And you’re being supported by a whole bunch of other video businesses growing at similar stages to you. Some are a bit farther ahead, some are a bit farther behind, but you know, even Veeral just recently celebrated some incredible stuff.

Den Lennie (10m 4s):
So, Veeral has generated something in the region of $70,000 worth of business heading into December. One project’s 37K, another project’s 27k, another project’s 6K. Phil’s just locked in. He said normally January, February, quiet months, but he’s had another full slate for January, can’t quite believe it. Five projects to commence in January for a total of 28K, another unable for 6K. Steven just had a retainer signed off, he’s over in Alaska and he’s just had an agency sign up a three month retainer at a thousand dollars a week and they’re looking to extend that for the whole year.

Den Lennie (10m 53s):
So, you know, Andrew’s got a 12K video shoot here, Michael just signed a 12 and a half thousand dollars deal there. There are lots of success stories and, and what you’ll find is if you want to grow your business, you will do it faster with like-minded people than without. It’s just a fact. So we’re gonna be opening up spots on the Uplevel program in January. I’m probably gonna do a free workshop to help people come along and just sort of understand what it looks like on the inside. So I’ll be emailing out about that over the probably between Christmas New Year.

Den Lennie (11m 36s):
So look out for that. If you’re not subscribed, then go to the website and subscribe so you don’t miss out on that. And, and I look forward to, to supporting you next year. I know some people that listen to this podcast are already clients and for those I’m, I’m grateful, thank you. I I love working with you. You know what it’s like on the inside and it, you know, a rising tide lifts all ships. So I wanted to just wish you a very merry Christmas. I hope you’ve had a great year and if you haven’t and you wanna do something about that, then I’m just gonna call it for what it is, then you can, you can use my help and we can absolutely help you grow. We’ve been running this program now for about four years. It’s a proven system.

Den Lennie (12m 16s):
We know that we get results and the difference is that I’ve been in this industry almost 30 years, so I understand firsthand exactly what you’re going through and have experienced that myself. And I know there’s a way out. So if it’s something you want some help with next year, then I urge you to get in early and take one of the slots that’s available. We’re actually gonna restrict membership to sort of 10 a month over the next year so that we grow in a very sustainable way. And yeah, I look forward to supporting you. So if it’s something you’re interested in, do drop me a line. It’s gonna be first come, first serve. We do have a call there where we kind of make sure that you’re a good fit for us and, and we are a good fit for you.

Den Lennie (13m 1s):
We only want to work with people who wanna be there. You know, we’re not trying to strong arm anyone into anything. So if it’s something that’s of interest to you, we’d love to talk to you. But in the meantime, I’m taking a bit of a break. I’m gonna bow out now. We’ve got some exciting plans for next year. I’m gonna be doing a lot more focus on YouTube and creating YouTube content. And as I say, we’re gonna be doing lots of interviews with filmmakers around Australia initially in the van. And I just wanna wish you a really healthy and happy holiday period and I look forward to catching up with you guys next year.

You’ve been listening to the Video Business Accelerator podcast with your host, Den Lennie. If you are a video business owner who is tired of going it alone and would benefit from mentorship, support and weekly accountability, then mouseover to www.videobusinessaccelerator.com to learn more about how the accelerator program can help you today. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the show over on iTunes and we’d really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review.