Going from freelancer to video business owner with Chris Skarratt.

Episode Transcription

Den Lennie (0s):
G’day guys and welcome back to today’s episode. Now, before we get going, last week, we talked to Chris Skarratt from the Cleveland agency in London about how he navigated the pandemic with his business and how he embraced sales and a mindset of extreme ownership. So if you haven’t yet watched that episode, flick back and listen, or watch that. And now in today’s episode, we’re in part two of this conversation, and we’re going to talk about the mindset change that Chris has undergone moving from a freelancer mindset to becoming a business operator and how he navigated that change. And I think you’re gonna find this really helpful, cause he’s going to help you understand how letting go of production elements has helped him grow, but more importantly, he shares the truth about how long these things take.

Den Lennie (49s):
In Chris’s case, he’s transitioned from freelancer to business owner in about 12 months, but he also talks in detail about how he’s built some lifelong friendships in the VBA and a really important story about niching his business and how that led to him being head hunted by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s team and specifically their director of sales and marketing. Chris is a lovely, lovely fella. I love speaking to him. He’s a great contributor inside the VBA and you’ll never meet a more positive human being. So I know you’re going to really enjoy this. Well Christopher, it’s lovely to have you as a guest on the YouTube channel and podcast.

Den Lennie (1m 34s):
Now tell me a bit about that journey to go from Chris, a freelancer with a company name, sort of pretending to be a company, but really it was just crystal freelancer to where you are, know where you genuinely have a team and, and a website. And you know, how does that feel? Tell me about that journey.

Chris Skarratt (1m 58s):
It’s great. It’s really great. And what it, what it’s showing me is that you need to, you know, you have to take that leap of faith. And once you start to take leaps of faith and a few of them work, it’s great and you will, you have to take a leap of faith and sometimes it will fail and that’s fine. And I think that, you know, the Amazon example is fail fast, you know, get it wrong quickly so you can move on. But I think this comes back to mindset a lot. You know, it’s like you think of yourself as an individual operator, you will be an individual operator. If you think of yourself as a business owner, you don’t have to make that your outward shopfront you don’t, you know, it’s Chris is a business owner, but I’m also a filmmaker.

Chris Skarratt (2m 41s):
And my clients know me as a filmmaker, but you have to change your mind. You have to change your mindset from me, freelance Chris, to business owner, with a team. And that takes a while. And you know, I don’t think anyone or very rarely will you go from freelance to, you know, huge business in a month. It will take time. And it has not taken a huge amount of time, but it’s just that combination of mindset change in terms of who I am as a business operator mindset change in embracing sales, because you can only grow a business. You said at the start, if you’re doing 200,000 pounds a year, next year, 200,000 that’s backwards.

Chris Skarratt (3m 23s):
You have to grow, you have to grow and I’m putting a structure on how you will change is really important. So to go from here as freelancer to here as business owner, you could just go, well, I’m just going to increase sales. And that’s one way of doing that, but you have to manage that and you have to have data behind that and I’m not talking, you know, not talking tons of data. It’s like, what are your monthly sales goals? How are you going to achieve them? And are you going to reflect on whether you’ve done well or not? And introducing slowly over time, smaller pieces of business, understanding and management into what you do, which you probably couldn’t do if you’re on your own and you probably don’t need to do if you’re on your own, because it’s like you win a job and you do a job, you deliver a job and then you go back through that process.

Chris Skarratt (4m 10s):
And so your revenue is, you know, that classic up there, not there. Whereas what happens here is you find that instead of going from this, you’re kind of, you’re slowing you’re, shallowing the curve. And the time that you get back from not editing, for example, you can spend understanding your business and developing your business. And that’s kind of, I think that’s where, and I’m certainly not nowhere near at the end of this journey. Absolutely not. You know? And every time like Paul Wella said, I think in one of his songs, the more I know or the more I learn, the less, I know the more I understand the less I know, and it’s so true because every, every time something works go great. I’m keeping that.

Chris Skarratt (4m 50s):
But then it goes all. So we can you know, it’s like the old adventure games, you know, turn left or turn, right? Where are we going to go with this? And you keep growing, you keep building, you keep adding a process. And these are processes that you have to drive in is yourself, which you couldn’t do if you’re always editing or always on set. So how have I changed from the freelancer to the business owner is incrementally, but continuously and handing off work, which I shouldn’t be doing. And that’s kind of where I am today.

Den Lennie (5m 24s):
I love that. I thought, I think it’d be interesting for anyone watching or listening to understand timeframes. One of the things that I perceive is that most of us human beings are way over ambitious and how short a time we can achieve quite significant change. I think we underestimate, I think we overestimate what we can do in a year and underestimate what we can do in five to someone who might be watching this. Who’s perhaps anxious about the idea of growth and scale. Can you tell me about your timeline? I mean, how long has it taken you to go from business owner to having a team website and a very clear niche and where do you feel you are on that journey and where do you think you could go next?

Chris Skarratt (6m 13s):
I mean, I think it’s a great question because it, what it does, it opens up some truths about how long these things take. And if it hadn’t been for, you know, the difficult trading over the last, I think I’ve, I think I’ve been in the VBA about a year now. And during that time, I could probably say I’ve had four months of sensible trading. So, eight months, I haven’t got my massage eight months of support development, you know, understanding and growth just without too much going on. And then four good months of trading. And even within that, so that’s, that’s a 12 month, very difficult trading here, probably the hardest trading year I’ve ever had.

Chris Skarratt (6m 54s):
I’ve still been able to go from freelancer to business owner in that 12 month period. And I would say, I don’t have a big business now. I don’t have a big team. I have a very manageable team and a very agile and flexible team, but I have a team who I can rely upon to do the things I shouldn’t be doing. So it’s taken a year. I would say to get to, I’d say, chapter one is make the positive decision for growth and change, which was probably the first six months. Chapter two was implement that in a way where you can see some results. And I’d say, I’m just entering chapter three.

Chris Skarratt (7m 34s):
I’m not saying this book has only three chapters. I think this book has like 20 chapters, 30 chapters. And I’m probably only on chapter three now where I have a modest business, which has survived the most difficult trading and is ready to kind of grow exponentially in 2022. And, you know, you, you hear announcements like all, all pandemic, all COVID measures are going to be reduced. And you’ve just a little firework. It goes off every time it’s like, here we go. This is the news we’ve been waiting for. And if I pick up, so for two years ago, if I pick up from where we were two years ago, and it was like this guy at his creative director, he said, Chris, this is going to be our year.

Chris Skarratt (8m 18s):
I think Easter is going to be the equivalent of two years ago for me. And the business is going to see really strong growth in 2022.

Den Lennie (8m 29s):
I’d love for you to talk a bit about some of the friendships that you’ve made in the group. And some of the relationships you’ve built because I observed them from, from a ringside seat, but I’m always fascinated. And it’s always wonderful to hear about people get together, have a beer, or they connect and they have a chat and they support each other. There’s a lot of that goes on. Can you talk a bit about that from, from, from perspective inside the group? Cause that’s something that I don’t necessarily see very much of. Cause I’m obviously not there, but, but I know it happens and I’d love to hear how that’s benefited you.

Chris Skarratt (9m 8s):
Yeah and I think that’s one of the things you get as a freelancer, not as an individual person or an individual operator, your team kind of, you don’t feel like you’re necessarily part of a bigger team or a bigger group. And what I find within this is there are people all over the UK, in fact, all over the world who are part of this group. So other than getting perspectives from people who operate in different sectors and in different countries, you do develop not just business relationships, but friendships. And so Ben, you know who you’ve you’ve had on the podcast. He’s a great example. And Andrew, so Ben operates out of north of London.

Chris Skarratt (9m 50s):
I can’t quite remember where it’s gone. Sorry. Thank you. Yeah. So he, he operates up there and it’s like a 20 minute train journey for me, Andrew. He operates saying, so say the Southwest a little bit. Okay. Where’s he, I can’t remember. He’s based either.

Chris Skarratt (10m 8s):
Thank you. But he also has an office in London and I’ve met both of these guys face to face. And what you realize is you chat over zoom regularly and you develop those relationships and it’s, it’s, it’s fun. It’s always entertaining. There’s always who is a laugh, but then you get together with these guys and you have those more in-depth conversations and you have a pint and you start to get to the crux of what’s really happening. And you, you build that friendship as well as a business relationship and you start supporting each other, you know, maybe we will collaborate on some work. Maybe we will collaborate on a pitch. And it’s like, we talked about just now you, you changed. You’re not really clients. And you know, your clients become your friends and your associates in the VBA also become your friends.

Chris Skarratt (10m 52s):
And it’s, it’s good. You know, I’ve met people who have been very honest about the difficulties they’ve had, which makes me feel better because you know, I wake up, wake up on a cold January morning, you look at it and it’s great English weather. And you think, oh, this is, this is a tough day. Then you speak to someone and go, yeah, I had a tough day this week, but that’s fine because I understood that. I’ve shared that with someone they’ve gone yet, but next week you’re gonna smash it. And it’s like, do you know what you’re absolutely right. So having those, those personal honest conversations have equal value to the things we discuss in the big group.

Den Lennie (11m 31s):
I want to shift gears slightly because I think just before Christmas, you were introduced to someone in your niche who says something along the lines of, oh, I’ve had three different people today. Tell me I’ve got to speak to you. And, and this really talks to, to niching and the importance of knowing your customer. Are you happy to share a bit about that story? Cause I think it’s a really fantastic story.

Chris Skarratt (11m 58s):
Yeah. Sure. Well, it was, I think it was a, it was a Wednesday afternoon and you know, a call comes in and it’s like, listen, Chris, what are you doing tomorrow? I know it was a Thursday call is the first day. And like, what are you doing tomorrow? I went, well, what do you need to go? Is there any chance you can direct a sheet for me? I’ve double booked myself. It’s like, absolutely. Absolutely. He goes fantastic. Fantastic. And it was a shoot working on Android web was Cinderella. So huge Western show, you know, sir, Andrew Lloyd Weber, just like legend legend of the theater world. It’s like, wow, this is, this is great.

Chris Skarratt (12m 37s):
So first of all, someone who’s phoned me up to trust me to take over a shoot at the last minute from them. That was fantastic news. And then I get another phone call about half an hour later from someone who works on the, in the marketing department on that show guy, Chris, is there any challenge? You can put a crew together for something we’re doing tomorrow. It’s like, I would love to, but I’m already directing something. I said, actually, they said, can you come in and shoot it for us? I said, well, I’d love to, but I’m directing another part of the shoot. And it was a multimedia day, photography, green screen, social media content, you know, all sorts of stuff going on. I said, however, I can get a team together for you. And they can be doing one thing, trusted team while I’m directing.

Chris Skarratt (13m 17s):
The other was like, great. So straight away, my name, my name had come up a couple of times in those conversations. But anyway, then get to location and I get to meet the new director of sales and marketing for Andrew Lloyd Webber group, which was, which was brilliant itself. And they said someone is, you know, three different people recommended me to you, you to me yesterday. And it’s like, wow, well, that’s fantastic. And niching is really important. And we’re a bit when we started, we were a bit generalist. Then we slowly moved into fit arts and culture after we’d had some very honest discussions.

Chris Skarratt (13m 58s):
And I think the thing with you, Dan is you look at a business, you know, dispassionately, you will look at it and analyze it. You’ll go right. You’re doing 12 different things here. You can’t do. You can’t serve 12 different masters. What, who is your most important client or what is the thing that you think you can develop the most and all the way back when we had that conversation to hear it, it was like, you know what it is absolutely true. Niche is a value of a huge business value that you have to, you have to take seriously and get into. And the great thing is, you know, you develop that on LinkedIn as well. You know, you start following all the people who are doing things on LinkedIn and see what they’re up to.

Chris Skarratt (14m 38s):
You get insight into the industry. They see what you’re doing. Somebody might who you haven’t spoken to you for a while will see that you’ve, you’ve created some content for the arts culture and heritage sector or the sector that you’re in. And they go, oh, I forgot about that. And once it’s like, we talked about the flywheel of the client, the client’s fly wheel is spinning. Same with niche. You spin that wheel up. So you are known for something and you’re known to be very good at it. And then you’re known to be great at it. And then you’re known to be expert in it. And once you get to that point, you’ve put all that effort in that the wheels are spinning and they are generating positive revenue or positive leads or positive feedback.

Chris Skarratt (15m 19s):
And yeah, it was great. I mean, yeah, we have, we have wobbles and I think it’s important. To be honest, we have wobbles. Everyone has a bad day. I was chatting to my wife and the lift the other day. And you know, January was quiet, traditionally quiet, all the data that I’ve got over the years, January quite, but it was particularly quiet. And I said, I think I’m doing something wrong. And she goes, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know, you’re not doing something wrong. You have those recommendations. You do great work. People are always getting in touch with you. The theater world is quite in January. And that for me was great because it’s exactly the sort of thing we talked about in the VBA. You know, it’s like, look at the data, think about the situation you’re in at the moment coming out of the post pandemic and be honest with yourself, you know, have a, have a bad day, but reflect on why you’re feeling that and then prove to yourself that, that isn’t the case.

Chris Skarratt (16m 8s):
And then you can move forward and you can, you know, you end up having another great conversation where someone says, oh, two people recommended me to you. Okay. You to me I’d recommend you to anyone then, but you know what I mean? It’s like suddenly you’re, you’re, you’re in a better place again, you know, both up here and in the business. And when those two things tied together, it’s really powerful. It’s really powerful.

Den Lennie (16m 31s):
What are you most excited about for the rest of the year?

Chris Skarratt (16m 35s):
Well, I’m really excited that the theater world is going to be operating under less constraint because that for me it feels like at the moment the bridal is on the industry. You know, we’re still, we’re still moving forward slowly, but there’s a little hesitancy still in the industry. And I think any minute now, the bridle is going to come off. We’re going to be riding that horse down the beach, through the surf at a hundred miles an hour. People will start coming back to the UK on holiday, which means the shows will be extremely busy. People have confidence in the arts and culture and theater sectors again, which will be good, but also beyond the sector and reflecting on the business, it’s like, okay, we’re going into chapter three now, which is where I’ve got a clear understanding of what I need to do to be successful.

Chris Skarratt (17m 25s):
I’ve got a very clear set of goals. And month by month to try and hit targets, to hit, which will show the business is growing, making films, again, getting out there, filming with, you know, some of the leading lights in the west end and in the world and seeing the business grow and knowing that that is because of the changes I made a year ago or 18 months ago. And you talk about the length of time it takes to achieve these things. Yeah. You know, you can only do so much, so much in a day or a year, but when you start to plan over like my target for a year, my target for five years, you start to see those things happen.

Den Lennie (18m 8s):
Finally. What have you learned about resilience in the last year? Cause you’ve had not just the pandemic, you’ve had some personal challenges as well, which I think we’d knock anyone for six, but what are the lessons come from resilience?

Chris Skarratt (18m 23s):
I think the, the key things to remember are the bad things will happen and it can be a small, bad thing or it can be a big, bad thing. And, you know, we got, we got a couple of kicks in the teeth this year, which, you know, could have destroyed the business, you know, certainly had a huge impact on the family, but it’s that it’s maintaining that positivity without naivety. So it’s like, okay, something bad has happened. It’s we’re going to have to just adjust how we do things, but we will get through it. And it is small steps, small steps. So, you know, oh, we talked about the Jim Collins book, you know? Great, great by choice. It’s a great by choice.

Den Lennie (19m 3s):
Yeah. Great by choice.

Chris Skarratt (19m 6s):
Yeah. And it’s, it’s a brilliant book and it talks about not trying to achieve everything immediately. You have to take small steps, small steps. And I think in the hardest of times, it’s, it’s important to only take small steps because even if you’re going, you’re taking a half step forward towards your business goals, that’s still more than not trying at all. And we have so much energy. We have so much time and lost, you know, certainly last year, not just with the pandemic, but stuff that happened in the business. I had to dedicate a lot of time to family, to sorting out, to give everyone some context. We got flooded, we got flooded. Our flight was flooded, had three feet of sewage water running through it.

Chris Skarratt (19m 51s):
We’re in a basement, flat, everything, you know, basically everything below three feet destroyed huge problem with the insurance, which wasn’t our fault is, you know, some insurance error along the way. And it’s a year it’s being, it’s no, sorry, it’s not being here. But it happened back in July. We’re now in February and they’ve only just started the renovations. So we had to move. We sofa surf for like three months while we tried to find somewhere to live all of that while trying to run a business and you just have to go, okay, I’m going to spend one hour, one hour working on the business today because that’s all I can afford to do, but that’s an hour that you could have easily just not done because you’re trying to find somewhere for your kids to live.

Chris Skarratt (20m 33s):
You’re trying to find, what’s been, you know, what do we have left? You know, it’s the, luckily all the kit was with me on a sheet. It’s all mercies, but it’s really important that regardless of the challenge, you manage your to deal with the important thing in which case was the family. But you will find a small piece of time that you can still dedicate to your business and that will keep it ticking over. And then as things improve, you increase the amount of time you dedicate to it. But without dates, you can keep taking steps forward. Even in the hardest of times, as long as you’ve got people there to support you. And you know, it could, it could be your friends and it could be your family, but in a business context, if you don’t have a bit, you know, if you’re not part of a bigger business, you need that support.

Chris Skarratt (21m 19s):
And you know, for me, the VBA was there whenever there was an issue, whenever there was a problem and it wasn’t just work, you know, it’s like, crikey, Chris, that’s pretty brutal. What’s happened to you. What can we do to help? You know? And that was, that was great. And sometimes people were, they were giving me presentation templates, which they spent hours and hours working on. Again, this is my gift to you. I know you’re going through a hard time. You need this right now. And suddenly, you know, things were less difficult, difficult, and you know, the light at the tunnel, it came closer and it came closer and you know, you pop Heights and you’re smiling and, and your business is still there. And work is growing and you go, all right, that was a really tough time, but we got through it. And that bodes well for the future.

Den Lennie (22m 8s):
Chris, thank you for sharing. It’s been a pleasure to hear your story in more depth. And I’m certain that those watching and listening to this will find it very useful. Thank you so very much.

Chris Skarratt (22m 18s):
Absolute pleasure. And thank you for having me on, and I wish you all the luck for 2022.