Highlights of 2020.

Episode Transcription

Den Lennie (3s):
Hey guys, it’s Den Lennie here on Christmas Eve, December the 24th, 2020 is to see reports. Isn’t it with episode 144 of the How to Scale a Video Business Podcast but it can be a pretty short there ’cause it is Christmas Eve And ah, just want to just sort of, you know, and maintain the continuity of the show by not missing a beat. ’cause the thing that I, of course, is an important in all businesses are continuity consistency. So I do want to let myself, and I’ll let you done who have been loyal listeners.

Den Lennie (46s):
So I was just going to focus today on, I guess, the best moments of 2020, because there’s lots of focus on the worst moments, but what about some of the best moments? My proudest moments this year are the journeys that my video business accelerator clients, and course clients who have been on smashing through goals, taking control of their business in life and not allowing external forces, two influence and control the outcomes they have in their business. And we have a, I had some are just phenomenal, phenomenal success, or is this, you know, Derek, you got absolutely smashed by a Corvette and it was really struggling, but he’s stuck with the program.

Den Lennie (1m 29s):
We worked with them to get his business back on this grown. He totally transformed how he was doing things and got himself back up to 10 grand, just a few months later, and then inspired by some of the members went and secured $75,000 project. And so, you know, just a phenomenal case study our Caleb whose just had an enormous growth this year, who started with us just that beginning of COVID. And it was sort of making 10 grand a month, had to close off his year on a $45,000 month has now employing a, a second employee sort of seeing him grow in and, and, and Cheyenne is just a phenomenal, you know, Andrew’s had a massive year, Ryan’s had a massive year, Tom’s had a massive, your team’s had a massive year.

Den Lennie (2m 16s):
So many, so many people have just, you know, persisted in kept going. And I think that’s, that’s one of the highlights for me is that business as hard and the, the world we’ll always throw obstacles at you, but if you don’t give up and if you stay focused and stay committed and stay consistent, you get the results. Now I’ve had some on a flip side, so it’s really quite entertaining calls with potential clients this year that we haven’t ended up being a good fit for us. And, and the thing that I take away from speaking to literally 50, 60, 70 businesses this year, and for, for a good period of time, like an hour and hour and a half, is the difference between those businesses that succeed in those that fail.

Den Lennie (2m 60s):
And by the number one trait is a, a, a sense of reality versus a perception of their own reality. And, and what I mean by that is the members that have taken the action and joined us and work with us, have a very, very solid handle on reality. And they have equal perception of the downstate of any project and also the upside, what I’ve observed with, with other people who have perhaps not being a good fit for us is that there, there they are stuck in their own reality, you know, phrases like, Oh, I think it will be okay. But you know, I’ve always got by on word of mouth and I’m pretty optimistic about how things are gone and vast is, you know, taking an act actually massive action to determine their future outcomes by not leaving it to chance the businesses that I’ve seen fall by the wayside this year and suffer really deep cuts are the ones who just throw their arms in there and went, Oh, well, I guess I can’t, I can’t do anything about it.

Den Lennie (4m 5s):
You know, demand’s gone vs as the businesses now that are shining and thriving and are about to take a Christmas break with plenty of cash in a bank jobs well into January, as opposed to the ones who are literally panicking or, you know, I spoke to someone recently who had one main client And and they were just like, they were like, Oh, we feel a bit vulnerable. I was like, not kidding. They are one of anything is a terrible, a terrible idea. So, you know, but look, you know, w we can’t help everyone. And now what we want to, and we are pretty, pretty selective about who we work with, but what I have been excited about is, so I’m in the last month or so, we’ve, we’ve started releasing the video business accelerator course to the market, and we’ve seen a number of people join that really quite quickly.

Den Lennie (4m 53s):
And it is, it’s really thrilling to be able to serve that side of the market, you know, up until just recently, we could only really work with the businesses. We were doing 10,000 a month plus, but now that we’ve got some more capacity because of our businesses grow and therefor we have more resources, we are able to offer the courses as well. And that’s for you. If you’re doing a three to 5,000 a month or two to five, or just under 5,000 a month, and you want to get, you know, your business off the ground, we’ve, we’ve got the access to the Video business accelerator course training, which is the same training that my high end mastermind the students get just without the coaching. So we were able to make it a little more affordable and a little more accessible, but you can still work at your own pace to get the results.

Den Lennie (5m 39s):
And it’s been just fascinating watching the new members come through that program. So, you know, we were really thrilled then, you know, 11 years in business this year, and we’ve, we’ve reinvented ourselves many times to adapt to market conditions. But our focus for the last two years has really just been the video business. And it’s so exciting. Be able to release kind of a, a version of that, that it’s more accessible. If you’re a filmmaker who is, you know, a bit is still freelance and it would be willing to do three to five grand a month. And it hasn’t quite reached that 10 grand a month Mark. And the, the reason why we keep the 10,000 a month Mark as a, as a benchmark, is it at $10,000 a month, you have some spare cash to invest in marketing.

Den Lennie (6m 20s):
You’re no longer in feast and famine mode. You’re no longer and kind of, you know, robbing Peter to pay Paul Cash and cash out. And you have a bit of reserve, but, but it it’s a lot of work to get there. And what we’ve done at, he had broken that down into our eight accelerators, which we talked about a couple of weeks ago on the podcast. And in fact, last week, the growth hacks out of here. So if you want to understand more about that, then, then you can go on there, check it out. But I’m, I’m really excited too, to kind of wrap up this year up. And I think it’s actually been a fantastic year and a fantastic year for people being more conscious of for 10 and fantastic year, to be more aware of a fantastic year to recognize that, and the grit and resilience needs to grow a business was it was kind of forced through a massive magnifying glass.

Den Lennie (7m 9s):
And frankly, those aren’t surviving, or I haven’t had a rough an easy year. And, you know, I, I want to probably encourage you to go on and take a look at yourself and ask yourself why not? Because if we blame external forces for everything that happens in our life, then we’re fucked. And as, as jockowillink, we’d see, you know, just, you know, get, get out of the fucking pond and Lake start taking responsibility. And if you don’t like that, then tough shit. Cause that is what it’s like to run a business. And nobody cares about whether you succeed or fail. And I think one of the dangers that a lot of creative people fall into is that they just got a little bit too emotional about the fact that, you know, there are creative.

Den Lennie (7m 50s):
And I had this conversation with someone recently where it’s like that there’s a time and place for your creativity, which is onset, developing scripts, developing the creative part of the process, but a business needs structure. Our business needs discipline. Our business needs for me, it needs, it needs a consistency. And that can be a challenge for us as Creators, but I’ve learned through doing and learned through working with a lot of people that if you, if you develop a grit and a resilience and you follow a trusted process, you we’ll get the results. Anything beyond that, if you’re not getting results and you follow the process, it is because of something that you are, if you’re not getting results rather is because of something that you’re not doing.

Den Lennie (8m 33s):
And that the best thing you can do over this Christmas break is really think long and hard about you’re not, are you giving your Business everything you can to make it succeed? Or are you coming up with excuses and reasons why it’s not, what are you blaming external forces? Because when you win, if you catch yourself blaming an external force for something that’s not gone right in your life, what you’re actually doing is looking in the mirror and seeing I haven’t done something here. And so I’m looking externally to see if I can justify why it hasn’t worked. And, and it’s a tough lesson. And I learned it through Jocko Willink. I had learned it through, you know, just being married and, and realizing that, you know, the world doesn’t revolve around me and, and, and, and it’s, and its a very brutal lesson that one that you might want to reflect on this holiday season, which is, you know, if you’re not getting the results you want, are you telling yourself stories about why that is or are you actually looking at a mirror and seeing, you know what I know, I really have tried everything in my power to do, to get the result of what evenings and weekends to make this work or are you, you know, spending more time on Netflix, are you spending more time on your computer, looking at the latest bit of gear, cause that is not going to get you results.

Den Lennie (9m 48s):
And so if you want results going into next year, you need to find someone who’s got a plan, he’s got a strategic objective, he’s got a roadmap that you can follow and that whether that’s with me or someone else, like, you know, it, it doesn’t matter. The point is you should commit to your business. If, if, if you know, even 30% of the people that I speak to put this much effort into their business and personal development, as they do in to buying gear and lenses and cameras and rigs and tripods and Slaters and Gimbels like their business would be more successful. I did a surgery a couple of years ago and like literally on average, people have spent an access of 30,000 pounds or dollars on equipment and depending on where they were, and, and only like three or on their own development F that.

Den Lennie (10m 36s):
And so I guess what I’m trying to see is that until you take responsibility for yourself and until you are actively go out and you know, you, you know, Actually on it all on the fact that if you’re business is not more success, that is because someone you’re not doing it, it may just be a simple as you need just work harder or in more and more and more specifically, you know, we did an episode a couple of weeks ago about Inbox a year or, and all of my members have committed to inbox zero. And the clarity that are having a result as a result is, is phenomenal. But I’m, you know, the point is, is that it’s usually of a Christmas new year when we sit down and we reflect and we think about, you know, all of the things that have come and gone, and there will be many, many people sitting around Christmas tables this year, over the holiday season going, Oh my God, I can’t wait for 2020 to be over it because then like somehow magically 2021 is going to be better.

Den Lennie (11m 29s):
Not necessarily not if you come at it from the same perspective, you know, and the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So if you want a different result, next year, you need to show up differently. And then by showing up differently, I mean, maybe change how you are doing things radically and step into fear and actually embrace it with the strategic plan and actually build your business and do it properly. And ah, and we can help me with that, but if we are not right for you, there may be someone else This. But, but, but what I’m going to say to you is, is that we have a proven system that is getting our members are phenomenal results. And a question is, are you ready for that? Or are you ready to take on next year and have phenomenal results?

Den Lennie (12m 11s):
Because we’ve got the roadmap, we’ve got the system, we’ve got the case studies to prove it, we’re seeing it again. And again, this is a proven system and I couldn’t be more excited to work with new businesses next year and continue to work with my existing businesses. And, and we have a very large number of our membership now and the Video business Accelerator who have been with us for well over a year and a, and there’s nothing keeping them there other than the results. So yeah, that’s, that’s my kind of a little end of the year rant. I think it’s a great time to just, you know, let it all out. It’s I, I cannot wait to get stuck in to 2021. We are going to take a good long break now for a couple of weeks, certainly, which is a long break for us.

Den Lennie (12m 54s):
And I’m prerecording this or our ideas are already be on the, on the champagnes, enjoying some quiet time with my wife and friends up here in Noosa. And just to wish you all are very happy Christmas and a, you know, enjoy it, enjoy the down time and, and think about how you want to show up next year until then guys I’ll see you later. Bye. You’ve been listening to the how to scale a video business podcast with me, your host Den Lennie. If you were a video business owner and it hits a ceiling, we have benefit for mentorship support and coaching and checkout how you can work with me over at denlennie.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the shore over an iTunes.

Den Lennie (13m 36s):
I mean, we really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review and don’t forget to share. If you feel you’ve gotten value from this episode, 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 it. So thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.