The REAL reason most video business owners are always riding the “feast or famine” rollercoaster.

Episode Transcription

Den Lennie (2s):
Hey guys. Den Lennie here, host of the How to scale a video business podcast. Episode 130 today, they really are a creeping up a rapid pace. And it’s amazing actually, how much of that habit you get into it, of making content. And I guess that’s part of what my theme for this week’s message is because practice is the key to consistency and consistency is the key to building a certainty and predictability in your business.

Den Lennie (46s):
So many people struggle with that feast and famine, they know the roller coaster of the business. And generally speaking that’s because there is no consistency in marketing and in building a pipeline of opportunities for your business. And of course that makes it even tougher or buy the most recent lockdown in Victoria here where the 11 weeks the guys are locked down, they just come out lockdown, but we saw some really fascinating insights and, you know, there’s, there’s definitely two types of businesses. There’s the business that says, Oh my God, Whoa is me. This is awful.

Den Lennie (1m 26s):
You know, I’m just going to really be struggling. In fact, I’m a former client of mine, Steve, very long. He’d started to say he had got enough out of the program quite quickly left. And I saw a post from him recently saying that he had not white since March, which, you know, it’s just unfortunate. And because I have other people who have been with me for some time and some of those clients, so I’ve got 17 projects on the Gore currently and they’re living the same place. So the point I’m trying to make is, you know, everyone has a choice. Everyone makes a choice about how they spend their time and how they process external forces.

Den Lennie (2m 6s):
So today’s episode and other, a solo episode. I want to really knuckle down and give you some strategies for, you know, building a business up during challenging times. And really for a lot of my British clients who are just about to, I’m just going into, I would have just gone into another stage at four Locked down where, you know, it’s looking like at least four weeks, I’m going to suggest it, but we are going to be more like 10 to 12 weeks based on what happened in Victoria. So it’s important that if you are listening to this and you’re out, you’re in a lockdown situation that I want to give you some hope, you know, just because you’re in a lockdown because the government says you can’t do certain things doesn’t mean you can still build your business.

Den Lennie (2m 52s):
I have to, Clients just now in Victoria, as particularly who are absolutely running off their feet and there have been in the 11 weeks of lockdown and he does it run animation companies. So there are opportunities there and will get to that to them. So what I want to do today is share with you five things you can do in lockdown to generate business. And if you’re not in lockdown and this will be just as valuable as it will be just as relevant. So number one, call all of your existing clients, not email and not send a message or call and ask, how can you support them? Did just don’t call up and go, Hey, do you want a video? That’s like, that is not what you’re going to be doing and how they are.

Den Lennie (3m 35s):
Ask me, how are they being impacted by the recent changes? How are they managing to operate their business around the new restrictions? And, and what can you do to support them that that intense will go a very, very long way. And the fact is intent counts more than technique in this process. If you are approaching clients with, he can do want to do really do genuinely want to find a way to make their life easier. That goes to an enormous amount of ways.

Den Lennie (4m 15s):
In fact, when my clients Jaz last week, she was on a coaching call. And then we talked about this very strategy and the very, the same day he reached out and started calling Clients in one or two jobs straight off the bat that they weren’t huge job’s by his own admission, but it was a work nonetheless. And the thing is it’s people, people are freaking out when, when lockdowns happen, you freak out when they’re kind of liberties been taken away. And I understand that, but when everyone’s freaking out in watching the news, you know, debating whether or not Trump’s going to get back in and out, it doesn’t matter. Umm, you know, it it’s, it’s like what kind of, what you can do impact your life by taking decisive action and, and taking action in a way that will genuinely benefit your clients.

Den Lennie (5m 3s):
If you put your clients first, this is going to become much easier. Think about existing content you have with all the client products that you have. I mean, I, I just recently transferred to a lot of data, two, a 96 terabytes drawable and I think they’ve got about 35, 40 terabytes of content going back, you know, five or six years. So, you know, go through your content and ask yourself, is there any of this content could be repurposed, a reuse, get in touch with a client and say, Hey look how I was just going through my assets the other day. And I came across that shit. We did a few in the state or in this location, you know, if you were looking for some ideas, we can maybe kind of throw some ideas. Got it. So repurpose this content and put some content for you.

Den Lennie (5m 44s):
Or would that be helpful? I want you to start thinking about how can you proactively reach out to your market and, and demonstrate that you are open for business and that, that you’re there to support and serve your, your clients. Number two, audit your business or at your website, you know, and your marketing strategy. If you have one, do you have one or are you just kind of in that word of mouth phase? I mean, I talked to a lot of filmmakers and the number of people were telling us, Oh yeah. How did you get business? Well, what are the most, I mean, that, that is not a marketing strategy. That is not a predictable strategy. That is not a strategy. You can, you can say, ah, Deanne, I’m going to have worked in January or February, March in April next year.

Den Lennie (6m 30s):
Do you need to S you need a marketing strategy and marketing strategy is, is, is, is, is a, is a clear articulation of the offer you have, which serves your target market. And you are communicating that through multiple channels effectively and are able to measure how effective your marketing is. So you’re not just spending tons of time putting stuff out and LinkedIn or pink stuff, and Instagram are putting stuff out on Facebook going, Oh, well, like I think that is where my market is. As a marketing strategy has to involve clearly understanding who your target market is. And we have a 13 step client avatar process and are, and our marketing at V M D a section in say in the video business accelerator.

Den Lennie (7m 13s):
But we actually go through a very detailed, deep dive in to our Clients are. And then from there you get lots of information and we got some strategies where you can interview your clients and ask them certain specific questions and, and, and you get that information back. And then, and you’re able to extract from their, you know, marketing copy and an advert and, and blog posts and other assets that you can use and repurpose to help communicate with your market. And so when you Mark, it comes across and reach your, your website or your marketing content, they think, wow, they’re talking about me. This, this, this passing gets me. Wow. You know, marketing is simply putting the right message and front of the right people at the right time.

Den Lennie (7m 59s):
And it needs structure. It needs discipline. Marketing is not something that you think about. Marketing is something you test. You simply have to go through it in a very methodical way. Test one page, start to split testing until you identify what the winning solution is, what the winning equation is. And, and it takes a bit of work, but it’s certainly better than just sort of throwing stuff at a wall, hoping that some of it will stick. So, so odds are your website. Does your website clearly talked to talk to Mark it as your website, essentially say Hey helping target market achieved the result they want through our unique offer. And if it doesn’t, then I want you to go back and look at your website because if you have a set of just has like short sales and you know about us and they’re were passionate about film making, that is not a winning combo, you would have to say, it has to be very clear.

Den Lennie (8m 49s):
What is the problem you solve? Who do you solve it for? How do you do it? And how can you take the next step? So identify what’s working in your marketing and what’s not and change it. And if you don’t know what is not working, and then, then feel free to reach over and we can have a chat and I can give you some, some points. And then we feel that it may be a good fit for you. We will jump on the call and I’ll give me some, some pointers. And we can either decide, you decide, you can share that information and run with it. Or we can talk about how we can help you. But you know, you don’t want to be the person who he thinks they’ve got to figure it out. And then to figure out on their own when the truth is inside, a video is in an accelerated people that are absolutely smashing It and the smashing up for a reason.

Den Lennie (9m 29s):
So I figured out what is not working and change it. And you know, when you’re busy working, you have no time. So now you have time. So you have no excuses. You know, I remember a famous Mark I is saying to me that you can make money or you can make excuses, but you can’t make both. And if you want to make money, you have to stop making excuses. And that means the buck stops with you. And if you have someone that says they don’t have time, then that that’s an issue you need to address. Because if you don’t have time, it means you’re not very good at organizing yourself and, and, and using the time you have available effectively enough. And I understand that, you know, at some people got to look after kids, and that can be a challenge, but there’s always time.

Den Lennie (10m 11s):
There’s always time. If you make it, if its one hour a day to make that one hour really come, or do you have a clearly articulated off of it, which is which relates to marketing and, and new Higgs that you had your client is, you know, that this is something that I bang a drum one, and I’d been doing it for 10 years. You can not market to Everyone. If you market it to everyone, you will end up speaking to no one. And the biggest mistake I see, 95% of video production companies make is they go, they’re too scared to go Nish. And the truth is, if you audit your business, there will be, it there’ll be a trend too, a towards a type, a project, or they’ll be a trend towards a value of clients.

Den Lennie (10m 54s):
And you will start to see things happen the same way we had Pat Henderson on the podcast a few weeks ago. And there is a great episode where Pat talks about, you know, he really resisted the niche thing when he first joined us over a year ago. But when we did these audit, he realized he was already working for the majority of his clients who are in healthcare and medical devices. So he kind of got over it. He still does other work. This is just for a marketing perspective. If you have to talk to one audience that are, or there’s too many general, the video production companies are out there. And if you want to be showing up on the front front page of Google it and having people call y’all all day long find, but you’re going to be basically at enterprise for, if you become a specialist, you become a niche specialist, your market we’ll find you, you reach out to your market.

Den Lennie (11m 39s):
They will pay a premium in to work with you because you’re an expert in their field. Mostly because you understand the nuances of their business, the nuances of the market, the complexities of some compliance issues, and maybe it may health and safety element. The is people want certainty. People want to work with people who understand the business and understand what’s going on double down. Number four is doubled down on LinkedIn outreach LinkedIn is a very, very powerful platform for reaching your target market directly. And, and, and you simply have to double down in the link to know there’s a three-pronged attack approach to LinkedIn. It’s getting your profile written correctly, having a strong image and brand statement and, and, and header as it’s making the right site of connections using LinkedIn sales navigator and, and having a process and a strategy and a script to follow.

Den Lennie (12m 35s):
So you can engage with people in our way that it doesn’t sound salesy or near the, or kind of annoying. And then finally, it’s the content that you put out. And the key to putting out content is consistency. I’m talking about connecting with people every day. I’m talking about putting content out on LinkedIn at least once a week, and making sure you are engaging and giving value and not simply, you know, dipping in and out of here and there. The biggest mistake I see people make is they start to panic about marketing when they’ve got no water. And by that stage, it was too late because there is a 60 day lag time with LinkedIn any marketing you do, you do it today.

Den Lennie (13m 17s):
It’s going to be 60 days before you are going to see any results. But once you get to that 60 day point, if you do this every day, you will have a rolling, a number of inquiries coming into your business. And the thing that stops our guests, 95% of Video businesses from actually seeing this consistency, seeing this, getting away from the feast in the farm, in the rollercoaster, as they simply don’t do the hard yards hourly enough and consistently enough. And, and you know, when I looked at the Clients in my accelerator or who are doing really well, they have multiple marketing pillars going on in their business. They might have a get a call button. They might have an exit pop-up they might do blogposts.

Den Lennie (13m 57s):
They may appear on podcasts. The might write articles for a niche publications. He may be interviewed on video or audio for those are the publications. They put themselves out there all the time, consistently delivering value to market. Maybe they get involved in it. And in an industry organization that is specific to a niche. You know, if you are in mining, there is going to be mining publication. Uhm, the key is consistency. And I talked to my son and friends and me and run the YouTube channels and there are quite successful. And there like the thing with YouTube is what you post the same time every week. So your audience gets used to hearing from you and they want the content and, and that’s the same with marketing.

Den Lennie (14m 41s):
You need to know who your market is. You need to understand what’s important to them and what’s current to them and talk to them about the problems they’re are having because then people will trust you because it’s like, Hey, you’ve taken the time to actually think about it. The problems that we’re experiencing. Umm, you know, if I, if I made this podcast that they were talking about, I don’t know what, you know, five ways to beef up your courts. When you know that Victoria and Australia has just come out of a lockdown and UK is going back into four weeks a lot, then it would show an enormous lack of understanding of what’s going on in the marketplace. I know that that many, many people are listening to this. Now we are going to be worried. And the UK, if your in the UK about what is going to happen to the next few weeks and the heat I’m going to go to, to tell us that is not going to last for weeks.

Den Lennie (15m 26s):
It’s going to be at least eight to 10 weeks. So you need to be in and get the shit together. No, because it is not going to change anytime. Soon as we saw what happened in Victoria, this virus, umm, you know, it’s, it’s indiscriminate and it doesn’t matter where you are and when it hits, it hits hard. But you know, going into LinkedIn and talking to your customers and helping them solve problems. And more importantly, Let people on their know that you are in business and nothing will stop you serving your market. People need certainty no more than ever. And so make sure you are front and center of their minds so that you no don’t, don’t be the guy who goes online and says, Oh my goodness.

Den Lennie (16m 14s):
You know, we haven’t done any work since March because that shows that you have a complete lack of understanding of the responsibility and running a business. So many businesses have pivoted dream his time and come out stronger. I would say, I said, I surround myself by businesses that are getting stronger and stronger every day. I don’t like the only time for that, the poor me stories. And you know, it, it’s just, it’s it’s bullshit. And that there is always an opportunity I have to pivot my business am I know multiple people who have pivoted to move it to the business or to make changes quickly too, to double-down and support people at a time of need.

Den Lennie (16m 54s):
And you know, I was watching something the other day from Gary V and he says, you know, the way in which a major metropolis has operate, it’s going to be changed forever. The idea that people are going from out of the city and at the city to offices to work is, is out of date. He said, there going to see more and more people moving out of town an hour to an hour and a half an hour of cities to live a better lifestyle to, to, to, to sacrifice, you know, they’re kind of the four or five days a month. They have to go into the office. So, you know, people are working remotely. It’s going to be the norm. And for people who have walked in and morally there on line more and they’re at home and therefore they’re going to be more likely to be paying attention on LinkedIn.

Den Lennie (17m 36s):
So LinkedIn is an enormous opportunity, but make no mistake, it takes work and it takes commitment. It takes time. And if you’re not willing to do that, you are simply not going to get the results. You just can’t dabble in LinkedIn and throw out some copy and throw some posts out and connect with some people and then go, Oh, I tried, it didn’t work. You’d never going to survive. Marketing takes balls and you have to keep going. You can, that you can never, ever give up, but you know, think about how you can help them. A number five, be creative with how you can solve problems for clients in your market. You know, what messages do they need to put out to their audience and how can you help them come up with creative and interesting ways to do that?

Den Lennie (18m 24s):
Live streaming is one. I’ve got a client in Philadelphia and there are so busy. In fact, Tony has been on the podcast talking about live streaming. They are so busy doing massive, massive lives to me, events remotely using Zoom when we’re talking 30, 40, $50,000 projects, it’s just insane because they are out there are serving the market. They are working at very high levels and there’s no reason why you can’t, but I guess the thing that’s most important is your mindset. Do you have the mindset of someone who is going to go out there and fight for business? You’re going to fight for your business and you’ve prepared and willing to fight for your business, or are you going to set back and hope that someone bills you out?

Den Lennie (19m 6s):
’cause that is, you know, friends’ what, what this is about. This is this COVID situation has not going anywhere. And yes, this talk of the virus vaccines round the corner in the yeses may be some progress, but it, they were going to be in a very disrupted world for some time. And so we have to start looking at the relative where things are at now and, and, and, and digging down and digging deep and, and, and getting in front of the right people and being so persistent and willing to help people. And, and you know, the more times you follow up on the better, you know, most people give up after the first follow up, the someone makes an inquiry it and they don’t get back to them.

Den Lennie (19m 50s):
80% of people give up. They are like, they want to interested. In some cases, it might take you eight or nine, 10 attempts to get in front of someone before they’re ready to buy. So if you’re someone who kind of follows up once or twice and then stops, then have to think about following up more, go back to people again, find additional value, consent them. If you are making content on LinkedIn, here’s a little hack who are producing good content. LinkedIn what you can do is go back through your entire database of contacts and, and reach out to them and say, Hey Bob, I was just there. I was just thinking about it the other day. I just finished this project for this client who are in this kind of company.

Den Lennie (20m 31s):
And I know you’re in this market. I thought you might be interesting to have a look of what we’ve done with this. I would love to get your thoughts on it. And then you can send them a link to the post in a LinkedIn messenger. And in what that will do is that will, that will show up and play directly in their inbox and is providing value. So it, so I have to think about ways in which you can get your message in front of people and I’m, and you know, it, while in lockdown, then one of my clients in Victoria had 17 projects and then go including a TV commercial that we’re creating. Another client had 13 projects and the gaur, and these are, these are the guys who are stuck in S at the highest stage for a lot of them where they couldn’t, they couldn’t go beyond sort of five kilometers of their house at all.

Den Lennie (21m 15s):
So it was a secret, well, consistency and discipline. These two particular filmmakers are very disciplined and very persistent and, and very, very good at implementing, you know, they don’t stop and question whether or not you should do something or not, they just do it. And, and so what I want you to leave you with is, is, is this is what it’s going to take. It’s going to take the, the self-discipline to perhaps break a habit, but what, what better opportunity than if you are in the UK and you’re getting stuck on another fourth to six to eight weeks of a lock, then use this time to rebuild you and how you do business.

Den Lennie (21m 55s):
And, and, and, you know, everyone is experiencing different circumstances around this whole coronavirus thing, but there are a huge amounts of opportunities. And I’m seeing in the normal amount of businesses who are, who are coming out of this really well, sadly, that are businesses are going to struggle and fall by the wayside. But you know, that, that business, it, it’s not for the faint-hearted, And just because we’re creative. We’re, you know the, the market doesn’t care, you know, it it’s, it is what is, so if, if you want some support, there certainly is an easy way to do this. And the hard way to do it, the easy way is to, is to be surrounded by a group of people who are in the same boat, who are really smashing it.

Den Lennie (22m 39s):
And then the hard way is to try and figure it out yourself. So if you are thinking, you know, you could do with some help, and you’ve been listening to this for a while and you are, you know, curious and just jump on a call, all the details of it on the website, or reaching out to me on LinkedIn and see if we can give you some guidance. I can guarantee we’ll invite you in to the accelerator, but, you know, if I can give you some help and support along the way, then it’ll be happy to do that. And that’s it for this week’s books. So enjoy the rest of your day. And yeah, talk soon. You’ve been listening to the how to scale a Video Business podcast with me, your host Den Lennie.

Den Lennie (23m 20s):
If you’re a Video business owner, who’s hit a ceiling would benefit from a mentorship support and coaching and check out how you can work with me over at denlennie.com. 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, 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 film makers, you know, and please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. See you next week.