The ultimate productivity system for filmmakers.

Episode Transcription

Den Lennie (1s):
Well, hey guys. It’s Den, and this is episode 264 of the, How to Scale a Video Business podcast. And I’m a bit tired today, actually. We just finished our event on the gold coast for our accelerator mastermind a couple of weeks ago. It was amazing. It was totally cool. Just having real people in a room again, and we all just had such an amazing human experience and also did some really cool things in the room. But today I want to talk to you about the importance of developing a personal system for execution, but first, a word from our sponsor. Ask yourself this. has owning your own video business, been everything you dreamed it would be when you first got started?

Den Lennie (45s):
It might be hard to admit, but think about whether you’re genuinely achieving everything you set out to when you made that decision to grab the camera and go it alone. Are you really working less? Are you really earning more? And are you really in control? Chances are your bloody good at what you do, but you’re having to work like a dog 70 plus hours a week, whether it’s filming, editing, marketing, or any of the other jobs that come with being the big boss of your own video company. When you’re managing projects constantly searching out for new clients and worrying about cash flow, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture or make real progress. Let’s face it. That stress is the last thing you need when you’re trying to run a profitable company that supports you and the people you care about.

Den Lennie (1m 29s):
Truth is a business that provides financial professional and personal freedom really is achievable, but maybe you’ve got that nagging feeling that you’re overworked, lacking stability, and struggling to get to where you really want to be right now. It could be that you just don’t know how to make a positive change on your own. So I created the Video Business Accelerator coaching programs to really supercharge your video business. With these unique coaching programs, you’ll learn all the tools you need to get complete confidence in the success of your video business. You can take the first step on your journey to a successful business that doesn’t control your life. Let me show you how. Head over to denlennie.com and click on accelerator.

Den Lennie (2m 11s):
So, as I said, we just finished the gold coast events, which were just phenomenal and had some incredible breakthroughs as you always do. And if you’ve never been to a mastermind event, it’s an opportunity to spend three days in a room with your peers discussing working on your business, not in your business. And it has so many profound impacts that I’ll talk to you a bit more about it, maybe in next week’s episode. But today I wanted to talk about the importance of, you know, what I’m calling the ultimate productivity system for filmmakers, and it’s a fancy title for something that’s actually really simple, but actually quite hard to implement because of the way we’re conditioned and it’s what I call my personal system for execution.

Den Lennie (2m 59s):
And that is how to be more effective with the time you have, because, you know, we can’t put any more hours in the day. And I often hear people say to me, then if I just had more hours in a day, I could get everything done. I have about 20 hours a week of available productivity time. And I only work three and a half days a week. So I don’t work on Monday morning and I don’t work Friday afternoon and a Wednesday morning. It’s kind of a work day, but it’s actually what I call my education time. So I kind of don’t really classify it as work because there’s nothing in my calendar that’s scheduled, but the way in which I have made my working week, so productive was born out of being an absolute mess.

Den Lennie (3m 46s):
I used to be chaotic. I used to have lists everywhere. I’d have a written list, I’d have a project in Asana, I’d have Evernote. I’d have like Google docs and Google notes. And I had just too many sources of places to put my ideas. And I think the thing that I found to be the most challenging was that as a creative, sometimes managing all of those thoughts can be really overwhelming. And so you can end up having bits of paper everywhere and lists everywhere and not really being certain which one you should focus on. And so I developed a way of creating a default diary and that is that I do certain things on certain days every week.

Den Lennie (4m 37s):
And I originally got this concept from Charlie Valher, who’s been on this podcast many times and he said to me, you know, you need to have different days for different themes so that your brain can engage very clearly on what’s happening on a given day. Now, part of the solution to all of this is also having support, having a team, having outsourced support and help to take away some of that mundane and admin-type work that you shouldn’t be focusing on as a business owner. But when you start a business, you have to do it. But let me just talk you through how this default diary works.

Den Lennie (5m 19s):
So on certain days, I have certain themes. So for example, on a Monday, it’s my content day. That’s a day when I create content either for my members or I create content for the podcast or the YouTube channel. That is the day that I have themed for content. Tuesday is when I do my community and coaching day. Now I do a coaching call on a Monday evening and one on a Tuesday morning. I have for the VBA Elite program and to cover the different time zones. So one is like 9:00 AM on a Monday morning in the UK and Europe, and one is, you know, at 6:30 in the morning in Australia, which is like, you know, afternoon in the US and then I have space in my calendar for coaching calls and other things that I might put in my calendar for the week.

Den Lennie (6m 16s):
On Wednesday, it’s a marketing day. On the marketing day, that’s when I focus on creating marketing content or generating business strategy, executing on that, might be building landing pages. It might be creating ads. It might be, you know, writing copy, but it’s the day that I focus on marketing. So every single week for three hours on a Wednesday, I’m just working on marketing. And that creates 52 touch points, a year of ongoing marketing. And the secret to productivity is consistency. And so it’s far better to do a little often than all at once. I actually remember filming with Steve Cram, the Olympic athlete in the club Lasanta, and Lanza Rottie many, many years ago.

Den Lennie (7m 2s):
And it was for the London marathon training camp. And he said, you know, you’re far better off running a little bit every day than doing one big run on the weekend. He said a little often is always going to be better for you than one big bout of exercise. So in the same way, in anything in life, a little often is going to get you measured, be closer to your goals. Thursday is a support day for my VBA members. I also run a VBA support call for our Uplevel program. And then I have a lot of blank space for other things. Friday morning is usually a work day and then Friday afternoon is off.

Den Lennie (7m 44s):
So I don’t want Monday mornings. I don’t want Friday afternoons. That’s a four-day week. And then Wednesdays is a kind of half-day. So I’d have a three and a half-day week, but I still have 20 hours a week of available productivity. And the reason that I’m able to do that is because I’m very, very disciplined at how I manage my time. Now, I have thinking time structured between eight and 8 45 every morning. I don’t always use it, but it’s there. And it’s on my calendar. I have lunch every day between one and two o’clock and that’s the time I spend with Sam, my wife, and then from five till six, we walk the dogs. So I have three hours a day of dedicated time for either myself or my partner.

Den Lennie (8m 28s):
And I still have 20 hours a week of productivity. And the reason this works so well is that I am ferociously protective over my time. So for example, my voicemail on my phone is not activated. It says, Hey, if you’re listening to this message, please do not leave a message. I won’t listen to it. If you need to get ahold of me, please email me or send me a text. So, I have lots of micro-decisions in my day to remove distractions. Someone calling me is someone else’s to-do list someone emailing me is someone else’s to-do list. So talking of email, I have a very strict zero inbox policy.

Den Lennie (9m 8s):
So I delete all the emails that are not relevant. And then I categorize my email into, you know, to respond, to read and review, or to file. And so that’s what I focus on. The key to all of this is, is learning a new habit around how you run your day. If you want to achieve business success and success in life, whereby your business creates a really healthy income for you and your family, and you have time to enjoy it, then you have to protect your time.

Den Lennie (9m 49s):
And that is something that takes a bit of practice. But this default diary, it’s one of the things that will take you a little while to get your head around, but it will absolutely have a dramatic impact on your business.

2 (10m 4s):
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, that mouse over 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.