Why the number “1” is the most dangerous number in business. Andrew Fowler of Lux Films

Episode Transcription

Den Lennie (0s):
G’day, guys! And welcome to the How to Scale of Video Business podcast. This week, we are on episode number 202, and I’ve got one of my client’s on the show, Andrew Fowler of Lux Films. Now Lux Films, are a specialist event filming company, and they have seen enormous change in the event space in the last 18 months. And now a lot of times you hear stories of businesses that have struggled throughout COVID Lux films have done the opposite. They’ve actually grown 50% doing things differently in the event space that was essentially shut down, but they responded very quickly to the pandemic and how that was impacting their clients.

Den Lennie (46s):
He came up with some really cool ways of actually not just sharing with their client’s, how they could do things better, but actually scaling their business in a time when so many are struggling. Now, Andrew is a client of mine, and he’s going to talk a bit about his journey in the VBA as well, but I promise you you’re going to learn some really exciting insights, and I think you can take them away from this and implement them in your own business. So enjoy the show. Andrew it’s really nice to have you on the podcast. Tell me lux film or Lux Films sorry, tell me this story of how that got started and how you’ve got to where you are today.

Andrew Fowler (1m 33s):
Yeah, so we, hi everyone. Hi Dan. And, you know, we started about about five years ago and basically is a partnership between myself and M two guys that I work with for many, many years in the industry, Marc and Gareth and M that, that, that kind of, they kind of background is a BBC film or theater. And he kind of work together quite a lot on the events world. And we’re just really kind of enjoyed working together as the team. And I think that there’s a lot synergy with between this in terms of creative ideas, in terms of the kind of work in the clients that you like to work with them. So we kind of formed a company about about five years or just over five years ago now, and to be working together with a member since,

Den Lennie (2m 17s):
And, and I guess the last year and a has been a very interesting time for you because of the pandemic. I mean, you, or primarily providing services to the live event space, how did that change and how did you guys pivot to not just survive that, but actually create a kind of a new genre?

Andrew Fowler (2m 37s):
I think that it was really, it, it was really interesting when the pandemic kind of started for us because we have, you know, lots of, lots of job’s books in, I mean, we’ve, we tend to, our kind of work is global really in, we tend to fly out to all the sorts of locations and we’ve had so much work to kind of booked in to that kind of a first and second quarter of, of last year I’m and suddenly all have our clients, just, I just, what we’re going to have to council this, you know, if we can’t, we can’t do this now. And that was kind of that moment of like, right, okay, we’re going to have to have a little thing here, what we’re going to do and how we can change and how we can kind of keep up with things. But actually it was really great because what we’ve found is that, that, you know, our clients, we’re still their, that their customers was still there and they need to communicate and ’cause, everybody was locked down in a home video really was the only way, you know, the kind of really main way that people could actually communicate and interact.

Andrew Fowler (3m 35s):
So actually for us, so it ended up being, you know, basically more work for us because we kind of had to basically look at how, how are we going to hold very sort of similar events for our clients, but, but, but move them into the online space. And of course, when you go into online and you have to provide so much more than then, just somebody speaking on that on a stage, or you need to, people in the audience engage for a long time, offer some interaction, offers some really, really good video contents. So we just, I just have to move very fast, really to support our client’s and demonstrate to them so that we could offer them something as goodI think if, you know, in some cases is actually better than, than, than the physical events themselves.

Den Lennie (4m 22s):
Now, when we first started walking together and for anyone listening and watching Andrews, one of my VBA clients and its been with us about a year now and what were some or the things that prompted you to come and look at a program like that because you guys have a pretty successful business, but there were some areas where I think you felt a little bit vulnerable. Tell me about that.

Andrew Fowler (4m 46s):
Yeah. I think for us, I think we have been very sort of reliant on a kind of one main client really. I, and we do do work with a number of companies, but we kind of, most of our work or out of our work is coming through sort of, or main client. I think that we’re very aware of that. That’s something that we didn’t kind of want to be, be just, just reliant on really and putting all your eggs in one basket. And all of that we know in the business is not a wise thing. I think also as well, I think I sort of fell into that trap of, you know, we, you know, what we produced is fantastic. You know what, we’ve got a good product, you know, there’s people out there that like, if we’ve got a fantastic show, real, you know, we’ve got a website, you know, the word is just gonna come in, its just gonna take a few years and suddenly the work is just going to snowball and we’re going to be incredibly busy.

Andrew Fowler (5m 34s):
But actually what you find is it’s that, you know, there are so much going on out there in the world, it’s a fast moving place and actually a lot of the potential people that you could work for art, you know, you got to get their attention and you gotta get their intention in, in lots of different ways. And I think for us, I think last year, I think it’s as the picture is changing as we were actually offering some really good alternatives, I thought we need to kind of take this to the next level and we need to find a way to kind of scale our business, to be able to, you know, take on, take a more clients. And I think, I think for us joining the VBA to kind of, that is really a way to kind of go, okay, we’ve got all of this, lets find a way to kind of mark it ourselves, lets find out a, you know, what or the tools that we need to be able to kind of make those decisions and drive the business forward.

Andrew Fowler (6m 29s):
And I think, you know, I was very aware of you, you then a sort of a, you know, quite a few years where you are and listening to the podcast and scene some of your post and things and, and I’m what you were saying. It was really, really resinating. And so I think for me it was just a no brainer really just, just to kind of jump in and go, right, let’s see what we can do to help us through this changing time. But also how are you looking at how we can grow the business, you know, over the next, you know, one year, three years, five years, 10 years.

Den Lennie (6m 60s):
I think that, that what you just said will resinate with a lot of people listening to this where, you know, we, we, we feel like our work is really strong. We have a good set of clients and they know where we are. They will come to us when they need those. But of course the don’t necessarily always come back when you need you. So tell me about some of the things you started to notice when you are in the VB that you started implementing in. How did that impact the outcomes you were looking to achieve for your business?

Andrew Fowler (7m 27s):
Yeah, I think, I think the first I have to say kinda the, the, the main thing I really noticed is is that all the tools were there and, and, and the coaching sessions are all fantastic. And actually just being able to share with others in the group is brilliant, but I think the big kind of a lesson, and I think that it took me a few months to kind of realize is in this is that all of this stuff is there, but you’ve still got to work really, really hard to implement it and to make it work. And I think that’s really been the big lesson for me. And I think over, they really only over the last few months, its really felt like I’ve ramped up and, and been putting in the work. And, and, but I think I had been put in a way that maybe a bit longer than that, but I’m seeing the results of that work putting in.

Andrew Fowler (8m 10s):
But I think for us, I mean I think the main thing is just, I would say the number one thing is having that accountability with yourself and others in the group, having that kind of weekly check-in with a coaching, it kinda drives you forward is, and we’re all a little bit competitive. So we kinda, you know, lets, lets just keep driving forward in the group. I want to do while I’m seeing other guys doing some fantastic things and I see something fantastic in the group and I think, yeah, I love that that would really work for us. And I think it’s that, it’s that kind of that drive. I think that that accountability I’d say is there’s been a big thing. I think the other thing for us has just been systemization so one of the things I’ve done over the last year is, is brought to brought on the team or on a bigger team of staff because we didn’t have any, any staff from a business before and we’ve started to build systems.

Andrew Fowler (8m 59s):
So we’ve started to map out processes for all of the things that we do and that’s really streamlined the business. Its allowed me to kind of step away. I’ve kinda stepped my kind of a background is the editing and I’ve kind of stepped away from that. Now I don’t, I don’t really touch anything editing wise and that we’ve got, I got a full-time in-house editor now who does all of that. We have a team that freelances as well. So I was just restructured really lot’s of the business to you to be able to grow and develop it, but also to be able to have a better handle on what we are doing for our clients. So I think is that thing of being able to up-sale being able to offer new things to our clients, new a new resources moving into to kind of a different area.

Andrew Fowler (9m 45s):
So it’s, it’s, it’s really allowed me to be able to kind of have that kind of, I guess this sounds a bit brand, but that kind of Moore CEO view of a business’ when you can kind of just take a step back and kind of look at what you’re doing really.

Den Lennie (9m 59s):
I think you’re, you know, you, you you’ve really, I think you’d been hard on yourself. I think from day one you started really attacking the stuff. But I think oftentimes when we’re doing anything new, it feels like there’s a lot of resistance. And so we perhaps don’t acknowledge or recognize how far we’ve come. But what I think back when you first start working together or you had one main client and now you have several and I, and I also in something you said a few weeks ago on a weekly, when he was like, oh, I kind of found myself this week, but that they were, I didn’t have anything to do. And I think that such a, such an alien concept for many, but actually, you know, we were going to record this podcast couple of weeks ago when your wife was like Adrian, our hangout tomorrow, see you take the day off our, you just went and spent the weekend that the Goodwood festival to speed with your kids’ and you know, you, you are going on a holiday soon.

Den Lennie (10m 46s):
And I think I hear the SOF. And then the VBA that, that in that sense of panic gauze, that sense of needing to be working all the time changes, how has systemizing your business help then? How has that help bringing on of a team?

Andrew Fowler (11m 3s):
I think it’s really helped because it, it it’s, it’s kind of, when you kind of, whenever you find that you have sort of, everything is sort of relying on you. So, you know, it’s all in your head and you know how it works. You, you actually find the first thing is the hardest lesson that I’ve kind of found bringing you on the team. What was this that are you just kind of imagine that they know what you know, and you have to kind of get that information over to the municipal process, but actually documenting it and systemizing it is it’s just the best way to do it because its all written down. And what it means is that you bring a new person in to the team. They can you just say, here we go, this is how we do, this is the document. This is what we do. This is, you know, we, we use the sauna.

Andrew Fowler (11m 43s):
So for this aspect to that, we use a G drive for this aspects or whatever it is, but there’s a process they were in place actually of that process now works, write to the new, onboarding a new client in terms of, you know, how we start up, how do you cost out a production? How we, we do, you know, from start to finish basically the whole process. We have the whole thing completely systemized. And that’s really just been amazing for me because its meant I could kinda step back and they give you one example. You know, we, we now have, you know, a couple of freelance producers, which we’ve, which has been fantastic, that we’ve bought for a few jobs over the last year. And it’s just brilliant because I can just say to them, write, this is what I needed you to do.

Andrew Fowler (12m 27s):
This was a project. How is your e-mail address? Here’s the clients talked to them and you know, so when I’m away for a weekend in August, down in Cornwall, you know, I don’t have to worry about it because I’ve got someone there who can just, just oversee and manage all of that. So I think its just been really liberating and I think, okay, yes, you have to invest a bit. You have to know you have to factor in some costs to bring in more people in. But actually that time then frees me up to grow to market and to bringing more business. So its it’s a win-win really,

Den Lennie (13m 1s):
And I’d love to touch on the marketing side because I think you, as someone who is a incredible members of our community, you are on every single core. You’ve always gotten a lot of value to add if you’re also curious and you’re also vulnerable enough to too, to express when you do it in or something. And what I’ve always enjoyed about your involvement in the group, Andrew, is that you are willing to try things. You tend not to have a bias towards or that what work you actually go out and try it. And I think in terms of marketing, I’d love for you to share some of the things you’ve done and marketing idea of what to make some that hasn’t work. But the, what is working for you in terms of bringing new businesses in, cause we’ve seen a, a reasonable amount of a new business coming your way.

Andrew Fowler (13m 42s):
Yeah. I think, I think one of the big, big things for me is being linked in, but I think it’s been very willing to our two things to test and try things out. So testing out messaging, uhm, to different prospects, I am trying different approaches to a different prospects, even when it’s felt really, really uncomfortable. You know, I’ve messaged some pretty top people in some of the biggest companies in, in, in the world actually, which some very kind of tongue-in-cheek kind of messaging, which is stuff that you kinda put together in their group. You know, the sort of being very nervous to hit the send button, but actually I’ve got amazing responses from it and its been really, really effective. Mmm. I think its also been willing to kinda play the long game I’m on LinkedIn.

Andrew Fowler (14m 25s):
He noticed it’s because you can take 18 months to kind of nurture someone on LinkedIn and that’s that is sending them case studies or just letting them know what you’re up to and then always asking them questions. You know, what to do you think is, is there anything that you need at the moment and just, just kind of that nurture size. So that’s, that’s been a really interesting, I’ve been recently been trying to some very direct approach is on LinkedIn, which is also been fairly successful as well. So I’d say LinkedIn, a really good platform, but the number one tip I would kind of give is, is, is consistency. We’ve kind of a, you know, I’ve actually had really struggled to kinda keep a really consistent approach to LinkedIn. So actually I am now working with a, a third party who is, you know, basically like a virtual assistant, who is you just kind of managing that in and helping with that.

Andrew Fowler (15m 12s):
So that’s been really, really fantastic. What kind of, I’m kind of experimenting a bit with Google, Google advertising. Its I haven’t quite gotten that right yet. They haven’t quite got my or my messaging right on Google and we’re just actually working on any books at the moment, which we’re going to put out there, you know, with, with Google advertising as a, as, as basically a way to, I think it just a different approach where we, rather than that, just sending them to our website, actually giving them some value and some content and I’m also giving us an opportunity to, to capture their contact details of things. So that’s something we work we’re kind of trying out and yeah. I mean I think that we do stuff across the different social platforms.

Andrew Fowler (15m 53s):
I think Instagram has been quite good for us in the event. Space is quite popular. Facebook, probably less so for us, but we haven’t completely closed it, but yeah, I’m I’m for me, I feel like we’re, we’ve got so much more to do on the marketing. I feel like I’m really just kind of starting out that way. I’d been doing stuff a while. I feel like there’s a lot more testing in a lot more trying and then, and things to do with our marketing, but I’m actually really starting to enjoy it. So to start with, if it was just like, you know, Marcus and I just walked by doing, you know, but that actually now I think ’cause, I’ve seen results. It fills a bit more comfortable and it feels, you feel a bit braver to want to try things out.

Andrew Fowler (16m 35s):
And the, and I think that’s a, you know, actually give me a little bit of an appetite for it and it kind of comes a little bit of a thug because he thinks great. If I, if, if this, that work lets try this and see how that works. Yeah.

Den Lennie (16m 47s):
Yeah. I love it. Well, you know, marketing is like, we talked about the marketing path, the idea of being that the pillars have a path on our, their support block that holds up your overall marketing in general interest in your business. I think that what typically happens is most our makers rely on word of mouth, just like, oh, I don’t do any marketing. I just do what a mouth, but that, and then what’s happening as that kind of more freelance, a mindset of, well, as long as we win in some way out and we’re all busy, but good. That’s great. But actually what you’ve managed to do is come in and think about how can you scale and take away some of the risk of being single core client dependent. How can you systemize that? How can you bring in some more clients and then use that extra revenue to hire a team which removes you from the editing removes you from the production management, which then allows you time and space to basically be head of business development.

Den Lennie (17m 39s):
And I think that was really cool about the journey that you are on as you’ve seen some very specific wins and you have reinvested them in creating a more time space for you, which has no given you the point, I guess, the opportunity to be a marketer and really embrace it. And I think that is really cool because you know, focused on how can we get consistent leads and opportunities coming in to Lux films. And then I’d love to know what, you know, what your partner’s think of this because if you know, you, you joined the program and kinda as part as part of a partnership, the gap of the guys or kind of off doing their production, one of their note is since you’ve been in the,

Andrew Fowler (18m 20s):
Yeah, I think they are, they what they’ve kinda really notice. And I think that actually, I think there’s a lot of pride their from them ’cause they, they rightly say they’ve always, always been really passionate about the product we produce in. Actually I think that’s a really important for us that we have a really, really high standard and really, really good product and that they are really passionate about that. And I think they’ve always wanted that always felt that products is so strong and actually we want to get out there to a more people because you know, we really laugh and enjoy what we do and actually we want other people to share and that experience and we want to, we want to work with companies and we want to make films that, you know, in and do events with them that the, our successful with them and that kind of, that is kind of the bug.

Andrew Fowler (19m 2s):
That’s what you really kind of enjoy. And that’s why we’re in this business. So I think for them, its just been really, really exciting journey because we have, you know, the over what could of been a very difficult year, you know what we’ve done some really amazing things and we’ve started to work with some new really exciting clients. I think for them they just feel very kind of proud. And actually I think its, I think its kind of that recognition that yeah, actually we’re starting to get noticed now and actually, you know, we are getting our product out to the new people, I think for them its, its, its been really, really exciting.

Den Lennie (19m 33s):
So, and then turned to me, you know, some of the work you’re doing, you have something you call a hybrid events for anyone who’s not familiar with what a hybrid event is. Can you maybe talk a little bit about that and in a bit about your process and how that has been received by your clients?

Andrew Fowler (19m 50s):
Yes. I think a a, a hybrid is really the kinda the next phase that were kinda going into now with the events and essentially its, its where you are. A couple of people want to try and get as many people as it can get to a venue, but it may be, they could just get the people in that particular country or, or a particular region to that event. So they’re going to be a lot more scaled back. You can be sort of into a few, a hundred people maybe in the conference room, but then there are going to have the rest of our market online. And that actually potentially a lot more of the people that wouldn’t have come to the event before because it’s, you know, they physically couldn’t have got a big enough venue or the cost of flying people. Then all of those things is suddenly out in the picture.

Andrew Fowler (20m 30s):
Now actually they can get a much, much larger audience online and this was a lot of opportunities to generate revenue doing that. But actually what we are looking at is doing is saying, well, what is a hybrid event? It shouldn’t just be camera’s filming a stage. Uhm, because actually the, that home that isn’t going to be brain engaging and its going to get a bit lost and they begin to feel a bit distant. It’s actually thinking a little bit more like, you know, if you watch the tennis, all the football, you know, you are go to the match that, but then in halftime it will cut into a studio and you got some presenters in some contributors, their and their talking about what just happened. And there talking directly down in the lens to the audience at home, they’re putting some nice content in some videos, some stings and graphics and music.

Andrew Fowler (21m 15s):
So it’s kind of looking at how, when you say hybrid its, its catering from the audience that are they’re in the venue and it, but its also a catering for the audience that home and giving them a bit of the events experience, but also remembering what they need, something in a more kind of TV format kind of down the lens. So that’s kind of what a hybrid is going. And I can actually see, you know, kind of beyond the pandemic and restrictions as a pandemic and this is the format that will be here to stay because it’s that the end of the day, you know, we’ve got to think about the planet, we’ve got to be flying less. We’ve got to be, you know, just, just our carbon footprint, if you are putting on a physical event, you know, the, the there’s a lot of, you know, that there’s a lot of infrastructure that has to be put in.

Andrew Fowler (21m 57s):
And actually I think, I think moving forward it’s its, you know, its thinking smarts now for events. So I think the hybrid is, is a really exciting actually <inaudible> I think I feel this feels great to be parts of something that it’s actually quite knew, but I think that is going to be their going to be a here to stay.

Den Lennie (22m 18s):
Well, I think that you guys as well are really pioneering a new genre and I think what’s interesting as well as you know, and that wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about budget, but I know from the conversations we’ve had, these are significant multi some cases six-figure budgets and our you, or are you noticing these companies that we’d normally have spent maybe a half a million to a million on an event and in a physical space are still spending a considerable amount of money because their not having to necessarily hire a big venues on the fly or thousands of people in, are you seeing that, that, that there’s a, I guess what I’m getting as I I’m observing, there’s a, there’s a lot of budget available to you to, because they want to do it properly.

Den Lennie (23m 2s):
Is that something that you’re seeing and how does that working out for you in terms of what you’re able to then?

Andrew Fowler (23m 7s):
Absolutely. Yeah, definitely is there are a good budget it’s out. And I think the interesting thing is that you have, these companies will have money allocated for their events, the, you know, quite sizable budget’s because he had to, if you know, to hire an arena or a conference thing, you have to get people, their hotels is considerable. So they were willing to kind of take some of that budget. But actually I think for them the other kind of good selling point for them as its not necessarily as much a budget as it would be to put the physical events on. So its still a very good budget for us to be able to bring in the very, very high quality and actually what we do, you know, what the event, a virtual event we did, we were able to hire a really, really decent film studio in London.

Andrew Fowler (23m 50s):
We brought in some very, very top people we bought in a producer who normally works couple of producers. Actually he normally work on BVC strictly come dancing, but I got a direct or you know, he, he does the, the Baptists ceremony. He does a lot, lots of live television. So we were able to bring in a really, really kind of high end team to produce something that’s the, you know, it was, this was as good as sort of prime time TV. And I think that’s really powerful because I think that what these clients are seeing as you know, that it’s just disappointing. They can’t have their event, but actually lets give them, lets give our customers’ something different, but lets give him something, you know, arguably even better actually because its, its its a different experience.

Andrew Fowler (24m 30s):
And I think sometimes doing something fresh that kind of opens up people’s minds to new ideas and new concepts. So yeah, from a budget perspective, its been great because it’s enabled us to do some really, really high quality things. But actually I still think it’s a good value for the clients as well.

Den Lennie (24m 46s):
Yeah. And, and also I think one of the things you’d been really good at it’s is, is building a case study material in the building behind the scenes, you’ve produced some really quite incredible, you know, promotional content for Lux films. I think that’s one of the things, but you know, thinking like a marketer, thinking like business development, tell me about that process. You know, cause you’ve, you’ve actually invested by hiring people to come to an event and just shoot behind the scenes for you or have you had any resistance from clients over that and how has that then helped you to win more?

Andrew Fowler (25m 23s):
Yeah. When we, first year you had no resistance from clients and in fact they really liked it because if it, you know, they, that something that they can use as well. So they’d love to have a kind of behind the scenes and I think, you know, they’re proud of the event and they want to be able to show their market, look, this is what we did this, this was, this was how he put this piece together. So I think they’ve really enjoyed it as well. I think for us, you know, were a video production company. So if we can’t use video to market ourselves, then you know what, what, we’re basically not believing in the products that we produced. So I think for us, its, you know, the video is, I mean that for us, the video is the number one way that you could market and showcase her business. So we’ve just really enjoyed putting those videos together because I think, you know, number one, it showcases what we can do for you in terms of the event, but also number two, it shows how he could put video together.

Andrew Fowler (26m 14s):
So that also demonstrates what we can do. And I think it just helps people to really understand. And I think, you know, in this fast paced world, if you just got something that’s in a minute video on social media is going to give it a bit more engaged or engagement. Then the, you know, if I ride a blog post that is going to take so long in four minutes to read. So I think that the video is just, you know, I think its yeah, I mean, why wouldn’t we were to use video I’m and I’ve even started putting myself on some of those videos, just kind of talking what we do as a business. And that was something very uncomfortable for me because its kinda not be something that I’ve had a lot of experiences of doing, but I think its, I think its good to kind of cars at the end of the end of the day, people buy from people.

Andrew Fowler (26m 57s):
And I think you kinda got to put yourself out there in the show who you are I’m and show that, you know, you’re actually, you know, not, not that scary and you know that your approachable. So, so I kind of got quite excited about, umm, you know, these little of case studies, what’s the next one gonna be like and what can we do next time? Yeah. So what we’re

Den Lennie (27m 19s):
Cool you then the building has a library of great content, which is informative, its engaging the client’s like it. And then are you able to then tell more of a story and that’s just going to naturally reach out. And I think you’re very quickly becoming if not already the go-to company. In fact, I think just recently you said you started partnering with some organizations to do some, some sort of produced events, two that will, I think that accelerate and elevate you even more in the market.

Andrew Fowler (27m 46s):
So yeah, absolutely. Yes. We’re really excited that actually, because we partnered with, with a, basically a media company who produce a lot of online public, but they have the number of online platforms for the events industry, showcasing companies, but also just event industry news, really a and they have some, also some physical publications and then over the ear they hold a, you know, a number what the, the, the number one events expos that Xcel and London as well as the awards ceremony. So yeah, so we kind of enter the partnership with their then whereby we’re going to get some, some case studies in some ads and things across their platform, but also we’re gonna produce some highlights videos in some video content for them over the years as well.

Andrew Fowler (28m 30s):
And then we’re going to showcase ourselves that next year or at the event production sho with, with a trade stand. So for us, its really exciting because that’s, you know, that’s the market place. We work in that. So our niche and we’re kind of right in there now with some of those kind of key players in that market place, then it’s kind of a really funny to think, you know, where we were a year ago and where we are now. And then sometimes you kind of a kind of pinch yourself that actually yeah, we really actually made it a lot of progress and a lot of areas in and hit a lot of the targets that we really, we wanted to hit a lot earlier then we, we kind of just,

Den Lennie (29m 6s):
I mean, you know, yeah, you don’t have to talk about figures, but you’ve also your business has grown, right. I mean, how much, how much, how are you just say you’ve grown percentage and the last 12 months in terms of revenue and, and, and that kind of thing. Yeah. I mean,

Andrew Fowler (29m 18s):
I think we’re kind of what we’re seeing sort of, I think we’re seeing basically 50 about a sort of a 50% growth umm, last year and was seeing that this year as well. If I think probably will be a bit more of this year, actually the way that things are going. So we are, I think we’ll be kind of ahead of the goals that we set in terms of where the business is going from a growth perspective and the, you know, that that’s even without bringing on, bringing in more people, you know, in investing more in marketing and you know, we’re still with us, we’re seeing in a better return at the end of it. So it’s, you know, its very much not that the case, but if you invest financially in to our business, actually the business is more likely to grow than the, the non I think if we haven’t and I think actually thinking about R you know, the, the years of growth before I would say that they were pretty flat really every year a, but that’s because we weren’t doing anything to scale.

Andrew Fowler (30m 17s):
We weren’t doing any, any marketing. So its just really mind blowing actually that, that, that, that it works. I mean it it’s,

Den Lennie (30m 25s):
It’s, it’s, it’s great to hear. And I think that there’s always a sense of surprise and Luke, you know, I, I I’m, I think that the people in the VBA, our exceptional human beings, very driven and quietly successful business people who are hacking to run a video production companies, but I’d love to get your perspective on, you know, that must be a lot of people were listening to the show or who haven’t even got to that point when they feel they could even want to, to talk about doing some and let the VBA, because it would be there’s a fear or a reticence. What would you say to someone who is perhaps setting on the fence? He is like, ah, I keep hearing this VBA keep hearing these people coming on this show and they’re pretty cool in the lake. They keep upping all the success. Then maybe there’s something holding them back from stepping into that unknown. What would you say to them about the process of, of, of doing something like a VBA coaching program?

Andrew Fowler (31m 21s):
Yeah, I mean, I, I would say don’t hesitate cause I ha I hesitated probably for a couple of years really. And actually now if I hadn’t had done, we’d be, we’d be in a much different place. I guess I was kinda believe that there’s a time and a place for everything, but I wouldn’t hesitate. And I think, you know, sometimes you hesitate, there are reasons why we hesitate that that might be a cost. But I would say for us on that, you know, within the first, I think the first call, I think you shared with us some, some different ways of quoting and costing for jobs, which we switched, we applied straight away. And actually I think we basically paid for years worth of the, the BBA overnight, basically the more than paid for. So, so I think financially, you know, you, as, and as I was saying before, in terms of investing, you know, I think the only thing that we really invested in as you as a business was the equipment.

Andrew Fowler (32m 11s):
And actually it’s kind of a silly really when you think about it, because that’s really just one small aspect of, of, of what we do, it’s using the equipment I’m and actually it’s really good to invest in yourself and, you know, training is just a fantastic way to do that. And, you know, look, I mean, we don’t all have the answers. And I think what I like about the VBA is that, you know, you, you have gone away and Dunn all the research, you got all the information in there, but you’ve tailored it to our kinds of businesses to video of businesses. But I think that saved me so much time of having to go and scramble around and find all of that information. And also if I’m stuck on something, I can give you a shout out or give the group shot and say, and then what do you think of this?

Andrew Fowler (32m 52s):
Or how do I do this? And I think, you know, you’re just not anyone thinking of hesitating to join. I just think you’re not going to suddenly join in, think this was rubbish and my businesses, this isn’t gonna help my business, its gonna accelerate your business. I think its, you know, its tough, you know, you got, you’ve got to be willing to accept it when you come in, you are going to have to do the work, you know the word that doesn’t just happen, but, but yeah, you won’t regret it

Den Lennie (33m 24s):
And, and tell me just, but as we wrap up, what did, what is, what does the thing that, what did you feel is most viable aspects of being in the VBA?

Andrew Fowler (33m 33s):
I think probably if I were really kind of reflecting, I think he probably just that level of accountability so that having to kind of come to the group every week and say, this is what I’m doing this week. And then come at the end of the week and say, this is what I’ve achieved. And this is what worked. I think that that is a, a fantastic thing because I think it just, it just gives you that drive. And also we do, obviously we, we set our goals in our intentions each quarter and in terms of what we were going to do, setting up our, our top. So selling the things that we’re gonna do that are gonna grow the business over it over that quarter. So having that focus and having to go right at the end of that, I need to, I need to see that as I’ve hit, hit on all of these and make these work, I think that’s probably the most valuable thing.

Andrew Fowler (34m 21s):
I think obviously their resources and everything, our brilliant, and they all have the tools to do it, but actually you are not going to do it if you don’t have that planned planning, that strategic sites and that accountability. So I think for me, that is just, just been fantastic

Den Lennie (34m 37s):
And, and there’s some good banter as well.

Andrew Fowler (34m 39s):
Very good banter. Yeah. Well,

Den Lennie (34m 42s):
Andrew, it’s been so good to talk to you. I’m so excited for where lox is gonna go next. ’cause in the space of a year, you’ve kind of gone up 50% like that. That is a phenomenal amount of growth, but you’ve built such a foundation that, that we’ll continue. And I, and I’m just so excited to share that journey with you. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story with us today.

Andrew Fowler (35m 6s):
Thank you. It’s been a pleasure.

Den Lennie (35m 7s):
Hey guys, thanks for watching. I hope you got a huge amount of value from that episode. If you’re looking for additional support or resources to support your business journey, then head over to denlennie.com. Where you can get our whole heap of other resources, free downloads and access all the other episodes in this series. Be sure to subscribe and I’ll see you next time.