Don’t you know that it’s in the midst of discomfort and pain that the most growth occurs? You may not like with what I’m about to say in today’s episode, but it’s critical that you hear it and see if it resonates with you.
Episode Transcription
Den Lennie (1s):
G’day, guys! It’s Den here, and today is going to be a little bit tricky if you are someone who doesn’t like discomfort. And the reason this is important is because discomfort and pain is where the most growth happens. And so you mean like what I’m about to say, but I think it’s important that you hear it because it’s either going to resonate with you and you’re going to agree with it, or it might make you feel very uncomfortable if it makes you feel very uncomfortable, then good. I want you to sit in that discomfort because that is bare an opportunity for growth as
(39s):
Welcome to the video business accelerator podcast. Each week, we uncover the secrets to creating a wildly successful and scalable video production business with your host, Den Lennie. Discover how the accelerator program is transforming the lives of our members at www.videobusinessaccelerator.com. Enjoy this episode.
Den Lennie (1m 10s):
Okay guys. So today’s episode is about the discomfort of growth and it’s important because without pain, there can be no growth. And, you know, in, in every situation and every business, there’s a lot of discomfort every single day, cause there’s lots of problems to solve. In fact, you are a problem-solver as a filmmaker and as a problem-solver as a filmmaking business owner, But there is a level of delusion that exists any very wide, broad aspect, part of the video production industry. And that is people who think they are doing better than the are and, and are telling themselves a story about what is possible.
Den Lennie (1m 58s):
But the fact that that hasn’t happened to date. So if you’re someone who’s looking at last year’s numbers in the year before going, it wasn’t great, but somehow convincing yourself that this is the year. And if you just kind of, you know, keep doing what you’re doing and, or somehow change, then that is the definition of madness. And, and what I find really interesting is how many video business owners are, who, and in the earliest stages of growing the business, maybe they’re freelancers, they’ve got a few projects and they’ve put a lot of effort into kind of, you know, big enough that our company on the website, but the website copy is just all generic.
Den Lennie (2m 40s):
It doesn’t talk to any one particular person in the market. In fact, it’s probably been, you know, put together by looking at other video production companies and taking bits from all of those websites and trying to kind of somehow craft what you think is a cool sounding website to the market. But in actual fact, it just looks the same as everyone else’s because there’s no consideration of thought that’s gone into who it is you’re talking to. And what is the problem that you solve. And, and I, and I see a lot of resistance in the market to this idea of being clear on who you’re talking to get to know about all of their pains, all of their darknesses, all of the areas they worry about and address that with your offer on your website.
Den Lennie (3m 32s):
And I get to work with a lot of really successful businesses and the ones that have nailed this and can articulate who they help, what problem they solve and how they do it are the ones that get the phone calls are the ones that get the opportunities. And that are, I would say, 80 to 90% of all video businesses around the world are actually struggling to make 50 grand a year. And yet they’ve gone out and spent easily 20, 30, $40,000 in equipment. And it’s just such a, such a kind of painful reality that so much money goes into buying the gear to make it Luke top-end, but almost nothing goes into business.
Den Lennie (4m 19s):
And then, you know, you end up with this kind of horrible dichotomy where you’re like sitting there with this nice looking website and it looks like it says the right things about, you know, storytelling and growth and, you know, getting your message in front of your audience and a lot other bollocks, frankly, it’s like, it’s just it’s so passe it’s like everyone says the same thing because most people wouldn’t invest in a copywriter to cannot really find out what the problem is and help articulate that in a way. And what I find so fascinating about that is that if a client of yours said to you, Hey, don’t worry about cutting or grading. It we’ll do that in house.
Den Lennie (4m 59s):
You’d be mortified. You’d be absolutely gobsmacked. Like why on earth? You know what, that’s the terrible idea? Why would you do that? You don’t have the skills we have and yet so many businesses won’t go and look at copywriting or wouldn’t go look at, you know, getting some support from a business coach, for example, to help them understand how to build the business, how to create opportunities and how to do it in a way that allows you to charge more and therefore make more money with less effort. But you see it’s much easier to slap your credit card down on BNH and get that rush of adrenaline as you buy the latest camera or the latest, you know, computer screen or new Mac that you suddenly decide you must have.
Den Lennie (5m 42s):
And I’ve been there like, you know, I can talk about this from a place of having been there, where before I invested in business coaching, and before I invest in my own education, you know, 10, 12 years ago, I would be like, wow, you know, if I get this new Mac pro, that’s going to be the key, or if I buy this F5 and this fancy tripod, I’m going to feel like I’m showing up the real deal. And none of it actually really mattered what mattered was, making sure I had an audience to talk to that I could share a deep understanding of their world and help them solve their problems. And, you know, I, I’ve got a client in the UK, Alex, who is niched in universities and particularly in economic partnerships and enterprise partnerships with universities, it’s a very narrow niche, but he just recently reported to us that in one week he had one referral and that guy referred somebody else in tally.
Den Lennie (6m 39s):
And that guy in referred somebody else in town. So you’ve got three referral quality leads from, from one person because once the word gets so that you are an expert at one thing, people just want an easy path to getting the result. And so they’re like, yeah, you’re suggesting you should definitely speak to Alex. And they had three meetings and three courts went out. That is, that is the Nirvana that an ally is going to have an incredible year, just bought a house with his girlfriend. They just renovated note building a studio, you know, and that was on his vision board a year and a half ago. So this really does work and it just saddens me. It saddens me the, the narrative that some filmmakers are running in their own heads about what it actually takes to build a business.
Den Lennie (7m 30s):
And, and I just want you to listen to this. And if that’s something you can relate to have a really good look in the mirror and ask yourself the question, am I really going to make it work this year? Or am I just kidding myself? Because if you’ve not made it work in the last year or the year before, there’s something wrong with your mindset and where you’re getting your information from, you know, it, it is not straightforward building a business. There are a lot of emotional and psychological and real tough challenges on mindset. And you, you have to learn how to pick yourself up and pick the phone up and call clients and pick, you know, write emails to them and make sure you’re kind of communicating on a regular basis and put systems in place to make sure that happens without you being there.
Den Lennie (8m 21s):
And it’s the kind of thing that it takes time to build, but, but there are opportunities to have a proven process laid out in front of you and, and a process that you can follow that is guaranteed to get you the result faster than if you keep doing what you’re doing. And I would see with our program, for example, the VBA up level, you can do it in eight weeks. And if you smashed through it, you’ll get that result much quicker. But most people, it takes maybe eight to 12 months, sometimes longer, depending on what’s going on in their lives. But the broad map is there. And you know, and it costs way less than the price of a camera. So if this is something that resonates with you, then let’s have a chat, let’s have a call and see if we can work together because I’m very passionate about helping people succeed.
Den Lennie (9m 12s):
But it does worry me that so many people are living a life of delusion, that they think that if they just keep doing what they’re doing, they’ll get a better result.
(9m 24s):
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, then 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.
