Episode 400: The ROI of 150,000 Downloads EP#400

Episode 400. Eight years. 150,000 downloads. Clients doing over $60 million in revenue across that time.

This one's off the cuff. I was packing the car for a week's camping with Sam when I realised we'd hit 400 episodes, and I wasn't going to let it slide past without saying something.

No guest, no script, just me on the mic. The $60 million number sounds big until you work out it averages around $280K a year in revenue growth per client, which is the figure that actually matters. And the thing I'm most proud of isn't the revenue. It's watching Caleb have three kids, Grant getting married this year, Andres going from $300K to over a million. That's what this work is really about.

I also get into why I recorded the audio version of The S.C.A.L.E. Method myself instead of using a voice clone, and why I think the video businesses thriving in an AI world are the ones leaning harder into their humanity, not further from it. AI tools are tools. A great human who can interpret a concept and move someone emotionally is not a tool, and that's where the real opportunity sits.

Fourteen weeks straight this year. Time to go camping. Thank you for being here.

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Transcript

 Welcome to episode 400 of the Den Lennie Show. It's Saturday afternoon and I'm packing almost a ready to go away for a week's camping with my wife. And as I was doing my handover to my team, I just realized that we were coming up on our 400th podcast episode and I thought, I can't let that. Pass by without an acknowledgement. And if you are someone who's been listening since the beginning, then thank you. If you've been listening for a little less time, then I also am grateful that you're here. This podcast was started in 2018 and we've been publishing pretty consistently since then, and. A podcast is something that it, it takes a lot of consistency to do well, and this has never been a huge podcast. It's always been very niche. And to get to 400 episodes is indeed, you know, quite an achievement. We've had over 150,000 downloads in that time, which is not a massive podcast. But what I'm particularly proud of is that about 30% of our clients who are working with us have found us through our podcast, and our clients in the last eight years have generated actually over $60 million in revenue. I know I talk a lot about more than $52 million in revenue, but just recently at our mastermind in Melbourne. We calculated what everyone had made that year and it actually pushed the number over 60 million. But I sometimes think that that number is so big that if you're a video production company owner doing 150 KA year, it can seem almost unrealistically high. Um, but it averages at about 280 odd thousand dollars a year in revenue growth. And that's the thing I'm most proud of. Well, actually no. I'm most proud of the incredible people I've gotten to work with and I've become friends with. I've watched Caleb, very, very loyal client of ours, have three children. Matt's had two children. Grant is getting married this year. Sammy's had two kids and there are many, many more clients. Andres has grown his business from, 300 KA year to well over. A million dollars a year, and that is really exciting to be part of that journey to guide and be part of that conversation. And that's really my job as a mentor, is to ask difficult questions, to spot check decisions, to build a community where collectively we could support each other and. Be able to, discuss big six figure decisions with clarity and with respect from people in the room. And, um, I'm just so incredibly proud of. The people I get to work with and continue to do. You know, business has been really tough in the last few years. I mean, we've had the COVID crisis where we just weren't able to go out and film and shoot. And then more recently it's become very challenging with ai, with the various disputes happening around the world. There's a fuel crisis, there's a cost of living crisis, but. There is always room for a great creative business because it's my view that you can have incredible tools with ai, for example, but you know, that's like hiring an ARI Alexa and having a great colorist. They're just tools and I think that great human connection or where I think the big, the big opportunity is, and the clients that I see succeeding is in. Being able to interpret a concept for a client and communicate a human emotion through visual storytelling, through being able to share your view on the world and. To do that in a way that creates an emotional response and that emotional response leads to someone making a buying decision. And that means that clients come back to you again and again and again. So, yeah, I'm just super excited. I haven't got much more to say about reaching 400 episodes 'cause I mean, it is a milestone, but it is just that, it's just a milestone. And, um, there seems to be a helicopter flying above my property now, so forgive the noise. One thing I've always done. With this podcast is made, made sure it is real. What you're getting is just me raw, and I think that that's really important in a time of ai when it would be very easy to, you know, um. I have this recorded by an AI voice. Yeah, I've cloned my voice, but I just, I don't feel comfortable using it. In fact, recently I, I had recorded the audio version of the Scale Method, which is my book. And I, there was an option to, you know, use an AI voice, but I decided to just sit and record it. And that took, you know, several days and then several more days to edit. But the one thing I've always believed in is that I'm not a bullshitter. You'll always get the truth from me. And I sure, I use AI tools. I use AI tools all the time, but they're to enhance what we do, not to replace what we do. And I really strongly believe that. To really thrive in a world of AI is you have to lean in to your humanism. You have to lean into who you really are, and that's something that nobody else can take from you. So yeah, I just wanted to say thank you. I can't believe we got to 400 episodes. It's, um, it's not always been easy. And I know the podcast has changed a lot over the years and we've tried some different things, but I'm moving more back into this. Just off the cuff, um, recording, we're gonna start integrating those episodes as well as the more structured content we make for YouTube. And then we, we duplicate that over to the podcast because I think that, you know, some people just aren't in a position to watch a video. They might wanna listen to an audio, but I also do just like. Getting on the mic and doing this, just sharing off the cuff. So this is me being real, being raw. I've been working 14 weeks straight this year. I'm about to go off for a camping trip with my wife, Sam, and um, I'm gonna sign out here and I'll see you very soon.