Why I Started The Business of Video Production Podcast

A couple of years ago, I found myself sitting with a question that I hadn’t really let myself confront properly before. It wasn’t triggered by anything going wrong. The business was working. We had good clients, steady projects, and everything looked solid from the outside. But underneath that, there was a feeling that was hard to ignore. It wasn’t dissatisfaction exactly, more a quiet sense that I was just continuing something I had already built, without really pushing it anywhere new. I kept coming back to the same question: is this it? And if it is, am I actually okay with that?

I didn’t rush to answer it. I’ve learned over time that when something like that shows up, it’s worth giving it space rather than trying to resolve it quickly. So I let it sit there for a while. Eventually, I came to a decision. I was in. I was committed to the business. But that decision came with a responsibility. If I was going to keep doing this, I had to take it more seriously than I had before. Not in terms of working longer hours or chasing more work, but in how I showed up. The standard needed to lift. Across the work, the thinking, and the way I ran the business day to day. Starting the podcast came out of that moment.

The First Episode

I recorded the first episode in my office at the back of the garden, the same place I’m sitting now. I remember feeling nervous before I hit publish, more than I expected. There’s something about putting your thoughts out into the open that feels different to just doing the work behind the scenes. Once it’s out there, there’s no taking it back, and that brings a certain level of exposure with it. I hit publish, closed the laptop, and tried not to think too much about it.

The next morning I woke up and remembered I’d launched it. That brought that familiar mix of doubt and curiosity. I checked the stats at the end of the first week and it had five listens. Two of those were me. There was no sense that it was gaining traction or going anywhere in particular. Before I started, I had made one commitment to myself. I would release one episode every week for a year. No skipping, no stopping early because it felt like nothing was happening, and no waiting for some kind of signal that it was working. That decision turned out to matter more than anything else. It removed the need to constantly evaluate the outcome and replaced it with a simple standard. Show up and do the work again next week.

This Wasn’t The First Time

This wasn’t my first attempt at a podcast. Back in 2013, I ran a show called The Web Video Marketing Show. At the time, I didn’t really have a clear direction for it. I was interviewing people, exploring different topics, and working things out as I went. I spoke to some interesting people and learned a lot through those conversations, and it was a genuinely enjoyable process. But looking back, there wasn’t much behind it. There wasn’t a strong reason for doing it beyond the fact that it seemed like something worth trying.

This time felt different from the beginning. It wasn’t driven by curiosity alone or the idea of starting something new. It came out of a specific point where I was reassessing how I wanted to approach my work and what I wanted to contribute beyond just running the business. There was more weight behind it, and that changed the way I approached it.

Where It All Started

I still think about where all of this began sometimes. My first paid job was filming a young lawyers’ competition at the magistrates’ court in Melbourne. I was still at film school at the time, and every Tuesday night I would turn up with a camera I had borrowed and film these mock court cases. It was a simple job, but I can still remember the feeling of walking into the courtroom carrying the tripod, knowing I was getting paid to be there. That stayed with me. Even now, I still get a version of that feeling when I’m on a shoot.

From there, it was a gradual process. Freelance work, small projects, figuring out how to get clients, learning how to price, how to run projects properly, how to communicate with people in a way that actually builds trust. None of that came naturally. It was learned through experience, through mistakes, and through putting myself in situations where I had to work it out. Over time, the business started to stabilise, and then it started to grow. But it was never a straight line, and a lot of what I know now came from those earlier periods of uncertainty.

Holding Things Close

For a long time, I kept most of what I was learning to myself. I didn’t talk publicly about how I ran the business, and I didn’t share much about how I approached pricing or client work. It felt like that information was something to protect. I assumed that if I gave too much away, I would lose an advantage.

I had a mentor in the early years who helped me a lot, and I remember being quite guarded about that as well. I didn’t talk about it openly. It felt like something that gave me an edge, and I didn’t want other people accessing the same thinking. That mindset stayed with me for quite a while, even as the business became more stable.

Something Started To Change

At some point, that started to shift. It wasn’t a single moment or a conscious decision. It was more that I became more comfortable in what I was doing. I had enough evidence for myself that I could make things work. I could find clients, deliver good work, and keep the business moving forward without relying on luck or chance.

Once that settled in, the need to hold onto everything so tightly started to drop away. Sharing what I knew no longer felt like a risk. It started to feel like the next step. The podcast became a way of doing that in a consistent and structured way. It gave me a place to put my thoughts and a way to turn experience into something that could be useful to other people.

What It’s Done To Me

One of the things I didn’t expect was how much the podcast would affect the way I run my own business. When you’re regularly talking about how you approach things, it becomes very obvious if you’re not actually doing those things properly yourself. There’s a level of accountability that comes with putting ideas out publicly, and it’s hard to ignore.

It has forced me to be clearer in my thinking and more deliberate in how I operate. If I talk about pricing, I need to be pricing properly. If I talk about systems, I need to be using them. It has removed a lot of the room for inconsistency. In that sense, the podcast has been as much for me as it has been for anyone listening.

Coaching And The Next Step

The coaching came out of the podcast in a fairly natural way. People started reaching out with questions, and over time that turned into more direct conversations and then into something more structured. It began with small group sessions and eventually included a limited number of private clients.

At the moment, I run two small group coaching calls each week. One is timed for the US, which lands on Tuesday morning here in Australia. The other is set up for people in Europe. That came out of necessity more than anything else, because the time zones didn’t work otherwise. The groups are small enough that everyone gets a chance to bring real situations into the conversation and work through them properly.

Alongside that, I have a small number of private clients. I keep that capped at three at any one time, because anything more than that starts to dilute the level of attention I can give. That’s currently full, but there’s a waiting list when a spot opens up. More recently, I’ve also been testing one-off sessions. Sometimes people don’t need an ongoing structure. They just need help working through one specific issue, whether that’s pricing, positioning, or a proposal they’re about to send.

I don’t push any of this particularly hard. There’s no real interest in convincing someone to work with me. If it feels right for them, they’ll reach out. If it doesn’t, that’s completely fine as well.

The Question About Competition

I had someone ask me why I would share this level of detail, especially with people who could be seen as competitors. He was based in Melbourne as well, and from his perspective it didn’t make sense. Why would you give away what you know to someone operating in the same space?

I understood the question because I used to think the same way. There was a time where I didn’t want anyone to know what I was doing. I kept things close because I thought that was how you stayed ahead.

That perspective has changed over time. I don’t see the work as limited in the way I once did, and I don’t think sharing what I know takes anything away from me. If anything, it has pushed me to operate at a higher level and be more consistent in how I approach the business.

Where It Sits Now

It’s been close to two years since I started the podcast, and it has become a regular part of how I think and work. Each week I sit down and record something that feels worth sharing, whether it’s something practical or something I’ve been reflecting on more broadly.

Some people take ideas from it and apply them in their business. Some reach out with questions or topics. A smaller number choose to work with me more directly through coaching. There’s no expectation around any of that. People engage with it in whatever way makes sense for them.

That Original Question

That question is still there in the background from time to time. Am I actually committed to this, or am I just continuing because it’s working?

I don’t think it’s something you answer once and move on from. It’s something you come back to. Not constantly, but often enough that you don’t drift too far without noticing.

For me, this podcast has been one of the ways of answering that question, or at least staying connected to it.