Welcome to Light & Lines

For those of you that know me hello again but for those that don’t and this is the first video of mine that you’re seeing let me bring you up to speed.

For better part of 10 years I’ve been an architectural photographer but always worked for other people and their businesses. That was until 4 years ago life happened and I was thrust into the business world and started working for myself not only doing architectural photography but I picked up a video camera and dedicated myself to becoming and architectural film maker as well and that business as it’s been known until now was Shutter Speed Studios.

Shutter Speed Studios was fine and I was making a little bit of money but the business and what it was doing ended up a bit like a road full of pot holes. You fill up a little bit here, then you patch up a little bit there and over time the road is just lumpy and not really doing the job anymore. You really need a nice smooth surface again.

One thing that I did and I spent a lot of time and energy in with shutter speed studios was I started going out of my way to talk to builders. And I mean A LOT of builders. And what I spoke to them about was their businesses and more specifically their marketing.

So things like “what’s working for you, what’s not, what’s been worthwhile, what wouldn’t you do again. Where are you right now with the business and where do you want to go? What struggles or hurdles are you finding if you’re trying to grow the business.

Now I did this often enough that over time, I started to recognise and see patterns and a lot of you, a lot of builders and a lot of architects and building designers….. they were saying the same things.

“I quote a lot but miss out on some of them because they went to someone cheaper”

“This guy over here has been in this area a lot longer than me and people know him”

“Its a saturated market, there’s too many builders these days but a lot of them aren’t that great”

I want to build more expensive homes but can’t get into that market

I want better clients

Or god forbid “I have to drop my prices to win jobs”

The huge majority of guys I spoke to all had very similar stories. So it got me thinking and I started really trying to figure out “well you’re all saying the same things, so if you’re feeling like this, other guys must be feeling like this too” and most of this stuff ended up in one way or another coming back to their marketing and how these guys presented their businesses to people.

So I went to their websites, I looked at their socials and just soaked up a lot of info….. exactly as anyone who was making enquiries with their businesses would and the overall thing I walked away with is that builders in general, struggle with their marketing and aren’t very good at it. And in a lot of cases….. it just sucked,

There’s no other way to say it. It sucked!

And I get it. Why should you be great at marketing? You didn’t become a builder to have to learn marketing. You learned how to build a house, not a business , and most likely you had grand plans of building these AMAZING homes that people loved and the more they loved them the more they’d tell people about them then they’d want to work with you to build them an amazing home and so on and so on and life would be awesome.

But in most cases, something happened along the way and it hasn’t worked out like that. A lot of you that I’ve spoken to, basically take on every job you can just to get by and those dream projects and dream clients….they’re exactly that now. Just dreams, and reality is a pretty different story.

You pitch a lot, you’re up late at night quoting on jobs just to find out they went with a cheap guy who you know won’t do it properly, you’re missing time with the kids because you’re working 6 or 7 days a week just to get things done. You run a slim team and if one of the boys calls in sick it means the little time that you DID have, is now gone because there’s not enough hands to get the work done.

You’re over worked, under slept and probably….. under paid.

So that is why I decided to start this business.

I’ve heard and looked into how businesses run from the pro’s who are building multimillion dollar projects down to guys who are in their first 12 months into their own business and are just starting their journey.

The things I’m going to be sharing with you aren’t just for beginners, although it will be perfect for you if you’re a beginner.

This is for anyone who needs that extra little push, that bit of encouragement, that bit of direction. It’s for anyone who needs a cheerleader, cheering them on, showing you that there really IS a way to build those dream projects you’ve always dreamt about, working with those dream clients that you always wished you had, and making enough money that you don’t feel the need to say yes to every single job, just so you can pay your bills and keep afloat.

Yo’ll be able to build a business that can actually make this industry, a slightly better place. Lets be real, the building industry gets a pretty bad wrap a lot of the time but it’s important to show that there ARE good guys out there. Guys like you, and it’s important for people to know that and to see that. I mean, what a concept, to have a positive influence in the industry.

I mean there’s so much negativity when it comes to builders and I know you guys have heard it, “they just take your money and run” “they shut up shop overnight and leave you with half finished homes” “the leave you with a list of defects that they’ll never come back to fix”

Those are REAL comments that I’ve really seen people leave about certain builders and in some instances, yeah they’re right but you’re not ALL like that. What if all of you listening took little steps to show that it’s not about “you the builder” but rather “them the client”, don’t you think that over time if enough people take the some approach, that things could even be slightly better for builders than they are now. I know that sounds like pie in the sky stuff and whatever but I genuinely believe that it’s possible because I’ve seen builders do it.

So anyway that’s just a little bit of a tangent.

So today, the point of today is to fill you in on what this page, and this business is about and it’s something that I hope, is going to keep you coming back here for more.

You see, a lot of people in this space, the teaching space, or the blogging or marketing space is they give away what’s known as “teaser content”.

And what teaser content is, it’s content that’s very “light” and it doesn’t go too deep into things, it’s conceptual in natures and it always leads you to want to dive deeper, which is the point. It’s a teaser.

Generally speaking though by the end of the article or the end of whatever content you’re consuming, if it’s teaser content, you’re hooked and you’re liking it and you’re waiting for that golden nugget or that next step or that strategy or the details of the thing and when you get to the end of the content where you’re expecting that juicy bit is it just stops and what they really want you to do is buy their thing or get their course or join their membership to actually get the answer.

Now while this model works and people can make a lot of money from it I don’t necessarily believe in it. What that model is, is basically selling. They get you in and you’re thinking “yes, that’s right, you’re talking to me you’re answering my problem, yes yes yes I want the answer and you HAVE the answer OMG this is amazing”

I mean that’s selling. And while there’s nothing really wrong with that, that’s not what I want my content to be.

So my philosophy is that I want to give you all of my stuff, for free. I want to give you so much value and so much information that you can actually act on and use, for absolutely nothing that when the time comes that you’re ready to do some of this stuff that it’s a complete no brainer that you come to me to help you with it.

So let me dive in a little bit.

This is what I believe smart people in this kind of business are doing. They’re giving away their best stuff. And I mean their BEST stuff.

They’re giving it away regularly, so it’s not a one time thing and if you miss out you miss out and they’re not just giving it to their paying customers but they’re also giving it to those people who might only ever take advantage of their free stuff. And that’s perfectly fine.

I mean look I get it. Some of you guys are new businesses, you don’t have a lot of extra cash to spend on marketing, you don’t have thousands of dollars to work with business coaches yet. You can’t afford a heap of professional media, yet.

You know you need it, and you know it will help you make money but you need money in order to do that and it’s a painful cycle. I get it because I’ve been there. So if you’re one of those guys, I want to help you too. And I want to help you get your business to a place where you CAN afford to do those kinds of things.

Just because you can’t afford it right now, it doesn’t mean you should completely miss out and I still want to serve you.

So this is my approach and this is also the kind of approach that I want you to think about when it comes to your own marketing and your own business.

You see, we all know the internet is a massively crowded place. Between Facebook and twitter or instagram and YouTube there are literally BILLIONS of pieces of content coming out every day. There’s literally an ocean of content for people to get lost in out there and that’s just the stark cold truth of things.

So if that’s the reality of the internet, that its crazy crazy flooded and over saturated, the fact that someone even stumbles into your content or your website or your social media…… you’re lucky. You’re lucky that they even found you.

Even if you’re doing all the things that I’m going to be telling you to do to strategically place your business where it needs to be online, even if you’re doing all of that, out of all the websites and all the social media accounts and al the scrolling somehow they’ve found you despite all that other content vying for their attention. So the fact that they’ve found you is a miracle ok. So lets start there.

So now that we’re there and they’re on your stuff. With everything else that’s out there, we cannot assume that they are ever coming back.

They’re just too busy. There’s too many other websites, YouTube videos or podcasts, there’s too many other distractions and that’s just their online life. What about their offline life, they’re busy.

I mean I’m busy you’re busy, there’s kids and school and work or you need to go to Bunnings for material…. Whatever it is. You’re busy.

So it made complete sense to me that if I’m lucky enough for you to stumble onto my stuff I BETTER make it worth your while while you’re here because chances are, I’m never going to see you again.

So it might be a 10 minute video on YouTube or an article in a blog post. Whatever it is you see, I want to make sure that it’s worth it. I obviously can’t teach you everything but whatever one trick or one concept I’m trying to explain to you in that content, I’m going to show it all. It’s not going to be some fluff or some teaser. I mean I want you to be like “wow, this was REALLY good.”

Now you might never join my email list, you might never book me for a job and we might never work together. But if 6 months down the track you stumble onto a video of mine again or you hear someone mention me I want you to be able to remember my content and think “man, that was some legit stuff. Or he knows what he’s talking about”

So that’s my goal. Does that make sense? I need to assume that you haven’t watched and likely never will watch every piece of content I ever make because you don’t have time for that. Nobody has time for that so that one piece you see needs to be pretty damn good.

So the theory is, the more you give away, the more people you attract. And the better it is, the better the people are that you attract. That doesn’t just go for me and my business, that goes for you in yours as well.

Can we all agree, that in order to grow your business, you need more customers, right?

You need more people, to see what you’re doing, to hear about you, to know about you. We call this marketing, right? And marketing exists and is a huge no matter who you are.

It exists for coke, nike, apple, your business my business….. there isn’t a business out there that doesn’t need some kind of marketing.

We could all have the best product in the world at the best price in the world but if nobody knows it exists then we’re not going to be able to make any money and if we can’t make any more then we can’t serve the people we need to serve. Whether that’s your staff or your family… so we gotta get the word out I mean that’s what marketing is right!

It’s getting the word out. And that’s marketing.

And what marketing is, well let me ask you…… what do you think marketing is….

If you’re like most people these days the answer you’re probably going to give me is “Facebook ads.’ Facebook ads’

Now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with Facebook or Facebook ads. Yes they can be used as “a part” of your marketing but for the most part they’re a bit of a shallow and lazy way to market. It’s not the full definition of marketing. What Facebook ads really are is you’re buying space or interrupt whatever someone is doing on Facebook or Instagram (because they’re the same thing) to be like “hey look at me, come check out my stuff”. But you’re interrupting their experience.

Now I’m not talking about the effectiveness of them and if they can work for your business, we can leave that for another conversation. What I’m talking about is the concept of them.

What I believe is a much more effective, more valuable way to market yourself and your business ESPECIALLY if you’re in the building industry os through, content.

Now of course you could argue that you can use content in Facebook ads and the best Facebook ads are good content and I’d get where you’re coming from but TRUE content and by that I mean podcasts, YouTube videos, Facebook lives (which are better than ads by the way), blog posts, articles…. THAT is content.

So content, and I believe content is the best kind of marketing, it’s called content marketing

Now with content marketing and where this is some much different compared to Facebook ads is rather than interrupting their experience, your content IS their experience and it gives them what they’re looking for. It IS what they’re looking for.

And here’s why this style can work so well for builders and those in this industry. It’s because when you put out good content, it’s out there and its out there for years to come and it can and it will serve you for years to come.

People are going to find it, they’re going to find you they’re going to get to know you they’re going to start to like you and they’re going to wind up trusting you.

That part is inevitable.

And here’s the thing, it’s not until you have all THREE of those things, know like and and trust, that someone will do business with you. Think about the last time you did business with anyone, now think about those three things and think if they were all there and I bet you they were because if you don’t know them, you can’t possibly do business with them and you’re sure as hell not going to do business with someone you don’t like or you don’t trust.

A lof of you will hear this and be like “well ben I don’t know where to start, what the hell can I do for content I’m a builder, I didn’t become a builder or an architect to create content” and I completely hear you.

Now I know I’ve gone on a little bit and probably a bit longer than I intended to when I started this video but THAT, that right there is what I designed this business to help you with.

All I do, is talk to people in the building industry. I don’t take on clients that AREN’T in this industry so I’d like to think that I know a bit about the types of problems you guys face because whatever it is, I promise you, I’ve heard it before and I’ve helped someone with it before.

And I’ve been doing this long enough know that I’ve seen what works, I’ve seen what doesn’t and I’ve seen what has been a complete waste of money for people. I’ve seen the mistakes and now I want to help you to not make those same mistakes because I want you to be able to run a successful business. Nobody gets into business to struggle. Nobody gets into business just to “get by” so if what I know and can do can possibly help you, then that’s amazing and that’s what I’m here for.

So if that’s something that sounds interesting to you then stick around because I’m going to be giving away a lot of stuff.

Stuff to help you get leads, convert those leads, connect with the right type of people you want to be working with and make you more attractive to them and just overall hopefully make your business and your life a little bit better than before we met.

So now that you know a bit about me and what I’m about…

Welcome to light and lines..