In this solo YouTube video, Daron Pacheco, a five‑year‑veteran videographer and content‑agency owner, breaks down the three most effective client‑acquisition methods he uses in 2026. He starts by sharing his own early struggles—random clients, no clear process, and a reliance on outdated tactics like weekly Canva graphics—then frames the current market as a prime opportunity for videographers because businesses now need video‑driven marketing to generate leads. The first method is consistent content creation: posting at least one video per day (or weekly minimum) that showcases his work (day‑in‑the‑life, behind‑the‑scenes footage) rather than talking about it. He treats this output as an inbound marketing funnel, using limited‑time offers (e.g., “2 spots for a free brand shoot”) to turn viewers into hot leads. The second method is targeted cold DM outreach: identifying 5‑10 ideal businesses, sending personalized direct messages, and offering a free brand‑story video to prove value. He emphasizes that a 10‑DM batch typically yields one positive response, and that these free projects build a portfolio that fuels future sales. The third, and highest‑converting, method is hosting his own podcast (the Brand Builders Podcast). By inviting business owners onto a two‑camera, two‑mic setup, he provides them free exposure, establishes rapport, and demonstrates production expertise on the spot. The conversation naturally leads to discussions about the client’s video needs, allowing Daron to pitch retainer‑based services without a hard sell. Throughout, he highlights the role of AI tools and “vibe coding” to build end‑to‑end marketing infrastructures (landing pages, CRM, YouTube strategy) that let a solo videographer act as an all‑in‑one growth partner. He also stresses the importance of a simple website/portfolio, long‑term retainer contracts (12‑month terms) for revenue stability, and joining his paid community for deeper mentorship. The video ends with a call‑to‑action to comment, DM, or join the community, delivered in a friendly, transparent, and supportive tone.
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All right. I have been running my content agency and I've been a videographer for about 5 years now. And one of the questions that I get asked often from other videographers who are trying to grow is what exactly are the best ways to get clients? So there's gonna be 3 different ones that I'm breaking down today. And, and today's video, in all my videos really, I'm trying to relay this information as if you were like one of my close friends, right? And so this is gonna be real. This is going to be completely honest, like full transparency. There has been times where I had no idea what I was doing and I didn't know how to get clients. Whenever I did get clients, it was clients that I hated working with. And it just wasn't the right fit. So, right, story time. The very first client that I ever got to do any sort of monthly stuff, I was making content for them on a monthly basis. And really content at that time, whenever I was first starting, I was including like, don't throw up here, but literally like Canva graphics on a weekly basis. So I was making the graphics, posting it, et cetera. Quickly realized that does not work online. Like maybe in 2000, 17, like that would've worked. But now if you're not putting out like 95% video, it doesn't work. Anyways, that's besides the point, which is why if you're a videographer, I have something in my eyeball right now. If you're a videographer, like now is one of the best seasons and times to be in business is because a mixture of the ability to get attention and marketing. The ability to get eyeballs on people's brands. Yeah, it's become so important that businesses have to have it now. Like if they don't have marketing, if they don't have content, then they are not going to be getting any new leads. That mixing with all of the AI tools and access to things that you have now that you can build literal whole infrastructures and like. 2 days, right? So let's get to the point here. First way that I typically get clients, right, is putting out consistent content. For a while, I despised making content for myself because I really didn't like being in front of a camera. I really didn't like talking about me. I didn't really like talking about whatever I did. And that's like, and I'm not going to say I'm humble because whoever says, oh, I'm humble, is usually not humble. But like, that's not my nature, right? I don't want to be the guy who's like, everybody look at me all the time. Once I kind of got over this and figured out a way to do it that didn't seem like arrogance or egotistical, once I started looking at it as like, hey, I have this This tool and this service that could genuinely help your business. And it's basically up to them whether or not they want to take that leap and actually start taking things seriously in their business. Once I had done enough for that, it became a lot easier. But the only way to do that is going to be in the second step to getting your very, very first clients. And the third step is Uh, the best one and the highest converting one. And you could do this tomorrow if you wanted, and you could probably close a client. So make sure to watch to the end. So that content, you have to be putting out consistent content on, on a weekly basis. Like I try to put a video out every day, at least one, like that's the minimum. And so I'm very intentional with like, okay, what am I trying to do? If I want people to know, hey, I do videography. Which there's a way you can take the freelance videography mindset and transition it into like more of a growth partner where you start to make actual big boy money is what I call it. And those are in some of my other videos and you can check out the school community if you want to join. Um, but like, if you're making consistent content, right, I want you to think about it as your inbound marketing sales system. Inbound, meaning the people are coming towards you. You're putting out marketing, you're putting out content, and people are taking advantage or taking up the offers that you're putting out there saying, hey, I have 2 spots available this month that I'm doing a free brand shoot with. Just an example. If you fill both of those spots, that means both of those people are no longer cold leads. They are hot leads. Meaning they took up an offer and you could hopefully convert them into monthly retainer clients. But the only way that they can find you is if you're posting consistently online. There's 5 billion people on social media every month and YouTube alone, like that's not even counting the other platforms. If you can show up every single day, you think of why email marketing campaigns can be effective. It's because you're showing up at the top of the inbox every day. Like they're seeing your name pop up every single day. If you can do this over a span of a few months, be consistent, don't stop posting, the odds of you getting more DMs and more inquiries go just consistently and exponentially grow faster. Now, within that content, I will say, I don't want you to Post videos talking about what you're doing. I want to encourage you and challenge you to go and actually film you doing the thing, meaning like day in the life type of things, vlogs, like show you doing the work instead of talking about the work. This is going to give people a visual of like, dang, this guy knows what he's doing. This guy is using a big old rig when in reality, videographers, you know, you don't have to have a massive rig just to get a good product. And that's a separate story for a separate video. But if you can show yourself, literally, that's why I bought these glasses is because if I didn't have somebody to film me, I could film myself filming other people, which is a wild concept. But people get a first-person point of view of like, they get to watch you do the thing. It's not only entertaining because typically there's a story involved here, but they also start to view you as the expert because you're getting paid to do this on a daily basis, right? Number 2 is going to be DM outreach. This is really the very, very, very first thing that I would probably do is, is go and find 5 to 10 businesses that you want to work with and simply send them a cold DM. If you send 10 DMs, you're probably going to get one person who says yes. If they, if they already know you, they're Probably gonna say yes. If you can get 2 to 3 of these projects under your belt to build a portfolio, this can be huge for future sales because you've proven you can do the work. I still do cold DM outreach, by the way, like 5 years in. Every now and then I'll go and be outreach doing like free video promos. So I'll be like, hey, company. We're offering a free brand story video for anybody who takes up this offer within the next week or 7 days. It's valid. Um, we saw your company, we love what you do. In hopes to work with you further, we wanna show you our value and give you this free thing up front. Um, and if you like it and we think it's a good fit to work together, then we would love a conversation, um, of how we can make this on a monthly basis. People will typically say yes to a free video. Like, free marketing is huge. And that's why the option number 3 that we're about to go over is so dang lucrative. So you've made the content, you've done the DM outreach, and this is something that you need to do every single month, all 3 of these things. The third option is going to be what I think is a cheat code, and it's actually making your own podcast. You need to host your own show. I host my own show. It's called the Brand Builders Podcast. The whole idea of it is to talk to other businesses and business owners who have built brands and businesses. Yeah. If you can approach, instead of doing a cold DM outreach, If you can approach these business owners with, hey, I love what you're doing and I love what you've built. I actually host a show where I talk to business owners who have built like impressive things and use impressive because they, they want to, you know, stroke their ego a little bit. But invite them on and you can even travel to them if you don't have a studio. I have a studio. We've worked our way up. But if you don't have a studio, you can travel to them. And film a 2-person podcast. You need 2 cameras, 2 mics, and you can get creative. There's videos on how to do it for cheap. You want it to be good quality because you're going to be trying to pitch them content after. So like, make sure you're doing a good job while doing it. But you're going to sit down. This gives you— first of all, they get free marketing, a lot of good free marketing to be on a podcast. It puts them in an authoritative state online. So they get to, you know, say their story, tell their things. And after that 45-minute conversation or however long it goes, you have a relationship with this person. Like, you don't get this through cold DM outreach. Podcasting is the highest converting sales vehicle that I have and that I use on a weekly basis, especially as a creator who's selling services to create for other people. So I'll, I'll get in front of them, invite them to the studio, they get the whole experience and they're like, hey, actually we've been needing video. We've been needing, we've been talking about starting a podcast. Or is this something that you could produce for us? Boom. They're interested and you don't even have to really talk about what, what it is you offer. The fact that you can go and set up these cameras and produce something at this level shows that you're an expert. And so that's gonna be your highest converting sales. And then eventually, like, talk to them about their problems. Once that, once that conversation has started and they talk about some sort of video, cuz oftentimes they know they need something, but they don't know what that thing is. So they'll be like, oh, we've been wanting to start like a podcast or a show or something. Then that enters the conversation of like, okay, this is what I actually do. I actually help businesses grow with video. And I can make monthly content for you, build out the marketing stuff, build out the landing pages. I've just, I've built whole infrastructures for CRM systems and marketing systems for companies. And so with the help of vibe coding, and if you don't know what vibe coding is, it's using AI tools to build software. AI vibe coding, content creation, the platforms and API keys and all this has opened up a world for videographers where you can be a one-person Show, and you can, you can run so much with the help of AI. And what we can offer now is beyond what we used to be able to do. Now you can become, you know, a marketing strategist, you can become a YouTube specialist, you can become, um, a software developer, you can become a video production company, like all in one. And that's what people are gonna pay the big bucks for because they want an all-in-one solution. They're not trying to work with 5 different people who are each gonna charge 'em different things and nobody knows what's happening. So if you can do this, you know, these are the biggest 3 ways that I get clients. Um, I get a lot of inbound. Uh, only recently have I gotten inbound leads from my website. I really would say like, just get something up online. Like you want to have a website and you want it to look decent. Have a few projects that you've done there, maybe a few stories about how you've helped certain people, but you don't really need much more than that because nowadays people are just going to your Instagram. People are just going to your YouTube to see the things that you've done, especially as a videographer, because that's where you're posting consistently. Um, and if you're posting content, you should be posting good content. And then that's subconsciously selling and subconsciously teaching the viewer that, hey, you can do this. You're good at this. This is what you do for a living. People pay you. You're a professional to do this. We've helped this many people. We can help you too. And so that's kind of the whole thing as a videographer. I'm a big fan of You know, not just being a videographer, because videographers have, you know, sometimes one job. It's a pretty big job, but then they don't have another job with that same client for another sometimes 6, 12 months. And my take on it is, as a business owner, at least for me, to not lose all of my hair on a weekly basis, I'm trying to mitigate as much risk as possible. How do you do this? It's by creating retainers and contracts that are longer than 6 months long. So I have contracts that are 12 months long. So I know for sure for the next 12 months, I'm getting that revenue for the business. That helps me sleep at night. So I spend a lot of energy doing that. If you want to learn more, like I said, we do have a community. If you get in the community, The annual fee, literally you can make 1,000x that if you apply the things that we're teaching in the community. If that's interesting to you, go check it out. No pressure at all. I'm not a big fan of making you feel like you have to join something. So if this is something that you think could be valuable and helpful to you, which I have joined communities and been super helpful, like it completely changed the trajectory of my business and my life. And so, yeah, I don't know, just trying to help videographers out just like you. If you have any questions, leave a comment down below or send me a DM on Instagram. Um, yeah, well, hope to see you in the next one. Peace.
