How Anthony Closed A $8.5K/mo Retainer - Master Filmmaker Review

What's going on guys? I'm here with one of our clients, Anthony from anthonybmedia.com who just closed an 8.5k monthly retainer. What's going on, dude? How are you?

What's up? Eric, man, glad to be here.

Happy to have you, dude. I guess for anybody who maybe doesn't know you, do you mind maybe giving us a little bit of backstory on you, kind of your brand, how you got started and kind of what that looks like?

Yeah, of course. So I actually been doing videos since maybe 2015, but I was working for company so like Fortune 500 companies, helping them with multimedia things, graphic design, video. And then in 2022 I decided to step out on my own and I've been doing it ever since. So in the beginning, not, not so well. But after joining with you guys, you know, I've learned a few things and stepping my game up, trying to start scaling now, which is scary for me. But luckily you guys have videos on that too, which I might say I haven't got to. And I really need to get into those videos because I'm gonna tell you.

To get into them, dude.

It's been a struggle. So. So that's why. Yeah. So going through the program, learned a whole bunch about offers. You guys have helped me know how to sell. So my offers and yeah man, it's been a, it's been a blessing and.

Super helpful and so what have you done retainers before? Is this your first retainer? What's kind of your background of that?

No, so I was currently working like project based so people would contact me for a specific video project, I would quote them on that project and move on to the next one, you know.

Yeah.

Find out what the next one's going to be, if it. Whenever it came and, and that's how I was working.

So what, how'd you want to switch over to retainers instead of just doing kind of the same same.

It wasn't even really something that I was thinking about until I joined your guys program. So when I started, when I joined Master Filmmakers and I saw how you guys were training us up into, you know, have sort of the retainer, 3 month, 6 month, 12 month program. I was like, hey, this, this is kind of awesome. I need to start pitching these types of things.

Yeah.

And essentially that's what helped me to land the retainer that I got.

Now it's a pretty decent sized retainer too. What, what were the one off projects like? What were those prices at? What did that kind of look like when you were doing more of those.

So I sort of had like an hourly rate that I would, you know, set for videography and then editing based on whatever type of editing they needed. So I would have like A$250 an hour videography and then I would charge editing as, you know, based on the time of the video that they needed edited. And that's kind of how I was doing things. And it wasn't really.

I'm sure Ethan talked to you. He's like, what are this? Why are you charging hourly? And then now to 8.5k a month, man, It's a huge. That's a huge jump. I love that.

Definitely. Huge jump. And it's been, it's taken a lot of stress off my back, that's for sure.

So I was going to say a little bit more consistency and getting paid more for the same thing is not a, not a bad thing at all. And what were some of the things that you kind of came into the program? Like, what were some of the problems you had prior to joining? Like, what are some of those things that you were kind of working on, would you say?

Yeah, some of the, some of the problems that I was dealing with was basically I wasn't charging enough, you know, and because I didn't have. I didn't really have a reference point to know how much I should be charging. So that was very helpful in your guys's program to know like, okay, I can be charging this much.

When you see people closing 70k, a hundred k dealers, you're like, man, I gotta think bigger. And that's, that's for me too. When I joined programs, I'm like, man, I gotta charge more. Like, what are you doing?

For sure. And I was reaching, like, I was probably reaching out to the wrong clients too.

What kind of clients are you working with?

Just like regular mom and pop people. Just, you know, more individuals who were starting businesses which, which I love working with and helping, but they didn't necessarily have the budget to afford what the.

Market makes a huge difference, man. Yeah. If you're not working with the right people, you can, you can work your ass off and not make enough money.

Right.

It's like, what, and, and what? Just for people, maybe for clarity. What kind of client is this? 8.5k a month? 1. Like what kind of.

So this client is in the Health and wellness.

Okay.

Which is a, it's a, it's like a niche niche that you guys suggested that I should try because you guys suggest a few niches that are the best niches to sort of get into. And there's a lot of this niche in wherever you live, really, because I'm in Michigan, so there's definitely a lot of health and wellness.

Are you in a small town in Michigan? Are you in a big town? Like, what would you say?

Like the average kind of relative, relatively small? I'm close to Detroit, so Detroit is technically a big city, but I'm about 30 to 40 minutes away from Detroit. And yeah, it's been.

I was going to say, because there's some people who we talk to, like, man, I don't think this is going to work in a small town. Like, I don't think there's businesses, but like, you're a perfect example of like 8.5k a month with like, is it just like a local kind of business or like, what's the kind of.

So they're very local. They actually have clinics nationally though.

Okay.

They're just headquartered here. So that also, you know, helped to the fact that they were able to sign off on. On a big number like that because they have multiple locations that they're going to essentially need help with.

So, yeah, man, it's huge. I mean, if you can keep that going, like, that's over. It's over 100k a month or 100k a year from one client. It's like, dude, if you have 10 clients paying you 100k a year, you're making a million dollars a year with 10 clients. So it's like, I think sometimes people don't think through like, man, I need so many clients to hit a million dollars a year. But it's like you literally need 10 paying 8k a month. That's it, right?

Yeah.

And I think a lot of people don't do that math. They're like, man, I gotta work my ass off. It's like, no, you just have to provide value. You can build a team around that. And then when you have that consistent retainer, it's like you can hire people to do all the work for you, knowing that the check's coming in next month. Right. I think a lot of people kind of struggle with that. But I guess, like, what, what, how did you find us? I guess in the first place, was it like my annoying ads? Was it like, like, what was the kind of thing that got you to Master Maker in the first place? I'm curious.

Well, well, Eric, that's kind of a reason why I was so nervous before this. Cause because you're kind of a celebrity. I don't know if, you know, I'm.

Just videoing Instagram, dude. I don't know about that. I don't know.

Videographers like me see your ads, like, every day, just so you know. So, like, so I was seeing you, like, all the time pop up on my Facebook feed, and I was like, one day I was like, you know what? Let me just go ahead and check out what these guys have to offer. And, you know, I, I do not. I. I'm very happy that I did that.

We're happy to have you. I'm very happy to have you. I love it. And I guess, like, last question, I'll wrap it up. But I guess if anybody's maybe like, well, actually one, one question before that. I guess, where do you feel like you might have been if you hadn't made the jump?

Right.

If you hadn't done this? Because it's scary to invest in yourself. It's scary to make a jump into a program, change things up from hourly or gig work or whatever. Like, where do you feel like you might have been if you hadn't done that or made that jump?

If I hadn't made that jump, I probably would have been doing the same thing that I was doing. Going from project to project, not knowing where my next project was coming from, and, you know, maybe struggling to, to pay the bill. I didn't, you know, sign up for a hundred different little projects to, to. To pay my bills.

For sure. Yeah. And this is the actual last question, but I guess if anybody's maybe on the fence about just booking a call, seeing if it's for them, what, what advice would you tell them? Kind of being on the other side.

At this point, I would say do it. Do it. If you have a video business and you are. If you have a video business and you are confident in your skills and you think that you can provide the work, do the work, then I would say hop in. Because really, it's up to you how much you're. You're willing to learn and how much you're willing to do in this program, and that's how far you're going to go for sure.

And where can people find you and your production company?

Yeah. So if anybody's in Michigan and you want to work with me, you can look up anthonyb media.com and I'll be happy to help you with any video needs that you have.

Let's go. I love it. Anthony, I'm going to let you get back to closing deals. I appreciate your time. We'll talk to you in a bit. Eric. Sweet, dude.