How Jason Closed $45K In Retainers - Master Filmmaker Case Study

What's going on guys? I'm here with Jason from JW Cannon who closed $45K in retainers since working with us. Jason, how are you?

I'm doing good, Eric. It's good to see you, man.

You as well. If you don't mind, give us a little bit of backstory on kind of you, your company, how you got into this, how you got started, just to give us a little bit of background on kind of your story, if you don't mind.

Yeah, absolutely. So, um, I have been working as a photographer and then video director since 2003, so Well over 20 years now. I've basically done this my whole life. And so I've done corporate and commercial photography and then started moving into video in about 2017. And then we've just been kind of kicking it on from there and we fly all over the country shooting projects for clients. And we also do a bunch of event stuff too.

Nice. Very cool. And I guess what was kind of the, the main problem you had prior to joining the program or like what were you looking to get solved specifically when, when working with us?

Yeah, so. I still remember years ago reading The E-Myth and talking about running a business that was scalable. And it always bugged me because I was like, I don't know how I could ever do that. And I've kind of worked on that and thought about that for years and years. And then your ads popped up and I was like, holy crap, that's what, that's what it is. And, or I hope it is, you know? And so then I kind of kept taking your stuff and listening over and over and just, you You know, you had all those different case studies and there was finally, there were one or two that hit and I was like, that sounds exactly like me. And so I'm gonna, I'm gonna call these guys and see. And so now here kind of sitting at the end of the program and just renewing with you guys, we totally see it and we see that it works and that we can really take this now and predictably scale our business. Yeah.

Before working with us, was it more of that it, you felt like it wasn't necessarily scalable or was it like you were kind of doing most of the stuff yourself or what did you feel like was kind of the main bottleneck there?

Yeah. So we've, we've always been pretty dang good at SEO and I mean, we, for years we just absolutely crushed it and we're always top listing for all of our categories. And I mean, that's changing some now because I feel like it's just kind of in a free fall on Google results. But yeah, it was always that thing. It's like, well, even if you're the top spot, it doesn't matter because you're just kind of waiting and hoping for something to come in. And so once I saw it's like, oh, you can jump out with ads and then you can kind of turn this on and off. You can get as many leads as you want. Theoretically, and then if you have too many, you can turn it back down. But otherwise it's, it's, yeah, it's that feast and famine cycle that our whole industry seems to be in.

For sure. And had you, had you guys previously been in like, 'cause I know we're niched down into like, you said orthopedics, right? Specifically. Have you guys, were you niched down before or was it more general? Like what did that look like on your—

No, I've, I've told people I shoot everything from egg rolls to private jets. So we've literally been all over the place and it's, and that's really fun. You know, I like shooting a lot of stuff. But I also know like, if you're gonna, if you're gonna do this, I especially see this now with you guys, like we have to be very focused and found and find a group that's gonna work for us. And so kind of getting into that orthopedics, it's just, I've, as I've gone through this program, it's like, okay, this is, this is a group I like with, I like what they're doing. I like how they're dealing with their patients. So it's, it's somebody I can kind of get behind and help promote.

Yeah. Well, and I think it, it doesn't mean you have to always be in that sector, but I always recommend that it's like, you want to at least have your funnel and your system and your ads working in that sector, and then you master it, and then you can move on to the next one, right? It's like you just have to have a specific funnel and ad system for each sector you want to go after, because if you just have advertising that's like, we help everybody, then it's not going to be as effective at the end of the day too, because you're, you're very broad and general in your messaging and who you're speaking to at the end of the day. But it's great that you found that because it's a great niche. They make a lot of money and they need someone like yourself to help them create more content. Are you doing just organic for them? Are you also running ads for the clients? Like, what does that look like? I know that's a common question we get.

Yeah. So we, we have one that right now we're kind of in a, basically a test phase with them. So we'll kind of roll this out and then keep going once that's done. And so it's, it's basically building them a foundation. It's your, you have a doctor that has extremely qualified credentials and zero online presence. So we're basically going to build out all of kind of his organic website, all that stuff. Then my other clinic that I'm working with, with, she wants organic as well, but the big deal is going to be scaling up with ads. And so she wants to, it's same thing. She wants consults that are nicely qualified and she can have those repeatable and get those cranking in.

And had you guys previously done anything like, like kind of helping them get more results or was it more just on the content side? Is this kind of like a new, more of a new world for you guys or had you done help, like have you helped them with marketing or clients with marketing before? Like what did that look like?

Yeah. So actually that's a great question because that, that may even be the bigger thing that drew to you guys is I sat here for the last 2 years and I was like, I, I go out and we can shoot a beautiful video for somebody. I hand it off. I have no idea what that does for them other than they post it up and they're like, oh, that was cool. And so it bothered me that I couldn't show results and say, hey, we did this and you got this. I mean, there's, if you can't show ROI, like it's hard to keep them paying you.

It's like retention is really difficult if you're like, hey, because they're like, they look back at the last project they did and they're like, well, What did I get for that? And they, they're like, and you're like, I don't know, or I can't really show you. Then they're like, well, I don't know if we should be paying you again because I don't really know if it worked. I think it's like every video agency I talked to has the same problem. Like they, they suffer from that. I think it's so common, but it's like, if you could just attach yourself to a result, it's way easier to be like, okay, great. Like we got you this ROI in the last 30 days. That's why you should keep paying us every single month. And you can point to it, like you said, you know.

Yeah. And that's what we plan on having very sticky people with that. So it's like, yeah, I, it would, I would lose money if I, if I didn't sign up with you again. That's, that's the goal.

Yeah, for sure. And it's like just keeping them, keeping the customer and the client paying you as long as they can or as long as you can. And then obviously just having that amazing relationship with them for years and years to come. And that's how you can, you know, you don't need that many of those clients to build a really successful business because you're just doing a really good job for them and they, they love working with you. At the end of the day, which is huge. I'm curious, I know you said you went through some of the case studies prior to kind of jumping in with us. What do you feel like was like, why did you, I guess, why did you decide to maybe move forward with us versus maybe other programs? I don't know if you talked with other programs, but I'm curious, like, what were some of the things that resonated with you in those case studies that said, hey, you know, this is the right fit for me?

Yeah. So it's funny because I feel like after I signed with you, then I started getting served a bunch of ads from your competitors. You're, you're way more polished than, than most of those. Just kind of saying that, but I appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I, production value's a big thing to me, so I, I always noticed that. But, but really the, uh, it was the guys, cuz y'all have like kind of single operators that are trying to build this up. And then you had guys who were kind of already running an existing agency or group.

Yep.

And they were wanting to, you know, kind of move beyond that or really scale that up repeatably. And so, I mean, that was the thing that really drew me cuz I've, I've actually, well, I've shot a few do video products or projects myself, but I am typically the like producer or director, so I don't actually go out and run camera and all that stuff. And so when I saw those guys and kind of what they were doing, I was like, that's what I want. Because we want, we want crews moving out doing this stuff all the time. I'm running strategy and not on the ground all the time.

Yeah, that makes sense. And obviously you've renewed with us. We want to keep working with you for as long as we can as well to keep, you know, keep that relationship going. What do you feel like that we've went through so far has been like super helpful to you? Or like, what do you feel like has been particularly helpful, like for your company? Obviously you said like getting clients results. Is there anything else though that you feel like has been particularly helpful in this process?

So I think there's a few things. I mean, first off, like getting, getting really good strategic input from you guys. And like, even I've, as we were working to close these deals, it was a lot of working with your coaches to get like, hey, You need to be doing this. Try this. Why don't you send them something like this? And so we were able to really kind of nurture that client to the very last part, especially as we were competing with other vendors. And so, um, and we, those kind of helpful things pushed us over the edge. But I would say like here, it just, you guys kind of showed me what's possible and you said kind of, here's a roadmap. Here's what this actually looks like when you build it. Um, I think you've mentioned in some of your videos where you said, you know, you could go and figure all this out on your own., and I absolutely think I could, but it would probably be 3 or 4 years from now and a lot more money spent. And so you gave me a very distilled program that once I kind of, it took me a while even then with your program to kind of figure out what I was doing. But once we dialed in, it's like, okay, I get this. I understand this. I can see how I'm gonna do this. And now I see like, I've got, I've got those first 2, but like, I would love to have 10 of those or 15 of those.

You can do it 2 times. You can do it 100 times is what I say. So it's like, there's. There's a lot of orthopedics and just surgeons and people out there who need your help. And I think it's just once we get everything dialed, it's the sky's the limit, you know, it's, it's going to be huge. Yeah.

This one clinic, I think they have like 17 or 20 other surgeons just in that one company. So yeah, I love it.

Good stuff. Last question, I guess, if maybe anybody's on the fence about just booking a call, speaking with us, like they're nervous, right? They don't know who we are. What advice would you give them kind of being on the other side of the fence now?

Yeah, so I, you know, it's, it's like anything, right? When you see it online, you're like, I don't know. And so, you know, I, it took me, I watched several of your case studies until I was like, I'll, I'll, okay, I'll reach out to them. And, so yeah, there was obviously a lot of doubt, but I, I felt like we were doing the right thing. Going through the program, I had a ton of doubt and I was like, this is, I don't know. I don't know if this is right. I don't know if I can do this. But then once we locked in, it was good. And it's like, okay, these guys, they've got my back. They're gonna help me through this thing and I can trust them, which is my biggest thing. Cause I want to be able to trust you guys. And once we saw that and everything kind of locked in and fell into place, it was like, this is good. So I, I would say for anybody that's wanting to look at your program, you know, it's gonna be scary. If you look online, you might say somebody who's pissed off cuz everybody on the internet's pissed off saying, oh, these guys are. Whatever, you know?

Yep. We got 88 million impressions on our ads. I got people who don't like me for sure. It's definitely how it is. You know?

I know.

Is what it is. Part of making an impact. You're always gonna have people who don't like you, but yes, for sure.

Yeah. Yeah.

I agree.

But, but, but that, I would say you guys are legit. I would trust you and I, again, I just re-upped. So like, I believe in what you guys are gonna do and think you're gonna help me make a lot of money. You're gonna help me serve my clients in a way that I've never been able to. And just create an amazing experience for them. So, I mean, yeah, I would say anybody needs to call you guys and get rolling on your program.

I appreciate it, Jason. And you have to do the work is what I always like to say in these cases. You got to do the work. We're not a magic pill, not a magic bullet. You got to come in here. And I just want to be as realistic and, and, you know, as open and transparent as we possibly can is like you put the work in, you met us in the middle, you did the things we said. It's, you know, it's these are this is for people who are serious about their business at the end of the day. And like you're willing to make an investment and And like you said, it's scary. Just do your due diligence. Look at the case studies, look you up, look any of the people we've worked with up and see if it's for you, you know, at the end of the day. And sometimes it's not. So it's just up to the person and what they're willing to put into their business at the end of the day is what I like to say.

So, yeah. And I, I would say it, and it definitely like this system is a butt kicker. I mean, I basically built an entirely new business almost from scratch starting, you know, last fall. So like, and while running two other businesses. So, I mean, that is not an easy task, but we, we knew this is where we want to go and where we want to push kind of everything. So, yeah. And, and really, if anybody ever wanted, they can look up J.W. Cannon, they can look up my name. I'm happy to talk to them.

So I appreciate it, Jason. Well, we'll do another one of these once we've closed a couple hundred thousand in deals. I'm excited. Let me know if there's anything you need from me, and I appreciate your time.

Cool. Awesome. Thanks, Eric. Appreciate you, sir.