How John Added $13.5K In Retainers - Master Filmmaker Case Study

What's going on, guys? I'm here with one of our clients, John from All Things video, who added 13.5k in retainers to his video business. What's going on, John? How are you?

Hey, doing all right. Eric, how are you doing?

I'm doing good, dude, I'm doing good. I guess for anybody who doesn't know you, do you mind just giving us a little bit of backstory on kind of your production company, what you guys do and kind of your journey up to this point?

Yeah, so I own a production company in upstate South Carolina called All Things Video and I service home service businesses, helping them grow and get new clients clients through the power of video marketing. I do a lot of primarily social media content. I also help them set up ad campaigns around those forum and making brand videos, all kinds of stuff. So that's kind of my bread and butter right now. Been doing production professionally for 10 years now. My business is two years old. So started that with the dream to grow that into a retainer machine.

So let's go.

I love it.

And so I, I know you said you've been doing this for about 10 years and with the, the retainers that you guys do have, had you previously offered ads to them before or was it just like, just content? Like talk to me a little bit about that. Like what you guys used to offer, what you offer now, how that, how that's changed.

Yeah, but in the past I really didn't have a direction of what I was offering them. I kind of asked them, what do you guys need? What do you think would work for you? Yeah, I didn't really have an expertise and other than I can, I know how to make a nice looking video. But as far as, you know, what I can do for you guys to bring in new leads, I don't know. So I just kind of hoped they would tell me. So it didn't really work out that well.

Yeah, it's so normal, man. Like when I first started, that's exactly.

What I did too.

It's like, like, well, what do you guys want? They're like, I don't know, what do you think we need? And you're like, I don't know, what do you want? And it just kind of goes like back and forth. It's more of that like kind of waiter taking orders instead of being someone who is going to diagnose and prescribe a solution. Right. How do you feel like maybe shifting into that kind of view of like I'm going to prescribe them? Something has Kind of changed your authority on these calls. Like, how do you feel about that?

Oh, it's definitely a game changer. I, I have a lot of confidence now. Going into a sales call, going into a sales meeting in person, regardless how it is. He, hey, I know what your problem is. It's the same. You're all, you all have. You need more clients. Yep, I know how to get those for you. I have a process to get that for you. And then they start asking questions like, oh, how does that work? And then I just dive right in. I'm like, well, let me just walk you through it. And I tell them everything they need to know. And then it's like, do you want to make more clients or no? And then just leave it up to.

Them to sign to make more money or not. It's up to you.

Yeah, exactly. Just make it very simple for them. But like once you peel it back and just show them exactly how it works, like, oh, I, I trust that that would work. Let's, let's go for it.

So, yeah. And I think so many video providers are stuck in the. And the game has changed a lot. I think too. It's like they're so stuck in the world of like, I'm just going to create content, but that's not enough anymore. You have to solve a real business problem with the content you're creating.

Right.

So it's like you have to be educated as a video agency owner. Like, what are the problems they're encountering? How do I use content to solve those problems and how do I educate them on how bad those problems are so then I can build a gap and then get them to where they want to go. Right. And like, what was your sales process prior to joining the program? Like, what did it. It was just like that kind of like order taker. And then did you get walked down in price a lot or like, what did that, what did that look like for you?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I would throw. I had no idea how to price myself. I would. In the. Pretty much the day before, I would just brainstorm. I don't know, what should I ask?

Good.

Like, this is good. I'd start googling. What do people charge for this? I don't know. Yeah. And it varies greatly depending on location and what you're offer. So I never understood. So I would just throw numbers out there. And more times than not, they were just like, no, that, that's too high. What if you did it for this number? I'm like, sure, yeah, I guess that's.

Just all this ambiguity around, like, what, what, what should I charge?

You know, they're walking all over me.

Well, and I think that, I think the important thing that you're doing now is like, what's the cost of the problem? It's like, is this like a $200,000 a month problem for your business? Is it, Is it a million dollar a month problem for your business? Like, what happens if we don't solve the problem? What's the cost of that? And then typically, if you're charging 10, 15% of whatever that cost is, then like, they're more than happy to pay that because, like, if you come to me, you're like, hey, I can make you $100,000 a month with these videos in this ad campaign. If I get you this many leads and then you tell me it's ten grand a month, I'm like, if I'm pretty confident you can do that, I'm paying that every day of the week, right?

Yeah.

So I think that that's a big thing a lot of people struggle with where they're like, I don't really understand the cost of the problem. And when you can get the client to admit the cost, that's when doors start to open up for you and people start to pay you higher prices for honestly, less work. A lot of the times, like, you don't have to work as hard to get the same results.

Yeah, yeah.

And I guess, like, what, how did you find us originally? And then what kind of made you take the leak, take. Take the jump? You know, just my annoying ads, like hitting you every single day in the feed or, or what. What happened?

Yeah, it was definitely an ad that got me. So I had, I mean, I always knew I wanted to do retainers. So even like a year before I joined up with you guys, I've been researching how, how would that work? What would that look like? I even went through another online course that I paid for and joined a community. And it kind of helped with a few things in the business, but I landed nothing with it. I was like, I really just need somebody to just have a blueprint and just kind of hold my hand through the process step by step. And so your ad hit me and it was really spoke to me. It was everything, every problem that I had, you were claiming that you had an answer for. So I looked into it and I was skeptical, obviously, but of course, I'm.

Guy in Internet, nobody knows.

Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I, I did what anybody would do, did my research on you looked up your YouTube testimonials and just watched a few of them and you know, the testimonials are really what convinced me into it. So then by the time I hopped on the call with your sales rep, I was, I was pretty much already sold. I just heard them out and they just explained exactly how it went in the process and yeah, so I thought I'd take a.

Take a chance on it.

And it's worked out so well. So far so good.

And I guess is there anything that we've talked about, like I know we talked a little bit before this about kind of sales process, but is been anything that's been kind of particularly helpful through the process because like I think everyone takes different pieces of what they need from the program. Right. It's like, it's like what. What do you feel like have been up to this point, which that can change.

Right.

Have been kind of the keys to the castle for you so far within the trainings, within what we've kind of gone.

Yeah, that's a great question. For me, I would definitely say it was structuring the prod. The projects that I sell to people, like, how do I put together these retainers in a way that they would pay for it? What should I price it at, how. And then once I sell it to them, what's the process of running through with them going like, you know, the client onboarding system and everything processing. Exactly, yeah. Filming it, the editing it, that posting of everything. So just that having that system in place and the 100% confidence in doing it is probably the biggest takeaway for me that I've had from this program. But I mean, just under that, I would say just learning a lot of confidence in sales as well. You know, hopping on calls with Ethan and this group calls as well, just being able to practice with people and. And then just when I've been doing reps with even clients that I didn't sell to, you know, if anything I got another rep in. So it's like I didn't waste any money. I still got more practice with real life people who could have given me money.

And that's the right mindset about it, right? It's like I've. There's been so many deals I haven't closed too. And I've taken calls and I haven't closed them. And it's like that's. You learn. You learn more from those than you do from the ones you do close and dissecting. Like, why didn't they close? What happened? And Then you learn from those mistakes, right at the end of the day.

Absolutely.

Which is huge.

Yeah.

And I guess, last question, like, if anybody is maybe watching this, like, you were kind of watching case studies, watching testimonials, like, being on the other side of the fence, like, what. What advice would you give someone if they're kind of curious about booking a call and just seeing if it's a fit for them? Like, what would you tell them?

Yeah, well, I mean, Master Filmmaker is not for the faint of heart. Like, it's a. It's a. It's a ton of work that you got to do. I mean, you guys lay the blueprint out and you walk you through it, but we got to do the work to get those results or it's not going to happen. So, you know, if you're on the fence about it, just know they're not going to get you the results. You're getting yourself the results. They are just showing you how to do it. But if you are serious about growing your business and you want to do it, you're tired of where you're at. Absolutely. Take the chance. Try it out. Go with the. Go with Master Filmmaker. Just try it out. See where it leads you.

Well, I think you hit a good point, too. It's like, it's not a magic pill. And we say this on every single case study. It's not a magic pill. You have to do work. It takes work. And no one's going to care more about your business than you at the.

End of the day.

So it's like taking ownership over that. We can give you the tools and the blueprint. It just comes down to the individuals, the person who's coming in, doing the work and doing what they need to do to get to where they want to go at the end of the day.

Absolutely.

John, I appreciate your time. I'm excited to do another one of these when you're hitting 40, 56k a month, and we'll keep rocking and rolling from there. And I appreciate your time.

Sounds good. Thanks, Eric.

I appreciate it anyway.