How Luke Closed A $9K Video Retainer Using This System

What's going on, guys? I'm here with one of our clients, Luke, who actually just closed a 9K retainer using the inbound system that we just set up with him. What's going on, Luke? How are you?

Not a whole lot. I'm doing good. I'm still riding that high.

I love it, man. I was going to say we'll get into kind of how it feels in a second, but I guess for anybody who maybe doesn't know you or kind of your business, do you mind just giving us a little bit of background on kind of yourself and. And kind of what you do?

Yeah. So I started my business in 2018 and it's primarily videography with a little bit of digital marketing, social media marketing, web design stuff thrown in the mix. And I'm based out of Minneapolis and.

I guess, like, what was the. Like, what was kind of the biggest problem you had prior to jumping in with us at Master Filmmaker?

It was always tough to find high quality clients. I kind of felt like I was doing everything right. I was going to a ton of networking meetings and networking groups. I was putting out content on social media. I felt like I was checking all the boxes, but I just kept getting clients that wanted to nickel and dime me or clients that wouldn't want to pay over a certain level. And it was really difficult.

And was that. Have you been doing that? Were you doing that kind of the entire time, like leading up since you started the business in 2018?

I gave up on networking groups about a year ago because it just for the time investment, I just was not seeing the results. So.

A lot.

But yeah, the first three years it was. That's what I was doing.

Go you shake some hands and you hope like what was kind of the biggest difficulty within the networking events was it just people didn't get back to you. It didn't really lead to anything.

Well, and everyone was trying to sell themselves at the same time. So everyone was just trying to get business from each other. So that was part of it. But the other thing is it just wasn't connecting with the right people. A lot of times it would be just employees of bigger agencies, which is not really helpful for what I do. I'm looking for more business owners, but not all networking groups are just all business owners. You get a lot of franchisees and employees in the mix.

Yeah, that makes sense. And you work right now primarily with home service businesses. Right?

That's the focus that actually that's the focus that I narrowed in on as part of this program. Where before it was like, anything and everything. Yeah. Part of what this program taught me is I need to have a niche. I need to focus on something in order to target the right clients.

Well, let's talk about that for a second, too. Like, how do you feel like with the. Like, do you feel like you've. You've seen a difference now that you've niched down into, like, one specific area and become more of an expert there? How do you feel like that's changed things for you up to this point?

It's helped a lot because in the past, like, for example, if I was trying to get a new roofing client and they'd want to see examples of my work, it'd be like, well, here's a video I did for a factory. Here's a video, you know, that I did for an organization, a charity organization, and it just wasn't relevant. But when I'm focused on this one service type, then all my project examples are relevant for every client I'm trying to attract. Right.

And they feel like it's specific to them. It sounds like. So it's like. Because I think that's the biggest thing. When clients come to work with us, with you, with any company, they want to look for people who look like them that have seen success working with you. And if you, you know, if you're kind of everywhere, it's hard to become that expert. And I always use the analogy of, like, you wouldn't want to go to a doctor that, like, does everything. If you need a specific surgery, you'd want to go to a surgeon that does that specific surgery, and he's done it a million times, you know, and that's why he gets paid more than someone who's a little bit more general. And I guess, like, what was kind of the, like, thing that made you specifically go with our program maybe over some of the other programs out there?

And I started looking at the case studies first thing, right to the testimonials, because I wanted to make sure it was real. And there were so many testimonials. There were dozens of them. I watched like five or six. And I'm like, okay, I'll go check these people out on YouTube. I'll check them out on Google, check the reviews. And everything was just obviously genuine. And people had such great experiences. And that's. That's what really drove me to sign up. Not that you weren't selling the program well, but just hearing from real other videographers out there, I'm just some guy.

Just Some guy on ads and emails. And I'm just, you know, I care more about, obviously, the client is always the most important thing here. So, like, I always like to just lead with results. This is what we've done. You make the best decision based on the information you have. And if it's a fit, it's a fit. If it's not, that's cool too, you know, And I think, like, just as us, the same thing with you. It's like when you specialize in a specific category, back to the niching. I think it really gives people a lot of confidence because they see, hey, I work with. With this type of person only, and it really makes sense for me.

Yeah, A lot of those years I spent with the networking groups, I met a lot of business coaches, and a lot of them tried to get me to sign up with them, but all of them, again, did everyone and everything, and it just didn't feel specific to me.

Yeah, And I think there's a lot of little nuances within video businesses specifically that makes a huge difference when it comes to setting up these systems. I mean, I've. I've paid a lot of money myself for mentors, coaches of, you know, know, general niche, like, all different types of people. And when you have specific feedback for your industry and coaching for your industry, it does. It makes such a huge difference. And then I guess, like, how does it feel now to have, like. Because I know this is literally just the start. Like, we've just started launching this. We've just started getting it going. Like, how does it feel to have this, like, machine that you can now, like, turn on and just get people coming through?

Actually feels comforting. Like, before I started this program, I'd be worried about, okay, when's my next gig coming in? You know, what do I got to be worried about? Next month? But with this system, it works so well that I don't have to worry anymore. I know that I can just keep using the system, modifying things that I need to, and it's just gonna keep working. So I know I'm secure in whatever's coming up.

That's the biggest thing for me. When I first started, like, discovering the system and using it for myself is. I felt like it was. I distinctly remember when I started using it because, like, you know, once you've started using it, you've been using it for multiple years, the feeling kind of wears off. But when you first get that feeling, when you've been relying on word of mouth, cold calls, networking, all this kind of stuff, and Then you have this thing where you're like, oh, my God, I can literally turn on a tap and get people coming in. It's like, dude, I'm going on vacation. Like, I got. I got no worries in the world. I got, you know, I have something that can really start to feed my business. And I think what you said is really important because it is comforting. You know, it's. It's nice to know that you can generate demand on demand when you want it.

And before I started this program, I always thought systems like this were just spam. Right. Such a negative view of them. But after going through the steps, I realized I can make it whatever I want it to be. I can make it as genuine as I want, and it doesn't have to be anything remotely close to spam.

Yep. Yeah, it's all about the messaging, man. It's all about how you. I mean, because at the end of the day, what we're doing is just getting. We're putting out a message to people who are in your market. We're getting them to, you know, come inbound to you. And then how we communicate that message is completely up to how we communicate it. You know, just like there are rude people in the world and there are polite people in the world, it's like we're just doing it in a polite, professional manner that gets people to become interested and want to book a call and work with you. I guess this is kind of a weird question, but I guess, like, where do you think you might have been if you hadn't taken the jump, taken the bet on yourself? Because obviously it's scary to invest into a program and invest in yourself, but I guess, like, where do you think you would have been if maybe you hadn't taken that leap?

Sales is tough for me. I'm a creative person. I'm not a salesman. And I never had any sales training, so I always had trouble closing, especially I'm in Minneapolis. I'm a nice Minnesota boy. Here in Minnesota, we don't like to ask for the sale. It's hard for us. We're passive aggressive. And this program actually taught me how to close a sale, how to run a sales call, how to handle objections. And without all of that, I think I would be leaving so much business on the table. I mean, that's not even counting. I wouldn't have all these opportunities to get the business. But just at those meetings, I know I was dropping the ball for years on it.

Well, I think it's just reframing how you see Sales too, right. It's like sales doesn't need to be sleazy, just like an inbound system doesn't need to be spammy. It's like sales is simply asking questions and helping people achieve a transformation. Like, if you truly believe in your product and your service and you feel like it's 100% going to change this business's perspective, life, whatever, then it's your duty to help overcome objections or concerns that they may have. If you truly feel like it's the right fit, if you don't, then then don't sell it to them. But if you truly feel like it can work for them and that you could help them, it's, it's your job, you know?

Yeah. And I also felt like it helped me to be able to ask for more than I normally would.

Yeah.

Where before I'd always go to these meetings with just one video in mind or one marketing campaign in mind. But the program taught me that I can ask for more, I can be worth more, I can offer more and I can look at long term. I can look at offering people a six month package, a one year package. And that never even entered my mind before.

Well, it's interesting too because I think we, we charge whatever we think we deserve and it's all in our head. So like if you think you deserve more and you think you can help clients more, then you'll charge more. But it's all, it's, at the end of the day, it's kind of a self limiting belief for most people I think, where it's like I'm gonna charge as much as I feel comfortable charging.

Right.

And it's like, but that's not actually what's gonna help the client. Sometimes charging them more and getting more content for them is going to help them more than just charging them less, you know?

Yeah, it was, it was actually another way that I felt relieved when I got this big contract because I felt like finally a client where I can run the marketing in a way for them that I know is going to work for them long term. I don't have to just think, okay, I can, I'm just gonna give them this one video and hopefully this will work for them. I can actually plan it all out for them and do stuff that I know works well.

You can't really serve people if you're not charging enough either. It's not really fair to them because how, how good of a job can you do for $1,000 for a video? Probably not that great.

Right.

And also they don't perceive it as, as, as valuable as something where if you charge them more and you could really put thought and time and energy into the project. So I love it. And last question, Luke. I guess if anybody is maybe watching this and maybe they're on the fence about just booking a call and learning more, I guess what, what advice would you give them, knowing what you know now?

I'd say 100% go for it. It is absolutely worth it. And I guess the piece that I haven't even touched on yet is all the personal one on one coaching, the training, the coaching calls where I feel like I've got this whole team behind me, where I feel like no matter what concern that I have, if it's a sales concern, if it is a video concern, a technical concern, I've got someone on the team that I can reach out to and get an answer right away. Just last week I had this really difficult video shoot coming up and I didn't know how I was going to tackle it. And the program has a technical filmmaking coaching call. And that's the one with Jake.

Nice.

Yeah, the one with Jake. It's not even, you know, the program teaches you this system of getting clients and leads and sales and all that is amazing. They didn't even have to add this technical filmmaking coaching call, but they did and it helped me so much. So there's just a lot of little things like that that I didn't even expect that were just a bonus add on to everything else.

Well, I love it, man. We're just here to serve you guys. So you did the work, you put it in place, you committed yourself and you took the risk and it's obviously paid off for you. So we appreciate you, we appreciate you being a client and I can't wait to see where you go from here, man.

Thanks. I appreciate everything.

Absolutely.