How Stephen Closed $48K Video Retainer - Master Filmmaker Review

What's going on, guys? I'm here with one of my clients, Stephen, who closed a 48k deal. What's going on, dude?

How are you? Hey, man. A lot better today than earlier this week, so. But doing great.

How does it feel?

It's, it's a huge relief for us, for me and my family, really, just to have that consistent money coming in every month. It's going to be a game changer for us for sure.

Well, dude, I love the studio setup. If you don't mind, give us a little bit of background on kind of you, your story, how you got started. I would love to know.

Yeah, so I mean, really got started with, with master filmmaker. Had a huge pain point in my life. 10 year anniversary was coming up and had no money to go on a trip. And so that's just like, all right, something needs to change. And so that's when I was like, all right, let's go all in, liquidated some things and purchase the course. And it's really provided a roadmap and the tools to. I posted in the group to swing for the fences. And so here we are. And yeah, just excited to continue on this journey.

I love it, dude. And you focus mainly on home service companies, right? You're in that niche. You're up in, up in the Tennessee area. You're in Chattanooga, right?

Yeah, Chattanooga.

And so I guess what, did you have a niche before, like walk me through kind of how that process was before you jumped in.

Didn't really have a niche before. I had a couple clients, this DOT company, another floor care company, and quickly figured out they make a lot more profit than coffee shops and churches that I was doing work for.

Yep.

And really realized again quickly that I was really underselling myself, underselling my videos because the services that I provided would help sell, sell, you know, docs, and some of these docs go up to $350,000 and you know, just like, okay, I'm selling this $1,000 video. Let's, let's shift some things around here a little bit. And so that's when I really started to narrow in on the, the home service industry because the profit margins they have are so much bigger than, you.

Know, well, and I was going to say, like, your work is really, really amazing. Like, I want to give you major props. Like, you have probably some of the best work I've seen. Like, I, I loved your ad, I love your creative. I love the stuff you put out for your clients. Like you just said one of like the client that you just closed like you had a Super bowl commercial with them. Like your really there, I guess, like what did you feel like was maybe that bottleneck? Because I think a lot of people feel like, oh, if I make better work then I'm going to get more clients. Like what was kind of the stopping point there?

Yeah, I mean, I think it was a limiting belief is like, is my work really that valuable? Will somebody really pay, you know, in this case, $4,000 a month for social media content? Is it worth it? And one thing that I love to tell my clients and potential clients is like, I want the level of marketing material, the quality marketing material to match the quality of service and product you provide. And so just to show that that level that you care, that you would want to invest in marketing material is kind of where I've been pitching my clients is really why you want to invest in high quality content.

And getting, getting the results from the content, not just the beautiful content because like you have beautiful content, but then also beautiful content that also converts is like a, I mean that's a double whammy. And like for them that's invaluable to these companies. I feel like.

Absolutely. And that's something I've learned throughout this process is like we had one commercial for the floor care company that absolutely tanked for ads, but it was their top performing landing page. And so just like knowing where, where placement goes and so it worked well.

On the landing page but not in ads. That's interesting. Okay.

Yeah. So you know, it's, it's a very slow paced commercial. It's 30 seconds but slow paced for, for an ad, as you well know, you have to have a hook and you have to really, to engage the audience. And it just didn't really have that. But for an ad it really pulled at the heartstrings, you know, for the landing page. And so just knowing, you know, coming in that I'm not just providing content but I'm also providing strategy to know like, and I use that a lot. Hey, you have to make sure this gets placed in the right position. So that way it's going to perform to bring you results. So just knowing that strategy really helps as well.

Stacking these like to get to 30, 40, 50k a month, you only need a couple more of them to actually get there. And then you have that long term consistency of like, okay, cool, these people are locked in and then you can start to hire more people to get yourself out of some of those, those positions. And I guess before you had jumped in. Were you doing a lot of retainers? Were they a lot of one off? What was kind of the structure of the.

The. Yeah, just a lot of prayer, a lot of one offs and just like, I don't know how we're going to make it. But we always did. But it was never easy.

Yeah.

And again, that's something that I realized that needed to change for me and my family. And when I joined the program, we just had our fourth kid. Congratulations. Thank you.

That's amazing.

Yeah. And so she was actually born with down syndrome and we didn't know. And so I was in the NICU having onboarding calls and things like that. And so it wasn't a great time to get started.

Yeah.

But again, I just knew something had to change and. And I just knew that these retainers were the answer for. For my business and for my family.

You're a beast, dude. Like, you're literally the perfect example of somebody who's like, it's never the right time. I'm gonna make it happen. And crushed it. Like. Like, I don't think a lot of people can say that, which I want to give you major props on. It's huge. It really is. Yeah, it's absolutely huge. I guess, like, kind of a weird question, but I guess why, why maybe choose this program over some of the other programs out there? Maybe it was nothing. Maybe I was just really annoying on Instagram for the ads and just harassing you. But like, I. Any specific thing that kind of made you go one way versus another?

It was timing. Again, I was just at this pretty low point and needed to. Needed a solution. And that's when I saw, I saw your ad for the first time and it was like, hit my pain points. Are you in between 5 and 10k? Don't, you know, not consistent. Doing a lot of one offs. Like, let's train you on how to have these higher retainer clients. And so that's really what hit home. I watched a couple videos, watched the testimonies, and I was like, all right, I think this is what we're going to have to do. But just staying consistent and just staying with it has really. I mean, it's paid off for sure.

And it's literally just the beginning for you as well, which is huge. And I guess, like, has there been anything that's been like, particularly helpful throughout the process? Obviously there's different pieces of things, but, like, what. What's been most helpful to you? Do you feel like?

I think the most helpful thing for me has Been crafting the offers together with Ethan was really great. And almost like when I was crafting the offer it felt like I was just writing arbitrary numbers on, on, on the Canva spreadsheet. I'm just like high man. Like are you serious? Like I don't know but like I'm like okay, well I guess I'll include these deliverables and then you know, and then eventually narrow those down. And the more that I began to pitch these and the more you I get in the process, the more, the easier it became to pitch, the easier it became to, to sell these services. And I think that was really big for me. And then also seeing, seeing the wins in the group, you know, knowing that other people are actually getting results and it's not one off results but it's the high paying retainer clients that would frustrate me sometimes. Honestly like okay, I, but I just knew like I had to stick with it and that my time was going to come and it, it eventually did.

Yeah, I love it dude.

I love it.

And I guess like where do you feel like kind of a weird question but like where do you feel like you might have been if you hadn't maybe taken the leap? It's scary to invest in yourself. Like I guess what, where do you feel like you might have been if you hadn't done that?

Yeah, I mean I, I'd still probably do in a lot of videos one offs for five to 800 bucks a piece. Just kind of, that's just where I was. And I still feel like I'd be really grinding out these. Still the same quality of material, but just at this kind of lowball offer that I felt like this is what my clientele will pay for. And so still struggling. Still struggling to make ends meet. Still frustrated. Yeah. So this master filmmakers really helped me to, to have confidence in raising my prices. Even in the one off videos that I've sold between when I started and now with the retainers. It's really helped me to, to structure and to, to give more value to my clients. I love that dude.

And you did the work too. Like we're just a vehicle. Like we're just the boring guys over here. We just have tools, but you have to use the tools. And it's true, like you have to use the tools and you can't come in here and do nothing and get results. Right. You have to come in here, you have to use the tools and you have to do the work which you obviously you have. And again it's just the beginning for you. I'm excited. And last question, I guess if maybe is maybe anybody's like on the fence about just booking a call, hearing us out, like, what. What advice would you give them, kind of knowing what you know now?

Yeah, I'd say book the call. I mean, you got nothing to lose. Just 15, 20 minutes of your time just to. Just to hear them out. But it's. It's been a life changer for me and my family and I'm. I'm grateful. Again, even. Even more so than the results. But the tools and the processes and the systems and having all that in order really gave my business structure, really gave me confidence to go in and again, even if it's a one off video, which is not the goal, but even at that, able to raise those prices up and to be able to pitch that more confidently and obviously the, the sales training is huge for me. Being, being able to be more confident to my clients has been astronomical.

I love it, dude. Well, I'll let you get back to closing deals. I appreciate your time. And we'll do another one of these and closing huge, huge deals and go from there.

Yes, sir. Awesome, dude.