This is a recorded conversation (YouTube interview) between the host (Eric Deeran / Master Filmmaker) and a client, Tannen. Tannen recounts his unconventional personal history (left home as a teen, traveled across U.S.), how he discovered filmmaking after receiving a DSLR, and gained a full scholarship to film school. He describes growing his video business from $5k in the first year to $30k in the second year and about $100k in the third year, with a recent ~$40k revenue increase over a couple months. Major bottlenecks were business systems (CRM, SEO, ads), pricing/confidence, and not knowing sales language; mentorship and joining the host’s program provided strategies and accountability. He now hires crew (paid VP $1,250 on a coffee commercial), aims to stop lowballing (won’t take under $5,000 for certain jobs), and targets scaling toward a million-dollar year.
Questions this video answers
About $40,000 over the past couple months.
Year 1: $5,000; Year 2: $30,000; Year 3 (most recent): ~$100,000.
He was awarded a full scholarship after cold-contacting the school president.
$1,250.
He stated he doesn't want to take less than $5,000 for a solo job.
Chapters
What's going on, guys? I'm here with one of our clients, Tannen.
Who?
You said you generated about $40,000 for your video business over just the past couple months. Was that right? Awesome, man. Well, dude, for anybody who doesn't know you, if you don't mind, just tell us a little bit about you, your backstory, and just give us some background.
So I'm originally from Florida. I left home when I was 14. 14, 15 ish. To find my biological mom up in Ohio. I didn't have a ged. I didn't have a license. I hitchhiked up there. Took me a few years to get up there. I do it. Dealt with a bunch of crap in the middle. Didn't like my family, my biological family. So I ended up trying to. I just traveled the country and made my own family as I went. So I've been anywhere. I lived in Maine, lived down in California, Washington, Oregon, Montana. I lived in Alaska. I've been everywhere in between. Nice. We do a nine to five. Like, basic nine to fives. And then when I met Sierra, she actually got me for Father's Day. I was a stepdad. We hadn't been married yet, but she got me a DSLR camera. 300 bucks on Marketplace. We met with the guy, and I was like, hey, you know, I really like this. I like taking pictures. It was a Canon 800D.
Nice.
I love taking pictures. And it was. I wanted. It felt like I was in a movie, and I'm like, hey, you know, I want to learn this. And Sierra had a ZV1. So we shot our first commercial on a ZV1, and I wanted to go to film school. And at this point, I had seen your stuff, right? Like, it was a few years back, I had seen your stuff, and I was like, you know, this is really interesting. One day I'll be able to do this, but I need to get some more expertise on just film in general because I have no background on it. So I. So I get my ged, I get a bunch of different things figured out. There's school I want to go to called Full Sail. And I mean, it's a $200,000 school. Yeah, it's an expensive school. There is not a scholarship available to me. I was not disadvantaged. I wasn't in a disadvantaged neighborhood. So they're like, well, this is what we can do. And I'm like, well, can we break it into payments? And they didn't have anything available for me, so I used some kind of just, like, not hormozy. Techniques. But I reached out to the president of the film school, like I reached directly out to him, said, hey, this is who I am. This is what I want to do. This is what's stopping me. I had his phone number, I found it on a website and I just cold reached out to him. He got back to me the next day. He said, give me about a month, let's see what I can do. So we hop on the phone, talk for a bit. Month goes by and the school calls me and says, hey, he signed off on a full scholarship. You're good to go. Wow. I have been running in the film industry, learning what I want to do. Had a few job offers with, you know, there's a company out here called First Form Sandy for Ellis. I have had a few different job opportunities and I just wanted to stick to my course and continue to do what I wanted to do. And I had to learn. I had never run a business. So learning a video business, I knew I was savage. That's all I knew. I knew that I was absolutely savage and relentless. And me and my wife, we've been doing this for, this is our third year since we just got the camera. And our first year we did 5,000. Our second year we did 30,000. And this last year, well, we did a hundred thousand.
Nice.
So this is technically our third year. So our second year we did a hundred thousand technically. So I'm already almost aware of what I need to do. I know the steps, I know that passion, I know the fire, I know that strength of what I actively need to do in my life to be successful. But I feel like I've kind of.
Hit this, this glass ceiling almost.
Yeah, yeah. Like I need the strategies, I need to know the CRM, I need to know the build out stuff so I can start applying SEO, I can start applying ads, I can start applying all of these things to bring in more leads. Right. No idea what that takes.
Was that kind of the biggest problem you had before? Because I know you joined one of our programs. Was that kind of the biggest bottleneck for you at that point?
It was the biggest. It was the biggest. And also just not knowing what to say to them, it was also holding my value. That was the biggest bottleneck is because if someone was like, well, you know, I just, I don't see the value in it. I'd be like, you know what, I'll drop the price.
Right.
Lower my value.
Right.
And there's so many situations where I'd be away from my family for days At a time.
Stuff that just didn't make sense financially.
Thousand bucks.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I said, well, it makes sense to me because they paid for my plane ticket to go out there.
Yeah.
And I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to take less than, you know, $5,000 for a solo job where I'm sending someone out to go do work.
Yeah.
Now I've developed kind of employees. I have a system in place, but I'm ready to take on more.
Yep.
And have our million dollar year. So it's going to be.
I love it, man. And I guess, like, I know you said you've been seeing the ads for a while. I guess what kind of. I know there's other programs out there. What kind of made you decide to go with this one over? Maybe some of the other ones you've seen out there, maybe not.
Authenticity.
Okay.
Authenticity. And being an actual entrepreneur, seeing what you. Who. Who you were as an individual, you know, you are passionate about it. You have your own film company and you know how to teach others. My first experience with an actual entrepreneur, he was a junk removal entrepreneur. And he told me, he's like, the biggest thing I made because I was hungry. The biggest, best decision I made was hiring on a mentor. And he spent $20,000 on a mentor.
Yep.
To bring him on. And he was like, it was the biggest risk I ever took. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I listened to what he said. I applied every single thing that he did. And now he sold his business. He has a Lamborghini. So it was like, well, who do I want to go to? Right. I saw a few different people not to name. I'm not gonna name.
Sure, yeah. You don't have to.
Editors. But, like, they weren't holding the same value. It felt like they were trying to be too storyteller. Ish. And I'm in a world of entrepreneurs. Right. I'm in a world where Alex Hormozi exists. I'm in a world where Sella exists, where people who are big money changers and game changers, they're surrounding me. They're in my area now. I want to know how to dip into those relationships.
Yep.
And build off of that. So you stuck out because you were first authentic. You had great sales tactics. You know how to talk to people. You know how to build rapport. Like your team, when they reach out, they're like, hey, is there anything we can do to help? Hey, is there anything I can do for you today? Man. Hey, just following up with you. I know last time you said this was going on, how is it going today? Yeah, like, and it, it was random and it, it was calculated on your end. Random on my end. But it was enough rapport to say, hey, this is who I want to go with. Easy decision. I don't think there's another person like you in, in the game.
Well, I appreciate that, man. I really do. We, we try to bust our ass for you guys and, and put together the best resources and program we possibly can. And we're excited to continue working with you and, and getting you to that next level, man. It's just, and to your point, with mentors too, it's like I've hired so many mentors and I think a good distinction to make for everybody is like, it's not a magic pill. You don't just hire somebody and then they magically give you money. No one cares more about your business than you do. And the end of the day. And you have to be able to, when you hire someone as a mentor, you have to be willing to invest that time into yourself as well to get the results you want. And I think some people come into different programs and they come with the mindset of like, is this going to work? When we need to be in more of a mindset of how can I make this work? Because every program I've ever joined I've gotten 30, 40, 50x what I put in. But I've had other people who are next to me who didn't get anything out of it. And I think it really comes down to like the mindset of how I'm going to make it work. And like you said, having that entrepreneurial mindset, like you said, for sure.
It's like being a junior videographer when you get your first big boy camera. You know, when we went from the Sony ZV1 to a Sony FX6.
Yep.
We're like, this is it. This is going to be the thing.
Going to be the best. Yeah, yeah. Skills. And it's what you do.
Yeah, absolutely. And we did a coffee commercial. I'll share with you.
I love it.
Yeah, it was a one time coffee commercial. And I hired on like a film crew because we have film crew out here. And I paid my VP 1250. I was just the producer. Yep. I found the team. I brought everything together and it's literally one of the most amazing, breathtaking commercials I've ever seen in my life. And it was what I could do by myself, you know? Yep. So it's really the junior videographer mindset. Like, oh, this is going to change everything. If I got that lens, I'd be unstoppable. If I got this, I'd be unstoppable. When it took thousands and thousands of dollars to realize the one thing that's going to change your game is knowledge and having that right person behind you. You're right. No one's going to give a about your business more than you give a about 100%. If you don't care about it, then why bother? If you think someone else is going to care more about your business and they're going to do all the heavy lifting for you, then you're not in the right business. You need to go work a 9 to 5.
Yeah, well said. 100%. I don't want to take up too much more of your time. Tannin, one last question. I guess if anyone is maybe on the fence about just booking a call to speak with us, about potentially working with us, I guess, what advice would you give them?
Follow your instinct. Because a lot of us go, hey, this is sounds like it's too good to be true. This sounds like it's too good to be true. How could he be getting these kinds of results? How could anyone do something like this? You look at the lifestyle, you look at what you want. And if you want it bad enough, you're going to make the decision to do it. Yeah. If you don't want it bad enough, then you're not in the right game.
100%, man. 100%. Well, I appreciate your time. Let's get you to a million dollars a year. And I'm excited to see your path forward, man.
