How This Video Business Owner Closed A $15K Retainer - Master Filmmaker Review

What's going on, guys? I'm here with one of our clients, Levi, who just closed a 15k video retainer. What's going on, man? How are you?

Hey, what's up? Happy Monday. Well, happy Monday, anyway.

Absolutely. I guess. For anybody who maybe doesn't know you, do you mind just giving us a little bit of background on kind of yourself, your production company, how you got started, all that?

Sure. So we're based out of Long Beach, California. I. The way I tell the story is that I accidentally kind of fell into the video production business. To this day, I will never claim that I am a techie person, but I've learned a lot on the job. But the way that went basically was I was part of a real estate community a couple years ago and quickly came to find that I was. That was not really my thing, but I was very helpful and provided a lot of value to that community by helping them with their social media through video. So that kind of snowballed into what it is today.

I love it. And I guess, like, so you started with that, and then that kind of turned into you doing more of this and starting your production company, it sounds like.

Exactly. Yeah. So it wasn't something planned. It wasn't like, oh, yeah, I've been wanting to, you know, make videos since I was five. Like, none of that.

Just kind of stumbled into it.

I love it.

I love hearing everybody's different stories. I was the. The making videos since five, and then there's other people who are just kind of stumbling into it, which is awesome. And I guess, like, how long had you been. How long have you been running the company to date? Up to this point?

To date, about a year and a half. I started it in January of 2023, so we had, like, a rebranding and kind of like a reframing of what we wanted to do when it came to video back in October. So since then, I've also, you know, had. I have, like, a buddy of mine who's like, the first Valore Studios employee. So, you know, we've been slowly but surely growing the business.

I love it. And kind of. What was the biggest problem for you jumping into the program? Like, what. What were you looking to get help with?

Initially, I'd say it's just the lack of clients, you know, like, we were trying to survive off of word of mouth, which, I mean, I still believe is the best kind of client, because any referral, you know, you already kind of get over that trust easier.

They trust you. They love you. But obviously, on the other side of that, it's hard because it's not necessarily scalable all the time, where you're at the mercy of people talking about you. So it's like having other systems outside of that to bring more people in, you know?

Yeah, 100%. And that was the biggest thing. You know, I knew we needed more clients if I wanted to grow it, if I wanted, you know, to pay my guy more, and also obviously, me know, start to get a little more out of it. So I'd say that was probably the biggest struggle and how we came to. To you guys for sure.

And kind of a weird question, but I guess, like, what. What kind of drew you to our program over maybe some of the other programs? Maybe it was something, maybe it was nothing. But like, what, I guess, what kind of drew you in in the first place?

I'll tell you what caught my attention. Sure, absolutely. I kept seeing the 27 video retainer thing caught come up on my feed on Instagram. I'm like, that would be helpful, you know, if I had like, a clear price point for the different things that. That we offer. Because that was one of the things, kind of like a minor thing that I was also struggling with, was trying to figure out at what price point we should be charging for the different services. Because obviously, like, someone in for who's looking for social media videos, for example, is going to get charged something different than someone who needs help with their podcast, you know, production. Absolutely. I just had no real foundation or idea of where that should be. And so that was super helpful. And then, you know, I got on. On a call with one of the. The reps, and they started kind of asking me a little more of like, well, where are you really in your business? And we came down to really to the bottom of it, which is that a lack of consistent lead flow.

Yeah, gotcha. A hundred percent, dude. And I guess, like, what. Obviously you're still going through the program, right? But has there been anything in the program that's been kind of particularly helpful for you up to this point? Because obviously we're still on a journey, we're still going through. And this is obviously just the beginning for you.

Yeah, I mean, for context, I think I've been with the program about two months now. And one of the things that I personally really appreciate is the the to do list. Like, it's literally a breakdown. Like, start here, like, do this first, then this, then this next, and so on and so forth. It's like a checklist. So it also feels Good. You know, to. To be making progress. Yep. That's personally helped me because, again, I've read a lot of books and, like, I understand the concept of things, of how it should be, but I had trouble prioritizing. Okay, I should do this first, and then this or this goes here. And so same for me, dude.

Like, I. I've invested in a lot of programs myself too. It's like, it's hard. Like, you can. You know what to do. It's like if you wanted to lose weight or someone wanted to lose weight, it's like, we know what to do, but we're still not doing it. And it's because that lack of prioritization, like you said, because, like, I think it can feel super overwhelming where it's like, you have all these things you could do, but, like, what do I actually do to move the needle forward in the business? Because, like, I don't have enough time to do everything at the same time, you know?

Exactly. Yeah. So I'd say for me, that was. That was the biggest thing. And I. I immediately appreciated that because I. I can get distracted very easily. Me too.

I think as creative as we can, because it's like, oh, this is cool. Ooh, this is cool.

Or this is cool.

It's like we do all these different things, and it can be a little distracting. How does it feel to have the first kind of retainer under. Under your belt? Like, how does that feel so far?

Yeah. Since joining the program, is the first retainer, honestly, pretty natural, if I'm being honest, is not our first client on retainer, thankfully. But I will say, being part of the program, I think something that helped close the deal on this specific one was something that I learned on the sales calls.

What did you use specifically within the sales conversation or the sales training from us that you felt like, kind of.

Closed that for you specifically? Really digging deep into what is the problem that the client, you know, has, and just isolating that and making sure that the client sees just how much of a distance it is from where they are now to where they're trying to be.

Right. Expanding more of a gap there.

Exactly. And then also, when it came down to the payment, you know, that I've noticed that in the past, that seems to be an issue too, because maybe the business owner feels like they can't afford it or whatever reason. But really, on one of the sales calls, I learned that there's ways to kind of either break down the payment or set up the agreement in a certain way so that maybe the client. The client just pays something up front, and then they can start getting charged, you know, the rest a month or two later. But the point is just to get them started. And so I took that and applied it to this specific situation.

I love it, man. It really is, like, for me, when I've learned a lot of things, too. It's like. It's those little hinges that swing, those big doors where it's like, it could be that last 2 or 3%. That's the difference between, like, getting the deal and not getting the deal at the end of the day, which I love that you're picking up on that and implementing that into the process. And I guess. Last question, and I'll let you get back to closing deals. Obviously, I guess what is if maybe someone's on the fence about booking a call, speaking with us, like, potentially joining the program? I guess. What advice would you give them, kind of knowing what you know now on the inside?

I think something that's been said a lot or I kind of have seen repeated a lot since joining the program and something I knew before joining the program is, at the end of the day, it falls on you. If you want this to work, it will work, because you have more than enough evidence. You know, these guys worked with things like over 400 people that have been successful with the program, so there's evidence that it's possible. And so that, for me, gave me a lot of confidence into joining the program, but at the same time, also help me see that, hey, I have to do my part to make sure that it works 100. And as long as anyone does that when joining this program, I have no doubt that they're gonna have success as well.

Couldn't agree more, man. Well, I appreciate your time. Congrats on the first deal. We'll do another one of these when you've hit, like, a couple hundred K in deals, and then we'll. We'll get a recap from there and go from there, dude.

Sounds good to me.

Appreciate you.