How This Videographer Closed $56K In Video Deals 🤯 - Master Filmmaker Review

What's going on, guys? I'm here with one of our clients, Josh, who closed $56,000 worth of video deals. What's going on, Josh?

How are you, man? How's it going? Doing great.

Doing well, man. I guess for anybody who maybe doesn't know you kind of what you do, do you mind just giving us a little bit of background on you and kind of how you got started and how you got into this?

For sure. I would say about four years ago, I started shooting a ton more video than photo. I've been in the photo business for about 20 years. But, yeah, four years ago, I started shooting a ton of videos, and it just got asked more and more if I could shoot increasingly more videos and make them better. And so I've just been slowly been increasing that part of my business. But almost all of my leads have come in from either agencies or bigger brands that already have a whole, you know, branding team, and they have internal teams that run their own marketing. So, yep, I was basically working, you know, as a contractor versus kind of wanting to start my own thing.

Stepping into more of a business owner role versus being kind of that technician is kind of what you were looking to do.

Yeah, absolutely.

Makes sense. And how long. I know you said you started in photography. How long have you been in photography for?

Overall, for 20 years. Oh, wow.

Okay. So then in the past four years, you're, hey, what made you want to switch into the video world on your end?

That's a great question. So it was kind of by chance. A lot of it had to do with opportunity and cash flow. So with video, I was working for an agency and they're, hey, we just got an account with Amazon that we can't do unless we do video. Is that something that you'd like to take on? Because I've. I did a whole bunch of their other stuff, and I was sure, why not? And so I shot. Well, now I've probably shot 30 commercials for Amazon, but, you know, shooting my first three or four, it was such a crazy, like, learning curve with video. But, yeah. Does that answer your question?

I feel like absolutely, man. Yeah. And I guess because I know we were talking on and off, I think you talked to someone from my team, and then we talked to. You talked to me, and we've been talking. We were talking on and off for a couple months. I think what. I guess what was kind of the biggest problem you had prior to kind of jumping into the program with us?

I would say generating. Generating my own leads was definitely an issue. And I think having a community of people that understand the video world, where I can answer, just be there, answer questions either from a mentorship perspective or just from a peer to peer perspective and just be, hey, what do you do for. What do you use for this system? And how do you. All the different processes that it takes to run a bit, you know, run a full time business. Yeah.

All the little nitty gritty things that you have to, you don't always think about. But questions that come up, and I know because these, this $56,000 that you've closed, I think it's interesting for everybody else too to know is that was all from past clients that you had.

Yeah.

In your network. So it's a lot of times I think people are, hey, I need more leads, I need more people, I need more, I need more inbound leads. But a lot of times you have a lot of money sitting in your pipeline if you have the right offer and the right sales process to capture those people and turn them into, you know, consistent revenue or even just initial one off projects to then turn into consistent revenue. You know, I guess what was kind of the. Did you, do you feel like you kind of had some sort of breakthrough there when you started to see all these people, hey, these people are actually.

Ready to buy, ready to pay me. Yeah. I think one thing that was super helpful was being in community with a lot of successful videographers, your people who are running, you know, really cool agencies of their own or just video production companies of their own and seeing what's possible and just opening my mind up to there. It is possible to charge a lot more and be more consistent in what I'm charging and have the confidence to go into certain meetings and just being, you know, this is what we offer. I have the skill set and I had the, I had the past clients, I had the names to drop, I had pretty much all of it, but just more of a mind space, headspace thing where it's. There's a lot of companies doing what I'm trying to do and doing it really well and they're charging good amounts. So I think the confidence aspect played a pretty big portion for me in that, in that kind of switch of I have a lot of past clients, but I just treated. I don't know what my brain, dude.

I tell, I tell everybody this. It's the smallest hinges, swing the biggest doors and it's. Yeah, sometimes people are coming in there, okay, you're gonna overhaul my business and you're gonna do all this Stuff and it's, yes, we will get to that. But a lot of times there's a lot of money where you aren't looking for it. And it's, let's make a couple of tweaks within the sales process. Let's work on the offer, let's work different pieces and let's swing open those doors so we can cash flow you and then kind of jump start this thing. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It actually sounds pretty silly to say it out loud, but I just. All these kind of contract jobs that I gotten before, I hadn't hit them up for more business.

I hadn't been, hey, how did that.

How did that shoot? Did you feel it went well? What went well about it? And hey, I'm launching, you know, really, it really does help to have something new that you're presenting to a client instead.

Redo an offer. Hey, we're thinking about this thing.

Yeah, we're launching something new. We have a new offer. We have a new thing that we're putting together. We think you'd be a good fit for it. Just that, just that alone is enough to spark a conversation of, oh, and something else that I did that I feel helped was I approached these companies and I just said, hey, just so you know, I love your products. I believe in your brand. I believe in who you guys are. A company, you're really great to work with because they were. Yep. And I had little stories of, hey, you know, my family actually uses your products now because I got to send, you know, some of them as gifts. And so having that piece, plus the, hey, we're launching, you know, something new, plus just the mindset of I don't want to just offer one small thing. There's actually 50 things I can offer a company.

I'm going to work with you on a consistent basis to help you achieve a goal. So I know that was kind of a mindset thing we worked on where it's, hey, instead of, remember, we're not just creating content here, we're helping them achieve some sort of result with the content that we're creating for them to where it's more of a long term partnership, you know.

Yeah. And I think companies have really resonated with that in the sense of, hey, you're not just hiring a contractor. I want to, I consider myself part of your team. And it's actually cheaper if you hire me as part of your team, but still a contractor than if you were to bring on somebody full time. Yep. I'm more efficient. I Have more reason to work harder. I have more skin in the game because if I don't do a good job, you're just going to boot me with no problem. Yeah. So I think those, those conversations are just little, little tweaks to how I was holding these conversations and, and getting to walk into companies doing $100 million a year in their own work and just feeling fine walking in and be like, yeah, you know, I offer a really solid product, and we can actually really help your team in a lot of different ways. I just think having that confidence versus going into a meeting being, I hope I can offer them something cool or they're doing really, really well, I can, you know, probably book something off them. It's a different mindset.

That's the technician mindset at the end of the day, instead of the business owner. I think so many people need to switch from technician to business owner where you're, hey, I solve a problem with my content. I'm not just somebody who creates content at the end of the day. And when you flip that, it's funny how just that quick little shift can really make such an impact on your conversations. You know what I mean? It's crazy.

Totally.

It's absolutely crazy.

Have you found. Have you found that to be pretty consistent with the people that sign up with master filmmaker?

Yeah, most of the people that we're working with, as I'm sure you were in the same boat, and I was in the same boat, too. It's. They start as, I'm a dp, I'm a videographer, I'm an editor. I do a task. Right. Whereas really what this is for is I want to build a business, solve a problem for my clients, and then turn that into revenue for my business. Where it's, instead of I'm just going to do this one task where I'm capped at 24 hours a day, instead it's, hey, let's leverage other people's time, start bringing on other people on the team and start to grow, having an asset that actually works for me.

Absolutely.

Yeah. And kind of a weird question, but I guess where. Where do you think you might have been if you hadn't maybe taking the leap, taking the action, join the program? Because I know it's a scary step for a lot of people, you know, but I guess, where do you feel you would have been if maybe you hadn't taken that bet on yourself?

Yeah, I feel I'll totally own that it was a scary step to spend, you know, that much money at the beginning where you, you know, it's not. It's not. You have, you know, this cookie cutter thing.

It's not a magic pill.

No. Yep. So. And I think looking back, I definitely. I definitely had to put in the work. Right. So it wasn't. And so it really was a big kind of kick in the butt.

I'm just a mere servant to you guys. I'm just. I'm just helping you guys. You still have to put in the work. It's still your business.

I'm just.

I'm just serving the best I can for you guys.

Absolutely. So to answer your question, where I would be, I mean, I would have been fine. I would have been fine. I would have. I would have stayed probably the same. And I just been. I would have just been waiting for jobs to come along. Hopefully they did. And, you know, when they did, it would. I don't. I wouldn't have the same maybe drive or kind of this. This kind of internal competition that I'm having with myself. You know what? I'm. I'm gonna make this happen. You know, I've wanted to for a long time. I've known. I've known that I've been capable for a long time, and I just. I needed kind of kicking the butt.

I wanted to be, hey, let's do this thing, man.

Yeah. And a community I think, that I'm seeing is also doing this, you know, similar things and in a similar journey and on, like, the same path. Like, I don't feel so alone. I don't feel so crazy for feeling and thinking all the things that I am, because it's scary to kind of jump out and it's hard, dude.

Yeah, entrepreneurship is scary. It's hard to be alone with your own. Hey, am I the only person going through this? I've been there too, myself. It's. Yeah, it's tough, you know, you gotta. You gotta have people around you. Just having people around you sometimes and being. Oh, you're going through that thing too, it's great. I'm not. I'm not the only one feeling this way, so I totally relate to that. And last question for you, Josh. I guess if anybody is maybe on the fence about even just maybe booking a call, speaking with our team, seeing if it's a fit for them, I guess. What. What advice would you give them, knowing.

What you know now? That's a great question. I would. The advice I would give is if. If you're willing to. And you're able to put in the work to really grow your business and grow your company and you're, you're willing to take a risk and take a chance to do something that feels pretty risky. You're probably in a good spot to make that decision to push forward. There's probably four or five of those opportunities that I've gotten just from the reactivations. I wouldn't, I definitely would not have thought of to book from a different mindset, from a more working with their team retainer mindset. And I also, I wouldn't have thought as big when I was asking them questions or asking what their needs were asking, asking to be paid a certain amount. I just don't think, it's not that I necessarily was capped, but it was kind of, I had a self, I.

Didn'T know belief around it maybe.

Yeah. I didn't even, it's not, I, oh my gosh, I was so self limiting. But in a way I kind of was. I did all do it. I do it too.

Everybody does it. It's. I think until you have somebody who's, hey, you could do 10 times more than what you're doing right now until they come along. It's happened to me many times in my career where I'm, I can. Then you do it and then you're, holy crap, I could. And sometimes it just takes someone to give you a kick in the pants to be, yo, you can do this thing, man. You can charge way more than what you're currently charging. Let me get eyes on your business and see what, what's going on and how you can do that. And half this game is mindset. At the end of the day, you could have the best tactics in the world, but if you don't have the right mindset around it, they're all useless at the end of the day, you know, it's like a person who thinks they can't get in shape, they're not going to take actions in accordance with the person who can get in shape. Because it's a self limiting thing, you know.

Totally. And I think, I think the mindset part that had to crack for me is that jobs have just always kind of come to me. Yeah. And I didn't know how to turn that faucet on. Or off. Yeah. Or off. Or turn on a couple more faucets. Right. Yeah. And I've always wanted to push for more work. And how do I do that? I'm thinking just agencies have been sending me stuff. So do I just go to more agencies? And I only knew how to play in the sandboxes. That were in front of me. I didn't know that there were four or five more that I could easily, you know, mess around with and start playing with levers and dials and. Oh, my gosh. Actually, there is. You know, I've been kind of sitting on a lot of opportunity and a lot of. A lot of money. Yeah. Just not accessing it and why we.

Do the reactivations first, man. I love it.

It's smart.

Gotta take that and then get you guys that great win. Everybody's super happy, and then now we progress into the next stages of building the business and. And up and onward from there, man.

Totally cool.

I. I appreciate your time, Josh. Dude, I love hearing your journey, and it's literally just the beginning for you. There's so much more to come, which is super exciting. So excited to continue working with you and very grateful you're in our community, man.

Yeah, thanks, man. I really appreciate just everything you put together, and it's, like, super cool to have the resources and just the. Not only the coaches, but the people to kind of chime in and the other entrepreneurs who are working hard to succeed and get their input and get their tools and get their shortcuts. I know that. I know that the information that the community and you and the coaches know have saved me so much time in getting to where I am now. I'm.

I love it.

You could totally. You could totally make an argument that I could have gotten to where I am without it. Oh, yeah.

But you guys are all smart people. It's just a. Everybody, I think, in this program could get to where they want to be. It's just a matter of, do we want to do it faster? Do you want to spend time or money? You know what I mean?

Yeah, that's really what the. You want to do it faster, and do you want to be motivated to. I don't know. For me, it was. I wanted. I was so motivated just to not only obviously start and continue have a more successful business, but make this coaching system work. I'm. I'm gonna. I'm gonna make it work because I need to. Not only do I need to, but I want to.

So 100, man. Well, dude, I can't wait to see where you go from here. And I appreciate your time.

Appreciate it.