How This Visual Effects Artist Closed $16K Video Retainer in 6 Weeks - Master Filmmaker Review

What's going on, guys? I'm here with one of our clients, Joe, who just closed a $16,000 retainer six weeks into the program. What's going on, Joe? How are you?

What's going on, buddy?

What is going on, man? For anybody who doesn't know you, do you mind just giving us a little bit of backstory of, like, yourself, how you got into this, and, like, a little bit about yourself?

So I got. I've got a weird, eclectic background, so I'm a visual effects artist and 3D animator. I started doing my children's programming back in the late 90s, and I actually went from doing educational animation to forensic animation in the legal field.

Oh, wow.

I did that for a long time, but a lot of people don't know. A lot of that kind of work kind of dried up because things used to go to trial a lot, but then insurance companies got involved, so everything ends up settling now. So there's not as much need of that kind of stuff as there was back then. So I pivoted into marketing and got into doing video production, animation, visual effects, stuff like that in the marketing, working for different companies. And for the last eight, nine years or so, I was the marketing director at an IT company. And I figured out a pretty good system that I like to use that got good results for that company and, you know, figured I would quit making them money and try to make my own money for a little while.

Absolutely. How long have you been in business for yourself?

At this point, less than a year.

Okay. Wow. That's awesome. I wish I close to 16k deal less than a year in.

Honestly, when I first talked to you guys, if you, you know, I'm a big believer in, like, I could have probably figured it out in three or four years, but I don't see any reason to take three or four years if somebody else has already got it figured out.

Yeah, that's how I feel too. Like, you guys, everyone who comes into this program is super smart. Like, everyone knows what they're doing. It's just. It's a shortcut. Right. Because I paid a lot of mentors for myself too. And I'm like, yeah, I could probably figure this out, but I'd rather just, like, pay someone who already has it. And then I can make 10 times as much money in the amount of time that I was. I would have been. Figured it out, figuring it out. You know what I mean? I guess, like, what was kind of the biggest problem you had prior to jumping into the program? What did you Kind of come in.

For originally the biggest problem. Well, I don't know if I had a problem exactly. But the best. The, the biggest solution has been in structuring offers. That's been big eye opening. I definitely. And kind of getting out of that technician space has been a little difficult. But just understanding how to, how to build value with offers, how to kind of set them up so that you have other areas to go to court. And then the sales training kind of goes hand in hand with that, you know, figuring out how to, you know, you know, it would have been. I mean, before it was all about if somebody had an idea, then you talked to them for a long time.

What's your budget?

Figure out a budget and you spend six weeks just getting to a point where they say, well, that's too expensive.

Right.

And it was more like an order.

Taker, kind of waiter to their needs. As opposed to being like a doctor who's diagnosing someone's problem.

Yeah, absolutely. Then you don't have anywhere to go either. Because like, if you, if you give them a pitch that's, you know, X amount of money and they say no, and you spent six months working on it, you can't just say, oh, well, then let me give you a different offer. It's like, well, then what was all this other stuff for?

Yeah, so having more of like a templated out offer sheet where it's copy, not copy, paste, but it's more, it's more streamlined to where you can just go to any. Because you serve lawyers, obviously. So it's like you can go to any kind of lawyer or law firm and be able to go and copy paste that and not have to like reinvent the wheel coming up with all these crazy ideas.

Yeah, it's that, it's that structure and then fitting them into. I mean, but that's kind of like, that's kind of like the McDonald's structure. I mean, it's like you do one thing really well and then you just optimize it.

Yep, 100%. Yeah. And it's just, it's. It's more of a productized service. So you have product on one end and then you have service on the other side. And it's like what a lot of people are doing is they're using that super productized customized service. And like, it's taking a ton of time, whereas you want to find that, that kind of middle ground between the two to where you have something that's not fully a product, but it's more product ties Than just having a place.

That's. That's it. Exactly. Yeah. And then the. So, I mean, that was the biggest eye opener for me was in developing the offer and finding all. Like, I would. I mean, I would have. If you had asked me six months ago, what's my offer? I would have said, like, shooting video or editing video or something like, Like. Yeah.

But instead, now you're solving a problem for a company.

Yeah. Solving a problem. And here's how I solve the problem.

Yeah.

And, you know, so I think it's.

A big shift for a lot of people because I was a. Obviously a DP for many years. And, like, you don't think about that when you're just the craftsman or the technician. Yeah, Like, I shoot and edit. That's what I do. It's not like I'm not solving an actual problem. It's. I am, but it's different, you know.

And that's, you know, it's a real. It's a. It's a little bit of a. I don't know what the right word is for. It's a little bit of an ego hit where it's like, it doesn't matter how good you. You are at this stuff. You know what I mean? Like, they want results. They don't want the best dp. Like, they could care less.

Yep, exactly. I know, it is. It's a huge ego hit, and people prefer to just ignore it and be like, no, no, no, no. I'm just going to focus on being the best. But it's like, you could be the best, but if you're not actually getting your clients any sort of result, what are we doing? Like, that's why they're paying you. They want a result. It's like, you know, you go to a doctor and like, they have the best scalpel in the world, but you're still not. Like, your. Your illness isn't solved. It's like, I don't care. Like, I don't care how good your tools are or, like, you know, how. How sharp you can make a cut or whatever. It's like, I just care about getting better and feeling better, and I want a result. That's it.

Right, you know? Yeah, exactly.

Which is huge, I guess. Was there any reason why you kind of went with our program over maybe another program? Or is there anything that caught your eye? Or maybe there was no reason at all. Like, I guess, what kind of drew you in and how'd you find us?

I. I liked. I mean, you know, like, I say, I've Been in marketing for a long time. I liked your, I liked your methodology that you use to sell your own. So I mean, just overall, just your overall, the ads were good. They were well structured. I can't remember who I talked to initially, but he was just, he was helpful, he was supportive.

I think he talked to Danny on our team. I think it was Danny.

That sounds right. Yeah, that sounds right.

Yeah.

And you know, he was consultive. And then of course, lots of social proof along the way.

And then just me never leaving you alone in your Instagram Facebook feed being annoying. Yeah, I get it.

I like retargeting ads. Everybody complains about them, but like they work like nothing else.

They really do. Absolutely, man.

I've been excited about that. I haven't started running my own ads yet, but I've been really excited about. Because I did ads. I mean, I was doing meta ads for companies, you know, like when meta first started, you know, back when it was just Facebook. Yeah. And so I'm excited about, you know, building that structure. So that's the other thing that I'm dealing with right now because I closed this client. So now it's like, okay, now I've got to actually like figure out because I haven't actually put pin. I've sketched out what my onboarding process and everything is, but I haven't actually like completely fleshed it out. So now I've got like a whole new set of problems.

Every solution creates a new problem at every level. It's just, you never have no problems in business. That's just how it is.

You just do it.

But it's a good problem to have. It's like, cool. Now I got money and now I got some cash from reactivation. Now I'm ready to put that back into my new, my new system that I'm going to set up. And now I can figure out the onboarding client journey and all that fun stuff.

And then you only have to do it once. I mean, I know you have to iterate, but once, once I create those spreadsheets and those onboarding documents, those onboarding videos, then I get my next retainer client in a week or two and then I just got to hit Play.

Machine and then the machine just runs. And that's, that's the beautiful part about it. I love it.

Yeah, I had a buddy of mine, he still always joke, he said in business you only graduate to a higher class of problems.

It's exactly right. Yeah, you have. Because it's like. And then you're managing a team of people, and now you got people problems, and now you can't find enough people. And it's like it just keeps going up and up and up and up at every level, which is don't ignore.

Those problems along the way. Right. Companies like that.

Right? Exactly. Absolutely. And last question, Joe. I guess knowing what you know now, I guess what. What advice would you give someone if maybe they're on the fence about just booking a call or just speaking with the team and seeing if it is a fit for them?

Well, definitely just do it. But like I said, like, if you. If somebody's already done what you want to do and they're willing to tell you how to do it, then pay for it, you know? Yeah. Well, cool.

Well, Joe, I'm excited to do another one of these once we've gotten everything set up. You're just literally six weeks in. So I'm very excited for the rest of it. We'll do another one of these and have some big, big numbers on that, and we'll roll from there.

Yeah, absolutely.