How To Get More Clients As A Videographer

Let's go. You ain't gotta ask me, we can hit the road, got room in the back seat? Boys from the back street come so far Just singing over rap beats See you on the way up Only looking down Remember seeing where we came from down. You ain't gotta wait up, Never gonna slow back down? There's no stopping now, they can't take us down there's no reason to fight this feeling Cuz I love this life. Everything's all right and there's no reason to stop believing and the future's bright and there's no reason to fight this feeling, yeah, love is life, yeah, this life, yeah, love this life, yeah, love this life. I won't wait around for the cur. Life is not a race, it's someone big show I can see it now that the truth is told Feels like letting go I love this life, yeah, feels all right and there's no reason to stop believing. Love is life and the future's bright and there's no to fight this yeah, love this life, yeah, love this life, yeah, love this life, yeah, love this life. Love is life Cuz I love this life. Everything's all right and there's no reason to fight the screaming. Feel just right, Everything's all right, Yeah, love this life, yeah, love this life, yeah love this life, Yeah, Yeah I'm feeling like a brand new me Brand new, brand new. I blew away the clouds I was standing under Traded all my rainy days for a little summer I fly so high right now that I might not come back down Dancing to my own big cherry on the top Sweet. Everything around me is looking up if life is what you make it I'mma celebrate it. I'm feeling like a brand new me for the very first time.

There we go. Tech issue. What's going on, guys? How's everyone doing?

What up?

Can everybody hear me?

See me?

Okay.

I am loud and clear.

Sweet. We got Hakeem, one of our account managers at Master Filmmaker. We got Evan, one of our coaches. I like the new setup. Evan looks great.

Trying new things.

Dude, I love it. It's. It's sick. You got to change it up every once in a while, right?

Yeah.

Today we're going to be talking about. I want to kind of focus on one topic, and then we'll kind of go from there. But I want to focus on, like, why. Why we don't send proposals, right? And so why we don't just send a proposal when someone asks for it and. And what we should do instead, and then we'll kind of just branch off from there. So if you guys have questions, drop them down below in the comments here. We're live on YouTube. If you're on Instagram over here, hop on YouTube, you can ask questions. We'll bring the questions up, we'll answer the questions. But what is going on, everyone? Evan, how are you, man?

Dude, I'm good. I am working through a Thursday. Had a dentist appointment for my daughter.

Fun.

Now I'm here.

I love it. I love it, man. Well, let's talk about the proposal thing. So, like, a lot of people are like, you know, a client asked them to send a proposal. They. They say, hey, just send this over to me. We want to know what this looks like. Like, I guess, Evan, maybe start with your take. Like, why, why should we not just send them a proposal? Because that's kind of the next logical thing people would do, right?

Yeah. I mean, so there's like just two main words that kind of come to mind. And number one, it's context and leverage. You give them no context with a form, you know, whatever. However you lay it out and you lose all of your leverage in any kind of decision making process that they might have to go through. I mean, that's the easiest way that I can kind of explain it. But because a lot of people are coming to us not as experts, not as anybody that knows anything about what it is that we do. Right. And we have to generally walk them through what that path looks like and, and have them tell themselves why this is the best passport for them.

That makes sense. 100. Yeah, no, I mean, it's. A lot of people are like, hey, I think it'd be good to send a proposal because they want it, but at the end of the day, that can really shoot you in the foot and really push you, you know, push you into a place where like, they're comparing you on price and they may have a stack of other. Of other proposals from other people that they are then just like, you know, they're comparing and you don't have any time to actually go through the context of what that is.

Right.

Yeah, I've seen that happen where they just take your proposal, go to somebody else. Hey, I had somebody else said they could do it for X amount. Can you do it?

Yep.

No, I'm not.

You put yourself in a bad position at that point. Yeah, 100%. I mean, and let us know in the comments too.

Guys.

I know we have some people on the live drop, some comments on where you're tuning in from Drop some comments on where you're at. And. And then if you have sent proposals to people before or you've just simply, you know, gone over that on the call, like, let us know in the comments here. But, Hakeem, the sales. The sales king over there, tell us a little bit about, like, why would we want to go over the price on the actual phone call with them? Like, why would we want to do that?

Yeah, and this is just piggybacking off of what Evan was saying there, where, again, the minute they hop off the call, you've lose any sort of authority or leverage that was built up. Because, I mean, it's like, it's just making it way more harder than it needs to be. It's like you can dig a hole with a shovel or you can dig it with a. With a spoon. Obviously, it's like you may get the outcome, but it's going to take you way, way longer than it otherwise would have.

Yeah.

At the end of the day, it's like you're just. You're just guessing at that point. You leave them off the call, and then all the hesitations, the worries, fears, you're not there to advise them on that. And more times than not, you might put your heart and soul into a proposal. But we all know, like, on this live, people who are here, they're not even going to read half the stuff. They're going to go right down to where the dollars and cents are at the bottom of the page.

And I think it's selfish at the end of the day, too, because it's like. Like, for us, it's like, oh, we want to avoid the salesy stuff, but if you really cared about your clients and helping them get to where they want to be, you would help them understand how this could actually solve their problems at the end of the day. You know what I mean? And doing that over the phone and over an actual zoom call is where you're going to see more success because you just send it. You're like, it's kind of lazy where you just send a proposal and you don't do anything.

Right.

And it's just like, oh, shoot, like, let's just send this off and hope and pray that they say yes when, like, you could be leaving tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table by not pushing to get that person on the call and then talking them through how this is going to help them. Evan, have you. I know, before you jumped in with us, obviously, you're a coach now. Now, you know, before you were actually a client of ours. Like, was there a specific example where you had maybe sent a proposal to somebody instead of walking them through it on the call or maybe didn't go.

The way you want?

I don't think specifically, obviously, because I'm trying to get coaching that I needed to at the time, it would be disadvantageous to shoot myself in the foot like that. But I know that I've definitely done it before. Right. And I guess one thing too, that I just want to say, since we're talking about proposals, like, I don't think anybody here is saying that, like, creating a proposal is a bad idea. Right, Right. Like, no, you should have that, but it's just how you give it to them is the, is the, is the point that we're trying to make here. But I think I said this. It was maybe last week in our last live when we talked. But I think the only time I would ever send proposals now is if it's the work that I don't mind. If I don't get it, like, if this is just like a cherry on top that it's like, I don't know, like, if it's just cool, my stripe account gets hit and boom, and there's the payment link and whatever. Yep, fine. I'm fine with that. But if it's somebody that I know that I want to work with, because I, you know, know that it's going to work for them and all of this, then, yeah, I want to go through that process of explaining, you know, or not really explaining it, because you're not really. Shouldn't be explaining the proposal. It's the. What is this going to do for you in the long run? That is kind of what you're walking them through.

Yeah. And I think a lot of people are selling the video, not selling the outcome of what the video does. Right. So, like, we need to figure out what is the actual problem we're solving. And I've said this time and time again, but I'm going to keep saying it. You're selling the vacation, you're not selling the plane ride to get there. Right. And so, like, you want to make sure that you are selling the vacation, not the plane ride to get there, not the amount of time it takes, the types of deliverables you're going to be giving them. And it's like, Delta doesn't sell you the plane ride. They sell you that vacation, they sell you that outcome. Right. So we want to, we want to focus in outcome sales on outcome sales, not on Just, you know, specific deliverables and how amazing the content looks, you know?

Yeah, no, I completely agree, 100%.

Let's see a couple questions here. Pull this up. We got Josh from Texas. We got Bernard from Cincinnati, Ohio. I know some people are trickling in here. So we're talking about pricing proposals. We're talking about any sort of sales objections you might have with your video business. So if you have those questions, drop them below. And we would love to chat with you about those and any questions you may have. But, Evan, what are some things that you've run into recently? Just some things top of mind for you.

I mean, this is kind of akin to a proposal, but it's like the whole, like, let me see your portfolio kind of thing like that right now. Like, I don't. I. I don't technically have, like, a live portfolio website, anything like that. There's a few aspects of my website, my sales funnels and my social medias where you can go, like, you go to my YouTube channel and see everything that I've done before. But I just now, like, if somebody says, why do you want to. Or they want to see my portfolio, I direct them where they can go do that. But I have to dig into why. That's the thing. It's kind of like wanting to see a proposal. Like, there's something past that that they really don't have answered yet. And that's what they're trying to figure out. And they're just trying to figure out how they can stop talking to you right now. Right?

It's a smokescreen to get off the call, right? Speaking of smokescreens, to kind of get off the call. Hakeem, this might be a good question for you. We had someone ask, what do I do if a client says I'm too expensive? What would you say? Like, what would. What would kind of be your first thing you'd go down if somebody's like, hakeem, I love this video project, but I just think it's too expensive. Like, what would you say to them? Like, how would you tackle that?

The first thing to keep in mind with that is expensive does not definitely mean it's expensive, because is it expensive? And, like, I think it's. The value you're portraying is just not what I'm looking for. I don't think it's. It's worth what it is. That's one. That's one conversation to have, or maybe other conversation is they do see the value, but logistically, you're offering them for 10 grand. And they only have three. And you have to work out some sort of a payment structure.

Right.

So in terms of something being expensive, then it's just more of a case of getting clarity with the client of, like, well, like, aside from the. The money, like, do they actually believe the thing that you just spent 45 minutes presenting them?

Yep.

Something that they actually feel like will. Will get them. Which also ties into the whole proposal route because, you know, it's a lot easier to get off a call and send somebody an email with a attached cover. You know that, Rather than sitting there and having the uncomfortable.

But that's easier, Hakeem. Why wouldn't I just do that, man? It's so much easier to just, like, send it. Yeah, no, 100%. I think it's. You nailed it on the head. It's. It's figuring out what actually is going on. So if they said something like, you know, hey, it's just too expensive, you want to figure out, like, what specifically do you feel like is too expensive? Or can you add. Could you tell me more about, like, what this. Actually, you know, what. What's behind that question? Because then if you can get down to that, then you can address the concern head on and actually figure out what that concern is. And I think a lot of people are losing objections because. Or losing deals because they don't know how to handle that objection. You know, simple.

How do you mean?

How do you mean? Yeah, what do you like. How do you mean by too expensive? And usually it's like, a lot of times. And Hakeem, you could probably talk about this, too, but, like, a lot of times it's not. If you've done everything right in the pitch, it's not a value problem. It is a maybe a logistical thing, and they're just too scared to talk about that. Like, maybe. Maybe talk a little bit about that. Like, how often do you see logistics versus, like, they just don't see the value if you've pitched well.

Yeah.

And again, granted, you've. You've done all the work at the top end of the conversation more times than it really shouldn't be value, because also, it's just naturally human beings, we like to protect our own ego. Sometimes something you might go, hey, I'm charging you 20k for this project. But they feel embarrassed to say they don't have 20k. But you can't just assume anything. You. You get, you, you know, absolutely nothing. And you're never going to know until you. You actually asked the questions.

Yeah.

So it's it can go one of both of those ways, but you're never going to know until you physically ask the client, like, hey, like, when you say it's expensive, do you mean it's like, based on what I've laid out for you, you don't feel like it's worth the 20k and, you know, there's just something you feel like is missing? Or do you feel like this will actually genuinely help you get your business to XYZ, but you don't have 20k liquid. And then they go, oh, no, like, Eric, I just don't have 20k. Then you go, okay, great. We're on the same side of the table. The value is there. Now let's just. Let's just work together and figure out a payment plan that's going to allow them to.

To move forward.

But yeah, I think the big issue is sometimes people don't even ask, which is crazy enough. You're just kind of just guessing. Which then goes back into the whole this, this beautiful looking proposal with all these nice images. Like, that's gonna like, push them that.

Remaining 10% and it won't. Yeah, no, you're right. It's it. And I think you hit the nail on the head when you said a lot of people don't ask because, like, people will say, hey, I'm just not interested, or hey, we can't do this right now. And a lot of people don't even ask, like, yeah, no worries, that's not an issue. Agree with them first. Like, what do you mean by that? Like, do you mind just giving me more clarity on where you're coming from? Because a lot of times, like, we've closed a lot of sales from just asking and getting clarity on the issue and working with the client to find a solution.

Right?

Because if you can sit on the same side of the table as them and say, like, hey, let me sit on the same side of the table. Let's talk about this. Let's figure out if we can actually help you get to where you want to be. Then it's not a you against them slimy sales process thing. It's how can I put my arm around your shoulder and sorry, guys, my. I haven't fixed this cord since the last live.

It's.

How can I put my. Hold on.

I'll drive one over.

You're gonna drive one over. I need to borrow my friend's gear. Apparently it's put your arm around their shoulder and say, like, hey, how can I help get you to where you want to be if you feel like this is the right solution for you. But the other part of that is, like, it's the solution. And so, like, if you're not diagnosing a problem and actually showing them how this can help them get to where they want to be, then it's not going to make any sense. Like, they're not going to invest in it because it's not actually helping them. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Let's go over some. Some questions here. We'll hit some of these in just a second. But yeah, no, I mean, it's figuring out how can I solve a problem for the client? And then how can I show them that this is going to help them get to where they want to be.

The other aspect of that as well that comes to mind is a lot of times, and this is the feedback I get from people who hop on our calls. But a lot of people seem to seem like, to think that the client giving them an objection or concern is like, in a personal. Personal attack on them or they just get very combative.

Yeah.

So it's just. It's also the other component of, like, objections are literally just concerns at the end of the day. And it's more so recognizing that and not taking it as like, you know, punching them in the face and, you know, getting aggressive with it or thinking like, oh, like they're saying no because they think my work doesn't look good. But it's like, well, well, no, the work may not be the issue, but it's like this person genuinely, you know, you're asking them for XYZ to work with you and they don't have it. So it's just. That's the other aspect.

I think some people, they taking it personally. Yeah, you can't take it personally. I mean, like, how many times have you gotten no? How many times have I gotten a no when I've been. When I'm set? Like, we all get no's. It's a part of the game. It's normal. You can't take it personally. Like, Evan, Ethan, everybody's gotten no's. I can't even count how many times I've gotten a no. Right. But it's like, it's not something that's personal to you. It's just you have to dig deeper. Like, most people say no before they say yes. And so if it's a fact of, like, they want to move forward, a lot of times people will naturally have some sort of concern or question. It's very rare. That you get through an entire sales conversation and sales meeting, and they're like, great, I'm ready to buy. Here's my credit card, here's my bank info. Like, it's very unlikely that that happens. And so you do have to make sure that you are, you are not taking that personally and treating it as a concern, not an objection. And then the other side of that that I talked about on Tuesday was like, before the price drop. And Hakeem, you might want to talk about this too. Before the price drop, all those things are just small little concerns. After the price drop, they become these big, scary objections because the minute you let go of that price, you lose all leverage in the conversation. Which is also why we don't want to send a proposal. Because when you send that proposal, you lose all your leverage in the conversation. The client can then say, too expensive. Bye, bye, and then completely ghost you and never talk to you again.

Right.

But Hakeem, how do you work on maybe pre. Handling some things before the price, before you go over the project price versus maybe after that price?

Yeah, the biggest thing about it is like, and again, the way to think about it from a sales perspective, because I know sales seems to have like a stigmatism, particularly like in this industry where it's, it's never, it's not like a slimy way of going about it. You're just having a genuine conversation with somebody. But if it's like, if you're finding there's certain concerns you're getting after the fact that money's on the table, then it becomes infinitely way more difficult to handle that once that's there, because that's when fight or flight takes place. Where, where, if, if somebody tells you, like, oh, like, I had a, you know, I had an agency I work with in the past, the videos were this, like this, that the other. It wasn't very good then part of that is, it may not be your fault, but it is your problem to, like, you could have done a bit more work up, up hand, where it's like, hey, like, before you were talking to us, like, have you worked with an agency before to get video content in place? What have you considered in the past? Because then if you ask whatever you're getting at the end and you formulate into a question at the front end, then you can really just get all these concerns and things out of the way. Because once, once money's on the table, that's when the animal brain takes over and then it just becomes way more difficult.

So it's an uphill battle. And if they're like, hey, I worked with an agency in the past, it didn't work out, what happened, like, dig deep into that. Don't be afraid of going like, don't, don't shy away from that. Because typically whatever happened in that situation is going to be the thing that might kill your deal or might kill the deal for you. And so if something happened, it's like, well, what happened specifically with that? Oh, you know, they never, they never got back to me. The communication sucked. You know, the videographer didn't listen to anything that I wanted him to do. And X, Y and Z. And then you can pre handle those. And being like, hey, we make sure we have a slack communication with you, we communicate with you every day, blah, blah, blah. And you're able to alleviate a lot of those issues, you know, big time.

And then the other component of it as well is again, when you, when you approach the call, like from more of a doctor frame, more of like you're the detective on the call, just being naturally curious, like the right questions will typically come off of that because the reason why somebody might tell you, like why I haven't been able to scale my business and all those things are going to be probably the same reason why they don't want to move forward with you. So yeah, until you ask them what they're currently doing, what have they done in the past? What do they feel like is keeping them on this side of the bridge versus on this side of the bridge.

Yeah.

Once you can have all those puzzle pieces in place, then you know, going into that pitch, like here, here's the landmines I have to avoid. So I don't go back into that. The categorically don't mean the same thing as these guys, but then those are the things that can emphasize on them. So a lot of times if you just listen to the client, like they'll tell you what exactly it is that they need. So it's like if there's anything that anyone you would take away from this live, it's be very present with the people in the call and listen to what they're saying and don't worry about the next thing and the next question after that and the next question after that and 100% that's been a game changer for our entire team across the board. So yeah, no different across in this context either. So that's the other.

Well, I love what you said too. You said that typically the people, the objections that people give are the ones that their clients give them. And you've talked to what, thousands of video business owners at this point, you've been with us for two years at this point, talked to a lot of people on the enrollment side. And it's, it is very funny because like, you'll ask people, you'd be like, what are some of the things that people like? What objections do they give you? And people are like, oh, they say they need to think about it. And then at the end of the call, those people are the same ones who are like, you know, I need to, I need to think about it for two, three, four weeks until I can make a decision either way. And it's funny because, like, those are the same people who get those types of objections from you. You know what I mean? And so like, it really is like you give the objection that you get at the end of the day and you have to make sure that you're aware of that because, like, you attract the. It sounds so woo woo. And trust me, like, I am not a woo person. Maybe I am, I don't know. But like, it's so woo woo. But the energy you put out is the energy that you get back at the end of the day.

Right?

And so if clients are saying you're too expensive, you're probably not investing in yourself or you're giving that objection because people pick up what you put down at the end of the day, you know.

Yep.

Yeah, we have a question on Instagram here. Hey guys, I use Squarespace. Is it okay to show pricing still with Squarespace, I would not show pricing. You want to go over the pricing on the call. So never, ever, ever, ever, ever just send them pricing without walking them through it first. Now if you go through pricing and you go through that and they still have some sort of objection and you try to tackle it at that point, then you can then send that website to them or send that page to them with the, the actual, the pricing on there. But I would not just send them pricing randomly because price without context has no value. And so like, if you're just sending pricing out there, they're just gonna look at the price and be like, oh, it's too expensive, or like, I can't afford this right now. And you're gonna have a very low close rate with that. But good question. Goliath Worldwide on Instagram. Let's pull up some ones from YouTube. I do not know who my dirty sock is. I hope that's a real person. I love this though. It's funny, it reminds Me of like Sesame street or something. Just joined. Getting onboarded today. Dirty Sock. If you're. If you have an actual name, put the name in. Because I know we've had a couple of enrollments today in the program. I'd love to know who. Who you actually are. But that's funny. I love that Mark says, would a website or landing page be a better investment for an agency under one year old? Evan, you want to take this one?

Yeah, I'll answer that one. I would say that landing page or a funnel would probably be the. The best thing to set up. When I first started as a master filmmaker student, I didn't have either. First thing that I had was a funnel, though. Then I got a full built out website as, you know, time went on and. And I figured out all the components of the CRM and everything that we're using. So I would say that if you're trying to have some sort of lead magnet or get, you know, appointments booked or whatever it is, have a funnel to be able to do that. So simple. Three basic steps in a landing page or three basic landing pages there. And then you can worry about building out more of a full website after that's launched and after that's kind of cooking up for you and bringing you leads and doing what it's supposed to do.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I mean, a website's good for organic traffic if somebody's searching your name, but it's not what you need to actually start getting booked appointments. And so I didn't have like an official website till I did over a million dollars in sales. And so you really don't need that to get started. It's something that's more of a back burner type deal. Hey, Dirty sock is Sean. What's up? Sean, I think Evan was your account manager. So we're excited to see inside the program and get you ramped up here. And no worries. You forgot what YouTube account you're on. I don't know what this one's for, but I might switch to the other one. I love it, though. We're happy to have you, Sean. Let's see, have you guys been able to successfully help someone grow a video podcast business using your framework? Ethan, you want to take that?

You've had.

You've worked with 500 clients, I think.

At this point, I've done it a couple times, I would say. So you're talking about for. I'm assuming it's for one of your clients. And the answer is yes. But the biggest thing the Podcast is you got to have some kind of offer on the back end because unless you are like, you know, pumping out, you know, if, I mean, like with podcasts you gotta be in it for the long haul, especially if you don't have something to offer on the back end because then you're relying on like, you know, YouTube ad monetizations and stuff like that. So you have to have something to offer on the back end, you know, whether it's a product or a service. Preferably a service because you can charge for a service. But long answer, short, yes, yes, we have.

Yeah, yeah, I know. David Tinoco is one of our clients that we've worked with. He, he's able to scale to I think 30, 40k a month right now. Has a, he built out a full studio for his clients. He has people come in and record podcasts and that's kind of his front end offer. And so people come in, they pay 2, 3, 4k a month to get podcasts built like, built for them. And then he has another offer that he sells them on the back end basically to maximize the LTV, the lifetime value. So he sells them a 2 to 3k a month package and then he'll upsell them to like a brand video, to testimonial content, stuff like that. So absolutely, Stuart. It's just all about monetization, the podcast.

And then you can sell editing clips on the back end as well.

Well, I know like for, I have a podcast with my wife, right? Like I have a great framework on that offer and how you can actually do that. But no, it's just about, it's about structuring it to where it makes it easier for them. Right? Like, so the framework we use, we get a whole month done within 90 minutes. I would come in, sit down, everything's already ready to go. Now there can be upsells or whatever to that in terms of like the prep side of things, the way that I would do it if I was, you know, had a podcast business per se, I would do kind of like a consultant portion of that there. I wouldn't want to script my client's podcast. It would be inauthentic for me to do that for them, but help them through that process because if that's something that they want to do, they might not know how to do it. So you can kind of put that in the package there for more value for them. But bringing them in for a 90 minute session and being able to have like an entire month worth of stuff where it has A particular cadence and, and works for you is relatively easy to set up.

100%. I love that. Yeah. So hopefully that answers your question there, Stuart. Real good. Really good question on that. We got Sean is back on his normal account. Dude, I want to know how do you have 300000 followers on tick Tock for my Dirty Sock? What kind of content do you post?

Dirty socks.

Dirty socks. I love it. We got a couple questions on Instagram. Goliath Worldwide said, I cannot wait to get in the program. Dude, we're happy to have you. Hop on in. My clients are currently all good with 300 photo shoots and I'm like, who has 2500 for retainers? Yeah, so 2500. So that, that's something I want to touch on too because like if you're doing $300 photo shoots, then your market or your avatar is probably personal. People like people who are like just want the photos for personal reasons. When you're doing $2,500 retainers, like you're doing those for businesses, they're for people who actually want to make money off of the content that you're creating for them. And so like when you can tie yourself into a make money outcome, you can charge a lot more for that obviously because you're able to generate revenue for the business. And maybe Evan, you want to talk about that a little bit as well. But it's like the difference between doing music videos and maybe weddings, which is more of like a B2C offer business to consumer. Or you have more of a B2B offer going to businesses and helping them grow and make more money.

Yeah. I mean again, if we're talking about photo shoots, it's kind of a different realm. Right. Because it's, it's might be a little difficult to figure out how to tie in photography to, you know, some kind of tangible result down the road.

Yeah.

Then you could maybe do it for like ads or something like that. But still, videos I think are going to be the best, better conversion mechanism for you if you're talking about running ads. But you know, it could be something to like, I don't know, let's say it's a medium sized business and you're like doing like a culture shift. Yep.

Right.

And like you have to, you know, you have to get into that mind frame. It might not be directly correlating to, you know, or you know, the bottom line. But if, you know, the, the culture shift comes through having better, you know, headshots and whatever for the sales team. Yep. We Want to do better.

Right.

It's kind of a mindset thing for them and that's kind of how you can correlate it there. Photos would be a little hard to do, but yeah, it's all about how does the thing that you're making translate for them into. Into money somewhere downstream. Yeah.

I mean, there's three outcomes, right? It's health, wealth, or relationships. And so like, you're out. Your offer needs to solve one of those. Like health would be wedding or not. I'm sorry, Relationships would be weddings.

Right.

So like if I want to highlight my relationship, I'm gonna buy a wedding film. I'm gonna hire a wedding videographer because it's a relationship outcome. Whereas wealth is going to be more of businesses. They want to make more money with the content that, that you're creating. So the quicker you can tie that gap in of where they are to where they want to be, the easier it's going to be to make that money off of it. Alex says feel free to ignore too off topic, but I have a reel from 10 years ago working with an ad agency, but none of the work is owned by me. Is there still way a way to leverage that to get my own clients? Evan, you want to take this one?

I mean, I think it's just basically the, it's the informational side of like you've worked with large agencies before. The, I don't know, the back end in terms of owning and whatever you're allowed to use in your own marketing. If you don't have authority to use it, then you probably can't use it in a, in an outbound marketing system, but in a private setting, on a sales call or in an email or whatever, if, if they're dead set on seeing your capabilities as an artist, then you can use it in those, those regards. But I think it's more of the information of I've been doing it for X amount of time, which correlates to how well I can transition this into your current situation.

100. Yeah, absolutely. Crushed it. Yeah, for sure, dude. Any other like topics, things we want to talk about, guys? And if you guys have questions, drop them in the chat. We like to go off of your questions so we don't get too off topic. And we can cover some stuff that you guys actually want to know about. So make sure to drop those below. But Evan, anything else that comes top of mind for you, like what are some things that you're working on? You're working with our clients right now. What kind of Things. Are you working?

So right now I'm trying to sprinkle in for more people. I was just talking to. I think it was Simon over on Slack, and he was talking about, you know, the editor that I hooked him up with and all of that and how he's got. They've got this game plan of action into making more content for him for his Instagram.

Yep.

I was like, you should be making content for yourself as a business on Instagram. I mean, you're asking people to buy content from you, Right? So, like, you have to practice what you preach. You kind of alluded to, like, investing in yourself earlier when you were mentioning, like, if you're not doing that, then people are going to pick up on that. Right. So would. Would you buy something for me if I wasn't actively trying to do it?

Nope.

Myself, probably not. Which is why I'm really heavily invested in content for myself and have been for two years now. I guess I've been, like, consistently doing it.

I remember when you started, dude, we were talking about it. You're like, hey, we're so weird.

I was scrolling through. I was looking for some past stuff for. For a carousel post that I made earlier on Instagram. But I was going through everything, and it was like, I got to the point where it was like, right before Master Filmmaker started for me as a client, and I was like, geez, this is just so crazy to see, like, the growth and. And whatever. And, you know, I did a content shoot. I think it was yesterday or the day before, I can't remember. And I still sometimes get off of those. And I'm like, was that worth it?

Right.

And then, like, I give it to my editor and he gives it back, or I do a little bit of editing and things that I want to do, and it's like, hell, yeah, that was worth it. Like, it. It came out the way that I wanted to. It's got the messaging that I wanted to have.

Well, personal brands are the most important. Like, personal and business brands are the most important things. They're the things that are actually going to survive. You know, AI can replace a lot of things, and I know a lot of people are kind of concerned about that. But if you have a personal brand and you are like, people. People want to work with you because you're you. No one can replace you. And so, like, if you're worried about, like, you can always take your personal brand and go in different directions with it, but, like, no one can replace you. No one can be you. Right. So like if you're not creating content, documenting your process, it doesn't have to be crazy stuff. You don't have to be like a, you know, you don't have to be like Sean over here who has 300,000 followers, which, like, awesome, right? Like, I don't have 300,000 followers. So like, obviously Sean is doing something right. But like, even if you have a small amount of following, you don't need a lot of followers to turn those people into sales, right? No, it's. If you're selling something for a high ticket amount of money, like 15, 20, 30, 40k, like for your video packages, you only need one to two to maybe three of those people convert every single week, every single month for you to make a decent amount of money. So like, it doesn't need to be huge, you just need to start. And like, what were some of the things that you were kind of having to overcome when you were just trying to start?

So when I first started, like, I'll start, I'll start. So when I very first started, this was like before Master Filmmaker as a client. Yeah, I was trying my hand at long form YouTube content. This was pre coat. No right at the tail end of COVID And I didn't know what I really wanted to. I honestly only really did it to get over camera shyness. Yeah, the whole reason I started, but I was like, what do I get on camera? What do I talk about? Well, the only thing that I naturally knew was cameras, gear, making videos, you know, whatever. So I was like, let's talk about that. Quickly realized after going through Master Filmmaker as a student that my messaging there on that end had to change a little bit because I wasn't trying to relate to gearheads or you know, people as videographers or whatever. I was trying to talk to business owners. So I had to change my, my approach. There's. But as I started with Master Filmmaker and it started taking up more of my time and getting all the systems and the process and everything implemented, my long form stuff kind of stopped. But then this is when I got really got inundated with, with reels and short form content. So from there I would just try to tell myself to make one thing a day. And at first it really didn't start off too much with like me on, on like I wasn't turned around and like, you know, selfieing myself or anything like that. Yeah, I would do like funny little quirky things with my kids, but I would try and tie it back to like my kids were like Business owners. And I would ask them silly questions, you know, because you. Most business owners will. Will answer answer real questions in a silly way, like much like a child would. So I was kind of trying to play on that, but then I got just a little bit more used to turning the camera around and. And I would still just try to hold myself to, like, something every day. Cadence. It was not pretty at first. Even, you know, as a videographer myself, like, I was doing it on my phone. Not a lot of fancy captions. I was doing what was easy. I was using in app stuff. And then I came across batching.

Right.

And like really writing down and scripting and formulating ideas. When I say scripting, I mean highlighting, overviewing. I don't really like to per se script stuff where I can. It's usually a waste of time. Yeah, you get a high level of what you want to do, but started batching stuff, came up with the cadence. That worked for me one day a month. Then I was second. Being consistent with was a way to figure out, like, how much volume I wanted to do at an economical way that I can make it happen. Yeah. And I mean, I think at the beginning, it started out as two days. Now it's one day.

Yep.

I think you said something interesting too. A lot of. Because this is something I did too. A lot of videographers and video business owners, they make content that other videographers and video business owners want to watch. And so, like, when you're making content about gear and about production company stuff, you have to think about, who cares about the content. Is it other videographers or is it my target market? And so if you're going after, say, medical companies and you want to create content for them on retainer, you want to make content that appeals to medical companies. So you want to talk about problems that they have, issues that they have. You don't want to be talking about the. The like actual creation process all the time because they don't care about that. They care about how does it solve their business problems. And their business problems would be getting more leads, getting more clients, getting more patients in the door, right?

Yeah. A BTS video is not bad here and there where it's like, this is how easy it is to actually do it. But, you know, yeah, our clients hire.

Us for producer, director capability, and we hire local production companies. Do most of your clients maintain their own production gear? I can touch on that a little bit. And then, Evan, you can jump in if you want. It really just depends on what. So if you're just doing producer, director. You're more of, like. It sounds like you're probably more of a. More of like a individual or like a freelancer, which there's nothing wrong with, but it sounds like you might be more of like a freelancer versus like a production company. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're not doing the production, then it makes no sense for you to have the gear if you're hiring a production company. Now, if you are someone where you're like, hey, I want to partner with a production company and make my own company, right, Where I. We do directing and production all in one thing, then that would make more sense to where, when you acquire that production company, you would then have the gear that they have in there as well. Evan, I don't know if you have any notes on that, but.

No, I mean, I own most of my equipment. I do rent things here and there where I need to. But yeah, I mean, as. As the. As the whole package, I. I own everything under my own.

Yeah, and that's more like, if you're a full production agency, if you are just directing, that's more of like, it's just you and the business is kind of based around you.

Specifically, like a broker almost.

Yeah, you're almost like a broker. So, like, either if your model's working for you there, then keep doing that, but if you're like, hey, I want to expand my model to where we're a production company that does everything, then I would say maybe we, you know, obviously acquire a production company or partner with somebody where you can do that tattoo, make art now on your arm. Yeah, for sure. I got you. Hakeem, I know you talk to a lot of people. What are some things. What are some kind of concerns or things that people bring up that might be like, questions or stuff that they have as they're talking with you on the. These calls, as they're. They're having these chats, and I'm putting you on the spot. So if you need a minute to think, I can circle back.

Well, I. I would say one thing that stands out for sure is a lot of people in this space, they're so predicate. You know, they so focus on, like, hey, I got to do good work. Nobody really thinks about the business end, which is the marketing and the sales. So. So the big conversation we have on. On our meetings is just like, they. They want to grow their business, but they think that running ads won't work for them or taking sales calls is slimy. Or I'm not representing my brand in the, in the highest light possible. So I think that's maybe something that you could, you guys can kind of riff off there in terms of the mindset of what it takes to go from being like a creative to being somebody who actually runs a business and doesn't have the business running them every day because they're running all over the place. So yeah, that would be the big thing that sticks out to me if that's something that you've noticed as well. People who initially come in on board on the program and have acclimate to having to.

Well, it's working in your business versus working on your business, right. And we talk about this all the time. But if you want to work in your business, if literally all you want to do is shoot video and edit, then go get a job somewhere and be an in house videographer editor. And there's nothing wrong with that. And I think some people are like, oh, I don't want to do that. It's like, there's nothing wrong with that. That's completely fine. If all you want to do is be an artist, go do that. That's great. But like, if you want to buy your time back, have financial freedom, have like the freedom to do what you want when you want. By hiring a team to buy back your time, then you have to build a business because the business is the asset and you're able to hire people and plug people in where you need to, where you don't have to do all the work yourself. Right. And so I think that's just a question you need to ask yourself. It's like, you know, it's the Italian shoe cobbler who does everything himself and he's an amazing craftsman. Right. Versus Nike. Nike's a business. They're not like a custom shoe manufacturer. Right. They are a business. At the end of the day, they're not somebody who is going to have the same maybe level of quality as an Italian shoe cobbler. But the Italian shoe cobbler is bottlenecked by his own time every single day, right? Yeah. So I think it's just asking yourself, like, do you want to run a business? Do you want to build a business? Because like we're here to help people build businesses that buy back their time. So they're not 80 years old, freelancing, dping on set. Right? Like, I didn't want to do that. And so like, that's the world I came from. And I can only talk about my own experience there. So you Know.

Yeah.

What other things do you get typically, Hakeem? Like, what are some other kind of questions or things that you. You get from people? Or like, maybe some common misconceptions or, like, you know, belief issues or things like that that people have when they're speaking with you?

Yeah. The big thing I would just say is people trying to put a. A band aid on a bullet wound. And what I mean by that is they might say, hey, I recognize I need to get better at sales. You know, I'm not getting enough clients across the line. But instead of putting in the sweat equity to get better at the skill set that is sales and converting more leads, they think their solutions to their businesses. Let me go hire a salesperson off the street and cross. And cross my fingers.

This is. Dude, I'm about to. I'm about to go off on this one. Evan. Probably go off on this too, until Ethan. So, Evan, why can't I just go hire a salesperson to do, like, I don't want to deal with marketing and sales. Why can't I just go hire someone?

Sure. So. So I look at it. I'll look at it from. Not maybe so much of a sales side, but, like, talk about. I get. A lot of people ask me, like, can I just hire somebody to run my ads for me? Yeah, like, right. And it's like, I mean, yeah, you can, but until you know at least a little bit about how to go about navigating those waters, you will never know if you're getting taken advantage of. What's the benchmark of what actual success looks like there? Like, if I, If I didn't know anything and they were just coming through and saying, like, yeah, your ads are. Everything's running smoothly and it's great, and.

You want to start spending $10,000 a day. It'll fix everything.

Yeah, you can. Something in the air might not be right, but if they're telling you that it's. Everything's going good, then who am I to say that it's not right? So it's. It's kind of one of those things is how I look at it.

How would I know? Yeah, it's like, how. How would you know if they're doing it right if you've never done it? Like, here's, here's my philosophy. You need to learn the skill first. You need to understand it at a decent. A decent enough level, and then you now have the right to delegate it. But if you don't know how to run your business, you can't Hire somebody to run your business because you're just going to get a job at that point.

Point.

Like, there's just. There's no way.

I have another one that's kind of the same.

Oh, yeah.

And it kind of. It's kind of in the same realm. So I was having a chat with this guy, and we were talking, and he was like, you know, why can't I just hire somebody in house to, like, work at the company here with me? And I'm like, you can, but do you know what you're hiring for? Like, he doesn't know what he's supposed to ask in that hiring process to see what they even know what are they going to do for them. Any of those things. It's like, so you. That's where me coming in as somewhat of a consultant, like, yeah, if you want to do that, cool. We can. I can consult with you for three weeks or whatever to find the right hire for you. This is what you need to look for. Right. But they. They don't really think about that. They. They. They see the big prices, and when we, when we, when we give the. We give the packages, and they're like, oh, yeah. And they think they're trying to scramble for other alternatives. Yeah, they really don't think about the other pitfalls that the other alternatives.

I've had so many people we've talked to, and they're like, dude, I'm just gonna go, you know, I'm gonna go hire a salesperson first. Hakeem's heard this before. Don't we love that one? It's so good. I'm gonna go hire a salesperson first. Couple problems with that. A, you don't know how to sell your. Your own service. That's a big problem. How are you gonna. How are you gonna train the salesperson? B, you don't have any leads coming in. Like, you can't just have your sales team cold calling people. It's not gonna work.

Right?

They're going to quit, I promise you. I've had a lot of clients. They're going to quit. Hakeem would quit if I made him cold call all day. Right, exactly. So, like, you can't have that because there's no opportunities for them. And also, like, a salesperson is not your saving grace. They're not somebody who's just going to come in and magically make you money.

That's not how it works in the interview process. They're going to interview you a little bit, too, and see, yeah, hey, how.

Many leads do you have coming in one of Reading?

And they're stepping into how much can I expect to make? How much do your clients pay you? How many do you get per day?

Yep. You know, we don't have any clients yet, or we have a couple clients, but we haven't really figured out how to get them yet. No salesperson is going to join because they, they have no way to make money. Like, like, and this is something that I got from if you know who Matt Ryder is. But like Matt Ryder talks about, you have to have systems. Like, amazing businesses are built on amazing systems and then you plug people into those systems. But if you don't have a system for getting leads, getting calls, getting clients, there's literally no way you're going to have a salesperson just plug in and make money. They're going to quit, they're going to struggle. They're not going to make you any money. No matter what they tell you or this is the one I love. They're going to say, yeah, just pay me five grand a month, no commission. I don't want to make any commission. I just want you to pay me a base. And then you're going to pay them five grand a month and they're not going to get anything for you because there's no way for them to get deals outside of cold calling. And like, cold calling can worse. But it sucks.

It doesn't replace any, it doesn't replace marketing.

It doesn't replace marketing. If you don't know how to run your marketing department, learn how to do that, which is obviously what we help our clients with. Learn the systems and then you can start delegating to other people. But if you fundamentally don't want to run a business or you don't want to learn marketing and sales, that's running a business. I hate to break it to you, and I'm just going to be really blunt on this.

It's every business in the world, every.

Business is built on three things. Business, it's marketing, sales, fulfillment. That's it. If you do not want to learn marketing and sales and you just want to do fulfillment, go work on a fulfillment team at another business.

That's the those and then it comes to mind of people who want to, you know, you bring in sales people, but then you don't have much marketing to begin with. I mean, it's, it's again, it's all about like the people in the vehicle. Whereas, like, you can get the world's best NASCAR driver, but you put that guy in A Honda Civic with two flat tires.

Right?

That guy is coming in last place every single time.

It doesn't matter how good he is. I could have the best selling person in the world.

They don't have to have the volume to back that. So any salesperson worth their salt is not going to stick around if you give them two leads on a monthly basis, but also at the same time. It's like if you have good marketing in place, but you don't want to be the person who optimizes a sales process and you expect somebody else to figure it out for you, then you can't. You can't be upset if they don't work out. Because the biggest mishire that you can make in your company is a salesperson.

Who doesn't work out.

That's just a lot of lost revenue.

A lot of lost cash. What about Hakeem? What if I said, hey, I want to hire an agency first? I've never run marketing before, but I want to hire an agency to do it for me. Why is that not a good idea?

I mean, you definitely could, but then what happens? 60 days into that relationship, the guy goes up, our company's going belly up. We have to close the doors on our business. Right?

That, or an agency is only going to help you run ads and get traffic if your offer sucks. If you have no offer, you haven't. You haven't validated an offer. No agency is going to work with you, or if they do work with you, they're just going to try to take your money because they. And it's not actually going to help you. But if you don't know how to. If you don't have an offer that's validated, like you've sold it at least 10 to 15 times, then you don't have an offer. Like, you can't start running ads. You can't start marketing. You have to start with the offer. So it goes our offer inbound system, then the sales, and then fulfillment. But if you don't have that offer dialed in, then, like, I mean, what are you going to do? Like, you can hire an agency. They're just not going to work out.

Right?

Well, it's also like what Evan said. If you don't know anything about marketing or ads or any of that, and you don't know if they're, you know.

Hey, man, we're doing great. Yeah, it's like, we're doing okay. Yeah, you just need to spend more on ads, and then you'll be good. And then you're just like, I mean, what a horrible place to be. Yeah. Like you're screwed at that point because you don't know if they're doing a good job or they're not doing a good job. They're just telling you what you want to hear maybe. And then you're just at you like that's, that's where you're at.

Right. You have to know enough to be dangerous.

You have to be. Yeah, exactly. Rough cuts over here says, how do I discuss pricing with a client in a way that doesn't split hairs for a complete itemized breakdown? So I think he's asking like, how do I, how do I go over pricing? And they don't ask me for an itemized breakdown. Evan, you want to take that one?

I think that just goes back to. I think this was the last live I was on. But it's just value based pricing. Yeah, right. Understanding what the potential is that your system and structure or your package can be constructed to make them back. And, and basing it off of that, it just that that that variance goes through like what industry and different things like that are. Because, you know, if we're trying to sell 20 shampoos. Right. There's a difference between that and landing a, I don't know, a 2.3 million dollar house commission. Right. That gets you whatever it gets you.

Right.

So it's just understanding what the value is going to be for them. Because it kind of goes back to like your clothes of like. Well, honestly, do you think that if in the next three months of us working together, you're not going to close at least one person that's going to pay for what we're doing this entire time and then it's going to happen and then they will come to terms with whether or not they believe that it's going to happen for them. And then you kind of go from there.

Yeah. And the other side of it too is like, and this is something we help our clients with, it's a longer conversation around what you should charge, how that looks like everything's custom, it's different. But when you do present price, you give them three options. So like let's say you have a three month, a six month and a 12 month. You just have three month, six month, 12 month. You give them the amount of videos they're gonna, you're gonna be giving them over that time period and then a price.

So if it's a brand video, $3,000.

Yeah.

You don't do brand video $3,000. Or you don't do brand video. Pre production, $2,000 production, $1,000. Post production, 4,000. Like, you don't do that one price forever. Got it.

I was gonna say same thing with crew as well, you know, you know, DP pa. Like, everybody's like, oh, can we just take the gaffer out, you know, and, you know, get pre production.

You know, we'll. We'll. Our team will edit it. It's not a big deal. You just get people who nickel and dime you at that point. It's kind of like, does anyone here like flying Spirit? Maybe Hakeem does.

I don't know.

Hey, I've been on a couple of Spirit flights, and I was not mad.

I'm gonna wreck Spirit right now. It sucks. But, like, you. You pay 50 bucks for a ticket, and then you have to pay, like, a hundred bucks for your bag, and then you have to pay, like, $2,000 for snacks or some. I don't know what it is, right? And then it's just like. It's like they're nickel and diming you for everything. So, like, I get pissed off from that when I go through an experience like that. Your clients don't want to know how much everything costs. They want one price for a certain amount of things, and they want to know that it's going to get them the outcome that they want at the end of the day.

That's why I fly Delta.

That's why I fly Delta. I'm gonna get that on a hat or, like, tattooed on my neck or something. That's why I fly Delta. Right there. But it really is. You give them one price, you never want to tell them how much everything costs, because that's not the customer's business. That's your business, right? That's where you make your margin. It's not their business. So, any other questions, guys? We're gonna wrap up here in just a minute. Hakeem, any other kind of misconceptions you get, talk to everyone on the front line. So, just curious if you have anything else.

I mean.

I mean, we.

We hit.

We've hit all the. The main points here. Trying to think, but yeah, for sure.

If you think of anything, just let me know. But, yeah, that's super helpful. Thanks, guys. A lot of my clients request video production services without having their systems in place and successfully maximize them. Yeah, for sure. So you just want to say, like, hey, here's how much. This is total. This is what that looks like. And then this is package A, package B, package C. You give Them, those prices, that's it. End of story, right? They don't need to know how much each one costs. Yeah, cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, guys. Well, yeah, this is just some of our team here. Everyone else is. Is working today. So we got to get back to work here and help our amazing clients land some more deals. And if you guys need anything, feel free to book a call. There should be a link below this video to book a call or book a demo with our team. You might be speaking with Hakeem or Danny or Sam or Jose or Evan or someone like that, and we're happy to help. See if we can help you scale your video business. So with that being said, guys, if you need anything else, just let us know. We love you, too. Rough. Rough cuts. We're. We're excited to see you close some deals, man. Thanks again. You got it, guys. Absolutely. And we will see you guys next week. Peace.

You ain't gotta ask me? We can hit the road? Got room in the backseat? Boys from the back street? Come so far? Just singing over rap beats? See you on the way up? Only looking down when we're seeing where we came from? You ain't gotta wait up? Never gonna slow back? They can't take us down? There's no reason to fight this feeling? Cause I love this life? Everything's all right? And there's no reason to stop believing? Yeah, love this life, yeah? Love this life? Yeah? Love this life? Yeah? Love this life? Is not a race? It's someone big show I can see it now that the truth is told? Feels like letting go? Cause I love this life? Yeah? Feels all right? And there's no reason to stop believing? To fight this feeling? Yeah, love is life? Yeah? Love this life? Yeah? Love this life? Yeah? Love this life?