How Wil Closed $69K In 1 Day - Master Filmmaker Review

What's going on, guys? I am here with Will from Light Touch Media group, who closed 69k in one day. And obviously it took time to get to this point, but. Will, what's going on? How are you?

Yeah. Not unhappy.

Yeah, I was gonna say.

Yeah, I love it.

You mind just for anybody who doesn't know you, do you mind just giving us a little bit of background on kind of you, your company, you know, what led to this point, and then we can kind of go from there?

Yeah, it's an interesting story, and I'm. I'm the first person who will just be upfront honest about things because I think that's helpful to other business owners and entrepreneurs. So I've been doing the kind of work that I'm doing. I own a creative agency, so I've been doing that kind of work for 17 years. As my second agency, I've made the Inc. 5000 list six times at two different companies. I've won tons of industry awards. We've worked with Fortune 50 companies, household name companies, and I've had a really interesting, fun career and have done a lot of interesting, fun projects. And for about 15 years, I was doing sort of the same stuff, and it worked, and it worked well, and I just was getting a little too complacent, I think, in hindsight. And then about two years ago, the things that we had been doing to generate new business stopped working. AI just set off this nuclear bomb in the middle of our industry, as anybody who does what we do knows. And we just. It still hasn't settled out right. And I don't know that it's going to the analogy I keep giving people. It's like if you were around for the first 10 years of the Industrial Revolution, you didn't know that it wasn't called the Industrial Revolution, it was just called today and next week. Right. But it was incredibly disruptive. And on the other side of that, the whole world changed. I think most people would argue for the better in terms of being more productive and things like that. And I think we're entering a golden age for creative work, for production. I think 10 years from now, when all this is kind of settled out into the new economy, there are going to be a lot of really great things that come as a result of that. But right now, in the last couple of years, it's been really disruptive and challenging for a lot of people. And so my agency went through a lot of that. And so for different reasons, we were going to different vendors and looking for help. That we had never needed before. And I was really scrambling. You know, it takes a while if you're doing really well. It's like a slow motion car crash. Right. It takes a long time to not be doing very well. So by the time I found you, I was not doing well. And I was. You were, I think, literally maybe the fifth, maybe even the sixth vendor that I talked to in two years. I had spent tens of thousands of dollars on all these different solutions and just nothing was working. It was just driving me absolutely crazy because it's not like it was a new bright idea I'd had that I didn't have any success with. And 8,000 projects. Right. Like, I know what I'm doing.

Yeah, you do.

And you were honestly the first person that I've dealt with who had the combination of personal care and actual know how and expertise and. And you didn't give up on the process. And you really went above and beyond in a way that literally no other vendor was willing to do. Right. I. I dealt with a lot of people who had a great sales pitch, who seemed like they knew what they were doing, who had some statistics to back up, you know, some success stories and things like that. Yeah, but you, you've really been the first person who really stepped up. And, and at one point, I think you basically said, like, look, we tried this thing. It's not working. I like you. You're a good guy. So you work hard, you're smart. I see that you're good at this. I really want to help you. What do you think about pivoting and going after this new vertical in a new way? And honestly, if you had talked to me two years earlier, I would have said, no, man, I do what I do, and I don't want to do that. But I think I, you know, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me five times, I'm an idiot. Right. And so it was sort of the same. What is it? The definition of insanity is doing the.

Same thing, same thing over and over again.

So I finally was sort of ruined enough professionally to be like, all right, ye, let's. I'm game to try and. And we did the work exactly per the program. You guys were there to side check and give feedback at each stage. And it. And it just started working. I could see like, okay, yeah, it's.

Literally just the beginning because we had this big day. It was Yesterday, I believe. 69k of contracts in a day. Right. And that's literally just the start. It's the. I would say it's like the validation of the process. It is worked, right? It's working. I know people on your team are getting used to the process. We're acclimating it because. And I'm not going to go too deep into anything here, but I guess it might be helpful for people who are in, who are in your same situation where they're maybe dealing with. Because you dealt with what Fortune 500, Fortune 50, like large companies doing their media and now we're kind of making a pivot towards more of a, an SMB type route. Right. Without giving it all away, I guess. Like what has been different in that process that I feel like would be helpful for people coming from the same world as you. If they're watching this and they're like, oh, I'm going to go to SMBs. Like what do you feel like is the. There's a lot of differences but like what do you feel like is kind of different within that?

Yeah, like you said, there are a lot of. There are more differences than I realized. So I was used to dealing with like a marketing director or above at like $100 million per year US companies. Right? Yeah. That's a very particular sort of conversation and point of view. It's not their money. Typically they have budgets and they got to stick within budget constraints, but it's not personal to them. Right. At all. So they're, they're there to do a job and you're there as a vendor. And there are a lot of things I really loved about it. We still do some of that work for a few key clients that we've had for years and I still enjoy that work. It's fun, it's interesting. I learned a lot doing it. But it's not personal and it's not emotional typically at all. When you're dealing with small business owners, this is their baby. It's everything to them. And interestingly, I'm used to working with professional marketers. We're sort of an extension of an in house team, which is sometimes like a 50 person agency, right? Yeah. And with this, they don't want. Most business owners don't want to deal with this. Occasionally maybe 10% enjoy it, find it interesting. They're looking to maybe establish like a professional voice online. They want to be an influencer to some degree. But most people like, man, can you just wave a magic wand and solve this for me? Because I know I got to do this. Am I going to have to do the TikTok dance stuff? I'm like, no, that's not what we do around here.

Yeah.

And so it's been a very emotional sale. Also, all of your sales training, I remember when I first signed up, you're like, we have all the sales training. I was like, I don't need that. Like, I'm totally fine on this. Yeah. And I've done a lot of sales, but I have found it's very, very different. And it's more old school traditional sales. It's more like business, consumer sales, which I'm actually really enjoying. And you're training very, very helpful. And so I had to. It's been two years of eating humble pie daily, like, sort of like, okay, I think I know some stuff and I do know stuff. Willing to pivot and make changes and, and be a student again. And I think the, the silver line to all this is that I'm actually, I got to be an entrepreneur again at a level I wasn't expecting in terms of. I basically built a new business within sort of the, the ashes of my old business. And I enjoy this. I do.

Like, yeah, it's, it's different. Right. It's just, I think, I think the, the key thing there I'm, I'm picking up on is like, it's, you have to be willing to adapt. And I think a lot of people are like, some people are not willing to adapt and then that's where they, they run into some issues. But kudos to you to where it's like you're willing to adapt and make changes and try new things. And like, I think for video agencies is always changing and for now it's like it is changing and shifting towards a lot of these SMBs that need content ongoing and it's just a different sale. Right. But you have to adapt to that, make changes, and then if you can do that, then you're able to pivot and make those changes in the face of AI or other types of kind of challenges that get thrown towards our industry. You know what I mean?

That's the other thing I would say about the pivot. All the stress, what was happening slowly over time, it was like death by a thousand paper cuts because AI was getting smarter. It's sort of, there's a few layers to it. The first thing is the hype around AI is ridiculous. So even like two years ago when it was not even remotely what it is right now, the people that we worked with knew that wasn't true. But the boss's boss at this Fortune 500 company who's pretty high up there, was like, you should just get AI to do that. Right. And they're like, okay, boss, sounds good. And they're in the middle of that curve of trying to do that and it doesn't work and it's a disaster or whatever. Yeah. And, and so I had to worry about sort of the stress of this, like the robots are coming for our jobs. Right. Because all I was doing primarily was content creation. I wasn't involved typically in the ad buying and seeing results in the real world. We just sort of passed the baton. Like, here's this really well done thought leadership series we created for you. It's your job to go do things with it. Now we get to run the whole thing, which I actually really enjoy. I love helping people and I love being smart about it. And so again, just the willingness to pivot, I think is just so vital because God knows five years from now it's going to completely shift again. But now I get to take advantage of all that AI is offering instead of like, I made the decision, there is a tsunami coming and I can either get crushed by it and destroyed by it, or I can learn to surf the wave. Right?

Yeah.

And that's what I've been doing. And with the help of the program, it's been well.

And you guys, I want to give major kudos to you and your team because they, I mean, we, we work with you, you guys execute, we get these things changed, made, like. And I think that's where a lot of the, the speed of implementation comes from, where we're making those changes quickly and we're able to adapt. Which is huge. Kind of a weird question, but I guess, like, where do you feel like you might have been if you hadn't obviously taken the leap, joined the program? Because you had been burned before by other programs, right? And other people and other service providers, like, you know, a lot of people. I think at that point would be what? I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore. Like, everything is, is just not working. Like, what, what kind of made you be like, hey, let's, let's take another chance.

I think having had my back up against the wall, I say to my wife, she's like, long suffering, poor woman. She's a filmmaker, she makes movies. Like, she's incredibly talented.

She's cooler than all of us.

Exactly. Yeah. It just sees me, you know, force. Gumping my way through my whole career trying to figure stuff out. And for better or for worse, I do my best work without a net, when my back is up against the wall and there's like, like if you need the shot made and there' the clock for whatever reason, that's when that I find that extra gear and I get it done. I'm trying not to operate like that going forward. You know, I'd like a little more stability. That's what we're working on. Sort of. I've hit. I've hit rock bottom a few times professionally and, and it's sort of like you find out what you're made of and you also realize like the sun comes up the next day and it's not nuclear war. It's like life goes on. You're not quite as important as you think you are, right. In the grand scheme of things. And so you can just relax, you breathe and just say, okay, what am do to fix it? Like that's, that's my only option here. I'm not going to go live in a refrigerator box. Let's get it.

Solving problems, making changes. And, and I really enjoyed our conversation. Last question. I guess if anyone is maybe in the same situation as you, they're contemplating even just booking a call with us, talking with us, seeing if it's a fit for them. I guess based on your experience, what kind of advice would you give them? Knowing what you know now, I think.

It'S okay to be uncomfortable and frustrated and scared. Honestly, I was, I was unbelievably stressed when I signed up for the program.

Feel.

And the other short answer to your question is I probably would have been declaring bankruptcy. Now just. And that's not the end of the story. It's a very unpleasant transition. Right. That doesn't mean I'm giving up on my life. But my business was crashing and it was at the point where it was on its last legs and something had to fundamentally change. And so I would just say, like, you don't have to love being in the position that you're in if you're making a transition or if you're brand new, that's a much happier, more fun story. And either way, the answer is sort of the same, is that you guys provide, provide a genuine framework, the, the coursework and everything that you provide. It really is step by step. It's like, it's like cooking instructions for idiots. It's like ordering, ordering food services where they give you all the ingredients and the instructions. It's like if you can boil water, you can learn how to actually cook good food. Right? With you guys, it's the same thing. And there really is a culture of care with your program that's genuine. Right? You guys really enjoy seeing people win, and you're very good at what you do. I'll say that, too. I think a lot of other programs I've seen, people have figured out the algorithm in terms of showing up on your feed, in terms of the. They hook you immediately, the right sales pitch, they sort of. They know how to sell on social media. But have they actually solved those problems in the real world? Do they have hundreds of happy clients who've succeeded with their work, you know, with their program? I don't know. That was not my experience with anybody else. So I would say it's a leap of faith and it can be uncomfort and a little scary, and that's okay. Like, it's. This is worth. This is worth the leap. You know what I mean? You guys are. You. You're the first vendor we worked with who delivered on your promises, bottom line. Right?

I appreciate that. I really appreciate that. It is very fulfilling to just hear that. Right? Because, like, that's. That's why we do what we do. We really appreciate you guys, and we appreciate the opportunity to be able to serve you guys as well and help you guys get to where you want to go. And. And like I said, this is literally just the beginning. We've just validated the concept by. By closing 69k in contracts in a day. And now we're just going to keep going on and on and on and onward and upward from here. So will. I appreciate your time. And we'll do another one of these when we're even higher and we'll go from there.

Yeah, sounds good, man. Awesome.

Appreciate it.

Yep.