Live Q&A

What is going on, guys? How are, how are we doing? Ethan, am I lagging out over here or am I okay?

Uh, frame rate's a little slow, but audio is good.

I got too many cloud sessions going, bro. I'm telling you, my computer can't keep up. I need to get it. I got a Mac Studio. I get it. I got to get a, a beefier one. Um, if I lag out though, guys, bear with me here. We're back for another live Q&A. Let's see, computer is just not doing the best today, man. I gotta make a, gotta make a new purchase. Um, we're live on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, uh, LinkedIn, not TikTok because TikTok sucks. So, uh, we're not on there, uh, but we're here answering any questions you guys have around scaling your agency, how to get more leads, how to get more clients, how to make Meta ads work, how to film better creative, how to get better, uh, leads in the door. And we are here to help you guys. So if you are just jumping on, we're gonna give you a minute, drop a comment down below on where you're calling in from, and we're happy to answer anything you got here. Uh, Ethan, what's been going on this week? What is the theme? What are you seeing?

It's the biggest thing this week has been, you know, sticking to like the offer that you have, not necessarily being just like an order taker and, you know, coming in as like more of the, I guess, like the doctor rather than the patient. Yeah, because you guys are the expert in, you know, video marketing, all the tools that you have, versus, you know, just letting them tell you what they want to do versus, you know, making the recommendation of, hey, based on what you told me, where you're at and where you're looking to go, Yeah, the solution to move forward with. Yeah. Yeah.

I think a lot of creatives sometimes struggle with that where they're like, hey, uh, we are going to just take orders. And I think too, like, they're just not building enough authority in the conversation and they feel like they are less than that person that they're talking to in the conversation. And it becomes this like weird kind of gap between the two where it's like they're talking down to you because you're just a freelancer or whatever. Um, that can definitely impact things as well. I think another thing I was talking to someone earlier about Um, they run an agency and I won't obviously share too many details, but basically they were not seeing the type of leads or booked calls and quality that they wanted from the ads that they were running. And I think it's a good, it's a good note for everybody that I told him. I said, most people's ads are just lazy. Like a lot of times you're just very lazy. You're not putting a lot of effort into the ads. You're not putting any sort of time into the ads. And then your ads end up looking like everybody else's ads on the platform. And then That's when they hop on that call, price shop you, push you down to the cheapest price, try to make it as, you know, compare all the options and then put you in this like commodity-based pricing instead of this, you know, category of one pricing that we want to be in a lot of times. And I think people just are not putting enough effort into the ads. And then when I define effort, I think sometimes people are like, you know, everybody tells you make better ads, right? But like, what does that actually mean? A lot of times, and a lot of times what it means is literally just making ads that educate your audience more than your competitors. Cause everybody else is running the ads. You've probably seen them where it's like, we'll get you a million views or you don't pay, or we'll get you a million dollars or you don't pay, or I'll get you $5 million or I'll give you my firstborn child, right? It's like these crazy claims that I think most people are tired of seeing.

Yeah.

And I don't think there's anything wrong with the claims, But I think if you're gonna make a claim, you have to have some sort of like longer form ad on the backend to back up how that claim works. Right? So it's like, hey, we're gonna help you get this result. Has to be a believable result, first of all, uh, in this timeframe. And then let me explain how we actually do that. And it's like, we need to have some sort of explanation in like a sketchbook format or a longer form format or a VSL format in the actual ad. That explains to them like how it's actually gonna work. And then like breaking beliefs or belief systems that somebody might have, um, excuse me, prior to working with us, right? So it's like we have to, we have to provide enough in that ad, put some effort in if we actually want to get qualified leads, people who put in the right info, they show up to a call, they pay us $15,000 to $50,000, which is what some of our clients charge, right? It's like, You can't just run like an AI slop image and then expect that you're gonna get people to click on that one image that they saw from you 5 seconds ago, book a call, show up to the call, pay you $15,000 to $50,000, and then be a great client. Like, you're just not gonna, like, you have to put some more effort in. And I think a lot of people miss that. You see that on your end too? Like when you're talking to people, when you're reviewing ads, looking at their stuff. Yeah.

And we've talked about it too before, like the, the pre-call process is so important of Yeah, the education, the social proof, whether it's, you know, testimonials, having a VSL, just so they come in more informed. Like you said, they're not just going to watch a 30-second ad, show up to a call with no follow-up, and then give you $30,000.

Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think the biggest thing too is like you have to, you have to nurture. Like the ad's job, and this is what I talk to all of our clients about, The ad's job is to get you somebody who is qualified, they have the money, and they're the right fit. Now, being qualified and having intent are two separate things. I can be qualified, but I can have zero intent to buy your product or service, right? I could have a lot of intent, but I have no money, right? You need both a lot of times. And I would honestly rather talk to the person who has intent, but not tons of funds, but they're willing to find a way to make the funds work, then talk to somebody who has money but has no intent, right? And sorry guys, I'm lagging out here. This, this, uh, I don't know what's going on today with my setup. Um, but that is, I think what a lot of people are missing where when you do cold outbound, they have no intent because they did not reach out to you. There is no intent there. They're not interested yet. You have to manufacture that intent. And I think that's why it's so difficult. To do cold outbound and have it work for you is because like, it's very, very difficult to make someone want something when they don't innately want it. Right. Um, and then you have to try to close them too. Now we do have a client, CJ, dude, they are savages with cold outbound and we're just now implementing paid ads for them, which they're gonna absolutely murder on. They closed a $36K deal from, uh, from literally just like cold outbound, which is awesome. But like when you have people who actually want to book a call with you, they want to buy your service, they are qualified, that's when you have a good time on ads and that's when you start to see that consistency within the business, right? Um, and I think people get those two things conflated where it's like intent and quality are not the same. And the way you manufacture intent is by breaking a belief system, educating them, and then talking about the dream outcome that that person wants, right? Not throwing up an AI slop image and then being like, cool, gonna book some clients from this, man. Like, this is great. You know?

No, exactly. Yeah. CJ, they've, I think the only, they've only ever done cold outbound.

Yeah. And they, and they, they do well with, they've done fairly well, but now they're like, we wanna hit $2.5 million in the next, I think, 6 months with ads. Which if they are this aggressive with cold outbound, I think they could definitely do it for sure. Um, yeah, I think it's just a matter of getting those, getting those leads and then talking to them. But yeah, I mean, that's the, uh, that's the biggest thing is just like quality versus intent. You have to have people who want to buy the thing that it is that you're trying to sell. So, uh, guys, what questions do you have about that? I see everyone on Instagram. I see some people on YouTube live here as well. Uh, drop us some questions. Otherwise we're just gonna yap and then we're gonna hop off. So That's it. Um, but yeah, really comes down to quality versus intent. And then the way you get better quality is you just make better ads, better ads, meaning longer ads, more educational ads, ads that teach somebody something, break a belief. And a good, good thought process, I think, for a lot of people too, is like, what is a belief that your client has that isn't true that you can break in like a sketchbook or like a long-form type of ad, right? It's like, what is something that your customer believes But isn't true, uh, that you can break a belief on, right? And for us, for you guys, a lot of agencies think they can't charge more, right? So it's like, how could I make an ad that talks about how that belief is not true and then reframe that belief into something, uh, that benefits them, right? So it's like, well, you really can charge more. It's just that you are not selling in a way that justifies that, right? So, um, Any thoughts on that, Ethan, on your end?

No, no, I'd say another one is that, you know, the, uh, you know, like the referral thing is a, uh, you know, the, you know, getting referrals is thinking that referrals are the only way to get customers. Yeah, yeah, or it's a, or, uh, you know, a consistent way to get customers.

It's not. Yeah, I mean, referrals are great, it means you do a good job, but you know, they are not consistent.

You don't own that process.

You don't own that process at all. There's no, there's no ownership at all in that process. It is, uh, it is strictly just get like guessing and then like luck is the main thing. Um, cause you can't control how many people talk about you on a monthly basis. It's just not, it's not a volume knob that I can turn up and down. Sorry, I guess camera's gone wonky.

No, that should be, that should be like a nice to have on top of inbound.

It is.

Yeah.

And it is, it is great. It, it's a sign that you're doing a good job, but It is, it shouldn't be the only way you acquire customers. You should have multiple ways to acquire customers and clients. And that's what, that's what, like, that's how you actually grow a business is you have referrals, you have word of mouth, you have ads, adjust this. You have all of these ways that you can actually get customers. And then that way, if one of them dies on a monthly basis, you have other ones that can support that as well.

So. Yep. Yep.

What questions, guys? Let's see. I see good info. Thanks, London. Kyle. Absolutely. Like I said, most people are just lazy as crap when it comes to recording ads and making ads, and they think they can throw up some AI slop and get results, and they are sorely mistaken. That is not how it works.

Yep.

You also have to think about, like, you are asking these people for a lot. You're asking them to commit to an hour-long time slot on their calendar to talk about buying from you. It takes a lot of work. Like, people are not willing to just give away an hour of their time for no reason. You have to give them a good reason to show up. That's why you also get people who book a call but don't show up to— like, don't show up to the call because you didn't make it worth it to them to actually show up to that call.

Yeah, you haven't given them a reason to show up.

Yep. I always use the example of like, if I booked a a private dinner and, you know, Gordon Ramsay was going to be cooking it, I'm not no-showing that. That's going to have 100% show rate, right? Whereas like, why then— why aren't people showing up? There we go. Why aren't people showing up to your sales calls? Well, it's because they just don't see it as that valuable. They're not that interested. You haven't given them, like Ethan said, a reason to show up to your call.

Yep.

Right. So maybe we start there instead of blaming the leads. Um, which the leads could be an issue, but you also have to look at like, what am I giving them pre-call info? Am I framing the calls valuable? Am I giving them case studies, uh, to watch? Am I, uh, educating them prior to the call? Um, am I showing them that it's not just going to be like a sales call where I like try to twist their arm and close them? So it's like, you have to have reasons as to why somebody would be popping on the phone with you, um, and showing up to that sales call and then buying, right? So, you know, what questions, guys?

Just hopping on a call and trying to close them versus this is actually a tool that's gonna help my business. Like, somebody else is gonna try to sell me more video 'cause they've probably been reached out to by other companies, but how has this helped the business?

Yeah, and I think that's the other major gap that a lot of people have in sales calls is like they're selling the deliverables, they're not selling the outcome. It's like we're gonna give you all this content. It's like I was talking to one of our clients, Ben, and one of their offers is like unlimited video for like marketing leaders and marketing departments, which is not really an offer. It's just a, you're just selling them the deliverables at that point. You're saying like, hey, we're gonna give you unlimited video. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, man, I really would love some unlimited video today, right? It's like nobody thinks that way. They think, oh, I have a leads problem or a sales problem or a nurturing problem or a trust trust problem. And it's like, those are the things that they wake up in the morning saying, hey, I need help with these things, not with, you know, unlimited video, because no one knows what video does. It's like, you— it is your job to educate them on that process and what, what that is going to do for their business. And that's where a lot of your deals are dying, because you're not doing that. So, yep. I guess everyone's checked out for Fourth of July weekend already, man. I don't know. But any questions before we jump off here, guys? London Kyle says, what are your thoughts on sending the VSL to nurture the prospect after the leads come in? You should 100% already be doing that.

Yeah.

So we have, we have multiple, multiple things that will send the lead before they book the call or get on the call with us. We will send them the VSL. We'll send them specific— my salespeople will send them specific case studies. Like, so if you're, you know, an e-com agency, we're going to send you case studies for that. If you're a,, you know, um, uh, more of like a, a branding agency. We're gonna send you case studies for that. It's like you should be sending them specific, you should have case studies across different avatars that would buy from you and then sending them those case studies that are the most relevant to them. And then my salespeople also send them our YouTube content, our YouTube training content around the problems that they said they had in the application, right? So it's like the name of the game is It's not just like blast them with tons of resources. It's blast them with curated resources, not just like anything and everything. Yeah.

You know what I mean is versus running a lawyer, a bunch of home service.

Yeah. You said what I mean is, is versus running a traffic ad. I don't know what you mean by that.

Oh, like, like website.

You're saying run them to, are you, are you asking, should you run them to a Facebook lead form or to a landing page first? Is that your question? I don't know if I, if that's what you're asking. Let's see. I, I'm, I have a bone to pick with Canon and the EOS webcam utility here today, brother.

I don't know.

Um, yeah. So London, you can send them directly to the landing page first. You just have to be optimizing for booked calls. That's fine. We find more success with our clients, um, running them directly to a lead form first., and having qual— like having quality filters on that and then send— sending them to a landing page where you can book a call. The reason, yeah, lead form, they are more cost effective. You also can get a better quality lead when you do that because you are, uh, qualifying them harder. And then you also get better tracking unless you're using something like Hiros. I don't recommend sending you directly to the landing page unless you're using Hiros because the tracking gets wonky and then you won't have as accurate tracking as if you ran a Facebook lead form. Like you're gonna have way more accurate tracking. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what you're doing. Good. Perfect. You just make sure you have enough qualifying filters on there to qualify the right people because you don't want shitty leads going back to the pixel and then optimizing down because then it just becomes a losing game there.

What is the friction for them to opt in versus book a call?

Yeah, exactly. Especially if you don't have a ton of budget to test with. I prefer doing the lead form because you're gonna get leads faster. And I would rather you get leads and be able to follow up with them and call them than have no leads and then be like, where are my leads? I have nothing to do. I have no leads to call. Whereas at least you have leads to call. You can, you can, um, you can, you have something to do, right? You have something to qualify. You have people to follow up with. Yeah.

You still have warm, warm prospects.

Yeah. You can nurture them up to book a call.

Right.

And the human element is what gets people to book a call. It's like when you talk to them, when you understand their problem, when you kind of like nurture them a little bit to get them to trust you, then they book the call. That's what you're looking for. Um, 3 to 5 good. Good is relative on how many questions you have on there. It depends on what your lead cost is. It depends on what your AOV is. It depends on what your show rate is. It depends on what your close rate is. Um, if you have those numbers, drop them below in the chat and I will, uh, I'll look at them, but I would, I would want to know what's your cost per lead, how many of them are qualified. So if I get 10 leads, How many of those are going to be qualified? Uh, what's my show rate? What's my close rate? And then what's my average cash collected, AOV, on that close rate? That's what I would be looking for. So if you can tell me that, Lonika, I'd love to know, and I can diagnose if, hey, do you need more questions or less questions? Because everything is relative at the end of the day, um, to those metrics, right? Because like, for us, we're happy to pay multiple hundreds of dollars for a cost per call Um, because our show rate is very high and our close rate is very high on this. So it's like, everyone's like, oh man, I want cheaper leads. I want cheaper calls. I want a camera that works. Hold on. Um, there we go. Uh, it's like everybody wants that, but what you don't see is like, you don't always want cheaper leads because then they no-show the call. They don't close. The AOV is lower. It's like you want the cheapest qualified call, not the cheapest call. That's the key distinction.

Well, because you don't want everybody because it's not for everybody.

Exactly. And if you're selling a service for like $12,000, $15,000, you know, one of our clients, Sarah, closed a $65K deal. You're not selling that to the general public. You need someone who is qualified and you almost don't want to waste your time on calls that are not qualified. Because then it's more of a waste. Like for us, I don't wanna, I don't wanna fill my closer's calendar up with shitty calls because we actually lose more money if we do that than if we just packed it with qualified calls, but less calls, because you really want your closers to be at like, or you to be at like 70% capacity. You don't wanna be booked out every hour on the hour because then you have no time to do follow-up. You have no time to nurture leads. You have no time to spend on the calls. And then we've just found that your close rate ends up going down because you're just so overwhelmed with so many calls. You gotta find that sweet spot between the two. So, um, he said, I'm just starting with the lead form ads and GHL, so no data yet. Got it. Yeah. I would just be looking at what is that cost per lead looking like after, you know, a couple of days, what's the cost per call, what's the show rate, what's the close rate, and then what's your average ticket price? How much do you sell your service for, London? Let me know. I'd love to know. And then if anyone knows how to fix this EOS camera webcam utility, let me know as well. This thing's been plaguing me for months. Um, yes, Slander King says, all my cheap leads are always canceled call or they turn out to be unqualified.

Exactly. Yep.

So you, you need to, and, and the worst part of that is, is your meta campaigns are optimizing around those people. So it's going to find you more of those types of people if you continue to let those people hit the results column. Like it is, if you get bad leads and they're not showing, you need to add more qualifications to that form because Meta is optimizing around those people. Um, yep. London Kyle says his average, his, his average deal is $10K. Yeah. And then it's just gonna depend on how many of those people pay via a payment plan, how many people pay, um, upfront. And that's what I would be looking at there once you have more data, London Kyle. And then, uh, Juan Photography says, thanks for the information, new to your page, uh, how can I find more information about how to get in clients? You can go to the link in our bio or go on YouTube, search Master Filmmaker, uh, or book a call with us if you're ready to do that as well. Let's see, a lot of yapping today, man, a lot of yapping. Let's see what other questions do we have, guys. Let's see, let's see. Use PIF, $10K PIF, 3 ads a month, 4 months using Affirm for buy now pay later, eat the 6%. Be careful with Affirm. You're not technically allowed to use that as a service business, so you might get shut down. I've seen that with our clients as well. Um, I would move over to something like WAP if you can. It's gonna be a little bit safer. Uh, and if you want a referral link on that, I can put that in the chat as well. Um, but WAP's going to be better. You can use things like Splitit, you can use things like, um, ClarityPay, you can use things like, uh, there's other— some other financing options on there as well. But Affirm is risky. You might get shut down on Affirm, so just be very careful with that. Um, yeah, for sure.

Cool.

What else, guys? What else, what else, what else? And then we gotta jump here, and I gotta figure this camera shit out. Let's see. Thanks for the info. You got it, absolutely. Do, do, do, do, do. What else, what else, what else? One last call for questions here, guys. It's been an Instagram Live day, not really a YouTube Live day. As I say, I don't see more. Most people are on Instagram today.

Yeah.

Um, cool, guys. Well, we're gonna wrap it there. If there's any questions you have for us, let us know. If you want to book a call and learn more about we can— how we can help, there's a link right here in the description, or you can scan this QR code, uh, and that'll go through on helping you book a call if you want to learn more about how to get our help. Outside of that, uh, yeah, we will see you guys in the next one. Hope you guys have a good holiday weekend. Stay safe, and we will see you then. See you guys.

Sweet.