Eric Deeran explains why freelance videographers stay stuck in a cycle of chasing clients after each project. He shows how to escape by picking one type of client, switching to retainer contracts, building an automated lead system, and stacking multiple retainers to hit $15K-$40K monthly instead of volatile $6K months.
This is the videographer freelance hamster wheel. You get booked, you start filming, you do all the editing, you do all the revisions, you then deliver the project, and all in that time you forget to do any sort of prospecting. Then there's complete silence, and then you panic, and then you hustle to try to find another client, and then you get booked again. And around and around you go on this cycle, and it's not your fault, it's just a broken model. The problem is, is that every month starts at zero, and you hustle, get busy, and because you got busy, you didn't get any more work, and then you have no work for a while, and your revenue swings from $8K a month to $3K a month to $15K a month to $5K a month, up and down, up and down, up and down. The truth is, is you're not building a business, you're renting yourself by project because being great at what you do keeps you on the wheel. It doesn't get you off the wheel. You're obviously really great at what you do, but the reason you can't get off is because the wheel has these 3 locks on it and most people only see one of them. Your lock number 1, you have no inbound system. So when you're working and you get busy, you get no leads. You have no system that works while you're working on projects. You stop marketing when you're busy, which means your pipeline dries up, projects end, and then you panic. And the busier you get, the worse this gets because you're not focusing on marketing and getting more clients. Your second lock is that you have no recurring revenue. This means every month starts at zero and it is exhausting because you have to start every single month Over and over and over again, and you have to hustle and grind your way to get out of it. And obviously you have no predictable revenue, which means you can't invest, you can't hire people, and you can't plan because everything is based on chance. And you don't want to hire anybody because you have no revenue that's predictable coming in next month, so you have to hoard everything for yourself. And lock number 3 is you have no positioning. You take every single job that comes your way— weddings, real estate, events, music videos, everything. You are a jack of all trades and a master of none. And here's the dirty truth that most people don't want to admit: if there's effort and then years on the wheel, you're going to end up working really, really hard for a very long time, but your income will not compound. It will stay the same independent how hard you work. And this is because the model is broken. The wheel spins faster as you get better and it gets harder and harder to get off. And the truth is, is the exit isn't working harder, it's just changing the model. Now here's exactly how to get off the wheel. There's 5 steps. Step number 1 is pick one ICP, pick one ideal client profile, and then you need to fire the rest. I know it's scary. This makes a huge difference. You have to stop serving everybody and pick the right type of high-value client. For example, medical companies, SaaS companies, construction companies, home service companies. Pick one of them that resonates the most with you so you're not a jack of all trades. Step 2, you have to build one retainer-based offer. Package your services around the outcome, not the deliverables. So instead of saying 4 videos a month, we want to say this is our monthly lead gen system. And number 3, you want to build one inbound channel to get your leads. This means running paid ads to a VSL, to an application to get booked calls. This is how you get calls and clients while you sleep, while you're working on set, while you're doing everything else in your business. This is running consistently behind the scenes. Step number 4, close retainers. Each client pays you on a monthly basis, meaning that you can stack revenue and it compounds over time. And finally, number 5, stack those retainers, replace the projects, and hire a team to start buying your time back. If you can stack 5 to 10 retainers, then projects become And here's the math. Before, you were at $0 to $10K a month, but your average was around $6K. After, you're between $15K and $40K a month, and your average is $15K a month guaranteed because you have a base of retainers. It's the same work, same skills. It's just a different model. That's it. And we've worked with over 828 agency owners to do exactly this. So if you want our help doing this, click the link below, apply, and we'll see if it's a fit.
