Why Having Better Quality Work Doesn't Matter (And What Does) // Master Filmmaker

What's going on, guys? In this video, we're going to be talking about why you need to stop being the best videographer and why that's actually hurting your video business and what to do instead. If you don't know me, my name is Eric Diren. I run Master Filmmaker. I started as a DP 10 years ago and I thought that having the best work was the best way to make more money as a video business owner, as a videographer, as a d, as an editor. Right. And that lesson did not serve me. So hopefully this video can serve you and help you. Uh, to date, I've coached personally one to one. This is not like on a video course or anything like one to one. I've coached over 412 video business owners to help them make more money and, and get out of the rat race of thinking that they need to charge more to make more money. So let's go ahead and dive right in. I'm gonna bring up the trusty iPad here, and today we're just gonna talk about why more work does not actually help you get more clients. And I'll make a correction here. Better work and why that doesn't actually help you get more clients. So a big fallacy that I thought when I first started is I needed to have the best work possible and that would help me get more clients. But unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that clients, yes, you have to have a certain level or standard of work that is acceptable. But clients don't care about better work or higher quality work. Rather than what they actually care about is how you're going to help them get some sort of result. And so what I fell into, and the trap I fell into for a very long time is that I thought I needed to have the best work possible to get the best clients. But in reality, I needed to have the best case studies or the best client results possible to get the best clients. And so what that looks like is instead of focusing on better work, we need to be focusing on how can we get our clients a result which is the result of video strategy here. Now, what is video strategy? Video strategy is when we are creating content with a strategy or an idea behind it that's gonna help the client achieve some sort of outcome. And so, for example, we were talking on a live the other week, but like FAQ videos, you could be making FAQ videos for home service companies that need content to help. Objection. Handle their prospects prior to actually getting on the phone with them. And so you create content that helps them achieve a result. Now, when, when you're making those videos, what's more important? Actually creating the FAQ videos to where they are the most cinematic thing possible? Or is it more important that they answer the question clearly and concisely and they have the right content in there to actually handle the client's objection before they get on the sales call with someone at that company? Obviously that. Right, the latter. And so there's two different kind of buckets. There's the people who have, who, who want to have the best work, and then there's people who want to get the best client results. And when you're focusing on better work, you fall more into a category of someone who's a dp, who is an editor, who is a freelancer. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. But when you want to become a video business owner, you're focusing on better client results, and that's when you're becoming an actual business owner. And so I think for a lot of people, they need to identify which one of these do they want to be? Do they want to have, do they want to be more of a DP where you're directly trading your time for money, which again, there's nothing wrong with this. Or an editor where you're trading your time for money, Or a freelancer at trading your time for money? Or do you want to have a business where you're more leveraged and you can hire people like this under you, DPs, editors, freelancers, and there's two different buckets. For me, I started as a DP. I love, I still love creating content. Like I love it. I love shooting content, I love shooting cinematic content, I love editing cinematic content. But, but that didn't actually help me make more money. Like, it wasn't until I focused on video strategy and helping clients actually make money with my videos that I got more clients and I could charge higher rates because there's a fallacy. Like these guys here work for business owners, right? So like, if you're a DP and editor, and if all you wanna do is focus on being the best editor possible, great. There's nothing wrong with that. If all you wanna do is focus on, focus on the best being the best D possible, that's great, that's fine. But you need to realize that you're not really gonna be going direct to client, you're gonna be going direct to business owners. Like you're gonna be working under a marketing agency who then goes direct to client up here, right? And there's nothing wrong with that if that's all you wanna do. I have a lot of buddies who do that and they love it. It's amazing for me personally though, and maybe some people resonate with this and maybe some people don't. I didn't wanna be the 70 year old DP on set, you know, still trading my time for money. I love the craft, but I like being an entrepreneur more and building a business where I can have other people under me doing that work and then I can sub in when I want to and I can do that work and I want to. But for me personally, I just wanted to. I wanted to have more leverage on my life so I could take vacations, have more free time and just have control over my time. And maybe that's just because I'm a control freak, which I am, but I think part of it is just I wanted control of my own life and I didn't want to have to be on these crazy hours going these crazy projects. You know, I want to build a family. I didn't want to have to worry about all that stuff. I wanted to have more time. So, I mean, that's, that's kind of the thought process you need to go through is like you need to decide do you want to be a business owner or do you want to be more of a technician? And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But you have to realize, if you're going this route, see if my pen will work. If you're going this route, you need to be focusing on getting the best client results possible. Because like, if you make a cinematic piece of content for somebody, for a business, but it doesn't perform, which I think we've all had that happen, you create something amazing and then the client uses it, it doesn't actually generate any results for them. Then like, they're not gonna pay you again, or they're not gonna hire you again. They're not gonna recommend you to their friends. They're not gonna be happy, right? You're not gonna be able to say, hey, I'm gonna charge double for this, because you didn't really get any results. And so you need to be focusing on results and getting clients results. And that's something we talk about obviously, you know, with my clients and with our private clients. But like, you need to be focusing on getting them as many results as possible, whatever results are. And then that's what you define here, that's what you define in your sales call. It's like what is a result for them? Do they want more leads? Do they want more sales? Do they want more sales calls? Do they want. Like, what do they want? And then helping them achieve that. And then once you do get them those results, it's then getting those clients, turning them into case studies, and then turning them into people who then renew and pay you again. And ideally, they're paying you again on a retainer. Right. So. So that's the idea. And then when you can stack a ton of these case studies and get a bunch of client results, everybody's happy. Then what you can do is you can charge more, you can up those rates, and you can hire people on it. So that's why having the best work doesn't equate to making the most money. Having the best client results equates to making the most money. So just my little rant for the day. Hopefully it makes sense. Hopefully. If you have any questions, let me know. But that's just. My personal journey is like, I started as a dp, Love it. I. I still love it, but I also like having control of my time. And I wanted to run a business doing what I love, but not being chained to it, if that makes sense. Because when you're forced to do things for a very long period of time and you don't have a choice, I think that's when people get unhappy because you don't actually have a choice. I think the happiness is in the freedom of creativity and the freedom of choice. Not being obligated to go on a job because you have to make money. Right. And I think the ultimate form of creativity and, you know, becoming a video or being a filmmaker or being a video business owner is like having the choice to choose which projects you want to go on because you're not limited by capital. So. Shameless. Plug. If you guys want to learn more about what we do at Master Filmmaker, there's a link down below to book a demo with our team. But hopefully you just got value out of this video. And if you have any questions, let me know.