Why This Free Video Offer Converted to $93K

What's up guys, I'm here with Esteban, uh, and we're gonna just kind of walk through his process for, uh, you said you offered it to like a dental company, right, Esteban? You just, you offered free video. Yeah, go ahead.

It was actually to a like a physical therapy sports recovery facility.

Yeah, cool. So you basically offered some sort of free offering and then from there just upsold them. And I'll kind of let you take, take us through your process, what you did, share your screen, how you exactly what you did and all the steps and then just kind of run it from there.

Totally. So thanks for doing this. Appreciate it. As far as the process goes, it's pretty simple, man. You know, when I first got here to Denver about a year ago, 8 months ago, a year ago now, started looking through a bunch of businesses and trying to see who had content, who didn't have content. I saw this place called Denver Sports Recovery and I was like, this place looks like a pretty big facility. It looks like a big business. The reason I say that is because when I was doing research on who I wanted to do a free video for, I didn't want to just do like a small business. I wanted to know they had some kind of a budget, they had some kind of a presence here in the community. So I looked at their Instagram and was just like, they need some help. Kind of asked some people about them. I was like, okay, get a sense of what they're doing. Basically just picked up the phone, called the front desk, the front desk person answered. I said, hey, my name's Esteban with Stavian Films. We just moved to Denver a few months ago and as a part of just our relocation, we're offering a free brand video to an area or a company in the area. And there's no catch, right? Like no strings attached. And that's the biggest thing I think that I was kind of not harping on, but just making it known that like there really is no catch. And so, you know, the front desk guy was like, yeah, oh wow, okay, why don't I see if I can pass you along to our general manager Steve? And then from there he gave me Steve's email and the email, I can show you the email that I sent.

Sure.

But yeah, the one thing that popped into mind was that, you know, obviously like trying to get emails from when you're doing offering free work seems a lot easier. No one was hesitant to be like, we're not gonna give you that. They were like, for sure, here you go. Here's his email. So yeah, I mean, nice and simple here. Nothing crazy. And hope don't, don't, no one copy these emails or at least the names of the emails rather.

I'll blur the actual email story.

Okay, cool. Yeah, hope your week is going well. Refer to, you know, refer to the front desk guy Cameron, give me your contact info. Just kind of gave a rundown of what I said. I'm a commercial film director, owner of this company. I'm in the process of finding a few great businesses to do a free commercial for, and DSR was at the top of our list. I think it'd be a perfect fit, kind of, you know, saying we work with companies in the wellness space, right? I think that we're a nice fit together. Um, link to our past work. And this is honestly, I think, a good example of this too, because this is when I really feel like I, I had some solid work but no solid work in this niche. And I feel like not really that solid of a brand film. So anybody that hasn't made work in the space you're trying to get after, as long as you have videos that look good, I feel like you can get your foot in the door.

Um, you can angle it towards like, hey, we've done work for these other companies, and, and they kind of get the hint as well, where it's like, as long as you don't have like nothing to show them, I feel like it's, it is, it, it, you know, that they're pretty open to saying, yeah, sure, let's do it, you know.

Totally. And yeah, and I broke down the time commitment because I know that a lot of people are like, you know, just in general are always like, how long is this gonna take? How long, how much time on my end? I was like, this is how much time we need. We need a 4 or 5-hour block. And I told them when they can expect to get it at the end here. So they can expect to get it in 2 weeks.

Well, 'cause those are the main questions too. It's like, and I've had people ask me as well, it's like, because just 'cause you're offering it for free, it doesn't mean there's not a cost associated with it on their end. Like, they're still paying in time and paying and shutting down parts of the facility if that's what they need, and paying, you know, to disrupt what they're currently doing. So it has to be worth it. That's why some people are like, even though I'm offering it for free, people don't want to do it. It's because it's just too much of a commitment for them. So you want to make it seem easy, right? 100%.

Yeah, that— I, I've talked to people before, they're like, yeah, we're good, we're too busy. You know, it's like You're offering it for free, but exactly what you said, they are still paying for it in some way. And then at the end, I feel like this is the part that I just, I wanted to end it on and I have ended on, on previous emails. And I always just, when I communicate with them on the phone, I don't have recordings of, it's just like there's no strings attached, you know? We're not gonna sneak in an additional package or sneak in some weird cost at the end of the process. This is 100% free commercial for DSR and our only goal is to connect with businesses a business owner doing great work here in the area. Yeah. So yeah, my own, my angle was like I was a new guy in town. I think that like, you know, we're trying something new could be the same angle. I'm curious what you think about this, Eric. I didn't do it, but I had some people suggest that I should like send an invoice with like the line item, you know, like $10K and then discount it.

I've done that. Yeah. I don't know, man. I've done it, but it just feels like it's like you literally just said there's no strings attached and then it's like, and then you're sending an invoice. I think it can work in some scenarios, but I mean, it just kind of goes back to also Hormozy's principles too. It's like you have to give them an offer that's literally so irresistible they feel like a freaking idiot to say no to, right? It's like, that's where I think some people go wrong is like there's either too much time commitment on their end where they're like, yeah, it's free, but it's going to cost us something. Or it's like, hey, this guy has never done anything related to what we're doing. And, you know, I don't think anybody in this group has this issue. They're just like, hey, I don't think this is going to help us, right? So it's just making sure that that time commitment is low and also when they're gonna get it and tying a deadline around it. And the only other thing I probably would've added is like maybe something around the result of what they're going to achieve if they use this. But yeah.

And they, yeah, and totally that was something that like we had spoke about and dialed in afterwards for sure. But 100% for them, their intended purpose was like we're getting too many calls.

Right.

About what we do.

Right.

And then the other component that I think was like really, really what kind of sold them, and obviously, like, we all know, was just like the customer experience, you know, like I had my best guys on set.

We were—

everyone was super professional, was dressed very— looking nice. The post process, I made it super streamlined for them. I was very like willing to do revisions as I would do for a regular package. And then like, and then at the end of it, like, it was funny that Sean was like, I mean, I knew exactly what you were doing, but he's like, you did it. He's like, you gave us a free video, you blew our minds.

And you know, like, that's the other thing I was gonna say is if you do this for free, don't make it shitty. Excuse my language, but it's like, if you do it for free and then it's bad and it's a horrible experience and like, it sucks because you did it for free, you didn't wanna put a lot of time into it, then like, why the hell would they pay you for it? Why would they pay you for anything? It's like, it's like, dude, this, the free thing sucks. So like maybe I'll get a slightly better thing if I pay, but like it's also still a bad first impression of the brand. And it's like, it's the same thing for like when basically what you're doing, and I like to relate it into like ads as well. Like if you're going to drive traffic into your business, you couldn't just say, hey, buy, buy this from me immediately. You would need to give them something for free first. It's like whether it's a training, a workshop, something. To where they're like, what you're doing is you're doing a little bit more work, but at the end of the day, it's like that, like this is your free workshop. This is their tester package for you. And it's like nobody's just gonna fork over $60 grand. I mean, if you have other case studies and you have a nice VSL and you have a workshop and you've warmed them up, but if like, if you don't have any of that, then like this is the best option because when they come in, like this is your free workshop. It's like, why the hell would they pay you $60 grand if you never you're not giving them anything. It's like they don't know you, trust you. Like, yeah, they've seen some of your previous work, but like they're still not there yet in the buying process. You know what I mean? That's, that's where I think a lot of people struggle.

I love that perspective. I hadn't thought about it like that, but I think that's honestly a fantastic way to put into it. It's like you're putting money into ad spend to get a free client, or you're just putting your own money into like time and money to go out.

It's either time or money to get clients and that's it. There's no other way. Either you spend a bunch of time cold calling, offering things for free, or you automate that process with some sort of ad to a workshop to something that's actually valuable. And the biggest pitfall is the shit that people provide for free sucks. Hormozy talks about it, everybody talks about it. Even their stuff that they sell sucks. So it's like people are like, oh, because it's free, I'm gonna drown it out and make it not very good to bait them into buying from me, when in reality it has to be good on the free side. Like for this program to take it out of video too. It's like for this program, I literally, for our opt-ins, I give them 3 pieces of what's actually in this program, like 3 pieces of content that people actually pay for when they get in here, the sales process, the lead gen, and, uh, and the offer creation video. And it's like they're literally paying when they get something for free. It's actually valuable. And I think a lot of times, like when people are creating these videos, they're not actually good. And that's why they don't get a callback at the end of the day.

It's like, that's why they can't So that's kind of, yeah, I, I love the perspective, dude. I think it's, I think it's super cool. Yeah. And I think as far as the process, I'm, I don't think, I don't know if I have anything else to share. I think that's pretty much like what, you know, what I did. I think like I've always, I've done this a few times and I've always thought like if I can blow their minds, they're gonna just be like, what now?

What do we do now?

Like how do we move forward without his stuff? You know?

Like you bolt yourself in to a point where it's like, holy crap. Like, if, like, I need this, you know what I mean? And what ended up happening? How did the upsell conversation go? And how did that kind of go? Yeah.

So the upsell conversation, I actually was, I was at the airport. He called me. He's like, oh, you know, after everything, he's like, I love it so much. It's so good. You know, he's like, just really like, like, I love him to death. He's super high energy. He's like, how much would this have cost if we paid you for it? You know? And I'm like, you know, depends. I was like, you know, anywhere from like, you know, $10,000 to maybe $50,000 if we were doing like a year's worth of services. He's like, I was like, what would you feel comfortable investing in? He's like, you know, somewhere around $10,000, you know, or something. So when someone says they have $10,000, I'm like, all right, this guy's got money. You know, he's not, no one's just saying they have $10,000. And then from there, that process was, yeah, I was just like, all right, what do you think you guys need? He's like, I want to bring, you know, shed more light on all of our services. So I crafted a few packages, one for $65, one for $35, and one for $15. And then we settled on one for $33, the middle package for $33. So, and then that, that was the first one that I got a, I closed a deal from for free video, but then I made another free video actually for another person, which so like, and one thing that I like, even if you end up not getting business from them, like providing that much value to somebody, it's almost like they're like, you don't want to say indebted, but subconsciously they're like, I want to help this guy out.

Reciprocity. Yeah, they're like, yeah. And I think the key to— and sorry to interrupt you— I think the key to is like, don't ask for anything. Like, literally just give it to them and watch what happens. And assuming you did a great job, you did great work, and you actually delivered on what you promised you're going to do for free, like most, 90% of people will call you back. They will call you, right? It's like, and Hormozy talks about it too, is like give, give, give, give, give, give, and eventually you'll just start getting. Like, I don't even have to ask. It's just like give, give, give. Hey, that's the guy who gives us, gave us a ton of shit. Like, it was amazing. I really enjoyed it. Like, let me call him. But like when you ask, you like wipe out all the giving and all the reciprocity that's built up to the point where I think like when you give, give, give, it just, it kind of just starts stacking. You're like, holy crap, I need to call this guy. And eventually they call. Whereas when you keep asking at every level, it's like it's about him, it's about him, it's about him, it's about him, it's about him. And it kind of wipes that stuff away, you know what I mean? Totally.

Yeah, that's— that's— I like that perspective. It's like, it's like you're, you're making too many withdrawals from the bank account, you know? You're like, yeah, I haven't put enough in. Yeah, that's exactly right.

Yeah, absolutely. That's cool, man.

Um, but yeah, dude, I mean, I think everybody in this program, obviously, like, they— everyone here has got at least one banger video that they could use to sell, to like get someone's attention. And then everyone can make a great video. But like you were saying, the thing that I've struggled with too is like mentally getting around it. Like, all right, this person is paying me $20K to make this video. I'm gonna put that level of intentionality into it. You know, I'm not cutting any corners in that process. I feel like is what helped me blow their minds. And then just, you know, there's not really a secret.

It's not an investment you need to make that much. You need to make like one or two investments like that if you don't have a lot of like work in a specific industry or in a specific niche. And then once you make those first couple of investments doing it for free, you really don't have to do it as much anymore because now you have the asset, the case study, you know, you have, you have proof that you are who you say you are, basically. That's exactly what it is, right? And we're just trying to build that proof up because people are not going to buy from you if you don't have any proof, if you don't have any, like, any sort of, like, anything that says you are who you say you are. Like, why would they pay $60 grand? And that's, I think we need to flip the script sometimes and think, like, Why should this person pay me $50 grand? What have I done to deserve that, right? Do I have any previous client case studies? Do I have any previous client results? Like, and if not, then do a couple of these, build that up, and then you don't have to do it anymore, you know?

Totally, man. And it's funny you say all you need is a couple because I made 3 free videos, right? Of those 3, I closed 2 deals. One was $60,000, one was $33,000, and the third one, she gave— she, she's helped me with like some crazy nerve stuff I've had. That's like health, which is invaluable, you know. So I got a return on everything. And then like you're saying, what's happening now is that we're getting real results for these clients. So we've already doubled the business on their red light therapy for DSR and we're fucking crushing it for Elevate. So that's gonna snowball into case studies and that's just gonna perpetuate. So we're talking about doing one of those free videos every 6 months at a very specific, like calculated, all right, look at those guys, they need help, they're huge. And just allowing the case studies to snowball. But like you said, you need a couple and then you're off to the races, you know, crushing it.

I love it. Well, dude, appreciate your time. Thank you so much for sharing. And, and I'll have this up for you guys soon. And, and yeah, hopefully, I mean, guys, take, take a ton of notes on this and make sure you're implementing because don't let it go in one ear out the other. Like, make sure you're using this because like, I mean, you made what, $90 grand from this already?

Ish, 93, 93.

It's like just from something like this, it's like, so it's super valuable, guys. Um, but yeah, hopefully you get value from it, and we'll see in the next one.