A founder with no clients made personalized 20-30 minute videos for prospects, including free research and walkthroughs. One converted to a $25,000-$30,000 monthly contract. He recommends offering free high-value work upfront, then negotiating paid engagement after 2-4 weeks of delivery.
When I first started out, when I had zero clients, what I did in the very beginning was I actually reached out to people and I made these long 20 to 30 minute videos. And this is before any of these tools were available where you can make videos very quickly. I was trying to A, do free research for people, and then B, go the extra mile in terms of not just writing stuff out, but making a video. I was trying to go above and beyond with my offer. So we actually ended up getting a client that was actually paying about $25,000 or $30,000 a month. So that was big, big, big at the time. Look, that type of stuff works. And when you offer to work for free, just come to the expectation that maybe at the end of 2 to 4 weeks or so, if you do well, you will negotiate a paid engagement, and that seems fair, right?
