John Fuller is a filmmaker who flew his drone into a tree and spent over 1hr trying to recover it. Another time he was recording a woodworker for a YouTube channel. He lost all audio on the shoot and the footage wasn't very good.

His biggest issue is with finding clients, he doesn't know how to approach them. He also wanted to know how to price his packages. Those two things make up the most common problems for every business owner across the board (not just filmmakers).

How to find clients:

What type of clients do you want to target? Do you have a niche? What is your passion?

You need to figure out a niche. It's really important to be an expert at something. Become the best at what you do. Figure out what clients you want to work with the most.

Aerialand360 has multiple different divisions and each division presents itself as the expert of its field.

Don't do things that you're not passionate about to follow the bucks. You'll burn out too quickly if you're just following the money.

Get the client to tell you what they want, get to know them, and then discover how you could fill their needs. Getting to know them will give you a better game plan. The majority of business owners are more interested in telling their story.

Explain to them how and why it's a good idea to showcase what they are good at. If I can be an extension of their reputation, then they are more likely to hire me.

How to bid the projects:

Not sure if you should be pricing hourly or by the project? The way that we should calculate how to charge clients is to ask ourselves how much I need to make hourly to replace my current income and maintain my lifestyle. Then charge a little bit more so you can put some of it back into my business. There's this traditional belief that you have to charge an extraordinary amount to make end meet. If you can show the client how that is priced out, then you look legit.

Don't go into talk to a client without knowing the process for how the video creation. Offer a video for free and set the expectation that they are going to hire you for all of their gigs.

Marcus' company has a 0 discount policy. This bid covers a specific service (or set of services) and if the client wants to add more, they will pay more. "You should tailor your budget to fit my services, not my services to fit your budget."

The only reason we get better, greater, stronger is by failing, by messing up, by making mistakes.

Be sure to check us out our Facebook page and our website failingfilmmaker.com where you can find more resources to take you from failure to success as a business owner and a filmmaker.

Connect with Marcus and Bobby on Channels by Marco Polo.

https://channels.marcopolo.me/-/failing-filmmaker

Make sure that you look authentic and professional. Ideally, you should be branded. Wear shirts with your brand on them. People go into coffee shops and ask for the head honcho to pitch their business. Instead, you should take some time to get to know the people at every level along the way. Speak to the hostess and get to know them. Learn about the business. Then get to know the owner/manager and find out why they are in this business. Do not make the sale in this first contact. Just get a feel for who they are and how you would tell their story by video. Connect and build a reputation. Let's tell people your story. Let's figure out what cost works for you. This is the connection that you're going to get with your community. The big thing here is that I don't need to come in and offer you marketing. I don't need to drive people to your business, I just want to give them a reason to come in. Don't try to sell them. Get to know them. Let it come up organically (if they ask about a price), or let them go back to work and give them a break. Reach out to them as a follow-up. Then at that point start rolling the ball toward creating a video.

Connect with Marcus and Bobby on Channels by Marco Polo. https://channels.marcopolo.me/-/failing-filmmaker

Bobby Glen James gets in the hotseat to provide his insights as a business owner. The conversation opened to live listeners on Facebook who asked the following questions. 1- How would you approach a small business for video commercials? a. How to reach the owner? 2- Should you start something on your own or go for a partnership? 3- How do I start my own production company? 4- How do I pursue my niche? 5- How effective would an email offer be? 6- Can I get jobs by offering free videos? 7- How do I expand my network? 8- Is there a more organic way to find and approach clients? Some response themes: It's going to take a lot of work. You're not going to do anything great alone. Find out how you can help a business owner before pitching them.

Connect with Channels by Marco Polo. https://channels.marcopolo.me/-/failing-filmmaker

Caleb is a Filmmaker from Chandler, Arizona who tried starting his business and get married at the same time. He refused to get a job so he could jump right into becoming a production company. Instead of supporting his new wife, he had to swallow his pride and let her pay for his business training classes and her own wedding ring. In this episode, Marcus shares his expertise in landing real estate gigs beyond the normal listings. Your first impulse is offer to shoot a property for the listing but realtors are very frugal. If somebody offers a free shoot or video, they'll just take the free over good and move on to the next guy. Marcus gives you a peek into the thought patterns of real estate agents and how to woo them into asking you to be part of their team. Good Questions to Ask:   - Tell me about yourself.   - What are your specialties?   - What are you currently doing to set you apart from other agents?

Check out Marcus and Bobby on Channels by Marco Polo at https://channels.marcopolo.me/-/failing-filmmaker

Marcus shares his secret to lock in paid gigs and create value. How to land paid gigs without a demo reel or a portfolio. Content is super important, but filmmakers have been trained to think that no one is going to hire them without a super awesome portfolio. You can build value without having to show your work.

Sign up for mentoring through Channels by Marco Polo Get started with the Failing Filmmaker Scholarship

Andjila is a filmmaker from Canada who started as a hobbyist. In 2018 her friend asked her to be the videographer for a local, non-profit event. In this episode, we discuss the importance of knowing your equipment and what happens when you push it too hard.

In Part II (Included), we discuss how to streamline the admin side of the business. When it comes to organizing your own business, do you know what you are doing? How do you manage your client workflow? Between schedule and shoot, how do you contact client? How do you move a lead to a client? How long do you wait to follow-up? ROI? How do I know that my marketing is giving me the return I need?

To be eligible for the Failing Filmmaker Scholarship, become a patron for less than $3 per month. Go to patreon.com/failingfilmmakerpodcast or text "patron" to 877-758-9757

Julian Wallace is a filmmaker in Los Angeles, California who has had the opportunity to work with Realtors as their full-time videographer. During this episode, we discuss the struggles of working full time for one client, the limits of videography equipment, and the challenges when facing "burnout". 

What's coming up this week? Well, Treg Raines talks about his failures including using a drone for an entire wedding! Listen on Wednesday to hear that story...and trust us, it gets worse.

Tuesday Micro Teaser: Treg Raines

Monday Micro Teaser: Treg Raines