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How I made $4,000 in 3 months By Executing HARD

ChaseFade

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In December 2017 I was stuck. I felt awful. I was sick to my stomach because I had NO IDEA what I was going to do with my life. I made music for 4 years and got burnt out. It was all I thought about and all I did when time permitted. I was doing whatever I could to make a dollar not realizing I was becoming depressed in the process. I was addicted to that PayPal notification. I thought I was building a fastlane business but really I was building my grave. I was doing what I loved but I was doing it so much that it made me hate it.

So I quit.

I had yet to make enough to quit my job and be free from the suffocating rat race we call a 9 to 5. I was defeated. Without this business I had no potential way out. I was trapped. On top of that I was getting crushed by my new condo payments and was looking at 30-years of slavery.

So one day I was scrolling through Facebook trying to figure out what my next move was and BAM. I saw my fellow musician friend was dropping some new music off of his new album. Then it hit me. I can do videos for musicians and businesses! I already have so much experience with how musicians think, and having shot videos for my own music I could figure it out, no problem! Plus I knew the market for musicians was INSANELY crowded! I thought to myself "If the market is crowded, don't be in the crowd, serve the crowd!" So I gave him a call and said I'll shoot his next music video for free so I can get experience and he can have a nice video to promote along with his album. He agrees.

But wait...i don't have a camera. What do i do? I don't know how this works.

At this point most people say, "Idk how to work a camera or edit videos or any of that shit..oh well. Guess I'll come up with a new idea." And they quit. No execution. No work. No effort. No money. I decided right then and there I would not be like most wantreprenuers and I would do whatever it takes to make it happen. No more trying but a full on commitment to make it happen!

I start researching, find a camera, pay for it on credit (bad idea, but I was committed). Learned how to edit, bought the software. watched YouTube videos, etc.

Boom. I shoot the video. everything goes well and they love it! It was an amazing moment! I was finally providing value to people and was actually good at it! Now it was time to become profitable...


I got valuable experience from shooting that first video, but I now had something to show other people to get more work!

They release the video about a month later and I get a message from another artist on Instagram who saw that first video and what's to know how much I charge! Cha- ching!

$500 just like that!

Before you know it I'm getting calls from other musicians and also start diving into real estate videos and parties and live concerts! I'm experiencing things I could have never seen and done in my last business! I was on top of the world! People are loving my quick turnaround time (insane execution to make this happen, late nights and early mornings) and high quality videos.

Later on I get a call from a friend that wants to shoot a documentary for him. Hmm...I don't know how to shoot a documentary, or how much to charge but I'll give it a shot. Again I did research, spent many hours editing, and made it look great. Blew him away with the quality! I made $1,000 from that and couldn't believe it! And better yet he ended up having the video played in front of a crowd of 200 people and they loved it!

I haven't had a day off in 2018 and I am loving it.

Now it's time to scale this business to get to the point where I can quit my job.

Here I am today at the beginning of April with $4,000 in revenue and 4 more videos booked on the schedule and my first wedding booked next month! Uh oh...time to figure out how to film weddings [emoji23]


(This was just a big rambling of words but if you got any value from it please leave a like and comment below if you want me to continue the progress thread and go into more detail moving forward! Thank you!)

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ChaseFade

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good job man, you should be proud no doubt indeed.
keep it up.
entertainment is something people will always need. you found a great way to fill that in. best wishes
Thank you!

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ChaseFade

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Congrats. Thanks for sharing. With my current venture the worries are endless but I just know I will find a way over or around each obsticle.
Of course! Feels good to give back to this community that has inspired and helped me tremendously. Exactly. The obstacle is the way. Most people will quit after seeing the first obstacle.

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ChaseFade

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Great work man, rep transferred.

Care to share us some information about the courses you followed and the gear you use?
Thank you! And thanks for reading.

In terms of gear I don't believe it's a a huge factor. These days you can get a great looking shot from a smart phone. My Galaxy S8 actually shoots better slo-mo than my video camera! Haha

The biggest thing is in the editing. At a certain point, the amount of money you invest in a camera and camera equipment will start to diminish in terms of quality gained. The difference between a $200 camera and a $1200 camera is HUGE. But the difference between a $2500 camera and a $10,000 camera isnt that significant.

With that said, I knew I needed at least 1080p to match the quality of competitors but couldn't afford much of anything. At first I started on a canon t3i. I ended up trading my buddy for one in exchange for some music equipment and got a few lenses in the deal. It was a great starter camera but very outdated in terms of quality. Worth maybe $200.

Did some research and decided on the Panasonic Lumix G7. This thing is a beast! And it was very affordable. With a nicer lens I purchased and memory cards, the total came out to around $1000. It shoots 4k and does 1080p in slo motion and that was all I needed. I am still on the G7 now but have looked into buying it's big brother, the GH5. It has alot more features that will help increase the quality of my films. But until I pay off my new Macbook, I will be staying with the G7. (Should be paid off by this time next week!)

I also have a basic starter drone, the DJI Spark, that I have used for Real estate videos and music videos. It gets the job done for now but wouldn't recommend it. Moving up to the Dji Mavic Air very soon.

In terms of editing, this is where everything matters! You can take a terrible shot and fix it in the edits and make it look like a movie! I use Final Cut Pro X because it's a Macbook only software and find it to be very easy to use and simple.

I get videos back to clients sometimes within the same day of shooting! Boy do they love that! I've heard complaints time and time again about other videographers taking weeks to get back a short video. Their struggle is what differentiates me.

In terms of learning how to edit I just go to YouTube. Everything you need to know is on there. No courses either, just got to work and learned through trial and error. Same with selling to clients, learning about equipment, how to shoot, etc. All from YouTube videos.

Hope this helps!

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The EL Maven

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As someone with interest in this area, I find your story quite impressive. Excellent job!

The Lumix is a wonderful choice. Final Cut is what will allow you to turn around projects fast. There's nothing faster. Keep doing what you're doing.

I'm not looking to do a video service like you, but I'll be damned at how fast you've worked. That's what fire will do for you. Without the fire.... well, let's just say my Mavic Pro I got in November hasn't had its maiden flight yet.
 
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Maxboost

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In December 2017 I was stuck. I felt awful. I was sick to my stomach because I had NO IDEA what I was going to do with my life. I made music for 4 years and got burnt out. It was all I thought about and all I did when time permitted. I was doing whatever I could to make a dollar not realizing I was becoming depressed in the process. I was addicted to that PayPal notification. I thought I was building a fastlane business but really I was building my grave. I was doing what I loved but I was doing it so much that it made me hate it.

So I quit.

I had yet to make enough to quit my job and be free from the suffocating rat race we call a 9 to 5. I was defeated. Without this business I had no potential way out. I was trapped. On top of that I was getting crushed by my new condo payments and was looking at 30-years of slavery.

So one day I was scrolling through Facebook trying to figure out what my next move was and BAM. I saw my fellow musician friend was dropping some new music off of his new album. Then it hit me. I can do videos for musicians and businesses! I already have so much experience with how musicians think, and having shot videos for my own music I could figure it out, no problem! Plus I knew the market for musicians was INSANELY crowded! I thought to myself "If the market is crowded, don't be in the crowd, serve the crowd!" So I gave him a call and said I'll shoot his next music video for free so I can get experience and he can have a nice video to promote along with his album. He agrees.

But wait...i don't have a camera. What do i do? I don't know how this works.

At this point most people say, "Idk how to work a camera or edit videos or any of that sh*t..oh well. Guess I'll come up with a new idea." And they quit. No execution. No work. No effort. No money. I decided right then and there I would not be like most wantreprenuers and I would do whatever it takes to make it happen. No more trying but a full on commitment to make it happen!

I start researching, find a camera, pay for it on credit (bad idea, but I was committed). Learned how to edit, bought the software. watched YouTube videos, etc.

Boom. I shoot the video. everything goes well and they love it! It was an amazing moment! I was finally providing value to people and was actually good at it! Now it was time to become profitable...


I got valuable experience from shooting that first video, but I now had something to show other people to get more work!

They release the video about a month later and I get a message from another artist on Instagram who saw that first video and what's to know how much I charge! Cha- ching!

$500 just like that!

Before you know it I'm getting calls from other musicians and also start diving into real estate videos and parties and live concerts! I'm experiencing things I could have never seen and done in my last business! I was on top of the world! People are loving my quick turnaround time (insane execution to make this happen, late nights and early mornings) and high quality videos.

Later on I get a call from a friend that wants to shoot a documentary for him. Hmm...I don't know how to shoot a documentary, or how much to charge but I'll give it a shot. Again I did research, spent many hours editing, and made it look great. Blew him away with the quality! I made $1,000 from that and couldn't believe it! And better yet he ended up having the video played in front of a crowd of 200 people and they loved it!

I haven't had a day off in 2018 and I am loving it.

Now it's time to scale this business to get to the point where I can quit my job.

Here I am today at the beginning of April with $4,000 in revenue and 4 more videos booked on the schedule and my first wedding booked next month! Uh oh...time to figure out how to film weddings [emoji23]


(This was just a big rambling of words but if you got any value from it please leave a like and comment below if you want me to continue the progress thread and go into more detail moving forward! Thank you!)

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

This man is a god damn beast. Congrats on your hustle. I'll be name dropping you when you are producing 50 cent's new video.
 

ChaseFade

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Thank you! And thanks for reading.

In terms of gear I don't believe it's a a huge factor. These days you can get a great looking shot from a smart phone. My Galaxy S8 actually shoots better slo-mo than my video camera! Haha

The biggest thing is in the editing. At a certain point, the amount of money you invest in a camera and camera equipment will start to diminish in terms of quality gained. The difference between a $200 camera and a $1200 camera is HUGE. But the difference between a $2500 camera and a $10,000 camera isnt that significant.

With that said, I knew I needed at least 1080p to match the quality of competitors but couldn't afford much of anything. At first I started on a canon t3i. I ended up trading my buddy for one in exchange for some music equipment and got a few lenses in the deal. It was a great starter camera but very outdated in terms of quality. Worth maybe $200.

Did some research and decided on the Panasonic Lumix G7. This thing is a beast! And it was very affordable. With a nicer lens I purchased and memory cards, the total came out to around $1000. It shoots 4k and does 1080p in slo motion and that was all I needed. I am still on the G7 now but have looked into buying it's big brother, the GH5. It has alot more features that will help increase the quality of my films. But until I pay off my new Macbook, I will be staying with the G7. (Should be paid off by this time next week!)

I also have a basic starter drone, the DJI Spark, that I have used for Real estate videos and music videos. It gets the job done for now but wouldn't recommend it. Moving up to the Dji Mavic Air very soon.

In terms of editing, this is where everything matters! You can take a terrible shot and fix it in the edits and make it look like a movie! I use Final Cut Pro X because it's a Macbook only software and find it to be very easy to use and simple.

I get videos back to clients sometimes within the same day of shooting! Boy do they love that! I've heard complaints time and time again about other videographers taking weeks to get back a short video. Their struggle is what differentiates me.

In terms of learning how to edit I just go to YouTube. Everything you need to know is on there. No courses either, just got to work and learned through trial and error. Same with selling to clients, learning about equipment, how to shoot, etc. All from YouTube videos.

Hope this helps!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Forgot to mention why I bought a brand new macbook...

I really didnt need it.

I was using an old 2011 macbook pro that was about as thick as a brick and had a cracked screen. I used this thing for years after buying it for a few hundred bucks on craigslist. I was going to use that thing until it crapped out. And sure enough...it did. Right after I shot my first video! Of course! *sighs*

Most people would've taken that as a sign to quit. I decided to double down and take a big risk. (Plus I knew I eventually was going to need an upgrade in order to handle these big 4k files I was going to be editing with in the future)

I had no money after buying that new camera so I started researching ways to get a macbook pro and it turns out they do 0% interest financing for 18 months! Perfect.

"Wait...how much is it? $2300 for a computer? Jeeeeezus."

I did some quick math and it was looking at about $150 or so a month to pay it off without incurring interest. I though that was do-able since I made $500 in my first month. I figured I could get at least one video a month.

It was funny because I had just read the part in Unscripted about being unbalanced for a few years in order to become balanced in the future and how committed some business owners are by going all in and even going into major debts to finance their goals. Normally I would have never purchased a computer this expensive but it needed to happen in order to keep growing and progress

Btw, this Macbook is insanely fast. I guess it's because I was working on a much slower macbook for so long that would take ages to render anything. I never knew what I was missing. I went from 2 hour export times to 2 minutes. Definetely helped with my quick turn around time!

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ChaseFade

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As someone with interest in this area, I find your story quite impressive. Excellent job!

The Lumix is a wonderful choice. Final Cut is what will allow you to turn around projects fast. There's nothing faster. Keep doing what you're doing.

I'm not looking to do a video service like you, but I'll be damned at how fast you've worked. That's what fire will do for you. Without the fire.... well, let's just say my Mavic Pro I got in November hasn't had its maiden flight yet.
Thank you so much!

Dang, that's interesting! You gotta get out there and use it!

Seems like everybody has a drone these days...Only reason I got mine was because I absolutely needed it.

The first time I flew one I was at an open house filming a listing for the very first time and had no clue what i was doing! Haha. The Spark is so small and it was very windy that day and it almost got blown into the power lines and the neighbors house! I'm getting better at it, though. Lol

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ChaseFade

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This man is a god damn beast. Congrats on your hustle. I'll be name dropping you when you are producing 50 cent's new video.
That would be incredible! Haha I'm such a big fan.

I truly appreciate the kind words!

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ChaseFade

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Beast mode! Seems like you’re building your way into a media production/agency. Keep it up! Where are you located?


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That's the goal! I want to get to the point where I'm just taking meetings with clients and helping on the bigger shoots with employees we've hired, while growing the business. Become completely seperate from the business where it doesnt need me to be there operating it day to day. Long ways to go!

I'm in Seattle! We are slowly becoming the next LA in terms of media. There is so much corporate work to be had here with all these big tech companies! Trying to find my way in the door.

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ChaseFade

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I'm noticing a huge problem with basically all my clients I've been working with....their social media branding/marketing is AWFUL!

They have no idea what they are doing! It sucks to shoot a video and take time editing and sometimes multiple days for both and have it only get 100 views smh. It kills me. To the point where I am getting frustrated and thinking about not working with clients if they don't have a marketing budget to promote the videos I shoot.

They post YouTube links to Facebook, put 0 dollars behind it and wonder why they got 7 views...


I sense a huge need for a completely in house social media marketing company. We shoot the videos, run the ads, set up the website/branding etc and get them leads for their business! What business doesnt need leads?


When I first was getting started I partnered with my friend who is killing it with FB ads at a local restaurant. He brought this place from $500 a day in revenue to over $1800 a day in only 3 months! Completely changed this restaurant owners life. He was working in the back as a dishwasher and now was making 1000 a month to do their social media campaigns. So we partnered up. I shoot the videos, he runs the ads. I've never been great at marketing. I'm more skilled on the content creation side anyways. It was looking like a great partnership. We all were already counting the money we were potentially going to make. That is until we started shooting a few videos for my realtor and ran the ads. They didnt garner any results other than a big ego stroke and alot of realtors contacting me for potential videos for them. They loved the video but it didnt produce real world results. And my buddy didnt like the real estate industry so he left. We never made our first sale or signed any contracts and the partnership dissolved naturally.

Although he said if I can go out there and sell our service (shoot the video and run a campaign) to other restaurants in the area, we will split the fee 50/50. I just havent had the time to start making calls and am honestly nervous to do it. But it looks like a great opportunity to help business owners bring in more customers!

And I love the idea of having a monthly contract and in turn having consistent monthly revenue come in. I am in this freelance stage where I don't know how much I will make in the coming months. awful.

What do you think? Should I just focus on making great videos? Go out and sell my services to restaurants? Or do both?



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ChaseFade

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Also if you guys want to see the actual videos I shot for my clients please let me know! I didnt want to post any links to avoid looking spammy. I'd be happy to show examples.

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How do you reach out to clients? Do you do cold calls or is the need for your services so big in your area? I haven't really checked, but I think these services are pretty much saturated in my country (yet, so is webdesign and I keep catching big fishes as well).

@Fox you might find this interesting.
 
G

GUEST417

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Perfect example of just figuring crap out. You are being spread out amongst tons I avenues right now, soon you will find your niche and BLOW.

Love the hustle. I think I should share my similar story soon.


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Xavier X

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@ChaseFade Good job, man!

This is my forte, so I like seeing other people grinding in it too. I don't do live shoots or event-type work though. I only do controlled production.

In my case, my degree is in Communication with a Concentration in Media Production.

Once you're confident in your production abilities, as a path to growth, I'd recommend quality over quantity.
This industry will burn you out fast if you consistently churn out a massive number of low paying gigs in record turnaround time. It is a great way to start, but not sustainable long term.

Go for bigger budget industries.
By that, I mean - skip the miserly realtor and go for the medical practitioner.
Except if you're dealing with a realtor in Beverly Hills or some place with insane ROI for the realtor.

Like one of my production contracts with a medical practitioner, I do very simple one-day shoots for them at... $4,000 a pop. About 8 hours of shooting, and I leave with a decent check.

Not a big production set-up. In fact, I one-man-show that production all the time. Simple 2-fixed-cam setup + lighting.
Sure, I have to edit the clips for another 2 weeks each time, but I can do that from anywhere in the world, on my own time.

The point being, try as early as you can to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Yeah, YouTube is a great place to learn stuff. I still learn new things all the time on there.
I have a few video editing tutorials with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. It gives me satisfaction that people are learning something from it the way I learn from other videos.

From all indications, you have the drive to make it happen, so keep grinding.
 

minivanman

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For anyone else interested in the future, they also rent camera equipment.

Don't forget about small business commercials or ads for social media. I know a guy that made his own very cool commercial with his drone for his lawn care business. Most small businesses don't realize they can have a video made for so cheap. Good job!!!
 

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Also if you guys want to see the actual videos I shot for my clients please let me know! I didnt want to post any links to avoid looking spammy. I'd be happy to show examples.

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I'd be interested in seeing some of your work.

Also drone wise, you mentioned you were going to upgrade from the Spark to the air. One thing you could consider is getting an older Inspire, you can find used ones in great shape for not that much more than a Mavic. Much better in wind and looks more professional. Just something to think about. The Mavics are hard to beat portability wise though.
 
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ChaseFade

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How do you reach out to clients? Do you do cold calls or is the need for your services so big in your area? I haven't really checked, but I think these services are pretty much saturated in my country (yet, so is webdesign and I keep catching big fishes as well).

@Fox you might find this interesting.
For Social Media? Or for Videos?

For videos I have been getting referrals from previous clients or being discovered through Instagram.

For social media, I havent even started reaching out. But my plan was to just cold call and get in touch with a manager and schedule a sit down meeting if they were interested. I definetely think the need Is there. Some of my favorite local restaurants tend to be pretty dead most days and I know we can bring in more customers through the door. The food is great but the marketing is OK or non- existent.

Sales and cold calling scares the hell out of me but I think I can do it and become great at it with practice.

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ChaseFade

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Perfect example of just figuring crap out. You are being spread out amongst tons I avenues right now, soon you will find your niche and BLOW.

Love the hustle. I think I should share my similar story soon.


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Thank you. I definetely want to niche down and become great at one thing. Weddings are looking promising

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ChaseFade

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@ChaseFade Good job, man!

This is my forte, so I like seeing other people grinding in it too. I don't do live shoots or event-type work though. I only do controlled production.

In my case, my degree is in Communication with a Concentration in Media Production.

Once you're confident in your production abilities, as a path to growth, I'd recommend quality over quantity.
This industry will burn you out fast if you consistently churn out a massive number of low paying gigs in record turnaround time. It is a great way to start, but not sustainable long term.

Go for bigger budget industries.
By that, I mean - skip the miserly realtor and go for the medical practitioner.
Except if you're dealing with a realtor in Beverly Hills or some place with insane ROI for the realtor.

Like one of my production contracts with a medical practitioner, I do very simple one-day shoots for them at... $4,000 a pop. About 8 hours of shooting, and I leave with a decent check.

Not a big production set-up. In fact, I one-man-show that production all the time. Simple 2-fixed-cam setup + lighting.
Sure, I have to edit the clips for another 2 weeks each time, but I can do that from anywhere in the world, on my own time.

The point being, try as early as you can to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Yeah, YouTube is a great place to learn stuff. I still learn new things all the time on there.
I have a few video editing tutorials with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. It gives me satisfaction that people are learning something from it the way I learn from other videos.

From all indications, you have the drive to make it happen, so keep grinding.
Wow, thank you! That is very interesting.

What kind of videos do you provide for the medical practitioners?

$4,000 a pop is great money! Twice what I make in one month at my current day job.

How would you recommend I go about getting my foot in the door to working with these types of clients?

I definetely am feeling the burn out already and want to niche down into a certain type of production. Weddings or more corporate gigs like you are doing. It's been great to learn while getting paid and be able to invest in new equipment but I am realizing that it is definetely not sustainable like you said.

The realtors I worked for do luxury homes so they definetely have the budget but in my market there isn't much of a need for listing videos right now because million dollar houses here in Seattle sell in DAYS. With or without alot of marketing. Its insane.

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ChaseFade

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For anyone else interested in the future, they also rent camera equipment.

Don't forget about small business commercials or ads for social media. I know a guy that made his own very cool commercial with his drone for his lawn care business. Most small businesses don't realize they can have a video made for so cheap. Good job!!!
Definitely! I rent lenses constantly and rent cameras that I am looking to get in the future. Only $25 to rent a lens for the weekend is a great way to get the shots you need without buying the entire thing

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ChaseFade

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I'd be interested in seeing some of your work.

Also drone wise, you mentioned you were going to upgrade from the Spark to the air. One thing you could consider is getting an older Inspire, you can find used ones in great shape for not that much more than a Mavic. Much better in wind and looks more professional. Just something to think about. The Mavics are hard to beat portability wise though.
Thanks for the suggestion, I just recently heard about that one. Will look into it.

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ChaseFade

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Here's some links to recent videos I have done. I really went out there and shot a whole lot of everything to figure out what I liked and didnt like. Music videos are fun but challenging to shoot some times, listing videos are easy. Live shows are a blast but can be draining. Weddings look like the perfect blend for my style. I like to keep things modern, clean, and simple and not have to do much directing/story boarding. Weddings tend to be completely planned out from start to finish and don't require much effects to be great! Right up my alley.


Recent highlight reel

View: https://youtu.be/vfoqyvibYV0


Live show

View: https://youtu.be/URMSbXpCWds


Realtor lifestyle ad

View: https://youtu.be/MWWeT8PFRlg


Listing walkthrough

View: https://youtu.be/XQTyAE3Bkkw


And my website for other projects!

Welcome

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Xavier X

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Wow, thank you! That is very interesting.

What kind of videos do you provide for the medical practitioners?

$4,000 a pop is great money! Twice what I make in one month at my current day job.

How would you recommend I go about getting my foot in the door to working with these types of clients?

I definetely am feeling the burn out already and want to niche down into a certain type of production. Weddings or more corporate gigs like you are doing. It's been great to learn while getting paid and be able to invest in new equipment but I am realizing that it is definetely not sustainable like you said.

The realtors I worked for do luxury homes so they definetely have the budget but in my market there isn't much of a need for listing videos right now because million dollar houses here in Seattle sell in DAYS. With or without alot of marketing. Its insane.

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Mostly procedural videos, and patient training videos for post-surgical recovery routines.

With such clients, if they haven't contacted you themselves, it requires more finesse.
You would have to research their practice and see where visual-media content comes in.

At that point, you can pitch them on either streamlining existing media needs, or offering something new.

It could be video documentation. It could be editing of video documentation, if involved procedures won't permit third-party presence etc. These are things you'll find when researching their practice.

You will generally have more success with people in private practice than large hospitals, for instance. Gotta work your way up.

I post classified ads in a few places, and get contacted by people and businesses from all walks of life.
Try doing that, and it starts moving you closer to cherry picking your clients.
This all depends on your copy, and what you can show them after your copy motivates them to contact you.

Also, don't forget you can offer editing services as stand-alone work. This allows you reach clients pretty much anywhere, and opens doors for out-of-town work.

The videos you posted are nice, so you're on the right path already, as far as the technical aspect.
 

Mike Carr

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Fantastic post man! That mentality switch you had (your FTE) sounds like it kicked you into high gear and you made the most of it.
 

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