How to get clients today! EP #363

📞 Waiting for work to come to you? It’s time to make the first move.

When business slows down, it’s easy to get stuck in waiting mode—but the best opportunities often come from the connections you’ve already made.

This episode dives into practical ways to generate leads and secure work during lean times. We explore the power of checking in with past clients and nurturing existing relationships to unlock new business.

You’ll also hear insights on cold outreach, the power of referrals, and why self-belief is key to staying proactive and resilient. Because success starts with action.

The Video Mentors: Den Lennie, Andy Johnston, Caleb Maxell, Matt Smolen

Download the Little Black Book of Video Business Secrets: The Success Formula of 6 and 7-figure Video Businesses - Stand out, win premium projects, and grow while working less.

Get more great resources and check out how you can work with us in our FREE community directly at TheVideoMentors.com

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00:00 Introduction and Addressing the Perception of Lean Times

01:27 The Power of Genuine Conversations and Checking In on Past Clients

07:37 Utilizing LinkedIn for Outreach and Collaboration

11:18 Nurturing Existing Clients and Offering Additional Services

15:34 The Importance of Mindset and Self-Belief in Business

Transcript

 I've been listening to a lot of people saying that work's really tight out there. A lot of freelancers saying it's really hard. There's a lot of news around, you know, things being a bit lean. That's not necessarily the experience we're having in the community we're in when in the corporate video world, but I thought it was a great opportunity to address this, you know, if we put ourselves back in that position where we believe that there's not enough work out there and things are really leaning, clients aren't spending.

What are some of the things you would be doing to generate opportunities for yourself and in a time where things get lean?  I won't even just say would be doing, I have done this thing. One of the easiest and simplest ways to try and drive some more business is get on the phone. And I think, you know, if you've been lucky enough to work with some clients in the past, you've already got a bunch of people that as long as you didn't.

Mess it up, would happily take a phone call from you, right? And so it's the easiest way to get on the phone, go, Hey, this is Matt, Den, how are you, mate? What's been going on? And just no sales, no direct whatever, just have a genuine conversation to check in on somebody. And then through that, naturally, because the relationship has centered around working together, you will start talking about work.

How's things at, you know, your business? What's been going on? Oh, cool, you're working on that. We've been just doing X, Y, Z. And look, I'd love to work with you again if there's any opportunity. And that's the worst case scenario. Best case scenario, which has happened to me last week, I called 34 people, and I closed 20 grand, I had 5 meetings booked, and I've just had this trickling of people that I missed, that I left voicemails for, calling me back, I'm so sorry I missed you, how's things?

And it's it's so powerful because if you come at it from a place of authenticity and genuine interest, how's your dog, how's your kids? I, have they started kindy yet? What's been going on? I saw the, you know, the Celtics won the NBA championship. That's awesome. I know you whatever it is, right.

Have a bit of personal connection and start that conversation. Naturally, work conversation will come up and they'll just, if there's no opportunity directly there, you'll be top of mind because you made them feel, you know, important in your life. And so it moves the needle really quickly, but also fills your boots.

And you start having these conversations that are positive that just breed a bit more momentum. So I did that last week and it's just I think it's worth mentioning here, you know, when you're facing 34 calls, like I'd still be like, Oh, 34 calls. The first one is the hardest. Yeah. But once you've broken the back of that, which reminds me of backing COVID, remember that, that situation where you are really in shock and just do this. 

Yeah, like the three calls, my fav before I drop that one that's a superpower, right? Like people, you can be listening to that and go, no, it's getting on the phone to a lot of people, that sounds like a boring thing to do. If you can do that well, you will be that person's, potentially that person's favorite moment of their day.

And you know why? Because people. I have this belief that everybody's favorite subject to talk about is themselves. And before you call BS on that, the only reason it wouldn't be is if they're talking to someone they don't think cares.  And so if someone I would say no matter who it is, I could have a great conversation with someone.

And it's by asking them about themselves. 100%. And it's by genuinely wanting to know. It's by going past the, Hey, how are ya? Yeah, good, thanks. No, I want to know. How are you? Yeah. Or, what have you been up to? Not much. I don't believe you. There's two things I want to add to that. One is we've worked with a finance broker, right?

To get some loans to buy cameras and equipment and things. And he, in his CRM, has Birthdays of my family, like my kid's birthdays and we'll just call me and be like, Hey, I just want to wish you a son. Happy birthday. Whoa, dude, that's so cool. And he's not thinking about it, but there's that follow up and you feel so good by it.

It's like the greatest, warmest feeling. Wow. But I think the other thing you just said that's that remind me, I have to share this is it is a superpower. But it is also, you have to do a lot of mindset shifting in order to just commit to that, right? Yeah. We talk a lot about mindset and committing to the idea of being a business owner and really who do you need to become to see this scale and be successful?

I had that list of 34 people I needed to call and the first couple I was like, they're easy layups, cool, I spoke to them last month, whatever. You get to the last 10 that are like, Oh, I haven't spoken to them in a year. And it's maybe it's, I'd maybe I just send them an email and just the mental gymnastics I'm going through.

It's just, I know that I need to do this and yet I'm still doing it. So just push through that barrier. Cause the worst that happens is you have a, Hey, how's it going? Yeah, good. What's been up to? Oh, not much. Great. Blah, blah, blah, blah. All right. No worries. See you later. And that's it. You know, if I were to say to you, Hey, I want to give you 20, 000.

And all you have to do is make 34 phone calls. How many of you would say yes to that? Everyone. Nearly everyone. And yet, as videographers running businesses, we all have a client list.  And it doesn't matter if they're last clients, or recent clients, or clients you didn't win deals with.  You've got some kind of relationship.

And it's just making that first step. And you're absolutely right. Do not do it via email. That is not a follow-up. A follow-up is getting on the phone. And if you can't get them on the phone right away, Cause sometimes people ignore numbers they don't know, ring again, and ring again. And almost every time someone will pick up on the third call, cause they'll think, Oh, someone's really trying to get ahold of me.

There must be an emergency. Yeah. That's where I was going to that, but you've got to be, you've got to come in with, I have a reason to call, right? The three-call strategy is rocking and it challenges so many internal perceptions, right? What's the three-call strategy? The three call strategy, as Dan outlined briefly, is you call them, they don't pick up.

You know, chances are, they'll look to their phone and seen a call coming through and just put it down. That's, you know, most people will see the call. You call them again.  And, you know, it takes a little bit to go, I've called them once, I've done what I was supposed to do, I'll just move on to the next one, that's easy.

It's harder to call again.  You call again and if they don't pick up that time, you call again. And that's like holy there. Jen was saying, you know, if someone's called you three times,  they want a quick  , they wanna speak to you, you think in.  Oh, what's going on? I have to pick up the phone. This person's called me three times in a row.

It's urgent. And you,  I've done this to multiple people and you do sometimes get the what 

You can't say what,  but that's when you step in to go, I actually believe I could be the best part of someone's day.  . And you'd say, Hey, it's Caleb here. I just really wanted to check in. How are you? Things a bit crazy out there at the moment. Oh, the example I used was back in COVID, right? That was easy, right?

Because I could come in going,  how crazy is this world? I just wanted to check in. I'm doing a ring around of all my past clients and I want to check in. How are you going? And the response after me asking a genuine question that sounds like I really care is often,  huh?  Wow. Yeah, it is going crazy. And you just have this conversation and unknowing unwittingly you've been there, the best part of their day, right?

Where they, you just get to have a human-to-human conversation with someone who cares. Yeah. And what you're really doing there as well is you're fishing for problems.  Yeah, you're just waiting for them to be like da. And then we really want to launch his brand product da. And you're like, Oh, brand product.

Yeah. Okay, Sally. So yeah, that's really interesting. You know, that brand product, we could actually probably help you guys out with that. Is that something, you know, good one and then away you go. Yeah. You say man, it sounds like a really tough time. Did you know we actually solved that problem?

Would you be interested in hearing how we do that? Can I ask you then, COVID obviously makes sense, you're checking in, it's a crazy world, how do you do that today? What's the reason you were calling them three times on a Wednesday afternoon? Talk the weather in Bendigo.  How sunny is it outside?

No, I play into it. I go, who? Hey, look, no emergency. I know what you might be thinking. I've called you three times in a row, but I'm going through my past emails, our past clients, and I really wanted to catch up with you and catch you before the day's out. I've got a simple question for you. How is life at the moment?

How are you going? I want to check in. And it's good because you, It can be the elephant in the room, right? Yeah. Someone's called you up and you know, if you sense like they're a bit annoyed you can just I call it out. I just go, have I caught you at a bad moment? I know I called you three times and that can be a bit crazy.

Have I caught you at a bad time? Can I call you back? And they go, Oh Oh no, all right, let's talk. They're just shocked. Yeah. Because what you're doing is you're showing that you care. Yep. And I think there was a very famous mark to these names to escape me, but he said. You become interesting by being interested in people.

Oh, good. And so if you lean in and really want to get ahold of someone, it stands out. Yeah. Cause most people are like, how are you? I'm fine. And so you actually go a bit deeper. And if you're leading from the heart, really, you're saying, I really care about you and I want to know how you are.

And if the conversation goes towards, we can solve a problem for you. Great. But that's not why I called. And you have this intent. And I think that intent counts more than skill in any sales conversation. Most sales conversations, videographers particularly are like,  you got any work?  And that's often what happens.

Whereas if you go, Hey, I'm just calling to see how you are, because I. Not checked in a while. How are you? Yeah. People feel that. So what are some ideas then? So say, for example, I take on your guys advice. I run through that list. I have four people I call and that's the extent of my contact list.

And I have four great conversations, but nothing comes out of those four. And then I still am at a point where I'm looking for work. What are some ideas that you guys could give me that will fast track my client acquisition? I got two. You can go back to them and send them an email and just say, Hey, great to catch up with you earlier today, Andy.

Loved our chat. Great to hear about, you know, how well your kids are doing, whatever it is.  I'm a little bit light on at work for the moment, and we had a great opportunity or great time working together. Is there anybody you could recommend me to that would really benefit from what I could do?

Referrals, right? Cause you've already had a conversation, they've got a good positive vibe about you. All of a sudden they're like, yeah, I'd love to refer Andy to somebody else. Bang. And then that's just a nice organic, really warm lead off the back of that. The other one is essentially doing the same thing. 

Yeah, essentially cold outreach if you're in the mode of it, right? Yep. If you're already feeling good about getting on the phone and you've already broken through that barrier, then what are some of those, you know, maybe you've got connections with people on LinkedIn that you've not had a conversation with, find the office number, give them a buzz, go, Hey, it's Andy here.

I just want to say good day and, you know, have a chat to Janet, you know, is Janet around? Great. Janet, we've been connected on LinkedIn. I just want to check and say, Hey, again, cause I really love what you post on LinkedIn and blah, blah, blah. So maybe just capitalize on that momentum and start doing the outreach beyond that, because.

I think, like we've all said, once you break through that first phone call or the third phone call you're in a space where you're like the band-aid's ripped off. We're ready to go. So what else can you do with that energy and that momentum while you're in the zone? Yep. I tell you, if you get on the phone, you will drum up work.

That it's just as simple as that. It just depends how many calls you're willing to make. You will  finish with work if you just keep calling people. And I love that. That was going to be my one, like you, you'll look through your dream client list or your niche you're trying to get into, and you're just like, all right, here's 10 numbers, here's 20 numbers and the people I want to speak to.

My goal is always trying to catch up for coffee, right? Try and get what you're trying to do in any scenario, really, when you're trying to drum up work. Is have a high-value conversation, trying to find a high-value conversation and it's about problem-solving. And so it's about finding the people that are most likely to have the problems that you can solve.

And so you go, Hey.  I've been admiring, I love what you guys do. I know your time's a premium, but I was wondering if I could buy you a coffee. Because I want to, I'm doing a bunch of research in your industry and you know, whatever you want to spend. I would love to learn more about your business and how I can help you. 

But first let's have a coffee.  Also, I want to go back to a real-life example where, you know, typically you know, we teach a lot of the LinkedIn strategy, which is about connecting with people every day. It's a longer-term strategy, you know, 60 to 90 days, build relationships, create content,  but I've seen it work very quickly as well.

And Sammy, one of our colleagues won a 50 grand deal last week. He said that a hundred percent through a LinkedIn connection that was nurtured over time. Grant has another colleague of ours done lots of business through LinkedIn. But Alana, I remember distinctly last January was like, I've got nothing.

It's dry. What do I do? She asked this exact question on an uplevel call.  I said, just go to LinkedIn.  She smashed out 20 connections a day, every day for a week.  And she won, I think it was about 12, 000 worth of work because she just happened to connect with someone at the right time with a message that says, Hey, can I help you with any video projects?

So as much as the longer term strategy with LinkedIn is one of like haste and gently easing yourself in Nick Nolan, who's an uplevel has also trimmed that and just gone. And at least he's the charm of the Irish, right? He's Oh, Dan, I just, you know, I just asked him if they want any video work.

Is there any opportunities, you know, and God, Nick's in the room, Nick. I know, right? But he basically just goes straight in with, Hey how are you? I see you do X and Y. We produce videos in that space. Just inquiring if there's any mutually beneficial arrangements we could look at. And he just finds it super successful because Nick is a videographer.

He just wants to be a videographer, gets booked to do videography jobs. So he's not really interested in scaling a business. So that works really well for him. So I would say if you were a videographer right now struggling for work, I would hit LinkedIn with a more direct message that said something like.

Hey the algorithm suggested we connect, I do, I make videos for companies like yours. I just wanted to explore whether or not there was any synergies and it works. So if you're looking for immediate food, you know, go to the low-hanging fruit and that means just reach out to people on LinkedIn. And what will happen with that as well is I think it will condition you  to reach out to people cold.

You know what? Another really helpful tip on that. It's a volume game. When you're coming to that strategy, don't be spending two hours curating the list of five people you're going to reach out to on LinkedIn and trying to find out their kids names and, you know, what they had for breakfast.

You literally you've set the parameters wide enough that your message is gonna, you know, land in the right industry or the subject that you're talking about and do 20 connections a day for a week. And you, that was a massive barrier for me. Cause I'd be like what if they come back and they're really keen, but I don't want to work with them.

Alan Debb in the one-page marketing plan, he talks about the fact that in a cross-section of a hundred people. Only three are ready to buy now between seven and 10, maybe in a position to buy something in the near future. I think the other 20-odd percent might be in the market in the next six months, and then there's 30 percent who are now going to buy from you and wouldn't give, wouldn't take it if it was free.

And then the final 30 percent have just no interest in you whatsoever. If you think you're only reaching out to 20 people a month, it's going to take you four times, five times as long to get to that a hundred to get to three clients. And sometimes that,  that really freaks us out. And you know, Ben Simkin of mentor of mine, he said It's going to take you 10 times the effort that you think it will to get a client.

And I've always adopted that and it's yeah, you have to do 10 times the work you think you're gonna have to do to get one client to trust you. Yeah.  For me, if I was to give somebody advice and if you're looking for your next meal,  I'm going to consider that things are pretty serious, right? You've got to match your action to the circumstance.

For me, and I'm, I've always been interested in leverage. When I think of business, I'm trying to create leverage. So it's I'm trying to find actions that I can do, that I it's, I don't like 1 plus 1 equals 2, I like, how can we create 1 plus 1 equals 15? What how can we do that?

That's the question to ask. Yeah, I love it. So it's I'm looking for activities that,  I saved up, I saved time and I win more clients. For me, I've, I like, I did the door-knocking thing. Cold calling is how I started niching into the construction industry. I just called a ton of builders. But I think as well, don't underestimate the power of ads.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist or like an ads guru to start generating inquiries. Like  It's like the market is saturated with videographers. Everybody has, everybody today is a videographer, right? So you've got to ask yourself, how am I different? To, to my competitors. And if you're just going to rely on your skills and we can color grade better, or, you know, I've done a short film back in film school, then that's, you're not working hard enough. Like you've really got to think, how do I grab somebody's attention? And I grab them by the jugular and I create something so irresistible that they feel stupid walking away from me.

That's the intensity you have to approach every client with. So it's like. What I did, and this is what I would recommend in in, you know, I'm following based off my previous experience, which was niching, but in the construction industry was I created an offer where they felt like, what, why is this guy giving it to us for 6, 000?

My first offer was 6, 000. I needed my next mil. To them, I was giving them like 40, 50 grand worth of value. And they said, wow, this guy's of course we're going to say yes.  You know, and I'm like, wait, I've got my next meal, and I just accepted my fate that the next three, four months, I'm gonna grind.

I'm gonna work my ass off here and get my foot in the door. And I think there's an ego thing with creators where it's if it's not at my rate that's it, I'm not working for you. It's My man,  like still in struggle city, . Yeah. And learn the game. But there's beauty, but it is a game.

Yeah. And it's fun. Yeah. If you embrace it as the game and you see it as fun and you don't attach that artistic ego to your value. And I like $3,000 a day and I don't go out for less. And it's no one's working every day for $3,000 a day. Not even the greatest dps. It's like a reality check. 

But I get it, you know, we've all been there where it's like, Oh, I feel hurt that someone's dared to offer me less than my value because we take it so personally, but you learn to, to not. Yeah. I think if we come back to the LinkedIn stuff too, like I think, yeah, coming in and going, this is what my next meal is come in hard and grind is cool.

But I think if you're doing some of the LinkedIn outreach and you get out of that, like living job to job, needing something to sustain you and you actively trying to generate some leads, don't. Lose what work you've done in those lead generation processes. So you might have a couple of conversations and they go, Oh, cool.

We're just working this thing now, but maybe in a couple of months time, we'll be ready to chat. Don't just forget that somewhere, put it in your calendar, put it in your project management system, make a note to go. I've got to contact this person again in six months time, make some notes of what that conversation was about, because I guarantee you when you call them or send them a message in six months time.

How was that event that you ran or how was that thing you were doing? And they go, Oh, wow. You remembered just instantly you skyrocket to the top of their list. Cause you know, they feel important. Yep. And so all of that. Compounds over time. It starts just adding more and more of those conversations in that network.

And then eventually the numbers game, if you've gone from 20 a week to, you know, a hundred, sorry, 20 a day to a hundred a week, that becomes 400 a month over a year, you've got, you know, a whole lot of new connections that those conversations, you just keep adding more and more to them. Eventually the tilling of the soil will just generate work because of that nurturing.

The other thing you can do as well is like we're talking about attracting new leads and new clients, right? But the other thing, if you're in a position and you're, you know, trying to make bank is look at your existing clients. They're your happiest, your warmest leads, if you like, you know, it's if you're already doing a profile video or you're doing a couple of social media ads or whatever it is you're doing for them,  think a bit deeper what else can we add to this and just go, Hey Jack, I noticed that we're doing this for you, like everything's going good, but we just noticed as well that if we did this as well, it's going to do this.

Is that something you guys would be interested in? Oh man, thanks so much for thinking, let's do it. What's the, let's go. That is such a good point. It reminds me of a situation we had the other day. Yeah. We got a roof painting client who's an absolute legendary, amazing client Bailey who is on set with him, and he didn't realize that we did TV ads, because we're doing his social ads. 

And I was like,  hold the phone.  I'm sorry, what?  Yes, we do TV ads. And he was getting his TV ads done somewhere else. Oh, yeah, wow. And I didn't even know he did TV ads. I'm like, we're doing all this social media and stuff and he's put us in this box and he loves us in that box, but he doesn't know that we do other things.

You know, you don't know what they have on the table that you could be picking up, right? There's a whole bunch of other things that we once that kind of lock was un unlocked, I was like, oh my goodness, oh, let me have a conversation with you dude, and share what else we do. And how many of your other clients don't realize you do X and Y.

Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. I've heard that story before. Someone in the VBE talked about that story, it's oh, we just thought you did the kind of, the five to ten grand project. We give the 20 grand projects to someone else. We didn't realize you did them. It might have been you actually. It was. It's oh no, we just didn't think you were at that level.

And you were like.  Let me show you some, yeah, we've, it's only if you would just, we make assumptions about what people know about us because we're talking about it all day, every day and we get bored of hearing our own voices saying the same things over and over again. But the person that it lands with, it might be the first time they've heard it and they were busy and they caught a bit of it and you've got to keep repeating it again and again.

I was at a, an event filming a corporate in Sydney three, three years ago, and this woman had been an advisor to Bill Clinton, President Bill Clinton.  Her name was Jean. I forget her surname, but she was fascinating. And she said, you know, bill, sorry,  Bill. Bill was a brilliant communicator. He had his flaws.

She said what?  I can't imagine. Didn't know what he killed. Okay. But but she said he was a brilliant. Orator. Yeah,  . . Great indicator.  He said, it is really salient. He said, it doesn't matter, Jean, it doesn't matter what we are saying matters what they're hearing. And I'm like, that is brilliant.

Yeah, that's good. And we often go we do X and y and with this and with that, but the next thing. But the client's hearing something different because they're sitting in their own. As you said at the beginning of this episode, what happens if you're sitting there and you're like,  you've got no work and you're worried about paying the rent.

What do you do? It doesn't matter what we are saying, because all they're hearing is I'm starving. I need to do something. Give me something. I don't care about the strategies. Give me something I can do now.  And all of it's uncomfortable, but you never hunt better than when you're hungry. And sometimes you just gotta.

Pick up the phone. Yep. Stay hungry. Stay hungry. I'm pretty hungry now actually.  I'm serious.  Final tips. If we're just to think about this, try and dig more out of this episode for our listeners, our viewers. Nice. You're sitting there just now.  Your name's Andrew. Okay. And you're a video production company and you've had a few good months.

And then a few shitty months you know, you had a 20 grand job last year and now you're doing two grand jobs and you don't feel like you're some rookie, but you're stuck.  And sometimes we all get stuck, right? We get stuck in a paradigm. We get stuck in a way. Maybe we haven't evolved as a business.

What do you do?  Andrew, you've got to become top of mind to everybody you possibly can. So that's getting on the phone, talking to the people that know you. It's by connecting with new people on LinkedIn. It's by posting content, running ads, being as present and omnipotent as possible. So that whenever somebody thinks video, they think Andrew's videos.

And it's simple as that. Be out there and be as touchable as possible.  Yeah. I'd say Andrew, mate, if you're in a funk and you're hearing all this and you're like, I can't do any of that. I just, I don't know which way is up. Surround yourself with some other people that can speak into your life and go, Hey mate, get around ya and pull you out.

Because it's really hard business can be really isolating and you can feel like you're just drowning sometimes. So I would say, don't go to your well-meaning family that had never run a business or anything like that. Go find a crew that get you. There's a cool, 'cause there's a couple of cool places you can go for that, right?

, I'm surrounded by you guys come onto to this podcast,  . Yeah. There's the spare seat. Here is somewhere. No, but seriously, there's, we've got a free group, right? Yeah. And so that is a place where people like you can get in there and it's no longer the echo chamber of your brain. You can see other people who have similar problems and you can all rise together.

Hmm. When I plucked that name, Andrea, the Nowhere. I wasn't even thinking about Andy. I've never known you be called Andrew. That's what your mother says to you when you're in trouble. I'm thinking there's someone there that's it's going to be really freaky for them. There isn't Andrew.

There isn't. Wedding block. I can see through the bodyguard. Yeah, that's massive. I think community is huge surrounding yourself with other people. I think for me, the thing I'll share with Andrew or anybody who's in that position is. From my experience, when things are going south, the first thing that I check is myself.

The first thing that I check is where's my head at? Where's my mind? Don't underestimate the power of positivity. That sounds really loose. That in your mind, self-belief is key. Because if you believe that you will fail. Even if I hand you the keys, you won't be able to start the car.

It's but if you believe in your mind this is my self-belief. Any problem I encounter, I have the ability to solve it. It's a relentless, brutal mentality. But I have to have it, and I, to the core, believe it. I would say Check yourself. Are you backing yourself? Do you believe that you can succeed?

And check that first. Once you've got that the answers will follow. Yep. Love it. And the only thing that's guaranteed, is if you don't change something.  You will guaranteed get the same result you're getting. So if not now, when? You may as well give it a crack because what's the worst that can happen?

Yeah. 

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