Be honest, Savages... how often do you look busy AF, but deep down, you know you’re not really getting anywhere? Things like: - Rearranging B-Roll for the 20th time to get it "perfect" - Organizing your hard drives because it'll "help you work faster" - Updating your social media bios so you look "professional" It feels like work—but is it making you money? Is it getting you new clients, leveling up your skills, or moving the needle at all? When you’re a creative running your own business, it's easy to confuse motion with progress. But there’s a difference between looking busy and actually being effective- and that’s what decides whether you’re stressed about bills or stacking wins. Let's call it out—what’s the biggest ‘busy trap’ you fall into, and how do you snap out of it? Or maybe you're still working on figuring that part out. Let’s air it out and help each other focus on what matters. The only thing worse than being busy and broke, is being busy and broke ALONE.

Hi Fam, I've finally started "thinking" about my own VBS, Process video, and other core assets, and collecting and shooting B-roll to make it stand out a bit. I started shooting staged BTS footage (due to insufficient material from the true productions we've had so far). Quite a good exercise btw :) Wish I had a longer Nanlite Pavotube lights and some better light stands though, would probably make it way better as these cheap Quadralites look a little too short in these frames. Let me know what you think about it, and if it's good enough to be used :) Thanks!

Hey all, I've been working at this for about nine months now, and was originally trying to niche down to companies that serve public safety agencies such as trainers and equipment providers. I have noticed that a lot of these companies just don't have the budget for marketing that I would like to work with. After several conversations with these types of companies, I have noticed that there is an expectation to create $500 videos. Even after discussions with them, and showing what they could potentially expect on ROI's for quality content, there just isn't the margin for them to spend a realistic amount of money on the content they want. With that said, I'm exploring options to transition niches. I have noticed that there are a lot of dental offices and chiropractors in my area which have very generic/bland content on their websites and social media pages. Who here has had experience working with these niches and what did you like as well as what challenges were you confronted with working with these niches?

Hi :) Just looking at the calendar now - are there still Q&A sessions done and my calendar doesn't display them? Or are they simply cancelled for now? Thanks!

Hi Fam, Yesterday's Q&A session and @Bailey Nachtigal's question got me thinking, as I've been struggling a lot to convert my old web development clients to video productions myself. I thought I'd share my current tactics to approach this - both in hope it might help you somehow, Bailey, and for the more experienced Savages to share their insights on them 😉 1. I believe you gotta be clear on what is your company's primary field, and what are auxiliary services to provide extra support for the primary service. So here, the primary would be video strategy, while things like web design & development, branding design, etc are extras to provide a more comprehensive service, in case the the client needs it on top of their videos (like Dave suggested, you can help them with posting the VBC on their landing page, help redesign their funnel so that the next steps after the video lead to the sale more efficiently, etc. Or you can help them create their brand from scratch, if you're also able to design a consistent branding, website, etc. The advantage of this is that you can be their primary media/creative provider and they won't be forced to search for web agencies, software houses etc. on top of hiring you for the video - and if they have to, that might be the reason for them to hire one of these "we do it all" agencies instead. HOWEVER - I think you should avoid positioning yourself as a jack of all trades (a trap I've been falling into for 10 years or so), because I found it really damn hard to sell them on "elaborate" video productions once they branded me as a web guy, design guy, animation guy, etc. It's probably way easier the other way around, perhaps because video production is eventually a more expensive service (and many people still consider it a "premium" form of marketing that only the richest companies could think about). Currently, I'm careful to present my company strictly as a video strategy house that can also help with this and that if the need arises, rather than "doing this, that and video on equal terms", as I believe you might then lose the specialty factor that makes you stand out from the crowd (and then you compete with milions of "creative agencies" with much bigger teams and decades of presence in the market). 2. I used to be conflicted if I should still accept web development only commissions. For years I don't really market myself in that field at all, but sometimes I still get requests from old clients. Recently, I adapted another tactic I'm now testing on an old friend and former client of mine: I took the commission, but while designing the website, I deliberately started to include placeholders for where the VBC, process video etc. should be - we'll see if that helps convert them to a more comprehensive service better than if I only told them they should think of the videos after the website is done 😉 I hope seeing it in the mockups will make them want it more, as they might already notice its impact on the overall structure of their landing page. 3. IDK if it makes sense to you guys, but I somewhat started to pretend I'd hired someone strictly specialized for the design, development, etc, even if I'm short on cash at the moment and so I happened to do it myself. The reason is that I started to think that people can easily believe in a company's proficiency in different fields, but won't believe in a single guy being quite proficient in a lot of various things. So if I was albe to design the website, deploy it, make some logo for this, there's no way I'm also a pro in video production - I must be doing some of this things more or less as an amateur, right? And if I they already got a website they're happy with, that could mean I'm not a pro in video, if you know what I mean. Of course I don't think all clients have this mindset, but it seems I've lost quite a couple of video deals because of that (the "loyal" clients went to some different studio without giving us a chance, in spite of being happy with the quality of the website or whatever we've done for them before).