Grow Your Video Business SSP 090: Tired Of Working With Clients You're Not Really Excited About? w/ Caleb Maxwell
Getting your business up and running when you have 1,000 ideas and expectations of what to do, but no real roadmap to work with might be the most daunting task imaginable. Deciding what clients to work with, prices to charge and staff to hire is enough to scare many people away. Caleb Maxwell, the co-founder of Hebron Films, has figured out a way to work with clients he is truly excited about, that align with his values, but that also can pay the bills.
Caleb’s company produces high-quality films in Bendigo, Australia. Although Hebron Films is only five years old, Caleb already has a process nailed down for working with the best clients for him and producing stellar videos. He started by literally walking into his favorite businesses and asking if they wanted a video. Now his company makes all sorts of videos from TV ads to charity camp videos to art films.
Today we talk about what it’s like to be a small business working with other small businesses. We discuss how to create your business from the ground up while focussing on building the best processes you can for growth and sustainability. Caleb is also a Selling like a Sherpa “graduate” and he tells us what it’s like to put its lessons into practice.
We also get real about why you need to be true to your own identity, interests, and values to be the best you can instead of comparing yourself to others and trying to be someone you’re not.
Do you have systems in place that allow you to focus on being a company that is true to your identity? Leave a comment on the episode page!
In this episode:
- How to find clients that you are truly excited to work with instead of the ones you dread
- Why being passionate about your work as well as that of your of your client can get you the best type of work out there
- What it means to make videos that influence your community
- The messy business of having employees and why you need to be good at “cleaning up” if you’re going to be a leader
- Having an effective and repeatable process to landing the right clients and delivering a project
- Advice to filmmakers who are just starting out to help them decide what they are worth
Quotes:
“As we developed a little bit and we got past getting dazzled by the big numbers and we were down in the nitty-gritty of day-to-day business, we were like, wait a second. Maybe what we need is not more people. Maybe what we need is to develop who we are, what we do, what our process is so that we can actually have a firm foundation to build upon if we want to build.” [39:24]
“Wherever there are people, there will be mess. So if you aren’t a professional mess cleaner then you have no business in getting a lot of people around you. Because more people just equals more mess.” [41:18]
“It’s chalk and cheese from where we started. We went from sort of plodding along and getting a few things here and there to now having a solid and implemented process that we follow with every client.” [1:02:11]
“Find what makes you tick, where you want to work, where you want to invest yourself, and then chase after that area.” [1:10:20]
Links:
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