Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Clint Schwabedissen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Clint, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about how you got your first non-friend, non-family client. Paint the picture for us so we can feel the same excitement you felt on that day.
Ever since I was a teenager, I was always into doing cold outreach and sales. At 13-years-old, I started “Clint’s Lawn Care Service”. I made flyers, printed them out, and went around all the neighborhoods leaving them on doors. Within two weeks, I made almost $700 pulling weeds. I still remember my parents answering the landline and yelling, “Clint! there’s someone on the phone for you.”
Fast forward a few years, I was watching an MTV show called “Dare To Live” by Rory Kramer. He’s Justin Bieber’s personal media professional that went around filming artists like The Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki, Shawn Mendes, and others. I remember watching his episode when he was working with Khalid, and I told myself, “That’s what I want to do. I want to work with Khalid.”
At the time, I was practicing my craft as a videographer and noticed Khalid was coming to Salt Lake City in nine months. I was in Idaho at the time.
So, just like my little lawn care service, I started doing cold outreach to his team. I sent them an email, and got nothing back. A month later, I sent them a follow-up email. Once again, no response. Another two months had passed, and I sent them a second follow-up email. Not surprised, I didn’t hear anything back again.
Now, it was a week before Khalid was supposed to be in Salt Lake City, and I sent ANOTHER email. It was something short like, “I’m still available if you need a videographer for Salt Lake City.” This was my final follow-up attempt, and within a few minutes, I received a message back. They responded that they wanted to move forward with me, and they needed my full name so I could get my media clearance.
To this day, I still acquire a lot of my work through cold outreach. I do get a lot of people referring me, but my foundation will always be built upon selling. Just like any other business.
Clint, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
First, I appreciate the opportunity to tell a little bit of my story on such a great platform. My name is Clint Schwabedissen, and I am a Celebrity Video Director. I produce digital marketing content for celebrities, businesses, and professionals. My work ranges from social media content, mini documentaries, and digital advertising.
So, if you’re a business that’s looking to expand your brand, increase customer retention, and generate new business leads through digital marketing…you can contact me directly at [email protected].
I have been blessed to have worked with amazing talent such as Dave Chappelle, Khalid, Harper’s Bazaar, Kevin Hart, AT&T, Sienna Mae Gomez, KRS-One, Svedka Vodka, Deorro, Gizzle, Alo Yoga, P-Lo, Sarunas Jackson, Johann Vera, and the list goes on.
I have a unique work history that sets me apart from my competitors. Not only have I been producing videos for more than a decade. I have also produced more than $1 million in sales for companies, My decade of sales experience allows my customers to have the confidence that not only am I going to produce them a quality video, but a finished product where every dollar spent is maximized for their return on investment.
Along with that, I do spend time recruiting top talent to make sure my customers get the best results possible. I take pride in my name, and I want that to show in my work. So, I have hired professionals, in the past, that have worked for the Harry Potter films, NCIS, and more.
One thing I am proud about is I give every single project 110% of effort. There hasn’t been one project where I haven’t. Every single second, frame, picture is something I’ve poured my soul into. I feel like I give a percentage of myself away in every project. During the process, it can be extremely stressful, but in the end it’s bliss.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
The most effective strategy in growing clientele is getting referrals from past clients.
However, the second most effective strategy that grew my clientele has been cold outreach. I’ll reach out to potential clients through Instagram DM’s and email. Instagram is a great place for a variety of reasons. You can DM them instantly, and they have easy access to your profile and portfolio.
Not only that, I’d say 70% of celebrities and working professionals have their emails on Instagram. About a year ago, I started harvesting emails off of professional Instagram pages. After a while, I had over a few thousand emails. From there, I wrote up a simple cold email campaign that consisted of an introduction email and four follow-ups until they responded. I got a lot of responses and developed great rapport with potential customers.
That process does take time, but it is free, and once you have their email you can send them marketing campaigns every so often. If you don’t want to harvest the emails yourself, you can hire a professional or buy leads.
Ultimately, people can’t do business with you if they don’t know you. Email marketing is simple and extremely easy to do at scale.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
The story that comes to my mind is working on the Dave Chappelle project. I was tasked with producing an hour long video for Dave that was going to be projected at his private comedy ball. For the video, they requested there be five specific stand-up comedy acts. It consisted of Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, and Eddie Murphy.
I only had about a week to complete the project, and when I got started, I found four of the five. However, when I went to find the fifth comedy act, I couldn’t find it. It was from the 1970’s, and it was nowhere to be found on Netflix, YouTube, or anywhere. I also checked every online store like Amazon, and the earliest anyone could get it to me was four days after my deadline.
What am I going to do? My client asked for these five specific stand up comedy acts, and I can’t just say, “Well… I got 4/5.” Then it hit me to check FaceBook Marketplace. There I found one lady selling the copy I needed for $5, but she was four hours away and my deadline was just under 48 hours.
I ended up driving up to buy the copy, and telling the seller I needed to meet right away because it’s my mom’s birthday tomorrow, and I needed it for her gift. “She LOVES Richard Pryor!”
I want my customers to know that if they ask something of me; I will get it done.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/directedbyclint/?hl=en
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clintschwabs/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/directedbyclint
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiybruCbdB95zUddZZ9-FBg
Image Credits
All photos were taken by me