How We Built A 7-Figure Creative Agency Out Of Our Love For Creating Content
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hello, this is Hunter Franklin and Marcus Taylor with Brotherdale®. We are a creative agency based out of Nashville, TN currently generating 6-figures monthly. Brotherdale creates videos and photos that are used for paid marketing campaigns, social media, print ads, and more for our clients.
Our whole premise is to create content that has an ROI for a client. What we mean by that is we don’t want to create content just for the art of it - but to provide content that has an end goal. These end goals might be increasing conversions, leads, clicks, social media followers, and anything in-between.
We are currently doing consistent 6-figure months, which is over double from the past year. Resulting in re-investing into high-quality gear and our team.
Here is the most recent edit we did that has brought a lot of attention:
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
We started Brotherdale before Brotherdale was even a business idea. What we mean by this is we started traveling the world, working with small companies, and creating content for the true love and passion for it.
What we quickly realized is that we could make money doing what we loved, and good money too. We didn’t worry about the logo, website, branding, or business cards, we just got to work.
That’s when we realized - we need to scale this thing.
April 2021 is Brotherdale’s birthday. Marking the joining of two bestfriends and their company. On a mission to change the content game by doing the opposite of starving artists - to create videos and photos AND make good money doing so.
Fast forward to now (October 2023) after starting the company in my family’s basement, then a townhouse with our first employee, then a small office space, to another small office space, to a little bigger studio, to now two separate studios and a team of 11. We have two studios - one strictly for all of our office work/editing, and the other for gear storage and video/photo productions.
Office/home setup in Hunter’s family basement
Captuing product photos for our client’s website and social media
On an important sales call! We landed a client here
Photo Hunter took of Marcus while on a trip to Turkey! We donated our time and efforts to Christ’s Church in Effingham, IL
Filming for Reign Body Fuel out of our first townhouse/office garage
Brotherdale Studio A (our newest spot)
Brotherdale Studio Office Setup
Brotherdale Studio B on the move-in day
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
Let’s just put it this way: late nights and early mornings, annoying phone calls, hours spent just learning how to do one thing, re-shooting content for a client just to make it right, and much more.
Let’s also share: many wins, celebrations, successful sales we never thought we would obtain, hiring new team members that are on the mission with us, and much more!
We are going to let the pictures below speak for themselves about some of the projects we have done!
Content Links for BTS Photos:
- Navy SEAL Shoot
- Studio Production
- Super Bowl Shoot for REIGN Energy
- PureFlix Production
Describe the process of launching the business.
Marcus and I, the 50/50 partners, bootstrapped the whole business. We both came from the freelance world of filming weddings, headshots, smaller commercial work, etc.
We just started shooting projects together. We didn’t worry a second about an LLC, website, business cards, social media, or anything. We just got to work and started bringing money in. Only months and months later did we set everything up.
We combined all the gear we had purchased from our freelance world. Paid for legal fees, startup costs, software, etc. from the money we had made from projects we worked on together.
We have received zero investments or any other form of capital to propel our business, and we plan to keep it this way for the time being!
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Since launch, we have only parted ways with a very very small amount of clients. I mean, like very few. In the past 2.5 years, we have only truly lost 2-3 clients. That does not count clients who have stopped monthly work and then continued to work with us on one-off productions. We have had clients leave, try to go find new & cheaper talent, then come back. More clients leave and come back because of the level of communication and quality we provide.
Attracting new customers has looked a lot like building a brand. I do have to say, we have spent $0 on digital paid media for leads. It has all been word of mouth, and about every month we max out our workload. Word of mouth is king.
A way we do this is by 1. Providing a good product and service and 2. Posting everything on social media. A lot of our clients like seeing the work that goes into it, the care, attention to detail, and of course the final product.
Lastly, the more you post about the work you are doing and the successes, the more others are going to see social proof.
When we first needed to get clients we did the dirt work. This included free content, making content and sending it to them to get their attention, and trying to network as much as possible. You must build your network up no matter what you are doing so that way you can always connect with people as you build other things in life.
One thing we are going to begin doing is running paid ads for leads. It’s time to turn up the heat because we now have a full-time sales operator.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
This past month of September, we hit a record for the highest gross profit month of all time. We are on track to finish the year off strong with around a 3x from last year’s revenue.
In the future (2024) we are aiming to 2x this current year (2023) in revenue. This will ONLY happen if we do a few of the following: set up better systems, charge more for our services, and then bring on talent that is only focused on a particular area.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Some extremely advantageous points:
- Over-Communicate with the client. To you, it might seem like a lot, but to them, they want to know that they are getting a good deal for what they paid for. The client also wants to be updated along the way.
- We both have quit stuff in the past. When you quit, you better have one good reason. If you don’t, you are probably just being lazy. Keep going.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
Our main platforms/tools we use from most to least:
Adobe Suite, iMessage, ClickUp, Gmail & Google Suite, a regular whiteboard, Slack, Trello, and Quickbooks. We try to keep our process easy and efficient.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
The most influential pieces of knowledge have been from trial and error. When it comes to resources, we would have to say YouTube tutorials in our niche, along with videos/podcasts from the likes of Alex Hormozi, Andy Frisella, Andy Elliott, Peter McKinnon, and many others.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
We have often seen other entrepreneurs worry way too much about the funnel, website, socials, name, brand colors, logos, business cards… you get the point. We just started doing projects and making money. You can always worry about that stuff at a later point. If you are making money, then your offer is working. Make it work, then scale.
Also, we see others not fully understand their why. Marcus dropped out of college with around $500 to pursue the video world. He knew he was decent at it and understood his why. Hunter understood there was money to be made in the video, and even though he had to sacrifice a lot while in college so he could graduate yet still grow his business, knew that his why outweighed the obstacles in the way.
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are currently looking for editors who understand how to craft high-quality videos. We are NOT currently looking for short-form content editors that create videos with quick transitions and captions.
We are also looking for an animator/FX person!
Of course, all of these would be paid part-time/full-time/.
Where can we go to learn more?
If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
- 4,818 founder case studies
- Access to our founder directory
- Live events, courses and recordings
- 8,628 business ideas
- $1M in software savings
