SSP 032: How To Network Your Way To Dream Clients w/ Caleb Lee of East West Productions

We’ve talked before on the show about how to start landing high end weddings and corporate clients, but I don’t know if anyone has ever laid out the strategy in such simple terms as today’s guest, Caleb Lee. Don’t be fooled by Caleb’s age, he’s been doing this for a long time and knows a thing or two about not only filmmaking, but running a successful business. At 16 he sold his landscaping business to invest in film gear before traveling the world for a year helping a charity produce videos of their projects. His first film? In the Himalayas in Nepal, no big deal… He now primarily focuses on high end destination weddings and shares with us how he was able to break into the world of celebrity, politician, professional athlete, and Fortune 500 company events and weddings. His secret? It’s all about networking with the right people, and he shares exactly who he was able to network with and how he approaches working with wedding vendors to keep booking big budget weddings, and getting to travel the world while doing it! How do you approach working with other vendors in the wedding industry? Have you found a way to leverage those relationships to help you book larger weddings? Or do you feel like there’s a missing piece in there? Let us know in the comments.   In this episode: How to approach working with vendors to create a cohesive final product for the couple Caleb’s simple approach to buying new gear Why you absolutely need to network with others in the industry if you want to land better jobs How Caleb draws inspiration from photographers, and how he shaped his style by studying their work. Some of the standout locations from Caleb’s destination events Quotes: “For me, my story changed when I started working with planners. That’s almost my whole business model now. I don’t book clients directly very often, almost always I’ll have a list of 20 to 30 planners across the country that know and love my work, and when they think I’m a good fit for a client, they bring me along.” [11:17] “I think the industry always makes room for talent” [20:10] “I had a bucket list when I was a kid, and so many of those locations that I always wanted to visit have been knocked out by wedding clients, shockingly. Anyone looking to get into the industry early on, I think if you put your values out there - the things that you appreciate - I think those clients come and find you, they’re looking for people who they have shared values with.” [23:29] Find the original post at: https://studiosherpas.com/category/podcasts