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Deadpan has no employees, runs about four projects at once, and still keeps 40 to 50% of every project. Luke Winter explains how a bench of freelancers, a clear approval process, and a productized offer let him run a video studio from anywhere. Why Luke is still haunted by payroll from his old agencyHow a script-to-set process keeps clients out of the weedsWhat a freelance producer and a comedy editor are worth 0:00 – Intro 3:45 – Luke's background and 12 years in B2B video 6:39 – Why Luke did not want to start another company 8:50 – The Too Many Hats ads and the sitcom format 11:37 – Falling into the comedy niche 13:50 – How the team comes up with funny ideas 17:15 – Shooting American ads in the UK 21:22 – The approval process from script to set 22:37 – Productized packages vs retainers 24:32 – Running four projects at once with freelancers 25:45 – Why Luke has no employees 27:52 – Margins on video projects 29:03 – Costumes, props, and who keeps them 31:38 – Pricing and the $7,500 Comedy Kit 35:49 – Convincing B2B brands to go funny 38:09 – Safe brands vs unhinged ads 39:26 – When to turn down risk-averse clients 40:46 – Confessional: the scariest moment in business 43:57 – How a payment scare changed Luke's billing 45:28 – First-year revenue 46:30 – Running a UK crew remotely 50:12 – Underrated advice 53:10 – Overrated advice 54:27 – Where the name Deadpan came from This episode is sponsored by Unbounce. If you're running paid media and sending clicks to a generic homepage or a landing page nobody has touched in a year, Tas built the fix for that. Her Core Four framework is the only four landing pages your B2B paid media program actually needs, and she is giving away the Unbounce templates, the Figma files, and other helpful tools for free. UnbounceGrab the full toolkit here #AgencyLife #FreelanceTeam #B2BVideo Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson Tas BoberThe Marketer's Exit Guest speaker: Luke Winter

Fletch started with $300 homepage audits and now charges $10K, $20K, or $30K depending on how much a company has raised. Anthony Pierri and Rob Kaminski explain how they raised prices, why almost nobody pushes back, and how they decide when to bend on a border case. - How three pricing tiers replaced one flat rate - What happened when sprints passed $7,500 and then $10K - Why they now take one project each per week 0:00 Intro 6:29 Nine months of failed cold outreach 10:46 The headless CMS experiment that proved niching works 18:37 Spinning out of Headway 32:30 Why a co-founder matters 38:58 The “big baby” decision rule 50:37 Testing a cohort model 59:28 Revenue and pricing tiers 1:05:44 Underrated and overrated advice for going solo #PricingStrategy #ProductizedServices #SoloConsultant This episode is sponsored by ⁠⁠Unbounce⁠⁠. If you're running paid media and sending clicks to a generic homepage or a landing page nobody has touched in a year, Tas built the fix for that. Her Core Four framework is the only four landing pages your B2B paid media program actually needs, and she is giving away the Unbounce templates, the Figma files, and other helpful tools for free. Grab the full toolkit ⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠. Connect with the hosts: Tim DavidsonTas BoberThe Marketer's Exit Guest speakers: Anthony PierriRob Kaminskihttps://www.fletchpmm.com/

The solo Q&A episode. We asked LinkedIn your biggest questions, and the community didn't hold back. Everything from PTO and hiring to referrals, origin stories, and what still feels uncomfortable years in. 0:00 – Intro 2:25 – How do you take PTO as a full-time solo 19:16 – Is there ROI in traveling to B2B events 29:30 – When did you know it was time to hire help 40:19 – How referral partnerships actually start ($50K earned) 48:33 – What made you go out on your own 55:07 – Is your primary offer still the same 1:03:18 – The most uncomfortable part of running solo 1:06:25 – Writing on social while still employed #FreelanceMarketing #SoloConsultant #ConsultingLife This episode is sponsored by ⁠Unbounce⁠. If you're running paid media and sending clicks to a generic homepage or a landing page nobody has touched in a year, Tas built the fix for that. Her Core Four framework is the only four landing pages your B2B paid media program actually needs, and she is giving away the Unbounce templates, the Figma files, and other helpful tools for free. Grab the full toolkit ⁠HERE⁠. Connect with the hosts: Tim DavidsonTas BoberThe Marketer's Exit

Connor Lewis's revenue has gone from $114K in year one to $448K, to $858K, to pacing $1.3M in year four. What the numbers do not show is the year he was crying at Christmas, barely making rent in Boston, and seriously applying for creative director roles because he thought he had made a mistake. His then-girlfriend talked him out of it. He is glad she did. This episode covers all four years. 0:00 – Intro 4:47 – From video intern to a team of three at Predictive Index and the layoff that started everything 8:06 – Going all in on a $10K severance check with no sales skills and no LinkedIn presence 13:57 – Year one rock bottom: $70K revenue, 60-hour weeks, and applying for jobs at Christmas 17:22 – The pricing evolution and why Tas immediately told him $40K starting price was still too low 19:13 – What the full Studio Lewis deliverable actually looks like for a $40K engagement 25:09 – The workshop: $5K to start, applied as a credit, 60% close rate, and why it changed everything 29:09 – Choosing project-based over retainer and building an offboarding engine that drives renewals 40:24 – Iris, the first full-time hire, and what Connor does now instead of running shoots himself 43:05 – The $30K project that was never used, the on-set disaster, and the client who came back #FreelanceMarketing #VideoMarketing #SoloFounder Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson Tas Bober The Marketer's Exit

Dave Gerhardt thought he was burnt out on B2B marketing. He was actually just burnt out on being alone. He had close to $1M a year, a community, a newsletter, a podcast, and nobody to complain to when something went wrong. This episode, live at the Exit 5 event in Stormont, is the most candid version of that story he has probably told. 0:00 – Intro 4:21 – Why the Drift return did not work and why being a disruptor to the existing team was not sustainable 6:54 – Solo consulting, $10K a month from a few companies, and why it felt like the answer 7:01 – DGMG to Exit 5: Patreon, Facebook group, flagship sponsors, and almost $1M solo 9:14 – Dharmesh as an OG Facebook member and the naming advice Dave took seriously 13:38 – Moving the community off Facebook, losing $30K a month, and doing it anyway 15:44 – Burning out and nearly walking away to start something completely different 16:22 – The email to Dan, the offer structure, and what happened when Dan saw the numbers 19:16 – Realizing he was burnt out on being alone, not on the work 21:21 – Building a team of nine and landing close to $5M with no outside capital 22:19 – What the creator plus operator model actually looks like day to day 30:13 – Momentum creates clarity and why waiting until you are ready is the wrong move #B2BMarketing #CreatorEconomy #FreelanceMarketing Connect with the hosts: Tim DavidsonTas BoberThe Marketer's Exit

Eric MacColl spent 15 years climbing the in-house ladder from a paid search agency to Scripted to Lyft to Atlassian, where he watched his team grow to 60 people and realized he had stopped doing any actual marketing. He was being managed up and out of the work he loved. Four and a half years into running Demand Gen Solutions, mostly from referral business. 0:00 – Intro 0:55 – Agency to Scripted to Lyft to Atlassian and the Tom Brady on the sidelines moment 6:12 – How the first clients came in from former Atlassian colleagues 9:00 – 80 to 90% referral business and the network plays that made it possible 12:58 – Flat rate retainers, four-client cap, and how he manages scope creep 17:20 – Why he struggles to scale and why he keeps choosing to go deeper instead 22:10 – The Emily Kramer recommended contractor list and what it did for inbound 25:00 – The private equity portfolio model and why it reduces how often he has to sell 40:49 – The March gap, the tax bill he did not see coming, and the interview calls he started taking 47:09 – Why he does not post on LinkedIn and what happens every time he does 49:37 – $30K a month, a one-year-old, a new house, and why San Francisco keeps him from slowing down #FreelanceMarketing #FractionalMarketing #SoloConsultant Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasboberThe Marketer's Exit – themarketersexit.com

Eric Linssen spent years running Demand Collective as a paid community that stayed stuck at 80 members no matter what he tried. Then he got laid off, gave himself one quarter to make it work, switched to a free model funded entirely by annual sponsorships, and watched everything click. He is now 700 members in, has 9,000 newsletter subscribers, and runs it completely solo from San Diego. In this episode he tells the full story. 0:00 – Intro 3:27 – What Demand Collective is, who gets in, and why the membership criteria matter 5:22 – Six failed side hustles before this one, including a hot tub rental business and a TikTok analytics tool 8:41 – Why the paid model stalled at 80 members and what the pivot actually changed 11:11 – 700 members, 9,000 newsletter subscribers, and the Demand Day Summit with 1,600 registrants 14:39 – Why sponsorships work inside a community of marketers and how category exclusivity is handled 17:19 – The content philosophy behind the community: practitioner-first, no vendor bias, zero how-to fluff 23:42 – Annual contracts, five sponsors, and why shorter deals are a bad deal for everyone 29:22 – How much work it actually takes to run this solo and what a normal week looks like 59:04 – The camel vs racehorse framework and his advice on surface area for luck 59:56 – Would he go back in-house? The most honest answer any TME guest has given #FreelanceMarketing #CommunityBuilding #SoloFounder Links: • Tim Davidson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 • Tas Bober – http://linkedin.com/in/tasbober • The Marketer's Exit – http://themarketersexit.com/

Before you sign your next brand deal, watch for these red flags. Most brand partnership advice stops at getting the deal. This episode is what happens after: when to send the numbers, how to frame a renewal conversation, what to put in a contract, and the red flags that tell you a brand is going to be more trouble than it is worth. 0:00 – Intro 2:50 – Two-part performance reporting: one week out and one month out 5:13 – Impressions, saves, sends, and the qualitative callouts that make a report stand out 8:34 – When to use a deck versus a screenshot and how to match the format to the partnership 12:09 – Asking for a renewal and the one-sentence framing that keeps the door open 14:02 – How Tas has expanded her Unbounce partnership over three renewals by pitching what she was already going to create 19:09 – Hashtag ad, the brand toggle, and why Tas stopped using both 26:49 – Creative freedom as a non-negotiable and what happens when a brand starts editing your voice 33:00 – The walking billboard problem and how many sponsored posts is too many in one week 34:11 – Contract terms to watch for, payment red flags, and the impression-based pay deal to always decline #BrandPartnerships #FreelanceMarketing #LinkedInMarketing Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41/Tas Bober – https://www.linkedin.com/in/tasbober/The Marketer's Exit – https://themarketersexit.com/

If you do not know what to charge for a sponsored LinkedIn post, this episode gives you a starting point and walks you through an actual brand partnership⁠ deck Tas sends to every brand that's resulted in $100k+ in brand deals. This is part 2 of the brand deals series, make sure to check out the others. Tas' Brand partnership Timestamp: 0:00 – Intro 1:02 – Starting out: letting the brand set the rate versus setting your own floor 3:46 – Tim's $1,000 minimum, the three-post bundle, and how he frames it as a discount 7:33 – How to use your consulting hourly rate as a filter for brand deal decisions 14:24 – Tas's full deck walkthrough: philosophy framing, social proof, and format options 20:35 – Stats from brand deals 25:17 – Starter, core, and flagship package tiers explained with real examples 1:00:41 – What to charge on top of the post: usage rights, thought leader ads, and resource hub listings #LinkedInMarketing #BrandPartnerships #FreelanceMarketing Links: Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasbober The Marketer's Exit – themarketersexit.com

Brand partnerships on LinkedIn are not just for people with massive followings. Tas and Tim started landing them before they were big, and together they have made $161,000 from posts alone. This episode is the playbook, including pricing, pitching, the three-post rule, and small talk that turned into a two-year deal. Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro 0:56 – Why this episode exists and what the $161K number includes 3:22 – Tim's first brand deal: UserGems, three months, $2,500 total 7:12 – The three-post rule and the slot machine logic behind it 11:03 – The Typeform post that went viral 13:34 – How Tas turned a landing page audit into a paid brand content format 17:23 – Four ways to get brand deals and which ones actually work 21:30 – Tas’s Unbounce partnership and how it started in a Riverside waiting room 24:49 – How to price your self 26:22 – What Tim does when a sponsored post underperforms 27:23 – Tas's highest single-post rate and what happened after it went live This is part 1 of a 3 part series, stay tuned for the rest! #LinkedInMarketing #FreelanceMarketing #BrandPartnerships Links: Tim Davidson – linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41Tas Bober – linkedin.com/in/tasboberThe Marketer's Exit – themarketersexit.com

Nikhil Hunshikatti ran a billion-dollar consumer revenue portfolio at Gannett before going fractional. He did not plan to go fractional. He tried three in-house leadership roles first, lost all three to internal candidates, and only then decided to hang his own shingle. Three years in, he has built a model that works, but not without losing 50% of his revenue in one quarter and spending 18 months too heads-down to do any pipeline work. 0:00 – Intro 1:50 – Background: USA Today, Gannett, and running a billion-dollar consumer revenue portfolio 3:52 – The moment that made him leave and why survival mode was the breaking point 5:12 – Going fractional by accident after three failed in-house leadership bids 8:26 – How the first client came in and why the Pro Football Hall of Fame made sense 12:11 – How fractional CMO engagements are structured and why it is different from a retainer 17:08 – The five Ps framework he runs through in every immersion workshop 23:04 – Sitting at the C-suite table as the only fractional and what that dynamic actually looks like 34:12 – Year one: three clients, full capacity, zero pipeline work, and what he would do differently 43:37 – Losing 50% of revenue at once and how he is navigating a slow market right now 44:51 – His advice for fractional CMOs who cannot find their first client #FreelanceMarketing #FractionalCMO #ConsultingLife Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – https://linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – https://linkedin.com/in/tasbober The Marketer's Exit – https://themarketersexit.com Guest: Nikhil Hunshikatti https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikhilhunshikatti/

Ademola Adelakun is a former professional magician who has started 14 businesses, appeared on Canada's version of Shark Tank completely blindsided, survived 93 days with zero revenue without telling his fiancée, and now runs A2 Media, a conversion-focused video agency doing roughly a million Canadian dollars a year. This episode is the full story. Timestamps 0:00 – Intro 1:28 – Former magician, 14 businesses, now running a media company 3:19 – University of Waterloo, the entrepreneurship culture, and the first co-founder 7:11 – Going on Dragon's Den and getting blindsided on stage 9:43 – The 14 businesses: dog beds, cookies, mining Bluetooth vests, and more 17:08 – Why he went in-house and how he used corporate jobs as capital to fund his next move 20:44 – Why video and how Vidyard shaped everything 36:48 – How A2 Media works, who they serve, and why they never hold a camera 43:17 – The partner model and how half his revenue comes from referrals 47:31 – Average deal size, retainer structure, and the revenue numbers year over year 49:35 – The 93-day cash crisis and what finally made him ask for help 1:01:46 – Most overrated advice for going out on your own 1:03:12 – What he would tell anyone thinking about making the leap #FreelanceMarketing #SoloFounder #ConsultingLife Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – https://linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41 Tas Bober – https://linkedin.com/in/tasbober The Marketer's Exit – https://themarketersexit.com Connect with the Guest: Ademola Adelakun https://www.linkedin.com/in/ademola-adelakun/

Nobody tells you how to build a client list while you are still employed. The advice always starts after you have already handed in your notice. This episode fills that gap with seven specific plays, including ones that your company might actually sign off on. We cover: 1:13 – The situation that prompted this episode and why it is more common than people admit 7:14 – Creating content without getting flagged, including the anonymous account play 22:27 – Networking, the DM script, and why your past coworkers are your fastest path 31:16 – Industry events your company is already paying for 33:23 – The free mentorship play and why charging for it is the wrong move 38:30 – How to use your in-house title in communities before you no longer have it 47:22 – Brand deals while employed and how influencer agencies work in your favor 49:31 – Setting up referral triggers so other people are incentivized to send you business 51:54 – The full 7-step summary #FreelanceMarketing #SoloConsultant #B2BMarketing Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41⁠ Tas Bober – ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/tasbober⁠ The Marketer's Exit – ⁠https://themarketersexit.com

Brianna Doe has 250K followers on LinkedIn and almost never posts about her influencer marketing agency. She built Verbatim, a team of eight, and a client roster that includes multi-seven-figure programs entirely off content about mental health, entrepreneurship, and being a woman of color figuring it out in public. This episode is the business side she rarely shares. We cover: • Why she hired a career coach to help her manage up and ended up mapping her corporate exit instead • Getting laid off two weeks before she planned to quit anyway • Starting full service, hating graphic design and blog posts, and niching to influencer marketing • Charging $1,500 a month for a client spending $45K and how pricing has evolved since • The accountability coach at $3K a month who mostly just texted her things she was going to do anyway • Why not trusting herself was the most expensive mistake she made early on • Checking payroll math at 4am even when the business is stable #FreelanceMarketing #InfluencerMarketing #SoloFounder Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41⁠ Tas Bober – ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/tasbober⁠ The Marketer's Exit – ⁠https://themarketersexit.com Connect with the Guest: Brianna Doe https://www.briannadoe.com/

Andy Milligan is 25, and built a WebFlow micro-agency to $200K in year two entirely on referrals and local relationships. He did not have a LinkedIn audience when he started. He did not have a safety net. He just kept showing up, and this episode is what that actually looked like from the inside. We cover: • Getting laid off but using that experience to get a client • Showing up to in-person referral networking groups every Tuesday at 7:30am for over a year • The person he said goodbye to on layoff day who became a client two years later, with that single project paying more than his entire time at the company • The first $2,000 project, the bad-fit client, the harsh Loom review, and refunding the whole thing • Posting 165 weekly podcast episodes and 439 YouTube videos, including monthly P&L breakdowns, without caring about view counts • What niching into WebFlow for healthcare actually changed about the business • His most overrated piece of advice for going solo: ""You can work whenever you want"" Connect with the hosts: Tim Davidson – ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/tadavidson41⁠ Tas Bober – ⁠https://linkedin.com/in/tasbober⁠ The Marketer's Exit – ⁠https://themarketersexit.com⁠ Connect with the Guest: Andy Milligan https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ #FreelancingLife #SoloFounder #ContentMarketing