Thank you, Artem! That video was pretty tough but this experience is for sure one of the best

I haven't been active in the community; instead, I’ve focused primarily on editing. Over the last two weeks or so, I’ve secured $7,500 worth of deals, not one-offs, but retainers. The best advice I can give for achieving this is to build a personal brand. Film yourself and share your insights and your work. This generates inbound leads, and your outreach becomes much more effective when people check out your profile.

I’ve been editing for two years now. Most of my clients were low-paying, or the jobs were just plain bad. That’s why I quit editing in August 2024, thinking I’d never get paid more than $150 per video or work fewer than 4 hours a day—if I was lucky. So, I spent the entire summer just playing video games and doing nothing with my life. I felt this void inside me, like I had no purpose. Life felt static, like I was on repeat, chasing quick dopamine hits, doing meaningless stuff. One night, I tried something different—I stayed away from all devices, didn’t talk to anyone, and just sat in my bedroom thinking about the last few months. I got angry, realizing I had wasted almost three months doing absolutely nothing. The next day, I sat down at my Windows PC, deleted every game, removed every friend on Discord who played games, deleted my YouTube account (because I kept watching gaming content), and got rid of everything else that was holding me back. For a few days, I was bored and didn’t know what to do. But then, I decided to open After Effects and Premiere one more time. The feeling I got was like freedom—like I broke out of the jail that had been holding me back mentally and physically. By the end of October, I had made my first video in months. It was something I’d never done before—I didn’t take inspiration from another editor like I used to. I just created a clean 3D animation and motion graphic from scratch. I uploaded it to Twitter, and it got double the likes, double the comments, and almost double the views. That was the moment that flipped the switch in me. I got hooked. I started reading books, watching videos, creating crazy “CEO” routines—waking up at 5 AM to work before school, grinding after school until my eyes couldn’t stay open. I was doing everything I could to improve my editing and make more money. Since then, I’ve become a bit more chill about the whole grind mindset. Artem really helped me—not just with editing, but also with realizing that I’m human too. One of the biggest things he helped me understand is that having a work-life separation will actually help me in the long term.

big W for me I’m really grateful I was able to increase my prices with my client as before I wasn’t confident on asking for price increases but it turned out there was no need to worry because my client imminently said yes when I proposed to him and that’s sick 😁

So the past 1-2 months absolutely changed my editing carreer, I was basically working with only agencies, getting $250-MAX 300/Video, with videos taking me 4-5 days, and there were times where I didn't have any work for a couple of days so It wasn't even really consistent. This past week I was DROWNED in client work (my fault, got too excited), but it's crazy how much can change in a month if you actually lock in. Now I'm working with 2-3 clients who pay me $500 for a simple video that takes less than a day to do, and over 1K for bigger more complex video, which I never tought was actually possible. Before I had to literally force myself to get up and do the work cause I just didn't enjoy it but now I get to edit videos that I enjoy editing, and I'm excited to start, and also get paid a shit ton more. Obviously there's a long road ahead of me, but I just wanted to make this post remind you guys that if you lock in for even just a week or two, and stick to it, everything can change in just a couple of weeks. I work with 0 of my clients who I've worked with a few months ago, and I can confidently charge 2-3x the price for an inbound I get, without feeling anxious about them not accepting it. so to everyone who is new here or feeling a bit stuck trust me it will get a LOT better, you just have to put your mind to it.