I feel lost and want to work for you — you don't have to pay much, I'll do anything. I'm good at building voice agents and video editing and would love to gain experience for my portfolio.
Think about it from my perspective — I'm already making a lot of money and don't need more talent, so the only way this becomes worth my while is if you do all the work for me upfront. Identify a specific problem I'm suffering from that's costing me money, solve it, and package the solution so all I have to do is click one button — don't make me come up with the problem, the solution, or a management structure for you. Don't pitch like 'I'd like a job, I'm feeling lost' — instead, put yourself in the shoes of the person you're reaching out to, understand what they're actually struggling with, do all the work, then present it: 'I think I can make you this much money — all you need to do is respond with X, Y, Z. Say yes and I'll get started immediately, you can pay me after it's done.' That's how you pitch working for someone for free. I'm good right now and probably will be until $300-400K/month, but when I am hiring again, the people who've engaged with my content will be the first I look to — you can copy this approach for other people too.
It's fairly straightforward: you contact big‑ticket decision‑makers the same way you contact anyone else. These people have less time, so their threshold for what deserves their attention is higher—think of turning up the difficulty in a game from medium to hard or extreme. It's still possible; many people succeed at extreme difficulty, though it's a bit harder overall. Their main concern is the extra marginal time they'd have to spend managing you to get a project from start to finish. New business owners often think the amount of money is what matters, but it's really the value you provide and the time that value frees them up. Beginners might say they'll work for free or do anything, but high‑level executives don't care about that; offering marginal value would actually cost them more time than it's worth. The way to pitch them is to make them certain that working with you won't consume any more of their time—that you're 100% self‑managed and will immediately solve a direct need that's currently costing them money, on which you can deliver multiples. It's not about offering to work for free or cheap; instead, you say, 'Hey Pete, I know you're suffering from XYZ problem because I've worked with a big name trying to solve it before—it cost them $48 million a year (or $400 k a year). We've solved it and made them $1.5 million. I've already started working on this for you. I know your time is valuable, so this requires no supervision. I've already eliminated XYZ % of this leak, and I want to continue doing this for you. If I do, you're likely to make this much or that much money. All I'm asking for is a simple okay from you, maybe a 10‑minute call to shake hands and orient you. I'll have no ongoing management costs and am entirely self‑directed. You can think of it as you spending just 5 or 10 minutes of your time and receiving a fix for a $40‑$50 k/month problem. People love this approach because it shows you understand how many directions their time is pulled into. My recommendation: pitch anyone whose problem is worth over half a million dollars a year—which really isn't that much when you think about it.
I’m hitting the upper limits of what one person can realistically handle with my current level of systematization. I keep seeing situations where a better way would exist, but I don’t have time to figure it out, so I push through at a less effective level. I ran into the same issue with my agency—I know there must be more leveraged ways to do the same work without hiring another team member. Pragmatically, I’m at about $2 million a year in profit, which feels like a reasonable ceiling for someone trying to juggle an agency model (which is less profitable per unit time), a main YouTube channel, and other content‑production mechanisms. Even with good time management, that seems to be the upper limit for one person. To give you a behind‑the‑scenes look: I usually start with the video idea, then the title and thumbnail, because those drive performance. I source ideas from YouTube comments using a comment scraper, turn them into titles via templates, then think about a thumbnail (though I don’t over‑think it—content matters more). I’ll sometimes leave a silly clip at the end, but I focus mainly on production. Logistically, I get the ideas into the pipeline, then filming is straightforward: I turn on the camera and talk for an hour or two, sometimes following a strict outline, other times just using my tablet and pen because it’s more time‑efficient.
If you’re earning $2,500 per year, you’re essentially being robbed in broad daylight; but if you’re making $2,000 per month ($24k per year), you’re on the lower end yet not necessarily being exploited. To think about your situation, imagine you’re paid $25,000 per year while generating $500,000 in value for the YouTuber—that’s about 5% of the value you create. Most people receive only 1–2% of the value they generate, while strong salespeople earn 15–20% through commissions. My advice for contractor‑partner roles like yours is to aim for 10–15% of the value you deliver, which translates to roughly a 10× return on investment for the client. If the client is smart, they’ll happily pay you $1 to make $10 for them. The mistake many people make is realizing they’re underpaid and then demanding more money outright—a losing approach that comes across as a loss‑based demand and triggers ego or risk‑aversion in business owners. Instead, frame the conversation around growth: remind the client of the results you’ve already delivered (e.g., over $3 million generated together), share your vision for scaling to $10 million, $20 million, or $30 million, and propose a concrete roadmap (start with X, then Y, then Z). Emphasize that you want to take on more responsibility because you believe you can execute better than others, and assure them you won’t take any of their time. Then, at the close, add that you want skin in the game—more upside when things go well, and a corresponding adjustment when they don’t. Present this structure directly to the client. Because you’re leading with growth and a clear path to multiply their business, the likelihood of them agreeing to partner on a new initiative is vastly higher than if you simply complained about pay. In short, if you’re only making a few thousand dollars a year, you are being underpaid; but if you’re earning tens of thousands per month, you’re in a reasonable position. My overall approach to every job or partnership discussion is to focus on mutual growth, not to threaten to walk away unless paid more—that’s blackmail and damages trust. Successful business owners refuse to negotiate with that kind of pressure. When you approach from a desire to grow the pie together, you’ll achieve far better outcomes.
So you said you're offering a free trial for 6 weeks, then moving to a monthly plan if they like it. I'll be honest—that's not a good way to pitch automations; you've done it, so you'll have to live with it. But think about it from their perspective: this is fear‑based because you get them used to the system for six weeks and then threaten to take it away unless they pay. I don't like operating that way. I prefer people to fall in love with the value so much they want to pay me hand over fist. Here's how I'd do it: offer the system build for free, and only if they absolutely love it would I ever ask them to pay. Then I'd make them love it so much that the natural question becomes, 'Hey Nick, how can I pay you?'—and I'd have them start that conversation with me, not wait until the end of a six‑week period. In terms of pricing, it's hard to give a exact number, but consider: how much money were they making before? How much are they making with the system? What's the opportunity cost of the leads they're missing? How much more money do you think they'd make with the system versus without it? How much time would you be saving them? Add all that up into a value number, then charge maybe a third or a quarter of that. For example, saving 15 hours a week is one part of the value—but it's not just about time savings. There's actually a lot more that goes into a system's value. If you notice, I listed time as one of the last value components. Fifteen hours a week at $50/hour is only $750 a week. But because we gained three more leads this week and the average lead value is $1,000, that's $3,000—four times the time‑savings value. That kind of 4× differential between front‑end and back‑end value is typical. Thank you, Builder Tutorials and Techul—much appreciated. Okay, I think I'll leave it there; hopefully this makes sense.