Your next job is probably a client you've already had.
There are clients who've paid you good money who haven't heard from you in months.
You know you should get back in touch. You just haven't.
FOCUS is the small group programme where that changes. Over eight weeks we go through your old client list, work out who's actually worth contacting, and write the emails that get replies. Nothing pushy. Nothing needy. Just a decent reason to be back in touch.
Six live sessions for video and creative freelancers. Real work, real accountability, and a habit you'll still be running a year from now.
JOIN THE WAITLIST
THE PROBLEM
Here's how it goes...
You deliver the project. You send the invoice. And then you disappear until you need work again.
When you're busy, all your marketing stops. When it goes quiet, you panic and fire off the same email every freelancer sends: “Hi, hope you're well. Do you need any video content...?” And then you wonder why nothing comes back.
It isn't a knowledge problem. You know you should keep in touch with past clients, follow up on the quotes that went quiet, and show up on LinkedIn.
It's the same three reasons every time. I'm busy. I'll do it next week. I don't know what to say that doesn't sound like I'm begging for work.
So another month goes by. And no course, PDF or webinar fixes that.
Accountability does.
What FOCUS is
FOCUS is a small group programme (maximum eight people) where we build your client outreach system together and, more importantly, actually run it.
Each live session covers one part of the system. You leave with one clear task. The next session starts with what happened: what you sent, what came back, what got in the way. There's nowhere to hide, and that's the point.
Over 8 weeks we...
F: Fix your foundations. Audit where your work really comes from and build your client list.
O: Organise your outreach. Grade your contacts and send your first reconnection emails (yes, in the session).
C: Connect with the right people. Your ideal client, your LinkedIn profile, and outreach that doesn't feel like begging.
U: Unlock referrals. The warm introductions sitting in your network that you've never asked for.
S: Sustain the momentum. The weekly habit that keeps working when you get busy. Because you will get busy.
Reactivate one client, and FOCUS pays for itself.
What happened when the first cohort did the work
This isn't theory. The first FOCUS cohort ran last May. Here's what members did during the programme:
- One member contacted 18 past clients. Ten replied. Four turned into warm opportunities, with the first project booked within weeks.
- Another sent her first batch of personal reconnection emails and every single one got a response. Two came back within the hour offering to meet.
- A third reconnected with a museum contact who'd gone quiet, and turned it into paid filming work plus a referral to a second organisation.
Ken Chu
“The most valuable part of the group was the camaraderie and openness that allowed us to discuss our business challenges honestly. This created a real sense of accountability between the members of the cohort. Simon facilitated the entire process brilliantly, creating an environment that encouraged both support and growth."
- Ken Chu, Videographer
Where you'll be by 10th November
1. A graded list of every past client and contact worth talking to.
Not a spreadsheet of everyone you have ever emailed. A short, ranked list of the people most likely to say yes, with a reason to contact each one.
2. Reconnection emails written and sent.
Not drafted. Sent. Most people send their first batch during the session, which is the whole reason we do this live rather than handing you a template and hoping.
3. Replies in your inbox and conversations in your diary.
One member of the first cohort emailed 18 past clients and got 10 replies. Another got a response to every single email she sent, two of them within the hour.
4. A referral ask you can say out loud without wincing.
The warm introductions sitting in your network that you have never asked for, and a way of asking that doesn't feel like begging.
5. A weekly habit that takes one hour.
This is the one that matters. The thing that keeps your pipeline warm in the weeks you are flat out on a shoot and would normally go quiet.
That is what stable looks like for a freelancer. Work coming to you, instead of you chasing it in a panic every time the calendar empties.
Picture next January
Normally January is the quiet one. The December work has landed, the invoices are out, and the diary in front of you is mostly white space. You tell yourself you'll do some marketing this year. You have told yourself that before.
Now picture the same January with four conversations already running. A client from two years ago whose new budget has just been approved. A contact who moved agencies in the autumn and took you with her. A referral from someone you finally got round to asking. A production company that got in touch because you had been visible for three months instead of invisible for nine.
None of that comes from a burst of panic marketing in January. It comes from an hour a week you started putting in back in September, and kept going because eight other people were expecting you to report back.
Who's it for?
Video and creative freelancers, videographers and solo production company owners who:
- Have been running for a few years and have past clients they've lost touch with.
- Rely on repeat work and word of mouth, and know that's a habit, not a strategy.
- Have a list of previous leads and quotes and have never followed up on them.
- Are willing to show up, be honest about what's working, and do the work between sessions.
It's not for you if you want another course to watch, or you're waiting for the market to sort itself out. Save your money.
How it works
Six live sessions of 60 minutes over eight weeks, all recorded, with worksheets and templates
- Two implementation weeks with a group co-working session, so the system gets built, not just described.
- Worksheets and templates for every session, and a recording of each one.
The time commitment: 60 minutes for the session, one hour of doing the work. That's it. If you can't find two hours a week to fix the thing that decides whether you have work next quarter, that's the problem we need to talk about.
The dates, in full
Every session is a Tuesday at 5pm UK time, sixty minutes, and all of them are recorded.
5pm is deliberate. It is the end of the working day, so you are not giving up a shoot day or the good hours of an edit.
Tue 22 September
Session 1: Fix your foundations
Tue 29 September
Session 2: Organise your outreach
Tue 6 October
Implementation week: group co-working session
Tue 13 October
Session 3: Connect with the right people
Tue 20 October
Session 4: Unlock referrals
Tue 27 October
Implementation week: group co-working session
Tue 3 November
Session 5: Sustain the momentum
Tue 10 November
Session 6: Where you have got to, and what happens next
Before you book, check these
Your 15-minute 1-to-1 with me is booked in whenever suits you during the middle weeks.
Can't make one of them? Everything is recorded and you'll have the worksheet, and the WhatsApp group means you're not catching up on your own. The value is in the room though, so protect the dates if you can.
UK clocks go back on Sunday 25 October, so if you're joining from outside the UK the last three dates shift relative to your time. Book a call and we'll check it properly before you commit.
What comes with it
The six sessions are the spine of the programme. These are the things that keep the work moving between them.
The FOCUS Swipe File
My template bank of reconnection emails, follow-ups, LinkedIn messages and referral asks, organised by situation rather than dumped in a folder. Every one is a version of something I have actually sent to a real client. Yours to keep and reuse long after the programme ends.
The FOCUS Tracker
A simple sheet so you can watch the numbers move. Emails sent, replies, conversations, meetings. Most freelancers have never once looked at their own outreach numbers, and seeing them written down is usually the moment the penny drops.
Support between the sessions
A private WhatsApp group from day one, for questions, wins and the occasional "I have drafted this, is it too much?" A lot of the real work happens in there.
Plus a 15-minute 1-to-1 with me mid-programme, because a charity videographer and a broadcast cameraman are not working the same problem.
Book before Friday 12th September and you also get:
A 45-minute LinkedIn audit, 1-to-1 with me, before we start. We go through your profile line by line, so you are not sending reconnected clients to a page that undersells you. I charge £150 for this on its own, and it is the fastest thing on this list to fix.
THE FOCUS PROGRAMME
This cohort started Tuesday 22nd September 2026, and it's closed.
This was the last time I'm running FOCUS as a live group programme. It's being rebuilt as a self-paced version, so you get the same system without needing to wait for the next start date.
Want to know when that's ready? Join the waitlist and I'll email you the moment it's live.
Need help with client reactivation now, rather than later? Book a 15-minute call and we'll talk about what fits, including the 1-to-1 Client Revival Sprint.
BOOK A CALL
Charlie Budd
"Simon's FOCUS programme gave me a good kick up the arse to create simple systems to ensure more repeat work, as well as good ideas for improving the flow of new clients. His openness, enthusiasm, experience, humour and practicality made the whole course really refreshing. Thank you Simon! "
- Charlie Budd, Chin Badger Media
Why Simon Banks?
Someone who has actually run a video business.
I have spent over 30 years in the video industry, 20 of them in corporate video production. DOP, self-shooter, agency owner. I've built teams, managed the feast-and-famine years, lost clients I relied on too heavily, and figured out, slowly and sometimes expensively, what actually makes a creative business stable.
This isn't theory. It's the system I use in my own production company, and every reconnection email we'll build together is a version of one I've sent myself, to a real past client.
I'm not a generic business coach who works with anyone. I work specifically with video production founders because I know the pressures, the patterns, and the blind spots from the inside.
I work with a small number of clients at any one time. Because this work only delivers properly when I'm genuinely in it with you.
