Build a business around your freelance career.
A 4-week system for bringing more structure, consistency, and opportunity to the business of being a freelancer.
Why I Built the
Solo Studio System
A great freelance career can be a great business.
You don't need employees.
You don't need an office.
And you don't need to build a production company.
But you do need a business behind the work.
For a lot of us, the plan has always been pretty simple:
Do great work.
Build a great reel.
Take care of your clients.
And trust that the referrals will keep coming.
Who This is for
You're already doing professional client work
You want to stay independent rather than build a traditional production company
Most of your work still comes through referrals and relationships
You're good at what you do, but marketing yourself has never been your strong suit
You want more control over the clients and projects you're pursuing
You're ready to put real structure behind your freelance career
The Solo Studio System is about staying independent while getting much more intentional about your freelance career.
Founding price: $299 · 4 weeks · Weekly live working sessions
What People Are Saying
“On a practical level, one coaching call alone helped me turn a potential project into $3,000 in recurring bookings. What really stands out is Jonathan himself. He brings real-world experience, but more importantly, he’s honest, genuinely invested, and someone you want in your corner.
Terese B.
“Jonathan's Founder sprint was incredible and a breakthrough for me on how to treat my craft and creativity like a business. I learned so much and would happily take it again to continue unleveling. Jonathan is a great coach and listener and really gets it.”
Liz H.
“Jonathan’s really really good at cutting through the noise and getting to what actually matters. The sessions were focused and practical, not theoretical. Being with a small group of experienced pros was a big plus too!”
Mike H.
“Great, great, great mentor! Jonathan's knowledge and experience are incredible, and his kindness stands above all else.”
Esteban C.
The Solo Studio System
Each week, you'll work through a focused set of lessons and exercise.
Then we'll meet live to workshop what you're building and put it into practice.
Week 1:
What Do You Want to Be Known for?
Get clear on the work you want to lead with and the reputation you want to build around it.
We'll look at where you've been, where you want to go, and what you want people to think of when your name comes up.
Stop letting your past projects decide where your career goes next.
Week 2:
Where You Meet the Market
There's what you want to do. And then there's what people actually need.
We'll identify the clients who have a real reason to value what you do and get clear on who you're trying to reach and why they should care.
Connect what you want to be known for with a market that actually needs it.
Week 3:
Make It Easy to Hire You
Getting someone's attention is only the beginning.
We'll work on how you present what you do, what you're actually asking people to hire you for, and how to make that clear whether you're working through agencies and production companies or directly with brands and creators.
Remove the friction between “This person looks great” and “Let's hire them.”
Week 4:
Build Your Pipeline
Great work and referrals can get you a long way. But eventually, you need a way to create opportunities yourself.
We'll build a practical approach to marketing, outreach, relationships, and follow-up that you can actually maintain while you're busy doing the work.
A simple, repeatable system for staying visible and keeping your pipeline moving.
How It Works
Work through the lessons and exercises on your own schedule.
Then we meet live each week.
Bring what you've built. Bring what's not working. Bring the question you're stuck on.
We'll workshop it together, make decisions, and keep moving.
Throughout the four weeks, you'll be part of the Director's Cut community where you can ask questions, share what you're working on, and get feedback as you put the system into practice.
This isn't four weeks of watching videos. It's four weeks of building your Solo Studio.
What’s Included
4 structured modules released over four weeks
4 weekly live working sessions with Jonathan
Step-by-step workbooks and exercises
Guidance for both agency/production-company and direct-to-brand paths
Feedback on what you're building
Access to the Director's Cut community
Templates, tools, and resources you can keep using
You won't just learn the system. You'll build yours.
After the Four Weeks
The Solo Studio System is designed to give you a system you can keep running on your own.
You'll have the option to stay in the Director's Cut community, keep joining the weekly meetups and working sessions, and continue building alongside other filmmakers through an optional monthly membership.
Keep showing up. Keep working on the business. Keep moving it forward.
Build Your Solo Studio
You already know how to do the work. Now build the business around it.
The Solo Studio System
Founding price: $299
4 weeks · Weekly live working sessions
Questions
Perfect. That's who this is for.
A Solo Studio doesn't mean hiring employees or building a production company. It's about running your independent creative career with the clarity, marketing, and systems of a real business.
That's absolutely one of the paths through the system.
We'll look at how to market your creative capabilities more intentionally to the agencies, production companies, and creative partners most likely to hire you.
That works too.
We'll look at how to connect what you do with businesses, brands, or organizations that need exactly what you're offering and make it easier to understand and buy.
Not really.
The Solo Studio System is built for people who already know their craft and have professional work behind them. We're not going to teach you how to become a filmmaker. We're going to build the business around your filmmaking.
The program is designed to fit around a working creative career.
You'll have focused lessons and exercises each week, plus the weekly live working session.
The goal isn't to give you more homework. It's to help you build the business.
No problem. We hold a live Solo Studio working session every week. If you can't make one, you can simply join us the following week and pick up where you left off.
I've always loved the independence that comes with being a freelancer.
You get to choose the work, choose the people you work with, and build a career around the things you're really good at.
But that independence works a whole lot better when there's a real business behind it.
For a lot of us, the plan was pretty simple: get really good at what you do, build a great reel, do great work for people — and trust that the referrals will take care of the rest.
And honestly, that can work for a long time.
Until it doesn't.
That's why I built the Solo Studio System.
It's for filmmakers and video professionals who want to stay independent, but want to be much more intentional about their freelance careers.
Over four weeks, we'll get clear on what you want to be known for, who the right clients are for that work, and how to connect the two.
We'll look at what you're actually asking people to hire you for and how to make that easier to understand and buy.
And then we'll build a simple system for marketing, outreach, relationships, and follow-up — so you're not just waiting for the next referral or wondering where the next project is coming from.
The goal isn't to turn you into some giant studio.
It's to take everything that's great about being independent and put a real business underneath it.
More intention. More consistency. More control over where your career goes next.
And you still get to stay independent.
I think this is now a nice companion to the Founder video without sounding like the same script with different nouns.
Solo begins with what you love about independence.
Founder begins with the realization that producing great work isn't the same as building the company.