Content for brands. Real job sites.

Watch this first

Two months, one client, $370.

Under a minute on what I actually do, who paid me for it, and what I am putting together for anyone starting where I started.

Creators, see what I charge Fill out the brand form

Two ways in, depending on who you are

Joseph McCormick ... Shrew Media

I make content for brands. I'll show you exactly how.

I film the job I already go to and brands pay me for it. I'm two months in, not ten years, so I still remember every part that was confusing. I'm writing all of it down while it's happening.

Flat rate per video. No retainer, no minimum.

@josephdareal POV: you're running electric in your shed

SHREW MEDIA Creator earnings ... receipt

ClientAskBonBon

Rate per video$30.00

Cadence2 / week

Time per video~5 min

Period2 months

TOTAL PAID$370

That is the real number. Not a projection, not a best month, not somebody else's.

$370Earned so far

$30Per video

2Videos a week

5 minTo make one

The actual problem

Nobody explains the boring part.

There's no shortage of people telling you this works. There's a serious shortage of people telling you what to actually do on a Tuesday afternoon.

If you've asked yourself even two of these, you're who I'm writing this for.

Who do I even email at a company?
What do I say so it doesn't sound desperate?
What am I supposed to charge for one video?
Do I need a following before anyone replies?
What do I send if I have no portfolio?
How do I invoice without looking like an amateur?
Is this whole thing just another scam?
How long before any of this pays anything?

The thing that changes everything

You don't need an audience. You need something you can film.

This is the piece almost everybody gets wrong, and it's the reason most people never start. Brands hiring content creators are not buying access to your followers. They take the video you make and run it through their own ad account, to their own audience, on their own budget.

So what they're actually shopping for is a video that looks real and comes from someone who genuinely uses the product. If you have a job, a trade, or a skill you can point a camera at, you already have the part that's hard to fake.

What they're buying

The footage

A real person, in a real setting, using the thing. That's the product they're paying for.

What they're not buying

Your reach

They already have distribution. That's what the ad budget is for. Your follower count is not the line item.

Two ways in

Which one are you?

I'm a creator

You want your first paid video.

You've seen enough of this to know it's real. You still don't know who to email, what to say, or what to charge. I'm putting the whole thing together, including the message that landed my first client.

See what I charge

I'm a brand

You need someone who actually uses it.

Tools, apps, workwear, safety gear. I film on real job sites because I work on them. No studio, no script that sounds like a script, no actor pretending to know what they're holding.

Fill out the brand form

About me

I love making videos. Turns out people pay for that.

I'm Joseph. I've loved making videos for as long as I can remember. Filming something, cutting it together, watching it actually land... it never felt like work, which is probably why I did it for free for years.

Then a brand paid me for one. Finding out you can earn from the thing you'd be doing anyway changes something in you. It stops being a hobby you squeeze in around the job and starts looking like something you could actually build a living on.

I'm not there yet and I'm not going to pretend I am. Two months, one client, $370. But the direction is set, and I'm writing down every step while it's still fresh, for anyone else sitting on something they love and wondering whether it could ever pay.

Where it started

A trade, not a following

No camera, no editing background, no plan to be a creator. A phone in a pocket on a job site and a habit of noticing the things nobody explains to a first year.

Posting

Filming a day I was already having

POV clips from the site. Apprentice mistakes. Job site essentials. Shot between tasks, edited on a phone, posted without overthinking it.

First money

AskBonBon started paying

An NEC code lookup app for electricians. I was already the person they were trying to reach, which is the entire reason it worked. Two videos a week, thirty dollars each.

Right now

Writing all of it down

Every message I sent, every rate I quoted, everything that got ignored. Putting it in one place for people who are where I was three months ago.

What this is built on

Three words I'm not willing to trade.

Transparency

Every figure on this page is one I can back up. When I make more, it goes up. When something stops working, I say so. You'll never see a number here I can't produce a receipt for.

Community

I'm not trying to build an audience of students. I'm trying to meet people building the same thing at the same time, swap what's working, and have someone to send the small wins to.

Reality

Real trade work, no filter. The ignored emails go in the same place as the wins. If the version you're reading looks easy, it's been edited, and not by me.

The content

Three lanes, all filmed at work.

No studio and no set. Everything comes from a day I was already having.

Lane 01

POV on the job

Average blue collar, filmed from where I'm standing. Trenching, conduit, running electric in a shed. The parts of the day that look like nothing and get watched the most.

Lane 02

Apprentice mistakes

Real trade work, no filter. What I got wrong and what it actually cost me. This lane gets the comments, because everyone has done the same thing and nobody posts it.

Lane 03

Job site essentials

The tools, apps and gear I use on site. This is the lane brands pay for, because it's a genuine recommendation from someone holding the thing at work.

Want one of these for your brand? Send the brief and I'll film it on my next job. If you are a creator, the rate I charge for it is further down.

Fill out the brand form Creators, see what I charge

Flat rate per video · no retainer, no minimum

Recent work

Straight off the site.

First paying client

AskBonBon

An NEC code lookup app for electricians. I didn't have to pretend to be the target audience. I was standing in it.

Not a household name and not a big budget. It was a real brand paying real money for content, which is the only thing that counts when you're starting from nothing.

CLIENT: ASKBONBON
FORMAT: SHORT VERTICAL
RATE: $30 PER VIDEO, 2 PER WEEK

Why it worked

It wasn't luck.

Three reasons a brand hired someone two months into this, and every one of them is repeatable.

Reason 01

I was the customer

An app for electricians needs a video from someone who works with electricity. Credibility you can't fake is worth more to a brand than reach they can simply buy.

Reason 02

The setting was free

Brands pay studios thousands to build a fake job site. I already stand on a real one. My location costs them nothing and looks like nothing else in their feed.

Reason 03

I was easy to hire

Clear rate, fast turnaround, no negotiating drama, no chasing. Being simple to work with is an underrated reason people get hired a second time.

My rate card, in public

Most creators hide this. Here's mine.

If I'm going to talk about transparency I should probably start with my own pricing. No calls to get a number, no proposal deck. Pick what you need and tell me the brief.

Current rateFor creators

Short vertical video

$30per video, delivered

Filmed on a live job site, edited, ready to run through your own ad account. Raw files included.

Creators, learn how to earn this

The creator program is on Whop

Bundle

Standing weekly slot

Askrate depends on volume

What I do now with AskBonBon. A set number of videos a week so you always have fresh footage in rotation.

Fill out the brand form

Anything else

Something custom

Asktell me what you need

Longer format, a specific product demo, a different site. Tell me the brief and I'll give you a number the same day.

Fill out the brand form

This is what I charge today. When I get better and the work is worth more, the number goes up, and I'll change it right here rather than quietly.

Ready when you are.

Tell me what you are selling and who it is for, and I will come back with a rate and a date.

Fill out the brand form Questions first

What I'm sharing

The four things nobody explained to me.

Starting

Start with nothing.

No followers, no ring light, no portfolio, no LLC. What you actually need before your first pitch, and everything you can safely ignore until money shows up.

Outreach

Find brands that pay.

Where I look, how to tell a real budget from a free product swap, and the exact message I sent that turned into my first paying client.

Making

Shoot it in five minutes.

My whole kit is a phone. Hooks, framing, filming around a work day without annoying your crew, and the same edit repeated every time so it never eats your evening.

Getting paid

Charge, invoice, repeat.

What I charge and why, how to say the number without flinching, how to invoice, and how one video turns into a standing two a week.

Outreach scriptsWhat to chargeWhere to find brandsFilming around workInvoice templatesVideo breakdownsCommunity chat

In progress

I'm building it right now.

Everything above, put together properly in one place. It isn't finished, and I'm not going to launch it half done just to sell you something.

Brand outreach scripts What to charge Filming around a work day Where to find brands Video breakdowns Community chat

See what I charge

The real number, in public, while I build the rest

Who this is for

Brands hire me. Creators learn from me.

Same page, two different reasons to be on it. Here's what each one gets.

For brands Video from a real job site

Tools, apps, workwear, safety gear, filmed where the product actually gets used by someone who uses it. Edited and raw files, ready to run through your own ad account. Flat rate per video, no retainer.

Fill out the brand form

For creators The number, in public

What I charge today and what a brand gets for it, written down where anyone can read it. Most creators won't tell you what they make. The rate card on this page is the whole answer.

See what I charge

For creators Nothing rounded up

Two months, one client, $370. Not a projection, not a best month, not somebody else's. I'm two months in rather than ten years, so I still remember every part that was confusing.

The part I actually care about

I'm not looking for students. I'm looking for people building.

I'd rather have twenty people I actually talk to than a big silent list. I'm figuring out what I like doing and what I'm good at in real time, same as you, and doing that alone is miserable and slow.

So this is an open invitation. Send me what you're working on. Tell me a pitch got ignored. Ask what I'd charge. I'll answer, and I'll probably ask you something back. Ambitious people comparing notes beats a guru talking at a room, every single time.

What this is

A group chat, basically

People at roughly the same stage, sharing what got replies and what didn't. Wins posted, flops posted, both useful.

What this isn't

A guru and an audience

I'm two months in. I'm not positioning myself above anybody, and I'll say when I don't know something.

Straight answer

Who this is actually for.

This is for you if

You have a job, a trade or a skill you could film
You're starting from zero and were about to let that stop you
You want one paid video, not a full time career yet
You'd rather see a real $370 than an unverifiable $37,000
You have about twenty minutes a week to spare
You'd actually talk to people rather than lurk

This is not for you if

You want passive income while you sleep
You want a guaranteed number by a guaranteed date
You want someone further along to do it for you
You want to buy attention rather than earn it slowly
You're only here to see somebody's car
You need a mentor with ten years, not two months

Ground rules

What I promise, and what I refuse to do.

Rule 01

Every number is checkable

If I say I made it, I can show it. $370 is $370. When that changes, this page changes with it.

Rule 02

No income promises

I will never tell you what you'll earn. I don't know, nobody does, and anyone who says otherwise is selling.

Rule 03

The flops get posted too

Ignored emails and rejected pitches go in the same place as the wins. That's the entire point of it.

Questions

Before you ask.

No, and I didn't have one when a brand started paying me. Brands run your video through their own ad account, so they're buying the content itself, not access to your audience. It's the single biggest thing people get wrong, and it's what stops most people before they send one email.

A phone. That's the whole list. I film on job sites with whatever light is already there and edit on the same phone I shot it with. Buying equipment before you have a client is the most reliable way to spend money instead of making it.

About five minutes for me now, and considerably longer when I started. I film during a day I'm already having, which is why it fits around full time work instead of competing with it.

The trade isn't the point. The point is that you do something real and can film it. Nursing, mechanics, kitchens, warehouses, landscaping, salons. Brands in every one of those categories want someone who genuinely uses the product, and they're far harder to find than you'd think.

I have no idea, and I'm not going to guess for you. I've made $370 in two months at $30 a video. That's the only figure I can stand behind. Anyone handing you a number they can't verify is selling you something.

No, and I'd be careful with anyone claiming to be after two months. What I am is close enough to the start that I still remember exactly what was confusing, which is usually more useful than advice from someone five years ahead who's forgotten.

No date yet, because I'd rather finish it than announce it. Pricing isn't set either. The waitlist gets told first and gets in before anyone else.

Yes, and I'd prefer it. Message me on any of the accounts at the bottom of this page, or email me directly. I'm trying to meet people doing the same thing, not just collect emails.

For brands

Want video from a real job site?

Tools, apps, workwear, safety gear, anything used on site. I film where the product actually gets used, by someone who actually uses it. Flat rate per video, no retainer, no minimum commitment.

Tell me what you're selling and who it's for and I'll come back with a rate and a turnaround, usually the same day.

[email protected] (856) 889-2698 Eastern time ... United States

You send the brief

Product, audience, how many videos and when you need them.

I quote a flat rate

One price per video and a delivery date. Usually back the same day.

I film it at work

On a real site, in real conditions, using the product the way it's used.

You get the files

Raw and edited, ready to run through your own ad account.

Come say hi

I answer my messages.

Two accounts on most platforms. One is the job, one is the content side of it.

IG Instagram@josephdareal_ IG Instagram@josephdareal.ugc TT TikTok@josephdareal TT TikTok@josephdareal.ugc YT YouTube@josephdareal X X@josephdoesugc