The film director who found his voice (and his €10k client)
Out of respect for client confidentiality, the name and identifying details in this story have been changed. The transformation is real.
When Jamie reached out, he was holding his breath.
Literally.... Throat tight. Shoulders braced. Belly clenched.
Sitting behind his computer 12 hours a day, accomplishing nothing, feeling nothing.
“I feel destined to fail,” he told me on our first call. “Four days a week I’m just... numb. I had a good year once. Lost money trading. Now my savings are bleeding out and my throat closes every time I try to ask for money.”
He had the camera. The skills. The portfolio of high-profile work.
What he didn’t have was the permission to stop hiding.
Where it started
In our first deep-dive session, we didn’t talk pricing strategy. We went straight to his body.
I asked him to put one hand on his throat, one on his belly, and tell me what he felt when he thought about asking a client for €3,000.
“Throat closes. Belly braces. Like I’m back there.”
‘Back there’. Is Was where little Jamie learned early that being small and quiet was safer than being seen.
Where managing other people’s feelings became his job. Where a teacher’s words - “if you think like this, you’ll never make it” - landed like a prophecy.
We identified the survival patterns that had been running his life - the ones keeping him small, the ones managing everyone else’s comfort at his expense.
What he thought was his character flaws, were actually adaptations from a kid who needed to make sense of chaos back when growing up.
But now they were costing him thousands in undercharging and hiding.
The transformation
Over eight weeks, we did something unusual: we worked on both his nervous system AND his business simultaneously.
Inner work: Somatic sessions to unlock the voice stuck in his throat. We found his “trademark shout” the sound that had been suppressed for years. He practiced saying: “It’s my responsibility to speak my truth.” Not only as an affirmation, but as a body memory.
Outer work: We also dived into his current revenue reality. Who paid him. What work felt alive. Where did his throat close. We mapped the patterns, the facts and the gap.
Then we secured his foundation: stable part-time income that covered his baseline expenses, so his nervous system could finally exhale.
With the survival part handled, we could be move on to be strategic.
He had a meeting coming up - a company needing video storytelling to shift their public perception and he was requested to pith his solution.
“What are you charging?” I asked.
“Maybe... €3,000?”
“What’s it worth to them?”
Long silence. “€10,000. But I can’t ask for that.”
“That’s not a pricing problem. That’s your throat closing. Let’s work with that.”
Between sessions, he practiced being himself in small moments. Speaking vulnerably at a men’s group. Tracking when old patterns showed up.
And every Saturday morning - he committed to two hours in nature with his camera with No client or deliverables. Just reconnecting with that kid who created for pure joy.
Week 7: The breakthrough
He sent me a voice note from his car after the client meeting:
“My heart was racing when I arrived. I almost didn’t go. But then we started talking and I just... eased into it. And Daniel - they’re letting me direct this. Like actually orchestrate the whole thing, tell them what I need, when I need it. They really want this. And you know what? It felt really good being myself. Being truthful. Not performing. This is the type of work I’ve been dreaming to do - directive work, creative orchestration.”
The €10,000 project is moving forward.
But here’s what actually matters:
Jamie didn’t just land a client. He stopped apologising for existing.
The throat that used to clamp? Open.
The voice that got pushed underground? Speaking.
The kid who creates for pure joy? Coming back every Saturday.
This is what the work looks like when you stop managing everyone else’s feelings and start speaking your actual price.
The Return Plan - Core isn’t about becoming someone new.
It’s about remembering who you were before you learned to hide.
And giving that version of you permission to show up in your business again.
Does this sound familiar? More on how we did it coming this week. Or if you’re ready now, DM me ‘Return’ for details.
– Dan