Case study
From discounting to hold the sale to a rate he stands behind.
Jaspreet Singh was stuck in feast or famine, and every conversation stalled the moment rates came up. He raised his base mix rate from $300 to $400, built a system around how he actually works, and started reaching artists he thought were out of reach.
The numbers
- $300 → $400
- his base mix rate per song, and he holds it
- $800
- a stem mastering project booked days after the strategy call. At his old rate: $375
- 4 → 8
- his business confidence out of 10, before and after
- 7 calls
- discovery calls booked from about 30 outreach messages in four weeks
Feast or famine
Jaspreet mixes, masters and does Atmos for Punjabi hip hop and R&B artists. He had good months and slow months and no way of knowing which was coming.
Most new work started with a DM, and the first question was almost always about his rate. When he answered, the conversation usually ended there. So he discounted, and still lost the sale.
“Conversation with clients always seemed to get stalled whenever rates were mentioned and that caused me to blindly offer a heavy discount to lose out on a potential sale.”
Seeing the real numbers
Before the strategy call Jaspreet ran his numbers through the Rate Calculator and a spreadsheet of his own, and saw how far he was undercharging. On the call they broke his services into tiers so an artist could choose, instead of reacting to one number.
A few days later he reached out to a past client and booked a stem mastering project for $800. At his old rate it would have been $375. After that he raised his base mix rate from $300 to $400.
“That call was a big wake up call, it helped shift my mindset for the better. I still have things I can improve on but that call really helped get on the right path.”
A system built around him
In the 8-week mentorship they built the business around how Jaspreet actually works. Every client and conversation moved out of Instagram, WhatsApp, texts and email into one Trello board, with client tiers and reminders for every follow-up. He wrote a rate card and a revision policy, and started using AI for the admin: a task that used to take 15 minutes now takes 30 seconds.
He also put into words who he is for: “Punjabi artists and producers come to me when they need an industry ready mix that doesn’t ignore their artistic intention.”
“I became much more confident in presenting my rates in conversations and learned to figure out what the artist needs before randomly throwing out a rate.”
Visible, and building trust
Jaspreet used to stop reaching out after a few rejections. In four weeks of the program he sent about 30 outreach messages and booked seven discovery calls. A no became a minor loss and a reason to follow up later, not a reason to quit.
He is clear that these relationships are seeds, not revenue yet, and that selling is still the part he is refining. The two words on the sticky note on his screen are about the long game: be visible, build trust.
“I always felt like I didn’t have the ability to do outreach like this. … But like I ended up realizing that, oh no, I’m not really being annoying. … I’m just having conversations with people.”
In Jaspreet’s words
The biggest thing that surprised me was that Michael wasn’t just pushing a random sales system, He actually takes time to understand you as a person first and then translates that into a business system that works around you. He helped me realize being a good mixer doesn’t always translate to having a good mixing business.
Like, yeah, this is like I would do it again, you know, if I was in that same place or anybody’s in that same place.
Jaspreet Singh Mixing Engineer, Fairfield, CaliforniaMore client stories
Edsel Holden From negotiating against himself to his first $300 master. Read the story 
Josh Goode From waiting on referrals to finding his own clients. Read the story 
David Maria Trapp From busy and reactive to clear rates and a business other people can help him run. Read the story These are real clients’ results, in their own words. Figures are self-reported by each client. Results vary with each engineer’s work, market and follow-through; nothing here is a promise of income.