(For those looking for a post about how I use AI tools to level up my design process as I mentioned at the end of last week’s newsletter, apologies in advance; this is not that. I’m still working on that and will share it soon.)
Beware: this is a sales post.
Below, I’m going to tell you about a new group coaching program I’m launching publicly for freelancers and agency/studio owners. I’m going to give you some info about it so you can identify if I’m talking to you. I’m going to ask you to spend up to $5k, and I’m going to try and convince you that it’s worth it because what I’ll teach you will help you win at least $10k more work, if not more.
If you’re not interested in that, you’re more than welcome to stop reading here and catch back up in next week’s newsletter (which will be a specific tip about how you can make yourself more indispensable to your team, boss, client, and any other group you’re part of).
Still with me? Read on.
The more conversations I have with designers like you who read this newsletter and follow me on various social platforms, the more I’m picking up on a general anxiety about the future. A common source of that angst is uncertainty about income and finances—and for good reason. The rapid of advancement of AI tools seem to accelerate the risk of replacement across all rungs of the employment ladder. Full-time positions are hard to come by, somehow despite loads of job openings, and mass layoffs don’t build confidence about that path anyway. U.S. administration changes wreak havoc worldwide, especially as it relates to the global economy.
My survivorship bias is clear, but my last decade of work as an entrepreneur and business owner lead me to encourage folks down this path too. I’m not naive enough to believe this is right for everyone, but I’m also aware enough to know that more folks could find success here than currently do or have. To sweeten the pot, I’ve always been happy to share how I’ve made a good living doing things like making my own products or running and selling an agency I’ve received a lot of feedback for me to know that I’ve helped a lot of people here over the years.
That‘s not to say that the independent path is easy. 20% of businesses don’t make it past their first year, and 50% don’t make it to year 5. It’s a higher risk, higher reward scenario than other vocational paths. I’ve always volunteered to do my part to help increase the odds for those interested.
Along those lines, I’ve been quietly noodling for the last few months on designing a new group coaching program for design freelancers and studio/agency owners who want to level up their businesses. The program is called Make More Money, and it comes in 3 parts:
I designed Make More Money for freelancers and studio/agency owners who want help growing their design business from their first dollar up to $10 million. Why that range? Because I’ve figured out many of the answers to those problems myself, and I can share them with the people who haven’t figured them out yet.
(If you run a $10 million+ agency and are looking to scale beyond, I’m not the guy for you, but I know people who are. Drop me a line and I’ll point you in their direction.)
The biggest challenges for folks in this area are making their first profitable sales and figuring out how to do better than losing money or just barely breaking even.
And the biggest opportunities here are learning how to grow your customer and client base and increasing both revenue and profit.
I teach you how to do this in 4 ways:
The self-paced video course currently contains 24 modules across 5 topics (though I’m constantly tweaking this):
That’s the core material that I think every freelancer and studio/agency owner would benefit to know.
There might be some concepts in that list that you’re already familiar. I don’t claim that all of this stuff is my own. I’ll always be sharing my remixed application of it, and I will happily credit the ideas I’ve learned from others that I’m passing along to you. There are 59 books in particular that all make their way into this program; I read them so you don’t have to. (But in a future post, I’ll share more detail about each of these books so you can read them if you want to.)
Theoretical knowledge only goes so far; a lot of business is learned by trying stuff. There will be a lot of hands-on work that I’ll be asking you to do. There are 14 worksheets and templates that are part of this curriculum that you’ll use to guide you along the way, and likely even after you’re done.
There are also some topics that are a bit more advanced, don’t really fit into those buckets, and/or are outside the core curriculum but might still be useful to know. I see this “extra credit” section as one that I’ll constantly update with one-off videos as they come up in the program. In no particular order:
I’ll have 2 payment options:
You’ll have access to the program for 3 months.
As of this moment, I’m not offering purchasing power parity (PPP) for this program.
I believe in the global benefits of PPP and offer it for just about all of my other courses.
The biggest reason I’m not offering it here is that pricing is very cultural. The majority of my experience pricing and what I’m teaching has been with U.S.-based clients with a few European clients sprinkled in, so what I teach is essentially how to navigate and exploit the variables of capitalist economies in your favor. I don’t know if what I’m teaching will work as well for people outside the U.S., as I’m not nearly as tuned to the nuances of non-U.S. cultures.
That said, it’s a strong opinion, softly held. I’m willing to be convinced otherwise. I know I’m making this decision mostly out of ignorance; I know there’s a lot I don’t know here. If you feel strongly about this (whether for or against) and would be willing to share your thoughts with me about it, I’d certainly welcome that and be grateful for it.
If you follow me on other platforms, you may have seen me think out loud about a $9/month option on LinkedIn and X. As you’ve probably been able to tell, what I’ve written above is not that.
After lots of thoughts over the last few months and some great feedback from many people, I don’t think it’s the right time for me to launch that. I think the chasm between what I can deliver and what people expect is too wide right now, so I want some time to figure out how to shrink or bridge that gap. I may launch that after launching the full Make More Money program, but that order reflects my priority right now.
Is the program worth it?
Of course I think so, but I’m biased. Also, it doesn’t matter what I think. It matters if my students find it valuable.
I’ve been running an early access program with a handful of people for the last few weeks to test out just that. I’m grateful to them for helping me tune the content and sharpen the offer so it’s valuable to them and to more people.
Here’s what they’re saying in their own words.
From Gabby Merite, founder of creative data design studio Figures & Figures:
From Josh Loh, founder of The Digital Third:
From freelancer Jonas Leupe:
Not sure yet. I was shooting for first week of March, but I still have a decent chunk of the video course to create. As of right now, it’s looking like it’ll be somewhere between the end of March and the end of April, but I’m not far along enough to say that for sure.
So how have I been running the early access group? Without the video course. I just teach the material live every week. It’s a little slower for the students because we only cover one topic each week, and sometimes one topic over multiple weeks. It’ll be easier for the students when the video course is done so they can consume it at their own pace, but they’re still already getting value now.
Which brings me to you.
I’ve heard from more than a few of you that you’re really excited for something like this and would love to get in as early as possible. Would you want to join our early access group, even if the video course isn’t ready yet?
If that’s something you’d be interested in, consider this a pre-order of sorts. I’d do a pre-order price of $3,999 USD, which is $1,000 off the full launch price of $4,999 USD. I’ll let you into our early access group, and when the video course is ready, you’ll immediately have access to that too.
In short, here’s what’s in it for you:
And here’s what’s in it for me:
I’m hoping that’s a win-win for both of us.
If you’d like to pre-order, send me a message and I’ll reply with a Stripe link.
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