Thrive Summit for Designer
Surround yourself with top mentors, industry experts, and thriving design leaders who will show you the exact strategies on how they built their design business from scratch. Whether you are starting from scratch, or looking to build and grow your thriving design business, you have reached the right place. This summit was created to help you show up confidently as a thriving founder of your design business. But as a founder, it can get overwhelming. So we have 32+ speakers to help you make it happen!
Surround yourself with top mentors, industry experts, and thriving design leaders who will show you the exact strategies on how they built their design business from scratch. Whether you are starting from scratch, or looking to build and grow your thriving design business, you have reached the right place. This summit was created to help you show up confidently as a thriving founder of your design business. But as a founder, it can get overwhelming. So we have 32+ speakers to help you make it happen!
The Foyer
Documents
Video
Day 1
Bonnie Bakhtiari - Busting Limiting Mindsets To Hit Your First (Or Next) 6-Figure Year
- Three of the most common mindsets that we need to work through to go to that next level in our income goals,
- How you can take action to start reframing them so that you can really take control over how you're setting intentions for your business
- Give yourself the permission to really let this sink in:
- You are so incredibly capable
- You are so wildly worthy exactly where you are
- Success is absolutely meant for you
- You are wildly unapologetically worthy of everything you want
- Freebie: Join Bonnie's Free Webinar on "How To Triple Your Income Without Taking On More Branding Clients" here
- Website: Visit Bonnie's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Bonnie's "Brand Strategy Bundle" here
Esther Yew - How To Build A Solid Business Foundation And Niche To Attract Clients
- Establish a niche and define an extremely clear problem that you solve for your clients.
- Have your niche and the problems you identified validated by market research.
- Create an offer or package that absolutely helps your clients to solve their problems in a way that they will hand you their money readily.
- Create a great pitch or messaging to let your clients know that you can help them.
- Write down 2-3 possible niches that you are considering narrowing down to and identify where they hang out.
- Identify 2-3 main problems that your niche might have and how are you able to solve them.
- Identify parts of your offer currently that you can tweak to help solve a problem for your niche.
- Write down your elevator pitch = who + problem + solution + why.
- Freebie: Sign up for The Founders Office Waitlist here
Jacob Cass - How To Create An Irresistible Offer That Your Prospects Can't Refuse!
- The top three things you need to know before you create an irresistible offer,
- How to get to know your "value ladder" and map out your offerings in each level of the "value ladder",
- How to create a system to make your value ladder scalable and operable to attract clients.
- Identify parts of your offer that provide a problem, a solution, and the benefits that your clients will receive.
- Write down how are you able to create a value ladder to make your highest offer irresistible and what will you be placing in each level of your value ladder.
- Freebie: Get free access to "The Ever-Expanding Branding Briefcase" with 100's of free branding and design resources here
- Website: Visit Jacob's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Jacob's "Exponential Creatives™ membership" here. Find out more about the membership here
Mat Casner - Onboarding Magic: The Proven System For Bringing Amazing Lifetime Clients Into Your Business
- Why having a solid onboarding process is so important,
- The nuts and the bolts to the secrets to a successful onboarding process and why it works,
- How to define your onboarding process, think about your customer journey, and how you can automate your process.
- Map out your onboarding process for each stage starting from pre-sale, sale, production, and aftercare.
- Think about your customer journey and how your client will be interacting with you and you can best serve that client.
- How are you able to automate the entire process? What does this automation process look like for your design business?
- Freebie: Get access to Mat's "Onboarding Magic Workbook" and start creating your perfect onboarding process here
- Website: Visit Mat's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Mat's "Profitable Pricing Secrets Workshop" here
Hayley Fedders - The One Concept Method: Streamline Your Process, Charge More & Reduce Client Revisions
- How you can attract high-end clients by niching down to become a creative expert rather than a designer for hire,
- How you can add value to your client’s branding project by solving their problem and how to create a portfolio that backs up your creative expertise,
- How to implement the one-concept method and the important steps taken to successfully use that in your brand.
- Be intentional about your design decisions and have a really streamlined process when it comes to explaining things to your client.
- Include next steps and guide your client through the process to get them from point A to point B in the brand presentation document.
- Freebie: Get access to the questions that Hayley asks her clients prior to creating the brand foundation document here
- Website: Visit Hayley's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Hayley's workshop on "How To Create A Successful Onboarding Process" here
Steph Wharton - Getting In Front Of The Right Audiences
- Where folks often miss the mark and overcomplicate visibility,
- The basics of leadership + visibility so that you can connect with the right audiences beyond social media and have them reach out to you inquiring about your offers in record timing,
- The 3 key steps inside the signature visibility framework.
- Pick one or two social media platforms to focus on.
- Explore your main core values and brainstorm what your values are and what you are not willing to compromise on.
- Work out the list of the different visibility opportunities that you can participate in.
- Freebie: Get access to Stephs free course on "Getting In Front of The Right Audiences" here
- Website: Visit Stephs' Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Steph's "The Booked Out Collective Membership (1 Month)" here
Louise Rowland - Diversifying Your Marketing Outside of Instagram
- The different marketing platforms that designers can use in their business cohesively
- How to stay organized with creating content in your business and the exact tools used to do so
- The step-by-step process that Louise took to grow her email list to 5000 subscribers organically and receive 10,000 visitors to her website per month.
- The system for repurposing content across multiple platforms so you do not need to keep reinventing the wheel.
- If you are only using Instagram, start by creating a freebie and using email marketing to grow your email list.
- If you are using Instagram and Email, turn some of your best Instagram content into blog posts.
- If you are using Instagram, Email, and a Blog, start pinning your portfolio to Pinterest as well as creating graphics for your freebie and blog post.
- Freebie: Get access to Louise's guide "Easy Online Marketing Plan" here
- Website: Visit Louise's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Louise's "Marketing Statistics Tracking Spreadsheet" here
Chaitra Rahadkrishna - How To Design High-End Websites Using Adobe XD
- How to increase your value as a web designer,
- The web design process and how you can use Adobe XD to streamline your process and charge high-end prices for your web design projects.
- Just try out Adobe XD.
Using the features that was talked about in the presentation, use Adobe XD for your next client project or even a project brief. This will allow you to keep trying and gain experience by using Adobe XD to elevate your design process.
- Freebie: Get access to Chaitra's "5-day email course" that walks you through how to streamline your web design process, increase your value and charge higher for client projects here
- Website: Visit Chaitra's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Chaitra's "The High-End Web Designer Workshop Series" here
Day 2
Luci Nixon - Pep Talk: What I Wish I Knew When I First Started
- 13 lessons that Luci learned on her journey as a designer + tips and takeaways from a few of them.
- Go through each of the 13 lessons that Luci talked about and write down 2-3 of some of the lessons that you need to take note of
- Think about how are you able to tweak/implement certain tips that Luci talks about in each of the lessons in your business. Share what will that look like for you with your accountability partner.
Ariel Garcia - Discovering Your Designer Magic
- The different types of designers and identifying which one are you,
- What is your designer magic and why is it so important,
- How to gain inspiration that is uniquely yours - no more feeling like you need to copy what other designers are doing.
- Find 3 inspiration sites that you are absolutely in love with and note them down. Try to recreate them and break them down to discover your design style.
Lydia Kerr - How To Price Your Services Strategically & Authentically
- Why you're probably undercharging and how to fix that as well as some of the earliest pricing mistakes that she made,
- How you can be both authentic and transparent and how much you can really customize your system to your specific business,
- When and how logistically to raise your rates when exceptions to your normal pricing approach are okay to consider,
- How to prioritize rest and why your work-life balance will really benefit your clients,
- Sharing a real look at her pricing as well as anonymous answers from other designers as to what they're charging.
- Look back at your past year and determine how many clients you worked with, how much your business made, and then your project average
- Create a goal for your project average this year, using the formula we talked about earlier
- Plan your cash flow for the upcoming year based on your project and client goals.
- Make an immediate shift in your pricing approach and start scheduling client intro calls
- Journal out your feelings about pricing and create goals to work through your pricing confidence
- Website: Visit Lydia's Website here
Gigi Davarashvili - How To Survive Difficult Client Situations (& Ideally Avoid Them Altogether)
- The different types of difficult clients and how to resolve these client situations,
- Email templates for each difficult client in case you are faced with a situation like that,
- Some extra tips to help you avoid difficult clients situations that you can apply in your design business.
- Review your proposals, contracts, and welcome guides to ensure that these clauses that Gigi talked about are included.
- Store Gigi's email scripts in a swipe file and implement them in your email templates in your automated process.
- Freebie: Get access to Gigi's "Email scripts for difficult client situations" here
- Website: Visit Gigi's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get Gigi's "Client Welcome Guide Template" here
Briana Summers - Top Engagement Hacks For Building A Design Business On Instagram
- Why you should be building a personal brand on Instagram,
- The top myths that designers believe when it comes to getting personal,
- How to be strategic with your content so that you can actually connect with your ideal clients,
- The tips and tricks for creating content that actually converts.
- Map out your Instagram strategy with Briana's tips and tricks on how to boost Instagram engagement.
- Freebie: Get access to Briana's free guide on "30+ content ideas to help designers build their community on Instagram" here
- Website: Visit Briana's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get Briana's "Project Timeline Template" here
Sarah Masci - 8 VIP Day Mistakes You Might Be Making And What To Do Instead
- 8 VIP Day mistakes and what you can do instead.
- Go through each mistake and brainstorm ideas on how you can avoid these mistakes.
- Freebie: Get access to Sarah's free "Ultimate VIP Day Checklist" here
- Website: Visit Sarah's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get Sarah's "Efficient Designer Bundle" here
Josh Hall - Building Recurring Income With A Website Maintenance Plan
- Why should you offer a website maintenance plan and the top tools you need to run your website maintenance plan
- What to include in your website maintenance plan and how to price your website maintenance plan accordingly
- How to effectively sell your website maintenance plans to new clients and current clients
- Write down what to include in your website maintenance plans.
- Think about how to price your website maintenance plans and the different tiers that you can include for each package.
- Think about how to sell your maintenance plan for both your new and current clients
- Website: Visit Josh's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get Josh's Website Maintenance Plan Sales Page DIVI Layout here
Day 3
Xanthe Appleyard - Making The Leap Into Leadership
This presentation will cover:
- The vision of making a leap into leadership, what form it takes on, and what it looks like for you,
- How to get clear on where you are a leader and where you're not,
- How you can develop a leadership mindset in the creative industry and how to get started by being a leader.
- What is your big leadership dream and why haven't you spoken it out loud yet? Go bold and envision it.
Joey C. Vitale - Owning It: How To Keep Your Business Protected & Legally Legit
- Discover a legal plan that matches where your business is now and aligns it with where your business is heading,
- Solve inevitable problems in your business and identify which "zone" your business is currently in,
- Think about the law with a blank slate and identify your business needs to take care of the legal aspects of your business.
- Identify which zone your business is in at the moment.
- Go through each layer of your business needs to identify if there are any parts of your business that lacks integrity.
- Freebie: Join Joey's free Masterclass "Protect Your Brand and Gain Authority" here
- Website: Visit Joey's Website here
Gigi Bier - Profit Alignment: Why Your Finances Are More Than Just Numbers
- How to track your business income and expenses on a regular basis,
- How to ensure that your finances are aligned with the vision of where your business is going to be through your offers, your customer journey, your educational investments, and your systems,
- How to establish a profit first money management method and what can that look like in your business.
- Track your business income and expenses on a regular basis.
- Group all your expenses by buckets and include how much you are spending on each month and create budgets for each to create financial alignment with the vision of where you want your business to be going.
- Freebie: Join Gigi's free challenge "12 Days of Profit Alignment" here
- Website: Visit Gigi's Website here
Kelli Esquilin - Elevating Your Client Experience and Streamlining Your Process With A CRM System
- Having a premium client experience to go with your premium pricing,
- A proven action plan to follow when creating every workflow,
- Every asset that you'll need and when/how to send it,
- Is Honeybook or Dubsado better for you?
- Access your process - make a list of your onboarding process,
- Build your assets - design and build all of the assets you need for your process,
- Create your workflows - use your new assets to create your workflow.
- Freebie: Get Kelli's free "Dubsado Proposal and Honeybook Brochure Canva Template" here
- Website: Visit Kelli's Website here
Charlie Osborne - How To Run Remote Brand Strategy Workshops
- Why you should include brand strategy workshops in your offerings,
- The three-step process that you can apply to any brand strategy exercise,
- The brand strategy applies to many different types of problems and what your client may need.
- Break down what happens at each phase from extraction, to visualization, presentation, and the various things to address for the client during these workshops.
- Freebie: Get access to Charlie's guide "10 Essential Questions to Ask Your Client At The Start of a Project" here
- Website: Visit Charlie's Website here
Abbey McGrew - From Inexperienced To Expert: How I Elevated My Client Process
- Get into the behind-the-scenes of Abbey’s before and after process from being inexperienced to what it looks like now as an expert,
- The tips on how you can create your own expert-level process and implement it in your design business.
- Are you communicating your design decisions with your clients?
- Are you using screen recordings of your presentations?
- Are you giving your clients a list of targeted feedback to answer?
- Are you encouraging your client to keep their audience's perspective in mind?
- Are you setting due dates for every step of your project?
- Freebie: Get access to Abbey's "Project Timeline Generator Tool" here
- Website: Visit Abbey's Website here
Cali Waege - How to Leverage Pinterest as a Full-Funnel Solution
- Why you should be on Pinterest with your business,
- where people go wrong with their Pinterest marketing that they're doing right now,
- Some simple Pinterest optimizations, the Pinterest funnels that Cali uses, and a little bit about the strategy there,
- We'll cover how you can get started on Pinterest by taking action.
- Get your Pinterest business account set up.
- Use Canva for creating your pins and lead magnets.
- Use a scheduler to batch your pin creations.
- Track your Pinterest stats to monitor your engagements, save clicks, and outbound and pin clicks.
- Think of your email and sales funnels so that your audience will be able to opt-in.
- Freebie: Get access to Cali's 3 Day Mini-Course "Learn How To Set Up And Optimize Your Pinterest Account" here
- Website: Visit Cali's Website here
Galen Mooney - How To 3x Your Design Rates With Confidence
- How do you actually decide what to charge for your design work,
- How you can differentiate yourself as a designer,
- The 3 of her favorite sales call tips and the difference between a $1000 website and a $5000 website,
- How to actually 3x your hourly rate as a designer.
- Think about your differentiating factor as a designer and brainstorm how you are able to create valuable transformation for your client.
- Is your system sytemized? Are you creating templates for yourself and using it for every email and client project?
- What do you want your business to look like, how would you like to structure your week and how do you see those website and branding projects fitting into it?
- Freebie: Get access to Galen's free workshop on the "3 Simple Steps to Working Less & Making More in Your Design Business" here
- Website: Visit Galen's Website here
The Do-Better Designer Series
Jaimie McDonald - How To Write Compelling Copy For Your Design Business Website
- Some market research questions that you need to answer before you write your copy,
- The content that actually goes on each of your website pages,
- How to create a compelling copy for your design business website.
- Review your homepage, about page, and services page!
- Set up an email list so that you will be able to nurture those potential leads.
- Freebie: Get access to Jaimie's template for organizing your client & customer feedback here
- Website: Visit Jaimie's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get Jaimie's "The Values-Aligned Client Experience Workshop" here
Lauren Braier - Packaging Design: How To Take On Dream Product-Based Clients With Confidence
- Why should designers branch out and start working on packaging clients,
- How to gain confidence when offering packaging design as an offering,
- How are you able to design better packaging.
- Brainstorm some ideas on the design process on how you are able to create a confident and elevated experience for your clients.
- Freebie: Get access to Lauren's "Packaging Design 101" freebie here
- Website: Visit Lauren's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get Lauren's "Packaging Process Notion Template" here
Marion Tan - Your Guide To Crafting An Effective Brand Strategy Document
- What is a brand strategy and what goes behind the brand strategy process,
- The purpose of the brand strategy document and what to avoid,
- Where and how to gather information,
- What goes into an effective brand strategy document.
- Start by crafting the brand foundations which i the heart and soul of the brand.
- Help your clients understand the type of person they are meant to serve.
- Help your client identify who they are, the benefit they provide, what makes them different, and the advantage they have over their competitors.
- Guide your client to communicate the value that the brand adds to the lives of their audience.
- Help your client discover how they carry themselves and how to behave as a brand.
- Provide transformative value to the brand and truly delight your clients.
- Freebie: Get access to Marion's free "Brand Strategy Template for Designers" here
- Website: Visit Marion's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Marion's "How To Conduct A Brand Strategy Session + Facilitation Guide" here
Mor Cohen - Branded Websites - Designed for Conversions
- What does conversion mean and why is it important,
- How to design for conversion through the main touchpoints of a well-designed converting website through specific elements, colors, images, and fonts.
- The factors that plays a huge factor in conversions.
- Start by conducting your research so you understand your brand or the brand you are designing for on a deeper level
- Based on your research, create your brand-specific client persona so you can design according to the visual language that they are "speaking"
- Learn the elements of branded websites that are designed for conversion and how they affect the growth of the business you are designing for.
- Freebie: Get access to Mor's free "Design and Branding Guides" here
- Website: Visit Mor's Website here
- VIP Bundle: Get access to Mor's "Juniper, Sales Page Template For Elementor and Divi" here
Erin Perkins - Designing For Accessibility
- Why do you need to design for accessibility,
- The various lenses when it comes to accessibility,
- How you can apply the various lenses to your business.
- Create your own checklist of things to look out for to make your own accessibility designing system when you are designing a website.
- Look at your current designs to make sure that everything on your website is accessible to everyone, and if it is not, what can you do to fix it?
- Freebie: Get access to Erin's checklist to empower you to create accessible content here
- Website: Visit Erin's Website here
Danbee Shin - Bring Your Whole Self To Your Design Business
- What does it mean to bring your whole self to your business and why is it important,
- What is possible when you bring your whole self to your business,
- Ways that you can start bringing your whole self to your business today.
- Bring your background to your design business.
- Add a fun fact to your about page. Draft out a fun fact to include in your about page.
- Choose a favorite story from a past experience and share it as a social media post.
The After Party
The Genesis: Breaking Down Humble Beginnings
- "Am I the only one going through these uncomfortable stages of starting a business after leaving my other full-time job?"
- "Is it okay to make mistakes as a designer because everyone's work out there looks so damn perfect?"
- "Do I have to figure this whole business thing out by myself? Where can I get that guidance?"
- "I know I am talented but I am also scared to put my work out there and charge a higher price for my services"
The Momentum: Believe For Greater
The Overflow: A Glimpse Into Your Future with Puno from ilovecreatives
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