How She Went From Charging $0 to $5k For Strategy in 6 Months Ep. 9

[Music] hey guys this is a special episode I'm catching up with you guessed it with Melinda and she's here and she's had some tremendous growth so I want to talk to her and without further ado Melinda what has it been going on with your life last we spoke last we spoke last time we spoke she was like Chris all my work is gone what did you do to me you tried to ruin me or what mm-hmm and I said you know stay with the plan follow the process trust me I'll take care of you so wonderful things have happened yes you are leading the charge for a bunch of designers to start to charge for their knowledge so when here kind of where you're at and then I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions about how you got to be where you're at okay all right give us that like the big update the big update well last time I was here we were here with Rebecca and I was saying how all of my leads had dried up and they work and I was probably eating top ramen and wasting away top ramen over Kobe steak but yeah yes so since then one huge thing that's changed are the leads the leads are coming in yes I have a lot of leads which now and I've sold jobs at a much higher price now I have to do them and so I'm dealing with actually problems right yeah new problems great problems I'm not complaining I'm very thankful but it's a completely different it's a huge shift a huge shift and it started I would say right after Thanksgiving I got all the leads so it does take time I just want to let everybody know it does take some time you all expect instant results like if I do X then Y will happen immediately and doesn't work like that real life does not work like that it takes time to to prepare the soil to plan and don't and then you don't get the harvest for some time so let's just get into the nitty and the gritty if you will the nitty gritty which is you're getting a bunch of leads now which is fantastic we'll talk more about how you got those leads but let's talk about charging more let's just dangle the carrot out there for them yeah what do you mean you're charging more like how much more where do you go from and we're yet now well I went from one not doing strategy at all mm-hmm using a questionnaire as my strategy say I mean I wasn't charging for that and now I am charging I'm leading with that I'm actually selling that I'm really selling I'm trying to align with my client I don't wanna say sell because you're not pushing anyone into anything that's right I'm aligning with their goals and their problems and and I am offering them strategy first really as the only option if they would like to work with me and I'm I'm presenting it in a way that they fall in love with strategy and then I'm charging for it so that is a massive change from not charging for a questionnaire in which I call which I did call my strategy right to actually doing in-person workshops and selling that strategy okay I think you've done an excellent job of avoiding my question well how much are you charging from how much are you charging today relative to what you were just charging a little while ago can you give us an idea well it's just completely different because the structure is different well tell me about the structure and then the price attached to that structure then okay so previously I charged zero for strategy right now I charge the last way and I've charged five thousand five thousand bucks someone from zero to five thousand for strategy alone okay so that's a big number for a lot of people to process right now and some people are like what what is strategy like what do you mean you charge five thousand and why weren't you able to do it before so we'll spend a little time talking about this part and I think the people want to know because this is radically different because people are struggling in the streets wherever you're watching this to even get four or five hundred bucks for logo and that's like work you're talking about like getting paid to think mm-hmm that's a good problem to have okay so let's talk a little bit about that then in terms like what is strategy to you now we kind of understood understand a little bit about what you you reference before but now that you're doing it tell the people what it is okay okay pretend like I'm a client like ding dong hey Melinda turns out great every single time okay open to interpretation okay okay so I'm just a brand-new client this time it's gonna be really easy because you're a super Pro now so you know ring-ring here we go I want to work with you I saw your website I've seen you on all these podcasts and your Instagram is amazing I want to work with you how do we do that you work with me what do you looking for I'm looking to rebrand oh okay so have you have you thought of a certain budget do you have a certain budget set aside for this I don't you don't okay well typically depending on the size of your company marketing efforts are around 5% to 10% depending on what your goal is so of your gross revenue so with that said what is what's your goal of rebranding where even what what makes you want to rebrand I just feel like it's outdated and you know I hired some friend of the family who did it originally and it's been okay but we're growing and I feel like when when we look at what we do I'm not proud of the our identity I'm not bad at all and so could you describe to me where you're at currently as far as you want to grow here you want to grow so that's your ideal and you want to continue to grow so that's your ideal and but you feel that you are still or can you describe to me what that feeling is why do you feel that way about your brand I'm going to show you this look at this this look Genki to you I mean just feels like it's not professional it isn't feel like we're innovative it doesn't feel like it's reflective of what our value is we're we're an eighty million dollar company and this looks like some kid did it because in true some kid did do it okay I want a professional touch I saw the work that you do it's very classy it's very stylish it's very modern that's what I want for my company great well it sounds like you're from what I'm hearing is that your ideal client are they feeling the same thing that you are too are you losing them are you gaining them hmm I don't know I think we would like to have more clients we're growing so I think we're gaining clients and customers yeah well typically during this conversation I would have something visual to show and I'd be writing down where you are which is here and then I would be writing down your ideal which is there so they can see it visually and we're both looking at something together I then would break it down we're in the middle this is your aim and so I start asking you questions well what is this obtainable what's an obtainable goal about midway between where you are now and where you want to be mmm okay that look like to you well you know I don't know yet I mean I just really I would like to start with a rebrand so I'm thinking we need a new logo we need a new identity system probably somewhere down the line we'll need a website to reflect all that stuff but for right now I think I think the identity is really important great so that are those are the tasks that will get us to that goal what does that goal actually look like for your company where's your company during that time is it did your company grow in revenue do you want your company to grow as far as sales as far as attracting a certain kind of customer what does that look like because those things like the logo the rebrand or more of a vehicle to get you to the goal or a task to get you there but they aren't the end goal so they're they're there to get you to your goal so what would that look like for you maybe I'm not understanding this I mean I just feel like things don't look very good right now and I feel like if we could just do that I'd be more proud to represent ourselves like as we go out into the world I almost feel ashamed like I want to give you my business card right now do you know what I mean yeah yeah so then an obtainable goal and I'm hearing is that it would be that you're proud of your company and you want to go around and that you want to be proud of it you want to show it off you want to feel that you are above your competitors mm-hmm right sounds good okay like that well this is how I do it okay and you would see visually how strategy comes into play with that where strategy is the core that we have to start with the next thing our objectives so that would be something like UX that would be marketing funnels that would be goals they're actually measurable goals from there we have deliverables and so if we actually start with the logo first we're gonna have a very shell of a brand and it's not gonna be held up by anything because there's no goals and there's no purpose so we actually start with brain strategy first and that you would see a goal or you would see a diagram of that if you were sitting down with me okay I love what you're saying this feels right I feel like we want you're the right person to do this so how much do you charge you to do this so typically brand strategy is the starts at 5,000 and can range all the way to 15 and you can see also what those options would be okay and what do I get for that like why do I need to do this yeah so it sounds like you want to get to your goal and typically my clients which in this conversation we would end up seeing that you are possibly not focused that you are trying to do several things at once but not getting very far and so I have some things to walk through to show that and usually clients are like yes I totally relate to that so with that focus and clarity is what I'm I'm mainly leading with with the strategy and so the first package is strategy to find out who the ideal client is to know them very well to also provide a marketing funnel strategy so the overarching funnel of how does the client become aware of you all the way to you how do they end up being an advocate of your company you want people to share and then refeed the funnel so that you don't have to keep putting money and okay sound good you don't have to put money back into you to gain those ideas that sounds great right that sounds great and we would also go over your - and who you are so that what you said about wanting to be confident in your brand and and be able to feel like you're above the competition we would also nail down all those the attributes the positioning statement the value proposition in that early time so that we know where we're going and where you're going okay so that that sounds all wonderful but like I I just want you to do identity can can we just skip this process well do you have a brand strategy already I have something yeah you have something and what does that entail well I can send it to you after this okay maybe I can kind of share with you what we have I guess a little bit about our mission statement what are some of our beliefs are okay that that more stands for something that's that is aligned with your business plan and this is more in line with how you reach your ideal client so they're a little bit different and I work through a certain process so if you like to work with me then we do start at brand strategy so you you're saying that you won't do this and unless we hire you to do the brand strategy that's correct because I feel that I've actually used to do this I used to be a freelancer and I would take on the projects that were the deliverables and I didn't even think about what my clients goals were and if we were reaching those goals we were helping the client get to those goals and it was I ended up being an expense and I don't want to do that to my clients anymore so I have switched over into the world of brand strategy because I want to align with my clients goals and then have them aligned with their own clients so so it is and this is again this is there's a diagram here where it shows brand strategy objectives and deliverables so if someone so people typically come to me for the deliverables yes but there is no goal and no strategy attached so we don't know if you're reaching your goal so then it always end up being an expense and not an investment hmm okay give me a lot of think about here so if this strategy part costs $5,000 and I hear a lot of people say this so I'm not sure you all are saying the same thing mm-hmm but if I have to spend 5,000 bucks okay what's the logo gonna cost me the logo is gonna cost you a minimum of five thousand on top okay minimum okay what would affect the price the complexity that I'm breaking character yo my brain can't process like when you're like well so we're breaking a conversation coach you and how to do this about anything well I I have to do the visuals currently because I have nothing on my site to show this I don't doesn't matter okay well they have it up here do you teach I will I will but let's finish this out though okay so I'm to so I'm just saying this because my process that I'm currently doing doesn't it this would not happen because I have case studies to show okay and I have it processed it okay so huh interesting okay so where were we I was asking you about like logo logo yeah and it's like well what can impact the price and you answer that right yes okay all right I think we got your role play I think I have some tips for you but we'll circle back to that later okay so we've established now that you charge five thousand dollars to do strategy and it really can impact the clients business which makes you feel good it gets you a seat at the table so you're not an order taker you're an advisor to the client and I like that you stood your ground so if they insist that this is not gonna happen how do you say it so let me let me get back into the role but I don't break character now stop pointing to the screen like you're breaking my own says so what if you realize but if you want a true example of what goes on then okay no if you want something new then but if you really want to know what's going on it's too much it's too much okay go back to strategy no moving on you know we're talking about if I don't take them on yeah okay so get rid of me night let's just say that I just like okay look I really like you I think I can spend five to eight thousand dollars on the logo by itself I'm just not really into this other thing I just I need to get this thing done and we've had somebody do this before us before and I really got us nowhere so are you saying that you won't take on this job okay all right okay well yes but because I don't feel that it would get you to your goal but I'll have to refer you to someone else that would take on a logo only oh I'm sorry I can't summer I would love to work with you though okay truly I'd love to get those referrals who you gonna send me okay stop right there okay let's get back to this whole thing I'm gonna have to teach you how to say no okay I'm gonna to teach you how to do this without visuals okay and so that you can be in the flow a lot of this is okay you're relatively new still relatively speaking so soon you'll be able to do this kind of over the phone while you're driving to have Starbucks it would be no problem okay that's cool and the initial call which I took from you last time was to qualify the price yeah so the initial ones that and then the second one just letting you know what I'm currently doing so you can report is to get them on a Skype call or in-person meeting and try and local and that is that's why I use visuals nothing on my site right because I lead with deliverables at the moment on my website which not gonna be that way next month good you already know at the time I already know so that's why felt like instead of having things on my website in case study is that I'm gonna have them in person and then show them and talk them through it about for me okay to get to face alright so I'm gonna say this because I'm gonna give voice to our audience for watching they're like oh my god I can't believe she's saying no to five to eight thousand dollar logo how do you can handle that criticism like what did you charge to do this just a year ago a year ago I was charged before we before the top was like a branding package with 6,300 okay so a year ago you're happy with sixty three hundred and now just a year later somebody's gonna offer you five to eight thousand dollars to do logo again right right hey how do you speak to that like what has happened to you so far well those people that are complaining now they have a client potentially that you're gonna give them okay and why would you do that now why would I do that now because I because of the reasons I was telling you as the client that one I know it's not necessarily I don't know this for sure but it's not necessarily gonna reach their goal and so if if everything's not in alignment as far as strategy and their goals and we're not getting anywhere we're just checking things off a list so it's like do you want to have you want to just check something off a list or do you wanna be effective and I now that I've tasted the greatness I want to be effective because to me that's worth more than the money it really is I see so it's almost like you took the pill and you enter into the matrix and now you know it's all fake though that's not Cheezburger that you're eating it's like code and you can't go back thank you you'd rather live in the raw dirty world that we know rather than go back to that place yes that's interesting okay so there's a lot of people in our group in our pro coaching group who are still no I don't want to use the word struggling but it's still a challenge for them to get to that place where they can charge five thousand dollars just for the thinking part there's only a handful there's about half a dozen of you guys so far that have separated out and and I know there's a lot of people think well I charge strategy for all of that but it's all lumped together so first of all I want to say kudos to you for being able to do it and also kind of listening to the advice that I give you and a lot of people are like I'm doing it but they don't do it the way I tell them to do it so then I'm like you're not doing it right so some people are still kind of mushing together I don't think they're confident enough to separate it apart because once you separate it it's like you're validating that there's value there and that they're willing to hire you for that reason and that's excellent so I have to ask you this question what makes you so special what makes you so different because I give advice out to strangers on the internet I give advice to the coaching group one-on-one coaching why why were you able to achieve what they weren't able to achieve that's what I'm here for I feel like it's a simple answer though what is it I just did it I just started that's helpful well it is to those who are stalled very small very small step whatever that is for me it was wearing how to do strategy the second one it was get someone to agree to let me do strategy for them for their company one of them was my cousin one of them was my good friend slash client that I have worked with before another one was a previous client someone else was a friend and yeah when I think when other was a previous client as well so a lot of them were friends their family at first they were previous clients that I felt comfortable with and they agreed to to let me do strategy for them and with every single one of those I got more confident with it and then I realized oh my gosh there's magic in this okay I was converted after that came warm in the sunlight it came in after every single strategy that I did first I saw the difference that it made or the light bulb that came on with them and the clarity that they had and then I thought oh my gosh if this happened with the first person just think it will happen with the next and the next and I got better I changed my strategy document in my process as I went because I was seeing the needs there I saw the roadblocks or what was not necessary or where things got confusing and I straighten those out and every time every time I do strategy now I add something or I take something away right because of what I've done previously and now I'm I feel confident in what I'm charging and I feel confident in even raising my prices because I see the impact that it's making on the businesses that I've already worked with and the people it's not just the business it's the like I had one client and she's the one that was my friend she said you're the only one that I feel got that who understands my vision and she hug to do status where they start crying and hugging you this is good because it's it can be cathartic I just want to say that cathartic will put the definition right there at the cathartic okay so you did a great job of explaining something but you didn't answer my question I want to get into your mind I want to crawl into this brain and say like there's some random dude that you saw on the internet and you come in you chat with me a couple of times a little bit of coaching and I and I told you that you're not doing strategy and you took it like a champ you got like an iron chin because I smacked you yeah yeah what else you got I'm like oh I got more and then you get into the core framework and you quietly go off and do your thing it is a special somebody that can just take a little bit of information and even though it's countered to everything they've done before that moment you're willing to just move forward without sitting there and thinking and overanalyzing overthinking and die death of paralysis by analysis you just did it and what what what's in your personality what's in your background your upbringing your belief system that allows you just to do it because that's the magic if I can figure that with you I can make a lot of difference to those people out there right okay I movie Center the camera okay first it's my beliefs because I feel that my accomplishments don't define who I am but who I am is is not attached to to what I do or what I accomplished or even the things that I fail with her fail doing that's the first one that that who I am matters to the one that that matters most to me and so that to me that's that's my guiding light in life and so that's how I approach most situations and I'm growing obviously I'm not perfect but that's that's my beliefs because I feel like we talked about thoughts influence behaviors but even before that I believe its beliefs its belief about who you are and why you're here and that's the first one that's like the deepest the deepest one the second one is I believe it is in my personality to just do things when I was 16 my cousin slash piano teacher he wanted me to start teaching piano I was like I'm 16 years old I don't even know piano that well I'm not that great and a lady called me two days later she's like hey I heard that you give piano lessons and there's two I have two kids that I want you to teach and I was like well I do now so I took that that way of just accepting things as they come like the crazy you man on the internet that I was standing next to the wind portunities come to you or when things that you learn come up that you just embrace them kind of like what Chris always tells us embrace and pivot but you can do that in your life and I do that in my own life as I embrace what comes and then I move forward so if you wanted at the deepest level that's what aren't you scared of what I don't know most people are afraid like this is weird cuz there's just a voice coming in for the cyber to come back it's right there just pour your heart out and write to the camera look right down the back you can say the same question aren't you afraid look why can you do what few people have been able to do besides saying like yeah I just did it there is fear there but to me for me the excitement is it overshadows the fear and the other thing that I had mentioned to Chris before when he had asked me that a big difference to for meanest past year was was being aware of what I'm thankful for and that what that looks like for me is sending two of my friends at grad a - list of three things I'm most thankful for every single day every morning no matter how bad our day was no matter how bad we're feeling that we always send three things were grateful for so one it helps with accountability because you see that your friends are doing it and we never bash each other if we forget but it's the fact that we see someone else doing it that then we do it as well the other thing is just sharing and gratitude and it changes your mind that you start actually looking for those things that you're grateful for and that are good things instead of I think it's easy to get into that rut of naturally seeing what we suck at and what went bad and how someone treated us and start blaming things or people for what our life is right now and so doing that gratitude list has I feel like it's changed my brain - over the past few months since I believe I started that like a couple weeks after I got coached by Chris and that coupled with just moving forward and doing it and so then when I when I say did the first strategy session with my client I had to do my gratitude list the next day and so instead of thinking oh that went horribly I did this wrong and I should have done this that I was just thinking of all the good things that came out of it I thought oh my gosh my client was excited and they found out this about their business and they did this and I I was able to uncover this or make this connection and so I'm constantly now thinking in the positive light instead of the negative that's fantastic that's fantastic so he you how long ago did you graduate from school ten years ten years okay so that means a couple of things that means you can be pretty set in your rhythms in life for 10 years and have a change like that that's the only thing that's stopping you is you and that's why I'm just so appreciative of being able to watch you grow to see you take on things and just you know I'm gonna give myself some credit go for it do one of these things no I'm gonna say something here is people always ask me how do you determine who's gonna be on the show because obviously there's a lot of people who reach out like Chris help us help us critique this help me coach me mentor me but you see I pride myself on being able to spot talent and talent isn't necessarily what you guys think sometimes some of you guys might think talent will she has a giant Instagram following or she's already a design superstar and that's not the case at all what I saw in Melinda which is very rare is I put out a task for people to do the task was to draw grids over logos and what Melinda did just exceeded my expectations in such a way that I was thinking here's a person who took a little bit of an idea a kernel and made it blow up so this is a lesson to all of you guys that that kind of spirit is rewarded whether or not you have a mentor or not so I think that's the kind of attitude that you have give you a little bit you just take it and you run nose down head down and you just bash through the barriers and I love that I love that you said that you're really excited about the potential of what's gonna happen and you didn't focus too much on what you had to lose and that's a key thing in life most people think about what they have to lose few people think about what they have to gain that's what you did excellent job there okay now that you're just killing it killing it what do we think mmm and a 2018 what are you gonna do in terms of your gross Billings because we had said before and the 2017 you wish you could get this and that freaked people out there what's she complaining about that's a ton of money yes relatively speaking it is relatively speaking but we have goals we set goals we smash goals we go to our stretch goals so what is your goal for 2018 in terms of gross Billings was 100 before right it was 100 before until he's hoping to change it I did 80,000 boom now I have to ask you a couple of questions back when you were going to what's called again calcified in the classroom or in the board room Titans reach higher Cal State Fullerton what up Cal State Fullerton did you think in a year you could possibly pull down a hundred and eighty thousand was that part of like even your idea of what you could do as a graphic designer no I've heard well in school I did hear people getting like hundred thousand dollar rebrands but that in my mind was for those top agency you know like it was it there wasn't anything that I thought I could necessarily do look at it let her reach for mere mortals right yeah yeah all right so you're closing it yeah the killer attitude you just now you're you you're in the process of redesigning your website excellent you're doing everything that you need to do thank you is there anything else we need to talk about before we kind of get into some coaching stuff I want to get another coaching stuff you do yeah all right when uses into some coaching stuff on the next episode [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The Futur

Views: 154,908

Rating: 4.9490585 out of 5

Keywords: the futur, futur brand, disrupt design education, chris do, business of design, how to, melinda livsey, marks and maker, discovery, how to charge more, growth, mindset, coaching, soloprenuer, entreprenuer, running a business, $5k, selling strategy, user experience, UX, design strategy, women in design, running a design business, business tips for entrepreneurs, business, client, advice, money, tips, sales, branding design, ux design, branding, portfolio, logo design, roleplay, role play

Id: D2rDvkSfrCI

Length: 33min 40sec (2020 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 02 2018