Old-school selling · a live workshop
How to win work as a designer without sounding like a robot.
I’m sick of AI as an excuse. Ninety minutes on selling the old way: talking to people who already like you.
Book your spot · $49Everyone else is automating their outreach. Forty messages before lunch, and every one of them sounds like a toaster wrote it.
You can spot one in your own inbox from the first line. So can your clients.
We’re going to do it by hand. Three circles, starting with the people who already know you and working outwards. Each one gets a one-page framework that I’ll draw live, and you do the work in the room.
Your past clients
Give them a reason to come back.
We do great work, send the final invoice and move straight on to the next job. The easiest work you’ll win all year is from people who’ve already paid you once. You’ll build an offer for past clients and send it in the break. If someone says yes before we finish, we’ll read it out.
Your network
The lunch.
A few years heads-down in the work and your circle shrinks without you noticing. We’ll work out who’s worth knowing outside it, how to get in touch without it being weird, and what to actually talk about once you’re sitting across the table.
Your referral partners
Find your lighthouses.
If the referrals have slowed down, or they keep sending you the work you did five years ago, you need better lighthouses. Three or four people in neighbouring trades who sit right next to your ideal clients. We’ll find yours and work out how to bolt your services onto what they already sell. Some of them might be in the room.
Bring your laptop and your client list.
Who it’s for
Designers who run their own business. Architects, interior designers, brand and graphic designers, photographers. You’ve got clients and you’ve done good work, and you’d rather not spend summer wondering where the next project is coming from.
Especially if you’re the quiet one. Not for people starting out, or anyone after a growth hack.
You’ll leave with
- A one-page framework for each circle
- Your first offer to past clients, already sent
- A short list of people worth having lunch with
- The recording
And yes, I’ll talk about coaching near the end. It’s a few minutes. Ignore it if it’s not for you.
The details
Thursday
22 October
10:00–11:30am AEST, live on Zoom.
11am Sydney & Melbourne · 10:30am Adelaide · 8am Perth · 1pm NZ
Who’s running it
I’m Damian. I run a business from a hundred acres in the Queensland hinterland, with three kids and a lot of animals my wife does the real work on.
Before that, twenty years in the Australian creative industry. For the last nine I’ve coached designers through the commercial side of the work, mostly the bits nobody taught us at uni. I work with the Design Institute of Australia and present for them.