How to Attract Higher Paying Clients

You're not making as much money as you want because you don't know how to get it from the people who've got it. My name is Charles Postiaux. I'm a product designer that has worked with companies worth over $200 billion, and I've personally earned over $30,000 a month working solo. In this video, I'm going to explain a core shift in my understanding of how getting higher paying clients actually works, and most importantly, how you can do the same. First step is to realize that you need to design for your future clients and not for yourself. But to do that, you need to understand what kind of clients you want to work with. Now, it doesn't mean that you have to figure out a niche or be super specific with it, especially if you're just starting out and you don't really know what kind of clients or kind of works you enjoy working on. And so one of the easiest ways I found to do that is to understand what kind of projects I enjoy doing and how to get the best result for myself as a designer, but also for the clients who are paying for it. And a style of design could be the aesthetic that you decide to go with, but it could also be the format that you have. It could be mobile, desktop, websites. All of these are niching down and it's very different from what a lot of designers talk about of niching and figure out that right specific industry that you have to go into. Another way that I decide on the niche that I want is, for example, I prefer to work with B2B companies rather than B2C, for example. With experience, you will be able to also figure that out, improve and iterate over time who you're targeting, who are the best paying clients, and which projects you're actually enjoying working on. And so the first thing is to really nail down your case studies and your portfolio so that they are targeting these kind of future clients, ideal clients that you want to work with. Match your designs, match your aesthetic to that ideal client's needs. If you really want to get clients, you need to show what they want to have. If you want to work on website designs, then you need to show web design. If you want to specialize in tech landing pages, Don't show wellbeing landing pages, right? Like focus down on whatever you want to get hired for. Figure out by working harder and by exploring different paths what you're naturally good at and what you enjoy doing the most. Showing personality and who you are as a designer in your portfolio is not bad. It just needs to be packaged and targeted differently because ultimately your niche is who you are specifically, is the kind of designer, the kind of skills that you're stacking to be who you are, and that's how you also stand out and niche down. It's by being who you are and being the best version of yourself. Real quick, if you want to go deeper into improving your design skills, you want to get access to the redesign source files that I have on the YouTube channel, you want to get exclusive content and limited perks, you can become a YouTube member for just $4.99 a month. You can click on the button join right under this video next to the subscribe button. And that's it. Back to the video. And the step 2 to get higher paying clients is to show work that you actually want to work on. Sometimes you will have to work on projects that you don't enjoy doing, that are not what you like. And even to some extent where the end result is really not that good. And so a lot of designers end up defaulting into showing that kind of work because there is nothing else to show. And that's pretty much it. But I would advise you watching this to embrace the fake it until you make it, if that's your case and you don't have the right kind of projects and case studies to showcase. Because in my opinion, you don't need real projects to get clients. You need good projects. And especially if the real projects are not that good and they're not even what you want to do. Now I get it, the bad and boring projects, they're here to give you some experience to some extent. They're here to pay the bills and that's completely fine and normal. But if you want to really stand out, get the kind of projects that hype you up in the morning, then you have to make some sacrifices. You have to push yourself to do the extra work so that you get the outcome that you want. Everything has a price, and in my opinion, this is a really good price to pay. And it's so fulfilling when the work that you enjoy doing and that you show is the kind of work that clients love having, because you are naturally being driven and passionate about what they want and what they're also passionate about. And it feels effortless in some ways. That doesn't mean it's easy. Obviously there is a lot of complexity and a lot of pressure in some ways to deliver really good work, but it feels a lot more natural to you. It doesn't feel forced to create something that you don't really believe in. And by the way, this kind of relationship and trust can also be applied on projects and client relationships. It's a lot easier to sell more projects at a higher price to people who already know who you are. They love your work and you've already worked together on a project or two. It's going to be a lot easier than to sell that third projects, fourth projects, and to even increase your price. Once the trust has been built, once you've kind of proved yourself by delivering the work to them, then it's a lot easier to upsell them, to resell them, right? Every time they have a new project, they will come to you first because they already trust and know you. And so it's always easier to resell a current client than to find new clients to sell to. That's why I like to have an attraction offer or a cheaper, more productized version of whatever I'm selling. It really helps me get my foot through the door to build that trust and then to later on get multiple projects with the same clients. And so speaking of case studies, I feel like I've talked about case studies for the whole video now, but how do you structure your case studies, right? I've talked about show the work, show the work, but how do you actually structure a good case study? In my opinion, what a lot of young designers tend to do is to overwrite. They talk about the process, about how they came to that conclusion, the user interviews they did. I think you need to keep it very short in terms of text because chances are interviewers are not going to spend a long time, if any time reviewing your case studies in your portfolio, it's going to be a quick glance at what you did, the kind of visuals you've done. And like I said earlier, what matters is not how real the projects are, it's how good they are. And so if you have a good process in place, naturally the projects and the designs are going to be good as well. So don't show your process breakdown, don't show like before and after screens. Don't show like your double diamond process. Keep it short and sweet and focus on a strategic layer to it. There's also bonus points, I think, if you are able to prototype or animate your designs because they always bring more life to it. They always make it feel a lot more professional, premium, or they bring more depth than just text strings. So if you have the skills or want to learn that skill, I would really advise you to, to add that to the case studies that you have. Another thing about case studies is that you should not talk about your client. What you should do is talk to your future clients. You want leads and recruiters to read your case study and think, I want that. And that's why having an ideal client or a type of project that you really want to work on is important because, because it's like you're literally talking to them. So just a reminder, talk about like high-level ideas, big picture vision, show how the screens are connected to the goal. Keep it short. Don't write a lot. And finally, the last step. I feel like for most of you, if you're still watching this video, well, first of all, thank you very much. I appreciate it. But you're wondering, okay, I know how to make a good case study. I know that I need to have my ideal client, but where do I find those people? Where do I find those ideal clients? And that's exactly what the last step is about, how to find your ideal clients. Because you could literally do everything right. You could do everything I've just said in this video, design strategically, Have better case studies and cooler portfolio for the right type of clients that you want. But if nobody knows you exist, then it doesn't really matter. And I also want to tell you something right now. I have no idea how to help you get your ideal type of clients. What I can tell you though is how I've got my ideal type of clients, because you might be able to extract some principles out of it and get some ideas on how you could potentially find your own clients. But from what I've been able to understand and see online, every designer, every agency has their own kind of experience and advice and ways on getting leads. Clients. And so it's very unique to who you are and the kind of work that you do. So I'd rather you have the principles in place and iterate and explore whatever works best for you, because in the end, that's your own career. Only you know what kind of work you want and the kind of projects you want to work on. And so for me, what has worked the most for getting clients was just to post online. It's free. It takes very little time. Like I would just have the same kind of format or template. I would just put a new design on like a white canvas, add a drop shadow, and that's it. Now it doesn't mean it's the right way to do it, and there are multiple iterations that you could do to experiment on this, but that's what I would do. And literally just takes no time, it's free. All it takes for it to succeed is just having the right person see your design at the right time when they need it the most, and it could change your life. That's literally how I got into design. So my advice for you on this is to test out as many platforms as possible, iterate on the format. So you could do like a static shot, you could do multiple shots of the same design, you could have a mockup, you could prototype or animate the design, right? Like there's so many different ways to go about it. Iterate those formats on different platforms because now every platform has its own kind of audience and standards and ways of interacting with like posts and designs. And so they all have their own kind of ecosystem and dynamics. So what might work for one platform might not actually work for another. I would advise you to just iterate a lot until you have that clear winner in both the format that works the best and the platform that also works the best and gets you the best clients, right? It's not just about getting leads, getting clients. It's about getting the best outcome. Make yourself visible to the right people and make yourself visible as much as possible to the right people. Another option that might work, I Didn't quite like it or recommend it in the beginning, but now I kind of like it. It's platforms like Upwork, Contra. They might require more upfront work and even some, to some extent, some money, but I feel like they could still bring you some good benefits. They have almost an unlimited amount of leads and projects, which is really good to build your skills, your portfolio credentials. They handle all of the finances. They handle like safety and trust. And so in my opinion, that's a really good way to get some leads and get some experience. It doesn't mean you're going to make the most money out of it, but you could still find some good projects to work on. Now there are obviously downsides like any other ways I will tell you and I'm telling you to find clients. Like you have to pay a fee pretty much. You have to compete with everybody. You have to usually fight for the right price. So it's still not ideal, but it's not as bad as I thought it was. Another way. To get good clients and get good projects and build your case studies and skills is to partner up with agencies, design agencies, because they usually always need new designers. They always are on the lookout for good talents. The truth is that there are a lot of designers out there, but not many good designers. And so it's always difficult to find the right talents. It might be really good for you if you need like flexibility, because sometimes they might need you like once in a while. Maybe it can be part-time flexible. They might even offer you like a full-time job. So if that's something that you are into, that could be really good. Find them online, find them on like design platforms, reach out to them, share your awesome optimized portfolio and case studies and see how it goes. It's free. It takes no time after you've done all the work on the case studies and portfolio work. But like the other ones, there's also high competition. It's always a race to the bottom in some ways because obviously you compete on price. They are a business. They want to make as much money and margin as possible. It's understandable. And it's also very demanding compared to other options because it's always all the time high input output and you need to be super creative on the projects. And as you can see, all of those options have pros and cons. They have challenges and benefits. No matter what you do, you will have to compete with a lot of people. You'd have to stand out. You would have to fight on the price sometimes. And that's why the more unique in your skill sets and in your targeting you are, the easier it will be to stand out because you will have no points of reference. And also, by the way. Again, maybe you lose money or you are breakeven on like that attraction offer or that like first project that you work with them on. But as soon as you build that trust and you are connecting in some ways with the work that you've done and the proof you've shown them, the easier it is to work on more projects at higher prices. So sometimes you will have to lose money, or at least you have to say no to short-term money in order to get long-term money, which is usually a lot more. And I think it's a worthy price to pay again. But the key, no matter what, is that you need distribution. You need to have a way to get to the right kind of clients that you want to work with. It is extremely important because that's pretty much all that matters. You could have the worst possible case studies and portfolio. If the whole world knew about you, some people would still want to work with you. No matter what you choose, it will take time and efforts, and you're going to also have a lot of failures and difficulties. That's a given, and that's part of the process no matter what. And I know you hear it, you're like, yeah, cool, it's part of process, but When you are in that valley of despair and nothing is working out and you need to keep working on it because you could have the perfect offer, you could do everything right, but if the timing is not right, it's not going to happen. And that's super frustrating, but also a good reminder that even if you do the work, you are not entitled to anything and you need to have a strong routine to keep going and to stay consistent no matter what, because it could take several weeks, could take months, it could take years before something meaningful happens to you. So pick something. It doesn't matter which one you go with, just pick something, but you need to learn the game of it. You could try, for example, like for 4 to 8 weeks, you could give it a shot. You could see if there is potential there, but then you need to stick to it for 3, 6, 12, 24 months to actually see the results and the habits and routines compound and bring you closer to your goals. And to be fair, that's where most designers fail because they either try to do it all for a very short amount of time, then it doesn't work out and they stop. Or it works out and they stop because they're too busy doing the work. You need to find a sustainable way where you are able to deliver on the work, get the design projects, do them, but at the same time, keep being visible for future leads, keep posting and selling, being on calls, doing the attraction offer. Like there's still a lot of work that has to be done in the backend so that in the frontend you get the outcome and you get the work and you get the money and the higher paying clients. It's a difficult balance to get, but I think that's also the benefit of it taking so long is that this way you can optimize, refine, and simplify as much as possible the process so that once the timing is right, once you get the clients, you are still able to work consistently on finding new ones. And that's how you can kind of slowly build your way up to the top. And that's the end of the video. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe. Also, YouTube thinks you'll like this next video. So give it a try. Bye.