What’s inside The Ultimate Freelance Course?

Course 01: Preparing for Full-time Freelance

In this course, I walk you through the things I wish I would have known when I started freelancing in 2002. Fortunately, I made more right decisions than wrong and my freelance business exploded into an Inc. 5000 agency. The lessons in this course include strategies to help you prepare for self employment including mindset preparation, financial preparation, and marketing preparation. This course also includes a lesson that contains some of the foundational principles that were at the heart of my success as a creative entrepreneur.

• More than 1 hour of video content
• 6 video lessons
• 3 downloadable resources
• How to have the right mindset for success as a freelancer
• Calculations and strategies to help you prepare financially
• Marketing preparation, including the materials you need to start selling your services
• Fundamental principles that were instrumental to the growth of my freelance biz and agency

View Course 01 Curriculum

Course 02: Selling Creative Services

This course is a deep dive into sales, a challenge for so many creatives. If you can’t sell, you will not succeed as a creative entrepreneur. Through more than 10+ hours of comprehensive video lessons, I will share with you the techniques I used to grow my agency, yielding $30,000,000+ in revenue over 15 years and effectively closing more than 2,000 projects for high-profile clients including Disney, Google, ABC, NBC, Fox, Warner Bros., Pepsi, YouTube and many others.

• More than 10+ hours of video lessons
• 49 lessons
• 17 downloadable templates, worksheets, and tools
• Comprehensive strategies to help you choose a niche
• Downloadable worksheets to you define your market position
• Worksheets and formulas that will help you write your marketing messages
• Fundamental sales principles explained in detail
• Scripts and example conversations you can start using with your potential clients
• Worksheets and strategies to help you vet clients
• Downloadable capabilities deck templates that you can edit to effectively pitch your services to potential clients
• Downloadable spreadsheets and strategies that will help you track your sales efforts, identify problems, and rectify them
• Downloadable discovery meeting questionnaires for many different types of projects
• This course will change the way you view sales and give you strategies to sell in a “non-sleazy” way

View Course 02 Curriculum

Course 03: Proposals & Contracts

I believe my proposal and contract strategy to be the most thorough and bulletproof in the creative industry. Every contractual lesson I learned from experimenting through thousands of client pitches and 15 years of agency grind is now available in this course. I’ve included pre-written proposal templates to help you sell more effectively and pre-written contracts to help you control the client engagement. With my proposal and contract strategy everybody wins. The client will know exactly what you will do for them. You will know exactly how to execute and get paid for your work. These are the proposals and contracts I used to execute on projects for a client list that included Disney, Google, ABC, NBC, Fox, Warner Bros., National Geographic, and many other amazing brands.

• More than 8+ hours of video lessons
• 28 detailed lessons explaining every proposal and contract clause
• 16 downloadable proposal and contract templates (templates are in Adobe InDesign format and PDF)
• Example presentations you can model for your clients sales meetings
• Downloadable spreadsheets and strategies to help you track your proposals and better understand your creative business
• Downloadable proposal templates for many types of projects – easy to edit and easy to use
• Downloadable contract templates (statements of work) that you can easily edit to contract your clients more effectively
• Legal terms for your contracts with clear explanations of each clause
• Downloadable change order templates (addendums) and crystal clear instructions of how, and when, to use them
• Downloadable simple proposal template with explanations of how to use it
• Downloadable rough estimate and how to use it in your business
• A solid contract is the best way to ensure a happy client, this course will change your business

View Course 03 Curriculum

Course 04: Pricing Creative Services

If you’ve ready my book, The Psychology of Graphic Design Pricing, you will know my pricing methodology. But you’ve never heard it explained like this. In this detailed pricing course, I take you step by step through my process to help you understand your numbers, price your work with confidence, and close better deals for more profit. This course goes into more detail than my book and also includes my “Price Master System” which you can use to improve the profitability of your creative business. (If you’ve read my book already, this course goes deeper. If my book isn’t available in your area or language, this course will dramatically change the way you price your work and improve your profitability.)

• More than 7+ hours of video lessons
• 31 video lessons
• 8 downloadable resources
• Thorough explanations of pricing presentation strategies including price anchoring, price bracketing, pricing design strategies, price rounding and more
• Comprehensive formulas and calculations to help you understand your numbers
• Downloadable worksheets that will empower you to calculate your pricing and choose a final price that your clients will approve
• Downloadable spreadsheets that automatically calculate your hourly production costs based upon the actual costs of your business
• Downloadable spreadsheets for my “Price Master System” which you can use price your projects with confidence

View Course 04 Curriculum

Course 05: Project Management for Creatives

In this course I share the production systems and strategies that resulted in hundreds of happy clients and countless referrals. I used these strategies to execute on projects of Disney, Google, Fox, FX Networks, Netflix, ABC, NBC, and tons of other great brands. Repeat customers and referrals are the key to growing your creative business. I’ll show you how to deliver top-notch client experiences and execute on projects in a way that minimizes stress.

• More than 7+ hours of video lessons
• 38 video lessons
• 13 downloadable templates and tools
• Project management strategies and structures for a variety of sized creative businesses
• Turnkey and downloadable checklist processes to guide you in the execution of identity projects, print projects, and website projects
• Downloadable template to guide you in the creation of systems for the services you provide in your creative business
• Downloadable critique checklist to help you improve your eye for detail and increase the quality of your work
• Turnkey systems to improve your ability to do competitive, audience, and design research
• Communication strategies and prewritten messages you can begin using today to help you provide an excellent customer experience
• Downloadable presentation templates for identity, print, and website projects
• Post mortem strategies and templates to help you close out projects effectively, receive future work from your clients, and ask for client testimonials
• This systematic and turnkey course will help you immediately begin producing work like a top-tier creative veteran

View Course 05 Curriculum

Course 06: Managing a Creative Business

I grew my agency from solo-freelancer to a full-time staff of 20 creatives. In 2015, I sold my agency and continued to act as a partner of our combined agency where we had a staff of 70+. I understand all phases of agency growth and the strategies to manage your creative business at each phase. This course delivers fundamental business principles that will help you manage your business profitably and stress free! (Well, at least with as little stress as possible in the creative industry.) I will give you the tools you need to understand your business from financial management to expanding your team size. You will learn how to track the right data and use that data to make smart business decisions. I attained financial freedom by the age of 40. This course delivers the strategies I used to achieve that dream.

• 5+ hours of video lesson with in-depth and actionable instruction
• 23 lessons
• 10 downloadable resources
• Downloadable spreadsheets that empower you to track the right data points for your business and teach how to understand them
• Financial management instruction to teach how to understand your finances, when and how to reinvest into the future of your business, organize your banking, invoice and collect money from clients, and manage your cashflow
• Actionable advice how to grow your creative business including when and how to hire, when and how to fire or lay people off
• Downloadable employment offer letter and employment agreement templates
• Downloadable termination and layoff letter templates
• Actionable guidance about how and when to expand into studio space and grow your agency