Process That Gets You Hired: Discovery Meeting and Emails
Lesson 16 from: Make Things Make Money: The Business of Illustration and LetteringDina Rodriguez
Process That Gets You Hired: Discovery Meeting and Emails
Lesson 16 from: Make Things Make Money: The Business of Illustration and LetteringDina Rodriguez
Lesson Info
16. Process That Gets You Hired: Discovery Meeting and Emails
Lessons
Class Introduction
15:10 2Moving Beyond Trials and Tribulations
06:41 3Hone Your Craft
05:41 4From Practicing to Posting
06:34 5Post Your Work To Get Noticed
14:54 6Q&A
13:36 7Choose a Niche
12:26 8Choosing Your Demographic
16:003 Rules of Web Design for Artists
09:59 10Build Your Site to Attract Clients: About Me Page
09:18 11Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Portfolio Page
05:57 12Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Contact Page
06:07 13Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Blog Page
07:38 14Build Your Site to Attract Clients: Home Page
11:43 15Process That Gets You Hired: Client Questionnaire
06:49 16Process That Gets You Hired: Discovery Meeting and Emails
05:06 17Process That Gets You Hired: Quote, Proposal and Plan
06:45 18Production Process: Case Studies
05:10 19Production Process: Art Direction
03:08 20Production Process: Create and Revise
06:17 21Production Process: Presentation
06:32 22Value Based Pricing
14:26 23Up-Selling and Packages
18:38 24Level Up Your Income
08:14 25Making Digital Products
04:07 26Making Tangible Products
14:52 27How to License
15:17 28Licensing Q&A
14:42 29Planning For the Future To Increase Revenue
10:29Lesson Info
Process That Gets You Hired: Discovery Meeting and Emails
What's next? Okay, we have the questionnaire, now guess what, you have to ask even more questions. And I actually have, this is a real life email. That I sent to a really awesome company, called Portland Supper, oops I messed it up, Brooklyn Supper, don't hurt me! All hipster cities sound the same anyways. So she has Brooklyn Supper which is an amazing seasonal food blog and she gives recipes, amazing food photography showing women and people how to cook healthy recipes that taste and look fabulous, right? So she filled up my questionnaire, I go ahead and I email her, asking even more questions. Cause I'm making it easier for me to solve their problems by getting as much information as possible up front. Cause then remember, you are their professionals, if there is a mistake made, it's your fault. So you want to prevent making those mistakes by making sure you have all the content you possibly can even think of. So, look at this email, Hey Elizabeth, thank you so much for considering m...
e for your project. In taking the time to so thoughtfully fill out my questionnaire, every opportunity that a client connects with you, you should be thanking them. They could've easily just not contacted you, not looked at your website, you feel blessed! You're getting a possible work inquiry, you need to make them feel like you're grateful for the opportunity. And I'm talking, I really love the samples you added. Because in my questionnaire, I like to get, if you have an idea of style, I want to see the samples that you're attracted to. And I go specific to, especially the portfolio of Carson Elis, right, this proves this isn't no copy-and-paste template email, I'm talking directly to you. I'm not only invested in your project, but I also really dig your style, and if I dig your style that means that I can recreate it, and we can profit from it, right. I take it a step further, hey, since you gave me your website, I got a chance to look at it. I reviewed your website, and I was seriously impressed by all the beautiful food photography and recipes, and I go even more personal to say, I'm totally gonna make the cinnamon orange french toast this weekend! Cause it looked freakin' amazing first of all. So now it's like, hey, I really like your product and service, and I love working with fellow passionate entrepreneurs, so I'm really excited, and you can tell that even in just these two line sentences, right. And then I go, hey, I'm really interested in working with you and I would love to learn more about you, your project and business, I just have a few questions. Doesn't that seem like, hey you're excited to talk about yourself, because what woman doesn't, I mean, let's be honest, right. And also, you're excited about your project. You love making food, she loves making recipes, and I'm excited that she loves that, and I wanna learn more about it so I can better execute her logo, this is a logo design project. And I asked even more questions like, hey you're rebranding, I didn't have any rebrand questions in my previous questionnaire, that was mostly for new brands, so I go, what did you not like about your last logo, what did you like about it? Trying to figure out what went wrong there, why are we having to go back and do this process over again. Are there any specific colors? What makes your business stand out among your competitors? What does success look like for this project? Right, these are all really helpful questions, and so notice, not only am I learning about the project, but I'm learning more about the person behind the business, and their business structure. Cause this whole point, is you wanna make a connection with your client, cause once you make a connection it feels really bad to break it. Have you ever been in a situation where a salesperson was so good, you felt bad for saying no? Yeah, whether it was a puppy salesman and they were trying to sell you a dog, I use that example because that was my first job. (laughs) Or this girl just told you that your butt looks amazing in those jeans, right, but you don't have the money and you're just like, but you're right. Right, you want to buy those jeans! It's the same thing here, once you like me, I'm making it harder for you to say no to me, cause again, who would you rather work with, someone you respect, admire, and you like their skills, or all of the above and I actually like you as a person. Right, so take the opportunity to get to know your clients. Even better if this process is via video chat, right? Or phone, cause it's really hard to hang up on someone, but it's really easy to delete an email. Okay, so what else do we have? Notice we're not talking about money yet. The only time you should be showcasing the amount of money you want for this job is in the proposal phase. We're still not talking about it because I still don't have all the information yet. You don't wanna tell them prices until you have the proper time to go over everything you've talked about. So let's say you did have a video chat, or you did have a phone conversation. You're getting information, you might, in the conversation, and they'll be like, well what's the price, don't just be like, uhhhhh let me just throw out, and word-vomit a number, noooo! You have to go ahead and be like, hey, there's a lot to go over, I've actually written down notes, which you should, any meeting you have, I'm gonna review all this and then come back with an estimate, does that sound good to you? Oh, I can even get that to you by Monday morning, is that soon enough? Oh, great yeah great, no one's gonna be like I want answer right now!
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Laurie
Wow! This class was fantastic! Dina did a great job at providing relevant information that I can use right away. I was particularly impressed at how she was able to explain licensing and royalties, she really broke it down into easy to understand pieces. I think this course would be a great foundation for any artist/freelancer but I liked the focus on lettering and illustration. Creative Live must convince Dina to provide more classes!
Elizabeth Matzen
This class is full of excellent information, and Dina did a great job covering everything from building a webpage to working with clients. She has a engaging delivery style, presented the information in a succinct and well-organized manner, and the pace of the course was perfect - not too slow! I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to start or boost their creative business - great info!
Sharnika Blacker
Awesome class! Inspired and excited to improve my business with the processes and knowledge gained. Thank you Dina!!