A junior designer DM’d me to ask if they’re still needed in the design industry. Here’s my reply to junior designers everywhere (and the design leaders who don’t hire them). 0:00 The DM 0:37 Here’s what they sent 1:36 Side doors over front doors 2:25 My first design job 5:57 It’s not your job 6:56 Two books that changed this 7:47 Quadrants of work 8:55 The stuff I’d hire for today 12:19 Who I hired first 12:53 One thing to do this month

No, I won’t check out your portfolio. Here’s why. Anytime you ask someone to do something, it’s a pitch. In a pitch, say what’s in it for the other person. What’s in it for me to check out your portfolio? Why would I spend my time, energy, and attention—all of which I value highly—on that as opposed to anywhere else? If there’s nothing in it for me, then you’re asking for charity. If you’re asking for charity, then ask for charity. Make it clear. I like doing favors sometimes and being charitable sometimes. But I can’t tell if that’s what you’re asking for, and I won’t assume it. Even if I agreed to it, you haven’t even given me any criteria. Is there something specific you want help with? Something to improve? Something you’re stuck on? Some job it’s not doing? General questions get general answers. Specific questions get specific answers. Since I don’t know what you want help with and there doesn’t seem to be much incentive for me, it’s a pass. Here are some examples of pitches I would consider more (even if I’d still say no): “Dan, would you be willing to do me a favor and review my portfolio to help me land a design job working on a U.S.-based team for a fintech startup?” “Dan, can you please review my portfolio to see if the UI design work feels closer to junior or senior caliber? I’ll make a donation to your favorite non-profit as a token of thanks.” “Dan, would you mind looking at my portfolio to see if I’m the kind of person you’d hire? I know you value your time, attention, and energy, so I’d gladly take any feedback you can provide after looking for even 30 seconds.” @odeniransulaimo, wanna pitch again? I’m open to you trying again if you’d like. But even better: pitch someone who’s in a closer position to help you get what you want. If you want a job at a sports betting startup, pitch a hiring manager at a sports betting startup to check out your portfolio. Even if they won’t hire you for THEIR startup, their feedback would be way more relevant to getting a job at a sports betting startup than my feedback would be, since I’ve never worked at a sport betting startup. In short, when you pitch, make it about them and make it as easy as possible for them to give you what you want.

It works. Try it!

Four sentences that are hurting your outreach: 👇

5-1 and a decent run at king of the court. Feeling good! Now for some Taco Bell.

Watch it on YouTube: danmall.com/go/yt-juniors-se…

Too many agency owners tried to build a business and ended up building a job. This week, we’re bringing in @vcastillo630 to show us how to do the opposite. Viv left a UX research career by writing a public letter naming the toxicity she wouldn’t stay quiet about. She built HmntyCntrd® on trauma-informed care instead of extraction, and Choose Courage Inc. shows entrepreneurs how to build businesses that pay well and feel good. Inside Make More Money this week, she’s teaching “Reimagining Business: A Map for Building an Agency That Actually Feels Good.” Her thesis is that there’s a real difference between capitalism and commerce and agency ownership done with intention can be one of the most healing paths available to you. This session is only for Quest members. If you run a design agency doing $100K+ and want in on sessions like this, comment or DM me “VIVIANNE” and I’ll tell you how to be part of sessions like this.

The most common question I get when I teach value-based pricing is: “How do I guarantee the outcome?” Who said you have to guarantee the outcome?

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You don’t have to answer questions no one is asking.

3-3 tonight. Had to break some ankles after some dude got a little too handsy.

I’m hosting a 45-minute workshop tomorrow for 6-figure agency owners on how to raise your prices by at least $10K. - High value vs. low value clients - Coming up with great options - Quantifying value It’s free. luma.com/S7OOEOEI

I spent years thinking unpredictable income was just the nature of running a design business. It’s not. Everyone wants consistent income, but few do consistent actions to get consistent income. Consistent action gets you consistent output. Inconsistent action gets you inconsistent output. The consistent action you have to put in to get consistent income is outreach. Send 5 outreach messages every day. You will have consistent income in 1 year, if not sooner. Almost no one does this. Most quit after a few weeks. The reason no one does outreach is because you didn’t need to before. For the last few decades, demand has been so much greater than supply that you could run an amazing agency just on luck. Clients would find their way to you. That is no longer true. Doing good work isn’t enough, because so many more people do good work than in 2017. There’s so much great work out there. Clients have their pick. So good work doesn’t stand out in the way that it used to. You have to find a different way to stand out. Right now, that way is to get into their inbox, regularly, with better things to offer them than they can find elsewhere. (That‘s always been the way; we just haven’t needed to resort to it as much as we do right now.) Save clients the time and headache of shopping around, and go to them with something amazing. Don’t let your pride get in the way of having a lucrative and fulfilling design business. If you want predictable income, go do the actions that allow you to predict it.

The easiest way to get a new client is through direct outreach. Most people suck at it. Allow me to help: Your outreach should do two things: 1️⃣ Help them trust you more. People only buy when they trust you and/or your offer enough. The two best ways I’ve seen to earn more trust are to give them something for free that they would have gladly paid for and to send them proof of how you’ve helped lots of people just like them. 2️⃣ Ask for something directly. Not “can we have a call” but “can I make a new website for you?” Most people are afraid of hearing “no” so they don’t ask a direct question. But you can’t get a “yes” if you don’t create the possibility of hearing “no.” It’s simple but it’s not easy. Most people get the concept but don’t get the implementation right. So, I’m making a free video to help you with your outreach so you can land more clients. I’ll share my top tips and give you examples and scripts that you can use depending on who you’re talking to. I also want to add a section where I do some teardowns of real outreach messages and show you how I’d improve them. Here’s where you come in: Can you send me an existing outreach message that I can use as an example? Maybe it’s one that you thought for sure would work, but you got a “no” or got ghosted. You can send me the text and/or a screenshot, and I can even blur out the specific details and show it anonymously if you’d like. Submit your example here: forms.gle/rzNaVwD6qd18xoDz9 What questions do you have about outreach that I can answer for you?

My impressions for LinkedIn and X are up by 887% and 1000% respectively. Engagement is up 239% and 2000%. Here’s what I changed: 1️⃣ I stopped using AI to write my posts I never tried to one shot a post or directly posted a first draft. My typical process looked something like this: I would have a post idea and maybe a few disconnected thoughts drafted. I’d ramble to Claude for a few minutes about the post content, what I think the hook was, and what I think main takeaway for the reader would be. I might even talk about a few stories, examples, or anecdotes I thought might be worth including. Claude would draft it using a few post writing skills I either installed or made. Then I’d go back and forth with Claude for 4×–10× for everything from sharpening ideas that I thought were too dull or cliche to line editing sentences and words that didn’t quite capture the idea well enough. Then I’d post. The other process I used was to draft something myself if I had a strong enough idea and then ask Claude to tighten it up and/or proofread it. Then I’d post the output. I stopped doing all of that. In the last 2 weeks where my engagement was higher than typical, I’ve drafted my thoughts in either Notion or Obsidian where I typically write. I did a proofreading pass or two, then I post. The most I’ve had AI do is help me find research that supports or refutes what I’m writing about. 2️⃣ I posted more videos than usual The videos I posted aren’t even the top performing content, but I’m mentioning it here because it’s one of the biggest changes I’ve made with my content in the last 2 weeks. What I don’t know is what‘s changed in the algorithms within the last few weeks that might have caused impressions and engagements to go up without any of the changes on my end. I have noticed that some people I follow have also gotten way more impressions than I’ve typically seen them get, and it doesn’t look to me like they’ve changed much in terms of the content they post. So, this all may be correlation with no causation, but I’m sharing it in case it helps anyone.

This was a rough week in business. For the last 3 months, I’ve been beta testing a new offer with half a dozen people. All of them seemed to love it. “There’s something there that is really attractive,” one person said. “I’m excited about this,” said another. Last week, I sent them the terms to continue: the price, what I expected of them, and what I promised to do with and for them to make it worthwhile. Yesterday was the deadline to get back to me. All of them said no. Too busy. Already committed elsewhere. Not in the budget. I was mad. At them. This wasn’t valuable enough to pay for but it was valuable enough to waste the time and energy I put into doing this for them when it was free? HOW 👏 DARE 👏 THEY 👏 It brought back every memory of people who took advantage of me when I tired to help them… people who took more than they gave. I slept on it. I was still mad when I woke up. But I wasn’t mad at them. I remembered that they are all kind, talented, amazing, warm people, which is why I wanted to do something with and for them in the first place. I was mad at me. That I didn’t come up with something better. That I didn’t see it coming. That I probably could have given more, but I didn’t. That I failed so horribly. People vote with their dollars, and theirs said no. These are the kinds of days I dream of having a job instead of a business. To do one specific job instead of all of them. The chance to fail and flop and still get paid. To not have the pressure that, if it flops, it’s squarely your fault. But I’ll do it again. I’m figuring out the next thing, starting with what else I can do to help the people I love helping. I’m not out of ideas yet. Not even close. I’m licking my wounds, getting back on the horse, and trying not to mix too many more metaphors. Back to the grind.