It didn’t work.

I tried to trick you yesterday.

I wanted to prove a point that collaborating with AI can generate better results than doing something creative on your own. So yesterday’s essay was directed by me and written by ChatGPT.

The results?
It performed two times worse than all my previous essays according to analytics.
Now I feel bad about it and I really want to prove that point.
So here is the new challenge.

Produce an essay that performs two times better than any of my previous ones by creatively collaborating with AI.

Here is the gameplan:

Don't ask it to write it from top to bottom.
Instead, collaborate on each piece separately.

• Topic
• Headline
• Phrasing
• Tone of voice
• Overall mood
• Personal story choice

Then use the best pieces to assemble my Frankenstein essay.
Therefore at the end of the experiment, I can assemble one master prompt that can create essays that feel personal with a strong point of view and feel like I wrote it.

But if it didn't work I'll blame it on AI so no one is hurt.
Let's see how that human-robot collab goes.

UX design services became a commodity.

It wasn't that obvious at first, but now, looking back, the signs were all over.

I caught a brief sliver of time when UX was all the rage. There were enough people doing it. So you can say almost any price as a UX consultant, and if the client has the budget, they will gladly pay. And when anyone questions your work, you can always say, "Because of UX." Everyone just went along with it.

Then slowly but surely, things started to change.

Every day, new online UX schools and bootcamps started to pop up. People proudly started sharing on LinkedIn their newly earned JPG, saying that they are now certified UX professionals.

Now, about 747,000 results show up when you search "UX designer."

I started to lose projects because of my price.

Founders didn't seem to care about past experience or results. Sometimes, I could even sense some sort of distaste when I started talking about the UX process and all the things we need to do before we start coding.
They saw it as a waste of time.

The market was definitely shifting. It was time for a change.

I was hoping to find my next thing.

I decided to bet on myself and pour a lot of my savings into online learning.

Design sprint, product strategy, brand strategy, business design, CRO, and marketing.

One thing that was clear months later.

All that jargon was only impressing my peers, and no founders cared about fancy-named methods and processes. All they cared about were results.
So what I needed to do was sell them results.

I still use all the UX skills I learned when I started. Now I just don't sell them separately as a grocery list.

Because when someone wants to lose weight, you don't try to sell them kale, cucumber, and tomatoes. You sell them a 30-day plan to get back into their old jeans.

Always sell the outcome of what you do, never the skills, processes, and methods.
Methods come and go. But people always buy results. And your skills are not going to be out of fashion as long as they deliver on your promise.

100 Sketches!

That's how many we had to do per day.

No one managed to complete 100 sketches daily during art school practice.

My personal best was 34.

I put in a lot of effort and added intricate details. I felt proud of my work.
However, the teacher was not impressed.

On one occasion, one of my classmates arrived with over 80 sketches.

Most of them were unfinished, making it hard to recognize the objects they represented.

I couldn't help but think, "What a waste of paper."

Surprisingly, the teacher was ecstatic.

"That's what sketching is all about, take note, everyone!" he exclaimed.
I didn't quite grasp it then, and I didn't ask for clarification.

Later that same year, I purchased my first canvas and some oil paint. It stretched my budget, and I felt pressure to create exceptional artwork. So, what did I do?

I ended up producing nearly 100 sketches.

I explore all types of composition.
Did multiple poses of each figure.
Hands are the hardest to draw.
I sketched so many hands.
Multiple background.

Now, I get it!

A sketch is not an artwork that requires extensive labor. It serves as a visual tool to consider all the possibilities, allowing you to select the best option for your canvas.

And that's where AI comes in.

People often talk about how AI will replace this or that, claiming you can generate things in no time. However, I believe they miss the point.

No self-respecting professional would create a piece of work with AI and ship it as is.

What all self-respecting professionals should do is learn how to create 100 sketches with AI. Explore all the variables in their work and assemble their masterpiece from the best options. Sketching with AI could mean generating 20 headlines, 30 images, 40 music samples, 50 animations, 60 Excel tables, 70 automation workflows, and more...

You get the idea.

That's what AI is truly useful for - sketching!

So, learn to sketch with AI.

Crap!
I know this look.

They stopped listening.

Now they are waiting for me to finish talking.

This has happened to me before. And I’ve seen it happening to other people as well.

The moment you start talking about human-centred design to non-designers you see in their eyes how their soul dies. Dies from boredom.

Design with people’s needs at the forefront.
It’s a widely accepted standard.

It’s on the landing pages of design agencies.
It’s in the curriculum of design education.
It’s in the job posts of top companies.

This has to be legit.
This has to be the right way to design products.
Right!?

Then why when it’s time for a critical decision

1) Founders will choose profit over human needs
2) Designers will gladly skip all best practices
3) And anyone else will go along with it

There is something clearly broken here. We say one thing and do another.

As humans however sophisticated we will always choose to secure resources over anything else. It’s in our nature. Look at the base of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

As the makers we sometimes forget that we are the same flawed humans as the ones we design for. And to do a good job for them we need to take care of ourselves first.

Otherwise, we pretend that we play in God mode and sooner or later reality catches on and we realise it’s all about money after all.

So, we need a new thing.

Maybe it’s just a small step before what we usually do.
Or maybe it’s an entirely new approach altogether.

But we need some sort of practice that exposes and keeps top of mind the real constraints and incentive structure of the environment where we design for others.

So we don’t waste time with ‘best practices’ that no one really cares about and design for reality, not just the best-case scenario.

Anyone you with me?

How should we call this? ideas?
Reality-centred design?
Cynical design 😅

It’s day 30. I didn't break the chain.

Here are the results.

Day #1

My only goal was to not break the chain and write for 30 days straight. For this to work I had to let go of the longer article format I'm used to. So I did short articles. I had to be fine with pushing writing I'm not entirely happy with.

I had an excuse - I'm doing a challenge.

Day #7

I wrote my most popular article from all 30.

Title: $1M/Year one-man design agency. 2k views on Medium with few comments and a bunch of "Save to list".

Day #10 

I got an invitation to submit one of my Web3 to a Medium design publication.

I did. They didn't publish it for some reason. I guess it was too short and surface level.

Day #12 

I got a writing gig offer.

It was based on two of my Web3 articles. They asked me to add some detail and images and that they would pay me $150 per article.

This was super flattering and I might take on their offer in the future.

Day #19 

I got an invitation to submit my most popular article (from Day 7) to a Medium publication about startups. I didn't. I don't have a good reason. It was a flattering compliment anyway.

Day #30

My Medium following grow from 1.7 to 1.9 in the past 30 days. I get around 20-30 notifications per day. Mainly people saving some of these 30 articles. This for me is a signal that people find something valuable from it.

This will keep me going.

Takeaways

Here is what was the most useful for me to be able to do the full 30-days:

Having constraints - short articles.

Using the content idea generation framework of Ship-30.

Using templates for headlines, articles and openers.

Use Grammarly, HemingwayApp and Fluent Express in combo for grammar and proofreading. This is probably the biggest help as a borderline dyslexic non-native English speaker.

What's next

Hopefully more of this.

I might move all the articles to my own blog - people can sort by topic and find what they looking for more easily. I might go back and expand on some of the short articles people have expressed interest in.

If you have any questions or you want me to write about a topic, share them in the comments. I might write on that next.

In 2017, I was coming out from a massive burnout.

I was spending most of my money on alternative treatments. My daughter was still a baby. I had to find a new project soon or get a full-time job. I had promised myself that I would not get a full-time job until my bank account hit $0.

I start reaching out to old colleagues. And I got a meeting.

After going through this miserable year, I kinda didn't care whether I got this project or took a full-time job. I doubled my price and I said that I would work from home and visit for meetings.

They said, YES. I could not believe this was happening.

Here are 3 lessons from this project.

#1 Unpopular companies have budgets

The software they are building was super niche. Not sexy. And profitable.

There is this fetish among UI/UX designers to work for companies that are popular. I get it. You get some bragging rights and instant credibility for the next job. But for some reason, I don't care for that. The working vibe of the founders and the team was super chill with no pretences.

I would rather have that than the pressure of popularity.

#2 Higher pay = more trust

No micro-managing. You set the rules for how design is done in the project.

You might think the opposite. If they pay you more, they make sure they get their money's worth by keeping you busy. But no. I got plenty of time to research and explore solutions. I got involved with the founders with their business strategy and shaping the future product.

This project left me with no tolerance for clients that sit on the shared screen with you and tell you to move this to the left and make it bigger.

#3 Do a retainer contract

This was not a quick project. The scope was massive, and there was no way I could give a fixed project.

In this case, structuring the engagement as a retained contract makes the most sense. A retainer is basically a monthly salary. The plus for you is you get recurring revenue for months. If you have time, you can work on other projects as well. You run the process as an outside consultant. The plus for your client is that they don't pay health insurance and when the work is done the contract is discontinued.

As a solo UI/UX designer, I have found that retainer contracts are one of the keys to building a sustainable income.

Bottom line. Charge more. It's better for you and your clients.

Being a senior professional sounds like you know what you are doing.

But it’s not always the case.

The only thing that being senior indicates is the years you’ve done the same job. They are still things I get wrong and I like to improve on.

Here is a list. Let’s keep it short so I don’t appear too incompetent.

#1 Let the client lead

I’m the professional. I’m the person that should lead the design process.

I sometimes forget that. Get enchanted by the idea and we end up in a 2-hour brainstorming call that leads to nowhere. Instead, I need to show the way of doing things step-by-step. Creating a backlog where we capture random ideas that we might or might not do in the future.

Only if I cannot forget that next time I get in front of an exciting new idea.

#2 Go template-less

If you are following the same process, why not use templates for everything?

If you know what you are doing, you are following the same process. And I have a collection of templates that I have collected or created over the years. And every time I pick and choose, I modify them or create a new structure on the fly. Templates for marketing material, sales calls, client onboarding, collecting insights, user interviews and design review. You name it—could be a template for that.

There is no good reason why not.

#3 Accepting inessential work

I can do good quality brand identity work. But should I?

If I’m hired to design a software product, why do I keep saying ‘yes’ when they ask me, "can you do the logo as well?" I know. It’s a fun job. But if you say yes too early to too many inessential product tasks, you lose. You lose credibility. You are seen as the guy that can make your ugly slide deck look slick. And before you know it, you have one more job as a personal assistant to someone.

No thanks.

I still think about the templates. I might do something about that. I just did a quick search and I don’t see a good solution out there.

The Indie UI/UX Designer Essentials For Creating a Sustainable Business

To create a sustainable business as an indie UI/UX designer, you are going to need more than just design skills.

What do I mean when I say "indie"?

An indie UI/UX designer is a designer that wants to control their time. It's one who doesn't want to be an employee or have employees. They want to be more than a freelancer—selling their time for money. They don't have aspirations to be the boss of anyone. They want to pick out what they work on and with whom. Be financially secured. And have the option to not work every day from 9 to 5.

I am kinda describing my own desired future state. And I'm working on it. Here are a few essentials that I have noticed are needed in order to succeed.

#1 Niche Expertise

This is your springboard to freedom.

You need to be more than a generalist UI/UX designer in order to get hired and build a financial cushion. You consult and do hands-on design work for clients. Get employed for a few years if you have to, with the ultimate goal to go out on your own at some point.

In the meantime, you build your skillset needed as an indie UI/UX designer.

#2 Audience

This could be your client niche, your design peers or newbie designers that look up to you.

To reach them, you need to pick and master a medium: writing, podcasting, video. You need to pick a channel through which you're going to reach them. This is the place where they already hang out online: Social media, communities, publications. You need to show up and help them on a consistent schedule.

If you do a good job, they can become your customer.

#3 Digital Product

This is the way you scale trading your time for money.

You create a digital product that solves your audience's problem. This could be a template, e-book, online course, audiobook, community, cheat sheet, productized service or a no-code app. You package your expertise and sell it as a product.

The goal is to gradually shift the scale from service to product.

Moving from a perpetual employee to freedom as an indie UI/UX designer.

To have a fulfilling design career, you need to know all your options.

In my 15+ years of a design career, I've tested most of these options in some form or another or at least researched and considered them.

I hope this list helps you make the right choice for this moment in time. Heads up: these descriptions are completely biased and formed based on my own experience.

In no particular order, let's dive in.

Product company

You work on a single product or ecosystem of products. Most likely in a team of designers.

Pros: The company values design. It's a great portfolio piece. Top range salary

Cons: Pressure to perform, you work with a lot of people. You lose the sense of direct impact to the business or customer. Take part in meaningless corp initiatives.

Niche consultant

You specialise in an industry or a problem and you get hired by companies on project bases or on a retainer contract.

Pros: Freedom to choose your projects. You can earn more than the top range salary. Instant credibility in the form of clients.

Cons: You have to do your own marketing and sales; if you are bad at the first two, you get unpredictable income. You might get bored with the niche.

Design agency

You work on multiple projects in different industries on more marketing focus projects.

Pros: A variety of projects. Agency values design. An opportunity for experimental and creative work.

Cons: Jumping between projects on a daily basis. Mid-range salary. Short deadlines create a tense working vibe. The main focus is on how to make something look cool and sell more.

Entrepreneur

You create service or product companies and you hire people to help you.

Pros: You can make a lot of money. You get control of your time and choose what to work on. You delegate the work you don't like to do.

Cons: There is a big risk of you spending all your money and not creating the business you incision. Often the first ten years are grand and burnout is very common.

Solopreneur

You do consulting and create a portfolio of small product businesses that you run yourself with help of automation.

Pros: You tailor your business to the lifestyle you want. You have the potential to earn significantly more than a salary. Your income is not tied to the time you work. You are not dependent on your boss or employees.

Cons: Could take five to ten years before you can replace your salary. Could be lonely. You do everything. You need to learn automation and other tools that do some of the boring work.

Freelancer

You work for people or companies and you charge per hour or per project.

Pros: You pick your projects. You have midday naps. If you are good, you can make more than a top-range salary.

Cons: It's difficult to differentiate from the rest of the freelancers. You have to do your own marketing and sales; if you are bad at it, you get unpredictable income. Could be lonely.

Dev shop

You design custom software for a variety of customers and niches.

Pros: The working vibe is chill. You are the person that sets the design standards in the company. The work is not challenging.

Cons: Forced corporate culture. Could be boring. The company does not care about design much. Not a lot of portfolio-worthy projects.

Big Corp

You work on a software team in a big company that has different core business and design software; it's not their main capability.

Pros: The salary is good. The working vibe is chill. You are the person that sets the design standards for the team. The work is not challenging.

Cons: No opportunity for growth as a designer. Could be boring. The company does not care about design much. Not a lot of portfolio-worthy projects.

As creatives, we like novelty, so mixing and matching are completely fine.

You can switch over time or do multiple options at the same time.

Let's talk about bad clients and how to spot them.

In my 15+ years of career as a UI/UX designer, I've worked with all kinds of people. I have to say that most people are good people with good intentions. But even among those good people, there are a lot of bad clients.

Here are three toxic trades that can poison the client relationship that you can spot early in the engagement:

#1 No Goals

It's obvious they don't know what they need and don't have a goal.

This can lead to endless iterations. Clients with shiny object syndrome jump from one thing to the next. They often don't make a distinction between the tactics and the goal. They often share conflicting information. For example, they might tell you about their grandiose app ideas with 20 features and then ask you to give them a price for 5 screens max.

If you spot that – run!

#2 No Timeline

They don't have even a rough timeline.

This means this could drag in time indefinitely. Potentially slow feedback cycle. No timeline means no conscience in whatever you are doing, ending up with resentment on both sides and a project you can't use for your portfolio.

This type of client often says, "You can take your time, we can work on it as long as it takes."

If you spot that - run!

#3 No Money

They avoid budget questions or asking you for a price too early.

In these cases, they already know they don’t have the budget and are looking to bargain with you. Sorry, those are the worst clients. As I said before, good people but bad clients. They often want to pay you in exposure or they have a next project coming up with a bigger budget, "We just need to do this one first."

If you spot that - run!

So how do you run from bad clients?

First, always be polite. I don’t even have to say that. But just in case. You can use language like this, "Based on what you've said so far, it seems to me that we might not be a good fit." And make a suggestion of what you think they should do instead of hiring you. If they ask why you can always voice your concerns.

Make sure they don't change your mind with an empty promise.

Half a million pounds for branding and app design?!

Last year I saw such a proposal for the first time. And the client seriously considered it. They just didn't have the money, so they had to look for a different provider. After seeing half a million pounds of design proposal everything looks cheap after that.

But how can some people charge that much for design?

There are three main methods by which you can price design.

#1 Price Inputs

Your time spend is multiplied by your hourly rate plus expenses.

I guess this sounds familiar. It is what most of us do. You make a time estimate of how much time it might take. You give this to the clients with the agreement that you will give them a monthly time-spend report and you will charge them this way until you finish the project or they fire you.

In this case, all the risk goes to the client's shoulders.

#2 Price Outputs

Your time spend is multiplied by your hourly rate plus expenses plus buffer.

The buffer could be 20, 30, 50 and sometimes more than 100% in addition to the time and materials price. This is your profit or your safety net in case something goes wrong. Your promise to the client here is that you are going to deliver a finished product at that fixed price no matter what.

Here the risk is split but in return, the client gets a price certainty that they can plan for and you get a bigger profit if you play your cards right.

#3 Price Value

Your price is a percentage of the client's desired future state—a $2M increase in profit.

If the clients will potentially make an extra $2M in profit in the first year of realising this new app you design for them, $200K seems quite a reasonable price all of a sudden. To be honest I haven’t seen such contracts yet but for all I know, people make them. In this case, contracts are structured such that if you miss the mark, you get paid to cover your time and materials. In some cases, you don't get paid at all. It's all a matter of negotiations.

So next time your clients ask for guarantees and you know what you are doing, this is the way to go.

Guess which of the three pricing methods was used in the half-a-million-pounds proposal that I mentioned at the beginning? Nope, it wasn’t #3.

"Obviously, you are an expert at this."

This is what a potential client told me in the first 15 minutes of our initial conversation. I have noticed in my 15+ year design career that if you do some subtle little things, clients instantly see you as an expert.

Here are my top 3:

#1 Talking money

Addressing money upfront.

Don't put it off 'till the end of the conversation. Go in with numbers in mind. The number for a minimum level of engagement aka the lowest number you are willing to work for. Know the approximate time frame of different price points and also deliverables. Make sure you can say a big number and shut up until you hear a reaction. And don't be quick to backtrack. Ask questions with the intent of trying to understand what the client values.

Talking money means you understand business.

#2 Diagnosing without prescribing

Asking specific questions that give you information that will help your client make a better decision.

The quality of your questions shows your expertise. Come prepared with at least 3 of those. Never jump to prescribing solutions too quickly. Solutions should come from research. And, yes, first client conversations are also part of the research - but never all of it.

Take your time to understand the challenge.

#3 Don't do it all

Specialise exceptionally well in one thing. That's why they are hired.

I know that you are talented and you can do the illustrations and the logo design too. But this turns you from a brain surgeon into a general practitioner. So, focus on one thing and downplay the rest. Get hired, win their trust with your core skill and upsell the rest later.

Be a brain surgeon, not a GP.

About 390,000 results.

This is the number of results you get when you search "UI/UX designer" on LinkedIn.

Niching down is not optional anymore.

Most people start broad and that's okay. You have to explore, learn the tools, see what you like and what you don't. But when it is 2-3 years later, you start looking around to see if you are on the right track to becoming a valuable design expert.

But how do you know? What should you look for and aim for?

Here are 3 early signs you have found your UI/UX design niche:

#1 Market Size

Can you pinpoint your competitors? Are there more than 10 and fewer than 200?

Fewer than 10 means there might not be enough demand for whatever niche you choose. Don't try to validate new markets -go where someone has done that for you. If there are more than 200, it is getting crowded and might be difficult to differentiate. But this is still better than fewer than 10.

You can research this by simply Googling or searching in places like Dribbble or LinkedIn. For example "fintech UI/UX", "fintech designer". To be honest, even "fintech" is too broad. "DeFi fintech designer" is better.

#2 Non-obvious insights

Do you know more than most designers in your area of focus?

Can you list 10 non-obvious insights from your niche?

Do you hold any controversial opinions that come from experience?

When you talk with clients or stakeholders, do they get an "aha moment" just by you asking very specific questions?

If you don't have that, start researching. Review the top 10 apps in your niche, compare experiences and take notes.

#3 Niche hangouts

Does your niche have their own hangouts?

Industry events, conferences, Subreddit, Slack channel, Discord community. Do they organise? Is there a dedicated newsletter, blog or other media where they get their niche info? First, if you can't find such places online, this is a bad sign. This means you are either too early, or there is not enough demand for people to exchange knowledge. Second, if this is the case, you have to be there. Sharing knowledge, helping out.

Finally, make sure you pick a niche that has more money than time. The worst clients are the ones with a lot of ideas and a minimum budget. It's your choice - so choose well.

Today is day 21 of a 30-day writing sprint I'm doing.

First of all, I'm not a writer.

But I like it. It is the fastest way for me to share my ideas and what I am learning. In my school year I barely passed my native language class. And English - I've never studied it in school.

All I'm trying to say is that I'm no standard for good writing. But maybe a good example for someone who might want to try this, but doesn’t have the courage.

Here is the thing. I have noticed I keep making the same mistakes.

#1 Random personal facts and stories

Like the one on top.

This is pure self-indulgence. I like sharing those. And I realise that sometimes they don't help to make my point. But what I hope they do is give a bit of character that makes the writing memorable.

Like pop singers who don't sing very well.

#2 Careless grammar

Oh, there is so much of this.

Thanks to Grammarly and editors, you don't see most of it. This is a big insecurity of mine. I know there are people who, as soon as they see a silly mistake in your writing, immediately lose respect for you. I have experienced that and I'm still careless with this type of mistake. Still believe that if the idea is good for the delivery, mistakes could be forgiven.

I'm probably wrong.

#3 Wrong medium

I rarely read.

My guess is that most designers whom I want to reach with my writing don't read much either. When I want to learn something, my first instinct is a YouTube search. My guess is that most designers do the same. But making videos is a whole new game that I haven’t played. If you think my writing is bad, you have to hear my monotone voice and see my "deer in the headlights" face.

Nevertheless, I'm open to trying it.

What are the mistakes you are aware of making - but keep on making, regardless?

Side-projects are a big deal as a UI/UX designer.

They help you upskill, explore new interests and sometimes help you earn extra money.

In the past 15+ years as a UI/UX designer, I've been collecting ideas for money-making side projects. But there is no way I can act on all of them. So today I will share three of them.

Hopefully, you will get inspired.

#1 On-Code Templates

On-code movement is booming. There is a need for good design.

The no-code community is used to buying templates to speed up the process. And the design quality of most templates is low, mediocre at best. So I wanted to make some extra cash so I will research all the trending no-code, check-the-template marketplaces to see what's missing or could be improved, and work on that.

There are so many tools, but just to name a few to get you started: Bubble, Adalo, Coda, Glide, Super, and Webflow, of course.

#2 Niche UI Design System

I don't know about you but I have started buying design systems and UI kits left and right in the past few years.

And there is a shortage of quality there. I have found just one or two that use Figma component variability right and the components are really responsive. Creating a design system is not for everyone. But if you are a pixel nerd and that's your jam, go for it. The most sold product in Gumroad in the design category is a design system.

This is all you need to know.

#3 Document and Sell Your Design Process

If you have years of experience and you made your own templates to speed up your workflow. That's a half-done product ready for sale.

Could be anything, docs for user interviews, client onboarding, Figma starter files, workshop templates, even freelance contracts and invoices templates. You can save many people a lot of learning time and make some money in the process.

Make a bundle of docs, set a Gumroad sales page, and promote a free sample with the option to buy the premium.

I know, nothing groundbreaking and innovative.
But you should know that the most profitable businesses are the boring ones. The easiest place to start is an existing market.
And the way to stand out is quality.

Designers are creators. Right?

But when you look at the Creator Economy definition, it seems that it has referred to content creators only.

I'm offended.

Similar to content creators, designers are creatives who want to do their creative design work and get rewarded for it. Unfortunately, design and designers are treated as a commodity and there are very few ways of monetizing design work, compared to content creators.

This results in designer platforms that are client-first:

• The only way to monetize on Dribbble and Behance is the job board

• 99 Designs is farming out free design work

• Fiverr has "sort by price"

Where are the design-first platforms where you can monetize on your own terms?

I don't know - maybe design is meant to always serve clients. And I got this whole thing wrong.

What are the options so we have more control over monetization as designers?

• Learn about business and marketing and do our own thing on our terms

• Join the Creator Economy and become content creators

• Start working on creating The Designer Economy

The Designer Economy sounds ambitious.

Even pretentious. But hear me out.

We can dream bigger than just getting a job in our favourite company. We can start our own companies that are designer-first. Partner with developers to create tools and platforms to make a living as designers and not get treated as a commodity. Leverage no-code to build products ourselves. Join Web3, where power is decentralized and you can earn based on contribution, not whatever your boss says.

The Designer Economy is coming

This happened to content creators. It will happen to designers as well.

It's a matter of time. We can sit around and wait for someone else to do it for us. Or we can get started and design it for ourselves.

I'm no expert at this.

But I know who is. A YouTuber pro.

Samir is one half of the Colin and Samir duo that specialize in breaking down the business of the creator economy. Here is what I learned from Samir's workshop on content market-fit.

But what is content market-fit?

This is when you manage to hit the right balance between what you want to make, what your audience wants to watch and what the platform wants to serve to people.

The moment you hit content market-fit you will know it. The engagement will start growing rapidly. People will DM you to show appreciation. You will get job offers. Bands will want to partner with you.

Unfortunately, every start as a content creator is slow and tedious. It feels like you don't know what you are doing and you are wasting your time.

Content creation at the start feels like a waste of time.

Little to no engagement, 2-3 Likes per post. No new followers. You start questioning your decision. But there is a proven way to approach this so you find your content market-fit faster.

Here's how, step by step:

Step 1: Start creating for yourself

Make the content that you wish existed.

Create for yourself, two years ago. Create for your future self.

For example, I'm a solo UX design consultant who wants to leverage content to move away from hands-on work. So I do the research for myself and publish my findings in posts like this.

Step 2: Pair identity with emotion

What's the feeling you want your audience to feel after it consumes your content?

For example, if I'm making content for freelance designers, I want them to feel confident and empowered that they can do more than just serve clients.

The emotion you are aiming to evoke is your value proposition to your audience.

Step 3: Pick the format

What's the content format that you can deliver the emotion but also sustain to produce even on a busy schedule?

For example, I want freelance designers to feel empowered to explore different monetization methods. One format is case studies featuring success stories. The format that I can sustain at the moment is short-form writing.

Proof this works is that my most popular post at the moment is "$1M/Year One-man Design Agency — a Breakdown". It has 10 times more engagement than everything else I've shared in this 30-day writing sprint.

I consider myself a misfit.

Existing on the wages of multiples community but not really fitting into either of them. So I like to learn from others like me who carve their own path in life and don't belong to a clear category.

I started my journey as an artist. I had to learn the business stuff from somewhere. So here are three podcasts that are jam-packed with quality content that people don't talk about enough.

Listen to this:

Ditching hourly with Jonathan Starck

The name says it all.

Jonathan is an OG who's teaching experts (primarily devs) to move away from hourly billing. In the podcast, you can hear coaching calls with his students where they break down challenges and explore possible solutions. But also an occasional interview with someone that is crushing it as a solopreneur.

My latest favourite episode is the interview with Blair Enns on productized services.

7 Figure Small with Brian Clark

All about making a 7-figure business without employees.

Brian is an OG copywriter with multiple wins as a solopreneur under his belt. In the podcast, you can hear interviews with other successful unemployable people and a breakdown of ideas relevant to soloists.

My latest favourite episode is called "Creator Coins: A value multiplier for community commerce".

The self-made expert with Philip Morgan

It is all about market positioning.

Philip has crafted his own market positioning frameworks for solo experts and is also teaching a method of crafting your own intellectual property (IP) through daily writing and niche research. In the podcast, you can hear interviews with other folks that don't want a boss or employees. What one appreciates about this is how often the guests are not too far in their journey and that makes it relatable.

My latest favourite episode is with Rob Fitzpatrick.

I can listen to these three the whole day and not get bored. Do you have your own favourite underrated podcast?

"Don't expect any money from me until September."

This is what my dad said at the beginning of summer.

Every morning he would leave the newspaper, with the bartender jobs circled. I didn't go out the entire summer. I spent all my time watching bootlegged Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials that a friend had given me.

In September, I started working on my first graphic design job, earning as much as my dad.

Unfortunately, most people don't see online courses as a solution to their problems.

People believe online courses are a waste of money.

They prefer to complain and make excuses:

• "There are no jobs for me because of the pandemic, the internet, automation"

• "Yeah, right - I'm not paying someone on the internet to tell me what to do"

• "I have tried this once, it didn’t work for me"

• "If only I had studied X"

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can leverage online courses to re-skill or upskill in record time and earn back your investment.

Here's how, step by step:

Step 1: Have a specific goal in mind

If you don't know where you are going - how would you get there?

For example, when I decided that I wanted to go freelance full-time, I didn't know how to find clients, how to do contracts, communicate with clients. I looked around for someone who had done it and was teaching it. And learned from them.

Make a list and look for people who teach the subject.

Step 2: Learn from practitioners

Learn from people who have done what you want to do.

Look for someone who is close to your desired outcome. For example, when I had to learn how to set up my freelance design portfolio, I was ignoring most of the advice that is given by designers with a full-time job. And I was looking for advice from freelancers or agency owners since they spoke directly to the client, not to recruiters.

Look for specific knowledge, not broad advice.

Step 3: Apply learning immediately

Do the damn exercises that are suggested in the course.

This is not a TV show to just lean back and watch. Look for a real case scenario to use as your training ground. The least you can do is to teach someone what you are learning while learning it. This will help you retain the learning and connect the dots between theory and practice.

Do the work.

And lastly, if you don't have the money for the course you like, you can always pay with time. Research the course creator. Watch all of their free videos, listen to all the podcast appearances and read their blog or newsletter. The course info is already out there for free - just a bit scattered.