Webinar: Jump Start your Design Business with a Blog

BE YOUR OWN BOSS

The best way to figure out how to have a successful blog is to learn from big bloggers. Yaay that’s me! This is what Penelope Trunk and I will be doing live the first week of December 3 – 6, 2013. It’s going to be fun!

THIS COURSE IS AVAILABLE ON DEMAND HERE.

Today I make well over 6 figures as a designer and colour expert, but it wasn’t always like this. Before I started writing this blog, it was clear I was NOT a writer. It wasn’t as clear to me that I was way better off being an entrepreneur than an employee. I’ve probably been fired about seven times in my career. I was good at what I did (sales) but generally bad at politics.

Since everything I’m thinking is always written all over my face, bosses don’t like that. Happily, my clients did. They expect me to be honest with them about their house so they can have a space that they love. And it was such a relief for me to discover that I could be successful in the world and still be me.

LIVE WHEREVER YOU WANT

And the best part about blogging is that I can be my own boss, live wherever I want and generate new clients just by writing blog posts.

If you’re self-employed, you need to be good at networking. I tried BNI but since I’m not fake (nothing wrong with being fake, it’s a skill that could have saved me from myself–oh right and being fired–many times) the pressure to show up with 30 leads for your group which makes many of them fake, bugged me.

It’s really true that the way you do anything is the way you do everything. And that fundamentally, people don’t change. All through school I was always the loner with one or two friends, and that really hasn’t changed much throughout my life. Which makes blogging and running my own design business a perfect job for me because I am very happy working from home, mostly alone.

Last week a big blogger wrote a post about blogging and one thing he said was that whenever he has a conversation with another big blogger it’s always fascinating, and he comes away learning something new. That’s how I feel every time I talk to Penelope. Whenever I’m on the phone with her, I try to be as interesting as possible to keep her talking longer.

Anyway, one day I told her I think the reason I have such a problem with overt networking is because is I like it much better when I’m generous with someone either with my time, money or expertise and then they feel like they owe me. Hanging out at a networking event with the purpose of meeting people that might benefit my life in some way, well I have a hard time doing that.

Penelope said “Well that’s because you like to have the power, you have to be in control”. She has a really brilliant way of noticing the obvious.

So back to the webinar. Blogging is just another way to network, but it’s way more powerful because your niche, what you’re good at, gets expressed out in the world and you can attract clients that are perfect for you.  All you have to do is write.

GENERATE A CONSISTENT STREAM OF NEW CLIENTS

By the way, I don’t consider myself to be a real writer. I just write like I talk which is how a blog should be anyway. Conversational.

People ask me for blogging advice all the time, and usually the first thing I do is direct them to all the posts I’ve written about blogging. I have written and learned so much over the years, there’s stuff in those posts about blogging I’ve already forgotten.

And, everyone has a different learning style, I love to read and almost everything I’ve tweaked and changed and improved on my blog, I have learned from reading, but not all of us learn that way.

I have learned so much over the years from reading Penelope’s blog so when she approached me to do a blogging seminar together I was thrilled! Her blog always inspires me to write better headlines, more personalized content (stay tuned there’s a big tip here for you) and she’s been blogging for 10 years (5 years longer than me).

Some people learn by watching and listening. So if that’s you, here’s your chance to jump start your design business right now and at the same time, learn from our combined 15 years of blogging experience.

• Assess your personality strengths and weaknesses so you can build a design business that works for you.
• Develop multiple revenue streams. Learn how I designed products and created recurring revenue that allows me to focus my time on what I love most.
• Build credibility. Hear how I built my business from the ground up with nothing but a passion for design.

• Position your expertise in a way that will create buzz in the design world and generate revenue for your business.
• Learn how to get media coverage that matters, and use your blog to build a client base.
• Leverage Penelope and Maria’s proven tactics for building a following based on original ideas.

• The online design arena is organized differently than the offline world, which is a good thing for bloggers. Once you understand how clients and revenue pass between design bloggers, you can insert yourself into the system.
• This session will show you a tested method for developing blog posts that readers love.
• Learn the secrets for writing the kind of content that will get clients to hire you.

I’ll fill you in on all the mistakes to avoid from the very beginning and how to position yourself as an expert. Blogging about design is different than regular blogging where you don’t need to show images.

WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU BLOG

Remember in January when I told you I paid $995 for 1 hour of coaching from a top blogger? I’ll tell you one of the biggest mistakes I was making that cost me hours each month and a total of $25,000 over the past 4 years that I stopped doing immediately.  And you’ll pay a fraction of that price to get it. I see a lot of you making this exact same mistake on your blogs by the way.

Many people ask, “Maria, you started your blog 5 years ago when blogging was still relatively new, how can I possibly make a dent in blog land now with so many blogs started every day?” Well, is that true or false? What do you think? Find out in December.

PS. And don’t worry, you can watch the webinar over and over until the end of time.

If you would like to learn how to choose colour with confidence, become a True Colour Expert.