With the recent algo changes I'm seeing a lot of new followers, so let me reintroduce myself... Hey, I'm Rob. For the last few years I've worked with over 150 agency owners and freelancers, helping them get more leads and land bigger sales. With over $4m in direct results (just the ones that people officially post up). So, I have a good idea of what is working for leads and sales right now, and what isn't. And here is the number one challenge I see for any talented agency or freelancer: Clients don't buy skills anymore. There are a million people who can do what you do. Cheaper ones, faster ones, AI ones. What clients buy now is expertise. - They need to see that you know how to help them - They need to be confident that you can deliver - They need to trust you'll get them the results that they want And you need to do ALL of this before they ever even talk to you. Hoping that clients just book a call is over. The marketplace is too noisy and clients can no longer trust what people say - only what they can show to be true. This means that to scale your agency you need to sell differently. Basically - you need a funnel. A way to connect with the right clients through content -> show them you can solve their bigger problems -> and move them forward step by step till they are on a call and pretty much ready to buy. The big problem (and also opportunity) is that very few people see this and they just keep doubling down on their skills again and again. You are very likely already good enough at what you do. Which means more skill isn't what gets you to the next level. What's missing is the system around it: getting it in front of the right people and selling it in the right way. Which is what I help people with, and it is what I post about here. So, follow along for my best advice on how to do this. And shoot me a DM with "leads" if you want the details on how I work with people. Either way, good to have you here. - Rob Recent win for @socoloffalex 🫡

The fastest way to position yourself as premium without a huge audience... Clearly signaling what level you operate at. "I just had a call with a client" tells people nothing. "I just reviewed a website for a startup doing 20,000 daily visitors" tells everyone you work with serious businesses. Your content should make it obvious within 10 seconds what tier of client you work with. This isn't about pointless status games - buyers NEED to know if you're the right fit for their level. Nail this and your content will get you a lot more leads.

I was helping a designer who was struggling to explain their value. The problem: they kept talking about what they do instead of what clients get. "I tell them I work 15 hours per week on designs. Monthly retainer. Two-week turnaround. But they don't seem to get why it's worth the price." Because you're selling hours and process. Not results. Nobody wakes up wanting to buy 15 hours of design work. They wake up with a business problem that's costing them money or deals. Your website is losing sales to competitors. Your brand looks cheap so enterprise clients don't take you seriously. Your demo booking rate is trash. That's what they care about fixing. Not how many hours you'll spend or what your process looks like. Here's where your process matters: at the end of a sales call. After they already want to work with you. Then you explain pricing. Deliverables. Timeline. How you actually work together. But everything before that - your content, your website, your positioning, the sales conversation - should be about the expensive problem you solve. Stop leading with "here's what I do." Lead with "here's what expensive problem this fixes."

Most service providers rely on referrals and platforms because they think building authority takes years. But authority isn't about audience size. September was my best month this year at $160k+ in new deals, with no viral content. Here's what actually builds authority fast: content that shows you understand expensive business problems better than your prospects do. While everyone else posts generic tips and tutorials, focus on insights that only come from real client work. The market doesn't need another "how to" post. It needs proof that you can solve problems worth paying well for. One post showing deep problem awareness is worth more than 50 posts of surface-level advice. If you're interested in working together, DM me the word "LEADS"

Had a call with a solid agency looking to go from $10k to $20k a month. Most agency sites read like this: "We design brands, websites, and SaaS projects to look sharp and convert better." The problem is it's too vague. No one buys "looking sharp." What works is tying design directly to urgent business problems: - Faster demo booking - Higher trust in fundraising rounds - Better conversions from paid traffic That's how you get paid the most for the skills you already have. You need a clear outcome worth paying well for.

You don't have to wait until you finish a project to post about it. Here are 9 hooks you can use to show results as you work: 1 - "Recently someone reached out to me..." (talk about incoming inquiries and what they're struggling with) 2 - "Recently I started working with..." (talk about kicking off new projects and the goals) 3 - "Recently we kicked off..." (talk about the early strategy or discovery process) 4 - "For the last few weeks I've been helping..." (talk about what you're building and why) 5 - "About a month ago I started..." (talk about progress and early wins) 6 - "It's been two months since I started working with..." (talk about momentum and what's changed) 7 - "We're about to launch..." (talk about the final push and what's coming) 8 - "We just launched..." (talk about the release and initial response) 9 - "It's been a month since we launched..." (talk about early results and feedback) One project... nine different ways to leverage your work.

Once you have a base of $20k-$30k sales each month... you need to start looking into one (or a few) solid lead magnets. Back in my last business, I was doing $500k a year and 95% of new leads came from a lead magnet. Here's how to make your first one... - Before you make it, test if anyone actually wants it. Your lead magnet needs to sell in 1-2 sentences at the bottom of a post. If you can't make it sound valuable in two sentences, the full version won't save you. - Build a v1.0 in a day. Use a Google doc or a Loom video. Keep it rough. The goal is testing the idea, not perfect production. - Promote that simple version for 2-4 weeks. See if people actually click. Track which posts drive sign-ups. Pay attention to the language people use when they ask about it. - If it gets traction, improve it to v2.0. If it doesn't, you just saved yourself weeks building something nobody wanted. Most people spend weeks on the lead magnet itself and 10 minutes on the offer. Do the opposite. Spend your time making the idea clear and the hook compelling. Until someone clicks, they have no idea what's inside anyway.

A year ago I helped an app developer bump his retainer from $1.5k a month -> $6k a month... after just one call. We focused on pricing based on value instead of his work services (which for him are really good). Work services are only how well you do it. Important, but it doesn't justify a bigger price on its own. So we looked at pricing on value... how much his work actually helps on the client's business side. One example: his apps have been RUNNING a $23m a year construction business. His value is insane. The very next call he could focus the conversation there - selling bigger, with way more client confidence. Now he's doing $165k a month. You need to sell what your work does, then back it up with how well you do it. Value (problems solved, results delivered) is your pricing foundation. If you're interested in working together, DM me the word "LEADS"

"Freelancer" is starting to feel like a dirty word. To clients, it often means: - cheap - replaceable - takes orders, doesn't lead You're mentally grouped with every $20/hr profile on Fiverr or Upwork. Instead, position yourself as: - the face of a professional business - someone with systems (and maybe a team) behind the scenes - a leader who drives the entire project to results Sell like a studio. Deliver like a specialist.

X Profile advice: Clients need to see you're good at getting results within the first 30 seconds -> results in your bio -> strong pinned post -> 1/4 of your posts showing client wins A lot of people on here are showing the work, but very little actual client outcomes

Every day is legs day in Denmark 🇩🇰

I worked with an India-based design agency doing $20-50K/month. Strong portfolio. Top rated on Fiverr and Upwork. I asked them: what pain do you actually solve for clients? They listed reliability, fast turnaround, experienced designers, structured process. All good things, but here's the problem - none of that is why someone hires you in the first place. All of that matters only AFTER they hire you. It doesn't create demand. And it won't create any new buyers. Your reliability and portfolio - that's how you close someone once they're already looking. But if you lead with that in your content, you're only reaching the 5% who already know they need help. The other 95% aren't thinking about designers yet. They're thinking about business problems. Your job is to connect their pain to your solution before they ever start comparing options. This is how you build your own steady flow of inbound clients from social media.

After working with agencies across dozens of countries, here's why word-of-mouth businesses eventually plateau: You can't control the timing. When your best client finishes their project, you're back to zero pipeline. No predictable way to replace that revenue. Even with a great reputation, you need prospects in the pipeline before you need them. Which means having lead gen and sales systems that work away in the background while you're busy delivering for current clients. Referrals are great bonus revenue. But they're terrible as your only revenue source. If you're interested in working together, DM me the word "LEADS"

I had a 220k account on IG. I have just over 10k on here. Here sells way better. Forget the algo games - you don't need to go viral. What matters is that the right people see your work - and trust you're the one who can help. One solid post beats 100 engagement bait tweets.

Under $10k a month is the death zone for freelancers and agencies. You need to get above this ASAP. - No margins for reinvesting in skills and the business - Very tricky to hire full time talent - One bad month or season from crashing out Sell and promote 2-3 hrs a day until you pass this number.

After working with 200+ designers and agency owners, here's a positioning mistake I see all the time: Selling speed instead of outcomes. "We build websites in 2 weeks" sounds good at first, but only 1% of clients actually need it done that quickly. The problem with the other 99% of leads: the faster you promise to deliver, the harder it is to charge premium prices. Speed starts working against you. If you tell someone you'll build something in 7 days, they're thinking "maybe $5K-$7K for a week of work." But if you tell them "we'll have your first version live in 7 days, then we can work together to optimize and scale it over 30 days with real user feedback"... now it's much easier to get to $15K-$20K or more. You're still working fast. But with a better longterm focus. And a much different budget. The fix: position speed as a selling point inside a bigger outcome, not as the outcome itself. You don't want to land deals just cause you're fast. You want to land deals cause you deliver results... and can work fast if and when needed.

Every week I talk to and work with dozens of agencies doing over $100k a month. Here is what's different about who they sell to and how: - Highly selective about which leads they focus on, and who gets on a call with them - They lead with business outcomes, not deliverables - They position their services around one expensive problem, not every service possible - Pricing is based on value, not hours or volume delivered - Their funnels pre-sell value before calls, so they can get right into selling on each call - Content speaks to buyer problems, high expert signal - Sales calls are about strategy and fit, not trying to convince bad leads - They turn down bad-fit clients regularly and stay focused on top quality work and results - They can sell one-off projects well, but built an offer that often leads to retainer work - Case studies show revenue moved, not just pretty designs If you're interested in working together, DM me the word "LEADS"

Talked to a designer with over 4,000 followers on X. His engagement? Almost nothing. Posts getting in front of 60, 70, 80 people. When I looked at how he got those followers, it made sense. He'd done giveaways. Free Figma files. The kind of stuff that gets a ton of quick follows but attracts the wrong people. Now his audience is full of designers and students who showed up for free stuff and never engage with anything else. This is actually worse than starting from zero. Because the algorithm sees your follower count and expects engagement to match. When it doesn't, it assumes your content sucks. So it shows it to fewer people. If you're going to build a following, build it with the right people from the start. Shortcuts like giveaways and viral bait will cost you later. Focus on content that attracts ideal clients from the very start... zero reason to build the bigger numbers first and hope you can sell later.

I've done over 1,000 sales calls... and a lot of sales advice says "give zero value on the call." That's misunderstood. You can give value - as long as it helps them understand more, not do it themselves. The goal of a sales call isn't to solve the problem. It's to make solving the problem the clear next move.

I work with dozens of agencies every week selling anywhere from $10k to $100k+ deals. What you claim and how believable you are are two different things. You can say the right things about outcomes and results. But if prospects don't believe you can deliver, they won't pay. At $500, people are okay with some risk. It's not life-ending if it doesn't work out. At $5,000, they need more proof. Case studies. Testimonials. Clear process. At $20,000+, they need to know exactly who you've done this for, what the results were, and why you're the safe choice. This is why you can't just "raise your prices" without earning the credibility to support it. Your conversion rate at $500 won't hold at $5,000 unless you've upgraded your proof. Get client wins. Get results. Put them on your website. Then test higher pricing. The price you can charge is capped by how much people believe you can deliver.

A designer asked me how to get from $3-4k branding projects to $10k+ projects. From helping a bunch of agency owners and freelancers do this, here's my take. If you're already charging $3,000, $4,000, $5,000... your skills are pretty much good enough. You can already solve a lot of problems. The mistake is thinking you have to keep getting better at the work, or keep doing more work, to make more money. The much bigger factor is who you're working for in the first place, and how that work is sold to them. Say you work with a local pizza shop. They do well, good reputation, but they can only serve so many customers a week. A new brand isn't going to let them double the price of a pizza or double the size of the restaurant overnight. So you can do your best work and there's just not much return in it for them. No fault of theirs, it's the limit of that business. Now say you do brand identity for an up and coming startup... and it helps them land investors, or stand out from a sea of competitors and get people signing up. Your work is much more important there and gets much bigger results. So you can charge way more. (And startups are just one example, there are thousands of better types of clients you could be selling to) So to up your prices it's two things: #1 - Find the clients and problems where your skills are most valuable and get the most meaningful results #2 - Sell it the right way, so you get in front of those people and they understand why they should work with you If you want help setting this up for your business, DM me the word "LEADS"