May 24, 2023
Kris: Welcome back to the Design and Prosper podcast. This is episode 79 and today we are doing a deep dive of exactly what is included in the Design and Prosper Academy.
Don: Hey everybody. Hello. Hello.
Kris: Hey. So today we’re running through step by step what is included in the academy.
Don: Yes. And also what should be included in your design business.
Kris: So this is a bit of a shameless plug. But, you still will have takeaways from this episode. So if you are new here—you might be thinking, what on earth is The Academy and who are Kris and Don? And who are they to be teaching this thing?
Don: Who are these people?
Kris: We just wanted to go step by step through it.
First of all, we’ll just stay straight up. It is a business school. It’s a business school for web graphic and brand designers.
It’s so much more than a course!
Don: Oh, so much more. Yes. And today we’ll be taking you through module by module. We thought that was the best way. Module by module, week by week what you would receive if you were a part of The Academy family.
Kris: Yes.
Don: Having said that, though, we want you to know that at the end of this podcast, whether you decide that The Academy Design Business School is something for you or not, you’ll have a really comprehensive checklist for your design business, your brand business, or web business. Because these tools and resources are required to run a really successful business. So win-win.
Kris: So we joked about it being a shameless sales pitch, but keep listening. Even if you’re Thinking, oh, what is this?
Kris: Keep listening. Because you will have a checklist. You will have ideas that you can take away and go, okay, I need to implement this in my business.
Don: Yeah, your business your way. That’s right. We say that a lot too.
Kris: Yeah, so I just wanted to elaborate on what I meant by it’s not just a course.
It is a very beautiful community, it is group coaching. We currently have 36 group coaching sessions per year
Don: Which is phenomenal. Let’s distil that down.
So we run The Academy three times a year. Generally, we kick off at the beginning of February. Then again, at the end of May then again in September. So there are three rounds, and with each round there are 12 weekly Q&A Coaching Sessions where we are live for an hour and a half, so that means you have access to your mentors…your coaches 36 times a year because when you join the academy, you join for life.
So wherever you kick off, from then on, you can expect every calendar year to have access to us for those three rounds of The Academy every single year while the course is being offered.
Kris: Yeah, It’s incredible value and we wanted it to be accessible and we recognized that designers need ongoing support.
Don: Yes.
Kris: And we have a lot of resources and training in The Academy and we recognize that for a design studio, it can be hard to implement change in a 12-week period. Let’s be real about it. So we’ve got these resources that you can keep coming back to, keep enhancing.
Don: Having said that—some people do smash it out in 12 weeks.
Absolutely. There are some people who actually join The Academy with the intention of having a business ready-set-go at the end of it, and have smashed it out of the park doing that.
So you can do that if you like. If you go, okay, I want to have a fully operating design business. And it’s going to take me 12 weeks of work to do it, it’s totally possible.
Kris: We’ve created it to be possible. We have a lot of quite experienced designers. Very experienced designers who join The Academy and so they’re already busy they’ve already got their clients, but they need to level up. They’re working too hard or it’s just completely out of balance.
Don: They may be ready to hire. You know, all sorts of things could be going on.
Kris: Yes. So, They might need a little bit more time. But it’s totally up to you how you want to do it.
How much time you want to carve out for it. But we just want to say it’s more than 12 weeks and we are here for you because things pop up as well. Like you can totally get everything set up in that first 12 weeks but then a year later there are new issues because you’re growing coming back to the Q&As and ask your questions and having a coaching session with the group.
Don: Yeah. It’s amazing. It might take you that little bit longer because you have a part-time business and that’s all you want.
You want enough income to supplement the family income, and it’s a three-day-a-week business and that’s the time you have to dedicate to it. And isn’t it lovely to know that you have your coaches on hand? For the entire year across those 36 touchpoints where you can ask questions, not to mention the richness and the value that you’ll find in the Design and Prosper Private Group Academy, because there are a whole bunch of designers in there who understand the business processes that you will have in your hot little hands. They’ve got them too. They lift each other up, they cheer each other on, and they hold each other accountable.
They hold each other’s hand when things get tricky. It’s such a beautiful environment for design business owners to be in. Really. It’s so supportive.
Kris: Yeah. So there’s a lot of elevation that’s going on because there are people at all different levels of business as well. And as Don said, there’s a lot of part-time designers as well, because a lot of our community, are parents, and they have bubbas and small kids, and they’re transitioning, from kids in childcare to kids at school and all the rest of it.
And so we really get that. We really relate to that as well. So, you will find your people.
Don: Yeah. You will find your people. Absolutely. There are all sorts of designers in there and they are just beautiful.I love our academy community. They’re just such gorgeous souls.
Kris: Yeah absolutely, we adore them.
Don: And over the time that we get to spend together, we get to know you quite intimately.
We get to know what’s going on for your business. We get to share in your wins. We get to cheer you on when it’s a little bit more challenging, you know, it’s fantastic. So with that said, let’s now dive into the academy module by module one at a time.
Kris: Yes. Okay. So we start with some pre-work, which is foundational, incredibly important work to do. And our aim here for you is to get very clear on the kind of life and business that you want to have because your life, your lifestyle, and the number of hours that you want to work and, the kind of goals that you have for your life, interlaces with your business. There’s no separation.
Don: Nope. One and the same. Yep. Absolutely. If you could see us now we’re sort of sitting here with our fingers interlaced going, it’s locked in like this. Life and business. That’s what it’s like, especially if you have a family, especially if you have a part-time position and you are transitioning from full-time employment and you know, all of those reasons.
Life and business are one and the same, so we need to be aligned. So this work we ask our Academy people to come to it with a really open mind, open heart and beginner’s mindset. We are really establishing our purpose, and the why behind the decision you made to become a business owner.
Kris: There’s a lot of well-being questions in there. Donna and I have been doing this kind of work for many, many years—decades now, and the questions that we ask in this bring some people to tears,
Don: Mm-hmm.
Kris: Not, not sad tears, but it’s like this realization of what’s possible. aAnd what they want becomes really clear.
Don: Aha moments!
Kris: And then the next stage of the pre-work, so as soon as you join the academy you will get pre-work. Right. This is straight up another part of the puzzle, which is financial—how is this going to work and how can I make the living that I want?
How can I make the income that I want whilst working the hours that I want and having the lifestyle that I want?
So, the next little piece of the puzzle is our ‘Get Clear on Your Business Model’ training + worksheets. This used to be a part of our financial module, but we brought it forward because it was so foundational and so important and it’s incredibly motivating as well. So we wanted you to have your hands on it. As soon as possible because it will let you know exactly what your business model could look like.
Don: Yes, and what it’s going to take to get it. It’s honest.
Okay, if I want to earn that much money doing those many hours, and like we’ve been saying, whether it’s part-time hours or full-time hours, and if I want to earn that much money, then I’ve got to be doing this amount of work.
It’s really telling. It’s transparent. So we’ve had a lot of designers in The Academy get this worksheet, and are blown away at the clarity it brings and understanding. They say “I now need to know what I, I have to do”.
I feel like this is one of the first tools in our toolkit that really positions you as a business owner. Because you are thinking big picture, but you are thinking big picture with real clarity. It’s one of those really important pieces of the puzzle.
So that’s the pre-work. We haven’t even got started yet.
Kris: I know. Right?
Then we get into module one, which drops in the first week. So we release that and everybody’s going along together. All the new people who have joined in get module one in week one.
Module one is all about attracting your dream client, but we go really deep into working out who your ideal client is, who is your dream client, and creating a profile of who they are. And we ask many questions about this.
Don: We go very deep with this because, without that clear vision, you’re not going to realize your business dreams.
Don: Absolutely and you’re not going to attract the right work. So by defining who they are, you know who to talk to. And to enable you to get to that point, you do have to take a deep, deep dive. You kind of got to walk in their shoes a little bit to really understand what makes them tick, what makes them happy, what quells their fears, you know, that kind of thing. And what would make them want to work with you.
Kris: How do they perceive themselves?
Kris: What are their big fears and worries and problems, and how can you take them on a journey?
We go deeply into the transformation as well. Unpacking the transformation for your clients is so important in attracting the right kind of clients. So if you don’t speak to the transformation, you’re just another lowly paid designer essentially.
Don: Exactly. Yes. Exactly.
Kris: So with this module, it’s the starting point for your brand voice, your brand messaging.
Don: We’re starting to sow the seeds for the language that you’re going to use because we actually focus on brand messaging a lot in The Academy. It kind of underpins a lot of the modules, but this is the first major part of it, where you’re starting to get clarity around that. It’s beautiful. At the end of this module, you’ll have actually created that journey for your client—the pathway that they need to take to work with you. And it will be broken down into really easy steps that will lead you to your dream client and lead your dream client to you.
Kris: Yes.
Don: This brings us to Module Two.
Kris: Creating your brand voice.
So now it’s time to get really clear on it. You’re going to have the actual words that you’re going to use to communicate the transformation, to communicate what you do to attract those clients.
So this is really about selling yourself.
Don: Yeah, absolutely. It’s about really understanding your messaging, really understanding that conversation that you need to have with your clients. One that speaks to the transformation you will be offering and speaks to your process. That speaks to the way you work and what you will deliver.
So all of that will come to the surface within this module. It’s so beautiful. Inside this module, you’ll work on your brand voice. You’ll do a brand audit. So you’ll look at all of the areas in your business where you have messaging and whether or not there’s consistency there.
Then we also look at a peer analysis. As well where we look at what our peers are doing, where there are gaps in the market, and we get an understanding of where we fit and where our voice fits in the marketplace. But, I think Kris and I want to really reiterate, it’s your business your way, and it’s your voice and your messaging and you are unique.
So the peer analysis, we need to tread lightly there. We really resist going into comparisonitis where we look at another business and go, oh no, I can’t do that now. It’s already been done. Or they’re doing it better than I am. That kind of thing. We talk you through that. We walk you through it. Really powerful peer analysis where it can serve your decision-making rather than shut you down.
So we’ve got some tips around that that we share with you in The Academy.
Kris: Yes, and just another thing about this particular module, if you are not confident, about brand strategy and what all that means you’re going to feel like an expert by the end of this module.
We go really deep into brand strategy for you and your business, so it becomes something that you can then feel more confident offering to your clients if you want to in the future.
Don: Beautiful.
Kris: Okay, moving on to module three—finding your audience.
So this is really wrapping up in a beautiful big bow, all the brand messaging and all the things that you’ve worked on so far. So the aim for this module is to explore and gain insights into all the lead generating strategies.
We find a lot of designers want to fast forward to this one. Mm-hmm. Because this is hitting them in the back pocket, you know, I need clients and need clients fast.
Kris and I want to say here, this is the module that we find a lot of people wanting to race ahead, however, if you don’t do the foundational work of Modules one and Modules two and the all-important pre-work, you won’t be landing in the right place.
Your voice won’t be completely finessed. It won’t be completely clear. You won’t be landing in a way that attracts the right clients to you or indeed any clients if the voice is right off, if the messaging’s right off. So it’s really important to have done that foundational work. So don’t be tempted to rush ahead to this kind of thing.
Kris: Because otherwise, you’re going to be building a business like a house of cards. Yeah. You’re not going to have the foundation.
Don: Absolutely.
Kris: And we see it time and time again. When that desperation kicks in and then, it’s like speeding up, speeding up. I’ve got to get there, I’m racing, but we’ve got to slow down to speed up.
Kris: This is exactly the sort of stuff we’re talking about. You’ve got to slow down on this, this brand messaging stuff. So with finding your audience, we go to the next level where we’re actually brainstorming how we’re going to get clients in the door. We brainstorm lead magnets. We have a really extensive process to make that. So much easier because it does designers’ heads in a lot.
Don: It’s kind of fun. It’s a fun process well.
Kris: And then like we said before, you get to come to 36 Q&A sessions as a year, like you can run your lead magnet by us and say, what do you think?
Don: What do you think, guys? Do you think this is on point with my voice and my messaging? Because we’ll know that about you. So we’ll be able to respond discerningly. One thing I want to slot in here is, I just mentioned it was fun. Right? The hole process is fun because of how elevated The Academy is in a group scenario.
However, this is actually work. It’s hard work.
You have to dig deep, you are required to show up and that’s where we’ll hold you accountable. We’ll make sure you show up. We’ll make sure that you are putting in the work in order to build those foundations. So I just wanted to make sure it doesn’t sound like, oh, it’s easy breezy, lots of fun.
Yes. That’s there. Absolutely. Just speak to any of the Academy alumni. We’ve got so many beautiful testimonials. However, there is a lot of work that has to be done to have this beautiful business.
You do have to show up and you do have to put the, work in and the effort in, in order to be able to flow into the next module and the next module.
I’m sorry to be, you know, put a downer on the fun aspect. But I just wanted it to land that it’s serious business setting up a business.
Kris: Yeah. It’s CEO work and we would be lying if we said CEO work is all sunshine and roses.
Don: And it takes brain calories.
Kris: It’s a strenuous kind of brain work and we’ll help you with time management and a bit later. It’s all like little pieces of the puzzle that are coming together and we are building upon each module.
It’s strategic, the way we set it up. We just haven’t plucked random, you know, lessons out of the air. This is all very step by step we’re building upon the next building, upon the next. Another thing that’s really important about this particular module is, we implement a system where you track what you’re doing in terms of, targeting clients, in terms of getting new clients, and what kind of promotional activities you’re doing. We’re actually setting goals and we are tracking our progress, because this is so important to measure what you’re doing. And if you’re not doing that, you need to start.
Don: Yeah, absolutely. As Kris said, it’s a CEO role, so get used to wanting to understand numbers in your business. There is so much power in knowing your numbers, and that’s not just to do with money, that’s to do with everything.
It’s across the board.
So back to our checklist. Okay. At the end of module three, these are the gorgeous tools you’ll have.
You will have a lead-generation brainstorming process that you’ll be able to use again and again. You’ll have an audience targeting strategy where you will have metrics that you will follow, and that’s a really powerful CEO system to implement into your business.
If you’re not already doing that, please do that. And you will have a process and an understanding on how to design your lead magnet. We love talking lead magnets. We love getting conceptual and we will help guide you on that as well.
Kris: So we talked a bit about measuring and tracking for module three, which is really important, which leads us into module four, which is our design for profit module and we’ll get into that in just a moment. But first, we just want to hear from one of our beautiful Academy members and what they had to say about their experience.
Ebony: Hi, Ebony here from Brand New Day Studio. If you are listening to this and you’re thinking about starting the academy, Do it. Trust me, I’ve come from years of experience in the industry and first-time business owner. If you wanna get serious about your business and your brand, this is the course for you.
I had no idea where to start and was feeling so overwhelmed, but Kris and Donna gave me all the tools, all the strategies, the advice, the love, and everything to go out into business on my own, and the transformation has been incredible. I was on maternity leave when I decided that I wanted to help other brands, uh, discover their glow and shine with confidence on their own.
I’ve worked with big brands all across Australia and worldwide, but I really wanted to help small businesses and I just felt that this was the right move for me. The investment in the academy is by far the best thing I could have done. It was quite daunting at the start, I’ll be honest, but it’s paid off in numbers within the first couple of months of me launching, and I just hold so much regard for these guys.
You get so much value out of. That you’ll be questioning why they’re not charging more. It’s just phenomenal. And the fact that you can go back and access all the information as evergreen as the course runs, is. Incredible. I’ve listened to the same modules a couple of times, , because juggling work, life and baby is a challenge.
If they ran a course on child rearing, I would do that too. Love you, Kris and Donna.
Kris: Okay. We’re back. So, module four—Design for Profit. This one is super powerful.
Don: Yes. Here we are in this gorgeous beast of a module.
It almost should be a course all on its own. It, it has so much going for it. It really does.
It’s such a powerful module—we can see, hear, and feel the excitement when this one lands in The Academy every single time. So what we’ll cover in this one is a complete system for managing and tracking your money in your business.
Kris: Yeah. If you haven’t put your CEO pants on by now, you’re certainly going to by module four.
Don: Yeah. Yes, you will be. Absolutely. This is where there’s so much power. Knowledge of this area is imperative for a successful business. If you don’t know your numbers
It will be absolutely detrimental to the success of your business. And if you do not know your numbers and you feel like you’re being successful right now, imagine if you knew your numbers, where your business would be.
Yeah. Because if you are thriving without understanding your I can guarantee you there would be more in it and you would escalate even more.
Kris: If you don’t have a strategy, I would say you’re sort of playing in sand.
Don: Yes. Or you’re on that beautiful pushbike of yours, and you’re going so fast that you get the speed wobbles up and there’s no exit strategy.
Kris: I used to have a car like that.
Don: Oh my gosh. The amount of BMX bikes and things that I used to ride and I would ride so fast. And coming from a kid who broke both my arms because there was no strategy around stopping that thing.
So the same can be said with your business. If you are successful and you don’t understand your numbers, things can spiral out really quickly, really quickly. Really scary quickly. If you are struggling to make ends meet and you don’t understand your numbers, you can have an aha moment and change the trajectory of your business really quickly too, simply by understanding where the leaks are or understanding where the gaps are, understanding your numbers is imperative.
I love what Kris said. Pop those CEO pants on people, get ’em on because it’s really, really important.
And in, in this beautiful bustling module, we have tools. For you to measure everything that is important in your business.
Kris: We have six major tools, all with training of course. The first one is our easy breezy cost estimate calculator, which if you have downloaded our free pricing guide, is like that on steroids + a calculator
Kris: It has everything you need to quote with accuracy, with confidence. It is incredible.
Don: Yeah, absolutely. No more guesswork.
Kris: No more guesswork. It’ll help you systemize your pricing and quoting process.
Don: So it’s so good and really does eliminate fear around quoting.
I bet you there are so many beautiful designers out there who are petrified. They get a knock on the door or, you know, via their inbox, or via their website. And then they’re like, oh, I don’t know! How am I going to quote this thing? It’s multifaceted. There’s so much going on. I don’t know where to start. Our easy breezy cost estimate calculator has more like multiple components within. It has an approach to quoting a brand. It has an approach to quoting a website, and it has a multipurpose cost estimate/calculator
Kris: For all those weird things, you know, like the big brochures, or the, I don’t know, the packaging, all those things that are a little bit tricky out of the norm.
Don: If they’re tricky to quote, it often can shut us down. And sometimes what happens is, we take a week to get a quote back to a client and we’ve lost the opportunity to work with them because we took too long, or we take two weeks because we are so worried about how to quote this thing.
So we will teach you how to quote with confidence every single time. On repeat. And this little tool that you’ll have in your toolkit will be a game changer, we promise you.
Kris: Yeah. So we also have a sweet and simple time tracker, which is a beautiful time tracker created just for designers. It is, it is more than just a tracker because it’s, it assesses your time. It enables you to understand how you can scale. It helps you to understand what you can outsource, how your profit margin would be different if you had outsourced certain aspects of the project. It helps you assess the bits that you hated doing, the bits that you love doing.
Don: Yeah, it’s a really, really great tool
Such great rich intel that you’ll get from that and then we have the look ahead cash flow forecast.
Now this one you absolutely have to have in your business hat on—without a doubt. Kick your business off with this tool, because you need to understand the cost of business.
You need to understand how much it is going to cost you to run your business, to pay you, to pay any overheads, and to keep your apps all up to date, to keep your software up to date, to keep your hardware up to date, to keep your insurances in place. How much does a graphic design, web design, or business cost to run?
This beautiful tool will tell you and then the power of it is you’ll be able to say, okay, all right, I’ve got this much money in the bank, I’ve got this much money coming in. You’ll be able to see, and this intel is so rich, you’ll be able to see where your money is, where you’ve got to really dig in because it’s going to get a little bit lighter on in that month and it’s going to pull back up again in this month and it’s so telling so that you know exactly when you have to fire on all engines with promotion, you know exactly what you have to do, where you have to be at all times in your business to make sure that you were running a profitable business all year round.
Kris: Yeah, it’s really motivating as well because you can see in three months’ time there’s a problem. What am I going to do to resolve that? Perhaps I’m going to have to take less drawings, I’m going to have to take less of a wage or however, you’ve set it up. And so this is your chance to go. I can get out ahead of this. Yeah. That’s not going to happen until October. What do I need to do? How can I get some new clients in the door?
And so then you go back to module three, to look at what your strategies are and make sure you’ve got something running in place, so we’ve got three other really key tools in design for profit. We’ve got a profitability tracker. We’ve got a magic metrics and growth tracker, and we’ve also got, a cash book, a really beautifully simple cashbook and a profit and loss worksheet as well for those of you who aren’t ready for the big guns of accounting software yet. it’s very, very helpful for when you don’t have a lot of transactions or you’re just starting out in business.
Kris: You’ve the easy breezy cost estimate calculator, the sweet and simple time tracker, the look ahead Cash Flow Forecast, wrap it up profitability Tracker, magic Metrics and Growth tracker. And that one, my friends, is powerful. Mm-hmm. Um, and that little cash book that Kris was just talking about, so at the end of this module, you’ll really have your head around your money and you’ll know where you’re making it and where you are not, and where your focus and energy needs to be for wealth creation for your business.
You know how to price your work, and how to plan for the future, and you’ll have the tools to also take to a bookkeeper or an accountant and for, for them to be able to give you advice on your business as well. The tools within this module provide so much rich intel.
For you, for growth, and for understanding your business.
Don: Yeah. And, and guess what? When you’re a part of The Academy you have all these tools and you start using them and you’re a little bit confused about something, you can come to the QnA and ask the question. Yeah. You could say, I’m so stuck on this quote.
Don: That comes up a lot. Yeah.
Kris: This is such an unusual quote. I don’t know how to manage it. That’s okay, you get to run it by us.
Don: Also with out-of-the-box projects. They’re generally not quoting enough, and then we’ll remind them of this aspect or that aspect, and they’ll be like, wow, I almost missed out on, you know, charging an extra thousand dollars in work that I would’ve had to have done. So, I mean, it’s just invaluable.
Valuable stuff.
Kris: All right. The next module is the Ultimate Briefing System. This is module five. So this is a very, very important module in nurturing your clients and supporting your clients, and it sets the foundation for creating really incredible design work. So important. we want to make sure you’re really confident.
Don: The briefing process is absolutely everything. If you are not able to extract the right information, you won’t be able to quote with confidence and clarity. If you don’t extract the right information, you won’t be able to create. With confidence and clarity, you won’t be able to respond to a wishy-washy brief. You won’t be able to respond with complete confidence to a brief that has any contradictions in it. So this part of your creative process is also a part of your business process as well with when it comes to getting clarity around quoting.
So with our ultimate briefing system, we will give you the strategies and questions to ask to be able to quote with confidence. That’s first. First and foremost, how do I actually quote this project? And then we’ll give you the follow-up questions. The strategy is around being able to create with confidence. It’s that simple, really, so that you get that full body yes, at the end of the presentation.
When you present it to the client, you are as good as your brief. And if you haven’t taken a really in-depth, articulate, clear brief, then you are responding to.
A, a week, a brief, you know, you’re responding to something that’s not really serving you. And it won’t serve your client either because you’ll land at the presentation meeting with something that’s all wishy-washy and, and not on point.
So we break the briefing process down into quite a few sections. We actually have seven different briefs for you, but don’t get overwhelmed.
It’s just that there are many different types of brief that you need for different situations and also we like to break down the first part of the client journey into specific briefs so that you are not, spending too much time on the process at the beginning Until you get that deposit. Until you get them on the books. Then we go deeper. So we have it broken down into your initial touchpoint briefs. So all the questions to ask on your website, um, or, or a form that you, um, send to all new inquiries. That’s the first one. Then we have the discovery call brief. We run through exactly what you need to do on a, a discovery call, all the questions and tips and strategies as well. We have the brand strategy brief, which is. The big deep dive.
That’s the big kahuna brief.
That’s my favorite one. I love it. I love it. It’s a gorgeous deep dive. Now, we’re on the books by now.
Yes. By the time we get to the brand strategy brief. This is a little pro tip for you. We are now being paid. So we’ve now received 50% deposit, is what Kris and I like. But we’ll talk money in the academy. Let’s just say we’ve been paid. Now in this brief, we get to talk about strategy. We get to talk about some creative thoughts that we have.
We can start to confidently share our intellectual and creative IP because we are being paid now. We are, we are on the books. Prior to that, key takeaway from from the Ultimate Briefing System, is don’t give away your creative IP before you get to the brand strategy brief.
Yeah. Because the clients haven’t paid you any money yet, and they may not go with you, but what they will do is they will take away your ideas.
So make sure we’re on the money. So yeah, the brand strategy brief is next.
Kris: Then we have an option for you to do brand audits. So we run through questions that you can ask clients to do a brand audit for them, and then prepare a report, make suggestions, which means more work for you because you’re offering suggestions that they will go, yes, of course, I need that.
So that’s the brand audit questionnaire. Then we have a website-specific brief. because as we know, there are different questions that need to be asked there. We have an in-house brief. We also have a repeat client brief.
Don: And one of our favourites, we have a photography brief template, it’s a beautifully comprehensive briefing system to not only put together a brief for a client but to actually instruct a photographer to do the photo shoot. It has all the steps for running a photo shoot. Because Donna and I have done a lot of photo shoots in our days. It’s got the run sheet, it’s got all the timings, it’s got all that in there. It’s a complete kit essentially for doing a photo
Don: We love that one. So to wrap up module five, so back to our checklist. We have an initial touchpoint brief that is our gatekeeper. We have the discovery call brief, which is our clarity call brief, if you like, where we make sure we gather the intel to quote correctly. Then we have our brand strategy brief. Then our brand audit questions, which you can take or leave. That is something that we’ve found some of our academy students, uh, use that as something that they offer to their clients as a paid offering, which is awesome.
So you can use it if you like or not. Then there’s the website brief, the in-house brief, the repeat client brief, and the beautiful photography brief template.
Kris: Yeah, that’s a that’s a
Don: complete system.
Kris: Okay. Next up is module six.
Oh, this is a good one. This is all about proposals that convert. We want to provide you with a proposal system, a proposal template. That is going to get your clients, that will be so impressive. It would be very a proposal system, a proposal template. That is going to get your clients, that will be so impressive. It would be very difficult for a client to say no to this proposal
Don: We want you to have the best chance ever of getting a full body yes.
Kris: Yes. So this one’s actually an InDesign template, but we supply it in a format that you can open it up in other design layout software that you may be using. And it is very comprehensive. It has A really detailed proposal section, but then we have a contract with Many suggestions for legal clauses.
Don: So many legal prompts that we want you to include in there. We don’t want to leave any stone unturned.
Don: And it’s okay for you to have lots of clauses and, and disclaimers within a contract. It’s expected. So we want to demystify the, the ickiness around that and, and pop our professional cap on and say, you know what, we’re a business, we’re offering a service, and with that service comes these clauses, and that’s okay.
We don’t want you to leave them out or leave them off for fear of, you know, upsetting the client. I better not, better not put that boundary in or that clause in. I better just keep it all nice and open, but that can come back and bite you on the bum.
So we want to make sure that you have access to really sensible and clear clauses that we have used in our design businesses that are simple and straight to the point that you can modify and adapt. It’s certainly a wonderful starting off point for you then to make sure that you take it to your legal advisor and get them to check based on where you live, the country you live in, and your state and origin, wherever you are, making sure that those clauses are watertight for you and your business.
Kris: Yes and so as I mentioned before, it is an InDesign template, but we also give you all the copy, all the language, and all, the text that we use so that you can use another platform like Dubsado. We love it because we actually do recommend you, have your proposals through Dubsado, but the InDesign template gives you a really good idea of how to lay it out and make it all beautiful.
A lot of our Academy students use Dubsado, and that is why
Kris: bonus training. We have some supplemental training for Dubsado to demystify using it and getting your proposal contract set up. Ah, it’s so imperative. And we have a few different supplemental trainings because we want to talk about the power of certain things within a design business. We want to talk about tools that really elevate your business. So we don’t want you feeling lost because you don’t know a thing about that tool. So that’s why that’s additional value that we’ve included in the academy. So it it, it comes as supplemental training. So that’s on top of the training
Don: so we’ll wrap up module six there, and we’ll cover the next six modules, modules seven to 12 in the next poddy. But before we go, if you are keen as mustard to join the academy and you are ready, set, go.
Doors are open. You can come on in, grab your seat. As Kris mentioned at the very beginning, we We are limiting to 30 seats this round, so there are already some people who have joined us, so welcome aboard those people. If you’re listening now, um, and if you wanna take a seat at the table for the next round, head to our website, design and prosper.co/the academy and you can sign up.
There are two payment options there. Ready, set, go. So head over. We would love to see you. And now if you are on the bench and you’re like, oh, I’m still not sure whether the academy is for me.
Well, after all, you haven’t heard about the next six modules yet, but if you’d like to have a chat to us, we have some limited 15-minute, chats available on our calendar, and we will leave the link to that in the show notes. So you can just click on that link and, and have a chat with Kris and I.
We’d love to chat with you and to make sure that the academy is a fit.
Kris: Yes. All right, well, we’ll see you in the next episode.
Don: Okay?
Kris: Bye.
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