On Today’s show, I interview my dear friend Joana Galvao. Joana Galvão is the co-founder of Gif Design Studios, an award-winning design agency specializing in brand identities and conversion-obsessed design. Based in Porto, Portugal, with a team of 10 designers and developers, Gif Design Studios offers the full range of print and digital design services to industry leaders in seventeen countries on five continents. Joana speaks internationally on the power of design and creativity and her work has been featured in the Guardian UK, Brand Brilliance, and Digital Arts magazine.
On today’s episode, here’s what we cover:
- Learn how planning her first art show in college landed her 3 job offers
- How she got started freelancing while working at an agency
- Inspired by Marie Forleo, she asked herself “Wouldn’t it Be Great If,” put herself out there, and manifested enough client work to invest in B-School
- In her first year in business, she went from freelancer to owning an agency and created a productized service
- Why she uses a template for everything – including what she does on her sales calls, what she asks in her in-take forms, the phases of design
- How she recommends designers get booked solid
- How great it can be to have talk triggers, something she learned about from Jay Baer
- Why always delivering things on time, sending thoughtful postcards and giving extra attention to her clients helped her land a ton of referrals
- Why designers should try to get featured where their clients are, not where their competition is
- Hear the story about how she found her first hire and how she and her husband (then boyfriend) started their agency
- Listen to the story about how she put herself out there, and even pulled an all nighter and got to meet Selena Soo and Derek Halpern in person
- Why networking at high ticket events are the ones to get the most referrals
- Why she solely focuses on sales, speaking, and being a creative director
- Learn what she does that gets the most leads
- Learn how she’s priced her website projects since starting her agency 5 years ago
- How she collaborates with her clients and other creatives to get the project moving on time
- And how she stays inspired but learn what she does to start her day
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