Brett Williams of Designjoy Answers Tough Questions About His Million-Dollar Design Job | 13
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- čas přidán 20. 07. 2024
- Brett reveals how he transformed his solo design agency into a groundbreaking, productized service, generating an eye-popping $120K monthly revenue - that's nearly $1.5M a year as a solopreneur! But is Designjoy's success too miraculous to be true?
Welcome to the Creative Brief, a hangout with your favorite creatives, entrepreneurs, and influencers.
Today, I’m sitting down with Brett Williams, the godfather of design subscriptions, to talk about the massive success of his company Designjoy. Brett has figured out a way to turn his one-man design agency into a productized service that grosses over $120K in monthly revenue. If you’re doing the math, that sets him up to do nearly $1.5M per year as a solopreneur.
Now, even though I’m a fan of Brett, I went into this interview with a healthy level of skepticism. I mean, Designjoy seems too good to be true right? And it’s fair to say people have pretty strong opinions about Designjoy and Brett’s approach to viral marketing. I’m curious to know what you think after hearing him out, so let me know in the comments.
0:00: Introduction
2:40: Brett’s Background
4:44: The Designjoy Origin Story
9:16: Launching Designjoy and Gaining Initial Traction
13:08: Pricing and How the Subscription Model Works
16:07: Volume and the Reality of the Business
17:54: “Racing to the Bottom” Criticisms and Misconceptions
20:02: Talking About Money and Course Boys
21:27: Challenging the Conventional Design Process
23:20: Assumption-Based Design
26:22: The 30-Minute Rebrand
27:14: Challenges and Downsides of Scaling
29:29: Value-Based Pricing and the Designjoy client profile
31:59: Launching the Productize Yourself Course
35:59: Approach to Social Media
39:13: Fake Stripe Accusations and Criticisms in the Comment Section
42:23: The Vertical Integration of the Service, the Course, and the New Product
43:15: Building Aktive, a Designjoy-Inspired Project Management Tool
46:48: Brett’s Take on the Design Industry and the Rise of the Productized Model
51:51: The Problem Aktive Will Solve
53:07: Tips for Productizing Yourself: Specializing and Time to Value
57:42: Turnover and Client Churn
59:08: Closing Remarks and Rethinking the Cybertruck Order
1:02:57: Post Game Analysis
More from Brett Williams:
Twitter/X: / brettfromdj
Designjoy: www.designjoy.co/
More from the Creative Brief:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1QQCj4M...
iTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Twitter/X: / brianathey
Instagram: / brianathey
Website: brianathey.com
![[PS #0009] How Brett Williams Runs a Successful Productized Design Service](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0IHziP_l6cc/mqdefault.jpg)
I've seen and heard all Brett's podcasts. This one is by far, in a very long time the best one out there. Questions are just spot on, and they make Brett talk about topics I'm sure all followers interested in productized services are interested to take note on. Super glad this was recorded.
About having a design as a service agency, I just want to make a public service and speak about how extremely difficult it is to get your first clients selling your services this way in 2024. And also having taken Brett's course, which he plainly describes here as being barebones and basic which couldn't be more accurate.
Even if you manage to build a beautiful site, follow the productized model guidelines and figure out the tech stack used for it to a T, having an audience, getting your site to actually get traffic online or having people care about the offer, is a completely different story. And no amount of courses or podcasts could ever prepare you for the RND scenario of business.
Success sometimes comes by luck, and people often talk about the steps they followed without acknowledging the fact of being in the right place at the right time.
If I help 1 designer with this message, I'm all set. This model was cool 6 years ago. And the landscape has changed drastically, from there.
Even if you manage to spend your first year trying to generate leads for this model, you will be pleasantly surprised when you find out, that the infinite pool of customers Brett usually talks about, is nowhere to be found
Good luck to you all :)
Brett does what every rule breaker does- he goes against the grain and finds a way to do something we all do, but differently. These types of people are hated on at first but later are celebrated. People will follow suite.
Props for the graet Melin hat!
FYI, loving what I've seen in the interview so far. Would love if there were chapters added so I can refer back easily / share specific segments!
100% you’re right. I gotta find an efficient way to get these captions in. Still learning. Let me know if you have a good method.
I wonder if he does report design? like really high end infographic 200 page of report with redraw of charts and illustration? I wonder if that can be done under 48hrs? Im a communication designer and i left my full time job last year and venturing into this area now, im just curious. :D
Spot on at 24:00 about jumping to hi-fi with clients, they're able to articulate much clearer what they want and if you're on track when there's a reference.
Brett is kind of camera shy 😌, it's quite interesting to see. Hats off to you man.
Thank you! It’s a really good point that holds up in my experience. And I really appreciated how calm and casual he stayed throughout the hangout. Seemed genuine to me. I think he’s a great dude.
Great pod!! Not a designer myself, but still got immense value out of your convo 🙏🏼
Wow, that’s high-praise! Thank you. I’m glad to hear it’s got appeal outside the design community.
Awesome interview, thank you both for taking the time to share the learnings
Thank you for listening!
Well, Brett didn't create the subscripsh model to design. Apparently, Design Pickle did. But Brett was the first to take it and make a one-man design service company.
Yeah, Brett has taken it to a whole new level for one man businesses.
awesome ep :)
Great interview and excellent post-game analysis!
Really appreciate that. I saw your comment on Twitter. Glad you checked it out.
Banger value thank you so much, I took the course but this is great deep dive too 🎉
Awesome! I’m going to have to sign up for the course. Brett seems to have it really dialed in.
Did you buy the course @@TheCreativeBriefPodcast
🎉
It's jealousy
The deeper I've looked into DesignJoy the more I believe that the truth is somewhere in the middle. Maybe he does those sales he says, but also the portfolio work listed on his website appears to be figma portoypes for made up companies (Google couldn't find the few names I tried).
I do believe his model of productizing design is the future for freelancers (I'm in the process making my own sub model). I have no intent to sacrifice quality for volume, which means I will not be making anywhere close to 1M, and that's ok with me.
typical scammer. mediocre designer selling courses.
Sorry, but your interview lacks on the most important questions.
If your goal is to find the truth, you need data to backup his claims.
You need to ask fundamental questions, otherwise this interview is nothing else than a promotional video. Which makes me wonder: Are you getting any commissions, any affiliate links to his course? 🤣
#1: Math speaks clearly against it.
#2: Proof is missing. Why didn’t you ask for clarity if he is so transparent? TaxReturn, bank statements and invoices that proof his income is actually coming from his design service and not from his sold courses, he pushes and promotes via interviews/videos.
If he can’t proof his source of income and just one course customer sues him, ohh boy, I wouldn’t like to be under his skin. 😅⛓️💥