I’ve had a hell of a journey. How I went from making $35 for MySpace pages to making $800+/hour as a branding strategist. Long ass thread for my black creatives:
My humble beginnings began in 2007/2008. I’ve always loved making templated web pages and customizing social media profiles (Black Planet and MySpace lol).
I graduated HS in 2008 in PA (near Pittsburgh). I was supposed to go to Penn State University and study communications or something. But I drank a lot in HS and me and my best friend at the time got drunk and posted it on our MySpace and her mom saw it and told my mom. 🤣
The summer after I graduated my parents moved to Charlotte, NC. My mom made me go to a local community college cuz she thought if I want to Penn State I’d turn into an alcoholic. 🤣 Anyway. I thought my life was over. I felt ashamed for going to a community college.
During my first semester I met a guy who asked me if I knew how to design custom MySpace pages. 🤓🤓🤓🤓 The nerd in me jumped out. He offered me $50 to design a MySpace page. FIFTY DOLLARS?! Hell yeah.
When I knew I could get paid to do something I loved, I started taking it so seriously. I’d sit on YouTube on the school computer for HOURS learning how to design on Photoshop and make moving graphics in Flash. 😩 I was charging $10 for club flyers and $35-$50 for MySpace pages.
In 2009 I had met this girl on Twitter (who is still 1 of my best friends to this day). She was really well connected in Charlotte and put me on. I was making club flyers for almost all of the parties in Charlotte. My price went from $10 to ~$60/flyer as I got better & faster.
As most graphic designers do, I started dabbling in other designs. Business cards. Logos. Ad graphics. Etc. Aaaaand as I got better as a MySpace designer, I told people I was a web designer. Hint: I had never designed a website from scratch in my life. 😂
Whatever. MySpace coding had to be the same as website coding. 🤷🏽♀️ Somebody paid me $300 to design a website. Baby girl was SWIMMING in money. I went RIGHT on YouTube to figure out how the heck to design a website from scratch using Photoshop and Dreamweaver.
Website was fugly but the client liked it. 😂 My clients were reality tv starts and club promoters and radio hosts. All they cared about was having their face on their own platform and looking cool. Branding. I was helping people build their brand before I knew what branding was.
From 2008 – 2011 (18-21) I was probably making up to $1,000/month as a designer. I didn’t have bills so that was good money to me. I was still in college and wasn’t taking it seriously enough to graduate “on time”. Here’s where things started to change…
After 3 years I had a pretty okay portfolio. And I had learned a lot about aesthetic. Apparently not everything needs a glow, gradient, drop shadow, and bevel. 🥴 I went on trusty dusty Craigslist to search for some gigs and came across an internship for $10/hour.
The position was for a graphic design and marketing assistant. For whatever reason I felt really confident that I would get hired. I didn’t have a car at the time so I paid a $60 cab fair to get to the interview. 🤷🏽♀️ I ended up getting it and learned SO much.
I was designing for a healthcare Medicare company (that eventually got acquired by a Fortune 500 company) and learned a lot about brand style guide. Their design rules were STRICT. I had really mastered corporate design. This was my first “job”. I was a contractor.
That consistent check was 🔥 Sis was out here working working. Meanwhile I had my associates degree from the CC at that point but I was on probation at UNC Charlotte cuz my grades were trash. 😩 My Liberian daddy was ashamed honey. 20s are a struggle.
Anyway I did this for a year. Completely rebranded myself. Positioned myself as an agency owner. And instead of doing one logo or one flyer or one graphic, I PACKAGED my offers. I started to rid of a la cart. Also, I learned about taxes. 🤕 🤢 😭
Keep in mind I had never had a real job as an adult so I didn’t know about taxes.😢 Anyway. What I learned the first four years:
1. Get great at your craft.
2. Take risks (i.e. $60 cab ride)
3. Learn as much as possible.
4. Increase your rates as you get better.
5. Sell packages.
At this point I’m making about $2,500/month. I went from studying my SKILLSET (design) to studying EXPERTS. Game changer bih. I watched how other agency owners showed off their portfolio and marketed themselves. I got much better at positioning myself as a quality designer.
This is when I started learning even more about marketing. I signed up for a webinar in 2014 & purchased a $150 EMAIL COURSE & EBOOK at the end. I think this was my first “big” educational investment in my business. Best decision ever.
Some of y’all might be gagging at the idea of spending that much. You’ll be even more sick when I share how much I invested a year later.
The course was about how to double your rate as a freelancer. This is where I learned how to STOP pricing by time and START pricing by value.
Game changer. I went from ~$2,500 to ~$5,000 in months. $150 well invested.
Let me give a quick synopsis on pricing by VALUE instead of pricing by TIME (or materials).
As a web designer I could have a blanket price of $100 per page. And an extra $60 if you want a form on the site. Price based on time/features.
Let’s say I’m designing a website for a realtor. They need a form to generate leads. If a lead converts they make about $4k….
You’re making $4k from your website from ONE customer. And I know that. Doesn’t seem out of pocket to pay ~$3,000 for a website now does it? Unless you want to miss out of $4,000+.
Price based on value.
So what have we learned from 2012-2014?
1. Study experts. Your skills will only take you so far. Become an expert, not a skillful freelancer.
2. Invest in good marketing/biz advice specific to ur industry.
3. Learn how your skill adds value to your customer. Price based on that.
At this point I’m 24 and making $5,000/month. I dropped out of college cuz I preferred education via YouTube and webinars. I started blogging about my journey as a FT freelancer and how I helped my clients build their brand. Ppl started seeing me as an expert because of my blog.
2014 was the first time I started charging for business/branding advice. I did it because people wanted to pick my brain or always “hop on a quick call” and I was over it. I think I started charging around $50/hour. Then eventually had like a $125 package that included 3 calls.
I was new as a “coach”. Didn’t know what I was doing. Just knew I wasn’t gonna do it for free. 🤣
I became more confident w/ coaching calls when I created an outline for each call (everyone asked the same things.)
I broke down branding into purpose, positioning, presentation.
And I used those 3 principles to guide my calls. What’s the purpose of your brand? How do you want to be seen? What do your visuals look like?
Having that framework also landed me my first speaking gig in 2015 at Blogalicious.
CREATE YOUR OWN SIGNATURE PROCESS. Game changer.
<anytime I say “game changer” you should take notes>
So in 2015 I’m started doing income reports for two reasons:
1. I wanted to show people how to make money as a designer and what it realistically looked like.
2. I wanted to track the % of revenue I was earning from coaching.
Most of them are archived, but I made a few public for you to view: https://www.mayaelious.com/category/blog/income-report/ …
***If you’ve never set a SPECIFIC revenue goal for yourself, go set one now. And go increase your prices if you’ve been pricing out of fear.***
After writing down your revenue goal, I want you to write down your existing BUSINESS expenses. How are you currently investing in you? 🤔
I really really really want creatives to stop being scared to spend money as if you don’t have the ability to make it RIGHT back.
Imagine if I would’ve scoffed at that $60 cab ride. Imagine if I would’ve scoffed at that $150 course. Don’t let ego around who/what “deserves” your money have you sitting in the same place year after year. Stop hoarding this money. It’s nothing compared to the bigger picture.
***And don’t let a average, small minded people tell you that you’re silly for investing in yourself. People will shame you for making big faith moves. Let them talk while you move in silence. Not everyone deserves to know the plans you and God have going on.***
Investing in yourself/biz is honestly less about the person/company you’re giving the money to and more about if you believe you’re worthy of putting $$ into yourself and flipping it. I knew I was gonna get that job. I knew that course was gonna impart wisdom that I didn’t have.
Be humble. Go look at my expenses again from my income reports. How much do you think you’re going to have to put in to get $100,000 out? Think like that.
So circle back to 2015. I was signed up to hella email lists. Studying experts. And one day I paid $45 to go to seminar on how to make money speaking. My ticket allowed me to bring a friend for free. I loved this lady’s presence and honestly felt I could be as successful as her.
I was 24 and knew I wanted to grow my brand as a designer and blogger. After the seminar she extended an offer to her 3 day live event for $997. *gulp* Quite a jump from $45 sis 🥴 I signed up for the payment plan. My friend decided not to move forward. Her biz never took off.
Something in me just likes to bet on myself. When I invest in myself, my primary thought isn’t “I just gave this person $____.” It’s “I believe I’m worth $____.” Complete mindset shift. My bet and faith is on/in me, not the other person.
I’m not gonna lie and act like it’s just EASY to keep investing in yourself. When that money would draft, I’d be like okay. Welp. Whew. But who cares about easy? I want success. Getting there isn’t always easy.
Also during this time, one of my most consistent clients was @thefinancebar. She always told me to save my money. I thought $5k/month was money money 🤣 why did I need to save if I was gonna make it right back? But I listened! I had about $3,500 saved I think.
So a couple months later I’m at the live event. I’m the second youngest person in the room full of black female entrepreneurs. Before the 3 days ends, she extended another offer to be in her 12-month mastermind. $12k in full or $15k with payment plan. My chest.
$60 I can do.
$150 I can do.
$45? No sweat!
$997. Ok you pushing it. 😏 But here go ya deposit.
$15,000 sis?!?! I mean she asked for that money like she was asking to hold a dub.
Well well don’t you know my ass paid that $3,000 deposit cuz I just happened to have it from saving.
Ironically two months ago I had my first 3 day live event for $997. ( http://www.builttoimpact.com ) I almost made tickets $500. She told me no way. 80 women signed up. Four years later she’s still in my life. Investment is still paying off. Here we are at her baby shower last month.
I could go on about the ironies of our paths crossing, but I’ll just say thank you Lord and thank you self.
It means something to see someone WHO LOOKS LIKE YOU confidently standing in their power and being hella rich. I wanted that for myself.
I could go on about the ironies of our paths crossing, but I’ll just say thank you Lord and thank you self.
It means something to see someone WHO LOOKS LIKE YOU confidently standing in their power and being hella rich. I wanted that for myself.
So. Getting to $8,000+ months. I’m still in this season where I’m studying experts. Not studying what they SAY but what they DO. How often are they blogging? What does their site look like? What type of content are they creating? What’s their social media strategy? 🤔
I started feeling more confident by watching successful people do successful people ish. During this time Periscope became hella big and fortunately I had been practicing speaking and doing videos so hopping on a live video felt natural to me. My brand blew up on periscope.
I was giving so much free game on there about blogging and brand building and content creation. I started selling masterclasses and courses from $67 – $497. And people bought. People really trusted me. My visibility was crazy. I was going from designer to brand expert.
By 2016 I was hitting $10,000/month a consistently. I remember I would screen shot my bank account and send it to @thefinancebar just in case I’d never see that much money again. $10k in cash at 25 was magical to me. I mean it’s still magical now.
This was such a fun season. I loooooved the hustle. I was cranking out content like CRAZY. Anybody else remember the Periscope era? I was extremely visible, super consistent, and shamelessly promoting myself. I started becoming a *public figure*.
2016 til now became less about biz strategy and more about mindset and my faith. There’s been SO much trial and error. My faith walk with Christ shifted a lot and I read so many great mindset books. I struggled believing that I could really CHARGE charge.
Something that helped me really see my value was getting testimonials. I had a lot of impact. I was really changing people’s lives. That made me feel good. And the ~$800/hour was kind of just inevitable after 10+ years being in the branding space.
I never only ever did ONE hour for that price because for it to really be worth it I needed more time. People would pay me $5000 for a 6 hour day to help them build out a launch that would help them generate $10,000+. It was easy math. The value was obvious to my ideal client.
I talk a little bit more about that in this free playbook. http://www.mayaelious.com/playbook
Anyway. I hope my journey has inspired you. I hope you implement whatever you’ve learned, increase your value, and go make more money. Part of the reason I was able to confidently charge people early on was because someone OFFERED to pay me for my time and skillset for something I was doing for free (MySpace). When people believe in you enough to give you money for your gifts, it can change everything for you. I’ve had clients that saw more in me than I saw in myself. This is why I happily give money to creatives on here. When you start making good money, PASS ON THIS SAME ENERGY.