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Spruce Your Studio

Your one & done solution for building a friction-free design studio that includes:

  • Zero revisions.
  • Zero stress.
  • And repeat clients.

SWIPE THE COMPLETE SYSTEM NOW

Have you ever wondered how to get “premium” clients that give you zero revisions and repeat work?

  • A standout Instagram presence?
  • A beautiful portfolio?
  • A highly converting website?

While each of these is a great effort, I believe there is one thing that will give you premium design clients every time.

A premium friction-free process.

… but the industry standard most of us have been taught doesn’t consider the client psychology that goes into getting zero revisions that build trust for monthly retainers.

AT LEAST NOT IN A WAY THAT:
  • Has clients approving the first proof 95% of the time
  • Perfectly blends client involvement while allowing the designer to lead
  • Encourages clients to book repeat work
  • Allows you to have harmony in your schedule
  • Avoids overwhelm with pricing and project management

The industry standard teaches presenting multiple design concepts… leading to multiple revisions. Custom proposals for each client (new and old)… that leads to pricing overwhelm, and often under-pricing repeat design work. Retainers that don’t set appropriate boundaries for clients… leading to anxiety at the end of the month scheduling unused hours.

I know this because for years I followed the industry standard as I thought it was the only way.

The industry standard for working with design clients is flawed.

Here’s the gist:

  • Send custom proposals for each client — every project is unique, so the price should be as well.
  • Niche your offering — the more niche you get, the better. (now to only try to narrow your interest!)
  • Present multiple design options to the client — show them that you’ve done the work, and include them in the process!
  • Wrap up the project, and send a client gift — this will keep them coming back, right?!
  • Book more clients — to continue your business, you must attract new clients. (… but what about continuing with the clients you’ve already booked 🤔?!)
  • Work with multiple clients at a time — This is how you increase your income.
    Focus on your marketing — email marketing, Instagram, FB groups. That’s the secret to booking more, right?

Ooph. This sounds exhausting!

Not only can this lead to burnout & overwhelm, it also can lead to friction.

Friction between you and your client (hellllo endless revisions!), but also friction between you and the business you created.

Do you feel overwhelmed pricing design projects for new + repeat clients? Fatigued by endless revisions? Or like you “should” be marketing to attract more clients?

I totally get it.

Five years before starting Spruce Rd., I followed the industry standards. Whether at my in-house design jobs, agency, or freelancing on the side.

No matter the medium of design, or the workplace, I encountered the same friction points every step of the way.

Endless revisions and client-led designs made me feel:

  • Distrusted as the designer
  • Creatively stifled
  • Like a puppet executing a client’s design requests

To say it was frustrating was an understatement.

In response to industry conventions that just weren’t working for me (you might have heard me mention my short-lived job at a somewhat unethical design studio), I created Spruce Rd.

My goal was to shape my unique perspective into a friction-free design studio.

And it worked.

When I realized that 95% of the work I delivered got zero revisions — a percentage that’s almost unheard of in the design industry — I knew I was onto something, and that one day I’d share it all inside what became Spruce Your Studio.

And the cherry on top of those zero revisions? Easy, sustainable, repeat design work with clients I adored. Clients that I’ve worked with on a weekly basis for years. Projects that creatively light me up, and an easy, sustainable, design business.

I believe a friction-free design studio with repeat clients is achievable for every designer. You just need the process to court your clients!

Spruce Your Studio will help you:

  • Simplify your studio — by creating a signature service, and repeat client framework
  • Snag zero revisions constantly — follow our Zero-Revision Method to gain trust from your clients, protect your peace from endless revisions, and more time back to your studio.
  • Easily price your services — no complex math or guesswork on the “value” of your services. Follow our straightforward methods to streamline your process, and ease pricing confusion.
  • Book profitable repeat client work — this is where the secret is to a sustainable, easy, and profitable studio that serves your clients well! Our unique design day model works best for repeat clients and retainers.

If you focus on getting zero revisions and repeat clients, you’ll have a friction-free design studio that brings harmony to your studio, and profits to your pockets.

Without needing a new marketing strategy, loads of followers, or a website overhaul ;).

Module 1

Your Sold-Out Signature Service

  • How to package and position your core service to attract ideal clients (and nope! This doesn’t mean you need to “niche”)
  • Real examples for packaging design services that sell
  • Simple strategies to define your ideal client, so you can tailor your offering specifically for them
  • The skinny on pricing methods: The pros + cons of a flat rate, hourly, day rates, value-based, trade work and retainers, and when we recommend you use (or don’t use!) them.
Additional Resources:
  • Expert training with my business strategist on building enticing packaged services (including my top 3 examples of designer-specific packages!)
  • My top 5 real designer sites so you can see examples of what works for our industry leaders.
Module 2

The Zero-Revision Method

  • The secrets behind the Zero-Revision Method: How to discover what your clients actually want, nail your One Design Solution, and deliver it to your client
  • Client Psychology: The psychological explanation behind client decision-making, and how to use this to your advantage without manipulation (pssst—most designers miss this!)
  • My complete end-to-end client process for our signature service: Steal it for your own studio, it’s yours for the taking!
  • How to guarantee a stellar client onboarding experience, including our script for consultation calls to get clients on board with our Zero-Revision method (and weed out the red-flag clients, in a nice way, of course!)
  • Client case study: An audio recording of our team presenting the first proof of the One Logo Solution, the client discovery proof that preps clients for Zero-Revisions, several links of our exact client presentations, and our client messages.
  • How to get out of common sticky client situations, so you never feel tongue-tied on how to respond when a client goes out of scope, doesn’t like your designs, or has less-than-ideal feedback (these situations won’t be common anymore once you’ve nailed this module!)
Additional Resources:
  • Our response to client feedback, so you can direct your client to a winning design (even if their feedback isn’t ideal). Yes, you can tactfully say no, and I’ll show you my word-for-word reply — because I’m a people-pleaser, too!
  • Answers to common questions such as purchasing fonts or assets for client projects, what to do if your client needs more revisions, or a client goes out of scope.
  • Our project management and proposal software set-up
Module 3

Repeat Clients

  • Get started with our unique Design Day model — from one-off days to retainer day rates.
  • How to successfully incorporate a day rate service into your studio so that you’ve got easy and reliable repeat client services. Goodbye complex quotes, timelines, and pricing!
  • My secrets to trimming down your marketing efforts by landing repeat clients (it’s money on autopilot and takes so much stress out of running a business!)
  • How we balance day rates with our core service, and our unique retainer models (our students have booked 3-day rates right away, and some even earned $100k/year using these methods alone!)
  • Recorded Q&A with designers all about day rates. All your questions will be answered in this hour-long Q&A session
Additional Resources:
  • Behind the scenes of our weekly half-day-rate retainer service — how we structure our retainers, behind the scenes of our project management software, messages, and file delivery.
  • Incorporating day rates with a team — the pricing and process for collaborations

*Photo by Clara Jones Photography

Ohhh… this sounds good!

How much is the investment?

  • You could pay for a few university design classes — about $10k per semester. This is how I gained my 4-year designer education… and there was not one business course taught!
  • and I charge my clients $5,000 for our signature Zero-Revision brand identity packageAnd $1k+ for our design day service.
  • But the honest truth? I want to help designers eliminate friction in their design studio, work with lovely clients, and get easy repeat work. Our methods have worked for nearly 1,000 designers, and I’d love for more designers to enjoy a friction-free design studio.
  • You won’t pay $5,000. Or heck, even $1,000 🙂

Instead, you can get instant access starting at $497!

Get Started

BONUS #1

Client Swipe Files

A collection of 65 canned responses, perfectly bridging client boundaries and approachable communication.

Here’s just a handful of the scripts you’ll have at your fingertips:

  • Project inquiries — Responding to an ideal client, to saying “we’re not the best fit”
  • Proposals — Sending the quote, following up after no response, to when a client says your quote is too high.
  • Project communication — Every. Single. Message. You need to communicate throughout the project. Including project kick-off, gathering content, sending the proof, responding to not-so-ideal feedback, and more!
  • Client sticky situations — Responding to scope creep, letting a client go, responding to a client who has gone MIA, and much more.
  • Design days — Pitch your first design day, inform past clients you are transitioning to day rates, native files requests, book additional days with the client when you don’t finish a project, and more.
  • Ongoing client emails — Increasing your rates, testimonial requests, rush-fees, and more.
  • … and more!

Goodbye typing out similar responses over and over and umming and ahhing over what to say in your client communications.

“I love the swipe files. I open them up daily, haha!” – Natasia

“The swipe files alone have been completely worth the cost and have saved me so much time ALREADY. I’m NOT a writer and I’m super awkward and take forever to email and constantly have someone look it over or second guess myself 😂😭. I am so excited about this course and to implement everything. I already feel much more confident!” – Melanie

BONUS #2

Case study: $100k Day-Rate Annual Retainers

After implementing our Day-Rate system, Spruce Your Studio alumni Kaila of Dox Design sent me these messages about how she took Design Days to the next level:

“Design days were a game changer for us.”

“We just signed our 10th yearly bundle!” (… that’s over $100k/year in design days alone!)

“This was the piece I was missing in our follow-up process. It’s a natural next step since clients are usually pretty pleased with the brand, they are almost never hesitant to sign on for our yearly bundles!”

Kaila created a “Yearly Bundle” for her design day service — yielding $100k+ income in one year from her clients. It’s her spin on day-rates as retainers. In this case study video Kaila shares everything from marketing her annual bundles, pricing and the logistics. She’s 100% transparent!

BONUS #3

Discovery phase bundle

One secret to getting consistent Zero-Revisions? A bulletproof discovery phase.

Here’s what’s included:

  • Brand Identity Design Client Questionnaire — get to know your client + their customers thoroughly through the exact questionnaire our team uses.
  • Web Design Client Questionnaire — gather all the web-specific details, and use our trick to gather content early. We know this can make or break a project!
  • Discovery phase template — Use our simple Discovery Phase template to walk clients through the strategy. Included are the questions we ask during this phase, that help us nail it!

“Today I had a meeting with a client to go over the Discovery Phase and she got so emotional through the process that she cried! It was lovely to see that we were connecting on a deeper level and that she truly appreciated the work I had put in. The little things I’ve implemented so far from the course are really paying off. It’s been rewarding on every level!” – Belen

BONUS #4

Design presentation bundle

Ready to make the Zero-Revision process even easier? Snag our design presentation bundle so that you can prep presentations quickly, and professionally.

Here’s what’s included:

  • 20 custom mockup photos — Easily update your brand presentations with our custom mockups. A few clicks and you’ll have perfectly styled and customizable mockups within minutes! (these are the exact photos our team has used for years!)
  • Design presentation template — Showcase your design proofs in a proven successful presentation — this is our secret sauce and it’s yours for the taking!
  • Brand rationale copy template — Not only will you have the design assets to sell your design presentations, you’ll have the words to back up your work. Vetted by our copywriter, this plug-and-play template provides a strategy framework to sell your design presentations.

“I used your Zero-Revision Method for the first time and I had ZERO changes!!!! It was unbelievable, that has literally neer happened to me doing brand work! There’s always something, even if it’s a super small change, and I had NONE when I presented only one logo and talked through my rationale!!!

My client even complimented me on my design of the presentation and said the way I kept building upon the logo to show how all of the branding came together, and the points I spoke to, were so helpful and made her feel super confident in the direction I took it. I was freaking out and SO SO happy! I can’t thank you enough! Your SYS course was immensely helpful and necessary to propel my business forward in an efficient and realistic way.” – Ashley

BONUS #5

Automated brand guideline template

Equip your brand identity design clients with a comprehensive Brand Guideline PDF.

In this 20+ page InDesign template, you’ll find:

  • Automations! Saving brand guidelines can eat up your time, so to make it easy, I’ve created a unique + simple automation to easily update your brand guideline for each client.
  • Beautiful and minimal layouts to allow your client’s brand to shine.
    Thoughtful guidance to equip your client to know how to use their brand moving forward.
  • Professional yet approachable communication style that makes reading brand standards enjoyable and informative.
  • Standards that exceed your clients expectations! We’ve gone above and beyond, and shown how the brand can easily be expanded. Minutes to update, yet so impactful for your clients!

Here’s what you’re getting with the Spruce Your Studio program:

  • All 33 core Spruce Your Studio videos with 10 hours of training ($5,000 value)
  • Best Design Business Resources: our coveted list of best designer contracts, project management systems, books and tools ($100 value)
  • BONUS: Client Swipe Files — A collection of 65 client swipe files. From project inquiry, completion, to day-rates. ($150 value)
  • BONUS: Case study: $100k Day-Rate Annual Retainers — SYS Alumni Kaila shares how she uses day-rates as annual retainers (yielding her over $100k/year) ($300 value)
  • BONUS: Discovery phase bundle — Comprehensive brand + web questionnaires, and our discovery phase template setting the foundations for zero revisions. ($100 value)
  • BONUS: Design presentation bundle — 20 custom brand mockup photos, our brand presentation template and the brand rational strategy copy template ($200 value)
  • BONUS: Automated brand guideline template — 20+ page automated and comprehensive client brand guideline ($300 value)

Total value of the program = $6,000+

Don’t want the bonuses?

If for some reason you don’t want any of the bonuses, I’m offering a “core” version of Spruce Your Studio.

You’ll get all 33 videos of the course and the resources. But, you won’t get the swipe files, annual retainer case study, discovery phase bundle, design presentation bundle or automated brand guideline bonuses.

  • All 33 core Spruce Your Studio videos with 10 hours of training ($5,000 value)
  • Best Design Business Resources: our coveted list of best designer contracts, project management systems, books and tools ($100 value)
  • BONUS: Client Swipe Files — A collection of 65 client swipe files. From project inquiry, completion, to day-rates. ($150 value)
  • BONUS: Case study: $100k Day-Rate Annual Retainers — SYS Alumni Kaila shares how she uses day-rates as annual retainers (yielding her over $100k/year) ($300 value)
  • BONUS: Discovery phase bundle — Comprehensive brand + web questionnaires, and our discovery phase template setting the foundations for zero revisions. ($100 value)
  • BONUS: Design presentation bundle — 20 custom brand mockup photos, our brand presentation template and the brand rational strategy copy template ($200 value)
  • BONUS: Automated brand guideline template — 20+ page automated and comprehensive client brand guideline ($300 value)

You can get the “Core” version of Spruce Your Studio for $497.

Select which option is right for you!
Core
The essentials

$497

or 3 payments of $179

  • Spruce Your Studio course (33 videos)
  • Best Design Business Resources
  • BONUS: 65 Client Swipe Files
  • BONUS: Case study: $100k Day-Rate Annual Retainers
  • BONUS: Discovery phase bundle (brand + web questionnaires, discovery phase template)
  • BONUS: Design presentation bundle (Brand mockup photos, brand presentation template, brand rational copy)
  • BONUS: Automated brand guideline template
  • Join Now
Complete
Best value!

$697

or 3 payments of $245

  • Spruce Your Studio course (33 videos)
  • Best Design Business Resources
  • BONUS: 65 Client Swipe Files
  • BONUS: Case study: $100k Day-Rate Annual Retainers
  • BONUS: Discovery phase bundle (brand + web questionnaires, discovery phase template)
  • BONUS: Design presentation bundle (Brand mockup photos, brand presentation template, brand rational copy)
  • BONUS: Automated brand guideline template
  • Join Now