 All right, we're recording. All right. Cool. I'm just going to check on our Facebook real quick just to make sure you know I Know we had quite a few people saying they're going to make it. I just want to see if anybody is Has any questions or Trying to log in or anything like that. So okay nothing yet. All right All right, so look at I'm really excited about this I didn't know you know What kind of turn out was going to be this is the first call and I'm really hoping that this is the first call of many My plan is to have one of these calls every single week now about these calls, too I don't want to run them like a webinar and I really don't want it to be like a webinar webinar style I want something I'm hoping to be I'm hoping to be more more Where everyone's involved in you know, like I really want this to be something that's like open where anybody could ask questions Everyone's voices or it's more of a group thing instead of just one person because I already know just by looking at this group There's a lot of people in here with a lot of experience a lot of value that could add to this group And I'm really hoping that you know others can contribute to this and we could all help each other and You know myself. I'm here to learn as well You know, that's one of the biggest things I get out of this is you know I'm in the process of learning trying to grow my business and trying to learn the whole business side You know because the thing is when I started freelancing I didn't have like a group like this I had a couple people and I was very lucky to have those couple people to help guide me along the way Kind of help with like sort of mentorship, you know, like there's always questions You know, like being a new freelancer starting to build websites are free. I mean not for free. I should never say The website is a freelancer. It's just got a little tongue twister as a freelancer, you know, like I didn't know how to do this stuff I don't know how to do the business part. How do I deal with clients when a client does? How do I handle that situation? You know, I was lucky to have a couple people I could go to and that's like Okay, my client's doing this. What do I do? You know, but at the same time You can't just ask too many you can't put too much stuff on one person, you know So having a group like this, I'm hoping that this opens up like a community where we could come to each other with these things You know where something comes up a question comes up or you know, because it's always something new every project still to this day After years, I still got new things coming up where you know, I got more experience now But you know, I still got questions, you know, I'm still learning and so that's my goals and my hopes for this group Cool, cool. So All right, so I'm gonna have to get the hang of using the controls Was zoom, but I have a feeling I spent the last hour playing around with it so I pretty much almost got it and We got a slide we're gonna go off of so, you know, this is gonna be call number 001 and it's building a portfolio and You know, so on this call and this is how I want, you know looking at all groups to go like I want it to be interactive I want everybody to have a chance to participate Everyone is welcome to ask a question everybody's questions will get heard no matter what And also, you know, the questions other people with experience could help answer other people's questions and get feedback So it's not just going to be me answering everything, you know, we really want to encourage others With the experience also jump in and help out, you know with other, you know, other questions to help other people Just one thing to keep in mind like going forward, we'll just go ahead and mute everybody's mics and You know when it's time for your question When you want to ask a question, there's this little thing right over here on more where you could raise a hand It's an awesome feature with zoom and it'll let me see whose hand is raised So that way we don't miss anybody and by doing this as well It gives everybody a chance and there's no talking over, you know, each other We could keep it like organized because I'm really hoping we build this up where there's a lot of people Like, you know, we can make this pretty big right here. I know this is just the first one But, you know, so if we could just use this raised hand feature keep your mic Muted until it's time and you know, I'll go ahead and keep an eye on the raised hands Something comes up. I'll go ahead and you know, I'll go ahead and call on you and just unmute it You know, it's it's your your time your show All right, so let me see. Welcome to the first call I'm really excited because today we just hit 500 members inside the group I'm so excited to see that the group has, you know, already started growing And I started seeing I like I'm excited to see so many people can't see a group like this Get out value as far as helping them with their business. So, you know Let me don't want to ramble on but yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. Um, keep it going. So let's just go ahead and start All right. Why is the portfolio so important? First off, before we get into it, does anybody else here want to go ahead and introduce themselves? Does anybody have any anything they want to jump in and say, right? I think you have to force us. You have to pick on us, Jeff There's not too many to pick on right now. So I'll help you out. My name is Moran. I'm from America, but I've lived in Southeast Asia for Gosh four years now and I just started a little agency in Bali. So I've had a little agency for About one year and Jeff and I have been buddies for gosh, how long? four years Yeah, so it's exciting to be here at the beginning of this with with him and with all you guys I'm glad to see you here, you know Yeah, I'm just gonna Look at when I started off I had two people and that that helped me out that like mentored me and that guided me and Lauren was one of them You know, I'm really like glad to see you know for hearing on this journey as well All right, cool. So I'm just gonna go ahead and go into the slide and let's just go ahead and get into the topic and that is Let me do the screen. I gotta get used to doing the screen share. So All right, and that is going to be why a portfolio is so important And you know, like, uh, I just want to start off by by, you know, just being open and clear Like I just want to be open and clear about where I'm at as well inside my journey, you know, building my web design business Uh, so a portfolio Hasn't been something that I put a lot of my time and energy into You know, it's something that I overlooked. Uh, I was always doing really well with getting repairing business off of referrals And, you know, just ongoing business with clients. Like my strong point has always been with, uh, taking care of clients You know, and I had experience from my, uh, previous, you know, work that I used to do With doing customer care. So I never really put in too much, uh, effort into my portfolio And so last year, you know, I was looking, uh Last year I was at the point where I'm like, I need a scale. I need to grow And I got involved in a group like this And that was just like the big game changer for me because I got involved in a group It was very similar to to this right here But it was also from people from other sides of creative industries But, um, you know, like I really started to learn about scaling and growing and putting my effort into it And, uh, I got to connect with, uh, people also inside the industry with others in there at a lot higher levels And one of those levels, um It was somebody they worked for another, uh, design agency Their minimum level of engagement was $50,000 For a regular website I'm talking about, uh You know a basic WordPress website whether it was with Elementor or however it was built It would start off at $50,000 And they got so many leads that they couldn't even take on all their jobs And I got the opportunity to talk to, uh, one of the guys that, you know, runs that agency right there And we had a good hour long call And you know, I really wanted to find out how they got there You know, what did they do? Like what kind of marketing were they doing? See, I went into that call And my motive was to find out what marketing strategies they were using because that's where my focus was that was that marketing And so I went into the call And you know just really got to like get to know them and I finally asked them, you know, like what kind of marketing are you doing? And I was so surprised by their answer by his answer And, uh, he said they don't do any marketing That they don't do ads They don't do LinkedIn they don't put they've never done marketing that since day one the whole focus has been on Making their work look good and on their portfolio and displaying their portfolio and dribble That was it and that was like that that was just like a game changer for me. That's just like open that just like Open my eyes up to like, you know, where I really need to put a focus in You know, of course marketing is important But, you know, if you could just Level up your portfolio put all that care into it and make it look super dope that it could take you up to a level Where, you know, you could you could start to land those big clients so You know that that right there was my game changer and for like the last I don't know that was about eight months ago. Maybe six months ago I've started to put that my portfolio as top priority. I started to get involved and dribble I started getting involved with behance as well as my website, you know, there was also another article I read by some Oh, I did that just happen. That shouldn't even be in here. Sorry about that. Uh You know, I also read another article by another big agency And, you know, it was about their portfolio and about building it and how they never You know, it was a lot I could relate to how they didn't really put everything into the portfolio and going to stop sharing and You know that they also were were basically going through the crossroads I was going in where it was time to like, you know, like really level up the portfolio And what they had what they did was they implemented a rule inside the company and the rule that they implemented Inside inside their policy was That they never considered a project finished until they had the portfolio on their website and on all their social media channels And so after I read that and then also after that conversation I had I started to implement the same thing And I'm really hoping like this call for for everyone here Um, even though it's just a few number of us, you know that it could help, you know Change, you know the way we look at portfolio and just the importance of building a portfolio and I'm going to carry on I see there's only a few people here. I know it's the first call, you know But I'm not going to let that stop right now because I also know like we're going to record this and we're going to share it And hopefully like other people who are watching this later on that this could help out as well Um, you know as they're building their portfolio and using it to grow their web design business all right, so First off open it up. Does anybody have any questions any feedback anything? I see Not as of now we can begin. Thank you for me All right, cool. Everyone's good All right, cool. So Let me head and go back to our slide and share this All right, so first one. Um, what if you're new and you don't have work to show You know, this is something I went through as well And also one of the things that held me back One of the reasons why you know when I started off I did not put a portfolio as a top priority because I felt like I didn't have work to show I also felt like my clients. I mean, you know starting off clients are like mom and pops, you know, and It's like you're not getting those big names yet And this is also a question I asked on that phone call with that other, you know top agency And you know, they When we're talking he looked at me. He looked at my hat. He was like, dude It's like like right now. I'm wearing a volcom hat. He was like, dude It's like you like volcom, right? Once you do a concept piece on that And that's exactly what you can do. You know, you create your own So if you don't if you're just starting off right now You don't have to wait to land the big clients in order to start building a portfolio You start making your own portfolio right when you start And you know, what you want to look for is find out what you're passionate about You know, also look at what clients and industry you want to work with You know, do you want to work in the medical industry hotel industry? You know, think about the kind of clients that you like the kind of work that, you know, that sounds fun to you Pick those right there and make concept work around that You know, uh main thing is it's like you got to find out what what is fun for you What what you're passionate about What are you going to enjoy and if you're new and starting off? This is a very good time for you Really good time because you get to choose what you want to work with, you know, you can start off right now Uh, you know find out the industry the market what niche you want to do So if you're starting off right now, you don't have your portfolio bill, you know, look at the niche What kind of uh websites do you want to build and then go ahead and make some concept works around that And I had to take this quote right here I was doing a lot of research before this call and this quote just stood out to me Do not show work. You do not love doing I could spot it a mile away and that was from Christo, you know, one of the people that I learned from Uh And it just goes back to doing something you're passionate about if you don't like You know, if you don't like beauty products Don't do anything with beauty products, you know, like if it's not fun for you, you know, don't do it do what you have fun doing Uh thing is we're creatives And creatives have that energy, you know, we have that feeling we have that passion We have that drive so pick that thing, you know, you have that drive with All right, and so We're going to go ahead and start off with uh worse part one starting your portfolio All right, so where do you start off with so first off? We already established it doesn't matter if you're new you don't have a portfolio bill Or if you have a lot of experience and you already have, you know, a portfolio It could always be polished up. It could always be improved on So where do we start off with a first one? I would highlight would be the big three and that is going to be your website B hands and dribble now. I feel like uh, I feel like These last two get overlooked like with especially when newer designers and myself Included where I thought it was just my website and you know, if I could go back in time one thing I would have changed was I would have gotten involved with B hands and dribble from the very beginning Uh, you know started building that right there because these are very powerful tools right here for a designer And for building a portfolio You know another thing we want to start off with is the presentation So in your presentation when having a portfolio you basically have 10 to 15 seconds to catch someone's eye That's it, you know, it's just like a website when someone goes to that opening banner that opening statement You just have that quick bit of time, you know, uh Let me stop this screen share real quick, you know when you're getting on a website and You know, you have you have those first Few seconds really to cast someone like when you jump on the website, you know, you got to just you look at your portfolio the same way You got that opening and Someone needs to know exactly what they're there for in order to get them to scroll and start to learn more So the same ago for portfolio, you know, you got to be clear on what it is that you do You know, I've seen portfolios and mine used to be messy Where you know portfolio could be messy. It could be all kinds of stuff. You don't know What what are you designing? Are you doing, you know, business cards or you're doing websites or what is it? You know, so it's really important to have your presentation clear Show exactly what it is you do so it gets somebody to like understand what it is to dig more and to look And I just use the same analogy as a website on it Next one would be on focus versus range So there's like two different styles I'm sure there's more but the two main styles on the portfolio would be focus versus range Now focus it shows consistency and it also shows a deeper level of expertise You know, one thing about having a focused portfolio It will give you a better chance of getting the jobs that you want So for example, if you want to work inside the hotel industry, you just want to build websites For the hotel market if you have a focused portfolio Just on websites based on that market, you know, just designs that are for hotels You got a far better chance at landing those clients Uh, where range it shows versatility Now range could be good if you do, you know, if you don't stick with one market And you also do more than just websites, you know, a lot of designers here might also do brand assets like logos Like business cards and might have more to do So there's two different styles that you could use on here Both have their pros and cons But focus definitely Has uh, we'll get you really good results One thing about focus as well. There's a rule of three And the rule of three is just to show consistency Um, you know, so one thing to keep in mind I think this would even go with range where if you have at least three like, uh Showing the pattern. So if you're going to do like some logos and throw it on there So if you're going, oh Okay, cool I'm just trying to navigate around some of the stuff right over here So, you know, like the rule of three is, you know, showing some consistency. It's really good to have in your portfolio if Sorry, I see somebody's trying to get into the group. I want to make sure everyone can get in uh Yeah, so that rule of three showing the consistency making sure that, um You know, there's a pattern that it shows All right, so I'm going to go ahead and take a break for a second Let you guys, you know chime in. Uh, you know, this is a good time for q and a I don't see any hands up Yeah, feel free to jump in Yeah, open. It's open I'm going to drink water so you guys could jump in. All right So one thing we want to do as well in the presentation is showing the quality of work and just keep in mind That this will continue to evolve as your skills improve improve, I mean if you were to see my my Portfolio a few years ago. It was not good, you know, it wasn't even really a portfolio, you know, but like Every single year, you know, it's just constant improvement constant improvement One thing though you want to do is you want to stand out You want to do more than what others are doing, you know So it's really good to like, you know, get out there on b hands and take start looking at other people's portfolios If you're in a web design and making websites, which I'm sure you are because this is a group to help elementary users, you know Take a look at other people's portfolios for the websites. Where are they showing in their portfolios? You know, like I see portfolios And you know, I've made some of my own where it's just screenshots You know of the website and then you go into other portfolios There's a whole story of it is showing so much like you could tell There's a lot of work that went into the portfolio of justice one project You know, and you want to stand out you want to do more than what others are doing, you know, you want to show passion And you know when you are doing more you're showing that passion Uh, and then you want to make sure everything is highly polished You know, you want to take time on it on there and just showing the quality and constant improving constant improving constant improving on it So that's end of part one uh I'm still getting used to the screen sharing right here Now it's q&a Which I try to do a second ago, but it didn't go over so well All right, anybody got anything Want to add to this yo go for it Uh, so I have a question for Everyone who is here? Can you hear me first of all? Yes, perfect. Okay. So what I want to know is that What as per you is a better way of working on our strategy of building a business Will you go the focused way or will you go the ranged way because? um Why is that question coming up like, uh, for example, when I Post in facebook groups, for example, that you know, this is what my skills are So a lot of people try to come up and ask me, okay Show me your samples and what are your work and things like that But if I start niching down those people I might show away someone's who are not in my niche, you know So what do you think is a better way of approaching people? Like if I tell them I only make websites for travel industry Currently I'm working with a travel photographer and a travel riker So they are more or less in the same niche as me But let's say if someone all together new comes from a hotel industry And I only try to work on travel Will it not also kill my potential business if I tell him that you know travel industry is my niche Because if I can develop websites, I can develop any niche. Is it not the case? Right? I can develop a hotel websites. I can develop. It's nice to niche down I am with everyone on this but What do you think is a better way of approaching situation like this to anyone who wants to answer this question? Yes All right. Lauren you want to get this one? Pick it on me What do you want to do? Yes, um, so the idea is for example, uh, as I said if I'm working with the Niche on travel industry, right? Currently I'm working with two clients. One is a travel photographer and one is a travel riker So this is a focus portfolio, correct? correct, but what um, are you are you deciding this more from like a place of fear that you are missing out on No, no, it's just curious. Yeah Yes, this is not from a place of fear see because I Agree with the idea lauren that what is supposed to me will find my way to me, right? So this is not out of fear at all. This is just to know that Shall I target other niche industries or shall I just stick with travel? Will you recommend focused or will you recommend? range way of developing websites like come from travel industry some from hotel industry some from NGO industry, so what is your take on it? It's not about losing clients. It's about What is what do you think is a better way of making and focusing your projects on by picking? What one shall you pick? You are the picker here. That's sure. Yes, Jeff Jeff and I can certainly both answer to that if you're just looking for opinions not necessarily like trying to dig into your uh Why the wise I niche down Hardcore, um, Jeff did not he's kept his more broad I work only only I still take on clients that are other I we still work with the law firm, but we try to just work with nonprofits and social enterprises The reason why I decided to do that was for our own marketing efforts Because when I have Okay, I know this is a nonprofit You know founder then I can find what They're looking for and tailor my message towards them specifically Um, I've heard cases I haven't had this experience myself, but I've heard cases of people losing to the niched Expert so to speak because that person understood their industry better um So I feel like that for me with a nonprofit of yes, I have all these other nonprofits. I've helped I can help you because Uh, because I understand your struggles specifically Now with that said I have done, you know, just this last year a startup another lawyer um ecotourism, you know, like a lot of things besides Besides like preventing human trafficking um Sometimes they've always concerns, but usually it's it's more long lines like well Is this the style of work that you're looking for rather than like I know 100% your your industry I I lean on the side of niching. Um, but I think Jeff is if you want to Be the opposite Yeah, we would love I would love to listen some opinion from jeff as well on this one Thank you lord and first of all, I do appreciate your answer over there. Sure. No problem Well, first I I understand exactly what you mean because I've gone through it, you know last year Last year, you know, uh, I was presented with the first time when niching down and I try to niche down Niche down. There's there's more and more always to niche down. There always is. There's the market. There's you know, they're the service You know, so Like right now, let me ask are you already niching down right now? um as of now jeff I am Not niching down right now because if I tell you these are the initial few steps You know the starting steps of me building websites because how it happened was initially I made some websites for myself and some of my friends, you know Like just to have a portfolio like you did do it for yourself, you know I was not looking to find the client straight up So I made some travel websites because I travel I have a travel blog I have couple of friends who have a travel blog. So I work for them Now I am accepting the clients not niching down in one word I am looking what is their need and if I can fulfill that requirement. Yes So as of now, I am keeping it washed from travel industry to also hotel line Yes, not accepting everything which comes because I have to be particular about if I can really meet their requirements Is my question. I do not want to take every job possible on earth, right? I have to see what is possible and can I really do that? But after asking this question to myself that can I really do that? And if I feel that yes, I can do that depending on my password, then I take over the project This is how I'm working currently. That's how what my idea is and that's why I want to learn more about People from more people that what is a better strategy to work over there? Yes as a beginner? This is me only creating maybe Four websites now for four clients and four five for my own which is for my portfolio. That's all my work background. That's all Okay. Well First just to address the fear of niche and losing business um Other businesses that I've seen that niche down to a market do very well In fact, I have from it sounds like it's easier for them you know like and I've had that same fear, but the results are there And also there that it's a lot easier to niche down, you know, okay I could speak on my experience why you know, I have a niche down is I haven't found a passion You know, I don't have like the travel blog. I don't have like the travel and adventure like it sounds like you got the passion Right already, which is awesome. That's amazing to have. I don't have that, you know That's why I haven't chosen industry. You know, I have chosen a client. I've leased down to a specific client I've done that But but also like going back to the portfolio side You know by niching down on a portfolio And by focusing and getting a focused portfolio on one topic You are going to get better results and that that's just that's just the facts right there You know, okay, sounds good the clients that you want. So if you're looking for the adventure clients You know the travel ones, you know, the ones are like backpacking and going through the Himalayans and all that kind of You know, you built your focus portfolio on it. That's what you're gonna get Okay, sounds good that that pretty much answers my question. But yes, it's um as loren said It's not more out of fear, but it's more about to be creative with different industries You will miss out what you are supposed to miss out But as it's my initial steps baby steps into it So I just want to try my hands at you know, whatever I think I can do better. That's all about it But I appreciate you both for answering this for me and we can continue now. Thank you Cool. Cool. Thanks. All right. Does anybody else have any questions? Hi, I have a question today. Are you starting? Yeah, yeah, hey Uh, sorry, I cannot I cannot open up my camera Uh, for some reason that I have a kind of progress setting. I didn't I cannot figure out how to Turn out my camera anyway. So I'm in from Korea living in Chiang Mai and then I'm trying to make a website through my friends and like I made like Five or six website of my friend's website as a like kind of to make my portfolio So I trying to open up my own website to show like to show my Work, but the problem it's kind of funny thing. But like Once I look back on my work It looks not great to put enough on the website on my website as an example because you know, like it means I'm growing and like learning a lot through the work But they're like whenever I feel like I want to put the things that I did in the past Feels like it's kind of not Look good doesn't look good enough. And but it's already like this thing website I cannot ask my client again that oh, can I Fix it because I look back. It doesn't look good So I kind of have like hesitate to put on my like first three website from my website To my own website as a portfolio. So what would your your solution in this kind of case? I think many Like a freelancer has a kind of similar Like sometimes, yeah Yeah, it's never good enough for me I feel like it could always be better and it's that chasing perfection It's I think it's like a trap that I've I've fallen into and it's a problem for us Creatives of that perfectionism, you know that perfectionism that holds things back right there Let me ask like when you're adding the portfolio to your website. Are you showing like What you want to show or are you showing like uh, how the client's website is right now? Yeah, I would I would say second but the thing is I don't have a many examples yet So I only have a five website I think it's just like five is not enough to show or cut down the number Just if I just put two like Of the website I made I kind of feel like I did enough and then But do I really want to put the shitty website shitty looking website on the on the first place as well? I was Yeah, I keep just thinking and then didn't finish my website couldn't finish my website because of this reason Yeah Yeah, I wanted I for me I wanted to show The website what clients want to see That would be my answer actually. Yeah All right When you're showing your website when you're showing your work on your website, how are you showing it? uh I usually do the like kind of full screenshot of the website and then put the link in the button So they can like go through the link to see the website Okay, and that's exactly how I did mine too. That's how I'm doing it and this whole second part that we're about to get into is going to change all that right there because uh You know, we're going to about to get into the context and how to really show it because um Let me see should I do you know what? Yeah, I'll first answer it But then let me go ahead and show it share the screen and just dive right into because I feel like This next part is really going to help out with that right there All right, I'm gonna start this screen share All right, so the next part is going to be about showing context And I really feel like this right here could help you out with that Because I did the same thing where I just showed an image and I shared a link to the client's website and You know a lot of times too the clients especially new Like and I don't know, you know, we're getting newer You know smaller businesses they tend to make changes to the websites Uh The thing is when you're doing that and you're just showing The website with the image And just a link you're going to be judged on just by looks alone and everybody is subjective with their taste of design Including us and that's why as designers as a designer like It never looks good enough to me because i'm always trying to find that better design and then i'm always In the process of trying to get better And then you know when we're in while i'm in the process of trying to get better I see people with better designs that i'm trying that i'm aspiring To do You know and i'm like I like I work so hard i'm like and it comes out and like I finish it I'm like cool and then I see like somebody at the next level. I'm like damn You know like it's not even for them yet. I feel you I feel you But this is I think like look at one thing to keep in mind is that it's always going to be improving Whatever you have this year You know is next year is just going to way outdo it But you know, we still got to start somewhere and the first thing is to add context to it because Let me see here Uh, it needs to communicate to people Portfolio should not just show the image it needs to communicate So people can understand your work and your process And that's really the point of the portfolio. They got to get to know you and see your process The images and the design look at like if you do like like uh You know if you look at the websites that convert And that you know do sales a lot of them are really bad looking websites A crappy looking website could get a lot of sales and convert Versus a website that's got like a super dope design You know like like we got this case, you know and a lot of times too a client doesn't really know the difference between you know like Like you know something that's just like a really like new like, you know new trends and you know all this stuff in the design Uh, the most important thing though is instead of focusing just on the design aspect in the looks Is the focus on you and your process You know, what challenges did you solve in the project? What were the goals for the project? You know, what role did you play? What were the deliverables? What did you actually do for them? What was the outcome and you know, what impact did this have on your client's business? This is going to show what it's going to be like working with you And so by doing this, you're going to be taking all the attention off of Just the looks of the website and you're going to be putting it on what you're actually doing for the client Now when somebody hires us for a job, you know, they they're hiring us because they need help with their business You know, they might not even know the problem that they have They might not even know like What their website's really supposed to do for them, but as we go and gain experience And start like, you know, like learning how to really help out a client how to really find out their problems and solve it You know, this is the kind of stuff that we show inside our portfolio That does make a lot of sense to put all these points there All right. So man, does this help out in any way like, you know, starting off? Yeah, yeah, it is. Yeah All right, and awesome you're in Chiang Mai. I just have to say what's up Chiang Mai I Had a few other people from Chiang Mai and Bayon Cox said they're gonna show up. I'm gonna have to hit them up after the call All right, so You know, the big part of the portfolio and like the most important part is Going to be the context That is the most important part. That's where I That is, you know, that was my my fault in the very beginning You know, I did not know that I did not know really how to build it and how to really show a project But like each project has so much that you've done to it You know, it wasn't just building the website, you know, you have the interaction with the client You know, you have like all the there's so much that goes into it So why not show everything that went into the project? So your context and by showing it and by, you know, really describing the project and everything that you've done in it Uh, it's going to show people your process. It's going to help other people understand your process It's going to show how you work and how you think it's also going to show your personality And most importantly, this is a most important part. It's going to show you can be trusted You know, uh potential clients are going to look at several Uh portfolios if they look at a portfolio that just has images and links on it And then they look at another portfolio that really shows depth It shows, you know, your ideas. It shows solutions It shows, you know, everything about it. It's going to show the client What they're going to get and what they could expect working from you And I guarantee that you are going to outshine anybody that just has images You it's going to put you at another level All right, does anybody have any questions? Or any feedback as well anything I want to add especially, uh to the context part I just have a quick question like when you put up your Uh content on your website Do you usually use the perf reading or to ask other people to think like they can Get delivered, uh the content you what you want to say Over the text Wait, can you ask that again? Like like when you put up the content content On the website, do you use ask your friends or other people to read again? To make sure that like you can deliver what you want to say the client Many designer doesn't even put the content on their on their Website sometimes just to show more design skills then Do you mean like on your own website like your portfolio sections? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah your portfolio Yeah, would it be your own content that you're writing about the project? Yeah Uh, no, I don't ask I don't feel I have to and it's part of our contract You know in our contracts it always says that we could show this inside our project Okay. Yep. Thank you I learned not to ask Because I have an answer one time But but I mean it's usually not a problem if the client does, you know, they say they don't want this You know, like, you know, they they say look if we don't want you to show this as in your portfolio like I'll respect the clients wish But, you know, it would have to happen at the beginning because it is in our contract I don't want my work to go to waste You know, yeah, yeah for sure. Yeah, I put so much because I care You know, I'm not just flipping websites, you know, like I really care So I'm going to go the extra mile and No, I've never I've only had one situation. It was weird, you know Just the one it was very strange, but I mean it's it's all good You know, so it hasn't happened yet, but I think the next time it does happen. I'll raise my price Like I can't show it before that's no problem at all, you know, we're gonna have to add five thousand Anybody else have anything to uh put in it to say feedback questions Yeah, I I feel that asking questions like this as our other friend said is like Opening a can of worms for ourselves till it doesn't comes in the picture. We don't need to specify themself. It's good Why should we ask that, you know, shall I put it on a website because they do not know what are you going to do about that website? I always think that Like using their website as an example is kind of like on another way that I can promote their business Yes, that's true You can always say that the people who are coming to my portfolio will also come to your website So you are going to have some traffic through that as well. So it makes sense there and then yes No, thank you Yeah, if the project goes right the clients are just going to be happy You know, like I have a checklist now on our projects that you know every time we finish a project I go through this checklist. Um Here, let me just I got a right here just so I could you know read and pervade them So, okay, so our checklist is one uh to build a long-term relationship with the client Two is to make sure we try to get them on our maintenance plan Three is to get a good review on google facebook and clutch Four is a portfolio piece for our website Five is a dribble post six is pinterest seven is facebook eight is Instagram minus behance 10 is case study if possible proof of clients online growth And uh then 11 my highlight is each project should have several focuses aiming to grow our company So I kind of run through that checklist and I keep that like up there and available as we're working on the project And you know, the most important thing is well, they're all important You know, but a very important thing is a portfolio and not just for our website but showing across all Uh channels, you know, definitely behance. Definitely Uh dribble, you know, you can use facebook or instagram, but you know, I would just strongly suggest, you know, behance dribble and your website One other thing too about um sharing links to other people's websites I'm very hesitant about doing that because and even one thing i'm starting to do now is Uh, when I do a design like I create a maca first and I show the client the design And sometimes the client starts making changes and sometimes those changes that they want I don't feel like it would look good, but it's not, you know, totally up to me You know, like if the client wants to do something that I feel will really change the design and I like what I came up with better I'm going to show my design In the portfolio, you know, because it is what I did And also with the link going to the other websites I only show that link is if I'm managing their website and I know like, you know, like I'm on top of it I know it's going to look good. You know, I'm not going to share links to websites that I have no control over anymore Um, can I ask a question here? Yeah, um When you said this that you are not going to show the links for which you are not managing the client's website anymore Um, I had this thought in mind So in this situation, for example, you made a website and you are not managing it anymore But that design was maybe one of the ones you would like to portray in your portfolio So would you create a screenshot of the whole website and that is your portfolio there and a link But understandable that someone else is managing and they can make changes which are not yours. Is it a good idea to do like that? Right, or you will just take it away totally from your portfolio. Oh, no. No, I'll add it to my portfolio for sure Especially it's a key. I really like Yes, but when there we could do screenshots we could show the designs and then The whole content structure process About the links link and that's that's what the question. Thank you for answering that Sure All right, anything else If that's it, I think we're kind of like down to the wrap up right now Let me see here. Uh, let me See what slides I got left All right, so the end part the wrap up so I just you know, I You know going into this I did a lot of you know research I spent like two days on you know reading blogs and youtube and all that stuff and you know, I really think like This is the reason why I really like doing this right here too because I'm not just here to like teach like I really want to share my experience. I want to help New new designers developers freelancers, you know, I really want to help so you can learn You don't have to like make the same mistakes that I made and can go faster and I really Think like you know like inside the elemental community. There's tools now to even go faster like I really think like Oh, uh, there's some typing going on if you can hit Hit mute on that one right there. Oh good It's all good I really think like uh now with the tools that we got and like I hope like with a group like this Like people could go a lot faster inside their journeys inside their careers And can move up and avoid a lot of the pitfalls and one of the reasons why I'm doing this Is it gives me a chance to learn too because while I'm in this like I'm also learning and trying to improve Especially this topic right here. Like I need a step of my portfolio game So I got some challenges in this that I'm also going to challenge myself with But first one uh for the tips one of them is to focus on context Tell the story of the project that is The most important thing I believe in your portfolio to have that context that story And to have a good structure to it Another one is to keep showing your best work at the top Most of the time when people check the portfolio, they're going to take a look at whatever's on the top left Keep that in mind. Always make sure you got the best at your top left Show personality inside your projects. You know, uh, do more always do more add more spend more time In putting that portfolio together Be clear about what it is that you do if you're designing websites, you know, make it clear that this is what you do You're your web designer Work on consistency. Keep in mind that magic number three If you're going to like do banner designs, you know, make a consistent, uh, you know Consistent spread on banners same thing with landing pages and etc Uh do more than others Show scale use like, you know, use the desktop use the mobile frames If you're doing other things like brand assets like logos and and things like that do the You know, show what it looks like on business cards Show what it looks like with other people, you know add different perspectives Not just the screenshot. You want to show what it looks like in real time. It's a huge help to show that I mean, you see like the the photos of like, you know, some stock photo what it do like on his computer But like showing like what the website looks on that computer What it does is it shows real life Of what the design will look like And another one is just keep focusing on the quality of work keep putting the quality of work Up there, but do you know what I want that that that phone call I had last year with that other agency When they told me they scaled up their business to that level and they got that size of clients All because they focused on the quality of their work And you know that that just showed me the potential That I could do not some fancy marketing trick not some, you know, all there's a you know, just just the quality of it and The two big things not to do Have no context Don't have just images and the other one is spelling errors. Make sure you have no spelling errors. You will lose jobs with that Yeah, I have I have a talk about the portfolio Maybe this is uh, this is important. I think portfolio is uh tools to communicate with your client I think it's important and design is all about I don't know it's it's it's talk about problem-solving. So if we know about design, what is it design and what is this what is Portfolio, I think from problem-solving number one and number two is How to communicate with your client? I think this is uh fundamental It's my talk Nice. Hey, what's your name? My name is narwas too. I I know it's hot to spelling How you say it again? No Narwas too Narasco, okay. Cool. Where are you from? Indonesia Awesome. Hey, so it's lauren Huh? Yeah, lauren's from indonesia too. Yeah, she come from bali We already chatted. Yep. Yeah. All right. Cool. Cool Awesome. I do you know what uh, definitely It's to communicate You you know, you hit it right there. It's all about communicating show one how you think You know and what the clients could expect to get from you Yeah, uh, if you talk about the design is subjective I really agree with with that because if we talk about the site or website or maybe another design itself It's talk about how Website or another things it communicate with your client or Communicate with your with user That's that's the core. I think that's a fundamental All right in my talk Nice man, nice I hope you all more calls because it sounds like you got a lot of gems Like yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I am having a problem with my mic Maybe the soundbar problem Okay, check check check All right, man cool anybody else got questions or anything else No, man, I'm just thankful for this call today for sharing your experience and Hopefully we all look forward to learn more and share within our community like this in future Yeah, I really appreciate that you hosting too And I I'm looking for the other topics to talk about like about like the marketing side or other like the client side or business ways Or Lauren will be can sharing about Indonesian market and website something else like that I'm still learning I know it's hard. I know it's hard. Yeah Yeah, no appreciate all of this and thanks Jeff for for taking the lead on all of it I will thank you guys for being here. You know, you guys made it happen Uh, I'm really excited about this to get this started. You can see my dog back there. He's also Like you know walk me but you know like I really uh I hope that this could grow into something and I could like uh be I just hope that this could be a community that others could come to and get that kind of help You know something I wish I had when I started Uh, you know, we One thing I really uh, that was attractive to me when I started learning web development was how supportive it was You know how supportive other people were because I came from another industry where you know people stepped on each other's toes You know, you had to like watch out and stuff like that. It was so stressful and then just unhealthy It's a complete different over here like yeah, it's just it's it's amazing You know, so I really look forward to these my goals. I have one of these a week We could play around with different times You know because there are going to be people from around the world see what will work best We had somebody in the group though bring up a good question about pricing Yeah, that's a good question. It's very difficult like how to evaluate myself Come on first. That's a very hard one to learn with, you know, and I think it took me You know, I barely get in my head around it, you know, like Feel like I'm starting to get paid what I'm worth But I didn't start learning how to get paid what I'm worth until I got involved In one of these groups until I got involved, you know with like learning about the business side I didn't know about the business. I worked in construction. You know, I didn't know about business I didn't go to school for this. I was just excited to build websites. I was excited somebody was paying me for this No, I I have a kind of funny like story that I have that I After I made like three websites trying to find another client in Chiang Mai because I always think the face face is working better than like a screen-to-screen But the people are here their budget is so so low So they even doesn't want to pay me any like any single money and then I was like started out myself I'm not like value of my work is not good enough to get paid But actually it depends on the where the market is the pricing is like really diverse Hmm, I think probably would have this kind of similar problem as well Like what people looking at is quite a very low value or like very trying to price down a lot more than like irrational price Yeah, yeah, it happened in Indonesia too It's such a problematic, but I have some Solving I have a solve about that. I know how to deal with that So you can so the only thing that you need to do is approaching a company Not a person you need to find Which who is the decision maker is? So you're trying to approach the Like the bigger clients like lending like kind of it means like bigger lending on the bigger clients Ie in example If you in Indonesia, you need to find a company or maybe a medium-sized company you can search it through Uh, google my business or maybe through google local you need to find an example you need to find, uh printing or maybe the event event management And when you type it when you're typing into the google It will show and you need to approach them with your portfolio and With your offer too So I think pricing is so such a good topic to talk about Because in different region Uh, it has a different pricing too. So I have some Friend uh working in Germany. I he he's selling my services And it's pretty different comparing to Indonesia and Germany as well if I have some Germany client They will pay me around 10,000 10,000 dollar in Indonesia you only get about I think 1,000 until 6,000 dollar, but it depends it depends on your client budget in Indonesia in Indonesia you can get more than that Because we we know how to deal with it. We know We have some legal and we have some lawyer and And we know how to approach it Yeah, and yeah, I I learned I learned by people by people Yeah, man, I think like what he's trying to just get across is you know, you just got to go after bigger clients and uh I could tell you from my experience here in Chiang Mai I've had quite a few big projects over here. You know that pay a lot. So the clients are out there Uh, I know I know exactly what you mean. I'm my first job in Chiang Mai. I got paid like 8,000 baht, which is like 200 bucks for like The 24 page custom bill CSS javascript website, you know No way But I've landed jobs in here that were over 3,000 but 300,000 baht as well And I got you know, some clients that do pay really good monthly Uh, there's you just got to find those businesses, but I think this is a great topic to take into the next meeting Yeah And maybe Yes, I think pricing and maintenance and things like that can be a good idea for the next call Yes, you are the one who can decide about it and see how it rolls Full term maintenance as well. Yeah Well maintenance I got planned and that's a separate call right there because I love maintenance I love who is Lorno's. I love my maintenance plans. It's such a game changer But I you know, like I've done some WordPress meetup groups inside the area on maintenance So I think we'll do pricing And then we'll do a separate one on maintenance because maintenance is like its own I think its own thing right there, but okay sounds good Oh Let me see. I think I had real quick. Let me just They're the last two of these that I had all right, so Let's go ahead and end this off on a challenge and that's for everyone here as well as anybody inside the group That is either going to watch this or just part of the group And the challenge is first one number one set up a dribble and be hands account if you don't have one yet Don't just rely on your website Let's get these other two, especially be hands Be hands I feel might be the most important one because you could really show context into your design And you could become discoverable on there I just started be hands maybe six months ago and I've already been getting leads and job offers through it Second one is to add one project to your portfolio within one week And this is my I'm including myself inside this challenge as well to take time and add one One project And then next Friday we're going to share it inside the groups and on facebook and the facebook group So this challenge is going to go to everybody inside the group I'm going to post it in there tonight as well as just a video playback of this call And then the last part is thank you Thank you guys for making this happen Yeah, thank you All right, so I think is does anybody else have anything to add before we end the call No, I just want to say we are grateful for this today and look forward for more. Thank you Jeff It is a good inspiration for me. Can we can we get the pdf or maybe the presentation? Yeah, yeah, I'll go ahead and make a pdf and share Okay, thank you. Yeah, all good All right guys Well, thank you again and uh, stay tuned. I'll have everything posted uh by this weekend for next week's call and uh All right, cool. That's it I must say thank you Thanks everyone. Thank you. Have a good day guys. Enjoy