MYE DE LEON

5 Secrets for Artists to

Get High-Paying Clients
(Even if you don't have an agent!)

MYEDELEON.COM
 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

What would it mean to you to book clients paying you 4 to 5-figures for
your work?

Would that make your work easier? Or perhaps change your life?

I’m betting - both.

Every artist aspires to be recognised and get high-paying clients. It’s

natural. It’s a dream come true to work with your dream clients and on
your dream projects.

As much as we all want that, often, these clients feel very elusive. You’ll
only see them working with artists who have representation. In short,
they have agents.

The result? Most artists (especially those just starting out), fall into the
trap of grabbing low-ball offers.

Not only that, but they also think they deserve low offers because:

• They’re just starting out

• There are way more famous artists out there
• They believe no one will pay them more

For this reason, they end up:

• Doing more work to make more money

• Attracting more low-paying clients
• Not loving their job because they aren’t getting the rewards they de-
serve

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

As a beginner, I once thought that high-paying clients are only for those
with representation (or agent if you prefer). I was wrong!

When I was approached by Workman Publishing (in 2016, less than 2

years with my business) to create a series of artwork for different
projects, more high-paying opportunities opened up.

In fact, I didn’t even need to negotiate my rate because they offered me

handsome payments.

I proved myself wrong! You don’t need connections nor be world

renowned to get high-paying clients. If I did it, you can too!

Are you ready?

The 5 secrets for you to get high-paying clients require you to go on a

QUEST.

That means:

Quality Work
Understanding Your Ideal Customer
Expertise
Social Strategy
Targeting Potential Clients

Let’s have a closer look...

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

1. Quality Work
How many people have told you that quantity leads to quality? So
many, right? And it’s true. There’s no denying that creating more and
more artwork will eventually help you improve your skills and produce
better work.

However, if you’re sharing everything you’re creating, it might not be as

pleasing to your potential clients.

Imagine yourself as a creative director looking for an artist to hire on

Instagram. You stumble upon a post by Artist A and it was absolutely
stunning.

You click on the profile account to check if there is more artwork

similar to what you saw. Instead you only see lots of practice pieces,
incomplete artwork, and things that aren’t quite in alignment.

How would you feel?

Confused, right!?

Then you stumble upon a post by Artist B, you click on the profile and
you’re greeted by a very curated account. Artworks are presented in a
cohesive manner and you can tell that Artist B has a particular style

Which artist will you hire?

I’d bet you’d choose B because of the artist’s credibility, presentation,

and quality of work.

But don’t get me wrong. I’m an advocate of sharing your processes,

behind the scenes and works in progress.

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

These types of posts show your creation process, which is good if

you’re starting to build an online presence. It brings your audience on a
journey with you and it builds trust.

However, if you’re on the quest to find high-paying clients, you only

need to show your BEST WORK.

When you do, you’ll attract your perfect clients.

2. Understanding Your Ideal Customer

What’s an Ideal Customer?

ICA or Ideal Customer Avatar is your perfect client. It should include a

complete profile of the person you want to serve (or work with, if you
prefer) including her job, where she lives, her struggles, her age, and
even gender.

You notice I said “she/her” - singular. That’s because when you’re cre-
ating your ICA, it needs to be specific. By doing so, you’ll know exactly
how to help her.

You’ll know the type of work you need to create to get her attention.

You know where she hangs out (duh, hashtags!)

You’ll understand what she needs.

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

Now, It’s time to sit down and create your own ICA by doing this
exercise:

1. Look into one specific person. Feel free to give her a name.
2. What is she thinking?
3. Where does she live?
4. What is she doing for a living?
5. What keeps her up at night?

Give her a complete profile.

For example:

Jenn is the creative director of a publishing company. She’s 32 years old,

loves coffee and lives in Manhattan. She goes to the gym after work to
destress because dealing with different artists and executives, discuss-
ing book cover designs can be a pain in the neck. In order to keep her
sanity, she watches Netflix or reads a book before going to bed.

With this example, we know that Jenn handles book covers and that she
struggles with dealing with artists and executives on a day-to-day basis.

How can you help?

If Jenn is your ICA, it means you want to attract publishing clients who
are looking for artists to design book covers (or other print materials)

How can you help her?

Show more digital designs! (remember, they are in a publishing busi-

ness, they need to print the artwork). She’s probably tired of looking
at many different accounts. Make your profile stand out by using the
hashtags she’s potentially looking into.

If you’re a painter, watercolor artist, etc. don’t fret - show that you know
how to take better pictures of your work for digital presentation.

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

Understand your ideal customer and help them with your artwork, your
professionalism and by making it easier for them to find you.

3. Expertise
Now that you have more clarity on who your perfect client is, it’s time to
build your expertise or niche down.

Did that freak you out?

Why do you have to niche down when you have so many potential
clients out there - you can do everything.

You’re right, you can.

But the clients who pay more money look for specialization, a specific
skill set, style, work ethics and solutions.

When you niche down and specialize in something, you forge your own
path where there's little to no competition. Then, you can demand
higher fees.

Here’s a little exercise you can do - Look at your own feed. What do you
see?

Seriously, look at your feed. Can you tell by looking at your grid what
type of client you want to work with? If you can’t even see it yourself,
how do you expect your clients to know what you’re good at?

The creative industry is extremely noisy, and if you don’t niche down
and focus on ONE thing that’ll help your work stand out from the rest,
you’re going to be at a disadvantage.

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

In every discipline, there’s always an opportunity to niche down.

Think of another thing you love aside from your creative passion.
How can you combine this with your love for lettering?
Find that sweet spot. Oftentimes, it’s just right under your nose and
you’re simply not paying attention to it.

For example:

I love surface pattern design and lettering but I favored lettering more
so I incorporated tiny patterns which I typically use as embellishments
or borders to my work.

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

Not just that, I always try to create patterned lettering pieces such as
this:

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

Niching down will not kill your business. In fact, it can help you grow
faster and better.

Because you now have clarity on what type of projects you need to
create, you won’t look around searching for the newest trend, the next
big thing, or the newest potential income source.

You can focus on your work better.

4. Social Strategy
You’re probably tired of hearing this but a well-planned social media
strategy helps attract high-paying clients (a.k.a. your perfect clients).

Consistency is a big player in the social media world (as with anything
else in our business). Showing up on a regular basis allows the plat-
form’s algorithm to study your target audience and show your work
better.

Needless to say, our work gets seen by more and more people, which
means - more chances to reach our perfect clients.

So instead of blaming the algorithm, use it to your advantage.

Here’s a BONUS tip - Facebook owns Instagram. If you’re on both

platforms, you have to understand one thing: Rachel Miller (of Moolah
Marketer) describes Facebook like a jealous boyfriend, or husband, or
partner.

He wants you for himself (a.k.a no leaving the platform).

He wants your attention. He wants you to show up.

In order to grow on social media better, you need to feed the platform
(yes, feed Facebook and Instagram)

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

How?

1. Show more content

2. Engage within the community
3. Use their features - stories, carousel, live, etc.

In short, you need to create a social media strategy to feed the

algorithm and allow it to show more of your work to your audience.

It all starts with planning your content- yes, we dread this, don’t we?
Planning? What planning?

But as much as we hate the idea of setting aside time to work on what
we need to post and share on social media, it’s crucial for our growth
and necessary to reach our target audience.

5. Target Potential Clients

Do you feel it’s impossible to reach your dream client?

Let me share with you my experience with Penguin Random House and
Kazoo Magazine. I longed to work with them but there was a time I felt
like they were far from reach because they only worked with well-known
artists and I wasn't one of them.

I know it’s impossible for them to see my work unless I SHOWED UP

FIRST. That’s exactly what I did and a few months later, they contacted
me with a big project. There could be other potential ways why they
found me but they’re not the first client I reached out to and got a job.

Attracting your perfect client is not the only way to get them. Don’t be
afraid to connect with them.

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

Here’s how you can do it:

1. Check where they’re hanging out (Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest,

etc)
2. Follow them on social media
3. Engage with their posts, Stories (yes, they might have a team mem-
ber posting content for them but showing up on their feed is always
better than nothing)

These little interactions could potentially trigger a profile check and

when they see your work - they might consider hiring you.

But of course, not every one of them will respond and that’s ok. There
are many possible factors why they’re not hiring you. Take it as a learn-
ing experience.

• It could be that your work doesn’t match their requirements

• They might’ve put you on their shortlist but want to see more
• Or you could take it as an opportunity to improve.

Sometimes, you also need to accept that your art might not work best
for your dream client. Move on and get to the next one.

The secret’s out! Now, it’s your turn. Remember, it takes work to get
work. No amount of tips, strategies, or even secrets can help you if you
don’t put them in action.

Please feel free to copy and distribute with attribution.

You're welcome to post this resource on your blog, social media channels, and share
it on the Internet as long as you include this crediting information.

Written by Mye De Leon

www.myedeleon.com

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 5 Secrets to Get High-Paying Clients

About Mye

Mye De Leon is a published author, mom of

3, artist and creative business coach who
established her online business since 2009
through digital scrapbook design.

She started her hand-lettering business in

2015 while raising a young family in
Singapore. Since then, Mye has worked
with clients such as Apple Singapore,
Penguin Random House, Workman
Publishing, Faber-Castell, Staedtler to name
a few.

She created some of the best courses in her industry and now runs her
own 6-figure business, helping artists build a thriving and lucrative
creative business through her signature ccourse Mastering
Hand-Lettering Program and The Elite Creators Inner Circle.

On her free time, Mye spends it with her family lounging in their living
room, playing with her kids, or watching Netflix. She enjoys cooking,
cuddles from her son Alphonse, movie dates with her husband and spa
dates with her twin daughters.

Did you like these tips? Come hang out at myedeleon.com to get help on growing
your own creative business. Leave a comment on my blog, watch my videos or just
say Hi! I’d love to get to know you.

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