273: This Simple Follow-Up Strategy Landed Her a $4K Client

0:00Rebecca Kendall:Do you ever feel like you're just waiting and hoping for the next client to come through? That your network remembers you exist and starts sending you a bunch of work? That was Rebecca Kendall. She's been freelancing for years, but work had slowed down and relying on referrals wasn't cutting it anymore. Then one small intentional action, a single visual that she sent to an old client, reignited a relationship and landed her a$4 ,000 project. In this episode, Rebecca shares how she pivoted her niche, got crystal clear on what she wants, and stopped leaving her freelance business up to chance. You're going to love it.

0:31Rebecca Kendall:Let's dive in. Hey, fashion freelancers. Can we talk pricing for a sec? Here's the thing. Too many designers I know are charging way less than they should. That's why I created a free freelance price list just for fashion professionals like you. It breaks down what to charge for tech packs, fashion flats, product development, 3D work, and more. Whether you're just starting off or scaling up, it gives you a real starting point based on what actually works. Go ahead and grab it at soheidi.com slash price or tap the link in the show notes. Stop guessing, start charging like a pro. Let's get into the episode.

1:00Welcome to the podcast, Rebecca.

1:03Rebecca Kendall:We're going to kick off right with something that you landed in my inbox with, this amazing win, which was how you sort of revived a client you hadn't worked with in five years, even though you'd been keeping in touch, air quotes, keeping in touch, and you tried something new to kind of pique their interest, and it wound up turning into a$4 ,000 project. so I want to dig into all the details of exactly how that went down uh can you share yeah sure well it's kind of crazy because it was kind of by accident I was kind of trying to put myself out there for new clients new work because I'd really thought about there was a bit of a pivot in my career I really thought about what exactly want to do do I want to carry on working the same clients doing the same thing and I thought no I want to kind of change it up a little bit so I needed to put my work out there like I have not shared anything publicly still not to this day because I'm still really sort of refining how I want to show up in the world so I have kept in touch with a client and it's from an old in-house contact we've kept in touch I mean I work so closely with them that I even kept in touch like personally so I sent them wedding photographs and things like that which is really nice but I've only ever just sent quick friendly emails to check in and because I wanted to get a portfolio out there and start finding new clients I wanted to ask permission if I could share some of the work that I'd done in the past and all of a sudden it occurred to me she came back straight away and it was like she's forgotten this work that I'd done for her and because primarily it was a lot of woven so what I wanted to focus on was print design that's my love that's what I really want to focus on now so it was this print design reminded of what I'd done obviously completely picked her interest and she was like oh yeah maybe we do have some print designs we could work with you on so it was kind of just one of those light bulb moments really like and I thought yeah why have I never sent any visuals like when I'm contacting these past clients you know for more work it it kind of seemed so obvious but after the thought you know so yeah so that's how it started and that's how the new ball got rolling I guess yeah so I you like you said you had worked for them about five years previous and you'd kept in pretty good touch on just a casual even personal level yeah had you ever explicitly like reached out and said anything like you know hope you're well but if you've got any projects you need help with I'm happy to help you yeah like literally every check in like contact was kind of like you know let me know if you've got anything but just like just that one liner along with other friendly chit chat and no visuals and I think she kind of just forgot what I did oh yeah so which like I say it seems so obvious but to us like it's so fresh in my memory like some of my favorite projects and some of my favorite work like I just I don't forget about them they're always there but for a client it's not the same right yeah so yeah and so then you're building out your portfolio you wanted to get some permission to use one of the projects from them and you sent that and said is it okay if I include this in my portfolio and then did you ask for work at that point too?

4:31Or you just asked about permission for the portfolio? I think I just asked for permission because we'd been in touch a little bit before that anyway where I'd asked. So it was probably still fresh in the mind. And then obviously then seeing the visual, it kind of just like went from there really.

4:46Rebecca Kendall:Yeah. I love that. I love how impactful. And it's funny because when you say it in hindsight, it does feel so obvious because we're very visual people. It's a very visual industry. um so giving someone something to kind of latch on to I think is phenomenal you had mentioned to me something else you said um

5:13Rebecca Kendall:asking for help you put this in the email be human and ask for help if you need it not in a desperate way but in a sincere way like hey I've got an open book for in October if you have anything I can help with let me know or any referrals would be welcome so I'm curious talk to me a little bit about that so this is the kind of emails that I was sending before I sent the portfolio permission so they were all landing and you know she was getting information I needed work um but was kind of like it was almost like she forgot that I did print design and she didn't need anything else so I didn't I wasn't a fit until I actually sent the print design and reminded her that I did fruit and start that she thought oh hang on yes maybe I do have some work yeah yeah okay so have you taken this sort of accidental strategy and pushed it out into the world in other ways with past clients I will be doing for sure yeah okay okay and then also new clients right so um not just you know you know saying what I do and who I am showing them you know which is quite hard when it's new like I've not um had a really success with any cold clients so I'm still working on that I'm working through fast and the program and all your teachings and all your free content which is amazing so thank you um so yeah we'll see how that goes um mostly I'm wanting to find new clients I've worked on retainer for um a lot of industry contacts um over the past five years it's been quite on and off I've done a few different things um I kind of was trying out a few other sort of avenues originally because I kind of fell out of love with the industry a little bit with what happened with my in-house role and I know that happens to a lot of people but it's just a calling it keeps coming back I can't let it go and I've kind of like decided right I need to really concentrate on this now and find new clients that align do the work that I really want to do and you know be passionate as passionate as I am about the industry I guess Yeah.

7:17Yeah.

7:19Rebecca Kendall:So, I mean, because my first thought was like, you could, since you want to focus more on print design, you could even go out to brands that you've worked with before that you haven't done print design with and share this new portfolio and just say like, hey, you know, I'm just built out this new portfolio focused on print design. And I know we've worked before on Wovens, but this is a new direction that I'm focusing on in my freelance business. And I wanted to share this with you and show you what I've done and see how you're doing. And, you know, obviously with some nice personal commentary around that as well, but just kind of update them.

7:55Yeah, yeah.

7:56Rebecca Kendall:It was a great opportunity for that. Definitely. Yeah. It's on my list. It's on my strategy list. Okay. Fantastic. So talk to us a little bit about your background in the industry. You said this was a client you'd worked with for five years ago. So you have some background. Where did you get started? How did you get into fashion? So I did textile design at Bradford College in Yorkshire in the UK, which was, back in the day, a huge textile hub. So I was surrounded by all the mills there that are no longer doing that, unfortunately. But the textile and fashion courses there were really popular. So I did the textile course.

8:34Rebecca Kendall:I was the last alumni to finish on that. They stopped the textile course after I left. I was actually doing my finals and they were moving out the looms and the knitting machines and everything. And it was so sad. Oh, my gosh. So sad. So because of the way the world has gone, I guess, people were going more into digital design and they focused on surface pattern. So they changed the BA to surface pattern instead of textile design. So, yeah, so that's what I did. and I managed to land a position like five, ten minutes from my house, working with a really small but well-connected cashmere supplier.

9:14And they had some amazing clients, as you can imagine, with that luxury fibre. You know, we were doing work with various global brands. Mostly, I'd say 80 % of the business was woven, woven accessories, soft accessories. So I did a lot of color, check design, but also print design. So 20 % of the business was print design. So I ended up being their go-to print designer for all the print projects that came through the door. I worked on those. So, yeah, it was incredible. Place to work. It was really close-knit. You know, I'm still friends with, you know, my colleagues that we worked together so closely for so long.

9:55It was a really sad time when, you know, things changed with the business. So I think that's why I needed to sort of take a step back and maybe look at other things for a little while. But while I was there, it was fantastic. And so I knew I wanted to continue doing freelance, even if it was just part time or helping the clients that, you know, stayed with me and stayed in contact. So, yeah, I kind of just kept those relationships going and doing work on retainer and some project based work. in between other things so so yeah so I have a lot of experience um but working in-house is very different as as you know to freelance so I mean the projects landed they were you know put on a plate for me and I never really understood how how incredible it is to build those relationships and how much of a job on its own that is so I have a newfound respect for building new client relationships now for sure so so yeah that's the big thing um and and getting you know new clients new work and learning how to do that is the whole skill set on its own so yeah so that's why I'm here

11:10Rebecca Kendall:with you so it sounds like you were a little bit of an accidental freelancer and you just built very organically through word of mouth in your network uh-huh was there a tipping point that you were like oh gosh now I need to or now I want to start being more strategic about building my business yeah sure so I've been very lucky over the last five years a great support network my husband's in you know great work he works a lot I've also got a daughter so we had a daughter in between this five-year period so she's actually three today it's her birthday today but she's in preschool so yeah we can we can do this it's fine yeah um so yeah so I've took a lot of time off with her and also for this big move over here um so now now she's at preschool more consistently I have more time to sort of build you know something for me again um and yeah so over the last 12 months I've been really thinking about what it is I want to do what I'm good at what you know what I'm passionate about where I could help where I could impact the industry in a good way as well because that's really important to me um so yeah so the last 12 months really I've decided look this is what I want to do so let's do it properly yeah so yeah um so it was really just a conscious decision to like pursue this maybe more seriously or more intentionally it sounds like yeah yeah sure yeah yeah and you're focusing on print design so when you say that you don't mean textile design do you mean more like place prints or what do you mean um so i guess it is sort of tech it is textile based i guess because i am not working like on packaging i don't have any experience in that another medium so it is textile based for fashion so i love creating prints for fashion basically so when I'm designing a print that you know wearing it on the body is kind of where my head's at so um so yeah definitely textile print design for fashion is where I'm at and I'm really I feel um recently over recent years and obviously with my natural fiber backgrounds I feel it's really important that I work with ethical brands and natural fiber brands it's kind of where where I want to be and which helps the focus and the niche and what brands I want to target and you know get in touch with and things so yeah so it sounds like you're still in kind of the early stages of getting everything refined and set up I mean just working on your portfolio getting that focused in the niche that you're going after getting approval to use those projects did you start the project with that client already yeah so that's done um okay how did it go oh it was such a learning game oh it was it was it was great in the end um but yeah they came to me so late and they apologized that they were coming to me so late but it was literally a four-week turnaround for this project and we wanted six bespoke prints for accessories and i was like but i kind of thought you know what yes let's do it let's sort of see what we can do so it was pretty intense um I did um a concept collection because it was kind of like coming at it they gave me sort of a really loose brief and I kind of obviously know know the brand and like what they like anyway so they absolutely loved the concept book that I did um but then that kind of backfired a little bit I used the concept collections that I put together and I kind of went away and did what designers do and used it really loosely and came up with lots of new ideas and new artwork taking inspiration from the concepts and then went back to them with it and it was like whoa that's really different like different to you know they literally wanted a carbon copy of like the concept work and obviously I'd pull from different sources and, you know, that all belonged to whoever that belonged to.

15:20So I was then, I literally had to start from scratch after doing the project, going really fully back to concept. So, yeah, I think that's something that can be a struggle for designers, really. Like, you know, getting that sort of same headspace with the client is really difficult. and because of the time frame there wasn't a lot of time like you know back in the day when we worked together there'd be sometimes months and months we could work on projects and build ideas together and be back and forward and tweak but because we didn't have that time um that was something that was um you know quite difficult in the middle of the project but i ended up delivering three patterns that they really loved and we had to pull from some stock images and things that they like to to make the time scale and the designs work um but yeah they were really happy in the end but it was quite stressful halfway through yeah we'll get back to the episode in 20

16:20Rebecca Kendall:seconds but real quick a question if you have ever caught yourself thinking is this too much to charge or what do other freelancers quote for this you are not alone i created a freelance priceless just for fashion freelancers like you and it's absolutely free it outlines real world ranges for design tech packs, pattern making, and even 3D. It is based on my 15 years of industry experience and over a thousand fast grads, many of whom are now out earning their old full-time salaries. Download it now at sohedy.com slash price. The link is in the show notes. Now back to the episode. What do you, like looking back on it, what would you, in the same amount of time, you only have four weeks, what would you have done differently to maybe manage the project more effectively or something yeah I already know and I even went back to them with like a project summary and an email and I said you know next time let's not think about the six designs because what I was doing I was trying to work on six designs simultaneously to make sure that I could get them six designs and deliver what they wanted but in hindsight that's not really the best way to go let's like work on one design get it right develop that and then you know add more add more products if the time allows as we go along so kind of manage their expectations a little bit better with the time frame that they had um which they totally understood and completely agreed with so so yeah it was kind of one of those things you kind of learn by doing which I know you always say um but in your head sometimes you think oh four weeks I'm you know I know what I'm doing I can do this and then start to do it yeah six might have been a big bit of a tall order but I wanted to try I didn't want to say no that I couldn't do it, obviously.

18:02So, yeah, definitely it's just managing it, like you say, a little bit different next time in terms of time scale and project deliverables and what's actually realistic for good output. So, yeah, a lesson learned there for sure.

18:15Rebecca Kendall:Yeah. Well, I love that you put together that project summary, like sort of debrief for them, and you took that to them and you talked to them about how things could have been done a little bit more effectively on your side. and communicated that. That's huge to not only have that reflection for yourself, but also to bring the client into that conversation. Yeah, definitely. That's what I thought. And I just felt so much better that I put that out there than for next time. And yeah, it just made the whole process and the way I look back on the project a lot nicer. Not think of it as the difficult, stressful time like it was in the middle of the whole thing.

18:53Yeah.

18:53Rebecca Kendall:so you wound up doing only three prints yeah you're quoted for six yeah that's it so I adjusted the um like my enforcing with them and the project and everything um so they were they were completely happy because of the time scales and all of that they they totally understood which was great so yeah I think it would have been a bit harder if it had been a new client um but because I already had that relationship it definitely helped but then now going through that experience I know then how to approach that sort of time scale project size with a new client so I feel really grateful that I had that experience with a client that I already knew yeah so it was it was really good in that respect so you still got paid in full even though you only wound up doing half well I've just chased the invoice yesterday but they haven't said okay well we only want to pay you half because yeah there's no problem that i'm aware of and i keep i keep saying every time you know when i send the invoice just let me know if there's no problems any questions or you know anything these are just saying let's discuss and but there's been no sort of query against any of it so we're just waiting for their accounts to transfer the money now yeah okay understand understand and so in the future now you know what your capacity is for six prints is like that's not going to happen in four weeks no no depending on simplicity and also like building up my own archive as well you know I have such a large archive from working at the same place for so long and you know there was lots of inspirational images you know base images you know what it's like what you can refer to quickly and you can help develop the project quicker so it kind of like depends on the customer I guess in the brief and you know kind of what what tools and library of images I have to start with.

20:48Yeah. And what their sort of view for the project is, their themes and that kind of thing.

20:55Rebecca Kendall:So, yeah. For sure. For sure. Well, I'm so glad that you had that opportunity and that experience to learn in a, maybe a little bit of a safer environment with a past client. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And so your portfolio, do you feel like it's ready and it's good now? and you're going to move forward with starting to put that into the world? Yeah, definitely. I'd like to refine it and adjust it as I go along and add new projects and things. But as it sounds, I think it's a good sort of overview of what I can do and what I love to do. So I'm happy with it as it sounds at the moment.

21:32So yeah, I need to start getting myself out there now.

21:35Rebecca Kendall:Yeah. What are some of your marketing plans for 2026? um so linkedin and instagram um and i'm very like kind of conscious of all the noise out there so trying to be like really value content driven with what i'm sharing um so i'm still working on that but i have lots of ideas so it's just bringing that all together and kind of showing up in a cohesive and consistent way so that that's the plan yeah I love that I love that what would you say I feel like we've talked well we didn't talk about all roses and rainbows we talked about how that project went a little bit challenging in terms of the scope and the workload but what would you say are some of the biggest challenges you're hitting in your freelance business right now yeah so just connecting with new clients really um finding the best ways um to network and kind of you know be someone who is a go-to for for what I do really um and I know that it is really a relationship game I know it's not going to happen overnight I'm very open to rejection now I've built that up inside me over the last 12 months because I think it is something that's so important you've just got to put yourself out there and be willing to take that you're not going to be for everyone and not to let it knock you and stop you in your tracks from doing what you're trying to achieve because the right clients are out there and yeah just kind of keeping that mindset really and that positivity and keep doing what I do and hopefully I'm doing the right things and be seen by the right people that's what's going on in the near future absolutely what is your magic sauce for accepting that rejection that's a really big mental hurdle to overcome yeah I think just really over the last 12 months listening to so much absorbing a lot of content listening to you and what you put out there um you know people in the industry and a few listening to podcasts like your podcast.

23:56I love the Diary of a CEO, listening to that podcast with Stephen Bartlett. I think the people on there, they can be from all different industries, but they have so many words of wisdom. And it's something that a lot of successful people will say.

24:16You've got to put yourself out there. You've got to be willing to be, you know, hear all these no's before you hear the yes. And that's OK. The people who are successful understand that and they know it's not personal. And you've just got to be able to, you know, not let it knock you. And you've just got to keep going. And if it's something you believe in and something you're passionate about, you know, let that fire take you. because you will find the right people as long as that's strong enough within yourself, that you're making a difference, that you're adding something of value. Keep telling yourself that.

24:52And the rejection is redirection. Yeah. So, yeah, I think it's just really just getting yourself into that place where you're 100%, you know what you want to do, you know you really care about it. It's almost, if no one's watching, you're still going to do it anyway. that kind of feeling it and it's you know if you apply that when you put yourself out there to clients you know you get a no or you get no response it's kind of like okay well maybe I'm not right for them let's move on let's find someone new who maybe I am right for so yeah

25:26Rebecca Kendall:that's the plan that's it is it is so clear you're very conscious of and have done a lot of mindset work which is amazing and I have long talked about that that is the 80 % of success I think in anything in life it's yeah 20 % of the strategy yeah totally agree yeah yeah and I think what's hard for some designers is just getting that that they're 100 % on what they want to do because as creative people and if you've got a lot of skills it's very easy to get lost in the direction that you want to go in and it's very hard to kind of really focus on one thing because you feel like you're dropping something else that you really care about but it is that mindset work that helps you get to that place and find that thing that you really want to focus on you've just got to really stop and and take stock and kind of block out all the noise and think like what do I want to do like really what do I want to do you know yeah so that that that's what I did and I feel I feel quite strongly now that I can really focus in on what I want to do so then I can be clear for the clients and then with that clarity will come rejection because some some clients that you might want to work for might not need your skills or your style or or that kind of thing but you're so 100 % on it that then you realize well that work's not right for you so let's go find something that is so yeah will you talk a little bit about the your shift and decision to go from to include even wovens in your portfolio and your services to focusing just on print I know a lot of people have a very hard time letting go of skills and services that they're very capable of and clearly you're very capable of of wovens and talk to us a little bit about the thought process and maybe the mental battles you had to fight to yeah honestly just prints yeah I was I was really struggling with this 12 months ago and my LinkedIn bio has changed so many times I've literally been like writing things and it's been my own personal journey on LinkedIn I've not posted anything because I didn't want to post anything until I was mailed on what I want to do and how I want to show up but I was writing things and titles and bios and and letting them sit and then reviewing them and then looking back and thinking is that me am I happy with that and so many times over the last 12 months I've gone back in and changed it sometimes it's really dramatically changed but sometimes I just let things sit for a little while and I know it's really hard because we have this urgency to kind of go out and get work and earn money and we all have bills to pay and obviously I am in a really fortunate position and that's not lost on me and I think that's really been really helpful so I would kind of give the advice if you can maybe do something else where you can pay your bills and work on this slowly on the side.

28:41If you're having struggles with kind of figuring out what it is you want to do, be clear on that before you go after it because sometimes that's what makes it really difficult because then the client doesn't know what you actually do because you don't really know because you're trying to do everything. So that would be some advice that I'd give to other designers sort of trying to figure out what it is they want to do and their niche and what they want to focus on. But yeah, I've had to sit with things for a while and like I said, things have changed. But in terms of the woven to the print, for me, I like doing the woven.

29:18I love doing the print and that's what it boils down to. It's my preference. It's what makes me the happiest in my work. I'm happy to do wovens if the work comes along and I've got no print projects on the go. But if I'm going to put myself out there and focus on something specific is definitely print design where my heart's at yeah it's I mean you know how much I believe in niche but it's so I mean I think first of all I think the

29:52Rebecca Kendall:differentiation you made between I like wovens but I love print design that's a great sort of thing you can internally look inside yourself and be like where does like my true excitement really live and use that as a some sort of directionality to help you choose but I think it's so smart because if you said to me I'm a woven and print designer it just I get confused yes I was reading I was replying to some comments on LinkedIn this morning and you can see the preview of their one-liner headline in the comment section yeah and they were it was like tech packs activewear and textile design or something and I was like those could all go together but it was like the way it was presented as these like three segmented things and uh I only bring that example up because I just saw it and as you were talking about like wovens and textiles I was like putting those together would just feel really disconnected for me.

31:00Rebecca Kendall:And I see so many people doing that. So I applaud you for, you were fortunate to have the space, but for taking the space to really think about what your niche is and how you want to put yourself out there in the world so that it's clear to you and it's also clear to your clients. It makes everything so much easier in marketing and sales. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Well, lovely to chat with you, Rebecca. where can people find you and connect with you online um so i am on linkedin i've not posted anything yet but you can find me on there and i have um just created a space on instagram as well which is my studio name ever the boutique studio um on instagram so yeah okay great we'll link to both of those and i'd love to ask you the question i ask everybody at the end which i know you know is coming what is one thing people never ask you about being a fashion freelancer that you wish they would i think it's just that basic what is a freelancer people don't really understand it's like do you work for a company do you work for yourself how's it not everyone really understands and i don't think freelancers even try to be freelancers understand and the industry doesn't understand look at all these permalance positions out there like seriously i look at some of these job descriptions and i just want to scream out loud like seriously no yeah that is not what freelancing it's so yeah so you know freelancing you're working for yourself and picking the projects you're picking your prices you're telling the brands what you do how you do it and why you do it and what the rate is for that and your skills and expertise basically so yeah that is a freelancer it's funny I'm so engrossed in this world and I was I think it was my hairstylist who I just went to a new woman and she was asking me what I do.

32:53Rebecca Kendall:And when people ask me, I just am like, oh, I run an online business and keep it really generic. And she kind of was digging in and she was asking more questions. And she was like, oh, what do you teach? Like, what are your courses about? And I was like, oh, I teach fashion designers how to be freelancers. And she was like, oh, freelancers. So like, do they, like, they have their own brand? Or, I mean, and it was so interesting to me because I am so deep in this world of freelancing and freelancing is something you know I did for over a decade and it's just such a clear path to me yeah that it was the first time in a long time that someone was like didn't even understand what freelancing was and I it's funny you bring that up because it it's a good reminder that a lot of people don't quite understand so we need to talk about that a little bit more yeah yeah which is why it's great what you do so thank you well thank you it's so exciting to have you uh in our community and i'm excited to see your continued growth thank you so much for sharing this amazing accidental strategy i hope some listeners give it a shot and if you guys do let me know how it goes thank you thank you bye thanks so much for listening and real quick before you go do yourself a favor and grab my freelance price list just for fashion it is absolutely free.

34:12Rebecca Kendall:It breaks down price ranges for tech packs, pattern making, drafting, sourcing, and more. It's clear, actionable, and specifically created for fashion freelancers like you. Head to SoHeidi.com slash price or hit the link in the show notes. Your time and skills are valuable and this guide will help you charge like they are.