How we got Jay Shetty as a client (for his website redesign)

Working with high profile clients like Mel Robbins and Jay Shetty, I often get asked, "how did you get them as clients to begin with?"

The reality is that Jay's team would have likely not reached out to begin with if we hadn't worked with Mel Robbins. I'll save that story for another day, but the important thing to realize here is that with any industry, there's a lot of 'competitor-envy' as I think of it. People are constantly looking at their industry competitors (and many times they're friends with them), to see if that person or brand has a better brand or website. If they do, they'll likely want to work with the same agency. This is a big part in how we created a niche.

Think of it as a domino effect.

When I was first starting out, I was approached by Colette Baron-Reid's team to redesign her website. This website alone generated a TON of work for us because of two very important reasons:

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1. She had a massive following

2. Our website was credited on her footer

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That brought other personal brands looking for a "similar website". Obviously we had to explain that each brand and website we create is unique and tailored to that individual person or brand, but nonetheless, it still brought interested leads and also started to form our niche of Personal Brand Builders.

Why am I telling you this? It's relevant because it's this project for Colette which ultimately led to working with Mel years later. No, Mel doesn't follow Colette, but she does appreciate our understanding of building personal brands that stand out, and that's where it all started.

Now let's fast forward to when Jay's team reached out. With most clients we've worked with, it takes a consult call and sending our proposal for being able to guarantee the work. With Jay Shetty, it took a bit more than that. Understandably so, they wanted to vet the agencies they were talking to — make sure they were capable of producing a website that was aligned with their own vision.

How did they do that? They asked us (along with the other agencies they were interviewing) to mock up a homepage concept for Jay. I used 2 images they provided as inspiration: the image of Jay in the brown leather jacket, and the new podcast cover art (which was an earlier but similar variation to what it is now).

Here are the mockups I provided (not included: an XD prototype with hover states and interactivity):

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You'll probably notice how different they are to what you see now with the end result (which you can view here), which is natural and inevitable. However, what's important is how I approached the ask:

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Think strategically about the website

Rather than simply redesigning their current website (at the time) with new styles and colors, I thought about what should be on this homepage. What makes the most sense considering Jay's brand and who he is. I used what I knew and whey they told me (that there would be a hero video to display at the top) but other than that, I used my own instincts and ideas to show them what could be possible.

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Provide multiple options

Never provide only 1 option to a client when pitching for their work. You want to show them what you're capable of and the versatility of your ideas, and it's a lot easier to do that with multiple concepts. I also later found out that we were the only agency to provide multiple concepts, which made us stand out.

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Share your thinking

It's been drilled in me from my years working at digital agencies to be able to explain my thinking. "Clients want to know WHY you chose that color. WHY you positioned things the way you did. WHY WHY WHY." Designing with this in mind forces me to always be strategic and thoughtful, and then sharing that thinking with clients (via a Loom video) helps them understand my perspective and rationale. I'm always better able to sell my designs when I can talk about them, and this pitch was no exception. I recorded a Loom (talking to Jay and his team, of course), explaining my designs.

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Needless to say, we got the job. We worked with Jay's team over several months to create a beautiful website...but make no mistake. We WON that job. Now go out there and prove you deserve that client you've had your eye on!

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Ready to take your brand and website to the next level? 

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