Almost lost a great review because my client is in his 60s and doesn't have LinkedIn. Genuinely. ...Almost lost a great review because my client is in his 60s and doesn't have LinkedIn. Genuinely. ...
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Almost lost a great review because my client is in his 60s and doesn't have LinkedIn.
Genuinely. Contra flagged it - no LinkedIn profile attached, so it looked unverifiable. Except the client is real, the project was real, and he's just not the type to be on LinkedIn at his age.
So I did the only thing that made sense - sent Contra actual email proof of the working relationship. Back and forth a few times. No shortcuts, no "just trust me."
They approved it.
Small thing, but it told me something: the verification here isn't just checkbox theater. It's actually trying to confirm the work happened, not just whether you fit a profile template.
Also a reminder for anyone else collecting reviews, your best clients aren't always your most "digitally visible" ones. Worth fighting for those reviews anyway.
I’ve earned over $1M on Contra, and now I’m opening up the profile behind that number.
The Contra Handbook is live.
It brings together how I present my work, structure my services and make it easier for a client to understand what they can hire me for.
And making it meant putting my own profile under inspection.
There was a typo in my title. 20 services that needed cutting down. 14 products with no reviews between them. Those changes are part of the course. You watch me work through them on screen, with the reasoning behind each decision.
Across eight modules, you work through your own profile too. Each chapter ends with something concrete to change, and the final module brings it into a 90-day plan.
You get the videos, written Handbook, profile scorecard, role specific guidance and access to The Ledger, the private course group.
If you’ve put real effort into your work and want your Contra profile to represent it properly, this is for you.
Top 1% of creatives on Contra with a 195 score 🎉 What I'm most excited about is who's showing up because of it: new clients, designers, new conversations, projects I wouldn't have found on my own. Grateful, and ready for more.
I know that many people who've done a website design for their own personal brands tend to say something like, "I am my worst client!" because of numerous unexpected revisions, perfectionism, constant changes made to it etc.
I guess I accidentally chose another path...
To me, working with myself as a client has been a pleasure. First of all, the deadline could be broken — no deadline at all! Sick leave? No problem honey, you can go have an extra cup of cocoa. Workaholic alter-ego is gonna sit in mental prison for a while.
Secondly, our taste matches. I literally got to catch everything I only thought about AND made it come true. Isn't it amazing? You think it — you got it!
To my greatest surprise, as a former perfectionist myself, I wasn't demanding at all. I understood that I must give myself freedom while having some constraints — by the way, they are stated in the full case, check it out here:
To those who have ever made designs for themselves, what type of client were you? Were you strict or, vice versa, let yourself be as creative as possible? Maybe you skipped a wireframe stage and went right to designs?..