How I Built a Social Presence To Attract High-Paying Clients

This week’s 96mins is a look at how I—and other designers—approach social media to attract clients and build a steady pipeline of work. From sharing your process to building trust through community, this guide covers what actually works so you can make social media a tool that helps your business, not just a place to post your work.

As always, if you’re looking for a quick fix, skip straight to the checklist here.

However, the full picture of the current landscape of why this is the case, will give you a whole new perspective on the unfair advantage you can add to your socials to win clients.

Ready? Let’s go.

The Creator Economy

We’re no longer in an era where faceless corporations dominate the market—people are buying into people.

The creator economy has flipped traditional business models on their heads, putting individuals at the forefront of influence, trust, and commerce.

In today’s climate, founders, designers, and builders of brands often have more followers and engagement than the businesses themselves.

Take George Heaton and Represent. The clothing brand is massive, but George’s personal presence is what fuels its cult-like following. He’s not just a founder; he’s the face of the brand, sharing his vision, process, and life in a way that resonates with his audience.

The same applies to Tim Cook at Apple—while Apple is a behemoth, Tim’s public appearances, insights, and leadership make him a figure people engage with.

Then you have figures like Nick from Baked Design and Daryl from Endless—creatives who have built an audience around their work as individuals, making their personal brands as strong as the services they offer.

Personal Brands Matter More Than Ever

Humans are naturally multifaceted.

This is why personal branding is no longer optional—it’s a necessity. If you look at the biggest designers, entrepreneurs, and creatives today, their personal brands drive their business success.

People trust people more than logos.

Authority Is the Beacon for Clients

Being an authority doesn’t mean positioning yourself as a guru or an all-knowing expert. Instead, think of yourself as a guide—someone who has both authority and empathy. We'll cover empathy in the next section; for now, let’s focus on authority.

What Happens If You Don’t Have Authority?

Imagine you’re reaching out to a web designer for help. You tell them, “I need to optimize my landing page for conversions. It’s been a challenge for a while, but I’m ready to fix it.”

Now, imagine the designer responds with, “Me too! I’ve been struggling to figure that out myself.”

Would you trust them to do the job? Probably not. When clients hire, they’re not looking for someone who’s just as lost as they are. They want a professional who knows what they’re doing and can guide them toward a solution with confidence.

This is why authority isn’t about showing off—it’s about competence.

The Checklist Designers Use To Show Competence Without Bragging

The easiest way to showcase competence as a designer is simple: post your work.

If you want to be more effective - try this:

Showcase the problems you solve through design

• Don’t just post the final product—explain the challenge you tackled.

• Frame your work around the outcome it created for the client or business.

• Example: Instead of saying, "Designed an app interface," say, "Revamped an onboarding experience that reduced drop-offs by 35%."

Share testimonials from clients

• Social proof builds trust. If past clients praise your work, share their words.

• Testimonials should highlight the specific impact of your work.

Ryan’s post below is a perfect example. By highlighting a past project and how it contributed to a client’s growth (even helping secure investment), he reinforces his expertise while subtly reminding potential clients of the value he brings. These kinds of posts create a ripple effect—someone scrolling today might become a paying client tomorrow. Stay visible, showcase your wins, and let your work do the selling.

Teach others what you did to get there

• Break down your projects into insights that others in your industry can learn from.

• Teaching positions you as an expert and attracts more engagement.

I always like to ask myself: “How can I be helpful?” when it comes to my socials. Instead of just showcasing my work, I thought about ways I can make someones life easier, especially for someone that’s currently in a position I’ve been in before.

Talk about challenges you faced

• Share your struggles, not just polished case studies.

• People resonate with real experiences—they build relatability and authority.

• Example: “We had to rethink our UX approach after early testing showed users were confused by navigation. Here’s how we fixed it…”

Create value-driven content at scale

• Help others by sharing free resources, templates, or industry insights.

• Consistently providing value builds trust and establishes your authority over time.

Andrey shares a clear transformation (from struggling to sell websites for free to charging $10K) and attributes it to solving valuable problems. By offering insights into the skills he mastered, he positions himself as an authority while providing practical knowledge that others can apply.

Find your unique edge and amplify it

• What makes you different? Is it your approach, your insights, or how you teach?

• Use this to position yourself as the go-to person in your niche.

• Example: If you specialize in conversion-focused design, make that your angle and speak on it frequently.

Help at Scale

One of the best ways to position yourself as an authority is to help at scale. If you can provide value to people beyond one-on-one client work, you become the person people turn to in your space.

Take Handheld Design, for example—it’s a directory of the best in mobile design. And who curates it? Me. That alone can position me as someone who knows what "the best in mobile design" looks like.

In 2024 alone, Handheld Design raked in:

• 136,432 views across the year

• Over 10K views monthly

• Peaked at 20K views a month

All this is despite not being updated for the past six months. That’s the power of creating value-driven content at scale. Even without constant upkeep, the site remains a go-to resource for mobile design inspiration, proving that helping at scale has lasting impact.

The screenshot above showcases a new iteration set to launch soon, making it even more useful for designers looking to level up their work

What’s your version of this?

Maybe it’s a curated resource, a newsletter, templates, or even a Twitter thread breaking down industry trends. The more you contribute to your field in a meaningful way, the more people start seeing you as the go-to person. Figure out your edge, and figure out how to scale the way you help.

Have a Strong Point of View

Authority isn’t just about sharing your work—it’s about having a perspective. If you want people to engage with you, you need to have thoughts that challenge the status quo. The most compelling voices in any industry are the ones who don’t just repeat what’s already being said but offer a fresh take.

This doesn’t mean being controversial for the sake of it, but rather thinking critically about your field and sharing insights that go against the grain but still make sense. When you do this well, your perspective becomes interesting—and interesting people attract engagement, followers, and clients.

Chris Do explains this perfectly in a recent The Futur video. Timestamp 5:27 - Thought Leadership & Contrarianism

A strong POV does a few things:

• It makes you stand out in a sea of sameness.

• It sparks discussion and engagement—people either agree, disagree, or want to know more.

• It positions you as someone who thinks deeply about your craft rather than just following trends.

Having an opinion makes you a magnet for the right audience. It tells people you’re not just another designer, freelancer, or creator—you’re someone worth paying attention to. And when you’re worth paying attention to, clients follow.

Build Empathy By Being Honest

Your unique story is your strongest asset. Sharing it allows people to connect with you in a way that polished work alone never could.

The reality is, I’ve received over 10+ leads just from this single tweet—not because of the work I posted, but because of how I repackaged it.

That tweet didn’t just showcase my skills; it gave people a reason to trust me. And trust, more than anything else, is the foundation of community-building and business success.

A lot of creatives and freelancers think their work should do all the talking. And yes, high-quality work is non-negotiable. But the way you present that work—how you frame your journey, challenges, and insights—is what makes you stand out.

People don’t just want to see polished results; they want to know what went into them. They want to see the highs and the lows.

Why Authenticity Wins

The reality is, I’ve received over 10+ leads just from this single tweet—not because of the work I posted, but because of how I repackaged it.

Showing your struggles, learnings, and experiences makes you relatable. It signals to your audience that you get what they’re going through because you’ve been through it too. That’s empathy, and empathy builds trust. And trust is the main driver of community engagement and business growth.

"Remember, the human brain likes to conserve calories, and so when a customer realizes they have a lot in common with a brand, they fill in all the unknown nuances with trust."

Reference from Donald Miller’s, Building a Story Brand

When you share your real experiences—whether it’s how you landed a big client, overcame a tough situation, or figured out a smarter way to work—you become the person people turn to for guidance. Your community sees you as someone who understands them, and that trust positions you as an authority. Once that happens, not only do people follow you, but they also recommend you, hire you, and look to you for leadership in your space.

The Power of Storytelling

If you can evoke trust and authenticity through your social media and content, you’ll notice a shift—more people will feel compelled to reach out. Not just because they admire your work, but because they resonate with your story.

This is why how you position yourself matters. If I had only shared my wins and never shown the highs and lows of the journey, I probably wouldn’t have received messages like the one in the example above. Transparency makes a difference.

The Formula for Being ‘Real’

Authenticity is simple:

1. Be honest.

   • There’s a 99.9% chance that someone out there is going through the same situation you are. By sharing your experiences, you make them feel seen.

2. Share what you’ve learned.

   • If your audience can learn from your journey—whether through successes or mistakes—you become valuable to them.

3. Show the work, but don’t hide the process.

   • The wins are great, but the path to getting there is what makes you relatable.

Honesty is the first step to building real trust. And trust is what turns followers into a community—and a community into a business.

Conclusion

At the top of every great business, there’s a person.

You.

You should be that point person—the face, the guide, the authority that directs people to what you offer.

You’re at the top of the funnel, the first thing people engage with. Your content, your insights, and your personal brand lead people toward your different ventures, whether that’s client services, products, or a community.

It’s less about pushing your business and more about positioning yourself as the trusted figure people go to first. Once you have that trust, sending them toward your business offerings becomes natural.

Next week, we’ll dive deeper into funnels—how to take that trust and turn it into a system that drives results. But for now, focus on this:

Build your authority.

Show competence.

Help at scale.

The business will follow.