Gabe Valdivia - How to Thrive as an Independent Designer

Gabe Valdivia - How to Thrive as an Independent Designer

I think we're entering a world where the market for fractional design is about to explode…

So this week's episode is with one of my favorite people in the industry, Gabe Valdivia.

We're going to explore his independent journey → how he made the jump, how he's evolved the practice in year two, and all of the lessons he's learned along the way.

Some highlights:

  • Gabe’s three-phase client model
  • How to sell a client on fractional design
  • Gabe’s rules of thumb for pricing himself
  • How Gabe’s new apprenticeship program works
  • How Gabe vibe-coded his personal Freelance OS
  • How he has redefined success from year 1 to year 2
  • Gabe’s journey to figure out how to position himself as an independent
  • a lot more

Jaksot(186)

Attacking ambiguity with designđź’ˇ

Attacking ambiguity with designđź’ˇ

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Phi Hoang - Creativity, Midjourney, and the future of brand design

Phi Hoang - Creativity, Midjourney, and the future of brand design

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Storytelling masterclass for designers đź’ˇ

Storytelling masterclass for designers đź’ˇ

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Joey Banks - Designing your career path

Joey Banks - Designing your career path

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20 Marras 202452min

Time to rethink design systems đź’ˇ

Time to rethink design systems đź’ˇ

The pendulum has swung too far with design systems. Somehow they’ve become synonymous with scale. But I believe they’re the perfect first step for startups. So this episode looks at stories from Perpl...

18 Marras 20248min

Dessn - The missing tool for product designers

Dessn - The missing tool for product designers

After writing a viral article called “The Missing Tool” I was fortunate to meet Gab and Nim who are the co-founders of a startup called Dessn.Dessn is a new way to ship design changes without having t...

13 Marras 202448min

7 mental models for designing AI productsđź’ˇ

7 mental models for designing AI productsđź’ˇ

Over the last few months, I’ve interviewed the people designing cutting edge AI products like Perplexity, Claude, Dot, Humane, Visual Electric, and more…During that time I’ve created a running list of...

11 Marras 202413min

Meng To - How to build your ideas with AI

Meng To - How to build your ideas with AI

One of the most impressive things I’ve seen a designer make all year is Meng To’s Dreamcut.It’s the perfect example of what it looks like to transition from traditional designer to builder 💪 So if yo...

6 Marras 202451min