When you’re trying to convince a new potential lead that you’re the person for the job, it’s tempting to send them everything you’ve ever done.
You want to prove you’re competent and qualified and the one to hire…
But that approach is actually hurting you, not helping →
The problem:
A prospect looks through your portfolio, tells you they love what they see, and still hires someone else.
The benefit of solving it:
You send less and a client can clearly see your thinking that produced the results.
And they stop comparing you with every other good freelancer they talked to with beautiful samples in their portfolio.
Why what you’ve tried has failed:
You're focused on showing them what you can make, and that's the one question clients no longer need answered…
Here’s how to solve it:
An intentionally built case study that shows your decision-making gives a prospective client a clear picture of what they’re actually getting when they hire you.
Start with what the past client asked for, and then highlight what the actual business problem turned out to be.
Like when a client comes to you asking for a new homepage, and the real issue turns out to be that visitors understand what they sell but can’t tell why this business costs more than the competitor they were just looking at.
Or a client asks for a pitch deck, and what they actually need is help figuring out which version of their offer to lead with for that opportunity.
This shows that you dug past the deliverable and advocated for the success of the project.
Then show the decision you made and the options you considered before landing there.
Give your reasoning for each.
The idea here is to show the WHY behind the choices you made.
And where you pushed back on the client’s own idea of how to fix the problem.
This is the strongest thing you can put in a case study (hello, strategic partner!).
Documenting a moment where you redirected a client’s instinct, and why, is proof that you know something they don’t.
That’s a really good reason to hire you, and not any of the yes men they already talked to.
Even if you haven’t done any paid work for a client yet, you can build a spec project or a before/after the same way.
Build a few examples each aimed at one kind of client problem, and lead with the one that matches the prospect in front of you.
A client can picture themselves inside a case study that’s aimed at their kind of problem →
That’s what gets you hired.
Which is why it’s so much stronger than showing a big pile of past work, leaving them to sort through it, and try to figure out if you really can help them.
If you want direct feedback on whether your case studies are actually showing the thinking behind your decisions, bring one for us to review during the live sessions inside The Freelancing Program.
Best,
Jamie
For freelancers that want to ditch their 9-5 this year:
→ Build a $10K+/month freelancing business with my proven 3-pillar system inside The Freelancing Program ($59/month).
→ Hit your freelancing goals this year with a customized, step-by-step game plan that we’ll create during a focused 1:1 coaching session ($750) with me.
