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wealth, freedom, purpose
What is Life by Design
It’s a brand name for my coaching programme,
I help frantic freelancers become systemized solopreneurs. I help them design and build a high peofir figure lifestyle business which allows a huge amount of personal freedom, and creative fulfilment.
It’s a way of living for creatives, inspired by stoic thinking.
It’s a set of principles, systems to design the life you want, and to live intentionally every day as you work towards it.
It’s mindset shifts, methods, and systems you can apply in real time to your life and business to
become wealthier
Gain more freedom
Find mental stability and purpose
Let’s get even more specific!
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Intro
Anyone that tells you freelancing is easy is LYING.
I’ve been broke on 4 figures, stuck on sidehustle…
And I’ve hit £25k/m and been miserable.
There’s a lot of programmes out there which all focus on profit:
Do more = earn more
Let me tell you, that’s no way to live
There are 3 ways to make more money
My program is designed to get you to £10k/m on a 3 day workweek without burnout, Profit, freedom and stability.
I founded a multi award winning 6 figure agency “Design Hero” where I help business owners to get more leads online through the power of digital marketing.
But after winning x3 awards in 6 months, and hitting my first £20k/m, I quickly fell into the usual trap of compare and despair on social which led to me chasing the “growth” dragon….
I ended up doing MORE and MORE and MORE, all for diminishing returns. Sure, I made good money, but of course this lifestyle is not sustainable…
It finally came to a head when I was on holiday in Rome with my ever supportive wife and found myself at 10pm in the hotel room drafting a 5 page email in response to an irrate customer over a £25 missed bill. I completely ruined my first holiday in over 2 years.
Something had to change…
Every day on social media I’m bombarded with offers for courses to help you make more money, get more clients…
I came to the obvious realization that profit means nothing without stability and freedom, which is the whole reason most freelancers go out on their own in the first place!
So I rebuilt Design Hero from the ground up as a super lean solo business model which allows me to run the agency by myself on a 3 day workweek (with plenty of breaks for reading and dog walks 
) Design Hero still earns £20k/m but has ditched all the stress, all the complexity and all the manual graft to leave just the parts that I love to do myself (which is mostly high level design and client satisfaction)
) Design Hero still earns £20k/m but has ditched all the stress, all the complexity and all the manual graft to leave just the parts that I love to do myself (which is mostly high level design and client satisfaction)What did I do with the rest of my time?
Well now one day a week I go hiking, kayaking or cycling with the dog, or spend time with family.
And the rest?
I’m on a personal mission to help solopreneurs build their own 6 figure lifestyle business and achieve profit, stability and freedom WITHOUT THE burnout.
“6 figure systems for solopreneurs”
half your workweek, double your profit
the 12-week guide to Profit, Stability and Freedom
I run free workshops for freelancers to teach them the tried and tested systems I use in my own business every day, and for those ready to take the next step I provide high value coaching to take you to the next level of solopreneurship.
Story
I replaced staff with systems
I replaced working more with working better
I replaced
strategy
over time I perfected my systems, process and strategy.
I used this to transform my freelance business into an award winning 6 figure agency which I run 3 days a week
With no office, no employees, very few overheads
I’ll show you how to do it too.
Story
Hi
I’m Nicholas Robb
I live in Scotland in the middle of nowhere
I work 3 days a week
I have no staff, no premises, no overheads
yet I run a 6 figure marketing agency called Design Hero
We have built websites for national charities such as Scottish Autism, designed personal brands for best selling authors, been published in national papers for our digital marketing and won multiple awards for our work.
It hasn’t always been like this.
for ten years I worked like an absolute dog.
I read a lot of books from the top 1% solopreneuers on designing your ideal life.
I spent the years putting everything I’d learned into practice and honing my process.
and it’s not easy.
I think you have to work in an area your truly passionate about.
It sounds really cliche, but it’s best if you can find something that you’d be doing anyway, even if you weren’t getting paid.
for me I liked drawing, designing, creating, making animations on the computer etc. if your naturally motivated to do it it’s going to be a lot easier to put extra hours and time into it later when you need to.
My ethos is that you only have 1 life, and it’s pretty short. You’re going to spend a lot of it working,
it’s estimated that 60% of people work in jobs they are ill suited for or are just plain unhappy in.
so start planning now to live the life you want.
it doesn’t have to be a concrete plan, it doesn’t have to be fixed. and it WILL change.
but you should have a vague idea of the kind of lifestyle you want.
I’ll show you how to do it.
Hi I’m Nicholas Robb A.K.A “The Design Hero”
I run a multi award winning 6-figure marketing agency, by myself from the middle of nowhere in Scotland.
I work 4 days a week, with no permanent staff, no premises, and low overheads.
we work with best-selling authors, national charities such as Scottish Autism, and
I took a very roundabout route into my current life. For years I worked like an absolute dog trying to get ahead in a 9-5 and I walked away from several promising careers to pursue freelancing with no guaranteed prospects or pay. Like many freelancers, clients ruled my life. I had a side hustle in the evenings and weekends too just to make ends meet.
I read that an estimated 60% of people work in jobs they are unsuited to or unhappy in. They just take the trajectory that life throws at them. But my ethos is that you only have 1 life, and it’s pretty short. You’re going to spend a lot of it working. So it’s better to design and plan the life you want.
I spent years reading about how the most successful entrepreneurs designed lifestyle businesses, experimenting and optimizing my business, and putting everything I’d learned into practice.
As it turns out it’s quite simple. But simple doesn’t mean easy.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, like everyone I’m still working things out as I go, and we’re all at different points in our journey. But I see a lot of freelancers work crazy hours and are still stuck earning less than they would in a low-stress 9-5 job.
The goal for me is a highly systemized lifestyle business that earns £10k/m on a 3-day workweek WITHOUT all the burnout.
So now I produce free content for freelancers on my Instagram @the_design_hero and I coach other freelancers on how to design a solo business with profit, freedom, and stability.
Story
Being a Solopreneuer can be a lonely experience. Dealing with difficult clients, grappling with self doubt, working to tight deadlines and vague briefs.
Great minds club is a place for freelancers to come together. To interact with other creative minds, to grow and learn and even just vent about bad clients.
Part networking, part social club, part kick up the arse for growth.
How to build a 6 figure business on your own terms, in your own pace, with no employees no office no overheads.
Sound too good to be true?
It’s not.
I built that business over 3 years while holding down a full time job.
Now I’ve turned my attention to teaching others how to do the same thing.
___
Anyone that tells you freelancing is easy is LYING
I’ve been broke on 4 figures stuck on sidehustle
And I’ve hit 20k/m and been an miserable overworked mess.
There’s a lot of programmes out there
They all focus on profit:
Do more = earn more
Let me tell you,
That’s no way to live
There are 3 ways to make more money
My program is do less for same output
This means more freedom and stability, and when you do these 2 things and provide a good service,
profit is side effect
Wealth
Freedom
Purpose
