How Michael Janda Built A $30,000,000 Design Agency From One Super Power | The Infinite Clients Series

Brian Hood (0:00)

This is the 6 Figure Creative Podcast, episode 296

Welcome to the 6 Figure Creative Podcast, where our mission is to help you turn your creative passions into a stable, reliable income. If you're in audio, video, design, photography, or really any other creative field, and you just want to learn from other successful creatives, you're in the right place.

Hello, welcome to the 6 Figure Creative Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Hood. If this is your first time joining us for this podcast, first of all, welcome, hi, hey, hello, glad to have you here. This podcast is for you. If you are a creative who offers freelance services and you want to make more money from those creative services without selling your soul, if that sounds like you, you're in the right place. For my returning listeners, you may recognize the guest that we have today. He is a repeat guest. We haven't had many repeat guests on the show. For whatever reason, I don't really fully understand that. I think it's because I just forget to ask people.

The guest today is Michael Janda. If you could see him on the screen, you know who it is already. He's a big, bald, beautiful man. And I feel like you've gotten even more swole since last time I saw you. Have you been working out more?

Michael Janda (0:55)

I'm back. The COVID era where I atrophied down to normal humanity is over. And now I'm back in the gym long enough to get some of my mass back.

Brian Hood (1:05)

For those who have been with us a long time, you recognize him. Episode 207, the episode was titled, How Freelancers Can Use the Rule of Seven to Ethically Get More Clients. It came out July of last 2022 So it's been a year and a half since I've had you on. And you're actually the first guest we've had in about a year.

Michael Janda (1:19)

I'm honored by that. I'm honored to be the repeat guest and the first guest that you've had on for so long. So that's great. Thank you.

Brian Hood (1:26)

I'm really excited for the topic we got today to talk about. But before I do, I'll just say for any new listeners or people that didn't watch Michael's last episode or listen to Michael's last episode, we talk about his clout and his history and kind of his origin story there a little bit. But I'll just say this.

Michael is worth listening to definitely above and beyond even myself. So if you listen to me and you trust me for whatever reason, Michael is like 10 levels above me. He has a former agency owner that has worked with Disney, Google, ABC, NBC, Fox. He sold that agency. You even have an Instagram. $30 million in revenue. I can promise you I have not made $30 million in revenue myself. He's been on the Inc 5000 twice. You've authored two internationally published books. You got 161,000 followers on Instagram, which is kind of your main platform. So you beat me in every conceivable way. So like, again, if you're on this podcast and you trust me for whatever reason, then you can also trust Michael to bring the goods.

Michael Janda (2:11)

Too kind, man. You're a little younger than me.

I'm sure you can play the guitar better than me, and you got a better head of hair than I do.

Brian Hood (2:19)

So I don't know, man. I call it a five head.

Michael Janda (2:21)

Look at this, look at this. Don't sell yourself short.

Brian Hood (2:26)

Okay, so topics of the day, man. We chatted about this a little bit pre-episode, but this is, you're like, maybe the last or one of the last few episodes in this series we have now called the Infinite Client Series. And the whole thought is, we could have infinite clients as freelancers if every single client we ever worked with would refer one client to us. And if those clients never canceled or never stop working with us, they always came back to us again and again and again. If you did that, you would have an infinite source of clients. It's, to me, an impossible task, but something worth striving towards. And so I wanted to bring Michael on here because he has scaled a very successful agency. He has been a part of big teams, small teams. You've done solo freelance stuff. You've done everything you could possibly do, I think, as an entrepreneur. So if I'm going to ask anybody about the topic of like, what would you need to do as an entrepreneur, specifically a freelancer, to work towards that goal of infinite clients, what are the big things to do as a freelancer to make that happen?