Chapter 3: Finding international gigs beyond Upwork

You now have a clear position and a portfolio that earns trust. The next question is the one that keeps most designers stuck: where do the clients actually come from?

This chapter covers six channels beyond marketplaces: LinkedIn, Dribbble and Behance, cold email, agencies, the diaspora and referrals. For each one you'll get the reasoning, step-by-step instructions and a worked example. At the end you'll build a weekly routine and a tracker. Ready-to-adapt scripts are in Template 5 (Outreach scripts).

[Assumption] No single channel works for everyone. Your niche, network, personality and the time you have will decide which two or three channels become your main sources. The aim of this chapter is to try them in a structured way and then focus on what works.

Principles that apply to every channel

1. Specific beats generic. A message that shows you looked at their business is far more likely to get a reply than a template blast.
2. Give before you ask. A useful observation, a short Loom or a relevant case study earns attention.
3. Small asks. Ask for a 15–20 minute call or permission to send something, not "please hire me".
4. Follow up, but not forever. Most replies come after a follow-up. Two follow-ups is usually enough; then stop politely.
5. Track everything. If it isn't in your tracker, it didn't happen. You can't improve what you don't measure.
6. Respect people and rules. No spam, no harassment, no fake familiarity. Honour opt-outs.

Channel 1: LinkedIn

LinkedIn is where founders, marketing heads, product leads and agency owners spend much of their working day. For B2B and startup niches, it is often the most direct route.

Step-by-step

1. Profile (one-time setup, about 2 hours)

• Headline: your one-line offer from Chapter 1.
• Banner: a strip of your best brand work, plus your one-liner.
• About: your positioning statement, location and time zone, process and a call to action.
• Featured: your best case study, your video intro and your website.
• Experience: describe your freelance practice as a business ("Founder & Brand Designer, [Studio]"), with project types.

2. Build a targeted network (15 minutes a day)

• Search for your niche's decision-makers. For example, "founder" + "skincare" + "United Kingdom", or "creative director" + "branding agency" + "London".
• Send 5–10 connection requests a day with a short personal note (Template 5, B1).
• Accept relevant connections and engage with their content.

3. Post content (2–3 times a week) Content keeps you visible to your network without one-to-one outreach. Formats that suit brand designers:

• Case study breakdown: one project, the problem, three key decisions, visuals.
• Before/after: an old identity next to a new one (with permission), with reasoning.
• Teardown: what a well-known brand does well, and what your niche can learn from it. Be respectful.
• Process: a photo of your sketches or moodboard, plus a short story.
• Lesson: "Three things diaspora food brands get wrong on packaging."

Teach rather than sell. A post that helps your niche shows expertise more convincingly than "I'm available for work".

4. Comment before you pitch Spend 10 minutes a day leaving thoughtful comments on posts by people in your niche. A useful comment builds recognition, so that when you message them later, your name is familiar.

5. Direct messages Once connected, send a short, specific message (Template 5, B2). Don't pitch in the connection request itself.

HYPOTHETICAL worked example: a LinkedIn sequence

Invented scenario for illustration.

• Day 1: Tolu (from Chapter 1) finds Grace, founder of a UK hot-sauce brand, who posted about preparing for a regional retail pitch. Tolu comments with a genuine point about shelf visibility.
• Day 3: Tolu sends a connection request: "Hi Grace, I enjoyed your post about the retail pitch. I design brand identities for African and Caribbean food brands in the UK, so it hit home. Would love to connect."
• Day 5: Grace accepts. Tolu waits and engages with one more post.
• Day 8: Tolu messages: "Thanks for connecting, Grace. I put together a 90-second Loom with two quick ideas on how the label could stand out on a busy shelf. Happy to share if useful, no strings."
• Day 9: Grace says yes. Tolu sends the Loom.
• Day 16: No reply. Tolu sends one light follow-up.

Possible outcomes: a call, a polite no, or silence. All three are normal. Tolu logs the result in her tracker either way.

Channel 2: Dribbble and Behance

These platforms are mostly inbound: clients, recruiters and agencies browse them for talent. Think of them as a shop window that builds value over time, not as instant lead generation.

Step-by-step

1. Complete your profile: one-liner, location, time zone, website link and availability.
2. Upload full case studies to Behance, structured as in Chapter 2.
3. Upload single strong shots to Dribbble, each linking to the full case study.
4. Use niche keywords in titles, descriptions and tags (e.g. "food packaging", "fintech brand identity", "brand guidelines").
5. Post consistently, for example one piece every week or two.
6. Engage: follow and comment on designers and studios in your niche. Agencies sometimes find white-label partners this way.
7. Check each platform's hiring and job features. Their availability, cost and terms change. [VERIFY on each platform's current site.]

Caution: don't upload client work you don't have permission to show (Chapter 2, Step 7).

Channel 3: Cold email

Cold email has a bad reputation because most of it is bad: long, generic and pushy. Done well, it is respectful, short and specific, and it can open doors that social media can't.

Legal and ethical note

Rules on unsolicited business email differ by country. Some regions, including the UK and EU, have specific laws on electronic marketing and personal data. [VERIFY: check the current rules for each country you contact. This book does not provide legal advice.] As a minimum: email business addresses only, be truthful about who you are, include a simple way to opt out, honour opt-outs immediately, and don't buy scraped lists.

Step-by-step

1. Build a small, targeted list (20–50 businesses) Look for businesses in your niche with a visible trigger, a reason why brand work might matter right now:

• Recently launched or announced funding
• Expanding to new markets or entering retail
• Visible inconsistency (different logos across website, social and packaging)
• Hiring for marketing roles (a signal of growth)
• Upcoming event, product launch or rebrand mention

2. Find the right person Founder, head of marketing or brand manager. Use the company website, LinkedIn or publicly listed contact details.

3. Write a short, specific email (4–6 sentences) Structure:

1. Observation: something specific about them.
2. Who you are: one line, using your one-liner.
3. Proof: one relevant case study link.
4. Small ask: a 15–20 minute call or permission to send ideas.
5. Easy out: "If now isn't the right time, no problem."

4. Follow up twice

• Follow-up 1 (around day 4): a light bump, ideally adding value (a short Loom).
• Follow-up 2 (around day 10): a polite close.

5. Log everything in your tracker.

HYPOTHETICAL worked example: a cold email

Invented scenario and names.

Subject: Idea for Kola & Co's packaging ahead of the new range

Hi Daniel,

I saw on your Instagram that Kola & Co is launching three new drinks this spring, and noticed the current cans use two different versions of the logo.

I'm Emeka, a brand designer working with UK food and drink brands. I recently built a packaging system for a small spice brand that needed one consistent look across six products: [link].

Would a 20-minute call be useful to talk through how the new range could launch with one consistent identity? If the timing's wrong, no problem at all.

Emeka [Studio] · [website] · [LinkedIn] Reply "no thanks" and I won't email again.

Notice: it's specific (new range, logo inconsistency), short, includes one proof link, asks for something small and offers an easy way out.

AI shortcut: A text assistant can turn your notes about a company into a first draft of a personalised email. You must still find the genuine, specific observation yourself and check every fact (Template 10, "Client email").

What makes cold email fail

• Templates with obvious mail-merge errors ("Hi {FirstName}")
• Long paragraphs about yourself
• Attachments in the first email (which can trigger spam filters and suspicion)
• Asking for a big commitment immediately
• Following up aggressively or too often

Channel 4: Agencies (white-label and subcontracting)

Small and mid-sized branding, marketing and digital agencies abroad often need extra design capacity when they win more work than their team can handle. A reliable white-label designer in a convenient time zone can become a valuable partner, and one good relationship can produce repeat projects without you pitching end clients each time.

Step-by-step

1. List 20–30 agencies that do brand work in your target regions. Search LinkedIn, Google, Clutch-style directories, Behance studio pages and award sites.
2. Research each: their style, clients and team size. Smaller agencies (5–30 people) may be more open to freelancers. [Assumption]
3. Find the right contact: founder, creative director or studio manager.
4. Pitch reliability, not just talent. Agencies worry about deadlines, quality consistency, confidentiality and communication. Address all four:
   • Time-zone overlap and response times
   • Process and file standards
   • NDAs welcome; white-label (no public credit) is fine
   • References from other agencies, if you have them and they've given permission
5. Offer a paid test project, not free spec work.
6. Deliver exceptionally on the first job. Agencies remember reliability.
7. Stay in touch: a short check-in every 6–8 weeks.

Pricing note: agencies often prefer day rates or fixed project fees they can mark up. See Chapter 4.

Channel 5: The diaspora

Nigerian and wider African diaspora communities in the UK, US, Canada, Ireland and elsewhere include many business owners: food, beauty, fashion, events, healthcare, consulting, logistics and more. For them, you offer cultural understanding plus professional standards.

Step-by-step

1. Map your own network. List friends, family, classmates and former colleagues abroad. Who among them runs a business or knows people who do?
2. Tell people what you do. Many people in your network simply don't know you now work with international clients. Send a short personal message, not a broadcast (Template 5, A1).
3. Join diaspora business communities: professional associations, alumni groups, entrepreneur networks, and church or community groups with business sections. Many run online events.
4. Create content for them. For example, posts on how diaspora brands can stand out in Western retail.
5. Ask for introductions. "Do you know any business owner abroad who's planning a rebrand or launch?"

A word on WhatsApp: it's natural for diaspora conversations, but move formal steps (proposal, contract, invoice, approvals) to email so there's a clear record (Chapter 6).

Channel 6: Referrals

Every satisfied client is a potential source of new clients. Make referrals systematic:

• Ask at the right moment: at handover, when satisfaction is highest (Chapter 7).
• Make it easy: give them a one-sentence description to forward.
• Thank people: always thank whoever referred you, whether or not the lead becomes a client.
• Consider a referral thank-you (e.g. a discount on future work). Decide whether it suits you, and be transparent about it.

Where marketplaces fit

If you use Upwork or similar platforms, treat them as one stream among several. Everything in this book still applies: positioning, portfolio, pricing logic, communication and delivery. Note that marketplaces have their own payment systems and fee structures, and their terms may restrict taking clients off-platform. [VERIFY each platform's current terms.]

Building your weekly routine

Consistency beats intensity. Ten focused messages every week for three months will usually do more than a hundred messages in one burst followed by silence.

EXAMPLE weekly routine (around 5–7 hours)

Day	Activity	Time
Mon	1 LinkedIn post · 10 connection requests	60 min
Tue	10 personalised cold emails	90 min
Wed	1 Behance/Dribbble upload · comment on 10 posts	60 min
Thu	3 agency pitches · follow-ups	75 min
Fri	Diaspora outreach · update tracker · weekly review	60 min

Adjust the volumes to your capacity. If you can only manage 2 hours a week, choose your two strongest channels and do them well.

Your outreach tracker

Set up a simple spreadsheet with these columns:

Name	Company	Country	Channel	Date first contact	Status	Next step	Next date	Notes

Suggested statuses: Researching → Contacted → Follow-up 1 → Follow-up 2 → Replied → Call booked → Proposal sent → Won / Lost / Not now.

Your weekly review (15 minutes every Friday)

1. How many new contacts did I make on each channel?
2. How many replies, calls and proposals came from each?
3. Which messages got the best responses? Why?
4. What will I change next week?

After 6–8 weeks you'll have real data about which channels work for you. That's far more useful than any guide's opinion, including this one.

Understanding your outreach funnel

Every channel works like a funnel: many contacts lead to fewer replies, fewer calls, fewer proposals and fewer projects. Tracking each stage tells you where to improve.

Stage	What it measures	If this stage is weak, try…
Contacts → replies	How relevant and specific your messages are	Better targeting, stronger triggers, shorter messages
Replies → calls	How easy and attractive your next step is	A smaller ask, a short Loom, clear time slots
Calls → proposals	How well discovery uncovers real needs	Better questions (Template 6), clearer fit
Proposals → projects	How convincing your offer and pricing are	Three options, the client's own words, clearer scope

[Assumption] Rates at each stage vary widely by niche, channel and message quality. Don't compare yourself with numbers you see online; compare yourself with your own previous month.

Checklist: finding gigs

• LinkedIn profile updated to match my positioning
• 2–3 LinkedIn posts planned for this week
• Behance/Dribbble profiles complete, with at least 2 case studies
• Cold-email list of 20+ targeted businesses with triggers
• I've checked the email rules for my target countries [VERIFY]
• List of 20+ target agencies
• Diaspora network mapped
• Outreach tracker set up
• Weekly routine blocked in my calendar

End-of-chapter exercises

Exercise 3.1: Channel ranking. Rank the six channels by how well they fit your niche, network and personality. Choose your top three for the next 30 days.

Exercise 3.2: Build lists. Create a list of 20 cold-email targets (with triggers), 20 agencies and 10 diaspora contacts.

Exercise 3.3: Write and personalise. Adapt Template 5 for each of your top three channels. Then personalise five messages for real people on your list. Don't send generic versions.

Exercise 3.4: Content calendar. Plan eight LinkedIn posts for the next four weeks, using the formats above.

Exercise 3.5: First outreach week. Run one full week of your routine. At the end, do the 15-minute review and write down one change you'll make.

Exercise 3.6: Rejection log. Write down every "no" and every non-reply without judgement. After 50 contacts, look for patterns in who replies and who doesn't.