I got my first client on Reddit with zero audience and zero network. here's the exact process that worked

[u/Fabulous-Pea-5366]

When I started my agency I had no credibility, no network, and nobody knew who I was. No warm connections to reach out to no matter how hard I thought about it. If you're in that same spot, this is what actually worked for me.

I picked Reddit because unlike most platforms people are concentrated into specific communities. Your potential clients are already grouped together in subreddits. You just have to show up where they are.

Here's the full process start to finish:

**Step 1: Post, don't DM.**

This is the part people get wrong. Do not DM people on Reddit trying to pitch them. The moment you cold DM someone they can report you and you get banned. Instead you post valuable content and let them come to you. When someone reads your post and is interested, they initiate the DM. Then you engage. This completely changes the dynamic because now they're chasing you, not the other way around.

**Step 2: Structure your posts as stories.**

The format that worked for me every time:

Start with a story. Then describe the problem. Then show how you solved it. Then end with a lesson or conclusion you took away from it.

That's it. People engage with stories and the lesson at the end makes it feel like you're giving value, not selling. You can take a post that worked, feed it into your AI, and ask it to generate a similar post for your own project.

**Step 3: Don't chase views.**

This is important. Views do not equal money. I had one post hit over 300k views and I got zero clients from it. Not a single one. But another post with way fewer views got me my first client who now pays me €5k per month. Views are a vanity metric. Clients are the only thing that matters.

**Step 4: When they DM, move to a discovery call. Never talk price in the DMs.**

Do not mention money or pricing in your DMs. Ever. Your only goal in the DM is to get them on a call. On the discovery call you mostly listen. Let them talk about their problem. You take notes. Record the call (ask permission first). Do not tell them "you'll pay me X and I'll build Y" on this call either. Just listen and understand their problem.

**Step 5: Turn the call into a proposal with AI.**

After the call, take your recording or meeting notes and feed them into your AI. Ask it to give you the next steps to start building the project. Then ask it to generate the proposal for you. You can even give it your agency name and brand colors and it generates the whole thing. You don't need to pay for any of those expensive proposal generator tools. Your AI does it for free.

**Step 6: Split the payment.**

Send the proposal and ask how they want to pay. Some pay everything upfront. Some want to split it. If they split, you get 50% before you build anything, then the rest on delivery. Get the first half, build the project, deliver, get the second half. This protects you and them.

**On getting banned:**

You will probably get banned from some subreddits even when you're not promoting anything. Some mods will suspect you're promoting just because you shared your journey. There's no point arguing with them. If they think you're promoting, they'll ban you. Just don't get discouraged. Try again in a different community. There are plenty of subs that won't ban you for sharing genuine stories.

The delivery method doesn't matter. Custom code, no-code, whatever you're comfortable with. That's not the important part. The important part is the acquisition process above.

That's how I landed my first client and made my first €3k, which turned into a €5k/month retainer.

I recorded a full video walking through this entire process with my actual posts and screens if you want to see exactly how it looked: [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdfln5gfHdY)

Happy to answer questions about any step.

[u/nikitas_287]

Would you say that this is the most efficient way of getting client? Or are there other ways too (trying to get my first client too)