14–15 November 2026

  • 2-day live intensive
  • For freelancers
  • Live online

Break through the income ceiling

For freelancers who are good at what they do, but have hit the point where working harder stops translating into higher income.

Leave with a clear diagnosis of what's capping your income, the pricing and offer decisions that change it, and a 90-day plan you write in the room.

2 days · 14 hours · Live online · Leave with a plan

VIDEO 01 — 30s loop · attendees on a live session, screens lit, hands writing

4,000+

Freelancers taught since 2022

$9.4M

In underpricing found by attendees

30

Countries represented

4.8

Rating across eight cohorts

184/300

Seats taken

Start here

Paid well. Still broke.

You can have good clients, charge respectable rates, and still feel like you're running on a financial treadmill. Earning more isn't the same as building something that produces more.

  • You're booked out, but there's no room left to grow.
  • You raise your prices, then spend a week worrying you'll lose clients.
  • Revenue goes up. What lands in your own account barely moves.
  • You keep adding services because you're afraid to say no.
  • You can't take a week off without the business slowing down.
  • You've become the bottleneck in your own business.

If any of those sound familiar, your problem probably isn't effort. It's the structure of the business.

The diagnosis

What an income ceiling actually is

It's the point where your income stops growing even though you're working harder.

  • You get more clients, but more clients only mean more work.
  • You raise your rates, and suddenly people push back.
  • You stay busy, but your bank account doesn't reflect how hard you're working.
  • Every route to more money turns out to be a route to more hours.

"Is this as far as my business can actually go?"

Revenue rising while personal income stays flat Across five years revenue climbs steadily while the amount the owner actually keeps stays almost flat beneath a fixed ceiling. your ceiling revenue what you keep year 1 year 5

Five years of getting better at the work. The gap between those lines is what the two days are for.

The mechanism

Two days of numbers, decisions, and actual business math.

  • No motivational fluff.
  • No vague promises to think bigger.
  • No sitting in a room taking notes and hoping something changes afterwards.

We look at the numbers behind your business, identify what's actually limiting your income, and work through the decisions required to move past it. Specifically:

  • What you're currently earning
  • What you're actually keeping
  • Your real capacity
  • Your effective hourly rate
  • Client economics, per client
  • Pricing and rate structure
  • Offer structure and packaging
  • Revenue targets that are reachable
  • Where capacity constrains you
  • What has to change to reach the next level
IMAGE 02 — full bleed · hands, calculator and printed figures, hard side light
IMAGE 03 — portrait · a freelancer at a kitchen table, laptop closed, mid-thought

Fit check

Built for freelancers ready for their next level

This is for you if

  • You've built a freelance business that works, but you've hit a revenue ceiling
  • You're earning more and still trading too much time for money
  • You know you're capable of more but can't name what needs to change
  • You're constantly busy and never feel financially ahead
  • You're unsure what to charge, what to sell, or what to stop doing
  • You want decisions based on numbers instead of guesswork

This is not for you if

  • You're looking for a get-rich-quick formula
  • You haven't started freelancing yet and have no client data to work with
  • You want someone else to build the business for you
  • You want motivation without implementation
  • You want passive-income shortcuts that skip the hard decisions

The two days

14 hours. Zero passive learning.

Every session is designed to produce something. You'll calculate, decide, work through your own numbers, challenge your assumptions and build your next move. You won't leave with 47 pages of notes. You'll leave with decisions you can act on.

01 Saturday 14 Nov · 9am–4pm ET · Diagnosis
  • Your real numbers

    Revenue, what you kept, effective hourly rate, and capacity. Calculated properly, on your figures. Most people are wrong about at least one by a wide margin.

  • Client economics

    Profitability per client rather than per invoice. Which relationships fund the business and which quietly drain it.

  • The constraint audit

    Where the ceiling actually sits: pricing, packaging, client mix, capacity, or scope you've never billed for.

  • The belief holding the price down

    A short working session on what you assume about what people will pay. It's here because the pricing work stalls without it.

02 Sunday 15 Nov · 9am–4pm ET · Decisions
  • Reprice without losing clients

    The conversation script, the timing, and exactly what to do with the client who says no.

  • Restructure the offer

    Moving from hours sold to outcomes packaged, so the rate stops being capped by the clock.

  • Break the capacity dependency

    Identify which parts of the business only run when you do, and decide the first one to change.

  • Write the 90-day plan

    Four moves with dates, drafted in the room and reviewed before the session closes.

Deliverables

What you'll leave with on Sunday evening

  • 01

    Your income ceiling diagnosis

    Exactly what's limiting your income right now — capacity, pricing, client mix or profitability — named and quantified rather than guessed at.

  • 02

    Your next-level income model

    The numbers behind the income you're aiming for: what has to be true about rate, clients and capacity for it to be reachable.

  • 03

    Your offer and pricing decisions

    What changes in what you sell, how you package it, and what you charge — decided, not just considered.

  • 04

    Your growth constraints, mapped

    Which parts of the business currently depend on your hours, and which of them can be changed first.

  • 05

    Your 90-day action plan

    What to do next, what to stop doing, and what to prioritise, with dates against each one.

IMAGE 04 — portrait · Marco mid-sentence, not posed, warm interior, three-quarter

Who's teaching

Six figures freelancing. Still felt stuck.

Hitting six figures can feel like a finish line, right up until you realise you've built a six-figure job rather than a business that grows beyond you. More clients. More projects. More hours. More responsibility. Not much more freedom, and not much more personal income.

Marco Delgado spent eleven years finding that out. He cleared $240,000 in a single year and finished that December with $1,800 in the bank, having never once looked at what survived the revenue.

The next breakthrough, it turned out, wasn't doing more. It was changing the economics of what he was already doing. Working that out took four years and became the system taught here.

  • Built and sold a 14-person creative agency, 2014–2021
  • Author of The Keep Rate, translated into six languages
  • Has taught 4,000+ self-employed earners across 30 countries
  • Advises two freelancer platforms on contractor financial literacy

Marco Delgado

Track record

The numbers behind the method

4,000+

Freelancers taught since 2022

30

Countries represented

$9.4M

In underpricing and leaks found by attendees

4.8

Average rating across eight cohorts

Publication logo Publication logo Podcast logo Platform logo Conference logo

Participant outcomes

What happened when freelancers broke through the ceiling

IMAGE 05 — Renata, candid at her desk

$74k → $118k

  • Before

    Booked six weeks out at $65/hour, turning down work she couldn't fit in.

  • What changed

    Found she'd been absorbing unbilled scope on one retainer for two years, and repackaged it as a fixed monthly deliverable.

  • After

    Seven months later, same client count, four fewer working hours a week.

Renata Villanueva

UX contractor, Lisbon

IMAGE 06 — Dominic, editing suite, low light

Rate +40%

  • Before

    Nine clients, day-rate pricing, no idea which projects were actually profitable.

  • What changed

    Client economics showed three clients were consuming half his capacity for a fifth of revenue. He repriced all four of the rest.

  • After

    Three accepted without negotiating, one moved to a payment plan, none left.

Dominic Ashworth

Video editor, Manchester

IMAGE 07 — Priya, home office, morning light

First year in the black

  • Before

    Seasonal income, every budget collapsing by March, no reserve at any point in four years.

  • What changed

    Rebuilt around uneven income rather than a monthly paycheck, with a minimum viable month calculated first.

  • After

    Survived a bad quarter with the reserve intact and no borrowing.

Priya Raghunathan

Executive assistant, Singapore

What you get

Everything you need to work out your next income level

  • 2-day live intensive, 14 hours
  • Income ceiling calculation, done on your figures
  • Client economics exercise
  • Offer and pricing analysis
  • Effective rate and capacity worksheet
  • Income planning framework
  • Guided implementation sessions with feedback
  • Repricing conversation scripts
  • Your written 90-day action plan
  • Replay access for 72 hours
$197 Your investment
Complete price · rises to $247 on 1 November
Get my ticket

2-day intensive · $197 · 14–15 November 2026 · Live online · Secure checkout · Full refund up to 7 days before

The maths on $197

What if the next breakthrough isn't twenty more clients?

What if it's finding $2,000 more a year in the business you already have — through pricing, packaging, client mix, capacity or scope you've never billed for?

That's ten times the ticket.

And it's the floor, not the target. Most people find it in the first afternoon, before the pricing work even starts. Which is why the guarantee can be written the way it is.

Find $2,000 or don't pay.

Attend day one and complete the constraint audit. If it doesn't surface at least $2,000 a year in recoverable income — underpricing, unbilled scope, or margin you're currently giving away — email us before day two begins and you get the full $197 back.

No call, no form, no argument. We can write it this way because in four years of running it, the audit has come up short eleven times.

Before you close the tab

You're probably already thinking of a reason not to come.

"I don't have time."

That's precisely the symptom this is built for, and it's why the two days produce decisions rather than information. Fourteen hours against a year of working harder for income that isn't moving.

"I've already taken courses like this."

This isn't a course you watch at 1.5x speed. You work directly through your own numbers and your own business decisions, with feedback, in the room. Nothing is taught that isn't immediately done.

"$197 feels like a lot right now."

Ask a different question: what is staying stuck costing you every month? If the answer is more than $197, the ticket isn't the expensive part. And if the audit doesn't find ten times it on day one, you get the money back.

"I'm not making six figures yet."

You don't need to be. The point is understanding what's keeping your income from reaching the next level, whatever level that currently is. The framework starts from your numbers, not a threshold.

"What if this doesn't apply to my kind of business?"

It starts with your offer, your capacity, your client mix and your actual figures rather than assuming every freelancer operates the same way. If you have clients and invoices, there's something to work with.

"Will I actually get to work on my own business?"

That's most of what the fourteen hours are. The teaching segments are short; the working sessions, where you calculate and decide on your own numbers, are the bulk of both days.

Questions

Everything else worth asking

Is this for beginners?

No. You need at least a year of client work and real invoices to analyse. Without figures to work on, the exercises have nothing to operate on and you'd be watching other people do them.

Do I need to already be making six figures?

No, and most attendees aren't. The six-figure language describes Marco's own story rather than an entry requirement. The framework works from whatever your current numbers are.

What exactly happens during the two days?

Day one is diagnosis: your real numbers, client economics, and where the ceiling actually sits. Day two is decisions: repricing, restructuring the offer, breaking capacity dependency, and writing the plan. Short teaching segments, long working sessions, breaks each hour.

Is it live or recorded?

Live on Zoom, both days, with feedback in the sessions. A replay is available for 72 hours afterwards, but the working sessions don't survive being watched on catch-up.

Do I need to prepare anything beforehand?

Your last twelve months of invoices or income records, and a rough idea of hours worked. A prep note goes out a week before. The audit is much weaker on estimates.

Will I work on my own business during the sessions?

Yes, throughout. Every exercise runs on your figures, not a case study. Nobody is ever required to share their numbers with the room.

What happens after the intensive?

You leave with the plan and the worksheets, and the 72-hour replay. There's an optional programme with ongoing coaching for people who want implementation support, offered after you book so it isn't pitched from the stage.

Is $197 the complete price?

Yes. Everything listed above is included, there's no required add-on, and nothing is held back for an upgrade. The price rises to $247 on 1 November.

What's the refund policy?

Two ways out. Cancel up to seven days before for a full refund or move to the May cohort. Or attend day one, complete the audit, and if it doesn't find $2,000 in recoverable income, email before day two for a full refund.

Can I expense it or get an invoice?

Yes. A proper invoice with your business details is available at checkout, and most attendees put it through as professional development.

Why now rather than later

Three real constraints

  • Registration closes 48 hours before the intensive begins, so prep materials reach everyone in time to gather their figures.
  • 300 seats, and no more, because the working sessions include live feedback on individual numbers. Past that number the format stops functioning.
  • It runs twice a year. The next one is May, which is another two quarters of the ceiling costing you whatever it's currently costing.

The price rises to $247 on 1 November. 184 of 300 seats are currently taken.

IMAGE 08 — full bleed · Zoom grid of attendees mid-session, laptop-lit faces

Next year starts from the same place, unless something changes.

  • Another year of more clients.
  • More work. More responsibility.
  • And still wondering why your income feels harder to move each time.

Or two days working out exactly what needs to change. Your next income level doesn't arrive by accident.

Get my ticket

2-day intensive · 14–15 November 2026 · Live online · $197 complete price · Find $2,000 or don't pay

The Income Ceiling Breakthrough · Delgado Method · Nothing here is individual financial advice. Results depend on the work you do with it.