Listening to Luo Yonghao’s podcast episode about Liu Qian, I noticed an interesting detail—top performers often understand the art of “building momentum” right from the start.

In 2000, Liu Qian was 24. The magician profession hadn’t yet become popular in China. The first thing he did wasn’t to take on as many gigs as possible, but to spend 15,000 yuan on a GUCCI suit. What does that mean? Back then, that amount was enough for a down payment on a house in a second-tier city.

His second move was even bolder: he bought a laptop (a rare thing at the time) and taught himself to build a personal website. He left his phone number and email on the site, making it look very professional.

When someone called to discuss a collaboration, the call would first connect to “Jason.” After Jason asked about the requirements, he would transfer the call to “Susie” for a quote. After Susie discussed the details of the proposal, she would transfer to “Mary” for confirmation. Finally, Liu Qian himself would show up with two assistants, both dressed in the same suit and carrying laptops, to meet with the client and present a PPT.

The truth? This “company” of six people was just him from start to finish. The two assistants were friends helping out, whose only job was to stand there with serious faces to look professional.

What did this approach achieve?
- Visually, it gave the illusion of a “mature team”
- Any international competition award he won would immediately be showcased on the website to build hype
- His quotes started at five to six times the industry standard

And the result? He didn’t get a single order in the first year. But by the time business started in the second year, he was getting top-tier brand launch events like Hermès and LV, as well as TV shows reaching out to him.

Sometimes it’s not that you’re not good enough, but that you don’t look expensive enough. Packaging, at its core, helps clients lower their decision-making costs—after all, no one wants to hand over a budget of hundreds of thousands to someone who looks “unreliable.”