Get Your FIRST JOB on Upwork (With This ONE Thing)
Summary
TLDRThe video script details a freelancer's journey from starting with no clients or portfolio on Upwork to earning over half a million dollars. It emphasizes the importance of proof—either through testimonials and reviews (social proof) or work samples (physical proof)—to secure the first clients. The speaker shares strategies for beginners, such as creating a portfolio with non-paid work to showcase skills and offering services for free or at a low cost to gain testimonials. The script also discusses the transition from being a creative to a strategic consultant, using personal experience as an example, and encourages building a portfolio to increase the chances of securing initial clients.
Takeaways
- 😀 Starting on Upwork with no prior clients or portfolio can be challenging, but a strategic approach can help secure the first few jobs.
- 💼 Having a 100% job success score and an 'Expert Vetted' badge on your profile can significantly boost your credibility on Upwork.
- 📈 The speaker earned $400,000 in just two years by leveraging a strategic approach to finding clients on Upwork.
- 🔍 To convince clients to hire you, it's crucial to provide proof of your skills, which many freelancers overlook.
- 🎥 For visual content creators, creating proof of skills can be as simple as showcasing personal projects or samples of your work.
- 📊 Proof can come in two forms: social proof (testimonials and reviews) and physical proof (actual work samples).
- 💡 Offering a coupon or doing initial work for free can help build a portfolio and gain testimonials, which are essential for attracting clients.
- 📈 For strategy-based freelancers, demonstrating the ability to achieve results for clients is key, even if it starts with creative work.
- 📊 As a consultant, using graphs and data from past projects to show the impact of your work is a powerful form of physical proof.
- 🔗 Building a portfolio with testimonials and visual examples is essential for beginners to show potential clients that you're capable, even without prior paid clients.
- 🔄 Breaking the cycle of 'I'll have proof once I have clients' by proactively creating a portfolio and seeking testimonials is crucial for getting started on Upwork.
Q & A
What is the speaker's experience on Upwork?
-The speaker has earned over five hundred thousand dollars on Upwork, with four hundred thousand of that earned in just the last two years. They have a 100% job success score and an expert vetted badge on their profile.
What challenges did the speaker face when they first started on Upwork?
-Initially, the speaker had no previous clients, no portfolio, no paid gigs, and no testimonials and reviews, making it difficult to find their first clients.
What is the key thing that many freelancers overlook when trying to get their first job on Upwork?
-Many freelancers overlook the need for proof of their skills, which is crucial for convincing clients to hire them.
How did the speaker get their first freelance job as a video editor?
-The speaker got their first freelance job by submitting proof of videos they've edited in their proposals, even though these videos were not from paid gigs but were edited for fun.
What are the two forms of proof that can help freelancers get their first clients?
-The two forms of proof are social proof through testimonials and reviews, and physical proof through actual work samples.
What strategy does the speaker suggest for a graphic designer to get their first few clients?
-The speaker suggests offering a coupon to a few people or businesses to do work for free in exchange for a sample of their work and a testimonial.
How can freelancers who offer strategy-based services prove their capabilities?
-Freelancers offering strategy-based services can prove their capabilities by showing results they've achieved for businesses, even if they started as technicians or creatives.
What does the speaker suggest for consultants to include in their portfolio to show their impact?
-The speaker suggests including graphs from clients showing how their audiences or website traffic grew during the time the consultant was working with them.
Why is it important for freelancers to get testimonials and reviews early in their career?
-Testimonials and reviews are important because they provide social proof, which helps to convince potential clients of the freelancer's capabilities and reduces the client's perceived risk in hiring them.
What advice does the speaker give to freelancers who are struggling to get their first clients?
-The speaker advises freelancers to create a portfolio of proof, including testimonials and visual examples of their work, even if it's not from previously paying clients, to increase their chances of getting hired.
Outlines
💼 Starting Your Freelance Journey on Upwork
The speaker shares their personal experience of starting on Upwork without any previous clients, portfolio, or paid gigs, and how they managed to earn over half a million dollars in the last two years alone. They emphasize the importance of having a strategy to find the first clients and highlight the necessity of providing proof of skills, which can be either social proof through testimonials and reviews or physical proof through work samples. The speaker suggests that freelancers can create their own projects to showcase their abilities, even if they haven't worked for paying clients yet. They also discuss the transition from being a technician or creative to becoming a strategic consultant, and how previous work, even if not directly related to the current freelance role, can be repurposed to demonstrate one's capabilities.
📈 Building a Portfolio to Showcase Your Expertise
In this paragraph, the focus is on how to build a portfolio that demonstrates one's expertise, especially when starting out without any client testimonials or reviews. The speaker explains that as a consultant, they used graphs from their work as a video editor to show the growth in clients' audiences, which served as physical proof of their impact. They stress the importance of collecting testimonials and reviews early in one's career, even if it means starting with small projects or asking friends and colleagues for verification. The speaker also advises on creating a PDF portfolio with testimonials and visual examples of work to include in job proposals, which can help mitigate the risk for clients and increase the chances of securing the first few jobs on Upwork.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Upwork
💡Job Success Score
💡Expert Vetted Badge
💡Proof of Skills
💡Social Proof
💡Physical Proof
💡Portfolio
💡Freelance Strategy
💡Consultant
💡Technician or Creative
💡Testimonials
Highlights
The speaker has earned over $500,000 on Upwork, with $400,000 earned in the last two years.
Achieved a 100% job success score and an expert vetted badge on Upwork profile.
Started on Upwork with no previous clients, portfolio, paid gigs, or reviews.
Emphasizes the importance of having a strategy to find the first clients on Upwork.
Suggests providing proof of skills as a key to convince clients to hire when starting with no experience.
Mentioned getting the first freelance job by submitting proof of non-paid video editing work.
Differentiates between social proof (testimonials and reviews) and physical proof (work samples).
Advises creating visual proof by offering services for free to get samples and testimonials.
For strategy-based freelance work, the challenge of proving capability without prior business results is discussed.
Suggests framing past employee job experiences to show business results for consulting roles.
Describes the transition from technician or creative to strategic consultant in freelancing.
Shares personal experience of growing a freelance business from video editing to strategy consulting.
Provides an example of using client growth graphs as physical proof in a consulting portfolio.
Stresses the importance of getting testimonials and reviews, even if from non-clients, to verify skills.
Encourages adding physical and social proof to a portfolio to increase the chances of getting clients.
Advises creating a portfolio of proof to overcome the challenge of getting the first few clients.
Offers a free book on building a freelance business while supporting a family at freelancefamilyman.com.
Transcripts
getting that first job on upwork is
difficult I've been there I was you five
years ago now I've earned over five
hundred thousand dollars on upwork and
400 000 of that was earned in just the
last two years I have a hundred percent
job success score and expert vetted
badge on my profile but when I first
started I had no previous clients no
portfolio no paid gigs no testimonials
and reviews you can find your first
clients with the right strategy and so
I'm going to train you on what I wish I
knew when I first started on upwork when
it comes to finding those first few jobs
foreign if you're a total beginner to
upwork and you keep submitting proposals
but nothing no response no interviews
this video is for you how do you
convince a client to hire you when
you've had no previous clients or very
few there's one thing that you need to
have that many Freelancers overlook
that's proof
but how do I get proof of my skills Chad
when I haven't had clients before that's
the the most common question that I get
I got my first freelance job as a video
editor because I submitted proof of
videos that I've edited in the proposals
that I've sent but the First videos that
I submitted as proof were not from Paid
gigs they were not from freelance
clients because I had none they were
videos that I just edited for fun but it
still demonstrated the skills that I had
if you're any type of freelancer that
produces visual content whether it's
photos videos writing graphic design web
design then coming up with proof is
fairly easy because you can easily
fabricate projects to demonstrate your
skills proof can come in two forms
though either social proof through
testimonials and reviews or physical
proof through actual work samples I'm
going to show you what each of these can
look like in various Industries the best
ways to get clients is to have social
proof and visual proof but you must at
least have one of those so if you're
just getting started and you're a
graphic designer for example you want to
have social proof to attach to your
visual examples then what you could do
is you could offer a coupon to a couple
of people or a couple businesses where
they're basically you're doing work for
them for free just to be able to have a
sample of your work and a testimonial
attached to that in order to get those
first few clients now maybe you can try
to offer it for a little bit of money
but again it's hard to convince somebody
to pay you money if you don't have any
proof that you have the skills that you
say you have so you might have to do
just one or two projects for free just
small ones don't go after really big
ones just small ones that will
demonstrate your skills but then it also
allows you to get a good review and a
testimonial that you can now add to your
portfolio now if your freelance work is
more strategy based it's it's like
marketing or some type of consulting
which is what I do right now then you're
helping a business achieve a certain
result over time and so you have to now
prove to your potential clients that
you're capable in doing that but if
you've never worked with a business
before helping them achieve that result
then it gets tricky right so I'm going
to show you what this looks like if
you're that type of freelancer but first
why don't you go ahead and hit that
subscribe button if you want more
content on how to find clients on upwork
so most Freelancers start out as
technicians or creatives and then they
eventually might become strategic
Consultants because it's much easier to
create samples of your work that you've
even done in school or for fun when you
are producing something visual you know
like graphic design video editing and so
forth and you might have to start and
and with that type of freelancing it's
very difficult to start out as a
consultant
if you haven't produced a result for
somebody because technically that means
you don't have the experience to be a
consultant now if you've had employee
jobs for the last 10 years and you've
produced results for the businesses
you've worked for you can you can frame
that experience in a way where you can
show proof that you have helped
businesses achieve a certain result and
you can become a consultant you can jump
right into Consulting it's more
difficult if you're fresh out of college
you don't have much business experience
so you don't have much to advise on so
you might need to start as a technician
or creative so if you're the type of
freelancer that is offering business
growth as a result opposed to a visual
project then you need proof that you can
create that result so in my current
freelance business I help companies
online to grow their audiences on
YouTube and on social media through
video so when I first started I just
edited videos but now I advise on the
strategy behind them and at first you
know it was there was less pressure all
I had to do is deliver a good video and
if they liked it then they're satisfied
with my work it didn't matter whether
that video ultimately helped their
business grow they weren't really paying
me for that but over time I saw that my
videos were helping the businesses that
I was working for grow and get more
sales and get a bigger audience and so I
was able to reframe that experience to
be like hey I can advise on this I can
provide Consulting on this but it took
time of being just a creative before I
could move into
Consulting and so when I first created a
portfolio as a consultant I used some
graphs from clients I worked for as a
video editor showing how their audiences
grew during the time that I was editing
videos for them and my videos had a big
impact on that audience growing so what
you're seeing is an example of what my
portfolio looks like today where I have
graphs mostly that show how I've helped
a client's audience grow over time
through my strategy Consulting these
graphs are pulled from YouTube analytics
Google analytics and they basically show
proof that I helped their audiences grow
over time I helped their website traffic
increase so that's my physical proof is
those graphs to show the results I got
for a client and then you know other
types of data percentages things like
that is another form of physical proof
like oh I helped them increase their
website traffic by 30 percent now
getting those testimonials and reviews
is extremely important I know it's more
difficult when you're just getting
started but you can always find somebody
that's willing to verify that you know
what you're doing it could be a friend
it could be a colleague it could be
somebody you went to school with it
doesn't have to be a previous client you
just need somebody to verify hey he
knows what he's talking about he knows
what he's doing with every job you start
to get no matter how small don't
hesitate in adding physical proof and
social proof to your portfolio and your
ability to keep getting clients will get
easier and easier and you'll get bigger
and higher paying clients but to find
that first upwork job as a total
beginner since you don't have reviews
yet on your profile you need to create
some kind of attachment that you include
in your proposal some kind of PDF
attachment where it has testimonials it
has visual examples of your work it's
your portfolio that you've compiled
together of proof that you know what
you're doing even though none of that
proof is from previously paying clients
it doesn't matter it's not made up
you're not lying it just is not from
clients but it is proof that you know
you're you're doing you have to remember
the client is taking on risk and hiring
you and so the more proof you provide
them
then they won't feel as if they're
wasting their money they're not going to
be afraid that they're going to waste
their money and regret hiring you the
higher chances that you'll have in being
able to get the clients you want and get
those first couple clients the more
proof that you have so stop telling
yourself that you'll have proof once you
have a few clients this is the hamster
wheel that a lot of Freelancers get it
oh I can't I'm submitting hundreds of
proposals that I'm not getting any
clients you're not showing enough proof
for your work so take the time to step
back and create a portfolio of proof you
need to dig for it you need to work for
it to really get those testimonials in
place and that visual proof in place in
order to get your first few clients if
this is helpful to you be sure to
subscribe to the channel and if you want
more content like this and head over to
my website freelancefamilyman.com where
you can download a free book that helps
you build up your freelance business
while supporting the family have a great
day
foreign
[Music]
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