(soft music) (alarm beeping) (car dinging) - [Josh] I'll take a large french vanilla iced coffee. - Have a good day.- You too. What's up everyone? Welcome to Josh Burns Tech. I wanna start today's video out a little bit different. A lot of you have been requestingvlog type content from me, so I wanted to show some thing that I normally do every day which is go out and get a cup of coffee. So I know personally how hard it is when you first start out on Upwork or maybe you've been on Upwork for a while but you're having problems getting the clients that you want. I know it's probablyreally difficult for you when you see other freelancersprofiles on the platform who have been really successful and the amount of money thatthey've made freelancing. I know it's hard to believe that something like thatcould happen for you because I had those same type of issues. But seeing so many reallysuccessful freelancers on the platform shouldbe an inspiration to you, from not only a financial perspective of how much money
thatyou can make freelancing but also all the skillsyou're gonna acquire along the way which are gonna benefit you for the rest of your life. So in this video, I'm gonna show you how I made over $400,000freelancing on Upwork in less than three yearsand I'm on pace to make over $500,000 before the end of 2019. The value of this video for you is higher than any of my otherUpwork videos in my opinion because it includes tips that most people just don't talk about. I'm here to help you and provide insights intomy own personal journey to help you succeed faster,create the life you want and not make some of the same mistakes that I made along the way. My goal is to show you thatthe success I've had on Upwork is possible for anyone, you don't have to be thesmartest person in the world and you don't have to be the most talented to make a lot of moneyfreelancing on Upwork and be one of the best freelancers. There's not any secrets tobeing successful freelancing, it comes down to consistenthard work, patience, perseverance, discipline andlearning from your failures, rather than letting them cripple you. There was nothing easy about making over $400,000 freelancing onUpwork, I sacrificed a lot, I put so much time and effort into it. There's nothing easy about the process, I don't want someone to think that. But consistently doing the things that I'm gonna sharewith you in this video is gonna become a habit for you, it's gonna become something that you do without even thinking aboutit, it's gonna be an instinct. And when these thingsbecome an instinct for you, it becomes engraved in you to where you do them withouteven thinking about it. It's going to drasticallychange your life freelancing, it's gonna take you to the next level. So I do ask one thing and that's if you getvalue from this video, if it benefits you and helpsyou in your freelance journey, please give it a like,comment on this video with one of your \
freelancegoals for this week that you're gonna takeaction on and go after. And also, considersubscribing to the channel and hitting the notification bell so you don't miss any future videos. And with that being said,let's go ahead and talk about some specific tips for myjourney to $400,000 on Upwork. (hip hop music) My number one tip has to be to start now. So how and where do you start? Do you find yourself saying you know what? I'll start freelancing after this happens, I'll start freelancingafter I take this course, I'll start freelancing after this event takes place in my life and I have more time to dedicate to it. If you're always lookingfor a reason to wait, then you're always goingto find a reason to wait, you are never gonna becompletely ready to start going after the things that you want, so start today from wherever you are. What are your skills in? What are you passionate about? What are you interested in doing? If you don't know, my adviceto you is to go to upwork.com, start looking through job categories and looking at different typesof jobs that have been posted within those categories. And then something thatI know a lot of you probably aren't doing,especially new freelancers is searching for the topfreelancers within whatever type of job category that you're looking into. Look at the top freelancers,look at their profile, look at what they're doing, look at that and start modeling yourself after it. And if you don't know how to do this, after this video is over, watch my video in the cardlinked at the top of screen. I'll also put it on the endscreen of this video as well. Wanna specifically look at high-paying work from home jobs on Upwork and I specifically searchfor top freelancers in certain job categories. You can use that video, it'll show you how touse the search feature. So how did I start \
freelancing on Upwork? I had only been out ofcollege for three years. However, I had already laid the groundwork to acquire the skills inSQL server and databases that I needed to start pursuingthe jobs that I wanted. I had never worked with a client on my own so I initially started bidding on jobs in the intermediate levelaround 25, $35 an hour. Now you're definitelygonna hear people say you should never price yourself that low, you should demand what you're worth. Well, you know what myresponse is to that? I have an Upwork employer account myself, if I hire someone for $60 an hour or more, let's say in the high end, if I hire someone for that type of a rate, I expect to be getting thattype of quality from them. It was best for me beingcompletely new to Upwork and working with clientson my own freelancing. It was best for me to startout with lower-paying jobs to mid-range jobs so I canstart building my confidence, getting those skills underme for freelancing on my own with clients and be able to work with them and communicate with them. It was really important for me to build that type of confidence before I started goingafter high-paying jobs that I knew I could deliver on. So when I get paid $100 an hourfor the work that I do now, you better believe that I'mproviding that level of quality. Building my confidence, five star reviews, great client feedback andmy own personal confidence was way more important to methan demanding a very high rate initially when I started on Upwork and my stance will never change on that. instead of pondering if you're ready, looking for excuses of why it just can't work out for you right now, look at something you can doto start taking action today. Please don't just consumemy videos and my content without ever taking action on anything. I want you to take theadvice that I'm giving you and start implementing it. I have people email me and DM me on
Instagram and Twitter everyday saying they watch my videos, implemented the advice that I gave them from my personal journeyand now they're getting consistent clients and five star reviews. And to give you an example of this, take a look at the screen right now. These people are implementing the things that I'm giving them,they're taking action and making things happento change their lives. Some of the advice in this video is gonna be specific to freelancing and other advice is gonna bepersonal development related because you need a balance of both if you truly wanna be successful, make a lot of money on Upwork and be one of the topFreelancers in the world. So please, take at least one thing
away from this video today,open notes on your iPhone, use OneNote on your computer,take out a pen and paper, whatever you're comfortabletaking notes on. Write something down from this video that you're gonnaimplement after it's over. And I want you to leave acomment on this video and tell me what you're gonna starttaking action on this week that you're gonna takeaway from this video and start implementing. Because I wanna know which of you are gonna start taking action and which of you are gonnakeep looking for excuses why you should wait andwhy you're not ready. Now for the second tip, whichis probably the most important which is led to me making over $400,000 freelancing on Upwork. This second tip is client trust. Are you focused on building relationships and trust with your clients? Or are you focused on howmuch they're paying you? If your answer to that question is how much they're paying you then you need to take sometime and audit yourself. Client reviews on Upwork are similar to Amazon reviews or Google business reviews. If you are able to hook aclient with your job proposal, which leads them to takinga look at your profile, I can't stress enough how important it is to have five star reviews or at a minimum, four star reviews with great feedback. You can make as much moneyfreelancing as the value that you bring to your clients. If you have five star reviews,really great client feedback and a high job success score, then you're considered areally valuable freelancer and the money that you make is gonna start matching that value. If a client goes to your profile, they see three stars reviews or less, bad feedback, negative feedback, then they are probably gonnago with another \
freelancer. If you go to Amazon andyou search for a product that you need or want, do youtake a look at the reviews to see what people aresaying about the product? If you want to purchase a good product, of course you're gonnalook at the reviews to see what people are saying aboutit, just like I do that. And you should be valuingyour Upwork client reviews and feedback in that same regard. You wanna be the best product on Upwork with the highest quality andthe highest trust as well. You want your clients togo to their colleagues and people that they know and say wow, this person really impressed me. If you can accomplishand harness those things, the money and financial gains that you're gonna make freelancingwill change your life. This is by far the biggestarea that has led to me making over $400,000freelancing on Upwork. So let me give you a real example of building client relationshipsand feedback as well. Last week, a previousclient of mine messaged me and asked if I could helpwith a Power BI project. He stated that hisbusiness gave him a project to create sales and accounting reports and he was thinking ofusing Power BI or Tableau. Since I had worked with him in the past and built a great relationshipand trust with them, you can see this review righthere was from this client. So what happened with thisclient because he trust me because I had a greatrelationship with him? He reached out to me to ask me if I had experience working with Power BI. And because I do have experience with it and it's one the services that I offer freelancing on Upwork, he awarded me the job andnow we can see the new job that's in progress whichis the Power BI job that my previous client reached out to me and then hired me for again. When you develop a relationshipand trust with a client, they are gonna preferyou as their freelancer and most of them aregonna give you more work beyond the scope of the
initial project. So take pride in your work,don't try to cut corners, do things to leave your client saying wow, to where they go toone of their colleagues and tell them what a great job you did. Those things are gonna leadto you getting more clients and more longterm clients. If you want your clientsto love you and trust you, then you have to give them more than what you're asking for in return, it's all about servicingpeople with their problems and finding solutions to those problems. The more that you truly careabout servicing other people and finding solutions to their problems, the more money that's gonna come your way. So the next tip which I briefly went over in the intro to this video is executing on your goals and your task. My passion is to help youand give you the framework of what worked for me to help me make over $400,000 freelancing and become one of the top freelancers but it's up to you toimplement what I'm giving you. Review your goals, break them down and execute on them one at a time. And if you don't have all theskills you need right now, that's fine, it's 2019 andthe amount of online trainings and free content you can find are endless. For instance, say you know how to do 80% of what the client's asking for, take that 20% you don't knowhow to do, go to Google, type in whatever it is, researchit and self-teach yourself. You are not gonna learneverything you need to know from college, courses or otherforms of formal education. You have to be willing to putthe time into self-learning and teach yourself skills. And sacrifice plays a huge role in this. You're gonna have to sacrificethings like leisure time, going out and doing things that don't contribute to your success. Now I'm not saying to sacrifice everything but you need to controlthem in moderation. You have to
developdiscipline and understand that the sacrifices you're gonna make right now are gonna benefit you long-term and allow you to live in the 1%. Branching off of the last tip that helped me make over$400,000 freelancing, the next tip is patience and perseverance. To be a successful freelanceror any area in life, you have to have a high level of patience. How many YouTube videos haveyou seen with a title like how I made X amount ofdollars in only one day? In only one week? In only one month? There's tons of these videosbecause people are obsessed with getting success andmaking a lot of money fast. And the truth is, most of these people that made a lot of money really fast, had a lot of success reallyfast, they can't sustain it and they end up losing it all. Everyone wants the quickand easy lottery route where they get a lot of money I'm having to do much for it. In freelancing, you have to be patient and continuously improve. With patience, the results will come from the effort that you put in. One of the best things I've ever heard is work before recognition. On Upwork, I'm currentlyin their marketing campaign and I was selected as a top freelancer in the IT and networking category that has over 100,000 other freelancers in it. I'm currently being featured on the homepage of their website and the
y recently did a social media post about me as well. And what did I do to earn that? I put in consistent high levels of work and continuously looked for areas to improve on. And then one day, I receive dan email from Upwork asking me if I would be interested in being in their marketing campaign. Work before recognition. Most people are looking for the easy route and for everything to be handed to them. If this is you, you haveto change that mindset now. No one handed me a guide on how to be a SQL Server database expert or be successful freelancing, I put in tons of mypersonal time, my weekends into self-teaching and self-learning to set myself up for opportunities. And if you want to be one of the most successfulfreelancers and change your life, then you are gonna haveto do the same thing. Most people get hyped up, excited and motivated to try freelancing, then they create an accountwith minimal effort, start bidding on some jobs,they don't get any within a week and then they quit. Lack of patience and
trueeffort are the two main reasons why I see people not succeed freelancing. So if you don't give up aftera month, you put in true work and true grind into yourprofile and your skills, you're automatically 99%ahead of everyone else because they're all gonna give up. Everyone else is gonna give up because of their lack of patience and understanding of what it takes. No matter what line ofwork that you're in, you're not gonna loveworking every single day. I truly love what I do and I'mextremely passionate about it but there's days where Idon't feel like doing it and I would rather playRocket League all day long. If you are able to work and be effective when you don't want to, you're automatically going toahead of 99% of other people. Now this next tip isfreelancing and Upwork specific which is building a great portfolio. My personal opinion isthat you should focus on your portfolio on your profile rather than adding thingslike certifications. Personally, I've hired severalfreelancers on Upwork myself to help delegate workthat's the better suited for a professional in that area. When searching for freelancers to invite to the jobs that I created, other than client reviews, the main thing that I focusedwas the portfolio section when reviewing those freelancers. Coincidentally, thischanged my perspective on the Upwork portfolio section and made me put more emphasis on my own. So regarding your portfolio section, let's take a look atwhat I'm talking about. So here we are on my Upworkprofile and what we're gonna do is we're gonna scroll downto my portfolio section. So when searching forfreelancers to invite to my jobs, I looked at their portfolio sections to see what projects they had highlighted that directly correlatedto the job that I posted. I wanted to see the resultsand what they had produced, if someone had a
collegedegree but no examples of work proving they can do what they claim, then I would look for someone else. I personally have a bachelor's degree in computer information sciences but trust me, that in no way qualified me to be a SQL server database expert or business intelligence expert. So if we look at my portfolio section, we can see that I havemultiple things highlighted. The first one being that I'm featured in Upwork'smarketing campaign, I've been on the frontpage of their website and I was selected as a top freelancer in the IT and networking category, so I made sure I had thatadded as a portfolio item. The next one being my YouTube channel. I added a portfolio item describing why I created my YouTube channel, the content that I provide on my channel and a brief description of it. Next, I created a portfolio item describing my website that I created and all my social media accountsaround my business as well. Next, I created a portfolio item for my SQL server databaseadministration experience. I went into a lot ofthe versions I work with and projects I've completed. And then I also highlighteda specific type of job I do on Upwork which isSQL server replication and described that experience as well. Now when you have a great portfolio in addition to great reviews,it's gonna stand out, I promise you that. For new freelancers,think of creative ways you can add things to your portfolio, add previous projects thatyou've worked on in the past, maybe at a company somewhereyou worked full-time. Create a project and do it yourself. For example, look at my YouTube channel and my website in my portfolio. Those weren't Upwork jobs that I did, those were things I did myself on the side but it shows examples of my work. When I started focusingmore on my portfolio, I started noticing clientscomplimenting me on my portfolio when I interviewed for their jobs. Right now on Upwork, theportfolio section is huge and I'm probably gonnado a full-length video on it as soon as well. My next tip that helped me make over $400,000 freelancing on Upwork is following entrepreneurial podcast and surround yourselfwith like-minded people. I really can't recommend this one enough. Probably about a year ago, one of my good friends, Slater Curtis, recommended Andy Frisella'sMFCEO Project Podcast. This podcast has honestly helped me take everything to the next level, from my freelancing to my YouTube channel, everything I'm doing. I've realized things thatI've been doing wrong, areas that I need to improve in and I've taken so many things from the podcast and been able toimplement into freelancing that I really can't go into depth on it without creating a full-length video. So here's a life hack/pro-tip for you. Everyday when I'm getti ngready in the morning, taking a shower, doingeverything to get ready, I turn on the MFCEO ProjectPodcast and listen to episodes that get my mindset ready for the day. This allowed me to develop a routine of listening to thepodcast every single day when I'm getting
ready,during a time when I normally would not have been doinganything productive. Surrounding yourselfwith like-minded people who support you and understand what you're trying toaccomplish is so important. You can't have people bringing you down, you can't have people setting you back, you can't have people that don't support what your goals are. So try out Andy's MFCEO Project. If you don't like it, if it doesn't do whatit needs to do for you, try another one out, look up someone else. Make sure they've been really successful in business and life, those are the ones you wanna listen to. And then, again, surroundyourself with people that support you, who understandyour ambitions and goals, who are gonna uplift youand not tear you down. You need to be patient so thatyour hard work becomes habit and an instinct, rather thansomething that is forced. If you develop a consistent routine and make it a part of your everyday life, then it will be engraved in you and you will do these things productively without even having to think about it. You're gonna have tonsof failures along the way and I've had my \
fair share of it but there are no realfailures, there's experiences and your reactions to those experiences. How you handle theseexperiences and learn from them will separate you from everyone else. I've personally got so much more to learn and I'll never say that I know it all. And anyone that tells youthat they know it all, they're gonna eventually fall off, they're gonna get passed up because they're gonna be stagnant. So embrace the challengeof whatever your goals are, it's gonna make you strongerand it's gonna impact more areas in your life other than work. On this end screen, I recommendchecking out these videos. And be sure to hit thatround subscribe button for weekly tagged videos and hit that notification bell so you don't miss anything. Thank you for watching and until next time. (hip hop music)
Subscribe by Email
Follow Updates Articles from This Blog via Email
No Comments