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]