I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I get the, how do I get clients'
question, and I've answered it before.
If you want like 50 quick ideas for how to do that, I'm gonna
leave a video up here somewhere.
That it's just kind of rapid fire.
It's gonna help you get started.
But specifically I get the question, you know, how do I get
long-term, high quality clients?
And I think that's a little bit of a different story.
I think the strategy or the tactics that you might employ might be
just a little bit different.
So, Today, I wanna share with you the three biggest ways, the three key ways
that I've been able to get high quality long-term clients when I was pretty new in
my business and I'm rushing to a meeting.
So I'm, I'm doing double duty today.
Hope that's okay.
So the first way, the first thing that I actually was just working on
this morning was editing a video.
And I have said this to you all before, so this probably is not a
surprise that content marketing is responsible for the majority of my.
My inquiries, the majority of my digital product sales, the majority of
everything, like YouTube really drives this business, and that has always
been the case, even before I had any.
You know, amount of followers really.
My first long-term client actually came to me through a YouTube video.
I had reviewed basically their competitor, not realizing it was a
competitor or anything like that.
I was just really interested in the influencer marketing and the text.
Space, and so I reviewed this platform.
I got an email from this guy in Paris, you know, maybe a couple
months after I had posted that video.
It did pick up some traction.
It wasn't huge, but I think it had like 10,000 views or something.
My YouTube channel only had a couple thousand subscribers,
so it wasn't huge by any means.
He reached out and said, Hey, we really enjoyed your
review of this other platform.
We'd love to sort of pick your brain.
Would you be able to do some consulting for us?
Anyway, it ended up being a very good opportunity.
Worked with them for years and years and years.
They eventually offered me a full-time job, which I declined cause I didn't
wanna move to New York, but it was great.
But here's the thing, I'm gonna be honest with you.
Content takes a lot of time and a lot of dedication because even back then
though, I was fairly new as a YouTuber and I didn't have a ton of followers.
I was really passionate about it.
I was posting regularly.
I was devoting a lot of time to it, and so those leads can be extremely high
quality, but not everybody has the.
You know, ability or the desire to sit around and film YouTube videos all day.
So I wanna share a couple of other ways that worked for me when I was
very new, starting with what I'm actually about to go do right now.
I'm trying to run out the door to go meet my friend.
Also, really quick, wanna share an opportunity with you from Amazon
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Okay.
I am back from my little outing with my friend Ryan.
We're gonna make a vegan BLT really quick for dinner with
Tempe Bacon and avocado mayo.
It's gonna be delicious, but I wanted to share my second tip for finding
clients when you're first starting out, which really is what I just
did, which is networking, getting out there, putting yourself out there.
Is so, so helpful, and I got so many of my first few clients just from talking
to other freelancers, telling them what I wanted to do, looking at other freelancers
as my community, as my friends, and not as my competition and putting
myself out there in my local community.
My friend Ryan and I, who I just went to coffee with, we started our
businesses around the same time, and we live in the same area, and so we
would have regular co-working dates.
And we would go to a different coffee shop and just hang out,
do work together, kind of be accountability partners to one another.
And it was super helpful.
One for morale and just, you know, cheering each other on and you
know, giving each other leads.
If we had them, Hey, I've heard from this person, they need somebody.
And you know, for search, he does more like search and stuff and ads than I do.
That's not something I do.
Could you take them on?
But also just.
Like I said, morale and, and making sure that you're holding
each other accountable, that you're getting your work done.
Another thing that was really helpful about doing that is I have a laptop
sticker and it has my business name on it, and it always brings the questions,
so I'm very introverted, but it's a great way to just kind of introduce
yourself before you even speak.
I would just get random people all the time be like, oh, what is Jameson Park?
What is this?
What do you do?
Um, now it says OBL Lll on it, but I was able to strike up so many
conversations with people that way.
Another thing, if you don't have a business bestie, a freelance friend,
well, first of all, you should join the Freelance Friday Club.
I'll leave a link down below.
Maybe you can find one there.
Also, just reaching out to your existing network, so posting a
LinkedIn post, posting a Facebook post and saying, Hey, I'm in business.
I am taking on clients.
Here's what I do.
Share this link with a friend.
If you know anyone, and I know sometimes that can be intimidating cuz it's like,
listen, Latasha, my Aunt Debbie doesn't need a social media manager and I get it,
but your Aunt Debbie might have a coworker who has a cousin or nephew that does.
So you never know, like just using your existing network,
building a freelance network.
Those things can be super, super powerful when you're first starting out.
Alright, I am getting ready to go, soak up the last little bit of sunlight
that we've got going on here today and apply for some upward gigs so, I'm
actually not actively looking for new clients right now, but I'm trying to
do a video about Upwork and how hard it is or how easy it is to get started.
It's one of those social media science videos where kind of do a challenge
to educate my audience about it.
So we'll see how that goes.
Stay tuned for that, but really quick, that's a great tip for
you is start an Upwork profile.
Outside of that client that I mentioned to you that came from
YouTube, a lot of my first.
High quality, long-term, high paying clients in the beginning came from
Upwork, and I know the Upwork kind of gets a bad rep for being, you know, very.
Bottom of the barrel, if you will, there being a lot of low cost projects on there,
but I really disagree, to be honest.
I mean, there is a lot of bad on there, but there's also a
whole lot of good on there.
It's all about sorting through it.
So I definitely recommend using the advanced search feature on Upwork
and just making sure that you are filtering by experience level,
that you are taking a look at the.
Listings and looking in this little side panel on the right hand side and seeing
where all of the client details are and taking a look at, you know, how many
jobs that client has posted, what's the average hourly rate that they usually
pay, and vetting the projects that way.
With that said, you also just have to kind of start from somewhere.
So my first upward gig was $20 a blog post.
It was nothing that was gonna get me rich, but it was enough to just
get me that five star review on my profile and a good testimonial on
my profile, and then it made it so.
So much easier from there to apply to higher paying gigs.
The other thing I will say is that the quality of your proposal
really matters here as well.
So if you're sending through a pitch that is just boiler plate copy and
paste, or created with an AI tool or whatever, it probably is not
going to stand out to that client.
You wanna use as many personal details as you can without being creepy.
Of course, by personal details, I mean.
Use their name, use their company details if you have it.
Sometimes upward gigs do not have that, so I get it.
It's hard to do, but if you can find it and greet them with a name or at least
hide there, make sure that you read the entire job listing and reference.
Specific portions of that job post in your proposal so that it shows
that you really read it, that you're really interested and invested.
And another thing I really like to do is include a short video
just saying, Hey, here's who I am.
Here's why I'd be a great person for this job.
Here's why I'm excited about the project.
And then of course you can add attachments too.
So having a good portfolio really helps here as well.
Just have a portfolio with some snapshots of jobs that you've done in the past.
Projects that you've worked on can be super helpful at
helping your proposal stand out.
So anyway, um, I'm gonna go ahead and sit outside, like I said,
soak up a little bit of sun.
I'm gonna put some sunscreen on safety first and apply for a couple of gigs.
But those are really my best tips for finding clients when
you're first starting out.
I really hope this was helpful.
Lemme know in the comments if you have any questions or if you have any other
ideas or anything else that has worked for you when it comes to getting high quality
clients when you're at the beginning stages of your freelancing journey.
I would love to know.
Leave a comment down below and thank you again to Amazon Business.
Be sure to check out all the details for that down in the description and
I'll talk to you in my next video.
Bye.