Hey what's going on everyone Paul here with Profitable Freelancer and I saw this video I was
on youtube I was scrolling looking for something to watch last night and I saved this because I
really wanted to watch it but instead, I want to react to this. So this is my first time watching
this video I found it and it's called making $378k a year as a Fiverr freelancer. So if you know me
if you follow the channel before you know I talk about all things freelancing entrepreneurship and
lifestyle freedom and in this video we're going to react to this series that CNBC has called "make
it" and let's get right into it. I doubled my income overnight and that was crazy to me
at 24 25 making 14 or $15k per month is insane you're not even emotionally prepared for it yet.
So right off the bat $378,000 a year on Fiverr is super impressive. I mean that's why I clicked the
video that's why it really caught my eye and I'm really interested to see what services she
provides on Fiverr because if you know anything about Fiverr or anything about Upwork you know
that Fiverr is really good for kind of cranking out a lot of work and not necessarily working with
long-term clients as much. Whereas Upwork is more for long-term clients so I'm interested to see
what she's doing and how she's able to really produce that much on Fiverr. My name is Alex
Fasoulo I'm 28 years old and I make $378 thousand dollars per year as a freelance
writer on Fiverr.com, I lived in New York City for the past six years and I now live in Florida.
There it is okay so it says freelance writer full-time freelance writer on Fiverr so
I'm guessing she's doing some sort of copywriting she's working full-time so
looks like she's working remotely and she's just putting all her energy into this because it's
obviously paying off so this is awesome so far.
There it is ghostwrites ebooks and blog posts okay $1,000 for an E-book,
okay so this is what I'm saying right on Fiverr you really need to have a package deal that is
ready to go that you can crank out. So she's probably built her profile her credibility
up I'm guessing to a point where she literally can charge a thousand dollars for an E-book that
she probably knows how to do in a pretty good amount of time where it makes sense for her.
My clients in two days from large corporations that you've heard of
down to entrepreneurs or influencers or people who manage their influencing dog on Instagram
I've written E-books for quite a few dogs. I've been able to take 60 hours worth of
work and kind of squish it down to 40 hours because I kind of have my system down. Yep,
so right this is exactly what I was talking about in the last video as well where she's able to
condense time and just provide more value and not get paid just for her time so she just said she's
able to condense down a 60-hour workweek into 40 hours and she's just cranking out ebooks this is
amazing. I can't wait to really see more about how she built her profile up to that point so well.
I accepted this pr job that paid $36,000 per year. I felt so out of place I was so unhappy and
I was crying on my keyboard that I quit and I don't normally quit things and
that Monday when I was supposed to go into work I just couldn't.
So it said that she quit her job after four weeks so I'm already finding a lot of similarities
in myself in this video because you know she found out that the corporate world just wasn't for her
she didn't really like to quit things she wasn't a quitter but she knew there was another way
that fit her personality better and her potential better because as you can see she just went she
said for making I think 30k or something a year to now making 378k so that's a 10x right there.
I could not go back into that place it was the darkest I had ever felt
I only had enough money in my bank account to cover my bills for three months. So I was
thinking oh my gosh if I have to go through this same process again only to get a job
that I again hate you know I can't keep going through this cycle something needs to change.
After a few days, I had interest on my press release gig and I was charging $15 for that
and just that interest alone was enough to almost kind of light a fire in me and see
okay I am capable of earning fifteen-twenty dollars a day. Well, what if I could earn
fifty dollars a day, what if I could earn one hundred dollars a day? Now I'm making three
thousand dollars per month and I can cover all of my bills. That first week on Fiverr
I started to discover that I was capable of earning money on my own without anyone telling
me what to do which means each passing day the idea of applying to another job just vanished.
That's so spot on I remember when I had that realization it's like wait a second
when you're freelancing you're literally in control of yourself there's no one telling you
what to do it's it's on you right. So it goes both ways because if you're not disciplined right this
is not going to work for you because you need someone telling you what to do. You don't have
control but if you do have discipline you know that you're not a quitter but you just want to
find a better path in your life in your career I mean try it out. This is exactly what I preached
this is awesome to see CNBC make it just I know we're not even halfway through right now but it's
just great to see that they're now focusing on a freelancer. They really haven't focused anyone on
really remote working or anything like that it's really just been other people who have normal nine
to fives they're teachers things like that so this is great. It just disappeared in the thin air.
I think I cried I realized I can cover my bills with this
like I don't have to go back to a corporate job.
After about a year of hitting it really hard on Fiverr, I opened way more services I think I had
like 12 or 13 gigs at the time. I was ranked level two on the site and the site has these
levels that allow you to charge more as you advance through them Fiverr the company actually
reached out to me and asked me to come meet them to film a commercial in greenpoint brooklyn
up until January 2018 I was making around six to eight k per month which is incredible of course
but it was january into February 2018 when I was launched into the double digit realm meaning I was
making $13k $14k $15k which was essentially a complete. I doubled my income overnight
and that was crazy to me in 2017 I made three thousand dollars that year and in 2018 I jumped
to making two hundred and seventy three thousand dollars. Did you guys just see that graphic right
there that was awesome they pogo sticked which was the craziest jump you could ever imagine.
It took me a couple years to accept that I was making that money the only thing that I would
say I started to spend more on to treat myself was travel experiences and music
festivals. I'm pretty sure if a financial planner sat down with me they would be
disgusted by me and my management of my money but my strategy is just basically if I know I'm
making like 15 to 20k I kind of just in my head try and make sure I'm saving at least 50 of it.
Okay, so she might be being harder on herself than she really should because it says she
has a hundred thousand already just saved up for retirement. She's saving 50 of her
income so even though she's probably spending a lot in traveling and enjoying life I mean
still putting away half of what she's earning. I think that is more than responsible especially you
know at her age so she might be being a little hard on herself there. This year I'm definitely
gonna contribute less to my retirement but I already know my account is gonna tell me that
I should still contribute something because it helps with my taxable income. I can hear them
now so I think like most entrepreneurs I have a problem with having my money like locked up
in accounts. It's just not how my brain works I kind of like to have it at my disposal so if I
come up with some like project or real estate investment I want to do I can just grab it.
I use a cpa like an accountant hands down costs like twelve hundred dollars it's worth it to me.
Yeah being okay so two things number one having an accountant you know
you need to have a certified public accountant if you want to be serious with freelancing
they're going to help you really maximize all of your deductions as a freelancer how all of that
works. I mean it's really stuff that you need professional help with so that's awesome she's
doing that and then now she's getting into how Florida doesn't have the state income tax which is
a huge benefit for starting a business there and the other states that don't have an income tax.
When you're in a city like New York. It's very easy to go somewhere you can drop 200
on dinner and I think it kind of contributed to my desire to move out of New York City
which I am now in Florida and my food and drinks is probably down to $500
it's not even close to what it was in New York City.
I wanted to still be mobile and not reliant on flights to go travel and see our country
the craziest thing happened because while so many people
were losing their jobs and so many businesses were going out of business
so many people were coming online to start selling products and services because that
was the only way they were going to make contact with other human beings. So they needed someone
like a copywriter to help them fill their website their blog their social media posts which led me
to having my biggest month that I have ever had on Fiverr in May 2020. I made over $36,000 that
month which was insane and it was so weird to have that happening while there was so much
bad happening in the world. At the same time yeah that's the biggest thing that I keep
emphasizing as well is that even though it might seem like the job market is not looking as bright
as it was you know everything that went on last year as a freelancer as a remote worker you can
choose the services you provide which means you can provide in-demand services. She's providing
copywriting she's providing E-books to people who literally need this content and she just
said that the last year has been the best year of her freelancing career. So there's no excuse
you need to try freelancing if you don't know what direction to go in because this is proof
that it can really change your life even during these times so it's really awesome to see more
light being shed on just this way of working. I really think this is the future in that more
people are going to continue adopting this way of working more businesses are getting comfortable
hiring freelancers. It helps everyone cut costs down and yeah it's just awesome right here
also selling courses yep.
Wow, I said to her you know hey I have $350k chilling in my bank account you want me to
get this house and you can pay me? Hey, I have $350k just chilling in my bank account do you
want me to buy you this house mom? That must be nice I mean that's wow that's inspirational for
me right there, I mean just here you go here's a house. Back when you sell the albany house
and she said yes I mean sure so we kind of just you know made a collective decision I don't know
my family were old school I guess. We share our resources and everything for this house my mom
put down the $20,000 down payment and then I paid the rest which was $287,000 and we transferred the
money out of my bank account to the seller and in full paid in cash you know paid off. So I
was never really scared but it was definitely very new for me the last two months to live with having
20 to 30k in my bank account instead of $300k that's gonna make me sound full of myself but
I just become very used to having a lot of money in my bank account because I've been saving it.
This first property I want to buy in Southwest Florida. It's cheap because it's only a one
two-bedroom tiny little things. I'm actually thinking of buying two of them right off the
bat. One of them I would immediately start to rent out on Airbnb and then the other one I would use
for myself slash a filming studio because right now I don't have one and I definitely want one
set up so I'm more inclined to do Youtube content and everything. I keep putting off yeah that's why
I buy it that's big that is something that even I want to do is really just get it you know my
own room that I can put a studio in because then you're more inclined to film it's just easier you
can walk in the room all your cameras your lights are set up as opposed to having to set it up in
your office so that's really the next step and that's what I see a lot of people do freelancers
consultants. Anyone who eventually wants to build their personal brand and start to really
produce content whether it's courses, Youtube videos, like this for people just free value
get a studio create a separate space because you need space in order to actually do things
and to be motivated. So that's great that you know she's looking towards the future
she already wants to keep growing she did spend a lot on that house so now she's probably even
more motivated to really go earn that back. So yeah everything is really I mean there's nothing
really to critique here it's really just reacting to it and seeing that other people are having
a lot of success with freelancing as well even on Fiverr Upwork all these different platforms.
I will yeah live in the first one
I want to eventually quit Fiverr just because I'm again like that classic entrepreneurial type
where I get bored and I would love to transition more into a full-time educator with everything
that I've learned and kind of phase away from actually writing the blogs and move more into a
role where I'm helping people write blogs. I think 22 year old me working a job I hated in New York
City making $36,000 per year I could not in my wildest dreams have imagined that this would be
me at 28. Not for a second did I ever think this would be where I am I did not dream that big.
Women get treated much differently than men if they're posting about the money they earn
on Tik-Tok. If I post a video showing my receipts as Gen Z says the comments are
flooded with men saying "no you don't" you know calling me mean term sexual terms or saying "oh
she made it on only fans." I definitely noticed a huge pushback being a woman
and I've had all sorts of people write to me and say it's very unbecoming as a woman
that you post that money. You know you should I mean to be honest you're posting that on Tik-Tok
that is a much much much younger generation. I'm not saying not to do that I'm just saying
I wouldn't take their opinions as anything to listen to. I mean they're just saying that because
maybe they're not really living up to their full potential so it sounds like she might really you
know just be thinking a little bit too much about what people think but I do agree with her that
you know women should also be more open more transparent with what they earn and
obviously she's providing proof of it. So you got to be careful with the social media because
everything else is is really good I also liked how she said she wants to build an online course start
to create content help educate people. That's like the natural progression people go down eventually
you're gonna get to a point where you're earning so much money from the work you're providing
that you wanna go up the next level you want to maybe outsource that work or do less of that
and really transition into more of an education role. So she's definitely you know headed in the
right direction. I mean I don't know if she really should just quit Fiverr she said she just wants to
quit it because she's bored of it but I would really never just cut off a flow of income. So
I would keep that one going maybe scale it down a little bit maybe even increase that E-book price
to $2,000 and maybe your leads would go down but then also your workload would go down but
your income could still stay the same. You never really know exactly how that's going to work out
but overall it sounds like she's still planning ahead which is great. Your mouth shut about it so
it's definitely hard being a woman doing this but I think it's also forced me to develop a thicker
skin. Hey, guys, I'm going to give you my top five time management tips that help me churn
out a ton of work every day got a lot of love too and I discovered that there's so many people out
there that do want a freelance. They don't hate me for it and they want to learn from me and they
want to learn what I know being transparent with what I am earning has earned these people's trust
and show them it is possible a girl from a farm in upstate New York did it I can do it too.
Wow so that was great that was a great episode I'm going to give that a like do everything I can to
help. So that was another Paul reacts. If you guys like this kind of reaction video where we look at
what kind of success other freelancers are having look at their specific situation how
much they're making all of that please leave a comment down below. I'd appreciate it I'll
make more of these videos. Please subscribe as well if you want to see
more content on freelancing and until the next one I look forward to your success.