Free Webinar: Power proposal tips from a six-figure Upworker (Danny Margulies)

[Valeria K]

Hi Tomica,

I am sorry you feel this way about Danny's webinar. I would like to confirm, however, that it's not against Upwork ToS to share contact information in proposals. It's not allowed to provide contact information on freelancer profile but it's okay to include it in proposal.

[Claudia Z]

---

@Tomica K wrote:

He actually spent time telling us how freelancers should learn from a skinny guy eating hot dogs!

---

I agree the tips were weak, common sense or available in the forum, FAQ's ... a webinar for newbies or maybe it's just that easy to become successful, you only need the opportunity.

[Ahmed B]

I really enjoyed the webinar it was very beneficial for me, and I am want to listen to it again

[Bobby N]

Hello!

I was able to log-on to the scheduled Webinar and caught about 5 minutes of Danny's presentation before I was disconnected due to internet-related technical difficulties. Unfortunately, I was able to join the webinar again during the Q&A session already, thus I missed most of what Danny had to say. I was able to watch the subsequent recording so it wasn't really a total loss. In fact, I find a couple of Danny' tips pretty useful and I hope to be able to be more successful in securing more freelance contracts because of them.

If I may, can I pose a follow-up questions to Danny? 

What was Danny's initial engagement as a freelancer and how was he able to successfully secure one given that, in his own words, "he had no college degree and no relevant experience whatsoever"?

I'm interested in Danny's response since I find that clients seem to have very specific requirements when they look for freelancers (e.g. professional skills, actual experience with specific software, working knowledge about certain industries, etc.) and it must be very difficult, if not impossible, for someone without a degree or any experience at all to secure an engagement.

Thank you.

Bobby

[Danny M]

Thank you Bobby. My first freelancing job (done right here on Upwork) was writing short chidren's stories from a template provided by the client.

It was relatively easy, since it didn't require any real creativity, creative writing or storytelling skills. The stories were short and all very similar -- they were about a boy who traveled to different tourist destinations and always learned 3 things. So basically I just had to come up with a tourist destination idea (e.g. Grand Canyon), find a few interesting facts about that place, and plug it into the story. An 8th grader could have done it, though I did take good care to make sure I did it as well as possible and the client ended up very happy.

The way I secured that job was by creating what I call a Minimum Viable Portfolio to make up for my lack of experience. It worked wonders and I've now seen the approach work thousands of times for freelancers over the past few years. It's a little lengthy to describe the exact process here, but feel free to google it (add my name to your google search for fastest results) and you'll find a detailed explanation.

[Jamie S]

Hey Danny,

Great talk and good follow up. I gained some new ideas from it and some confidence in ideas that I already use so thanks. I just wanted to ask for your opinion on one thing: I always display my portfolio pieces in situ if I can - often screenshotting web pages etc. - is this a good practice or would another way be better?

Thanks,

Jamie

[Danny M]

Hi Jamie, I'm not sure what "in situ" means but don't overthink it. Just put yourself in the client's shoes and give them an easy way to view good examples of your work.

[Bobby N]

Hi Danny.
Thanks for your reply and, again, for the useful webinar. More power!
Bobby

[Lethichia P]

May I have access to the conversation from the call? I registered for the call but had to miss it due to meeting with clients.

[Lena E]

Hi Lethichia, 

We posted a link to the recording of the webinar on the first post of this thread. Let me know if you have any issues accessing it. 

-Lena