Freelancing Platforms

Another thing that people do when they start their freelance journey is going to the big platforms. They go to Upwork. They go to Fiver. They go to Freelancer.com and all kinds of other ones now. I want to say this as a caveat. Those freelance platforms were started to match talent with people who needed it. What they’ve become is a place for businesses
of all sizes to go to find the cheapest, most efficient way to get the job done. If you think about when you need something done really quick,
maybe it's like a little graphic or something. Oh, I'm gonna go to Fiver and have someone do that for me really cheap. So again, it comes down to mindset. I think platforms are a great way to kinda boost your ego a little bit, maybe pad your resume a little bit, or your portfolio. But my brand of freelancing strays away from those and actually goes more towards building, again, building your brand, finding your people and advertising,
and marketing yourself as a business. So I think, there are a lot of people,
don't get me wrong, who are very successful on those platforms.

I've been successful on those platforms. I've also Dotty, let me tell you a little secret. I guess I'm telling the audience, I got fired from Fiver. I did. Isn't that awful? Like, I was, like, this big dramatic thing. I was on Fiver and I had all of these amazing repeat clients, and I was doing all this work. And one of my clients popped in and mentioned that he'd seen me on Upwork. He somehow put in a phone number or something. It took those little bots maybe 3 minutes, and my account was shut down, and his account was shut down. I lost every review I had, and I lost every contact I had. It was a big, gut-wrenching moment. It was embarrassing. Right? We hate to fail. But it did this great thing for me. It made me square my shoulders. Like I tell my kids every day, we're going to square our shoulders, we're going to face the day, and figure out what's better. What we can do best. It made me reevaluate the whole way I did my business. That's when I said, okay. I'm not going to depend on platforms. I'm not going to depend on chasing the job. I'm a business. I have a skill I want to share. I can help people. I'm going to keep my audience in my space. I'm going to email them. I'm going to reach out to them. We'll keep them in my circle. I do appreciate the platforms. I encourage people to get a little business that way and maybe get their feet wet. But in my brand of freelancing, I love to take people off the platforms and help them build a brand. Then find their audience and bring them into their space.