The Power of Providing Value - I Learned a New Skill and Accidentally Landed My First Client (You Can Do It Too)

[VisVerda]

I landed my first official client today without a real intention to do so, in a field where I have no prior experience.


Before I tell you how that happened, I want to thank MJ and every wonderful contributor in this forum. You're golden.



I currently work as a Chairman in a small non-profit organization. I'm also a trader in the financial market - the hardest thing I've ever done and will do. It's my passion and something I would gladly do for the rest of my life.

(And yes - trading doesn't fit the ''Fastlane'' -category. It's also 99% not how it's shown on YouTube, etc, so please don't comment too much regarding this)


However, back to the core reason for this post.


Lately, I've found myself doing nothing for most of my day, I'm 25 and I live alone so I don't have that much responsibility. The market is open only for 6 hours so outside that I'm pretty much free to do anything.

That excessive free time has bored the heck out of me...

...And it makes me feel like an unproductive lazy skunk.


So I started to learn copywriting. (Now I'm not really sure why exactly, but I was probably drawn to the psychological aspect of it, and I have experience in B2B sales/marketing so I already knew a thing or two)

I read books on copy, wrote samples, read some more, studied, and wrote again some more samples... until I understood how to build up different kinds of copy, and the fundamental reasons behind its effectiveness.

By the way, English is not my native language so it makes writing even harder for me....

Anyway, after some time, I started to think.. ''Hmm.. maybe I could try to offer my service on Upwork or something just to try it out''... Because you never really know when you're ready until you try.


So, I made a profile and wrote together some portfolio pieces, bio, etc.

I searched for other copywriters and studied their profiles, just to see what kind of copy they do and to get some insights on what makes them successful.

Some bios were ''I'' and ''me'' focused which was funny because the first thing I learned is that prospects only care about themselves...

Then I searched for gigs, and my god there were many... and even more proposals for each gig.

But there was something I didn't like about these gigs...


First off, I had no idea what company they ran or what products they offered. Sure, some gigs highlighted their website. But for the most part, it was like looking at a job board... ''Need 5 years of experience in this and that..'' ''Proven record of blah and blah...'' - Without knowing what kind of freak you are going to work with.

Then I looked at their hourly rates, and estimated times. I was disappointed... and not because I thought I was worthy of getting a bigger check. Heck, I was doing this because I wanted to try something new.


But the whole system felt odd, and I didn't like the idea of sending out proposals to randoms I don't even know if their business sells toilet papers - or just anything about them for that matter.

No, I wanted to search for a business, learn everything I could about it, see If and where I could add value, and then offer my new ''expertise''.

Upwork just seemed like a big battle royale between freelancers racing for every piece of cheese they can get their hands on - and employers leveraging this by writing lazy job descriptions.

So I left Upwork...

....And I didn't do anything else either for a week. Completely halted.


Slowly and steadily my brain started once again telling me to do something with my free time. So I did.


This time I went to Reddit.


Still fueled by my ''copy expertise'', I went to different business-related subreddits (basically different communities within Reddit), and I started to read other people's posts.

Some had problems with X, and some asked for advice on Y. Some bragged about the millions they made. Anyway, I looked for people that needed help.

I then visited their website, researched quickly, and gave my insights in a pretty detailed way if I saw something that could benefit them.

This one company had problems with its email outreach, they didn't understand why no one replied to their emails - so the owner made a post asking for advice.

I read their email and told them to make their emails more ''them'' focused, alongside some other small details. The owner then messaged me and asked if I could write a sample for them. Which I did.

Stupid as I am, I did it for free because I didn't believe in my expertise.


So, after one hour of work, I sent him a sample. Three days later he told me he booked 2 meetings thanks to my email.

Oh, the sweet confidence boost I got when I heard that...

...and the feeling of accomplishment...however small it was.



Now I knew that I could help businesses at least a little. So I wrote a full post about how to make different services and products more ''you'' focused and why a headline is the single most important part of a website, etc.

I didn't think much, I just wrote things I thought someone could benefit from...

And, a few hours after publishing the post. An owner of a SaaS company asked me to help him with his business. I said yes. He was already successful in some way but wanted to shift to a different niche, and build a whole new website around that.

I had a meeting with him today, and honestly, I was sh*t nervous before the call (I almost canceled the whole damn thing).

Luckily I didn't. He liked me and my ideas (I researched a ton beforehand so I could deliver value right away). After 1 hour of chitchatting, we agreed to work together.

So, here I am today with a gig in my pocket, that I got from ONE Reddit post. And the funny thing is that I almost bailed on the whole copy thing because Upwork felt overwhelming...


There are some more things I would like to talk about. For example AI and how bad it is to use for copy. But I think this is enough for my first post.

I just wanted to share this because I've got a lot of value from here, and maybe if you read between the lines - you too can get something out of this.



-Take action

-Provide value

-Jump when it feels scary to jump





Thank you for your time

&

Please share your own stories I would love to hear them!

 

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[eifesu]

I landed my first official client today without a real intention to do so, in a field where I have no prior experience.


Before I tell you how that happened, I want to thank MJ and every wonderful contributor in this forum. You're golden.



I currently work as a Chairman in a small non-profit organization. I'm also a trader in the financial market - the hardest thing I've ever done and will do. It's my passion and something I would gladly do for the rest of my life.

(And yes - trading doesn't fit the ''Fastlane'' -category. It's also 99% not how it's shown on YouTube, etc, so please don't comment too much regarding this)


However, back to the core reason for this post.


Lately, I've found myself doing nothing for most of my day, I'm 25 and I live alone so I don't have that much responsibility. The market is open only for 6 hours so outside that I'm pretty much free to do anything.

That excessive free time has bored the heck out of me...

...And it makes me feel like an unproductive lazy skunk.


So I started to learn copywriting. (Now I'm not really sure why exactly, but I was probably drawn to the psychological aspect of it, and I have experience in B2B sales/marketing so I already knew a thing or two)

I read books on copy, wrote samples, read some more, studied, and wrote again some more samples... until I understood how to build up different kinds of copy, and the fundamental reasons behind its effectiveness.

By the way, English is not my native language so it makes writing even harder for me....

Anyway, after some time, I started to think.. ''Hmm.. maybe I could try to offer my service on Upwork or something just to try it out''... Because you never really know when you're ready until you try.


So, I made a profile and wrote together some portfolio pieces, bio, etc.

I searched for other copywriters and studied their profiles, just to see what kind of copy they do and to get some insights on what makes them successful.

Some bios were ''I'' and ''me'' focused which was funny because the first thing I learned is that prospects only care about themselves...

Then I searched for gigs, and my god there were many... and even more proposals for each gig.

But there was something I didn't like about these gigs...


First off, I had no idea what company they ran or what products they offered. Sure, some gigs highlighted their website. But for the most part, it was like looking at a job board... ''Need 5 years of experience in this and that..'' ''Proven record of blah and blah...'' - Without knowing what kind of freak you are going to work with.

Then I looked at their hourly rates, and estimated times. I was disappointed... and not because I thought I was worthy of getting a bigger check. Heck, I was doing this because I wanted to try something new.


But the whole system felt odd, and I didn't like the idea of sending out proposals to randoms I don't even know if their business sells toilet papers - or just anything about them for that matter.

No, I wanted to search for a business, learn everything I could about it, see If and where I could add value, and then offer my new ''expertise''.

Upwork just seemed like a big battle royale between freelancers racing for every piece of cheese they can get their hands on - and employers leveraging this by writing lazy job descriptions.

So I left Upwork...

....And I didn't do anything else either for a week. Completely halted.


Slowly and steadily my brain started once again telling me to do something with my free time. So I did.


This time I went to Reddit.


Still fueled by my ''copy expertise'', I went to different business-related subreddits (basically different communities within Reddit), and I started to read other people's posts.

Some had problems with X, and some asked for advice on Y. Some bragged about the millions they made. Anyway, I looked for people that needed help.

I then visited their website, researched quickly, and gave my insights in a pretty detailed way if I saw something that could benefit them.

This one company had problems with its email outreach, they didn't understand why no one replied to their emails - so the owner made a post asking for advice.

I read their email and told them to make their emails more ''them'' focused, alongside some other small details. The owner then messaged me and asked if I could write a sample for them. Which I did.

Stupid as I am, I did it for free because I didn't believe in my expertise.


So, after one hour of work, I sent him a sample. Three days later he told me he booked 2 meetings thanks to my email.

Oh, the sweet confidence boost I got when I heard that...

...and the feeling of accomplishment...however small it was.



Now I knew that I could help businesses at least a little. So I wrote a full post about how to make different services and products more ''you'' focused and why a headline is the single most important part of a website, etc.

I didn't think much, I just wrote things I thought someone could benefit from...

And, a few hours after publishing the post. An owner of a SaaS company asked me to help him with his business. I said yes. He was already successful in some way but wanted to shift to a different niche, and build a whole new website around that.

I had a meeting with him today, and honestly, I was sh*t nervous before the call (I almost canceled the whole damn thing).

Luckily I didn't. He liked me and my ideas (I researched a ton beforehand so I could deliver value right away). After 1 hour of chitchatting, we agreed to work together.

So, here I am today with a gig in my pocket, that I got from ONE Reddit post. And the funny thing is that I almost bailed on the whole copy thing because Upwork felt overwhelming...


There are some more things I would like to talk about. For example AI and how bad it is to use for copy. But I think this is enough for my first post.

I just wanted to share this because I've got a lot of value from here, and maybe if you read between the lines - you too can get something out of this.



-Take action

-Provide value

-Jump when it feels scary to jump





Thank you for your time

&

Please share your own stories I would love to hear them!

Thanks for sharing this win !

Goes to show how it really always boil down to value. As a Web developer, I will definitely try to help out more.

What are the next steps for you ?