How to Use Upwork to Land Premium Clients - With Ashley Kruse

Welcome, welcome back to another episode of the serve scale sword podcast. I'm beyond excited

because today we're talking about a topic I know absolutely nothing about and I feel like I know

a lot about a lot and this is one of the topics I can be like I've never even logged into the platform

and so we have a special guy she's not only a strategist citing member but she also is helping

freelancers land premium clients on upwork so Ashley welcome to the show tell my audience who

you are as a person and about your business hey everyone I'm so excited to be here my name is

Ashley Cruz and first and foremost I am a done for you service provider so I am an ad strategist

been doing ads now for just over three years and I absolutely love it and as of 2025 when I was

building out my own roster I started leveraging the upwork platform where I started to find a lot

of success and over time I was just like okay cool I want to teach this and so I now I'm also

helping freelancers be successful on the upwork platform helping them find what brandy calls

champagne clients on a platform that traditionally has a really bad reputation outside of that though

I am a mom I am a wife I am just a regular ol gal in the Midwest out here just trying to do the

Lord's work with helping people so that's me it's so funny because yes I do say champagne clients

and before Ashley I would have been like if you want some PBR clients you go on to upwork and so

it's also so funny to me that so many people I don't drink but I used to and in college that's

what you drink was PBR and people don't know what that is but it's a really nasty college

so we say PBR clients or champagne clients and it's so funny because I have a GPT that I created

with my knowledge so it even tells people don't use upwork but Ashley is proof that upwork can

actually land really high premium clients when you know how to work the system and the platform

so Ashley tell me what even made you jump on to upwork to give it a shot yeah so in 2024

I was back in corporate working a regular sales job and at the end of 2024 I was like okay

this is soul sucking I can't do the sales life anymore I want to come back into my business

and so I decided to come back but for me I didn't have a runway there was no I didn't have I think

I had one retainer client at the time for ad services and I was just like I don't think I have

the time or the capacity to wait 90 days or 60 days or even 30 days to find my next client like

I needed a client yesterday and I decided to jump on the upwork platform and I just started like

sending out pitches and I used a process that I used on LinkedIn several years ago when I used

to write resumes and I come from LinkedIn in general so I understand the process of hiring and

what you know your potential people that are going to hire you are looking for and so I started

using this methodology that I've created and it went off right so I signed my first client from

upwork that was a high ticket client in the first I think it was like 15 days that I was on the

platform and then seven months later I was waitlisted and all of those clients for the most part

came from upwork I had a few referrals that came in but every day I was working my upwork leads

and for me because there was such high buying intent it made sense for me to spend my time there

because I just knew that it was going to be a lot less of an uphill battle and a lot less

convincing energy because these people knew what they wanted so seven months it took me to fill out

my client roster and I was like okay there's something to this process and I absolutely love it

it feels the steadiness and the predictability that I've always lacked in my business and so that's

where it came from okay so for the people who have never even logged on to upwork like myself

how do you know like how do you go about finding like clients that will actually pay you a premium

rate and aren't looking for ad managers or other service providers that are like five hundred

dollars a month or ten dollars an hour like that's who you're competing against so how do you

find the clients who don't want that but they want the expert yeah I love that question so I'm

going to be real there's a lot of crappy jobs on the upwork platform but I think that there's a

little bit of an art to it so when you jump into the platform you're going to be bombarded with

hundreds of jobs and especially if you're an ad manager you're an ad strategist you're someone

that has that like strategic level brain you're going to read these opportunities and you're going to

be like eh I don't think that this is a great fit for me and then you're going to see one that is a

good fit and the minute you read it the budget's going to be an alignment the way that they're talking

about the results that they want is going to feel really good for you and the results that they're

asking for are going to be and seem reasonable based on what we do as service providers and so

it is a little bit of an art and you have to learn how to find those opportunities but a few ways

that you can do that is simply just by searching for the types of jobs and getting consistent with

looking at jobs so that you know how to discern what's worth your time and what's not you're going

to there's going to be a little bit of trial by fire to be honest but once you figure it out it

it'll work beautifully okay so correct me if I'm wrong because once again ding dong don't know

anything about upward so if someone is looking for jobs one upward is it mostly paid by the hour

so there's actually both I think this is a common misconception a lot of people do pay by the hour

but actually a lot of clients want that retainer type of service or project based service and

they'll often say the way that they want to pay in their job description for me though as a

strategist I always say and set that expectation up front that I don't work on an hourly basis that's

just not how I do my work the the level of strategy that I bring to the table is on a retainer

rate or on a project by project basis and I can share more about that with you during a discovery

call or whatever the case might be but I think it's as a strategist it's our job to show up and

dictate that conversation because the client just doesn't know they don't understand and anyone

who's gonna buck back on an hourly versus a retainer rate probably aren't your right fit client

anyway so are you responding to these job ops even if they do put an hourly rate yes I do so again

I just am gonna assume that they don't know what they don't know so I'm gonna say hey like I see

that you're doing an hourly rate this is actually how I work if that's something that you're open to

let's talk about it and that works really well for me like I get for every 10 pitches that I send

I'm getting three sometimes four responses from people so it's I think that there's like this

misconception that's oh if you're hourly or if you only want retainer they're never gonna

respond but in my experience that has not been the case and it's because I use case studies it's

because I use my results to get past that that's what they care about they don't care about how

you get paid they care about whether or not you can give them the result they want

okay so speaking of that then a lot of people assume that like upwards great for people

just getting started and you're not someone who's just getting started so who do you think

work is actually perfect for to be honest it's perfect for anyone so it depends if you're just

starting out it's a great way to get your feet wet like one of the things that I remember when

I was first starting my freelance business is I was like I just want somebody to let me into

their ad manager so that I can play around and see how it goes those types of jobs are on upwork

but now as an established service provider there's also people who are spending over a hundred

thousand dollars a month on upwork and they just are on ads rather and they just don't know where to

find the right talent and they don't want to post a job on LinkedIn because it costs money they

don't want to post a job on other websites again because it costs money upwork is free for them to

post and they're going to get a solid number of people that are going to come in with that right

experience they get to be a little bit picky about who they choose and so as long as you're coming

in with that experience you could get a job if you have lots of experience and you could get a job

if you don't have a lot of experience there's a client out there for everybody and I think that's

a good thing to note and like a reframe is that a lot of people like we just assume that people

know how to find service providers but that's not the case it's like people actually don't know

where to look for service providers this comes up a lot that's why we have so many people at DEMOS

and they're like bringing a need an ad manager where do I find one and I'm like hey we have a

directory for that but when before we had a directory I said you can give me a post not

posted in my group but most of the people don't know where to get service providers and a platform

like upwork they spend money on advertising their ads are in podcast they're on Hulu they pop up

up on my peacock like wherever I'm watching there are those ads and so when people see that they're

like oh that's where I go to get talent because that's what the ad told me to do and so I think

that's a really good reframe of this isn't just for people who are looking for cheap labor

it's people who are just looking for labor and they don't know where to go so going back to the

fact that you said they don't have to pay to be on the platform do you have to pay to be on the

platform as the freelancer that is a great question the answer is no you don't have to pay there are

benefits to paying to be on the platform so there's a couple of things you can do you can get a badge

I don't have a badge that I pay for you earn badges through like consistency and pitching but you

don't have to pay for those the thing that I do pay for and the thing that I recommend people pay

for is the connects the connects are what help you rank higher when you're sending a bid or when

you're sending a pitch to your potential client so for me when I know that I can absolutely crush the

results they're looking for and I'm a really good fit or I have a case study that literally speaks

to exactly what they're looking for I will use my connects to get myself in a higher place

so that they actually see who I am what I bring to the table I don't do that for every single

pitch but you use those connects to get yourself seen it's very similar to how you can rank in

Google for different searches you're just paying for placement at that point so if you have a high

intent buyer that's a good fit for your work using those connects to get yourself seen as a good

is a good strategy have you ever tracked like in a 90 day span or maybe like last year's number

how much you spend to get when I spend x amount of dollars this is how a client yeah it's a great

question for me that number is 300 connects which equates to about 45 dollars and connect spend so

for every 45 dollars that I spend I am making my retainer rate which is 2300 times four

so it's a pretty good ROI I think that's the thing that people like get in their head but as a

service provider you are you either paying in time or you're paying in money to find clients

for me when I was back in MLM I would pay a ton of money every single month for an email and

phone list that I would have to pick up and dial the numbers for you you're spending it on connect

some people choose to spend it add dollars on meta some people choose to spend add dollars on LinkedIn

or wherever it is but if you're not spending dollars or spending time and for some people it's

more worth it to spend dollars than time and so it's the same thing with clients when they come

and they're like I only do organic I'm like great I only do ads because I value my time and that's

not true I do both but I just like that whole concept you're either paying for with time or money

and so with you you're leveraging money and it's not even that much 45 dollars for 2300 dollar

contract and then they stay four months but then so my question is does upward take a percentage

of the contract they do they take 10% so what I always recommend people do is that you adjust

your pricing accordingly right and your leads are the people that are on the other side trying

to hire you they understand that and in my experience I've had clients who have stayed with me for

eight nine months and they don't mind being on the upward platform but they tell me like hey let

me know if we need to adjust pricing to account for what upward is taking and again like that's

part of the approach is like when you are able to discern the right type of champagne client

you can tell and you sense that they actually care not only about their results but like you as

the team member those kinds of things open up very easily and they are so willing to work with you

and I just I love that because it's five clients that I've had over the last five year

or last year wouldn't have found me if it wasn't for upwork and like there are some of my favorite

people to work with so that my question is and this might be a dirty question

and not that type of dirty y'all but like we're like doing some shady stuff dirty

is do you take them off the platform okay this is a question that I get a lot and I will never

suggest somebody takes someone off the platform because if you get caught you could get your

profile band that's just the truth of it and I wouldn't want any I wouldn't want that to happen

anybody but there's also keeping them on the platform can be helpful because you're protected

that way so if somebody walks away again you don't know this person if somebody tries to bow out

of their contract if somebody doesn't pay upwork has ways to manage that so that you mitigate risk

that you might not see okay so someone's listening to this and they're like okay Ashley you've sold

me on it I'm gonna jump on the platform what are the like three top three action steps that they

could do this week so first and foremost create your profile I would say that's like the number one

thing and don't copy and paste whatever you put on LinkedIn into your upwork profile I want you to

think of your upwork profile as a sales page right like it should feel very similar to your work

with me page or whatever website that you use to promote your services use your case studies as part

of your profile and that's the second suggestion that I have is get a case study and find opportunities

that really relate back to the case study that you're creating right the more that your ideal client

can see that you have the experience that they're looking for the more likely they are to pay premium

rates so if you're just posting or if you're just pushing out a generic proposal and you're not taking

any time to show them why you're the best fit they're gonna treat treat you like a commodity and

when someone treats you like a commodity it's because they think that they can find what you do

somewhere cheaper and the goal of this is to not do that you're not trying to send a bunch of

pitches you're being very specific with who you're pitching to and your profile as well as your

case study help to bolster that rate that you're gonna charge so those are the first two things and

then the third thing I would say is start sending pitches like just start sending 10 pitches make it

your goal I always like laugh because I follow Brandy's methodology with 30 minutes of marketing

minutes every single day and I tell people okay take one of your marketing minutes for the week and

spend out five to ten upward proposals okay track how many you send see what your view rates are

see what your response rates are and see if they lead to any calls that will tell you where

you need to focus your time and energy is your pitch too big is are you not being direct enough

in getting someone to a call those will those numbers will tell you what to do but that can't

happen unless you're consistently showing up and pitching oh I love it okay Ashley this has been

so good maybe in another day another life I would have been on upwork but I think this is great

for people to try I really do I think it's something that like if your people are on there if you

want to give it a shot then go do the thing give it a shot for 90 days decide how much money you're

willing to invest and do that but also I know because Ashley is one of our strategist side members

and we've been working on this together she has a resource for you that you can go and learn more

how to do this so you can either go off now and do it on your own or you can join Ashley in her

training and learn how she's been able to do this with the step by step process Ashley will you

tell us more about what you got for my listeners yes so if you are brand new to upwork and you

are just trying to figure out like what you should be on your profile the first resource that I

just want to offer you it's free it's my upwork profile checklist you can grab that checklist it

goes through eight different parts of your upwork profile that you want to have dialed in so that one

you can feel like you know what you're doing on the platform and then two so that you can be

found by other people who are searching because that's one thing we didn't talk about today guys is

that it is a massive service provider directory so people can literally search for you based on

your profile so go get that checklist so if you want the checklist you're going to go to

business-baddy.com backslash checklist to get access to that checklist immediately it goes through

the eight things that you need on your upwork profile and you'll get access to it immediately

I want everyone to go grab that checklist we will put the link in the show notes so you have that

it will also be on the blog so you can go read the episode grab those tips and we'll link it

in there so you have many places that you can go grab that checklist completely free from Ashley

and she has a ton of other resources for you on upwork whenever you're ready for the next step

so Ashley thank you so much for coming on and sharing this with our guests but I like to do

some rapid fire so are you ready for this ready okay so what is your favorite business book

gosh right now it is building a second brain because I'm just horribly unorganized so I'm learning

to be more organized and that's actually it's opened up a lot for me to be more organized and how

to actually do it so I love that book did I recommend that yes yeah we I was about to say that's

a book that I recommend I like that book okay perfect so favorite big to this book building

inside your brain and then too how do you like your taco oh man I like a hard taco I like a beef

hard taco with cheese or I like alpesto or like the traditional Mexican style is like my all-time

favorite with a little pineapple huh everyone just says I'm like I do not want to sweet taco like

it's not like it's not everyone no and I love how you didn't flinch of that question most people

were so taking a bag about that question and you were just like oh that's how I ordered my taco

normal question like whatever and then tell me what's the best piece of business advice you've ever

received oh that's a good question honestly just jump just do it get into action that's that's

truly I think for me I'm a trial by fire girl so having that permission to just do it messy was

always the thing that I needed to be successful so I that's the piece of advice that I really

appreciate and then final question what are you either loving or learning in your business right

now oh I'm loving and learning my webinar process actually I do run a webinar for land premium

clients on Upwork and I am loving refining it like I traditionally in the past have jumped ideas

and jumped webinar classes all the time but I've committed to Brandy to stick the path of this

one webinar for a while and I love it like I'm finding all of these little ways to make it better

and better and to give more value and it's just been such a fun process so I think that's my the

thing that I love most right now I've been running the same workshop for the last six years for

conversions for clients like people don't understand that that is the path to success as you continue

to do the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over as long as it's producing

results and so you're staying true to that webinar and optimizing and refining it serves you so

much better than jumping around to 10 different ways to sell your product actually thank you so much

for being on the podcast we've loved hearing about Upwork everyone go drive her checklist and also

give her a follow on Instagram what is your Instagram Ashley it is at the dot business dot

baddie it's very long but it's it's great we will link that up in the show notes as well thank

you so much Ashley for telling us all about Upwork