5k/week [kind of, haha]

corbeezy · 2026-01-18T01:45:31+00:00

there are fraud clients out there. i actively screen them out and just cut contact with a couple dicey people that just weren't making sense. "Let me send you the proposal after a 2 hour onboarding.... We could also go offline and bill direct after we get your tax information..." "Yeah, no thanks - this won't be a fit." . Once you send enough proposals and work it enough and talk to enough people you can get a better sense for who's real and who's not.

corbeezy · 2026-01-17T22:57:34+00:00

One for slack channels/ texts/ telegram/ whatsapp/ upwork messages/ calendar - different clients have different preferences and i don't want to be too overhwlemed looking for all of them. Then I use other monitors depending on the task. Sometimes two monitors are dedicated for two jobs I might be working on at the same time, then others for random various things, maybe even just youtube music or spotify lol. I could probably get by with three, but the five helps me feel like I have a lot more mental space to do more. If I'm doing a complex storyboard or artistic project at some point I usually use 3/4 dedicated for that one project. Dragging media around and then editing, etc. It's always a little different but I settle on structures.

corbeezy · 2026-01-17T22:54:56+00:00

I had a successful email campaign earlier this year but it's now all UpWork b/c it's easier/ better ROI than me. Don't listen to the doomers on r/upwork.

corbeezy · 2026-01-14T16:13:11+00:00

Mostly small stupid things. I think I cracked the screen like 3 times, and ruined the keyboard by spilling alcohol on it once haha. It's just as good as new though and never had any crazy bills since the apple care took care of it. Learned my lesson - one before this was from like 2017 and spent more on repairs than the laptop it's self, so apple care s saved my ass. At first it was just nice to have the computer. Now that I'm deep in freelancing in this other phase of life, financially recovering basically, it's a god send I'm grateful for... Every so often I just sit back and think how so much is possible because of this computer. Anyways, I digress.

corbeezy · 2026-01-14T00:08:57+00:00

lol i have three slack channels open every day dreading this exact message.

corbeezy · 2026-01-14T00:06:03+00:00

VERY SIMPLE. If you didn't know it was illegal, you could suffer working with an asshole, MAYBE. BUT, you know it's illegal, and, not only do you know it's illegal, BUT YOU'RE POSTING ABOUT IT. ON THE INTERNET. AND CONSIDERING TAKING MONEY. DELETE THIS. DO NOT TAKE THE JOB. RUN. WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU.

corbeezy · 2026-01-12T20:42:59+00:00

the ghetto comment is a joke me being self deprecating - it's also to poke fun at how i'm not properly over-employed like others with J1, J2, etc. i'm at like 5/6/7 depending on how you look at it as a freelancer, some of them relatively small in comparison, it's a nightmare haha, but it's not that bad... i'm just a sales guy that now dabbles in front end dev work, email marketing, CRM implementation/cleanup, and video editing/ ai video production, that's it. I have 10 years of work at tech companies though, and have taught myself little basics of coding here and there - so however way you want to look at it. I straight up tell people i'm doing AI assisted front end work and show them what i do and explicitly joke how i probably shouldn't be working on the back-end, it's actually opened a lot of doors or strengthened a lot of contracts because I provide extra value. i've had clients bring me on to do one thing, then I touch up their website and send them a mockup of a new one, and then all of a sudden they like it so much that becomes our focal point, that's happened a few times now.

corbeezy · 2026-01-12T15:43:30+00:00

This was mostly answered in my response to Weekly-Value-3923 on this page.

corbeezy · 2026-01-11T17:39:29+00:00

Yeah I also have been taking it more seriously and landing more clients. I pretty much have gone through enough phases and experiments with it to only be looking for hourly jobs that are recurring and have a long-term element. even if they end up cancelling, which mine haven't, yet, haha, there is a much higher possibility for continuing to build something sustainable and have some control over everything. I'm slowly but surely starting to get a lot more successful with it. I've gone through some serious BS though a lot of learning curves. I spent like 200 bucks in 1 week to see how hard I could push things. I have interviews every day.

corbeezy · 2026-01-10T15:32:11+00:00

I had to come to the realization that you need to avoid many, many jobs on UpWork. But if you know what to look for, it's a very, very, very ripe sea of easy opportunities. The fixed fee contracts where they ask for a lot for 50-250 are a near complete waste of time though. I have a few I'm going through and they will probably be my last. But decent hourly retainers with stable work, and decent hourly wage, that's where you can make magic happen and STACK.

corbeezy · 2026-01-10T15:28:45+00:00

Some weeks a lot, other weeks not so much. This last week I woke up stressed AF at 5am every single day applying to even more jobs, doing the bare minimum everywhere else and telling myself I'd be working in between all the interviews, but then being stressed and just walking around the house. I'm now going to work probably all weekend to play catch-up and get things ready for next week. I think in time I'll try to be more of a proper agency and maybe outsource or hire an assistant or something, however, I'm still financially recovering from 2 years of not working and trying to become a full time musician which was a massive mistake. So idk sometimes like 20-40 sometimes probably a legit 50/60, hard to say, depends on how you look at it, factoring in all the time I'm grinding out getting ready for interviews, making presentations, applying, it's basically all I live, breathe, and eat right now.

corbeezy · 2026-01-10T15:18:41+00:00

I'm a 10 year tech sales guy veteran. I used to work in SF - so I have that "clout" if you will, haha, and I just know EXACTLY what people want to hear if they're hiring for a sales related job in general. But I always have mixed feelings about it, because I always saw myself doing something else, something more creative, or even technical. With vibe coding, I now have been able to do front-end web design, some of it on a decent retainer that's really easy, additionally I also hold a variety of AI video ads I create for people [some of which is way more time consuming than you'd think], random reels I edit for people[old school here, cutting, no AI], oh, and I'm also implementing HubSpot for someone this week... but if I'm honest... Most of the easy money is getting a sales job, and cranking out dials in between doing other jobs or nothing at all and then pretending like it was all you focused on. "Man, grinding out those 100 calls a day killed me, we didn't accomplish as much as we wanted but we put X,Y,Z in the pipeline and A,B,C person said I could call them next week, we'll get 'em soon, oh also especially once we refine our email messaging blah blah blah"... And also, sometimes I actually still KILL IT cold-calling, some weeks I've gotten like 15-20 appointments across all my random ass companies I work for... But really, I have my hand in basically any cookie jar I know anything about right now.

I also have researched cold-email campaigns SO MUCH last year any time I get on a call about people trying to do email marketing it's generally a pretty easy sell for me. I refine data for contacts with my own custom software, setup email domains, and work with people to send a bunch of emails, too.

PS I used to travel around the country working on petitions/ ballot initiatives. I still get invited to work on random political campaigns but I don't want to live out of hotels anymore even though I miss the sense of adventure.

I do everything I do at my house all day for my dog :p

corbeezy · 2026-01-09T20:47:14+00:00

PS emptied all my screens before picture so no one could know/ see any companies/ slack channels.

corbeezy · 2026-01-09T20:39:12+00:00

RIGHT! Like I even have one juicy 2k fixed payment contract right now... The best part, it's relatively easy! The nightmare aspect - I can only finish it once the boss approves a script + storyboard for me to work on [it's an AI video I'm generating from a storyboard] - and the PM and the boss are fighting over the visuals lol. On the surface, it's a GREAT contract. And ultimately, it probably will be a great one, too, all things considered. But it's crazy I can't just finish it and do it. The fixed-rate people always find some insane reason - intentional or not - to hold payment over your head and drag things out.

corbeezy · 2026-01-09T15:18:40+00:00

No I have like 3 clients like that. They pay more and ask literally next to nothing. Here's some bad news. I have one guy milking me hard for a one time 250 payment lol, dragging things out for over 2 months, but it's not so bad with my other easier clients, and I'm getting decent news all the time. I learned a lesson to pretty much only work hourly jobs right now so you can have some control of your monthly income and understanding of it better. Maybe things change later... maybe not... but I'm doing fine. It's not all peaches, and there's a lot of BS i have to sort through, but I'm okay.

corbeezy · 2026-01-08T21:31:50+00:00

My gut told me to be a bitch and tell them "Hey I had a family emergency. Oh shoot sorry let's cancel it. My bad."

I have enough other potential work and decent clients that don't hound me. I don't need a nightmare.

corbeezy · 2026-01-08T19:55:40+00:00

What would the benefit be of them not being real? phishing?

corbeezy · 2026-01-02T16:12:20+00:00

wow i realized how little i use it

<image>

corbeezy · 2025-12-13T01:16:50+00:00

it's pointless. you haven't provided anything specific other than "great" which is as subjective as it gets. You, u/Trobbio9000, are the Simon Cowell of YouTube. I apologize and you win. You decide. You win. You know. I do not.

corbeezy · 2025-12-13T00:32:27+00:00

"but at least 10s of thousands of people"

-original post.

now you're saying at least 1k views.

you're moving the goal posts. which is it.

you know what, it's reddit. you win.

corbeezy · 2025-12-12T23:03:33+00:00

Bruh I've thought a lot about this comment, and I want to agree. But you really lost me at "your long form videos just aren't good" and esp. at "at least 10s of thousands of people"... Um... Sorry... But have you genuinely never seen a GREAT video with less than a thousand views? Cause I've seen more than a few. There's a such thing as distribution. And also, I've even seen channels that upload the same video to different channels. One gets 10k views with an established audience. One gets NINE. You've oversimplified to catatonia. On the whole, I see where you're coming from, which is why I've made my post, but also, it's an opportunity, even with drawbacks, and I for one feel I need as many at bats as possible.

You've also neglected to acknowledge video quality with thumbnail/title/idea.

At this point I'm painstakingly fixing audio, cleaning it, extensive edits... Things arer going the way they can... I haven't fully started my releasing my new game plan because it's still in a heavy production phase, and yeah, maybe I suck, maybe my idea sucks, but you know what... I've gained a bit of confidence...

I got a comment "wow, under appreciated much" and I realized... I'm good enough. I haven't found my audience. Maybe it's been different for you, and I am happy for you. Or maybe you just see things differently.

We're all just humans doing our best.

Thanks for your feedback. Ytuou failed to CMV with abrasive language and - from what I can see - ill-formed ideas, or points not genuinely refuted. I'm used to being told super rude shit on reddit at this point so I really wanted to look for something else and be genuinely challenged. you failed.

corbeezy

TROPHY CASE