I made $300K on Upwork.
And no, it wasn't because I spent every waking hour refreshing the job feed like I was waiting for Beyoncé tickets to drop.
Eventually, I learned something much more useful:
The goal isn't always to chase clients.
Sometimes the goal is to make it ridiculously easy for the right ones to find you.
That's positioning.
And every time I think about positioning, I think about a cheetah.
Stay with me.
The Cheetah Already Knows What She Wants
A cheetah doesn't run after every damn thing that moves.
Before she takes off, she's watching.
Calculating.
Locked in.
Then she chooses.
That's the part people miss.
The speed gets all the attention.
But the decision comes first.
That's how I learned to approach Upwork.
I didn't need my profile trying to attract every founder, CEO, small business owner, agency, coach, consultant, and random person with a credit card.
I needed the right client to find me and immediately think:
Yep.
She's who I need.
Upwork Has Something Most Platforms Don't
People love comparing Upwork to LinkedIn.
I use both.
I teach both.
But they serve different purposes.
Someone scrolling LinkedIn might be checking notifications, reading posts, avoiding work, or wondering why their former coworker suddenly calls himself a “visionary founder.”
An Upwork client?
They're usually there because they need somebody.
They've created an account.
They've got a business problem.
They're looking for talent.
And many of them aren't interested in posting a job and digging through a mountain of proposals.
They search.
That's where positioning starts getting interesting.
Your Profile Can Do Some of the Chasing for You
Upwork has Talent Search.
Clients can search for the type of freelancer they need and browse profiles.
Executive Assistant.
Operations Manager.
Notion Consultant.
Social Media Manager.
Whatever they're looking for.
If your profile matches what they're searching for, you have an opportunity to appear in front of them before you've ever sent a proposal.
That's the part of Upwork I wish more VAs understood.
Your profile isn't just a résumé sitting there looking cute.
It's searchable real estate.
And when I understood that, I started treating mine differently.
Clients Are Looking for Three Things
When somebody lands on your profile, they're not settling in with wine and reading every word you've lovingly written.
They're scanning.
Quickly.
They're trying to figure out:
Do you understand what I need?
Do you actually do this kind of work?
Can I trust you with it?
That's it.
Your profile needs to communicate credibility, relevance, and enough information for somebody to keep looking.
And there are four places I'd pay particularly close attention to.
Your Headline Is Search Positioning
This isn't the place to get overly clever.
Your headline needs language clients actually use when they're searching.
Think:
Fractional Chief of Staff | Ops & Project Manager | Executive Support
Or:
Executive Assistant & Operations Partner
Or:
Notion Expert | Notion Consultant
You can have personality elsewhere.
Here, I want the client to know what the hell you do.
Because “Administrative Unicorn Making Business Magic” might sound adorable.
But if the client typed “Executive Assistant,” we have a problem.
Your About Section Has Seconds to Do Its Job
This is where a lot of VAs start writing their autobiography.
“I have five years of experience as a virtual assistant...”
Okay.
But what does that mean for the client?
I'd rather open with something like:
“I help founders stay visible on LinkedIn without spending hours creating content.”
Now I know:
Who you help.
What you do.
What problem you're solving.
Then make the rest easy to scan.
And please don't tell me the client has been staring at a blank screen with 47 tabs open.
We're not doing that.
Nobody has time for it.
Your Portfolio Is the Receipts
Once you've got their attention, they're going to want proof.
Show them.
If you're a writer, show writing.
If you're a designer, show design.
If you work in operations, show dashboards, documentation, workflows, or whatever demonstrates the type of work you're selling.
Your portfolio should make it easier for somebody to picture you doing the work for them.
You don't need fifty random samples.
You need relevant ones.
Then There's the Project Catalog
I think of the Project Catalog as the little storefront attached to your Upwork profile.
Someone finds you.
They like what they see.
And instead of starting the entire hiring dance from scratch, they can look at services you've already packaged.
Maybe that's:
LinkedIn content management.
Inbox and calendar management.
Social media management.
A consultation.
A strategy session.
Whatever makes sense for your business.
It's another way to reduce the distance between:
“I found her.”
And:
“I want to work with her.”
I Didn't Make $300K Refreshing the Feed
That's what I want VAs to understand.
Yes, proposals matter.
Yes, applying for the right opportunities can absolutely get you clients.
But Upwork isn't only a job board.
I started understanding how clients search.
What they type.
What they're looking for when they land on a profile.
What makes them keep reading.
What makes them send an invitation.
What makes them buy.
And I positioned myself accordingly.
That's how inbound becomes part of the strategy.
Stop Chasing Everything That Moves
This is where we come back to my girl, the cheetah.
She could run.
That's obvious.
But that's not what makes the metaphor interesting to me.
She knows when to run.
There's a difference.
You don't need to apply to every job.
You don't need to offer every service.
You don't need a profile trying to appeal to everybody.
Know who you're after.
Know what they're searching for.
Build your profile so they recognize themselves when they find you.
Then let positioning do some of the work.
Because the goal isn't to become the loudest VA on Upwork.
It's to become easier for the right client to recognize.
And when that happens?
Run, girl.
CURRENT MOOD
“Level Up” by Ciara.
Because this is grown-woman business energy.
Know what you bring.
Know where you're going.
Position yourself accordingly.
Then move like the woman who already decided she's ready for more.
Listen to “Level Up” on YouTube
PEAK OF THE WEEK
Looking back at $300K on Upwork and realizing the biggest win wasn't the number.
It was learning that I didn't have to spend my entire career chasing the next opportunity.
I could build something strong enough that opportunities started finding me too.
That lesson changed the way I approached Upwork.
Eventually, it changed the way I approached my entire business.
#CheetahEnergy
XXX,
M💋
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