The most important things I wanted to get across are: 1. Have clear requirements that you and the client agree to 2. Good communication 3. Don't get discouraged if you have a bad client experience 4. Learn from your mistakes 5. Take jobs that you can handle (Not a frigging social network before you even learn a programming language lol) Also, sorry if the lighting is too bright 😐
Detailed instructions for freelancer: "I would like you to create a project on GitHub called x, and within that project I would like you to create a .php file called x, and I would like you to start the file with the following tag:
I believe that most of your 1.53M subscribers will agree with me when I say, "I am so glad you didn't quit!" Thank you for sharing your experiences with all of us! You've helped me gain a lot of confidence as a developer.
My first freelancing gig was for my cousins business. I had not idea what I was doing and she had not idea what she wanted. That should tell you how it went. Family functions were awkward for a while after that.
Thank you for sharing, it meant a lot. We need to hear the negatives as much as the positives so we don't quit, thinking it's just us and we aren't meant to do this. Perseverance, learning from/through mistakes and knowing that even those ahead of us just had more failures than us but still fought through it.
Actually, it is awesome to see someone who learnt a lot from his mistakes. Mr. Brad, at that time, you only had experience with HTML and CSS and really basic PHP but now, just wow, god bless you and thank you so much!!
I stopped doing websites for people a long long time ago, back when Flash was a thing and in early 2000's when 2Advanced team was a leader in flash sites. I had people threaten my life, I had people constantly calling me at all hours of the late night like 2-am asking for things to be changed waking me up in the middle of the morning. The most famous phrase I kept hearing from these assholes was "My friend didn't like it, can you change this and that" and this went on for weeks. Me trying to be professional and all, until one day a person threaten one of my family members over the phone because I didn't do something fast enough right there and then. I was at my 9-5 real work and they wanted me to build them a phpBB forum within 5 minutes because their friends wanted to get on right away. That's when I had enough, I looked and my family and said IM FUCKING DONE..... and never looked back. -- I will NEVER EVER do websites for people ever again. This is just one out of thousands of shit I've been through doing websites for people aka "freelancing" People can NEVER be satisfied, no matter what you do.... I had people cancel checks and reverse payment after the job was done and signed for, among many other disastrous shit people do to get free website. Never again.....
Great customer service will give you a lot of rope to play with. With great customer service your client will be much more forgiving of your mistakes. Be honest and upfront with your mistakes with the clients. Too many companies default to public relations BS when they screw up. You can have a good product/service but if your customer service sucks it's going to cast a shadow over it all.
I just went through the same thing, after a month of work the client loved the site and then I never heard from them again before I was paid. Now I've made an agreement for half down as a deposit so I know they are serious about a site.
Hey Brad. I'm all the way from South Africa 🌍 and I have to thank you so much for changing my life and learning development. You are a blessing to the world 🙂
One of my best friends put me through the same thing. Vague brief with the assumption that all the bells and whistles would be included as standard. I threw in a CRM and SEO which he never even noticed or used. You're absolutely spot on Brad. Most important thing is to help clients work out out what they need, or else they'll all end up being ass holes. We are the devs, we shouldn't expect clients to know what they want/need and we need to coach them through their journey to understand how much time and effort extra features require - especially when adding a 'simple extra' requires a complete redesign. I wish I'd met someone as straight to the point as you when I first moved from personal projects to commercial contracts.
Listening to you talk about your mistakes only reminded me of mine and how they were similar. I started freelancing around the same time with HTML and CSS knowledge but not much else and then formed a company in 2010. I remember doing eight-page WordPress websites for $2-300. We(have 6 staff members now) still have some clients from those early days and have done 3-4 re-designs for them since the early days and have charged more(50-100% increase) each time with not much complaint. That workflow you create and those templates you mentioned help tremendously with production accuracy and efficiency. We've had a few run off with the website and had to eat it. I recommend that every developer include a copyright section in your contracts where you own the copyright until it is paid in full. Makes it easier to do DMCA claims and at the very least get their site shut down at their hosting if they bail on payment. Progressive payments are a great idea too on larger projects. Have a lawyer look at any contracts you pull off the web to use because some sections are invalid in certain states but there are a lot of great examples to use out there.
My first freelance gig was a massive success. I built a full stack IT system for a company single handed, and they are still using it today, 4 years later and they have had around 1000 users in total. I would not have been able to do so if it wasn't for your 6 hours MEAN stack course that I watched back in 2017. I went along and built the boilerplate they you walked me through, and by the end of the course I was able to extend with features that the company needed. I got paid and they were happy, and I even think that I got hired at my current job because I was able to include this freelance gig in my portfolio. So many thanks to you Brad!
I literally just completed a couple of first freelancing projects for my clients a week ago and whatever you've said - I literally can relate to it all.
You are an inspiration, Brad. I just got my first interview in full-stack, and most of my knowledge is from you. I still use your projects as a reference when doing new ones. Thank you and all the best
If anyone is interested in starting freelancing, look into volunteer opportunities! It's a great way to practice working with clients, understanding what you need to be successful, and can be a great entry point into then getting paid work.
Great video Brad! Failure experiences can have a very positive impact in the long run if we know how to see the mistakes we made, which is also a skill we need to develop.
Hey Brad can you please do more videos like this. As a new freelancer stories like this make me feel like less of an idiot. When someone like you also went through issues like this it makes me like less of failure when I am starting out. Thank you so much and keep up the great work you rock
Hey Brad Thanks for sharing this stuff, I have also started my freelancing career with quite the same story. Where I was not aware of project management. I think that it is very crucial part, knowing your potential at the beginning and put client and yourself at the same page. Try to bring some more tales Brad 👀👈👉
As a building contractor I can say this is good advice regardless of what industry a person may work in. Much of this is having the confidence in knowing what you can and cannot do and making it clear in written(contract) form what you are and are not responsible for.
I’m a digital marketer with a focus and specialty in SEO client and I have a very similar experience. I took on my first SEO client and charged them next to nothing for what I later found out was competitive niche, IT management…. I got some small results in rankings, but I should have charged more because it was competitive and they needed a lot of content and better links.. I should have charged more. I didn’t even have the nerve to come back and tell them I needed more and we should structure how they pay me as well.. It was an embarrassing because I sold her really good and felt I underdelivered..
Earlier on I had exactly the same experience. Client wanted the next Amazon but didnt want to pay for it.. it's not sustainable, as you say; MONTHS of wasted time. We were both at fault. Lessons learned.
Thank you for sharing this. My first gig I didn't get paid either, it was few months ago, the guy had me create a site for him but never paid me till this day. I realized that I should have had a contract agreement between me and him, and a certain % of the down-payment for the work I was going to do, so that even if he does not pay me at the end I should not work for free. It's always frustrating, and honestly I partially gave up on that, but recently got a Job as a Software Dev, I'm planning to go back again to freelancing and starting my own Software Dev consultancy once I have a lot more experience working as a Developer, Thank you for this.
One thing I really like about Traversy is his honesty. It's really discouraging when newbies like myself are getting into the system and all you encounter are men that only talk about the highs of their journey. However, I do appreciate it when we get to hear the lows of a man who has achieved alot and one that we learn from. Thank you. 😂 I started a UA-cam channel and wanted to quit. I heard him say 'the key is consistency and commitment. You will get discouraged when you see a few views because you have invested time and energy. However, keep at it." See! That's encouraging. Thank you once again this advice on freelancing is just the motivation we need to keep going.
You can buy an expensive online course, attend a famous bootcamp or even a master, tons of books and spend so much time researching your material. All of this cost time or money, or both. Still the most valuable and helpful thing is experience. Either your own experience or someone else that shares it with you. My man you shared an invaluable treasure
Thank you for sharing your story! I am not good with people either, and hearing your story inspires me to get better at talking and dealing with people. I really want my own company one day, but dealing with clients is what scares me off.
If you charged enough for the project, you might be able to outsource the difficult aspects on fiverr; find someone with a solid rating that doesn't charge too much. That way you can get your project done and learn from it too. Hope this helps!
Man this video is so good and helpful. Just highlights a key thing: starting and improving - you don't have to know everything perfectly to start. Another takeaway: you don't need to know the 13,000 JS Frameworks to make money freelancing 😂and I can't believe the $250 budget... 😂
I just came across your channel. You're awesome, Sir. I'd love to have been a fly on the way hearing the conversation between a Red Sox fan and an Aussie. Keep it up, man, you're rocking it!!
Excellent video Brad. Thanks for sharing. My opinion is to challenge and document non-functional requirements. Manage customer expectations from day 1. They often have some very strange expectations.
in 2008 most of "Pro" websites were made of Flash. xD And being a Web developer was included design, hosting, cpanel configs, code (HTML), pain-in-the-ass CSS with no frameworks. xD #OnlineBeforeGoogle
Lost my job due to the pandemic, lots of free time so I started learning web development, I'm enjoying it. Hopefully I'll become good enough at it. Not very hireable because of my age so it will have to be in freelance, wish me luck.
My first client (years ago) was for a law firm. That went smoothly, but it took a lot of communication. I have a client now and one thing I suggest to everyone is what this video is saying. Make an outline, agreement, and avoid scope grope.
"You're gonna have clients that are assholes, you're gonna run into them ... But you have to maintain your composure!" I like what you said, and I think we have to always remind these kind of things to ourselves! One thing I noticed that the more we behave professionally the less jerks we encounter in our career. They won't disappear completely but definitely they will diminish. I don't know the reason why their number decrease when we act more professionally, but it's a relief. Perhaps it's because they are lurking on the amateur zone to grab their prey so when you act professionally they step back. Or there are professional assholes which are yet to discover:) Thanks Brad, this is a really good video. I wish you make more of these. Cheers!
Unique and informative topic. Eye opening to hear about these things, as I plan to one day follow a similar career course. As for now, I’m learning everything I can!! Thanks for continually sharing your perspective and experiences with us all.
Wow. Feeling calm after listening your start. Now I can imagine that I can also be Brad. That is really great. I also got client when I was finding work right after finishing my short course, who need social media. but i refused him. But definitely I'm still making mistakes. Thanks for sharing your experience it boost up my energy level. Thank you
Yeah, not long after that I learned PHP and a framework called Codeignter along with JS/JQuery, which brought my ability to create applications to the next level.
@@TraversyMedia Your career path is exactly what I wish mine would be. The only difference is that I've invested a lot of time and effort on front end (React, JS). But many people say I can't do freelancing with React because most clients are small biz's (though I see many React jobs on Upwork) or that I need to get corporate experience first. Do you think I can do it? I still feel lost after spending a lot of time and money on mentorships. Would appreciate your advice.
Just started a WebDev bootcamp and I can tell I'm going to have to dive into this headfirst and essentially learn most everything completely on my own, haha. I'm excited, though, have the IT support background, so that helps. Thanks for your vids, they have been extremely helpful!
Great information... I did a project, ecommerce, during the famous homerun record battle. It was for selling swag. It was also sub-contract which has many of it's own pitfalls. Long story short, I created a demo, went in and presented it (i uploaded the demo to their server, huge mistake) and it was well received. The full project would take approx 3 months and the cost was significant but not outlandish by any means (going market rate). The company, which had the bank to afford it, declined the project and proceeded to install my demo as the core ecommerce engine to their site. That software, ran and provided the doorway to sales in excess of millions of dollars, for almost ten years. The contracting firm would do nothing as the client was a source of many revenue streams for them. I, did nothing as of course I didn't have a legal budget to pursue this, or anything else for that matter. The lessons were inumerable.
this is good content Brad , i will never forget my first contact with laravel was with you Brad , was so hard and i toght always to give Up but now am able to do things 2 years ago was not possible to me doing .....Keep it up!! we are tecnology lovers we apreciate everthing you do in this Channel..when i listen to ur story i gt expire.. i live in third 3 world and now i know if you want work,work hard and have patience you will achieve greatness.By de way i live in Angola and english is not my strong language Thank just kwnow we are !!!!!
My first paid gig was $2k (2020). It's a full-stack web application (MERN stack & Next JS) from development to deployment. I got that much because I am a friend of the wife of the company’s owner. Learn a lot from this project like email server and DNS etc...
Brad, thanks for always giving us such professional and amazing content. Whoever does not learn from your videos is crazy. Thank you sir for always sharing your experiences and giving us something to think about. Well done. Wish I could give you a Five Star rating now but a Like will have to do. Take care.
this is a good lesson for when you meet someone and casually say "I do software" and they tell you about their dream that is a billion dollar market cap company clone and they want you do build it for them for what starts out as 50/50% project but ends up being much much less because they are constantly spending your % on people that don't make sense
I freelance I.T. and web design my first client was asking to much from me so I learned that settings reasonable expectations and saying no is very important
"Occasional Jerks", haha. My first client was not bad but I have gone through this too (dealing with Occasional Jerks). I built a Twilio AVR system for $50 as my first freelance task, just to get the first few reviews.
I am at almost the same position as your story. Now I don't really have a good approach to create these documents. It would be a great help to have a series or even a course that teaches you how to create these fool-proof documents. And thanks for the insightful story.
Very emotional experience you have shared with us for your first job 👍 I was thinking it's very easy for the US citizen to get job in their own country Before freelancing have you also worked in some organization as a web developer? I had got my first freelance job on odesk as well, it was for $20, in that job I had fixed some layout issues and created one landing page etc. I was very happy when that job was completed and I got 5 star ratting as well.
:D Very nice video. Resonates so much with my personal experience. Next to not being able to figure out a bug; vague and unclear requirements have to be the most pain that you can experience as a developer
Hey Brad, I'd love to know about how is your process with those first steps with clients, like, how much time do you spint on a proposal and how do you make that contract that you mention. I think as a newcomer that's one of the most intimidating parts
The most important things I wanted to get across are:
1. Have clear requirements that you and the client agree to
2. Good communication
3. Don't get discouraged if you have a bad client experience
4. Learn from your mistakes
5. Take jobs that you can handle (Not a frigging social network before you even learn a programming language lol)
Also, sorry if the lighting is too bright 😐
Thanks for the tips
I love this kind of inspirational story, we all start from zero, not born as a developer
Thank you 🙏🏼
Detailed instructions for freelancer:
"I would like you to create a project on GitHub called x, and within that project I would like you to create a .php file called x, and I would like you to start the file with the following tag:
i've also learned this hard way, when i started freelance work.. thank you for summarizing and sharing
"I finally ended up getting a callback" thats how you know someone does a lot of javascript
Then he said response and I just thought server response lol
The thing definitely was async.
But then everything was based on false promises :D
Just what i thought too..LOL
I know Nodemon was listening
I believe that most of your 1.53M subscribers will agree with me when I say, "I am so glad you didn't quit!"
Thank you for sharing your experiences with all of us! You've helped me gain a lot of confidence as a developer.
Thanks 😊 I’m glad too because I’m honestly not very interested in anything else as far as a job goes
Yeah 👍
Building a social network as your first freelance job, that takes balls.
Yup! steel balls :D
And the less experienced the dev, the bigger they are... Speaking from experience :D
He also tried it years ago before all the current software and languages
😂😂
@@Forkoto 😅😅
My first freelancing gig was for my cousins business. I had not idea what I was doing and she had not idea what she wanted. That should tell you how it went. Family functions were awkward for a while after that.
lol
Lmao
Thank you for sharing, it meant a lot. We need to hear the negatives as much as the positives so we don't quit, thinking it's just us and we aren't meant to do this. Perseverance, learning from/through mistakes and knowing that even those ahead of us just had more failures than us but still fought through it.
The story every newbie who's following you needs to listen
Including you
@@sagnickbhowmick6191 Including me :)
@@CloudBroadcasts me too, mate 🙌
Happening to me right now
Cool to see this kind of content form you, thanks for sharing Brad :)
Yeah, it has that Dennis Ivy story time vibe 😉
love to see you here.
@@rajawanislam3969 😉
@@DennisIvy but unfortunately i came into a urban village. I reallu missed your live stream long video
Actually, it is awesome to see someone who learnt a lot from his mistakes. Mr. Brad, at that time, you only had experience with HTML and CSS and really basic PHP but now, just wow, god bless you and thank you so much!!
I stopped doing websites for people a long long time ago, back when Flash was a thing and in early 2000's when 2Advanced team was a leader in flash sites.
I had people threaten my life, I had people constantly calling me at all hours of the late night like 2-am asking for things to be changed waking me up in the middle of the morning.
The most famous phrase I kept hearing from these assholes was "My friend didn't like it, can you change this and that" and this went on for weeks.
Me trying to be professional and all, until one day a person threaten one of my family members over the phone because I didn't do something fast enough right there and then.
I was at my 9-5 real work and they wanted me to build them a phpBB forum within 5 minutes because their friends wanted to get on right away.
That's when I had enough, I looked and my family and said IM FUCKING DONE..... and never looked back. -- I will NEVER EVER do websites for people ever again.
This is just one out of thousands of shit I've been through doing websites for people aka "freelancing" People can NEVER be satisfied, no matter what you do....
I had people cancel checks and reverse payment after the job was done and signed for, among many other disastrous shit people do to get free website. Never again.....
Great customer service will give you a lot of rope to play with. With great customer service your client will be much more forgiving of your mistakes. Be honest and upfront with your mistakes with the clients. Too many companies default to public relations BS when they screw up. You can have a good product/service but if your customer service sucks it's going to cast a shadow over it all.
I just went through the same thing, after a month of work the client loved the site and then I never heard from them again before I was paid. Now I've made an agreement for half down as a deposit so I know they are serious about a site.
Hey Brad. I'm all the way from South Africa 🌍 and I have to thank you so much for changing my life and learning development. You are a blessing to the world 🙂
One of my best friends put me through the same thing.
Vague brief with the assumption that all the bells and whistles would be included as standard.
I threw in a CRM and SEO which he never even noticed or used.
You're absolutely spot on Brad.
Most important thing is to help clients work out out what they need, or else they'll all end up being ass holes.
We are the devs, we shouldn't expect clients to know what they want/need and we need to coach them through their journey to understand how much time and effort extra features require - especially when adding a 'simple extra' requires a complete redesign.
I wish I'd met someone as straight to the point as you when I first moved from personal projects to commercial contracts.
Listening to you talk about your mistakes only reminded me of mine and how they were similar. I started freelancing around the same time with HTML and CSS knowledge but not much else and then formed a company in 2010. I remember doing eight-page WordPress websites for $2-300. We(have 6 staff members now) still have some clients from those early days and have done 3-4 re-designs for them since the early days and have charged more(50-100% increase) each time with not much complaint. That workflow you create and those templates you mentioned help tremendously with production accuracy and efficiency. We've had a few run off with the website and had to eat it. I recommend that every developer include a copyright section in your contracts where you own the copyright until it is paid in full. Makes it easier to do DMCA claims and at the very least get their site shut down at their hosting if they bail on payment. Progressive payments are a great idea too on larger projects. Have a lawyer look at any contracts you pull off the web to use because some sections are invalid in certain states but there are a lot of great examples to use out there.
My first freelance gig was a massive success. I built a full stack IT system for a company single handed, and they are still using it today, 4 years later and they have had around 1000 users in total. I would not have been able to do so if it wasn't for your 6 hours MEAN stack course that I watched back in 2017. I went along and built the boilerplate they you walked me through, and by the end of the course I was able to extend with features that the company needed. I got paid and they were happy, and I even think that I got hired at my current job because I was able to include this freelance gig in my portfolio. So many thanks to you Brad!
I literally just completed a couple of first freelancing projects for my clients a week ago and whatever you've said - I literally can relate to it all.
You are an inspiration, Brad. I just got my first interview in full-stack, and most of my knowledge is from you. I still use your projects as a reference when doing new ones. Thank you and all the best
If anyone is interested in starting freelancing, look into volunteer opportunities! It's a great way to practice working with clients, understanding what you need to be successful, and can be a great entry point into then getting paid work.
Brad you are the best on UA-cam for any tutorial and it really is humbling to hear your beginnings. Thank you for this.
Great video Brad! Failure experiences can have a very positive impact in the long run if we know how to see the mistakes we made, which is also a skill we need to develop.
Hey Brad can you please do more videos like this. As a new freelancer stories like this make me feel like less of an idiot. When someone like you also went through issues like this it makes me like less of failure when I am starting out. Thank you so much and keep up the great work you rock
Hey Brad Thanks for sharing this stuff,
I have also started my freelancing career with quite the same story. Where I was not aware of project management. I think that it is very crucial part, knowing your potential at the beginning and put client and yourself at the same page.
Try to bring some more tales Brad 👀👈👉
Very Humble of you Brad. Been a follower for a while, got nothing but respect.Keep Up the great job, you are helping me in changing careers
Hey brad, I started freelancing 2 years ago, it was hard, but I watched your video on how you got started and it inspired me to keep going.
I like how you keep things simple and honest. That's what makes me like your content and I'm sure it's the same for many others too.
Thanks :)
As a new kid in the freelancing block, I can relate to this
From this to the most popular UA-cam technical content creator is a journey Man. Hats off👍
I'm just starting out freelancing. Appreciate this timely video. Thanks Brad.
5 years freelancing and still struggeling with this one, thanks for the content :)
As a building contractor I can say this is good advice regardless of what industry a person may work in. Much of this is having the confidence in knowing what you can and cannot do and making it clear in written(contract) form what you are and are not responsible for.
I had the same experience too after working for more than 3 months the client didn't pay until I still have the project on my repo.
I’m a digital marketer with a focus and specialty in SEO client and I have a very similar experience. I took on my first SEO client and charged them next to nothing for what I later found out was competitive niche, IT management…. I got some small results in rankings, but I should have charged more because it was competitive and they needed a lot of content and better links.. I should have charged more. I didn’t even have the nerve to come back and tell them I needed more and we should structure how they pay me as well.. It was an embarrassing because I sold her really good and felt I underdelivered..
Earlier on I had exactly the same experience. Client wanted the next Amazon but didnt want to pay for it.. it's not sustainable, as you say; MONTHS of wasted time. We were both at fault. Lessons learned.
I will share this video to my students and to everyone who wants freelancing and ask me what should they do...
Thanks Brad
Thank you for sharing this. My first gig I didn't get paid either, it was few months ago, the guy had me create a site for him but never paid me till this day. I realized that I should have had a contract agreement between me and him, and a certain % of the down-payment for the work I was going to do, so that even if he does not pay me at the end I should not work for free. It's always frustrating, and honestly I partially gave up on that, but recently got a Job as a Software Dev, I'm planning to go back again to freelancing and starting my own Software Dev consultancy once I have a lot more experience working as a Developer, Thank you for this.
Brad your experience as your teaching is worth gold!!! Thank you so much for sharing
One thing I really like about Traversy is his honesty. It's really discouraging when newbies like myself are getting into the system and all you encounter are men that only talk about the highs of their journey. However, I do appreciate it when we get to hear the lows of a man who has achieved alot and one that we learn from. Thank you. 😂 I started a UA-cam channel and wanted to quit. I heard him say 'the key is consistency and commitment. You will get discouraged when you see a few views because you have invested time and energy. However, keep at it." See! That's encouraging. Thank you once again this advice on freelancing is just the motivation we need to keep going.
You can buy an expensive online course, attend a famous bootcamp or even a master, tons of books and spend so much time researching your material. All of this cost time or money, or both. Still the most valuable and helpful thing is experience. Either your own experience or someone else that shares it with you. My man you shared an invaluable treasure
Thank you for sharing your story! I am not good with people either, and hearing your story inspires me to get better at talking and dealing with people. I really want my own company one day, but dealing with clients is what scares me off.
That's really helpful Brad, I'm kind of in a bit over my head in a project but certainly going to learn from it, thanks.
If you charged enough for the project, you might be able to outsource the difficult aspects on fiverr; find someone with a solid rating that doesn't charge too much. That way you can get your project done and learn from it too. Hope this helps!
@@JavaScriptJolt hmm, cheesy but I like it.
Brad love ALL your courses, content, deep insights and honesty. Really appreciated. You are one of us! Bless
You should start a course on starting freelancing and finding clients. Really looking up to you man.
Man this video is so good and helpful. Just highlights a key thing: starting and improving - you don't have to know everything perfectly to start. Another takeaway: you don't need to know the 13,000 JS Frameworks to make money freelancing 😂and I can't believe the $250 budget... 😂
Kyle..The freelancing master ! well said !
@@rolandpierrelouis4013 haha thanks Roland!
Appreciate your taking the time to be straight up honest about your experience and how you felt and learning outcomes. Refreshing and welcome 😊
I'm glad you didn't quit because you taught me how to build a plugin, also glad to see a fellow New Englander!
This honest video is so helpful. We need more videos like this. Awesome job.
I just came across your channel. You're awesome, Sir. I'd love to have been a fly on the way hearing the conversation between a Red Sox fan and an Aussie. Keep it up, man, you're rocking it!!
Excellent video Brad. Thanks for sharing. My opinion is to challenge and document non-functional requirements. Manage customer expectations from day 1. They often have some very strange expectations.
In 2008, I was finishing the school, I remember joomla from a couple years earlier. My god, what a change.
in 2008 most of "Pro" websites were made of Flash. xD
And being a Web developer was included design, hosting, cpanel configs, code (HTML), pain-in-the-ass CSS with no frameworks. xD
#OnlineBeforeGoogle
Thanks Brad for sharing your experience. One can get valuable lessons from this video.
Yeah. It definitely lifts up my spirit. It's not too late, I guess, to learn web dev at 32 .
Lost my job due to the pandemic, lots of free time so I started learning web development, I'm enjoying it. Hopefully I'll become good enough at it. Not very hireable because of my age so it will have to be in freelance, wish me luck.
You are the reason I keep pushing. Thanks alot for this
My first client (years ago) was for a law firm. That went smoothly, but it took a lot of communication. I have a client now and one thing I suggest to everyone is what this video is saying. Make an outline, agreement, and avoid scope grope.
Also, ask for a non-refundable down payment.
"You're gonna have clients that are assholes, you're gonna run into them ... But you have to maintain your composure!"
I like what you said, and I think we have to always remind these kind of things to ourselves!
One thing I noticed that the more we behave professionally the less jerks we encounter in our career. They won't disappear completely but definitely they will diminish.
I don't know the reason why their number decrease when we act more professionally, but it's a relief. Perhaps it's because they are lurking on the amateur zone to grab their prey so when you act professionally they step back. Or there are professional assholes which are yet to discover:)
Thanks Brad, this is a really good video. I wish you make more of these.
Cheers!
Unique and informative topic. Eye opening to hear about these things, as I plan to one day follow a similar career course. As for now, I’m learning everything I can!! Thanks for continually sharing your perspective and experiences with us all.
Also Brad, thx for all the tutorials they are honest and genuinely useful.
The personal reflections you do are brave and raw and I salute you.
Wow. Feeling calm after listening your start. Now I can imagine that I can also be Brad. That is really great. I also got client when I was finding work right after finishing my short course, who need social media. but i refused him. But definitely I'm still making mistakes. Thanks for sharing your experience it boost up my energy level. Thank you
it is so nice to hear stories like these , u really give us the courage to start and commit no matter what . thank u very much
Thanks for the insights, Brad! Can not imagine freelancing with HTML and basic CSS nowadays. Inspiring. 🙌🏻
Yeah, not long after that I learned PHP and a framework called Codeignter along with JS/JQuery, which brought my ability to create applications to the next level.
@@TraversyMedia Your career path is exactly what I wish mine would be. The only difference is that I've invested a lot of time and effort on front end (React, JS). But many people say I can't do freelancing with React because most clients are small biz's (though I see many React jobs on Upwork) or that I need to get corporate experience first. Do you think I can do it? I still feel lost after spending a lot of time and money on mentorships. Would appreciate your advice.
@@TraversyMedia Also interested in a reply to adam's comment
Thanks for sharing your experience, Brad. Your story is an inspiration - "Giving up is not an option, just keep at it".
thanks Brad, a lot of important information!!! This is something anyone who’s going into freelance should hear and know. Take care buddy!!!
Thank you for sharing this story! My first didn't go so well either. Very encouraging :)
Most of the things i currently know in the field of web development is because of you.
Appreciation and thanks from India 💜🙌
Just started a WebDev bootcamp and I can tell I'm going to have to dive into this headfirst and essentially learn most everything completely on my own, haha. I'm excited, though, have the IT support background, so that helps.
Thanks for your vids, they have been extremely helpful!
falling love with you and your content. This video is encouraged me a lot. Thank you so much so for making such kind of video. Love you bro.
Awesome vid Brad, thanks for sharing your story!
Thanx man! I have similar way. Because of your videos i am still on my way and now have a hudge progress..
Thanks, Brad. This video is a great example of why you're the best of them out there.
So many awesome instructors just taught me a lot and it ended up me having an awesome 1st Freelancer Experience.
I appreciate this Brad, I'm also trying to dip my feet into the freelance work style and it need lots of patience. I needed to hear this!
THE GOAT.
Sorry just reflexively have to post everytime I see that intro.
Time to watch the video now.
Great information... I did a project, ecommerce, during the famous homerun record battle. It was for selling swag. It was also sub-contract which has many of it's own pitfalls. Long story short, I created a demo, went in and presented it (i uploaded the demo to their server, huge mistake) and it was well received. The full project would take approx 3 months and the cost was significant but not outlandish by any means (going market rate). The company, which had the bank to afford it, declined the project and proceeded to install my demo as the core ecommerce engine to their site.
That software, ran and provided the doorway to sales in excess of millions of dollars, for almost ten years. The contracting firm would do nothing as the client was a source of many revenue streams for them. I, did nothing as of course I didn't have a legal budget to pursue this, or anything else for that matter.
The lessons were inumerable.
Thanks for sharing this with us🔥
this is good content Brad , i will never forget my first contact with laravel was with you Brad , was so hard and i toght always to give Up but now am able to do things 2 years ago was not possible to me doing .....Keep it up!! we are tecnology lovers we apreciate everthing you do in this Channel..when i listen to ur story i gt expire.. i live in third 3 world and now i know if you want work,work hard and have patience you will achieve greatness.By de way i live in Angola and english is not my strong language Thank just kwnow we are !!!!!
You are a legend bro. May Allah guide you and keep you safe.
My first paid gig was $2k (2020). It's a full-stack web application (MERN stack & Next JS) from development to deployment. I got that much because I am a friend of the wife of the company’s owner. Learn a lot from this project like email server and DNS etc...
Brad, thanks for always giving us such professional and amazing content. Whoever does not learn from your videos is crazy.
Thank you sir for always sharing your experiences and giving us something to think about. Well done.
Wish I could give you a Five Star rating now but a Like will have to do.
Take care.
You are a good man, Brad. Thank you for this. What a brilliant example. Thank you.
I always enjoy the business insight videos along with the technical tutorials. They give a great perspective with valuable takeaways. Thanks Brad!
this is a good lesson for when you meet someone and casually say "I do software" and they tell you about their dream that is a billion dollar market cap company clone and they want you do build it for them for what starts out as 50/50% project but ends up being much much less because they are constantly spending your % on people that don't make sense
Love you Brad, The way you impact our lives with best courses, tutorials, guidance & latest techs is second to none ❤️❤️❤️
Really helpful for junior developers like me, thank you Brad.
I freelance I.T. and web design my first client was asking to much from me so I learned that settings reasonable expectations and saying no is very important
"Occasional Jerks", haha. My first client was not bad but I have gone through this too (dealing with Occasional Jerks). I built a Twilio AVR system for $50 as my first freelance task, just to get the first few reviews.
Thank you Brad
Thanks Brad for making this video. Knowing this gives me some sort of confidence.
From another ex freelancer, much love for you Brad ❤️❤️❤️
I am at almost the same position as your story. Now I don't really have a good approach to create these documents. It would be a great help to have a series or even a course that teaches you how to create these fool-proof documents. And thanks for the insightful story.
Brad, thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks for sharing, it's gold for newcomers!
Very emotional experience you have shared with us for your first job 👍
I was thinking it's very easy for the US citizen to get job in their own country
Before freelancing have you also worked in some organization as a web developer?
I had got my first freelance job on odesk as well, it was for $20, in that job I had fixed some layout issues and created one landing page etc. I was very happy when that job was completed and I got 5 star ratting as well.
:D Very nice video. Resonates so much with my personal experience. Next to not being able to figure out a bug; vague and unclear requirements have to be the most pain that you can experience as a developer
The points you’re trying to convey are right on the money.
Hey Brad, I'd love to know about how is your process with those first steps with clients, like, how much time do you spint on a proposal and how do you make that contract that you mention. I think as a newcomer that's one of the most intimidating parts
You know what, It was more or less same as my story.
Thanks for this video, Now I am feeling bit okay, thats its normal, I am not alone.
Thank you for sharing Brad.
Thank you for your honesty.👍👏
Thanks Brad, you are a legend in the education space for sure.
Have you got any advice on how to format a contract? I think this information would be so valuable