Keith Torres is a former BPO employee and now one of the most successful freelancers in his specialized niche. In this interview you will discover how he enjoys working at home as a freelancer earning an OFW-like income while taking care of his family.

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Notable Quotes

• From that time I had a mindset na I won’t accept a rate that’s not good enough for me. I won’t accept a company whose advocacy is different from mine. Gusto ko yung rate okay sa akin, yung hours okay sa akin, yung stress level sobrang manageable in order for me to get an additional client para mas lumaki yung streamline ko.
• There are always two types of newbies. The first type is the one na nagtratransition.  For those groups, meron naman sigurong standard rate for that. As a rule of thumb, wag ka na mag a-accept ng rate ng mas mababa sa dating mong kinikita. Bakit? Kasi you already have the skills, you already know what to do. You’re just gonna adjust the setting different from what you used to do. So from a client’s stand point, alam mo na yung work they can rely on you. Justifiable na yun eh. It’s all about how you sell yourself during the interview.
• Now for the actual newbies, the ones yung wala pa talagang experience na trabaho and they want to enter freelancing world, if you value yourself if you value your career syempre quality for quality.  Alam mo naman siguro yung self-worth.  At least you know close to the minimum wage. Don’t let yourself be exploited. Unang una kawawa ka and pangalawa baba yung quality ng mga fellow freelancers mo.
• Freelancers should always have an emergency fund. If you’re gonna quit your job initially, if you’re gonna quit your full-time job in corporate, and you’re gonna go into freelancing, you should have an emergency fund which is like mga 3 months siguro buffer of living expenses.
• Ask yourself, ako ba babayaran ko ang sarili ko ng 50 thousand para sa trabahong ganito na ganito yung quality? And if your answer doesn’t equate to that particular amount, then it’s up to you to do what needs to be done in order for that amount yung skill level mo yung expertise level mo to the amount of the salary that you’re trying to reach. Yun yung pinaka key in order for you to move on from just doing a home-based job to actually doing freelancing job.
• If you’re a master at your craft, if you’re very comfortable speaking business and with your skill with clients. And the thing is though, it also requires a bit of business knowledge din eh. That’s one thing that separates those who are masters of their craft from those who earn a lot. Kasi some masters don’t earn a lot because they can’t speak business they can’t translate what they do into business value for clients.
• So if you’re really on the top of your game, if you’re really prepared yourself for that moment. Sabi natin, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity,” if you’ve prepared yourself for that moment, you’ll be ready within 5 min you can close several thousand dollar deals. But you have to be prepared. You have to have that knowledge and practice before hand.
• The only thing that would kill your freelancing career is complacency. The moment that you stop learning, tapos na yung career mo. Kapag hindi ka na nagimprove, then your career is dead. You’re still gonna have jobs and clients but that’s gonna be the extent of it. Wala nang kasunod.
• First decide if this is the perfect path for you if yes, napakadaming support system online nowadays that could help you through it. If you can’t land full-time job agad then go for project based jobs or fixed rate. Kung gusto mo simulan mo, kasi may mga iba talaga inaadvocate nila kumuha ka ng mga fixed rate job like data entry for $30 job. That’s good if you’re starting out, if you’re not earning anything at all, hindi ka makakapulot ng $30 kahit maglakad ka sa Manila ng buong maghapon. So parang isipin mo nalang training mo yan.
• Definition of a perfect job is something that you love on most days and that you can tolerate the most.
• Yung motivation as a freelancer really depends on you and you know if you’re a normal guy, kung hindi ka makaisip ng immediate goal at least a specific goal, opt for something concrete. Like a number or actual salary na gusto mo ma hit.  If you focus on that goal and you work and you pay your dues, you do your preparation, it’s impossible for you not to hit it.
• Try to find your niche as much as possible. Especially if you’re just starting out kasi once you find the thing you wanna do where you’re good at, yun pera dadating na yan madali na yan. And plus, you get to work the job that you actually want. The most important thing is you know. Prepare and act yun lang.
• Once you’ve done the preparations that you need, the next step is up. Wag ka na magtanong wala nang kung ano anong paligoy-ligoy pa. Apply na agad. Ganun na! Send na ng proposal kahit sabog sabog pa yan, matututo ka din. Basahin mo nga lang post nila.
• One of the things that you can do in order to move from one level to another is improving yourself and you can do that by studying up or maghanap ka ng tao magtuturo sayo kung meron. Gayahin mo style ko nagiistalk ng mga magagaling na mga freelancer tapos nangungulit ngulit. Pero wag naman yung, ‘how po,’ ah medyo anti na kami sa ganun

Keith Torres’ Journey to Freelancing

• Keith is a family man from Subic with a 2-year-old son.
• He’s doing home based freelancing work for four years.
• 10 years ago, Keith worked as a call center agent for People Support.  Even he has outstanding performance—he’s breaking conversion rates and matrix—the company didn’t give him his well-deserved promotion.  He thought it’s because he was an undergrad.  He then resigned and went back to Subic.
• Having an initial plan of going back to BPO, he studied and graduated with bachelor’s degree in education after his resignation from People Support.
• Things have changed afterward.  He taught Mathematics to high school students for two years.
• Three years ago, he found out that they’ll be having a baby. That time Keith has a t-shirt printing business aside from his teaching job.  He knew that his earnings were not enough to support his family even he’s out of the house for an average of 15 hours a day.  He needed to have another source of income.
• Until one day, he saw an agent job post for a start-up company in Subic.  He applied and got hired.  He was literally working home-based with his operations manager.
• At the beginning of his freelancing career, he met Hexel John.  The latter became one of the Keith’s closest virtual friends.  They never met each other but they have been working on and off with projects for the past four years.  
• Hexel referred Keith to one of his clients.  That time, Keith realized that it is really possible to earn even he's not affiliated with any call centers.  He, therefore, crap the plan of going to call center again.  He focused on home-based freelancing instead.
• For the first two years of freelancing, 25k to 35k is acceptable for him.  He’s satisfied and happy.
• However, Keith went through a period of drought.
  • He had to let go one of his regular clients;
  • He has encountered scam client that he recommended to his cousin.  The deal supposedly was Keith would be receiving a cut from his cousin's salary.  It turned out, that client didn’t pay his cousin for 2 to 3 weeks and that Keith ended up shouldering his cousin’s one whole month one salary;
  • Their house got wrecked;
  • His son got sick; and  
  • He got no money left.
• He was very down and almost gave up and started submitting resumes to some companies in Manila.  He thought why these things happened to a guy who's very confident about what he does, very confident about his salary, his clients, and his experience?  
• Upon knowing Keith’s situation, some of his friends pulled out funds to give him another shot in freelancing.  
• From then on, Keith changed his mindset.  He thought he would never accept a rate that is not good enough for him; he won’t accept a job from a company that has different advocacy from him; it should be less stressful.
• Six months ago when he started searching online, he found out about Jason’s group and enrolled in 6 courses including SEO, email marketing mechanics, SMM, WordPress management.
• Then Keith found a steady client with a good rate, considerable bosses with less micromanagement. His job is less stressful that actually gave his time to expand on his other skills like digital marketing.
• Right now he’s studying WordPress management because he needed it in one of his clients.  He has already an actual experience on the other courses that he enrolled but he took the course to have formal and organized lessons.
• His job is customer service email support that is a day shift giving him a normal life again. He got time to study and do personal stuff aside from work.  He promised to himself he won't be stuck again with a job that's mid-rate in his salary and stressful.
• He’s currently working for direct clients.  He didn’t focus on any platforms like Upwork throughout his freelancing career.  He mainly gets his clients through his colleague’s and previous employer’s referrals.
• He is earning now four times of the regular BPO rate, more than that he can handle.

Q&A Highlights

• You said there’s like level one and level two sa freelancing. Can you talk more about that?

  • Level 1 freelancing is you transition yourself from an office environment and then you do the same thing but you do it from home.  So expect mo na you’ll be doing the same thing and you’ll earn close to what you’re earning before.
  • Level 2, ikaw na yung mag pipitch. You tell the clients how many hours you work every week, the hours that you want to work, you’re open to that. Most importantly, ikaw na yung magsasabi magdedesignate kung ano yung tasks na gagawin mo.

• What do you think is the easiest way for a freelancer to transition from level 1 to a level 2?

  • Sa akin easiest way is for you to get yourself working na. Prepare and act. sa freelancing world there’s no such thing as luck. Kasi luck is only preparation meets opportunity. Kasi kung nandyadyan na yung job nakita mo na nag job opening, email marketing ganitong kataas na rate. And then you’re not even prepared although you wanna do that, you’re not yet prepared to do that, sayang yung opportunity. Whereas if you are prepared, nagawa mo na lahat ng necessary things. You prepared you studied, you've done your research if you're able enough and you’ve enrolled to paid courses, syempre prepared ka na.  Alam mo na yung gagawin mo.  So when the opportunity presents itself, you’re there. Tapos na ang usapan. All you need is 10 min with the client and he’s already signing the contract with you. So yun yung easiest way to break the barrier for you to improve yourself.

• Ang daming freelancers from BPO or call centers. Most of them offer the same services. Paano mo na-overcome ang competition?

  • Again it’s gonna  go back to your mindset kasi eh. If you’re confident enough with your skills parang yung mga clients they sense that.  One because I’m confident with my skills, I’m not bragging about that kasi call center na tayo dati eh.  Ang kapal na ng mukha natin kung ano ano nga pinagsasabi natin sa mga customers. Kung maitratansition mo yan or maichachannel mo yun to a client interview, tapos na. Na syo na yung trabaho by the end of the call.

• You said you were an undergrad when you first started working when you took a break to get a diploma. Would you say it was worth it? If given a chance, would you have chosen differently?

  • Akin kasi nagiba yung goal ko from that point on up to now. Dati kasi ang gusto ko is mapromote lang na maging team manager.  Kasi mga kalaban ko may mga bachelor’s degree.  So akala ko after finishing my diploma makakabalik ako sa BPO, dahil nadiscover ko na yung freelancing nagiba na.  Pagdating kasi dito kahit gumgraduate ka lang ng elementary, kung napakagaling mong developer, wala naman kinalaman yung diploma.
  • Meron parin mga clients that from time to time, they require a certain educational level. Depende sa trabaho pero for me if it’s worth it, yes for personal reasons. Parang sampal lang sa mga tao, ‘eto yung diploma ko,’

• Pano maging confident na hindi arrogant ang dating sa client?

  • If you’re opting for a customer service job sa freelancing siguro one of the best advice that I can give you is to showcase your skill. Kapag nakausap mo na si client sa interview doesn't focus on the job description. Create a conversation with the client. From there on malalaman na kaya mo mag carry ng conversation, that’s one of the skills that they’re looking for if that’s a customer service job.
  • You’re actually the applicant who’s engaging the client. Maging mayabang ka man or not, that’s not gonna be the trait that’s gonna stand out from your client's point of view but the part where you know your craft, you know, you can talk, maayos ka makipagusap. That’s basically what I’m saying. You’re very confident to the point na relax na relax ka. Pag relax ka sa interview that means you’re confident. Siguro that’s one of the things that you can apply.

• What is the biggest benefit right now to you that you see sa freelancing?

  • Sakin syempre number one yung financial freedom, yung freedom mo to work anywhere you want, and ang pinaka importante yung plateau of the salary is really almost non-existent.  Ikaw nalang yung kalaban mo e para tumaas yung sahod mo as much as you want. Kung gusto mo talaga kumita ng 100, 150, 200 thousand a month, kaya mo just be prepared to make the sacrifices, the hours, and the studies, and everything.
  • Sa freelancing halos walang ceiling ang kita. One to sawa hanggang gusto mo hanggang kaya mo, you can earn as much as you want. Syempre as long as you do the necessary things that you need to do.