Featured on #JasSuccess is Nix Eniego. Nix is a marketer who leads a fast growing company while running his own growth marketing agency.

Nix discovered how to make money online at a young age of 16. He started as a content writer and dived quickly into SEO. Before he turned 20, he already had his own content marketing and SEO business.

Today, having turned 25, Nix is considered as one of the leading marketers in the country.

Discover how Nix ascended from being unknown to a thought leader in the industry. Watch this #JasSuccess interview and be inspired by his successful freelancing journey. Learn how to run an online business with not much of a capital as Nix shares some useful tips.

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Notable Quotes

• Those small things, those small realizations at the beginning, when you’re 12 years in freelancing, those make a huge impact on where you are today and the rest of your freelancing business or freelancing career.
• My advice is, just do whatever it takes to get that first client.
• When you start with something new, you usually don’t have a lot of confidence in yourself, you’re usually scared. You still have a lot of learning to do, you still have a lot of mistakes to make and that’s what freelance platforms allow you to do. They let you make those mistakes and I guess most importantly they help you build your confidence.
• The underrated thing that no one talks about, one thing that you get from that is not even the experience, it’s not even the portfolio, it’s the confidence. You are now confident.
• And when you’re starting out you really just have to do it. Nix’s motto “Just Do It”, even when you’re scared, even when you don’t believe in what you’re doing.
• You guys shouldn’t worry too much about the rates when you’re starting.
• Treat as an OJT, like earn while learning. Learn and use the experience to charge more for the next job.
• It’s easier to succeed if you’re known for one thing versus being a generalist of sorts. Pick one thing and be the best at that.
• My advice is to write every day. None of the greatest writers of all time became great just because I’m bored, I’m great, No. They actually wrote every day, that’s the only secret.
• Try to read one new book every week or every month just so you have fresh ideas every time and you’re always learning.
• Before you take on that client build up your portfolio, find friends or maybe family members who have a small business, work on their thing, do some freelance work for them for a little and then you now have experience.
• You can’t just sit there waiting and if you’re looking for a job, you can’t just pray and a job is gonna appear in front of you, that’s not going to happen. Aside from praying you have to go out there and actually take action and do that to get a job. You cannot wait.
• The moment that you let other people affect how you think or how you do things you’re not going to be successful. You should be, " I don’t care what anyone else says, I’m doing something good and I’m gonna keep doing it and keep working it out ".
• You’ll only need one person to say yes to you and your life will probably change forever.
• One thing that I want to impart to you guys right now which really changed me, what really change the trajectory of my career is I built my personal brand. I worked hard on building a personal brand. Meaning, I work hard being known as a marketer, one of the best in marketing, I worked on that.

  Nix Eniego Journey to Freelancing

• When he was 13 years of age, he was trading NBA cards in Glorietta Mall for 2,000 to 4,000php.
• At the age of 16, he wanted to make money online because he got rejected in BPO's as part time agent.
• He found out that there’s SEO, content writing, Adsense, blogging, flip marketing and much more to earn money online.
• He has always been passionate about writing that’s why he chose content writing as his first freelance job.
• His first client was a Pakistani, he wrote one to five hundred words for $1.50 per article. But his client scammed him for a total of $115. Eventually, the client paid him $150 for the articles he wrote. His realization of this experience is that he will never write an article for $1.50 again.
• He researched and joined marketing internet forums and discovered SEO. This is where he started learning everything he knows.
• In Fiver, he got a guerilla marketing gig for Lupe Fiasco and Kendrick Lamar. He mostly wrote for hyping these two artists.
• Started his own SEO and content marketing company
• He also got a dubbing and copywriting job in ODesk. His copywriting job for an Australian client was the turning point of his freelancing job because that’s when he realized he should work on fixed projects.
• At present, aside from managing his own company, he is leading marketing on one of the fastest growing companies in the Philippines called Sprouts Solutions.

  Q&A Highlights

What is your advice to the newbies who don’t like using platforms, they wanted to go directly to clients?

There’s no shame for being in Upwork or Fiver or freelance websites. It’s good to start there actually. Getting that first feel of getting a client, that first to win, this client is mine, I’m earning online now. Just do whatever it takes to get that first client. Whether that’s being on Fiver, Upwork or whether that’s going to your Facebook friends one by one looking at who runs the business and messaging them. Whatever it takes. You see that first client and once you build that body work, then you can now brand yourself as someone. You can now survive even if you’re not at Upwork.

What was your learning journey?

You got to pick a niche. It’s easier to succeed if you’re known for one thing versus being a generalist of sorts. The reason why I’m an online marketing person it’s because I spent night and years doing it. Nine years. I didn't made this in one day. I started content and then I learned SEO and then after that, I learned Social Media. It wasn’t I learned everything on day one. It was gradual, nine years in the making. Pick one thing and be the best at that. And then once you be the best at that, you can branch out because once you’re the best in something you can do anything. You can sell course group and then people will want it because they know that you’re a freaking amazing person at what you do or what you’re really good at.

Any advice to be consistent in writing?

My advice is for you to write every day. You can actually write two things every day. One, I want you to write for yourself. Write it down somewhere that only you can read. And then the other one is write something for the consumption of the public. Blog on your personal Facebook profile. Talk about something that you want to talk about. If it’s about writing, talk about your journey to being the content writer, talk about consistency, talk about your dream. Practice every day. None of the greatest writers of all time became great just because I’m bored, I’m great, No. They actually wrote every day, that’s the only secret. And then third advice, try to read one new book every week or every month just so you have fresh ideas every time and you’re always learning. Read books. Read articles. Go on medium.com read some nice compelling articles there and then you have consistency.

Is it advisable to tell the clients that you are a newbie? How will you deal if you’re new and the client wants you to have a lower rate?

Don’t. I wouldn’t say it. Don’t think of yourself as a newbie, that’s your own thing. You know that you’re a newbie, they don’t know that. And I’m not saying that you have to lie about your experience, just don’t mention it. You have a lower chance of landing actually good clients if they know that you’re a newbie or this is your first job. No one’s going to get you for that. There are two things you can do. One is, don’t be a newbie, build up your portfolio. And at the same time, you can just tell the client that you’re going to do this work for this amount and never talk about your experience like you have nothing to lose. If they asked you, which I doubt this will ever be asked, is this your first time to handle a client? No one’s going to ask you that. It shouldn’t be in your head right now. But what I would advise you do some work for your family, your friends just to get you some experience, let you know how to do some client work so that when you do meet a client you have an idea how it works.

What’s the best way to ask for an increase?

The same client for a year. Go and look back to where the business was before you joined them. It’s easy if it’s a social majority, just look at their Facebook timeline before you popped there with something. You can tell them this is where you were before I came in and this is where you are now when I started. Show them how much value you were able to give to their business justifying how much ROI you’ve been able to give and not talking about more likes. Show them that value and tell them, be honest with them, “I’ve been with you for a year and we’ve done amazing things, this is where we were before and this is we’re at now and, to be honest with you I’m getting a lot of opportunities and also working a lot of opportunities, a lot of brands are also I’m concerned about advanced, but I really love working with you, but just the rate right now doesn’t work for me, $3.50 doesn’t work for me based on the results I’ve given you the past year. I deserve a raise and I think I should be paid $10”. I don’t know what rate you have in your mind, but I think I deserve $10 an hour now. And then if they dropped, if they say no, that’s not happening, then that’s kind of a weird client because either he didn’t see value or he’s just a bad guy. There’s no way that he’s going to stay at $3.50 after you’ve shown him the kind of value made him realizes and value doing it, there’s no way. Worst-case is he’s going to meet you half way and then if you’re happy with the halfway then stay, right?

What is your advice to someone who’s intimidated to content writing?

Start small. Start writing two sentences a day, three sentences and add up. The only thing I don’t expect you talk about the struggle of writing content. The things that really stopping to you right now is not your talent in writing, what stopping you is the idea that people will judge you. But you shouldn’t think about anyone. The moment that you let other people affect how you think or how you do things you’re not going to be successful because you couldn’t write.

Any book suggestion that helped you enormously?

There’s no specific that helped me become a consistent writer. There wasn’t a book that I read in and oh I’m going to be a writer. I’ll answer in two ways. One, there was a person though that helped me to become a better writer or helped me to earn money from writing, searched him on Youtube, his name is Jay Abraham. This guy when I saw his stuff on how he’s writing all that, he’s one of the most popular copywriters in the world. He’s alive by the way. When I watched his video, wow!, So this is how you write content, this is like mind-blowing, that’s my guy. It’s not a book but he’s the guy. There’s one book though, that I really love and I really live by up to this day it’s called Jab JabJab Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk. It talks about how you should be giving value, just keep giving value before you ask for something or before you try and sell something. That’s been my whole motto ever since I’ve read that. So, check Jay Abraham if you like to learn more about content copywriting and then read this book by Gary Vaynerchuk, it’s Jab JabJab Right Hook.

Do you have any tips for transition?

A good transition will be if you’re in Upwork right now, bring up a few clients like build a nice portfolio, build up your confidence and then go direct. I’m not saying shut down your Upwork account, let it exist, just let it there. If someone hires you there, go, why not, right? But while it’s up there and while it’s still live you’re now going on LinkedIn, looking for business owners, messaging people on LinkedIn, seeing how you can add value to them while you have an Upwork account. And then imagine this, if you message 100 business owners on LinkedIn and one of them says yes, that’s where it all starts. You’ll only need one person to say yes to you and your life will probably change forever. You don’t need to leave Upwork until you have a consistent solid flow of clients outside of Upwork. Why shut it down if it’s giving clients. Eventually, you will reach a point where you’ll make more money outside of Upwork.

What advice do you have to new freelancers and aspiring freelancers to tell their freelance career in freelancing business?

One thing that I want to impart to you guys right now which really changed me, what really change the trajectory of my career is I built my personal brand. I worked hard on building a personal brand, on being known as a marketer, one of the best in marketing. That's my advice, build a personal brand starting today. Not in your three months or year. Start today.