Watch this #JasSuccess as Honey Eduque, a Roadto100k Masterclass Wave 1 student, shares her inspiring story of how she transitioned from a Passionate BPO trainer to a successful Social Media Specialist.

Get ready to discover,

✅ How she managed to work simultaneously as a part-time VA while working in the evenings in the BPO.
✅ Honey's struggles in freelancing, losing clients one after another, and how she doubled her clients after.
✅ How she has fulfilled one of her 2017 vision board goals, to purchase a house.

and more of her freelancing journey tackled in this revealing interview.

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Notable Quotes:

•  The common mistakes, I would say I’ve noticed when it comes to newbies, like when I was back then is that, you don’t expect the hardships to hit you that hard, because I thought that I was like, sorry, I felt like I was going up up and away, and it was gonna maintain that way.
• Anything worth having is worth fighting for, so I thought to myself that this is something worth fighting.
• I didn’t give up because I was fighting, I was like, yes, I have to fight for it and I want this.
• Life is like a roller coaster, it goes up, it goes down.
• I also brainstormed with a lot of people. I watch a lot of educational things just to add some more knowledge to what I already have.
• You have to put in the hard work, you can’t discuss the clients just like that, you really have to put in hard work.
• If I didn’t go through the struggles that I went through, if I wouldn't have, you know, fought so hard to improve, I wouldn’t have valued how much the lessons that I’m learning, that I’m taking from all the mentors as seriously.
• Never ever give up, no matter what happens, no matter what happened in the past, you know, no matter how much you were struggling, no matter how much you are struggling right now, you know, don’t give up, find something to fight for.

 Honey Eduque’s Journey to Freelancing

• She is a passionate BPO trainer turned Social Media Specialist.
• She discovered oDesk back then when a friend of her was already working in oDesk at that time. She also signed up, and tried to apply for a job, but when she didn’t get any, she gave up on that account for the longest time.
• In 2011, she applied for a Virtual Assistant position in a Virtual Assistant Agency. She worked there for six months, but then, she missed the high salary she receives from call center, because she only being paid P20,000 as a Virtual Assistant at that time.
• In 2013, she had to stopped working because of sensitive pregnancy.
• From Gen San, they transferred to Manila and had to start from scratch. She couldn’t find any job because she was pregnant and they struggled financially.
• She created a profile in guru.com and manage to get research jobs there.
• After she gave birth, she went back to the call center because she wasn’t earning enough from her online work to sustain the huge demands of the family.
• Come 2016, she started to feel stagnant, as if like she was meant to do more, and she needed to move on.
• Middle of 2016, she started to think of going back to online gigs and looked around for different Facebook freelancing groups and sites  just to see which one she could join. She found the free video courses of VA Bootcamp and got inspired to go back into the freelancing industry.
• After watching free video courses and participating in VA Bootcamp group for six (6) months, she finally decided to take the risk of going back to freelancing and informed the company about her resignation even if she received a lot of negative feedback from her friends and co-workers.
• She wrote down her reason 'why' she want to work from home, first is, of course, to spend more time with her son, and second is, she no longer want to experience going to work soaking wet from the rain.
• In December 2016, she enrolled in VA Bootcamp paid course and manage to get a Korean Virtual Assistant job which she received $8 per hour while working in the call center at night, thinking that she’s a superwoman.
• In January 2017, she found another client through Facebook and trained her to be a Social Media Strategist.
• February 2017, she completely retired from the call center and she has never looked back since then.

 Q&A Highlights

 How long before you got your first client or how long it takes for you to get clients?

Okay, I’ll answer both questions, so for the first time that I got my first client in Upwork, it took me about a week or two before I managed to get that first client, and now,  I'm very particular or picky when it comes with applying to clients. I applied to the right type of clients that I feel I would work well with, so that's no matter how long it will take, like maybe I could go on for two days without applying or even a week without applying, but then from time to time if I see one job that I think is right for me or if I feel the client is right for me, then I would apply for that job.  So, maybe it would take me a day, sometimes even a month.  I have a current client that I applied for, I think September or October, and she only hired me in November. So, that long.

Any tips on how we can have our Upwork application approved especially for those that come from the customer service side.

Honestly speaking when it comes to getting Upwork approval, I'm not really well-versed with that because remember I’ve had my  Upwork or oDesk account since way back in 2007 or 8.  Right now, I know that Upwork is really strict, so the tips I would offer you is, try to look in other platforms as well. I know Upwork is like the leading operating when it comes to the platforms for freelancers, but open up to other platforms as well.  It doesn't hurt because I know there are some freelancers that get their clients and high-value clients as well either through other platforms or even direct clients.

If you were to go back to your early freelancing days, what would you do differently, what would you change?

What would I change is my attitude towards how I take things for granted.  I would honestly say I took things for granted earlier last year.  The reason I say that it's because, like I mentioned, I didn’t take things seriously. I felt like I could easily get things.  And another thing is that maybe I felt like I had an edge, I mean I could understand clients, I could joke with them, you know maybe it's because you were a trainer, and you felt like, oh I have all the confidence more, but that is not true. Just when you think that you’re way up there, and you know something happens, and God teaches you that, you know, you have to humble yourself. Don't be too be arrogant, just because I came from a call center, just because I can speak English better than anybody. I’ve had my struggles, I’ve had my failures, even if I kick, even if I had those background, I still struggled. I still went through terrible things, so don't take things for granted.  Always maintain, always be humble, and help out.  One of the things that I promised Jason a long time ago was that, whatever I learned from him I would always pay it forward. So what I'm doing is that, I'm also helping out other newbies try to get through what they're struggling, because I completely understand what they have gone through, and my voice is getting shaky because I feel it. So I understand what you're going through because I've been there, so I just want to help out as well.

What is your main niche?

My main niche is social media, although I still accept Virtual Assistant jobs because a lot of my clients have both tasks rolled into one, especially when they find out that “oh you do social media, okay great, could you also do my Facebook for me”, I’m like okay fine, so I mean I don’t mind, I do like to give them the value for what I can offer them and I really love helping them out and seeing how I also get them from point A to point B, so on and so forth.

Have you tried applying for any Customer Service Phone Support jobs on Upwork?

I’ve been in a call center for so long that I try to avoid phone support.  Although I’ve done chat, yes and that’s as far as I’ll go when it comes to customer service, I’ll do chat. I’ve done chat, yes.

How do you manage your time, your being mom, you have eight clients. How does your typical day go?

My typical, well my typical week Monday, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I jammed pack all of my major tasks there. Mostly by Tuesday, I get all of the major tasks done. By Wednesday it’s the semi semi major tasks that I have to complete.  Thursdays I do the minor tasks and Thursdays also, it’s my gym day, so I go to the gym. Fridays I check if there is some more tasks that have been assigned to me or if there’s something that I forgot to do. I try to go back with everything, and then Saturday and Sunday I’m free, but then sometimes, you know, when I think I’m addicted to my laptop, so I tend to go back into my laptop, I look, like, okay, nothing and then I turn it off again, and then, later on, I go back to my laptop, I turn it on, you know.

Which courses did you take in WFHR?

I’ve taken the VA Bootcamp and the Master Class and also the HTML, basic HTML course, I took that.

What steps did you take before you quit from call center?  What were the things you did to prepare yourself for that transition?

Whatever I earned from my clients back then, I did not spend it, instead I kept it, so what I only spent was my salary from the call center. So I pretended like, as if I didn't have that Upwork money, and my direct clients money, and I save it up until I saw that it was a good enough amount for me to finally let go of the call center. That is the reason why I only let go of the call center late in Feb, actually end of Feb, that’s when I finally resigned from the call center.  It was enough time for me to saved up.

Would it be okay sharing how much would you recommend people save before they make that shift?

I saved up back then, around 80,000.  It lasted me up until, somewhere around June, and then it started to deflate, it was also the same time that things started to go downhill for me.

Any tips kung paano mo malaman kong anong niche mo, and when to decide to focus on that skill?

Well,  for a newbie, I would have to refer back to Jason on that, because personally, I don’t think you should really niche down already.  You know it’s better if you get a grasp of the whole freelancing thing first, and then that’s when you identify which one you can relate to or which one you would be happier doing.  It’s better to do something that you would be happy doing.  In all honesty, when I started out with my social media strategist client, I didn't start out on a social media specialist. I started out as a VA and she kept telling me “go come on, let me train you to be a social media specialist”, but I kept pushing her back. The only time I became one of her social media specialist was when, I think May, so I started work for her. Well, in January and then only May that I decided that I wanna be a social media specialist.  So it took me that long because I wanted to get comfortable. I wanted to know how it works.

What’s like the number one tip or advice that you want to leave with those who were watching, we know you’ve inspired many people, there have been a lot of questions coming in, but what’s the one thing you want them to take home from this interview?

One thing that I’d like everyone to take home is, you know, never ever give up, no matter what happens, no matter what happened in the past, you know no matter how much you were struggling, no matter how much you are struggling right now, you know don’t give up, find something to fight for.  I found something to fight for, and find that something to fight for.  Find a why, find the reason why you’re fighting that fight, that you’re fighting now.  Find the purpose, because honestly, life is tough, it’s not easy, you know, it’s not always just hate and all that, you have lemons, you have those things and you have your ups and your downs, and it’s not always gonna be up, there’s gonna be downs as well.  That’s the reality of life, and all you need to do is get through that, I did. There’s this thing that I’ve been hearing in the preaching. The only way for you to be propelled forward like an arrow is when the arrow is flung back and once the person, that’s the archer, lets go of the arrow, that’s when they get propelled forward. I don’t know if you catch that analogy, but that’s something I believed that sometimes, life takes us back, but then it always propels us forward as long as we don’t give up. Just don’t give up, that’s all I can say.