Watch this #JasSuccess Interview with Lina Jucutan, The Uragon Customer Service Rep from Albay.

In this inspiring interview, we tackled a lot including;

✅ Her humble beginnings in freelancing
✅ Her work life both as a freelancer and a Tourism Consultant in LGU
✅ God's miraculous intervention in choosing a company to work with.

and much more...

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Notable Quotes:

• Sometimes we need to appreciate the moment that we felt down. It is the moment that we are open to the opportunities in life as you are to chase them. That’s my turning point. Phoebe sent me your link about freelancing and I was very eager at that moment to know about it. I subscribed every free courses you have. I sometimes asked how Phoebe went through all those tasks. Then everything just turned out for me well in my journey to freelancing.
• It humbles me every time I remember where we started in our freelancing career. Our house before was very mean as we are just staying with our grandmother’s house as we decide to separate. The moment that I started my freelancing career what is with me before are pills.
• Actually what happened was, I told my husband that I am the queen of all free courses and scholarship. I click link to link free courses. I started from freevacourses and avail other free trainings. I subscribe to every free scholarship and meet some new friends and was able to establish my profile together with my husband.
• After applying in the job, I felt nervous especially when I see that there are more than 200 freelancers who applied in the job post. But it was the start of it as if everything fall into place.
• One of the things I learned in life and this is most of the time I say to everyone that If you felt tired of standing on your belief probably it is the time for you to kneel. Pray and ask guidance to the Lord and do everything you can do and all will be given to you. The Lord has plan for us as it was written in Jeremiah 29:11-I have plans for you. We just need to trust the Lord.
•  If you are a good freelancer you need to be creative and resourceful. If there is a power interruption in your area, you can go to the mall for example and do the job there. I built my character and endurance through those challenges I went through.
• Open communication to what are happenings and being open to the client what are your dreams, how can you help them and how they can help you, can also help in building trust with our clients.
• I change my half-smiled profile picture with a very welcoming and smiling profile photo. It became the reason of having many clients. I knew it from reading that smiling can attract clients as they perceive it that a smiling person has a positive outlook in life and a good aura.
• We have to communicate with our classmates in our courses. Let’s connect to one another. They might be the reason that we might have an opportunity to have clients. Aside from having a good profile picture, connecting with our classmates. Because from there, I received many invites from the clients. Aside from this, you learn from one another.
• We have to be open to our client if you can or can’t do the job. But I advised that you have to make your best as the client hired you thinking that you are the perfect person to do the job. But if you really cannot do the job, tell your client to look for another freelancer to do the task so that you can avoid those consequences that might be a reason to break your good relationship.
• What I do is to assess my performance first and apply for a course because probably there might be new learnings that you have not done yet. Learn to upgrade your skills. But at the moment that you think you did everything and still the client is not happy with the result because the expectation might be too high. Then it is the time to do the third option. Tell your client that you did everything and it is up to him what he would do. Tell him to lower the expectations so that you can meet at the right point.
• Learn to say NO if you think that it is not a priority. One of the characteristics of Filipinos is to accept and accept. In freelancing, learn to say no to those invitation that you think might affect your schedules and priorities.
• For the freelancing tips, I can give you five. Some of them were already said. First, you need to make a firm decision of what you want to be. And if you have decided you have to do it. No more turning back. The decision will make the difference.  As I experienced when I decided to do the freelancing, everything fall into place. Do not trust in your income especially in freelancing. You might think that your client has a stable business but suddenly will face bankruptcy. You have to trust in God alone. Whatever happens to you, it is to him whom we will always call back. He is my firm foundation. Second, build relationship with others. Third, be proactive. Fourth is to upgrade your skills. And lastly, you have to believe that you can earn here in our country. You don’t need to go abroad to earn. What you just have to do is to trust and believe in yourself.

Lina Jucutan’s Journey to Freelancing

• Working as a travel agent and has travel a lot and become a part-time professor teaching tourism subjects. As she gets older, she dreamt to have her own family and become a full time mom.
• Felt jealous when she saw her friends traveling and having their vacations on holidays while she need to work even holidays come for her career.
• When she got married, she decided to become a full-time mom and resigned as a travel agent and a part-time professor and blessed with two kids.
• She went through with different hardship in life as a married woman and even felt insecurities as she finds herself unable to help her husband earn for family consumptions.
• She quit work for a lot of reasons:

• • She wanted to become a full-time mom to guide her children as they grow up.
  • She found her job uninteresting as the other enjoys their vacation while she, as a travel agent, is always busy even holidays.

• Started to learn about freelancing from her friend, her co-worker in travel agency.
• Learned about freelancing by subscribing to free courses in the WFHR and become queen of free courses and scholarships.
• Decided to invest thousands of pesos for her laptop and other necessary gadgets to be used in freelancing.
• Went through a lot of rejections, interviews and finally hired in the middle of typhoon Nina.
• Was able to accomplish her first project inspite of power interruptions and found other long term projects to sustain her family necessities. Become an earning mom working from home having a comfortable life.

Q&A Highlights

How did you get started with freelancing? What are you doing before? And please explain your transition in the world of freelancing.

Actually, before freelancing, I was a travel agent. That was my career. You can see that my career seems at its peak. I’ve been travelling a lot as a travel agent. That was one of our perks in the company.

Aside from that, I was also a part-time professor teaching tourism subject. I never dreamt before to have a family. I felt contented of working in the office being single. But as I grew older, I realized that I need to have my own family.

We know how difficult it is to work in travel agency. You can remember those moments seeing your friends travelling when holidays while you, on the other hand, is busy doing bookings.

That was my career before. So I decided to leave my job because I wanted to become a full-time mom. I really wanted to be hands on and take good care of my children.

I was married last 2013 and blessed with two children. Because I was pregnant again immediately after nine months, I was not able to return to my previous career. So that was my story. Before I work as freelancer, I am a full-time mom.

Because of the hardships we encounter in our family, it seems like we can no longer continue our married life as if we don’t know what will happen the next day. I even experience postpartum. I felt pity to myself and to my husband thinking that I can’t do something to help him.

Then I remember Phoebe, one of my officemates. I remember her doing the so called freelancing job. So what I did is to contact her.

She sent me a link in the freevacourse.com. I subscribed to free courses in WFHR and other free courses online eager to learn everything. Then, that was the first step of my journey to freelancing.

What are your tips on freelancing for introvert?

Actually, freelancing is good for introvert than in a corporate job. I believe everything can be learned. Anyone of us can influence and be influenced even you are an introvert. What you have to do is just to prepare. Anyways, you will be just talking online and nothing will happen to you.

You can also talk to our classmates and mentors in the VA Bootcamp. This is also one way of boosting your confidence in facing your clients.

How do you manage your time between work and family?

That is a very good question. Aside from being a freelancer, I am also working as a tourism consultant here in our community in Bagacay, Albay. It seemed that my passion has come to live again. That’s why aside from being a full-time mom, I have this work which I also like to do.

One of my advice I can give to manage your time efficiently is to learn to say NO. Though, one of the Filipino culture is always saying YES even it is no longer possible in your schedule.

So if you think that the invitation you received from online work will affect your other client’s schedule, then it is the time for you to say NO. You need to set limitations. I told them that they are not just only my clients. You have to learn to say NO. That two letter word can make your life easier. You have to recognize your priorities.

With regards to my online work, I ask day off to my clients as I explain to them that I have two kids to attend to. When they ask me if I can work on Sunday, I say NO because this is for my family and they understand it.

What are the free courses I can avail as a newbie to develop my skills?

There are many free courses you can avail to develop your skills. You can log in to www.wfhr.com and register to the free courses there. You can also ask chat support from the different freelancing groups.

What are the tips you can give about freelancing?

I can give you five tips about freelancing.

First, you need to make a firm decision of what you want to be. At the moment you made your decision, you have to do it. No more turning back. Your decision will make the difference.  I experienced it when I decided to do the freelancing, everything falls into places.

Also, do not trust in your income especially in freelancing. You might think that your client has a stable business but suddenly will face bankruptcy.

You have to trust in God. Whatever happens to us, it is to him whom we will always call back. He is our firm foundation.

Second, build relationship with others. Even we are just meeting online we have to be sincere to others. We can implement more meetups. This will enable us to become closer to one another.

Third, be proactive. Do not procrastinate, if we have learned something new, then you have to apply them. Actually, I received a feedback that I am very proactive. Being proactive will increase your chance to be awarded with jobs.

My concept is this, if you help your client grow their business then you are helping yourself to have more jobs in the future. Your client will be happy about what you did and you will receive good feedback from them which in turn will add to your trust rating.

Fourth is to upgrade your skills. You can have it from Sir Jason.

And lastly, though I am not that patriotic, you have to believe that you can earn and live a decent life here in our country. You don’t need to go abroad to earn. What you have to do is to trust and believe in yourself. Do not lose hope in your country.

What you have to do is to learn to charge not to brag. Not because we belong to the third world country, we will only charge very little. Let us dream big for us and for our county.