I love hiring on Upwork…it’s literally the only place I pick up freelance talent for my business, for my previous marketing agency, and for the various client and partner businesses I work with now.

But…

Even though Upwork is, in my opinion, the BEST place for clients and freelancers to tie the knot…it’s still sooooo time-consuming to hire…and likewise, for freelancers to GET hired.

Still, I got reaaallly tired of spending 20+ hours EVERY time I posted a job to screen and vet freelancers.

Back at my old agency, I put together a system for HIRING freelancers so I could spend the bare MINIMUM amount of time on Upwork…

Focus on hiring people as fast as possible…

And get back to doing important stuff.

It wasn’t until I left that marketing agency in 2024 that I realized the same system I used to HIRE freelancers could EASILY be reverse-engineered to GET hired as a freelancer.

I knew EXACTLY what clients wanted to see…because I WAS a client.

And wouldn’t you know it…worked pretty darn well for myself, considering I picked up a 5-figure retainer contract in just my third month back on Upwork.

Wowzers.

Since then, I’ve regularly spent over $10k MYSELF on other Upwork freelancers, with several of them on 4-figure monthly retainers.

Now, let me tell you this as a long-time Upwork client…

Good freelancers struggle to get seen because it’s so EXHAUSTING to sort through the dozens of crap proposals and profiles with fake credentials. BUT…

Give me a couple hours, and I’ll give you the exact method I developed win the attention of high-paying clients just like me…that you can implement by making about 9 minutes of tweaks to your Upwork system.

Plenty of Upwork ‘gurus’ teach you how to write proposals, build your profile, talk to clients…

But who’s actually doing the teaching?

Usually?

This ‘guru’ is a freelancer who got lucky once or twice, landed a few tiny jobs, then sold a course claiming they ‘cracked the Upwork code.’

Hey…

That’s totally fine if it worked for them. But most of the time when these ‘gurus’ try to reverse engineer their methods, they have no idea why their proposals got picked, or why they got hired…

I’ve used Upwork for nearly a decade, meaning I’ve:

• Reviewed nearly 1,000 Upwork proposals
• Hired dozens of freelancers for my own business and my clients’ businesses
• Currently spend over $10,000 per month on Upwork freelancers

I’ve hired contractors in almost every niche you can imagine…

And yes…I’ve also landed multiple 5-figure-per-month retainers as a freelancer.

Here’s the truth:

I have NEVER seen an Upwork guide that reflects how brutal, random, and SOUL-CRUSHING the platform has become.

Most Upwork advice still sounds like this:

• “Write compelling proposals”
• “Build a magnetic profile”
• “Deliver exceptional work”

It’s not enough anymore. This hasn’t worked since 2016.

Here’s the reality now:

• Dozens of proposals on every job post within hours
• Costs $10 just to BID on jobs
• ‘Thoughtful’ proposals don’t get opened 🤔
• Clients vanishing mid-conversation
• ‘Ghost jobs’ where no one gets hired 👻
• Race-to-the-bottom pricing against freelancers who charge $2 per hour
• Promised follow-up work that never comes 🫠
• Upwork stealing massive fees from every milestone

And yet…

Some freelancers are still cleaning up.

For example, I pay one Google Ads freelancer $8,000 per month.

He consistently lands calls with 7- and 8-figure businesses on Upwork.

Not randomly. Not by luck.

Every week.

Yep…even though he’s GREAT at running ads, he still uses Upwork as his main channel for finding fat clients!

Is he getting lucky, or is it something else?

If you’ve ever wondered why winning jobs on Upwork feels so ‘random,’ here’s your answer:

You’ve never actually seen a real client hire for a real job.

Sure, maybe you’ve been hired. Maybe you’ve even posted a phony job in your niche to see how your competitors would bid on the same job.

But you weren’t sitting behind your client’s desk, with a true need and motivation, asking in the moment which freelancer to pick.

That’s the difference, and you cannot replicate it completely by reverse-engineering your winning proposals or posting mock jobs.

Inside Upwork Backwards, I’ll show you—in real time—exactly how hiring happens on LIVE job posts, including:

• Why your so-called ‘killer’ proposals don’t get read (and how to intentionally increase open rates instead of relying on ‘curiosity’ clicks that don’t lead to milestones)
• Why your profile doesn’t matter…except for one bizarre chunk of text that clients care about more than anything else. Yes, this bit is so weird that it even makes clients read your proposals backwards.
• The uncomfortable truth about boosted proposals and ‘pay-to-play.’ Some freelancers will hate this…others will say ‘I told you so.’
• The simple four-letter word that stops me cold EVERY time I see it…that almost ‘forces’ me to open proposals, even when I screen 70 freelancers in one sitting. _ _ _ _ (No, not that word.)
• Why the average freelancer’s response after receiving a job invite is TOTALLY WRONG and kills your chance at getting hired…and what to write instead.
• Why clients often feel DESPERATE to hire, and how YOU can be the one they choose when YOU feel desperate…

…even if you aren’t totally qualified for the job! (Don’t worry, you won’t feel like an imposter if you win these jobs, and your client will be happy too. It’ll make sense when you watch Module IV.)

• Why those ‘ghost jobs’ aren’t ghost jobs at all—and how to stand out among dozens of other proposals, even if you think it’s impossible. (Module III.)
• No point applying to a job if the client is already interviewing, right? Wrong! Watch what happens when I get dozens of good proposals on a single job post, and see how a few ‘latecomers’ nearly swooped in to steal the job from my shortlist. (I still ended up hiring one of the early applicants, but I did so for a VERY specific reason that most of your clients won’t have. Module II.)
• The single trait the top 5% of freelancers share (not skill, experience, persuasion, or badges…you can implement this immediately after watching Module II.)
• How to transform Upwork from an expensive casino into a reliable, low-effort source of leads for your freelancing business simply by being a LITTLE better than your competitors!

And way more, but we’d be here all day.

If you decide to invest in Upwork Backwards, you’re hijacking my client brain—why I hire, why I don’t, and how you can get more of your proposals read by high-value clients just like me.

Upwork Backwards may be a good decision if you want:

• Fewer unread proposals
• Fewer ghosted conversations
• Bigger milestones
• Better clients
• Repeat work
• Never thinking “maybe I should go back to 9-to-5” again
• To stop wondering what you’re ‘missing’ on Upwork that the top freelancers secretly know

Upwork Backwards probably ISN’T for you if you want to:

• Compete on price
• Send AI slop to clients
• Let this guide sit, unopened, without using it

I’ve purchased a lot of resources on how to win clients in the past. Tons. I can guarantee that you have NEVER seen a blueprint like Upwork Backwards, taken entirely from a high-paying client’s decisions and ‘laid bare’ for freelancers. 

This is the guide I WISH existed in 2014, when I first started freelancing.

Listen…

Borrow my client brain, win a SINGLE extra job, and you’ve already paid for Upwork Backwards many times over.