You don’t need paid work to build your portfolio

One of the most common misconceptions we see with new freelancers goes like this:

“I can’t get clients because I don’t have a portfolio. And I can’t build a portfolio because I don’t have clients.”

Most new freelancers think of this as a chicken-or-egg kind of problem stopping them from ever really starting…

But you don’t actually need client work to get hired → 

You need proof that you can solve a problem.

Those are not the same thing…

The problem: 

You’re new to freelancing, or getting into a new field, and don’t have any previous client projects to use as examples in your portfolio. 

The benefit of solving it: 

You have examples of the problem you solve that you can show potential clients (so you actually get hired). 

Why what you’ve tried has failed: 

With an empty portfolio, you’re forcing potential clients to do the work of imagining outcomes you can accomplish instead of showing them. 

Here’s how to solve it: 

The only job of a portfolio is to show how you solve problems. 

Not who paid you or which brands you can name-drop. 

Your portfolio is a preview of what kind of work you want to get hired for. 

And spec work (unpaid, unsolicited, hypothetical) is a great way to show your process and how your brain works.

Clients aren’t hiring your past, they’re hiring their future…

Your job is to make that future obvious → 

Each piece in your portfolio should represent a real problem and show how you’d solve it end to end. 

Walk through your thinking, not just the final output. That’s what builds trust.

It should be like a case study and read like a before/after. 

• What wasn’t working? 

• What did you try? 

• What did the result look like? 

Make it super easy to follow the arc.

Most clients don’t choose the best option…

They choose the safest one. 

When you show clear examples of your solution, you remove the mental labor from their side. 

Less imagination required = higher chance you get hired.

So only send them the work that looks like their problem →

The closer the match, the less convincing you need to do to get hired.

Best, 
Jamie

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