How To...Do Testimonial Work

Have you ever heard of or considered doing testimonial work? 🤔👀 Testimonial Work is when you offer to provide a service for someone in exchange for a written review & the ability to add the work to your portfolio! This is GREAT for people wanting to practice a new skill, & an awesome thing to do while you're transitioning to freelance.


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Transcript

HID EP 17
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[00:00:00] Catherine: Hello there. My name is Catherine and I am 23 years old working as a full-time freelancer in the media in entertainment industry. And welcome to the how I diaries podcast. I'm here to debug all your fears and doubts surrounding the topics of freelancing and more importantly, get you on your way to a happy and stress free lifestyle.

[00:00:25] Doing that creative passion that you love. So, if you find yourself stuck at a job that you hate wondering how to get your dreams started, or you've heard of freelancing before, but you're skeptical about what it entails. I'm sharing everything I wish I knew earlier and the tips and tricks I gain every day for my own freelance work.

[00:00:40] So have you ever heard of testimonial work? I know I might get some backlash because of the biggest factor being that this type of work is technically unpaid, but hear me out testimonial work is when you do a service for someone in exchange for a written review and the ability to add. Your portfolio, you treat them the same way as you would a [00:01:00] regular client and vice versa.

[00:01:01] The pros right off the bat are one, it takes the pressure off doing something someone is paying for, especially when you first start out doing things, you know, that's big two. You get to test, run your methods and organization that I talk about in my time management episode three, you get something to add to.

[00:01:18] Fol and a testimony for you to also display along with that portfolio. And I know one of the hardest parts of getting started making money with your services is the pure fact that you have nothing in your portfolio for potential clients to refer to. I'm currently in the process of doing my first two testimonial edits for podcast editing, and the biggest perk has been getting to sort out any flubs in my pre land workflow.

[00:01:41] Like I was talking about. Not being under pressure to make things perfect. Perfect, perfect. The, our time around. All right. So you're probably like, okay. More work I have to search for. Great. Well, lucky for you. Remember all of those Facebook groups I've been telling you to join. Guess what most of these groups have testimonial Tuesdays or in other [00:02:00] words, specific days you and other people can advertise and reach out to people about offering testimonial services.

[00:02:06] Or if you want to find people who are looking for testimonials, I'm telling you Facebook may be dead in terms of social. But for networking, I have to hand it to mark. So get on Facebook and start paying attention to when those weekly promotions come up and be careful. If you advertise, ask about testimonial work on a different day, you may break the group rules.

[00:02:26] So just be mindful. Some things you should have. Pre-planned are all the points I make. Like I said, in my howto manage time episode. So go check that out and Polish your workflows up as best as you can and get something that you can use and test with your testimonials. You can never be too prepared or organized now for my people in the film world who want to work on set, this is the equivalent of doing those unpaid gig.

[00:02:49] Sometimes they're called quote unquote opportunities on Mandy and other production job sites. It is totally in your jurisdiction to ask for letters of recommendation and ask them if you could use [00:03:00] them as a reference in the future. And actually I highly encourage you to do so. It is all about networking and listen, I'm not here to promote.

[00:03:07] The toxic part of unpaid work. And to make you question yourself worth, like you do have to ask yourself if you feel like you are still in a position where you are learning, then most of the time it pays off. If you do a handful of unpaid things to gain experience and set yourself up, or eventually getting paid rather than.

[00:03:23] Possibly getting really frustrated along the way, trying to figure out how to get paid, doing what you love right off the bat and getting unmotivated. That is why, if you are currently at a job right now, stable job, if you go listen to my, how to transition episode, this could be something you're doing while transitioning getting the testimonial, you know, work out of the way and setting yourself up to be paid while not going cold Turkey and quitting your job.

[00:03:47] I get it. Finances, you need stability in those senses. So do this while you're at your job, do it on the side. But anyway, this is just another route you can take. And this isn't also to say that you can't get paid right away, right off the bat. The biggest part of this [00:04:00] career is your ability to be resilient and be willing to try something a hundred times and fail 99% of those times being successful takes patience and willpower.

[00:04:10] This isn't a get rich quick scheme. You know, the effort that you put in. Will come back to you a hundred percent, but sorry for that little side tangent. Anyway. So what does the testimonial look like for you? The service itself can be a full-fledged project, or it can be as simple as a portion of a project or service.

[00:04:26] For example, in the podcast editing community is where I find myself in my next set of work that I would like to indulge in. I see a lot of testimonials that are just, Hey, can I use a 15 minute segment of one of your episodes to do a sample edit on? And this is right because. What sets it apart from the toxic unpaid jobs we are so used to in this industry is that you are the one that chooses the boundaries.

[00:04:49] You also have control over what you get out of the work. You want to advertise it in your portfolio. Do you want a written review? Is there anything else you would like in exchange that isn't [00:05:00] monetary for this testimonial work that you were doing? You know, think of the things that would be beneficial to you and your.

[00:05:06] Over the last month or so if you're listening, you might have remembered that I redid your resume and sent you an email with some tips. I had a lot of people ask if they could pay me or question why I did it for free, and I greatly greatly, greatly appreciate those of you who had donated in return, but you'll probably remember, I had explained to you, I was purposefully doing that promo sort of deal as a growth and marketing strategy for this podcast, but I get it.

[00:05:30] It's like a shared trauma between. To not condone unpaid work. I am the same way, but that is why I then asked you for a written testimonial a few weeks later, as well as to rate the podcast and follow on social media, et cetera. So money is not the only way you can pay it forward. And like I said, I do other work that is paying my bills right now, and I can afford to take the time to do this testimonial work because what I need for the next step of my.

[00:05:57] Is testimonial stuff. And to build a portfolio I've [00:06:00] already built my resume in order to do, you know, physical work in the real world. And now I wanna start doing some other stuff anyway. So what happens when you get a testimonial or what happens when you get the opportunity to do something for a testimonial?

[00:06:12] So you'll want to treat the service and client the exact same way as you would a paying client. So that. Includes some onboarding video calls, meeting, or general note taking on your part. I have a whole new episode on how to onboard a client and a free software. I use to make my workflow easier. Go check that out and you'll see lots of other companies or small businesses doing things called Rey's and email newsletters or other free resources.

[00:06:37] It all relates to the idea of a testimony and getting things in return that benefit you in other ways. Aren't directly monetary though. You're not cheating anybody out. You're not scamming people. It's just looking at business in a new way and finding other things that can be beneficial to you that aren't directly related to honey.

[00:06:56] So a quick little to recap, join Facebook groups and your niche and pay [00:07:00] attention to the testimonial promotion days to go listen to my episode on how to manage time, to figure out the structure and organization of your service. And then also how to onboard a client to get used to the admin side.

[00:07:12] Freelancing and three figure out what kinds of free things someone could exchange your work for that benefit your services or businesses and creativity. So that is it for this episode. Let me know if I could be of any help to you and your creativity. Reach out to me. If you'd be interested in a testimony from me, shoot me any workflow or organizational.

[00:07:31] Questions you may have on setting up your services. I would be happy to chat. And if this reaches you and you have any other burning questions or stories, I'd be happy to connect and build a community. How do you guys feel about testimonial and the idea of this kind of work? Where do you draw the line?

[00:07:47] Do you see any pros to it? Follow me an Instagram at how I diaries and shoot me a DM. In the meantime, go binge all my other episodes for various other topics relating to how to get started, doing what you love. And please, any [00:08:00] episode recommendations I'd love to hear. Let me know what your particular struggles are.

[00:08:03] You're probably not alone. Please subscribe to this podcast. So you stay up to date on when I post the next batch, give it a rating and share with a friend who also needs to listen. I post five new episodes at the end of each month. So stay tuned and as always thank you for listen.