Why you shouldn’t join The Freelance Movement Tribe

Quick Navigations

Either you’re a John Pagulayan fan who’s probably close to getting sold on the idea of joining The Freelance Movement Tribe…

Or you’re a John Pagulayan skeptic who’s:

  1. Just curious of what this freelancing legend is up to this time
  2. Collecting argument points for your next hate mail for John

No matter what brings you here, you’re going to finally validate what you’ve been wanting to hear…

Or not.

In fact, here are loads of reasons why you shouldn’t join his paid (yes, he’s charging money) program, The Freelance Movement Tribe.

[Reason #1] The 6-figure monthly income? Kinda not true.

The coveted 6-figure monthly income.

Who doesn’t want to earn money like this while you’re working in the comfort of your own home?

This sweet money is something that you cannot just attain right away if you’re still working in the corporate world.

You may have heard how the great freelancers from the tribe earn huge money. Like it’s just a normal, everyday thing.

I hate to tell you this.

But this is not entirely true.

Because in the tribe, they go past the 6-figure mark.

Charlie closed a $20,000 deal for a video project. Yup. That’s a million pesos. For one video.

April, who followed suit, is looking at a $15,000 minimum fee for a copywriting project in the health niche.

And then there are folks doing well over 7-figures each month

Of course, there are others who are just below the 6-figure mark.

Heck, they may even haven’t started freelancing yet, but they’re there.

The tribe consists of a variety of freelancers who are at the different stages of their journey, earning from zero to—hold your horses—8 figures a month.

The newbies focus on building their freelancing foundation.

The adept ones are taught on how to make their monthly income consistent.

And the ones who feel like they’ve already hit the ceiling? They find new ways to still up their A game, surprising themselves in the process.

The takeaway: The tribe welcomes all levels of freelancers and is dedicated to helping each flourish even more.

[Reason #2] You’re already earning a LOT. What’s more to learn?

You’re already earning 200k, 300k, 500k pesos a month.

You have clients who come to you for help.

You can close deals at $60 per hour.

Why would you need any more freelancing lessons?

Heck, you’re probably even earning more than the average income of the tribe.

Why would you still need help from the tribe?

Tell you what, these are the trail of thoughts of Ann Camille the moment she watched John’s workshop videos.

She’s getting clients consistently. She doesn’t even have the luxury of time to cater them all. And she even reached the 1 million mark once.

So what made her join the tribe?

Curiosity.

Yep, she joined just to see what the buzz is all about.

Months after she joined the tribe, can you guess what happened to her?

She not only reached her monthly income goal, but she was able to surpass it and hit 7-digits without burning herself like before.

She realized that, while she’s earning a decent amount of money, she’s tired and working on weekends. She’s not consistent with her 7-figure months. And she doesn’t handle her time.

She’s struggling and she realized that she has been doing a lot of things wrong all along.

The takeaway: Even if you already feel successful as a freelancer, joining the tribe can mean you unlocking the next level of your business.

[Reason #3] Freelancing? Your day job or skills are NOT made for that option.

If only I have skills for a freelancer, but I don’t…

Let me guess.

You feel that your skills are one of those “good for the office” skills only. Maybe you’re an accountant, or a bookkeeper maybe?

Or you have your heart set on entrepreneurship for a pretty long time. Maybe you want a real estate business.

Whatever it is, your kind of thing needs you to deal with people in person or you need an office job.

But you know what?

Bookkeepers, accountants, life insurance agents, and even real estate professionals have been successful inside the tribe.

Yup, they don’t have those skills that you often thought freelancers have like graphic design or writing or web designing.

They work with local clients and they conduct business face-to-face.

What were they doing inside the tribe in the first place?

They have their reasons.

But, here’s a better question: How were they able to incorporate all the tribe learnings in the non-freelancing stuff that they do?

Before we get to that, let’s hear the success stories from the guys themselves.

Alfie, who keeps a day job and has a side gig of cleaning up messy books, is closing deals after deals with digital marketing agencies.

And then there’s Marilyn who went from a wife who’s worried about losing the comfortable life to Airbnb Queen in merely months.

She doesn’t have the usual freelancing skills that can earn her dollars, but through the tribe, she was able to gain clarity in what she was going to do to survive or even thrive in life.

After taking a closer look at her strengths, she decided to offer management service to all property owners.

She’s making money out of that and is continuing to build her business.

Marilyn is indeed the Airbnb Queen, managing 14 properties so far and starting her own office space as well.

There’s also Genesis who finally mustered up the courage to go to conferences and find businesses who need help in achieving their business goals.

He said, I never imagined that the day will come that I’ll step in the US soil and attend the largest Digital Marketing Conference, the ‘Traffic and Conversion Summit 2019.’ John R Pagulayan has been instrumental in giving me the confidence to push through and invest for this trip. Thanks bro!

Genesis R

The takeaway: The learnings that you can take away from the tribe is not only limited to freelancers. They’re applicable to virtually anyone who offers a service to humans.

[Reason #4] Upwork (or any freelancing platform) is already working for you.

You have this long-term client who pays you a decent hourly rate on Upwork. You have no problem with getting new clients. You’re getting interviews—and even offers—effortlessly and you’re closing them.

You’re already stable as a freelancer.

So why should you replace your system if you have already something that’s working for you?

Hmmm, you don’t have to.

Probably, you might want just want to tweak a bit of your process so you can do better than before.

Just like Jim…

News flash: Upwork clients are willing to pay premium fixed rates.

It’s just not known because freelancing sites are almost always synonymous to bidding sites where you can get the job done at a cheap rate.

Jim and the other Upworkers in the tribe only do 2 things differently this time:

  1. They listened to and rubbed on their clients’ pain points.
  2. They offer a tailored solution on how to put an end to these problems.

It’s what we call leading with value.

One trick of getting paid premium is to provide your client with value, whatever value means to them. Client value could be any of the things below.

The tricky part is uncovering which of these does your client values the most. When you know that, you can use it to your advantage.

The only way to find this out is through the CCPP process.

Back to Upwork.

Life in Upwork after the tribe would mean that…

…you no longer have to work by the hour.

…you no longer have to prove yourself by answering client interviews.

…you no longer have to be seen as the remote worker who takes tasks blindly and who is up for all tasks.

The takeaway: Position yourself as the freelancer who is more of like a strategic business partner. Diagnose businesses. Tell them what they exactly need, whether it involves your services or not.
Now, that’s how you stand out and dominate freelancing platforms.

[Reason #5] You are focused on building a passive income stream.

Freelancing?

Nope. I want to make money while I sleep.

Guess what.

Freelancing can give you just that. You can earn passive income in freelancing.

It’s something not everyone, even the adept freelancers know.

And it’s a pretty lucrative and a damn easy one.

How you may ask?

One word: commissions.

Just like Bea has been doing for quite some time now…



How do you think it feels getting more than $600 on a particular without barely doing any work?

See, there are 2 ways on how you can earn commissions through freelancing:

  1. By charging your clients commissions
  2. By referring other freelancers

Let’s start with the first one.

On top of the upfront fee, you can charge clients commissions.

Say you’re helping a client launch her course. You can ask for 5%, 10% of the sales as supplemental fees.

Charging a smaller upfront fee plus commissions is a good way of saying that you’re up for the risk and you’re heavily invested in your client’s success.

One of John’s personal best is getting $17,199 of freelance income in an hour (or less) of freelance work.

Yup, no kidding.

He charged a percentage of each sale that was generated by his emails.

Unbelievable, right?

The passive income in freelancing could beat the stock market increase even on some of the best days.

The second source of commissions is through referral commissions.

See, 510 premium freelancers with various skills in different industries are already in the tribe.

And every day, each of these freelancers is connecting with potential clients who may need extra service that they don’t offer.

So how will they able to serve the client?

Hey, they have each other.

Each has 509 freelancers at his/her perusal.

They can simply outsource tasks to other freelancers and get paid 20%-30% for the referrals.

No lead is a waste. *wink*

And while there are freelancers there who may have the exact skillset as yours, don’t raise your walls and treat them as competitors.

Be friends with them. Exchange notes. Share strategies. Learn from each other. Work on projects together.

Because guess what.

When they have too much on their plate, guess who’s they’re going to refer their clients to?

You.

The takeaway: Freelancing is a surprisingly lucrative way of building your passive income stream—and connecting with your, supposedly, competitors.

[Reason #6] You have this BIG dream that you clearly know is impossible to reach.

We were always told to dream BIG.

Build your own house.

Build your own business.

Become a millionaire.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Actually, it’s pretty good advice. It makes us ambitious enough to actually reach our goals…

Or perhaps, achieve smaller versions of our HUMONGOUS goals.

You know what they say, shoot for the moon. So even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.

You know why this saying has been popular?

That’s because, most of the time, our craziest, wildest dreams are truly impossible to reach.

It’s when we sit down to really think the how-to part that we realize how foolish we seem to be.

Become a millionaire?

Even when you work all your life up to age 65, there’s no way that you can accumulate $20 million just for your dream house alone.

Want to build your own business?

But you need capital. You need the skills. And you have a day job. And you’re the breadwinner. How the heck are you going to do all these before you hit retirement?

It’s just that dreaming BIG without having a blueprint on how to actually make them happen is kinda sad. It’s just going to leave you frustrated. It’s just going to make you want to dream smaller.

Do you have to pretend to shoot for the moon when in your core, you truly know that you’re doing is only good enough to help you land on the stars?

But don’t lose hope.

People from the tribe are pretty darn good at making their wildest dreams come true.

One after the other, the tribe members are acquiring places that they can call their home.

All the mindset shifts have armed them to visualize, create a game plan, and execute the process confidently so they can unlock monetary gains that would let them grab their dreams by the throat.

But of course, it’s not all about money.
It has never been.

There’s just something different on how driven the tribe is.

For instance, April has just unlocked her biggest dream—she got hired by one of the biggest Direct Response companies who cater to a global audience, The AGORA[*].

Here’s where it gets even more interesting…

She did not initiate an application…

She was contacted by one of Agora’s Managers, saying that she wants to refer her to their copy team.

Wonder how April did this?

Let’s just say that it’s all really about connecting with the influential people in your market.

Here’s another dream that almost all of us have.

And it’s actually pretty simple.

It’s the dream of taking care of your loved ones at home and contributing to the household at the same time.

Yup, it’s the Filipino work-at-home dream.

And it’s 100% doable with the tribe.


And you know what? It makes your kids the happiest.

The takeaway: Big dreams need an action plan that’s doable so you can actually reach them. The tribe can provide that plan for you.

Why You Should Join the Freelance Movement Tribe

Obviously, this whole article has been counterintuitive…

…fortifying the will of believers, reeling in skeptics, and feeding the non-believers with more JTL information.

The Freelance Movement Tribe is only reserved for freelancers who are open to learning, willing to help fellow freelancers climb the ladder of success, and who are relentless in making their wildest dreams a reality.

Here are the takeaways of what you will be getting should you join the tribe.

  1. The tribe is dedicated and capable of nurturing all levels of freelancers. Newbies get to start their journey. Adept ones get to consistently achieve their income. Big fishes are expanding and are finally having stress-free freelancing.
  2. Even the most seasoned of freelancers have some things to improve to get to a higher level, one which you have only—or even couldn’t have—ever imagined. May it be on helping them break their income ceiling or giving them the freedom they deserve.
  3. The mindset shift, negotiating tactics, and client handling techniques are applicable to virtually anyone. Even if you think your skill is not freelance-able.
  4. Freelancing sites are easy sources of premium clients. Apply the JTL method to make Upwork clients to pay premium.
  5. There’s passive income in freelancing and most of the time, the growth is faster than the stock market.
  6. More than freelancing, the tribe is fond of unlocking their wildest dreams. Big international clients, building your dream house or simply being able to work at home while taking care of your kids.

Now if you’re still reading this and you want to learn more about our brand of freelancing…

Join The Freelance Movement Community.

(It’s a free group)

Inside, we’ll be sharing with you how to get more clients & build your freelancing business the right way.

Aiza Coronado Domingcil

Aiza Coronado Domingcil

Aiza writes onboarding emails that help SaaS teams get their users from sign up to success. She used to be a generalist copywriter before she joined SPAG, the first ever TRIBE that John put together. She’s also a mom of a bouncy little boy who adds a bit of crazy, but tons of love, meaning and inspiration to her freelancing days. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.