Shadowing Practice: Almost Every Upwork Proposal I Send Gets Viewed. Here's How. - Learn English Speaking with Video

pretty much every single time I send a proposal on Upwork, it gets viewed.

Of the last four proposals that I sent, all four of them were viewed.

Three of them actually responded to me.

And if you look at the last 100 proposals that I sent, somewhere between 70 and 80 % of those people actually viewed the job post.

And there's a real science to getting more views and getting more interviews on Upwork.

And if you're not getting interviews and you're not getting views, it's not your fault.

It's just that you probably don't understand the core three things that we're going to cover in this video.

I'm going to show you exactly how I get 70 to 80 % of all my proposals viewed.

I'm going to show you a live example of a job that I applied to and what I wrote to them.

I'm going to walk you through how we close deals like this on the screen right here.

Average ticket for us is anywhere between $600 to $3 ,000 per month.

Clients that we work with stay with us for multiple months.

So this is a great high ticket source of clients.

Our best clients actually come from Upwork

and I've been able to build a whole career off of

this platform just by understanding the things I'm going to break down for you in this video.

Now if you're sending proposals but they're not getting viewed and they're not getting interviewed, it's probably because you haven't mastered this framework right here.

First of all, let me walk you through how people make hiring decisions.

This is really important for you to know

if you want to actually get hired is you have to know what does your prospect, what is the person who's hiring you actually see.

When they're hiring you, they don't see your portfolio.

They don't click into your profile.

And I know this because I've coached hundreds of people on Upwork.

They don't do that.

I've seen all the data.

What people really do is they look at just the thumbnail of text

that Upwork shows them of what you've written in your proposal.

And this is the 225 characters.

So the only decision that someone has to decide

if they're going to click into your proposal

and actually read what you wrote is what you've typed them in the first 225 characters.

It's almost like the thumbnail of your proposal.

And because of that, it's very, very important that we optimize this.

When I sit down to write my proposals, that is where I spend maybe 70, 80 % of my time.

And by the way, all of those deals that I showed you on the screen, they're all from proposals that I've sent.

These aren't from people inviting me to jobs.

I'm not winning more jobs because I've got a lot of money earned to the platform

or I'm top rated or anything like that.

All of the deals and all the work that I get through Upwork comes from me sending proposals.

And it's because I've mastered how to send a proposal that hooks them in with the first 225 characters.

Now, there's three things that needs to be in every Upwork proposal.

You need to repeat back to the person the desire that they have.

What is their goal?

You have to show them you understand the goal.

You have to show them proof

that you can actually help them accomplish whatever it is want to accomplish

and you have to show them how you have to show them the mechanism

now what i'm going to do is i'm going to show you a real job post

that i applied to this was a client who ended up

paying me thirty three hundred dollars to help them with their

social media what i do on upwork is i make social

media content for businesses that's my whole service i'm going to show you the actual job post

and i'm going to show you what i wrote

and applied to them

and i'm going to show you how i used my 225

framework that's on the screen right here to actually win this deal.

All right, so on the screen here, you're gonna see the job that I applied to.

Now, there's a couple of things that I did really well to make sure that this person actually got back to me.

The first thing is I applied to the job quickly.

A lot of freelancers, what they do is they'll apply to jobs

that were posted hours and hours or maybe even days ago.

For me, my personal standard is I'm never going to apply to a job

if it's been posted longer than eight hours or three hours ago, excuse me.

Anything older than three hours, what happens is people, they go to sleep, they go to work they get distracted they stop getting notifications in their email

when you first post a job on Upwork it's going to

send them lots of emails as new applicants come in

so the best time to actually get someone's attention to get

hired is within three hours of someone posting the job post

and that's a non -negotiable if you're not doing that

and you start doing that that I bet will double your scene rate just

that not even writing better proposals not even focusing on 225

just responding to jobs faster will completely change your view and your interview rate.

I chose to apply to this job for a couple core reasons.

One is that it was recent.

It was posted when I found it maybe an hour or two ago.

Two is that it was personalized.

You can see in here that they wrote a little bit about themselves.

They mentioned that they had been a photographer for, I think they said 13 years, something like that.

They gave me a little bit of detail as to who they were.

This wasn't just some AI generated job posts.

And this is one of the things

that you have to learn how to spot is you have to learn how to spot AI generated job posts, which is most of them.

Upwork uses a lot of AI to help people write their jobs.

So what I'm looking for is I'm looking for personal details.

I'm looking for the desire so I can mention to them in my 225 that I understand your goal.

I know exactly what you're looking for.

Another thing that made this prospect a great prospect was the hourly range.

For my services, I'm never going to apply to anything that is below the low end of the suggested hourly range.

On Upwork for social media management services, for example, Upwork automatically suggests an hourly rate for people when they're posting the job between $8 and $25 per hour.

So if I see someone who's posting a job at $8 per hour, I'm not going to assume that's what they want to pay.

I'm going to assume that they've just used the default settings.

So I'm looking for a job that at minimum pays $8.

That doesn't mean that's what I'm going to charge them.

It doesn't mean that's what they're going to pay me, but that just means that they probably didn't know what to pay.

At minimum, $8 an hour.

In this case, they went up to $50 an hour.

So I knew this was a client that would be able to afford my prices.

This is really important to qualify then based on what's here, looking for something that has a little bit of personalization and applying to a job that's relatively recent.

Now, let me walk you through what I wrote to them and why this worked.

100

I was able to close a $3 ,300 deal because of these lines here below.

101

First off, I always start with hi.

102

The reason I always start with hi is because it's the shortest number of characters.

103

It's less than hey.

104

It's less than hello.

105

It's less than my name is.

106

It's just two letters.

107

And I want to maximize that 225 characters to the point where I'll write

108

and rewrite things to try to get them to fit into my little thumbnail.

109

First of all, I'm going to just show them the job title.

110

I am this person.

111

This is a little bit of the desire because in the desire, they're telling me they want a social media manager.

112

And when I read this, I realized they really want someone who's more like a partner.

113

So in this case, when I'm writing the 225, I wrote, hi, I'm a social media marketing partner with experience helping at least a dozen photographers grow

114

and get more bookings via Instagram.

115

That's my proof.

116

I've got experience doing this.

117

I also mentioned last year, my clients generated over 400 million views on Instagram alone.

118

Again, more proof.

119

So I started off with your desire is to have a social media marketing partner and to get more bookings on Instagram.

120

I repeated that to them subtly in that first line.

121

I'm going to stop moving this around.

122

I feel like I'm taking you guys on a roller coaster here.

123

Let me make this a little smaller.

124

Then I follow that up with the proof.

125

I've worked with a lot of photographers.

126

I have got, for my clients, 400 million views on Instagram last year.

127

And then I leave this little note to let them know that this is personalized.

128

I saw you have 13 years of experience.

129

That's really important because these people are getting hit with AI -generated job posts, copy and paste, whatever it is.

130

I handwrite and personalize a hundred percent of my 225 characters.

131

This is all going to be personalized.

132

And then I mentioned to them, I can help you capture your experience and translate

133

that into social media success using the same systems and strategies that are working for my photography clients right now.

134

That's the mechanism.

135

That's the how.

136

How do I know that I can get your results?

137

Because I can help you use the same systems and strategies

138

that are currently working for my existing clients so we have the desire

139

which is in this case social media marketing partner that's who they want to hire they want to grow

140

and get more bookings on instagram that's the desire again the

141

proof is i've helped at least a dozen photographers my clients gained 400 million views

142

and then a little bit down here

143

and the mechanism is i can help you capture your experience

144

and translate that to social media success using these systems

145

and strategies that's the how to i'm actually hinting a little

146

bit as to how i'll be able to help them get results it seems really simple

147

but i'll take 10 15 minutes sometimes to write

148

and rewrite these 225 characters this is something

149

that i hyper fixate on i 100 personalize

150

and i try to respond to these jobs really really quickly

151

so if you're trying to write proposals winning proposals on upwork

152

that help you close high ticket recurring clients what you have

153

to do is you have to focus under 225 you have to have the desire, the proof, the mechanism in there,

154

you need to apply to jobs that were posted within the last three hours, and you need to handwrite, personalize all your 325.

155

No copy and paste, no AI, no nothing.

156

You also have to look and make sure you're applying to the right jobs.

157

It doesn't make sense to write a really good proposal for a really bad job, so I spend a lot of time scrolling through jobs.

158

Oftentimes, I'll scroll through 100 or so jobs just to find the top 1 % and apply to that one.

159

I hope this video was helpful for you to understand a little bit to how I think about this.

160

Send me a message on Instagram.

161

My Instagram is in the description below if you need help with this stuff, and I'll see you in the next one.

✨ Recommend Video

75 sentences

Recruiter Secrets: Why You Get Rejected in the Middle of the Night

Business EnglishInterview EnglishUniversity Students

198 sentences

How to keep people’s attention in work presentations as an expert in your domain

Business EnglishInterview EnglishWorking Adults

179 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 161 sentences and 2000 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:13. The speaker talks fast, about 217 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
proposal noun	/pɹəˈpoʊzəl/	A scheme or design.
hire verb	/ˈhaɪɹ/	To obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.
photographer noun	/fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fɚ/	One who takes photographs, typically as an occupation.
mechanism noun	/ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/	Any mechanical means for the conversion or control of motion, or the transmission or control of power.
generate verb	/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/	To bring into being; give rise to.
prospect noun	/ˈpɹɑspɛkt/	The region which the eye overlooks at one time; a view; a scene; an outlook.
booking noun	/ˈbʊkɪŋ/	The act or process of writing something down in a book or books, e.g. in accounting.
hourly adjective	/ˈaʊ̯ɚli/	Occurring every hour.
capture verb	/ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/	To take control of; to seize by force or stratagem.
framework noun	/ˈfɹeɪm.wɜːk/	A support structure comprising joined parts or conglomerated particles and intervening open spaces of similar or larger size.
accomplish verb	/əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/	To finish successfully.
translate verb	/tɹænzˈleɪt/	To change spoken words or written text (of a book, document, movie, etc.) from one language to another.
pasta noun	/ˈpɑ.stə/	Dough made from wheat and water and sometimes mixed with egg and formed into various shapes; often sold in dried form and typically boiled for eating.
scroll noun	/skɹoʊl/	A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll.
earn verb	/ɝn/	To gain (success, reward, recognition) through applied effort or work.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
get back to verb		Return to (an activity)
get through verb	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	To overcome; to endure.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 73 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, I've, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thirty /ˈθɝti/, thumbnail /ˈθʌm.neɪl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, accomplish /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, negotiable /nɪˈɡoʊʃəbəl/, personalization /ˌpɝs(ə)nəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: photographer /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fɚ/, mechanism /ˈmɛk.ə.nɪ.zəm/, photography /fəˈtɑ.ɡɹə.fi/, portfolio /pɔːtˈfəʊ.liˌəʊ/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like proposal, hire, photographer.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've been · haven't mastered · I've coached
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	were viewed · were posted · been posted
Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things	longer than · older than
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the best · the shortest

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Almost Every Upwork Proposal I Send Gets Viewed. Here's How. - Learn English Speaking with Video

Recruiter Secrets: Why You Get Rejected in the Middle of the Night

How to keep people’s attention in work presentations as an expert in your domain

She learned one new skill that unlocked a $120K salary

How to Write a Cover Letter That Actually Gets Read | Indeed

How to Build An Investor Pitch Deck For Y Combinator

Google Interview Tips That Actually Get You Hired

Pro Screenwriter Reveals 3 Keys To Being Hired As A TV Writer - Niceole R. Levy

You’ll Beat 99% of Realtors on Listing Presentations If You Say This!

How To Upgrade Your Professional Work Emails

How to Become a Sales Engineer | Without Any Experience

how to make an extra $4-5k every month around a busy schedule (FULL BREAKDOWN)

How To Land Your First Junior Dev Role