Ditch the Portfolio

James A.S. Miller
Aug 25, 2017 · 2 min read

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. All that matters is what you do.

After eighty-four rejected proposals, my freelance writing career felt like it was going to fail before it even began.

I went back to the drawing board for one last attempt to right the ship.

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t have any experience, I did. I had internships, community writing workshops, and volunteer blogging in my portfolio, what should have been enough to land small jobs at least, especially with a lowball bid.

In the work world, there is often so much focus on experience and building portfolios that we forget that potential clients want to know what we can do for them now, not what we did yesterday, or last year, or five years ago.

A thick portfolio is a lot of stuff that amounts to saying, “Look what I’ve done.”

Unless you’ve got a moon landing or a million dollars in that portfolio (and even that might not be enough to impress some), nobody cares.

I have eighty-four rejections to prove it.

Clients want to know what you can do for them now. The best way to show them what you can do is to actually do something for them.

So, give your portfolio a rest. Leave it at home, if you want. If you’ve got a pitch to make, focus your effort on learning about your client. Companies spend thousands, even millions each year to find out what their customers want. They do this because it works, because it tells them what they need to do to get their customers’ business.

Submitting your application and resume is the first task you do for a prospective client or employer. If you want to stand out, do the job before you apply for it. If it’s a writing contract, do some research and write a piece for them. If it’s marketing, pitch to some potential clients. Analyze the job description, do some work, and show up with a tangible piece of evidence that proves you can help them solve their problems before the job even starts.

My experience wasn’t holding me back. I was just too buried in my portfolio to show the client what I could do for them. Once I shifted my focus away from what I had done, to what I could do, I started converting proposals into clients.

Next time you’re struggling to close a deal or land a job, push the portfolio aside, and focus on doing something now, because that’s what matters.

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I’m a freelance writer, editor, and ESL teacher. I learned most of my life lessons the hard way: by joining the Marines.

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