← All questions

#187 · How One Man Generated a 30x ROI on Upwork (Step by Step)

youtube ↗Agency Operations

Can you walk me through your actual daily routine?

I wake up between 5 and 6 a.m., letting nature wake me instead of an alarm to avoid adrenaline spikes. First I check my higher‑ticket community (Make Money with Make) and respond to any recent activity—either writing text posts with Aqua dictation or recording custom Loom videos that solve members’ problems. I repeat the same process for the Maker School community, which usually has more roast requests because it’s larger and full of beginners. After that I take a call—either a community call, a coaching session, or a sales call—usually between 8 and 9 a.m.; if it’s at 8 I sometimes get cut off, but at 9 I can finish my prep work beforehand. Once the call ends I’m warmed up and I record the daily updates video. After the video, if I have content for the main channel I film it, then the rest of the day is agency work: reviewing new LeftClick clients, drafting proposal templates, recording Loom videos for prospects, discussing strategy with my business partner Noah, and working with a developer on our website revamp. I finish the day with lower‑value tasks. I order my workflow this way because I start with the activities that generate the most revenue and move down to those that earn less, ensuring I always hit the high‑impact items first.

daily routineworkflowmake moneymaker school

Related answers

youtube ↗Mindset

Can you share a comprehensive day‑in‑the‑life overview showing your industrious routine from wake to sleep, including work and personal activities?

I do have a daily routine, but it’s not holistic for health—most of it is just work. Typically I wake up, roll over, wipe the crust from my eyes, and start with my highest‑revenue‑generating activity, which right now is creating School posts. I’ll make money with Make, then work on Maker or School. If I have anything else, like responding to a post I’m pinned in within the Schoolers community, I’ll do that. Then I do the daily updates channel, which also brings in money, and if I have content for the main channel I create that as well. After that, whatever else is on my day gets handled, but by then most of the high‑ROI tasks are already finished. So I focus on those high‑ROI activities first.

daily routineproductivityhigh-roi tasks
youtube ↗Lead Generation

Alex asks: I'm brand new on Upwork with zero reviews and no reputation. My competition already has solid reputation, so I feel I need to bring everything with my proposals to get a reply. I've been spending about 30 minutes per application—recording a Loom video, building an N8N workflow, making a diagram—and planning each project beforehand. At your recommended 10 applications per day, that's 5 hours just on applications. Am I overdoing it, or is this normal? How can I tighten the process without sacrificing quality?

This is a core part of my Upwork outreach advice. Start by creating a high‑quality asset—whether it's a detailed Google Doc proposal, a spreadsheet, a workflow chart, a Loom video, or any combination. When you're brand new, building a workflow that solves a client's problem will take time, but after you've built 10 or 20 of them you won't need to start from scratch each time. You can reuse the closest previous workflow as proof of your ability, which eliminates the workflow‑building overhead and leaves you only to record the video. Recording a video after you've done a few dozen takes exactly the length of the video—if it's three minutes, it takes three minutes to record. So the process drops from ~30 minutes per application to about five seconds to pick a workflow, plus two to three minutes to record and send, bringing you to five or six minutes per application. At that rate you can comfortably do ten applications in an hour.

upworkproposalworkflowloom video
youtube ↗Mindset

What is your daily routine like?

I wake around 5 a.m., handle community management (30–60 min), then record a daily update. After that I manage Platinum and Maker Zero communities (5–10 min), record main‑channel content or write a script for the next session, have lunch and hit the gym, then spend a 3–4‑hour block on growth‑focused work (personal brand, businesses), followed by sales activities, then fulfillment/consulting work. My day is built around large growth blocks because I view growth as the most important activity. I also track growth rates financially, aiming for ~0.55% daily to compound sign‑ups, and note a ~72‑hour lag between viral content and new members.

daily routinegrowthtime management
youtube ↗Agency Operations

What is your daily schedule, and do you take sales calls in your agency?

My typical day: I wake up, handle community management, write briefs for the writers I hired for YouTube content, review their previous day’s work, experiment with content structure, record those pieces, then record my daily update video. If I have community calls, I do them in the morning. After that, everything else is agency work for Leftclick—administrative, miscellaneous tasks, and sales calls. I only take sales calls that are big, higher‑ROI leads (e.g., a franchise owner with a painting company making $1M/month); I skip small‑ticket items that aren’t a good use of my time.

daily schedulesales callsagency work