What is the gender breakdown of your audience, is it worth targeting markets where my language is stronger despite lower fees, how can I work as a digital nomad with large time‑zone differences, and how should I run an agency while working a regular job?

#84 · English Anxiety: Do I Need English to Crush AI Automation?

What is the gender breakdown of your audience, is it worth targeting markets where my language is stronger despite lower fees, how can I work as a digital nomad with large time‑zone differences, and how should I run an agency while working a regular job?

My audience is roughly 90 % male and 10 % female according to Google Analytics. My spoken English sits around B1‑B2 while my comprehension is C1‑C2, though I’m not entirely sure what those levels mean in practice. I’ve held the belief that I shouldn’t jump into the U.S. market until my English reaches C1 because the fees there are the highest, but I wonder whether that’s just a bias or if I should instead target places where my language is stronger even if the fees are five to ten times lower. The answer really depends on where you are: some countries let you earn outsized returns because they pay high fees and have lots of buyers for automation work—think Germany, French agencies, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Luxembourg (I’ve had a couple projects there). If you’re in a poorer country like Bulgaria, I’d avoid niching down for local clients because the fees you could command would be much lower; it’s a tough call, and I wish I could do more there. Regarding running a digital nomad lifestyle with big time‑zone gaps, I haven’t found a perfect fix. When I lived in the Philippines for a few weeks I had to take calls at night, which was annoying and hurt my sleep and income. The reality is that a prospect’s reply is as close to money as you get, so you have to treat it like gold and be ready to respond. If a client is only available at 2 p.m. PT, that could be 4 a.m. in Thailand; asking to meet at 8 a.m. would make about half of them disappear. It’s therefore difficult to sustain a nomad schedule that avoids night work. You’ll do better by focusing on markets that are closer to your time zone—Thai firms pay less, but Singaporean or Chinese companies often pay more. I tried the nomad life myself, found it unsustainable (poor sleep, low earnings), though I did enjoy seeing new places and learning about myself. After I returned to a stable base, sat down, focused, and my results took off. In the end it’s a trade‑off: you sacrifice something—usually rest or income—for the travel experience. As for fitting agency work around a regular job, I’ve given you the best approach I can; thanks for the question.

gender breakdownlanguage proficiencydigital nomadtime management

Related answers

youtube ↗Agency Operations

I'm from South Asia and scaled my agency to $10K a month, but I decided to do my master's in Dublin, Ireland because a lot of opportunities are unavailable where I come from, so I needed a geographic change. If I could scale for more than 6 months I could scale to $25K a month, but with the added academic pressure on client delivery there are fewer hours every week. I also need a job after graduation to stay here. How would you suggest I proceed?

This is a highly specific situation, but I'll help you regardless without speaking in generalities. The way that you're approaching this is good. You have a good mindset. You're not limiting your beliefs as 'oh, I can't do this because I'm doing all these other things.' You obviously understand that you have to give something in order to get something, and what you are going to be giving is a little bit of your time, energy, and sanity. It sounds like your clear constraints are: you need a job after graduation to stay here. So you just need to get a job after graduation. Ideally, the job you should get after graduation should be something that is preferably digital, because the more digital the job is, the less logistical time you're going to have commuting to and from the office. This is all sunk time that you won't really be able to recoup. And when it's remote or digital, you could work on your own business a lot of the time at the same time. Obviously don't be a total [__] about that, but if you need to take a meeting during lunch or whatever, you can do so much easier when you're at home than if you are out and about — you'd have to hide it from people otherwise. So the situation you're in is not really all that crazy. It's the same sort of situation that people have when they just work 9-to-5 jobs or have some sort of full-time thing. I think what you just need to do is get a good job that aligns with your ability to produce the deliverables you want in your agency to make the money that you want. If you scale your agency to $10,000 a month in South Asia, presumably when you are in an area that has significantly higher buying power and an 8-hour time differential between North America — where most of the buying power is going to be — you'll be able to do everything that you've done already just far better over there in Dublin. Not to mention you're going to have a master's degree and all that stuff. So yeah, I don't really think you have anything to worry about. You've already done the most complicated and difficult thing, which is hitting $10,000 a month. You're one in a million, my friend. With all of that in there, yeah, you should be fine.

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youtube ↗Pricing

Nick says Princeo I'm planning to start my cold outreach. I just had one doubt. I'm an Asian, specifically Filipino, and I know without a doubt that also affects how people from US or UK view us. How can I confidently quote around 2,000 American dollars to them? So far, with my experience on Upwork, those who are more successful are those from US countries. When people know I'm from Philippines, they immediately lower the ceiling of the quote that I send them. What are your thoughts on this? And so on and so forth. Do you have any student wins that are from Asian countries who are successful with cold outreach? Would help a lot. Thank you.

Anyone who tells you where you are in the world doesn't matter is not being entirely truthful. If you're selling primarily to a United States audience where offshoring has a negative connotation for quality but a positive one for affordability, they'll apply that stereotype to you wherever you are. I'm not saying this to give you limiting beliefs, but because sometimes hearing a harder truth is better than hearing a nice perfect story that says location doesn't matter. Yes, you can make it, but there are tactical things you can do to improve your chances if you're from Southeast Asia or Indonesia selling to a Western audience. First, understand the cultural norms there. I've worked with people worldwide and lived in the Philippines for a few weeks; I learned that in more collectivist Asian cultures, people often avoid pointing out mistakes or speaking up about negative changes for fear of losing face or job security. In contrast, Americans and the British Commonwealth generally reward you for providing information that helps them make better decisions. A minor cultural difference like this is worth implementing across the board. There are also superficial tactics to improve your ability to land higher-paying jobs in American markets: speak with an American accent, adjust your name (e.g., shorten 'Sandep' to 'Sam' to avoid immediate offshore associations), and reduce your accent to align with the target market. These aren't about denying your identity but about communicating effectively. I wish we lived in a world where people were judged by character alone, but that's not the case right now. Aside from that, I've been experimenting with a faster podcast format—doing minimal prep and diving in—to cut runtime from 35‑40 minutes to 20‑25 minutes. Maker School now has about 2,500 members and is growing slowly. I'm also curious about the unfiltered channel's reception and have looked at beard‑shaving videos for any odd patterns, though it's likely just coincidence. Thanks for watching.

pricingcold outreachasianfreelancer

youtube ↗Client Acquisition

Nick, I'm looking for the main constraint to landing my first paid client. I'm an appointment setter for a high ticket online coach and I built him a free chatbot for DMs and SMS. It books appointments but still makes some basic errors and I'm building it in exchange for a testimonial. The owner is open to commission-only ideas but doesn't have anything in mind himself. He's happy for me to work with other businesses and already employs an agency to run his ads. What should I prioritize? Should I perfect the chatbot to earn the testimonial, start outreach to other high ticket coaches, and propose a commission-based marketing service to an owner or something else?

A common issue I always see is people tend to think it's X or Y. They have to do option one or they have to do option two. That there's a fork in the road where every downstream option is mutually exclusive. All options are not mutually exclusive. You can do all of the things that you want to do simultaneously. The main core bottleneck is actually just the amount of effective focused time you are spending working. And so it is almost not always like sacrificing X in order to do Y thing. It's not like doing outreach or working on your current clientele. It is doing both simultaneously. And the benefit to that as well is when you do more and you're constantly pushing your zone of competence and what you are comfortable with, you will usually find better and more effective ways of working as well. So in the case of you know a hypothetical fella that was asking me what should I prioritize? Should I, you know, try and fulfill this current client? Should I start outreach to other prospective clients? Should I like try upselling the client on some sort of, you know, thing that I have going on? You should actually and legitimately just do all three simultaneously. You know, we come from a line of people that had to hunt, they had to cook, they had to secure water, they had to tend to their families, they had to, you know, constantly defend themselves night after night. You can't you don't just do one thing. We're obviously highly specialized today, but there's 16 hours available in the day. Everything there would might only take you an hour or so. You still have a lot of time available, right? To go hunting your saber-tooth tiger or to go get some water. So hopefully that makes sense.

prioritizationtime managementclient acquisition

youtube ↗Pricing

How can I handle objections about my location and help clients see my value instead of focusing on where I live?

Separate your branding from offshore virtual assistant services and position yourself as a specialized, high‑quality AI automation provider. Leverage the fact that you live in a developing country as an advantage through geoarbitrage—don’t charge the same as an onshore freelancer; instead, use your lower cost of living to offer competitive rates while still delivering premium value. For example, if a New York AI automation specialist charges $175/hour, you might charge $70‑$80/hour, giving clients a 2× cost saving while you gain a 5× buying‑power advantage. Practical tips: on Upwork, brand your profile with a middle‑to‑high hourly rate (e.g., $45+ instead of $15), get professional photos, ensure impeccable English, and maintain a reliable internet connection. Be proactive about cultural differences—encourage clients to ask questions and offer prepared solutions when you’re unsure, which builds trust and sets you apart from typical offshore workers.

geoarbitragepricingbrandingupwork