Build Your Portfolio Without Clients (I did this myself)

You can't get clients without a portfolio.

You can't build a portfolio without clients.

Sound familiar? 🤔

But what if I told you this is complete nonsense?

Here's the thing most freelancers get wrong:

They think they need permission to do great work.

They don't.

I'm about to show you how to build a killer portfolio by auditing brands everyone knows.

The secret? Pick a massive company and tear their strategy apart publicly.

Think of it as building your reputation by fixing what's already broken.

Let's go, champ! 💪

Choose a well-known brand that's doing something wrong in your area of expertise.

Good targets for different careers:

SEO/Marketing: Audit Airbnb's technical SEO, Netflix's content strategy, or Tesla's social media approach

Design: Redesign Spotify's mobile app UX, critique Amazon's checkout flow, or reimagine LinkedIn's messaging interface

Development: Analyze GitHub's performance issues, rebuild Slack's notification system, or optimize Zoom's loading speeds

Copywriting: Rewrite Dropbox's homepage copy, improve Mailchimp's email sequences, or fix HubSpot's pricing page

The bigger the brand, the better. When you publicly improve McDonald's website, people pay attention.

This is where you become obsessive.

Don't just point out problems. Understand why they exist and how to fix them.

Your research process:

Pro tip: Use real tools. Run Lighthouse audits, heatmap analysis, A/B test mockups. Make it look like work you'd do for a paying client.

Here's where most people mess up. They create a boring PDF that nobody reads.

Instead, create content that gets shared:

For SEO/Marketing:

For Design:

For Development:

For Copywriting:

Share your work everywhere:

The goal: Become known as the person who publicly improves famous brands.

When Netflix's product team sees your UX audit in their LinkedIn feed, that's when magic happens.

Show your working, not just your results.

People want to see:

This is your differentiation. Anyone can say "I'm good at design." Not everyone can show exactly how they redesigned Instagram's Stories feature.

Here's what happens next:

You become the go-to person for your niche. Smaller companies see your Tesla audit and think "imagine what they could do for us."

Real conversations I've had:

"We saw your technical audit of Shopify's checkout flow. Our e-commerce site has similar issues..."

"Your redesign of the Zoom interface got shared in our Slack. Can we talk about our app?"

That's the power of public work. You're not cold pitching anymore. Clients are finding you.

Start with what you notice immediately. The best audits often come from fresh eyes spotting things internal teams are blind to.

Most freelancers audit boring, unknown websites.

You're auditing brands with millions of users and billion-dollar valuations.

Which case study sounds more impressive:

"I optimized JimsBakery.co.uk's loading speed by 2 seconds"

or

"I found the performance issue costing Netflix 50,000 subscribers per month"

Same skills. Different impact.

Will the big brands hire you immediately? Probably not.

Will other companies notice your work and reach out? Absolutely.

Plus: You're learning from the best. Auditing Amazon's checkout teaches you more about e-commerce UX than auditing 10 small stores.

When you finally work with real clients, you bring insights from analyzing the world's most successful companies.

Once you've done a few one-off audits, create a series:

Consistency builds recognition. People start waiting for your next breakdown.

Stop asking for permission to showcase your skills.

The internet is full of broken things created by successful companies. Pick one. Fix it publicly. Repeat.

Your portfolio isn't about the clients you've had.

It's about the problems you can solve.

Go prove it 🚀

P.S. - When you publish your first audit, send me the link. I love seeing people take action on this stuff, and the best ones always get shared.