Deliberate Freelancer

At the end of every quarter I’m going to conduct an analysis of my time tracking, income and clients and projects. I use Toggl to track my time, and it is particularly helpful to let me know how much I am earning per hour for projects in which I’m paid per word or per project. It also tells me how much time it takes me to do certain types of projects, instead of just guessing. That is valuable information the next time I create a similar proposal and set a project rate for a potential client. In the first quarter of 2021, I worked an average of 23 hours per week. I actually wanted to increase that, which I did. In Q2 I worked an average of 28 hours a week. This includes paid work, administrative work, networking and marketing. I also made sure to take a vacation. Once I was fully vaccinated, I drove to Indiana to visit my parents. Unfortunately, because the vacation wasn’t planned out way in advance like I usually do, I still had deadlines I had to meet. I ended up working a few hours on average each day for the week I was there, which none of us liked. I decided to leave a few days early because I was eager to have a completely work-free, email-free staycation at my house. So, when I got home, I took four days completely off work, followed by a few easier work days. That time with my parents and then time off completely from work at home rejuvenated me. In fact, I felt like I worked a lot of hours in May and not so many in June. However, when I looked at my time tracking for the two months, I actually worked more hours per week in June than the weeks when I felt frenzied and overwhelmed in May. In June, one week I worked 32 hours and another week I worked almost 35 hours. I think this is a really important finding—I felt less stress, less overwhelmed and more on task after taking off just four days at home, even though I was working more hours. It is so critical to take time off each week and take real vacations or staycations. I see too many freelancers who don’t take even those little breaks. That is a recipe for burnout. I am planning to visit my parents later this summer. This time, I have strategically planned when I will go. I chose a time that has fewer deadlines, and I am purposefully not taking projects that I will have to work on at that time. I also made a lot more money in Q2. You might attribute that to me working more, but I think it was the reverse. I got more work; therefore, I had to work more to do that work. I had a very lean March for me, and then April through June were really strong months. May was my best month of the year. I haven’t spent a lot of time on marketing recently, and July and August are looking a little lean right now. I have a monthly income goal that I try to meet, and I haven’t quite met that yet for my July and August planning. I like to know that that income goal is possible a few months out. I don’t like to work week to week. So, July is really going to be a time that I need to do some marketing and networking and letting my current editors know that I am available for new projects and writing assignments. I want to mention a project I briefly mentioned in a previous episode. It’s an example of a new client that pays less than the per-word rate I normally accept. But I accepted the work for a couple of reasons: I wanted to work for this client and their topic, and it sounded like it would be more consistent work, if not that lucrative. Because I track my time religiously, I know that although this is below my typical per-word rate that I made over $100 an hour on the projects I’ve done for them. Having the ability to work fast and knowing the subject matter earned me that higher hourly rate. I want to talk a bit more about how I get clients, what type of marketing I do and what I mean by referrals, which I have said is my No. 1 way to get clients. (See episode #65 of Deliberate Freelancer from July of 2020.) Recently in the Freelance Content Marketing Writer Facebook group, people were talking about how their 2021 was going so far in terms of clients and income. My friend Holly Leber Simmons followed that thread up with another great thread about how people were getting work and what type of work that was. With Holly’s permission, I am going to answer some of her questions here: Question 1: What ongoing or anchor projects do you have? Who is the client, what are you doing, how are you paid (retainer, hourly, per word, per project), how much time do you spend a week? How did you land the client? My anchor clients have shifted a lot in the past year during the pandemic, and I’m looking for even steadier anchor clients. My anchor clients tend to be newsletters or magazines for which I’m the managing editor. These are rarely monthly publications. They’re usually bimonthly or quarterly, and I typically get paid per issue, not a monthly retainer. My time for a magazine varies widely from week to week. We are typically working on two issues at a time, so I might be writing or editing for one magazine while planning out and assigning articles for that same magazine’s next issue. Besides my one local newsletter client, my magazines are from membership associations. I landed most of my managing editing gigs through referrals and job boards. I’ll break that down more: my local newsletter client I landed after seeing their job ad on a membership association job board. One of the magazines I work on is with one of my best friends; we used to be employees together and she has since hired me on a variety of projects. Another magazine was through a woman I know because of our common work connections. We stay in touch on Twitter and LinkedIn, and when she heard about this magazine opening, she connected me directly with the editor on LinkedIn and I followed up. Another magazine in the past I landed because a fellow freelancer spotted the ad on a job board and forwarded it to me. The lesson here is NETWORKING! By keeping in touch with previous co-workers and chatting with people in my industry on social media AND letting people know specifically the type of work I’m looking for—Hey, did you know I’m also a managing editor?!—people send me job ads. These are job boards that I’m not always privy to, so referrals have been key.   Another question from Holly: How much of your work is rolling income, i.e., not an anchor client or retainer? What are some one-off or repeat—but not consistent—projects you have done? How are you finding the work? One-off work for me is mostly writing for membership associations and/or about health care. A lot of those clients I got through my career working at membership associations as an employee. That built my network, and I get a lot of referrals from association people. For example, I used to work at a public health association, and now because of those connections I write for three different types of public health associations. This all comes back to your network and checking in with people. I’m also really honest about when I have availability and am specific about what I can help with. As a freelancer, what are you looking for? How can you help? Put that out on there on LinkedIn and send that out in letters of introduction.   Question #3 from Holly: How much time per week do you spend on marketing and networking? How much time per week do you spend on client work? In Q2 I spent nearly 30 hours networking and marketing, so that looks like 10 hours a month. However, that’s misleading because in reality most of that time was spent in April at about 19 hours, leaving only about six hours in May and three hours in June. Now, I was also on vacation and then a staycation for the first couple of days of June, and I took it a little easier as I headed toward July. So, it’s probably no coincidence that I don’t have a ton of work lined up for July and August. That shows that I need to do a little more networking and marketing now and in each month. For me that means talking about my availability and what I do on LinkedIn; sharing articles I’ve written on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; interacting with editors on LinkedIn and Twitter; and reaching out one-on-one to my current editors and letting them know I’m available for work.   Another good question from Holly: How’s your mental health? Are you running yourself into the ground? I’m really glad Holly asked this one because I see a lot of people who say they make six figures or more who might be running themselves ragged. I see freelancers on social media who talk about working most weekends for hours at a time and also feeling exhausted all the time. Sometimes they are the same people who talk about never taking a vacation or time off. Everyone needs to take time off. You heard me earlier talk about how I actually worked more hours in June than I did in May, but I felt so much better and was definitely more productive in June. Even just four days helps. So, what did I learn from this analysis of Q2? I’ve reiterated to myself that I definitely need to take time off when I’m feeling overwhelmed, even for a long weekend at home. I feel really good about working 28 hours a week and the hourly rates I’m earning for a variety of projects. As for July and Q3, I want to both increase and be more strategic about my marketing and reaching out to potential clients and current clients. I want to land another anchor client or two.   Biz Bite: Say no to extraneous meetings and phone calls.   The Bookshelf: “When the Stars Go Dark” by Paula McLain   Resources: Subscribe to the Deliberate Freelancer newsletter. Episode #94 of Deliberate Freelancer: My Time Tracking Audit for Q1—I Need a Better Schedule Episode #65 of Deliberate Freelancer: The No. 1 Way I Find New Clients Episode #93 of Deliberate Freelancer: Renew Your Business Now for Post-Pandemic Life  

Today’s guest is Sarah Townsend from the city of Gloucester in the UK. Sarah has been a freelance marketing copywriter for more than 20 years and is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller “Survival Skills for Freelancers: Tried and Tested Tips to Help You Ace Self-Employment Without Burnout.”   Sarah uses clever copy to help businesses become more successful, and she’s on a mission to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and wellbeing for freelancers and the small business community. She does this through talks, webinars and interviews.   When Sarah struck out on her own as a freelancer, she was a 20-something-year-old new mom. She couldn’t find business or personal development books that spoke to her needs. They all seemed to be written for middle-aged men in suits. So, in 2020, Sarah published her own book that addressed the needs that she saw.   “I wanted to create a book that people would love for the support and the reality check and the ‘heart on your sleeve’ telling it like it is side. The book very much focuses on mindset.”   Often, freelancers have the talent and the skills. That’s not what they struggle with. Instead, we struggle with things like isolation, not knowing what to charge, having the confidence to grasp opportunities, procrastination, lack of motivation and imposter syndrome. Those are topics Sarah covers in her book.   Sarah doesn’t agree with a common formula that is recommended freelancers use to determine their income goals. That formula is to take the annual salary you want to earn, subtract several weeks for vacation and sick time and then divide it by the number of weeks and then divide that by the number of days you plan on working. And that is your day rate.   However, Sarah says that formula is a recipe for burnout because it assumes you are getting paid for all of those hours. It doesn’t account for unpaid administrative work, professional development, and marketing and following up.   Sarah says not only are we afraid of failure, but we are also afraid of success. This fear of the unknown holds us back because “I know what I like and I like what I know.” We often like our comfort zone.   She encourages us to think about author Marianne Williamson’s famous quote, which is: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”   Clients can pick up on a lack of confidence, and that may cause them to ask for a lower rate. And if you agree to that lower rate, you’re perpetuating the “client and supplier” relationship, when you should be aiming to work on a level with your clients that is based on mutual trust, understanding and respect.   If you take on the clients that are wrong for you, those are the ones that sap all your energy and take up more space in your week than great clients do.   Melanie recognized that this spring and summer, as people started to emerge from pandemic lockdown in many countries, freelance business owners seemed to be talking a lot about burnout as we figure out a new way to do things.   Sarah often talks about the importance of mental health and wellbeing for freelance business owners. As she says, “if you’re not taking care of you, you don’t have a business because you are your business and you’ll have nothing left to give.”   Burnout starts on a slippery slope, first with day-to-day stress and anxiety, which can lead to overwhelm, which can lead to burnout. Sarah says freelancers almost take for granted that they’ll always feel stressed and overwhelmed. But, freelancers need to set boundaries and get super clear on their process and then make sure their clients know that process and those boundaries. When you manage client expectations in this way, clients are less likely to micromanage you.   Know what your personal signs of burnout are. For Sarah, it’s when she’s not getting enough sleep and not making time to get outdoors every day.   As you consider how to set boundaries with yourself and your client, consider telling clients what your office hours are. And put your office hours in your email signature.   When it comes to pricing, Sarah charges based on her value, not an hourly or day rate. She explains to clients her billing process. She requires a nonrefundable 50% deposit up front. And when she sends the first draft of the project, she also sends the invoice for the balance of the fee. She said some freelancers fall behind in that because they wait until the client “signs off” on the project.   Sarah talks about removing “should” and “just” from your language and emails.     Biz Bite: Create a Boost Bank (a photo album on your phone of screenshots of positive comments about you)   Resources:   Sarah’s Book “Survival Skills for Freelancers” Buy “Survival Skills for Freelancers” on Amazon Sarah on Twitter Sarah on LinkedIn Sarah on Instagram Sarah’s copywriting website   Episode #95 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Dream Bigger and Transform Your Freelance Business, with Cathy Wilkes   Episode #90 of Deliberate Freelancer: Coping with One Year of COVID-19 Lockdown, with Therapist Emily Derouin   Hiya call blocker app

Bianca Gonzalez is a marketing writer from New York state who specializes in corporate social responsibility; diversity, equity and inclusion insights; and multicultural consumer insights.   Bianca was preparing to graduate college in the spring of 2020 when the pandemic hit. Because of her health risks as a brain cancer survivor, she turned to freelancing and working from home. Bianca has been able to combine her love of writing with her commitment to social justice and activism. She identifies as a queer, disabled Latina, and she explains her passion around supporting diverse professionals.   She decided to focus on marketing writing, where she recognized there were few non-white employees. Marketers don’t often know how to appeal to certain minority groups, and Bianca is often the first minority on their team, helping them to create inclusive content.   At age 19, Bianca, as an inexperienced drinker, ended up in the hospital, where they gave her a brain scan. They found a lot of fluid on her brain, a condition known as hydrocephalus, which they discovered was caused by a cancerous brain tumor. She had no symptoms.   She had two brain surgeries, followed by radiation, and then returned to her junior of college that fall, while commuting from home. Her community service and the camaraderie from that is what kept her going.   Bianca’s writing takes two forms: activism writing and writing diverse and inclusive marketing content. One of the first times she realized what an impact her writing could have was after writing a piece for Anti-Racism Daily about alleged forced sterilizations in ICE detention camps. An English as a second language (ESL) teacher told Bianca that her ESL students wrote letters to their congressional representatives about immigration after reading her article.   Because of her brain cancer, Bianca suffered brain damage, which has led to a shorter attention span and poor short-term memory. Sometimes her disability is visible and children and adults might stare or make comments in public. Other times, it’s an invisible disability so she says people assume she has recovered 100%.   Having a freelance career with a disability gives her the flexibility to cut back on work on the days when she doesn’t feel as good. She wouldn’t be able to take off that time as easily if she was an employee.   Now that her one-year freelancing career has been successful she’s focusing more on setting up the business side of her career. She is considering establishing an LLC.   Bianca’s advice for other freelancers includes learning how to be OK with small failures to get to big successes.   Bianca finds great clients through a lot of networking and through Twitter engagement.   Biz Bite: Find someone online, in an article or a podcast you have a question for? Be brave and contact them!    Resources: Anti-Racism Daily newsletter   Sonia Weiser’s Opportunities of the Week newsletter ($3/month)   Bianca on Twitter: @OurStellarWords   Bianca on LinkedIn   Episode #14 of Deliberate Freelancer: Freelancing with a Chronic Illness, with Christy Batta  

It’s my 100th episode! For this very special episode, I invited back my very first guest (in episode 4), Jennifer Goforth Gregory. Jennifer focuses on B2B technology content marketing writing. She is a leader in the content marketing writing world—she literally wrote the book “The Freelance Content Marketing Writer”—but like so many of us, the pandemic brought many challenges. She went from working home alone to having her husband and two teenage kids around all the time. And she lost a anchor client quickly, leading her to panic and fear she’d lose all her work. However, she ended up having the best income year of her freelance career in 2020.   During the pandemic, Jennifer struggled with how much to work, faced with a high demand of technology writing. Plus, her husband was laid off and she became the sole breadwinner and felt the financial pressure. On the other hand, her kids would be heading to college soon and she wanted to embrace the “gift of time” and spend plenty of quality time with them.   But because she felt she needed some higher-paying work, she took on an email writing project that was a risk for her. And she realized she was good at it and has since earned about $25,000 writing emails as a copywriter.   Jennifer says her work has three variables: the client, the niche and the type of writing. She realized, through the new email writing project, that she can only have one new variable when she’s trying something new. In this case, it was an existing client in a niche she knew well. Just a new type of writing.   Jennifer was also open about her situation and told existing clients that her husband got laid off and she was looking for more work. That’s how she was offered the initial email writing project.   This pandemic year taught Jennifer to take a better look at her strengths and weaknesses and be honest about what she’s not good at.   One “hidden blessing” from this past year was that Jennifer joined a weekly Zoom meeting with about five other writers, initially to share job leads. They helped her launch a training class, figure out how to price projects and how to handle failure.   Most of Jennifer’s work comes to her directly, from people finding her on LinkedIn, coming across her website or seeing articles she’s written that are similar to their needs. She thinks it’s a mistake for freelancers not to use LinkedIn more.   Do you know your “why?” Why are you a freelance business owner? Jennifer tells the story of how she was supposed to moderate a conference panel when she learned that her son, a senior in high school, was selected for a golf match at the same time. One of her “why”s has been to spend more time with her kids, so she knew she had to be at the golf match. She found a replacement moderator and went and was honest with people about why she was absent.   When Jennifer has a hard personal or work decision, she stops and asks herself, “What am I going to regret when I’m 80?”    Jennifer released her book, “The Freelance Content Marketing Writer,” two years ago. She’s been blown away by the success. She self-published and has covered her publishing costs. Now, any proceeds go to her dog rescue. She plans to update the book in 2021 to add in new lessons.   Jennifer’s Facebook group of the same name, “The Freelance Content Marketing Writer,” now has over 6,000 members.   Jennifer launched a training class, “Make More Money as a Freelance Content Marketing Writer,” and now offers a self-paced version of that class.   Jennifer gives tips on finding the perfect client for you. One of the mistakes freelancers make is they mainly qualify their clients based on price—are they going to pay my rate?—and that should just be the beginning. Instead, you should look for clients that meet your strengths and your weaknesses.   Jennifer actively chooses her clients, not letting them hire her. It’s a mutual decision. She tells them on the initial phone call that she is actively picking her clients and is interviewing them to find if they’re a good fit.   Jennifer also talks about Zoom video calls, which has been a debate in her Facebook group. Some writers hate that seemingly everyone wants to do Zoom video calls now, while other writers find them more helpful. Jennifer thinks video chats are a great way to initially meet with a client to see if they’re a good match. It can also be helpful when doing content marketing interviews with sources.   Jennifer encourages freelancers to actively ask their clients for referrals. And want to get more referrals? Then, give them out frequently for other freelancers. They will return the favor.   Jennifer also makes sure to update her website regularly with new articles in her portfolio. Clients have commented that they like that her clips are very recent.   Biz Bite: Follow up with the people in the “who viewed your profile” section on LinkedIn   Resources: Episode #4 of Deliberate Freelancer: Work Only with Nice Clients, with Jennifer Goforth Gregory   Jennifer’s book “The Freelance Content Marketing Writer”   Jennifer’s Facebook group: “The Freelance Content Marketing Writer”   Jennifer’s courses   Jennifer’s website   Jennifer on LinkedIn  

UPDATE: I have extended my podcast hiatus until Thursday, June 17.  Now could be a perfect time for you to catch up on the 99 (!!) previous episodes. I also encourage you to scroll through the show notes on your podcast app or at deliberatefreelancer.com. The show notes read like blog posts and include a ton of resources at the end. I will be back on Thursday, June 17, with a brand-new and very special 100th episode! And I have several other guests lined up as well for the summer that I think you’ll love. Happy summer! 

Amy Posner lives in Olympia, Washington. She calls herself a serial entrepreneur and has been a business owner for three decades — she had a computer start-up, a New York City agency and then built a very successful (and lucrative) sales team in the telecom industry.   But for the past decade, Amy has been an in-demand conversion and direct response copywriter, coach and copy chief. She now mostly focuses on coaching and training.   Amy currently runs the Magnetic North Mastermind, where she helps each member decide — and then create — their ideal business life. She also has a YouTube channel called Cut to the Copy, which offers short tips about business. And she co-hosts a podcast called Business Badass.   Amy offers a “coaching on demand” service, in which people hire her for coaching for 30 minutes or 60 minutes on one specific issue. She also offers “copy chiefing” in which people have her vet their copy before they submit it to a client.   As a six-figure freelancer, Amy initially had the goal to replace her employee income, which was six figures at the time.   She wasn’t interested in becoming a agency, but she does have a small team of subcontractors, including a new position she recently hired for, “vision and growth manager.” She got the idea for that role after hearing about the position of an “integrator,” who serves as a project manager for the vision. She wanted someone to help her both create the vision but also to create the growth. She finds it exhausting to be both the person focused on growing her business and the person executing work for clients.   She also has her own copywriter for her business, a tech person and a virtual assistant. She hires subcontractors for copywriting clients also.   Persistence and gaining confidence have been critical to Amy’s success. “Your success is directly proportionate to your attitude or your ability to handle the obstacles,” she said.   Don’t dwell on failures or other people’s opinions. It’s OK if you’re a sensitive person, but it’s important to learn how to remove your feelings of failure and move on.   Amy shares her pricing formula: internal hourly rate + your intuition + your gut sense. She stresses that it’s essential that you time your projects at various times throughout the year so that you know how long projects take. That will allow you to price properly. She says freelancers tend to have “leaky boundaries” around their time.   The price that you give a client that feels really good on Monday can often feel too low on Tuesday. So, you should always sleep on the price. Amy also believes if you don’t charge enough, you aren’t seen as that higher level of a professional.   Amy is always considering if a client is a good fit. Red flags that she looks out for include people who think they know more than they do or who want her to execute on bad marketing ideas. Also watch out for those “trial projects” for lower rates with a promise of a future project. That compromises people’s professionalism, and the “more projects” don’t often materialize.   Amy also admits to a “weird” red flag: people who don’t have any sense of humor. Melanie can relate to this and also lists this as one of her red flags!   Amy finds the right clients by getting in the right rooms, where people there need what you offer. Have you figured out what audiences are your potential clients and which ones you’re wasting your time on?   Amy struggles with a couple of boundary issues. She admits to being a Type A workaholic. She also struggles with over-delivering on a project.   Biz Bite: Make a Plan and Work Your Plan (and Remove the Emotion from It)   Resources:   No Sweat Sales Calls course discount link ($100 off): https://amyposner.podia.com/no-sweat-sales-calls?coupon=MPP   Amy’s website   CutToTheCopy.com YouTube weekly channel   Joanna Wiebe, founder of Copyhackers   Book “Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business” by Gino Wickman   Book “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters” by Priya Parker  

Today’s guest is Austin Church from Knoxville, Tennessee. Austin helps e-commerce founders stand out online with their brand strategy. He also coaches freelance creatives.   After Austin got laid off in spring 2009, during the U.S. recession, he became a freelance copywriter. Does Austin consider himself an agency? Not exactly. He likes to pull in other creatives as necessary, and he serves as the project manager. He calls it the “antique shop” model — bigger antique shops don’t own all the antiques; they provide the space for other dealers, sell their products and earn a commission.   When he first started freelancing, Austin wasn’t great at keeping tabs on his income and expenses, and he didn’t save for or pay his quarterly taxes. When his accountant sister fired him as a client, it was a wakeup call. The book “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz helped Austin figure out a better way to handle his money, mainly by getting several checking accounts and allocating each one toward certain things, like quarterly taxes.   Austin is also a fan of the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. Clear says if you make habits obvious and easy, they’re more likely to stick. That resonated with Austin and helped him institute some better business and personal systems.   One system he highly recommends is to create email templates, especially when you’re asking clients for referrals. After a project goes well, at the end, when the client is happy, customize that referral template quickly and email it to your client.   Austin also recommends tracking every client and project lead imaginable and having a simple way to track them. Check in with that spreadsheet every week to see what leads you need to follow up on. It can take several “touches” or interactions with a potential client before you land a project, and without those multiple check-ins you could lose out on great projects and clients.   Austin says we have to put in a statistically significant number of activities. We often give up too soon. But, for example, if you are using Instagram to get clients, you need to have conversations with 100 people, not three.   Austin builds his business on selling strategy. He recognized that about 3 out of every 10 clients know exactly what they want, and he helps them with that. But most are unclear. For example, they might ask for a new website, but what they really need is an entire marketing strategy.   Austin started offering strategy, or strategic planning, which he now calls a “wayfinding workshop.” After talking with the client, he gets the sense of whether they’re lacking clarity and need strategic help. If they’re not willing to pay for that, it’s a red flag for him and isn’t a fit for him as a client.   He also sells “strategy retainers” where he meets with clients every two weeks to work on their strategy. With those packages, he’s not responsible for the implantation phase. He says most freelancers probably skew toward one or the other — they either like the strategy or the implementation. But going back and forth between the two with the same client can cause whiplash.   When Austin sees other freelancers struggling in their freelance business, their challenges often fall under one of the six 6 Ps: positioning, packaging, pricing, pipeline, psychology, process.   Biz Bites: Get a Text Expander App (atext) and Don’t Open Your Email Until 11 a.m.   Resources:   Austin’s website and his free freelance course: AustinLChurch.com   Austin on Twitter   Austin on LinkedIn   Episode #79 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Consistently Sending LOIs and Using Upwork, with Laura Pennington Briggs   Episode #80 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Writing B2B Tech Content, with Satta Sarmah Hightower   Episode #81 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Focus on a Niche and Partner with Other Freelancers, with Lynne Testoni   Episode #82 of Deliberate Freelancer: Six-Figure Freelancing: Embracing an Entrepreneurial Mindset, with Gresham Harkless   Book “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz   Book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear   Book “The Business of Expertise” by David C. Baker   Book “Give and Take” by Adam Grant   Book “Million Dollar Consulting” by Alan Weiss   Book “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown   “The Chef Show” on Netflix   iKamper rooftop tent    

Today’s guest is Quiana Darden from Richmond, Virginia. She is a launch copywriter, which means she supports coaches and service providers who are launching or rebranding their high-ticket offers. She offers sales page copywriting, email marketing sequences, social media copy, landing pages and ad copy.   She started as an elementary school teacher, but later decided she wanted to home-school her daughter so she brainstormed on how she could work from home. She started as a virtual assistant and then a freelance writer focused on content marketing, but did some copywriting.   She was scared at first to jump into copywriting because there is an expectation of conversion. But a coach encouraged her to go all in. Zeroing in on her very specific niche in copywriting means she can demand higher rates.   Freelancers rely on their online presence to educate their audience about the services they provide. That means quality copywriting — a sales page, social media posts, landing pages.   Freelance writers often think they can write their own copy, but that could be a challenge. It might be difficult to write about yourself or you might have difficulty maintaining the same tone as your service (sales copy tone should match the tone of your blog, podcast, course, etc.). You may tend to write about your own services in a more stilted, robotic way. Or, writing your own copy often gets pushed at the bottom of your to-do list.   When you write copy, you shouldn’t focus solely on the products and services included in the offer. People buy the transformation, so you need to explain what they will gain by purchasing your offer.   Before you hire a copywriter, get clear on the details of the offer, the transformation it will provide, how you are different from your competitors, who your audience is and what their pain points are.   As you decide which project to outsource to a copywriter first, think about what has been on your to-do list for a while but also what is going to give you the most “bang for your buck.” That may mean an email marketing campaign to grow your email list. Or, maybe you need a new sales page because your current one isn’t converting into that many sales.   I also talked to Quiana about her business and her clients. She talks about demanding higher rates after thinking about the value she provides clients and the money they can earn based on her strong copywriting.   Quiana only offers one primary service right now. It’s a Launch Copy VIP Day package — with a turnaround time of 48 hours — and the price is listed on her website. She knows exactly how many of those she needs each month. And the quick turnaround time gives her the flexibility she needs to home-school her daughter.   Quiana shifted to this approach because she was tired of creating custom writing packages for every single client.   When she was a content marketing writer, Quiana found a lot of clients through cold emails or LinkedIn connections and through Facebook groups with business owners. She answered content marketing questions there, which showed she was an expert, and people reached out to hire her.   Now, she is finding her clients through Instagram, after her coach recommended that platform based on Quiana’s audience. Doing weekly live video on Instagram has helped increase her audience. She uses videos to answer common questions her audience asks and also shares her process as a copywriter working with her clients.   Biz Bite: Find Your Power Hours (the time you work best)   Resources:   Subscribe to the new Deliberate Freelancer newsletter at MelEdits.com/newsletter.   Please record a voice memo on your phone about your time tracking lessons and experiences. Email it to melanie@meledits.com for a future podcast episode.   Quiana’s website: The Write Choice   Quiana on Instagram   Episode 56 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Use Instagram to Grow Your Business, with Jessica Thiefels  

This is a rerelease of episode #22 from August 2019. I am rereleasing this as I catch up on all my work right now, which is ironic considering the name of this episode. Laura Poole offers great advice that we might all need right now about creating a work-life balance that is right for you. But beyond that, Laura is peppy and fun, so I think you’ll enjoy hearing from her.   Laura is a a freelance editor from Durham, N.C., who has been a freelancer for about 24 years, almost her entire career. She provides copyediting for scholarly nonfiction publishers and training for editors and freelancers. She is also a trained, certified life coach.   Biz Bite: Take a few moments of peaceful clarity and think about what you want more of in your life. What do you need to change to make that happen?   Resources: Laura’s book: “Juggling on a High Wire: The Art of Work-Life Balance When You’re Self-Employed” Laura on Twitter   

On today’s show, I introduce you to Cal Newport’s new book, “A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload.”   First, I talk about his concept of the “hyperactive hive mind” and the problem with email and instant messaging tools like Slack. Then, I talk about his solution briefly. And then I share my own thoughts and tips for getting your email under control, as well as how to reduce the amount of email you get.   Newport points out that our current office environment was not planned so much as it just happened to all of us when email became commonplace. He calls the current workflow of many corporate offices the “hyperactive hive mind.” Freelancers can often push back at this, but we are a part of it because our clients are a part of it.   The constant need to respond to email prevents many of us from doing our actual work—cognitive work, which Newport calls “deep work.” Instead, many of us are constantly task-switching throughout the day. But our brains are not meant to task-switch. Try it—can you think of two separate things at exactly the same time? Nope.   First, I recommend you consider how you can set tougher “I’m checking email now” rules for yourself. How can you stop checking it so often?   Newport argues that tricks to help manage our email systems and clean up our email boxes are all just Band-aids on the problem of the hyperactive hive mind that our workforce lives in. I understand, but currently we are in that hive too, so we should figure out a better email solution.   Newport’s solution to this hive mind is to set up processes and project management systems instead, such as Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, Asana, Basecamp, Trello and more. I love processes and project management tools and use them for several projects. But, these aren’t perfect. Email may simply be replaced by the chat function in Microsoft Teams, for example.   Newport talks about examining all your emails in one day. Take a look at all those emails going out and coming in and ask yourself what systems you could put in place to eliminate some of those emails. Are there processes that you could establish that would decrease or eliminate the need for some of those emails? I think this is a good practice and good place to start.   By creating checklists, forms, processes and systems, you can decrease your work time, improve your file keeping and reduce the risk of errors.   In addition, despite what Newport says, let’s figure out ways to better manage our email.  First, analyze your email inbox. Does it stress you out? What don’t you like about it? What do you want to fix? Make a list of what you wish your email work life looked like.   Here are some potential solutions:   Stop aiming for inbox zero. Instead, pick a realistic number. Then, use folders to sort your emails. I have a folder for each client and then subfolders for each project. When I’ve dealt with the email in my inbox I immediately move it to the correct folder, primarily as an archive.   Delete hundreds or thousands of emails, even the old unopened ones. Are you really going to get to those? In Gmail, it is possible to do batch deletions, including by entire years.   Next, take the time to actually unsubscribe from newsletters. Don’t just delete them. If you don’t have time right now to unsubscribe, create an unsubscribe folder and move those email newsletters into that folder. Then, when you get some admin time, go through and unsubscribe one by one. Or, let your virtual assistant into your email system and have them do it for you.   You may want to create new folders that allow you to prioritize tasks, such as: Action needed today, Action needed this week, Action needed before the end of the month. The key, of course, is that you will go through those folders and reply. But, this makes it more manageable.   Gmail also now has a Snooze feature. If you see an email and know you have to deal with it that day or that week, but you don’t have the time right at that second, you can hit the Snooze feature. That way, it’ll pop up as a new email at the time of your choosing so that it won’t get lost in your inbox.   Use the Boomerang tool to schedule email replies during work hours.     Biz Bite: Move the beans over   The Bookshelf: “Sea Wife” by Amity Gaige   Resources:   Subscribe to the new Deliberate Freelancer newsletter at MelEdits.com/newsletter.   Please record a voice memo on your phone about your time tracking lessons and experiences. Email it to melanie@meledits.com for a future podcast episode.   Episode #94 of Deliberate Freelancer: My Time Tracking Audit for Q1—I Need a Better Schedule   Cal Newport’s new book, “A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload.”   Boomerang to schedule emails   Clear Your Gmail Inbox   Easy Ways to Delete Multiple Messages in Gmail   Snooze Gmail emails until later   Create rules to filter your emails