Balancing Taking Freelance Writing Opportunities and When to Say No
Part of running your freelance writing business is understanding what's right for you and what's not. What work to say “yes” to that pays your bills and/or fills your creative cup. What work to take a chance on a try. And then what work should be a no, but you're just not sure.
This week's livestream will go over managing balance when it comes to freelance writing opportunities, when to say no, balancing pay and creative work, handling uncertain income and deadlines, and creating your own opportunities.
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Balancing Taking Freelance Writing Opportunities and When to Say No
Are you sure you really wanna take that freelance writing work? Are you really sure that that freelance writing gig matches with where you're taking your business? Are you finding balance between creative, fun stuff and paying your bill stuff? That's what we're going over today. Vicky says, welcome Vicky.
Vicky says, wonderful topic. It is a good topic. I had to learn this one the hard way. And this is something that I think will be super helpful in understanding how to meet all the different needs that we have as a freelance writer. And a lot of times I end up talking to people who are really worried about losing different pieces, right?
They're worried about losing their fiction piece, or they're worried about losing their poetry side, or they're worried about not being able to write, um, certain other material because they're like, my other clients won't like it. And that's just not the case. The case really is that your, um, your business is your own right.
We just kind of have to learn how to make sure we're balancing these things properly so that we have money for bills and we're also doing our creative projects. So we're gonna talk about number one, Hey, flower power. I'm glad you're here. It's been a while, but we're glad you're here. All right, let's talk about number one.
So our first thing is when we're managing our balance, right? We're talking about balancing, taking freelance writing opportunities when we're saying no, as well as balancing cool, fun, interesting stuff. And like things that might pay the bills. That doesn't mean that stuff pay, that pays the bills is boring or not interesting, or just money.
Uh, I've seen lots of freelance writers try to do niches or projects where they're like, this makes money, it's gonna be great, and they end up hating it and quitting freelance writing altogether. So we're balancing a bunch of different things. So the first thing is we're talking a little bit about cake and icing, right?
This is something that I go over with both my runway students, which is my five day fast track class. And I go over with my Wealth lab students in the 10 week course, your cake and icing stuff. I even have a video here on YouTube. Uh, it just says the cake and icing mindset. That's the one we are balancing which niches or which topics we like to write about that have tons of clients, right?
That's the general principle cake is like, there's huge piles of clients, hundreds of thousands if not millions of potential clients for us to reach out to in these big giant beefy niches. Icing is more like little things that just don't have a big audience or they don't have a big ad spend, or they don't have a lot of funds being deposited, right?
So we're balancing cake and icing in a way that we're, we're, we're writing about topics that we're interested in, but we have more opportunities in cake. So there's like, for example, um, I write about PropTech, that's one of my cake niches. Excuse me. I write about restaurants and I write about hospitality tech.
Real estate, all that stuff. Those are cake niches. Not only are they interesting to me, but there's like a bajillion clients, right? I'm balancing fun stuff there with also places that have money and budgets for content marketing, writing, content strategy, brand messaging, right? My icing stuff is more like pet health insurance, right?
Pet health insurance does not have enough people yet. Like there's not enough companies there for that to be, uh, a cake niche. There's the, it's just not ready, right? It's still growing, it's still getting funding, but it's something that feeds my little creative soul. And I like to do it right? Like, I like to talk about my pets, obviously.
Here's one of 'em. The other one escapes. She's over by me, but there Barry's in that little round hole. Hey Jennifer. Hey Getty. Good to see you guys. Um, we're kind of like mushing those things together. So our icing stuff, like if I wanted to write about pets more in depth, I could switch to a cake niche, like vets, right?
Like veterinary, uh, stuff. So veterinary, uh, clinics create blog posts all the time. And different types of patient materials, right, for pet parents. And then they also have veterinary, uh, SAS like platforms and softwares that they use to run their clinic and vet tech, um, and all different types of tools and systems and processes and software that run their veter veterinary clinic, blah, blah blah.
There we go. So there's lots of different ways I can slice this, but for me personally, I feel like I kind of wanna work on other stuff and leave pets as my fun thing. So when you're thinking about these things, that's one part. Cake and icing. I'm not gonna go into it super in depth cuz I have another video and like, it's, it's a whole thing.
But the other part of this is when we're thinking about balance, we need to kind of feed different parts of us. What are the projects that feed you in terms of, like, for me, I have different types of things. Content strategy is really fun because it's deep research and making a plan and a roadmap and helping guide the full strategy and the full editorial plan essentially for a client.
I love doing that. It's deep dive stuff. It's like, get your hands dirty in the data kind of stuff. If I'm writing a reported article, I really love interviews. I love talking to people about things they're interested in. I love, um, hearing more about their business, hearing more about their restaurant, or hearing more about what they, how they did something or how they came up with this idea, right?
Uh, and then there's other stuff where it's like, I just love my pets, right? And I wanna learn more about how I help them. So that would be an industry that I'd write in for icing, but we're kind of balancing the different types of like things we're interested in, right? So you have to look at that, like, what do I like?
Do I like research? Do I like interviews? Do I like taking complex things and make 'em easier to understand? Do I wanna talk more about pets or learn more about pets? Do I care about gardening? Uh, do I care about sustainable farming? Do I care about FinTech and having specific products for travelers, right?
Different types of credit cards or different types of rewards programs for travelers. You kind of have to look at all the things you like to do and that you're interested in and feed that into the balance. A lot of times people look at it as too broad brushstroke. They're just like, I just do FinTech.
Like they're not feeding these different parts of their writer personality and they're not really getting balance in feeding the different parts of themselves, right? So I'm not just someone who loves my dogs, I'm also someone who's like, very nerdy about research and data. Like I really care about things being statistically correct.
I, I really care about doing the right process and putting the right things in the right place. Um, I really care about quoting people accurately. Like I, I, you know, there's always like this kind of wiggle room, like, can we kind of fix the quote if they like misspoke a little bit? Or if there's like a little hiccup there, but they're still like presenting their idea, right?
Properly. And I feel like there's different pieces that writers just don't explore. They don't explore what they actually like in writing. They're just like, I will write it for you. I'll just do it all. So that's really important piece about managing balance is not only cake and icing and understanding where your topics and your niches are, right?
Wh where do they have tons of clients or not as many clients. Cake and icing. But also you have to manage the different parts of yourself in your writing, right? There's lots of different writers that like different things, and there's plenty of times where I've talked to writers that are like, can I be a freelance writer and a fiction writer?
I'm like, yes. Fiction writing might be your icing, right? Because freelance writing might need to make your income while you wait to publish your book or while you work on whatever you have to do for the book. Uh, but there's a lot of different stuff that we just have to feed within ourselves. And I peop, I think a lot of times freelance writers forget that they're just like, they just barrel into it saying like, I'll just do all the content I need to get paid help.
So we need to kind of balance the different parts of our personality, the different things we like to do. Like some, uh, some of my students really love, really, uh, technical stuff, like things that just go way over my head, things I don't understand. Uh, and I just, it's really just tough for me and boring and they're, they love it, right?
I have other students that I. Write about things like paper or chemicals or healthcare or, uh, supplements or, um, really complicated, uh, AI stuff or robots or, um, like different types of SaaS products that I don't understand, or DevOps or cloud computing or cybersecurity, right? And all of those things, like, there's little pockets of those things that I really like, but they're not feeding certain parts of my interests, right?
You have to figure out what's feeding certain parts of your interests, not only in topics and niches, but your personality of like research or data or I really care, like this is an issue that's close to my heart, so I'm gonna be, that'll be my icing thing. Or you can do what I did where I kind of made magazines more of my icing.
So I have a lot of content marketing, content strategy work that I do as most of my work. And then magazines are like my icing. So I do a lot of stuff, um, where like, that's a smaller portion of my work now. But this kind of comes from experimentation and understanding yourself, like what are the things you're good at, right?
Kind of dig into that. I think that's really important. Dig into those different topics and then start kind of outlining the balance. You can't have balance if you don't actually know what you're working with, right? We have to put all the puzzle pieces in front of us. Then after we do that, you can start organizing them, right?
So that's our first little thing. Our second thing here, hold on a second. You know, I feel like the numbers are like not, they aren't aligned. This guy's not even like the right size. What kind of show is this? Hold on, hive. Okay, so let's get rid of one now that they're all the same size. Now three should be, oh my goodness.
This is just a disaster. Everything's a different size. Okay. Um, our second thing here is like, we're talking about balance in terms of saying no. So even if I'm balancing all these different things, I'm balancing cake and icing. I'm balancing what I'm good at. My writer attributes, the things I like, uh, what makes money, what's a fun topic and I'm feeding different parts of my personality.
I also have to understand where the line is in the sand, where I'm saying no to different things. And, uh, what that means. Well, first of all, we're not saying no to Barry. Barry always gets a yes all the time. Barry's nice and snugly right now. He's sleepy. I never say no to Barry, so let's just say that. And Minnie's like over here, she's, uh, oh my gosh, I said her name now she's up.
Now she's gonna harass us. Go back to sleep mini. Oh my gosh. There she goes. I've started. No, you have to go all the way back and you have to take your blanket with you. That's not all the way back. You want your blanket? All right, ready? There you go. Okay.
Let's see if we can like get your little face on camera. Maybe. Maybe. All right. Can you back up? You gotta back up, back up, back up, back up, back up. Come in. No, not today. Just a little bit of our high highs. Alright. Close enough. Close enough. Okay. So when we're saying no to certain things, this also comes back to like, what are our brand values, right?
You have to pick out what kind of values drive your business. I don't care if it's three words or five words. You probably want to keep it below 10. But pick out some things that you feel like represent where you wanna take your work. Is your work really fun? Or is your work more buttoned up in like you care about preciseness, right?
Is it more free flowing or is it more, uh, backed by data and research, right? So when we're saying no, we have to know what that boundary is, right? What are the things that we're seeking out? What are the things that align with where our business is going? What are the things that make sense for how we wanna make money or how we wanna share our different parts of writing that we do?
So is your line in the sand that you're only gonna take a certain number of clients? Is your line in the sand, a certain amount of money is your line in the sand, certain boundaries with your clients where you're like, oh, you're gonna text me at 2:00 AM like this is not gonna work. Uh, there's a lot of different things where when we're looking at an opportunity, you have to remember that it's not just about what you like and it's not just about what you don't like.
The line in the sand is also like what you can deal with on a regular basis, right? Like if you're texting me in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping, like, that's not gonna work for me. I need you to like email me, or, um, I need you to like, we need to have an organized way of communication, not just like it's on, like I've had situations where it's on like three different platforms, like it's email, slack, and text, or it's.
Just, it's just all over the place. Or it's LinkedIn. Sometimes it's LinkedIn, email and social media or something. Woo, shh. Um, I like organized communication. So for me, when someone says like, Hey, will you be available for me to text you? Or if I get on a call with a client, or if I get on, uh, if I'm starting to onboard a client or I'm starting to say like, oh, this opportunity is in my cake or icing dishes, or it's something I'm interested in.
And then there's all these like weird things popping up, right? Like the client is like first texting me, then they're doing this, then they're doing that, then they're doing this, then they're on this platform, now they're doing this. Now they're leaving a comment. Like, if it's all over the place, that's going to filter into your relationship.
So this is something that I think is really important when you're saying no to specific opportunities, whatever you see, oh my gosh, go back to your ha hole, whatever you see, pre-contract, whatever you see, pre-contract, pre-money, pre, all that stuff. That filters into the relationship. It doesn't just change, right?
It doesn't. They don't become a different person who communicates differently by you signing a contract, right? They're still the same person. So you have to pay attention to that. You also have to look at some things like pay is the pay, right? Are the terms right? Are you getting the right rights? Right?
Like, let's say you're working on more personal essays and you're looking into the rights of keeping that in. A lot of places you're coming across aren't right for this story because they wanna keep all the rights and you wanna keep the rights. There's a bunch of different ways that we need to kind of balance our whole business and understand which opportunities are right and which are wrong.
And I've done this many times where I've taken a client where I'm like, this is gonna be great. And then I'm like, oh no, this isn't working. Uh, and it drains all my energy and I become a huge crab. And I complain about it a lot. And then I realized like, oh, I'm comp, like, you know, Tommy's like you're complaining a lot.
And I'm like, oh yeah, I should probably not do this. So there's a lot of things where you get a client and um, you need to kind of like filter that process too. Part of it is learning, right? Like I, I always kind of have this in the back of my mind is like, we're still learning. We wanna have that learner's mindset and still growing.
I still make these mistakes because there's different types of things that happen, right? There's different types of stuff that happens in our business where we do take a client or we take a risk or we try a new niche or we, um, try a different type of project or we get a referral and we take something from a referral and then we're like, oh, this person referred them, but they're not a right fit for me.
So when we're saying no, it's also about learning what's your line in the sand in, in addition to what you're willing to accept in the long term, or understanding that what you see in a call or what you see in contract negotiations, uh, or what you end up seeing. Um, just in their day-to-day behavior or in, uh, um, the review process, like that's going to continue.
So we're balancing a bunch of different things. So learning where your line in the sand is when you should say no. The types of things that don't work for you, like every writer is different. Some writers don't care about certain types of communication. Some writers wanna get on calls all the time. I don't.
I just want you to write it clearly in an email and then I'll just go do it, right? Some writers like to get on calls a lot like to, to discuss and they feel like they have, um, come to a better consensus of what someone needs. I like to get on specific types of calls to solve specific types of problems.
I don't wanna get on a call all the time just to have a call. You could, like, I'm very much, uh, like this could have been an email, like to me, my schedule time. Um, is really important to me and I wanna make sure I'm spending it on the right stuff. So if I have to get on a call, it needs to be worth that time where I could have been working for a client, or it needs to be worth that time.
I could have been helping a student or, um, I'm getting paid to be there for a certain thing, or it's a workshop that needs to happen for content strategy or brand messaging or messaging, positioning, right? So when you're saying no, we can always say no in a kind way. No, I don't think I'm the right writer for you at best of luck in finding the right writer for your brand.
Hey, uh, this is why we have things in our contract, right? Our contract has a 15 day out. I always put that in my contract, like, Hey, if this isn't working for either of us, right? If this isn't working for freelance or a client, we get 15 days notice. We're done. Right? So when we're thinking about that, like we need to have different options to say no, and there's always different ways to do that.
So those are two. Another one to say no is basically just being like, Hey, I don't think we're a fit anymore. Let me refer you to this other writer. Cuz there's been projects that I've been on where I'm like, oh, I think so-and-so's a better fit. Or there have been times where someone's referred work to me and they're like, this is gonna be the perfect fit.
And it turns out just not being right. Right. It's just understanding where to draw that line and when to get out and when. Like the other thing is too, is if you're Dr. Going crazy, right? If you're like, every time you're trying to do the same thing and this person every single time is trying to, and by person I mean client is trying to reinvent the wheel, or it seems like they're saying conflicting things or it's really confusing or difficult.
Maybe it's not just your communication styles just don't match or they're just not the right client for you. Um, or they change their mind too often. Right? And that's not a fit for you. Uh, it's harder to go with the flow when you have a full schedule, right? That's another reason we need to have balance and we need to understand saying no.
When our schedule is full. It's a lot harder to just be like, I, you know, moving deadlines all the time. Or, uh, doing 85 revisions or changing 65 social media posts, uh, or ending up doing, um, having like five different people on the board read the case study or white paper or guide or whatever and approve it, right?
So a lot of things we have to think about when saying no, but we can always say no in like a nice firm kind way and just, you know, refer the workout or leave the contract or get out of it. But you should know what's, write that down. Like, write down what works for you when you get a good client. Write down the things that are going well.
This client responds in X amount of time. This client is really nice to me. This client doesn't make me get on calls when it could have been an email. This client, um, really likes my work. This client, um, and I are on the same page about goals for the content. And if it's not going well, write that down.
This client makes me get on multiple weekly meetings that I'm not getting paid for, or this client is texting me and that's irritating me. Or this client is making me talk to five other people on the team all the time. Like I'm a full-time employee, or this client is not paying me on time. You need to write those things down cause we need to be tracking these things so we know when to say no and what our boundaries are.
Okay, so that's our second part. Charlotte, do you agree? Can you go back to your haba hole? She's over here getting all the snacks. Go. Go back to your Haba hole. Okay. Show your skills, boo boo. All right. We've changed it too. So we have high five now, but we also have pay the fee. So I tell her pay the fee and then she gets the snacks.
So that's one part of it. All right, Charles. Ready? Can you do a round for everybody? Nope. Around. Come on around. You can do it. Come on around, around. Do your circle. Good job. Good girl. You're a superstar. You're a superstar. Yes. Good job. We're trying to make it more, more, uh, in like, oh no, go back to your hub hole.
Stop harassing me for snacks. Okay. I know. Best girl. Best girl in the whole world. Um, I'm trying to get it beyond high fives. One of the things that I mentioned before with, uh, why I taught her around this is like something that I think is funny. Charlotte is sensitive in small areas, so if we are trying to get her to move around in a small area, sometimes she can get really spooked.
So I taught her around so that she can get around stuff or that she can turn around in certain areas if she needs to. So around is like all the, it is like a functional thing, right? So it's a functional piece that I taught her. Um, I also taught her like a figure eight weave, but obviously we can't do that on livestream.
It would be too difficult. But that's another thing where I'm trying to get her used to smaller spaces so she doesn't get spooked and run or like, um, run, you know, hurt herself or, you know, freak out. But she's sensitive sometimes. So we have to make sure we have these little things to help her navigate, you know, the planet.
Okay, let's talk about balancing our pay and creative work too. Vicky says, I think I've encountered some scam content strategists, uhoh. I think I've encountered some scam content strategists who have, haven't been clear about what they want to do, but who later use my proposal to come up with ideas. That sucks.
I don't like that at all. I would write that down as a major red flag. One thing is like, if they're using your proposal to come up with ideas, uh, there's always more ideas. So let's start there. Go back to your woo woo spot and stop wooing at me. Okay, thank you. Can you, do you want your blanket? Nope. Can you lay down?
Thank you. All right. Lay down. Enjoy your blanket. Good job. No, you stay. No, you stay there. Lay down. Lay down. Okay. You have to stay there. All right. So the deal is that, um, ideas are you should, we should be able to come up with a lot of ideas and refining your idea muscle, uh, is part of becoming a writer.
And it was really hard for me, but it's something that's really important. So one, even if someone takes your ideas, we can come up with more, not a big deal. Two, we're not gonna work with those people anyways, so whatever. Three, we need to make sure that we have clients who understand the value of our ideas and that we can workshop them with them.
Um, so even if someone took your proposal, I think probably if you're looking at clients who are not very serious, like we wanna talk with clients who are like, they have a pipeline, right? They wanna make sure they're moving forward with, uh, content, that they understand why they're creating that. Um, and that they are looking for someone to collaborate with.
So I'm sure that people, like, I'm sure people have taken my ideas many, many times without me knowing. Um, but we can always come up with more. And I would pay attention to that. Like, is someone serious? Usually the people that are taking ideas, like aren't signing contracts, um, and they're not really serious about Oh, you're saying it's the vampire?
Yeah. Yeah. The vampire not good. The vampire not good, for sure.
Okay. Hold on Vicky, you said. Okay. Um, Vicky says, how do I ask marketers needs in a way that holds, uh, high expectations of them? So when we're asking about their needs, we're asking on a call. So what you should have is high expectations. You should have a specific set of answers that you're expecting to get.
So what that means is that your, um, clients, which, you know, you're calling marketers, right? Like your clients should be able to tell you what the project is, what is the scope, what's included in it, what's the timeline? Which means like, what is, do the, do the blog posts or the case study need to be done in two weeks or four weeks?
And then what's like, um, are there specific deadlines in there? Do you need to meet other deadlines besides just turning it in within the timeline? Do they have a specific publishing schedule? Do they already have interviews lined up? If you need to do those, uh, why are they creating this content? Can they explain to you why this thing is important to their, their audience or their brand?
Can they explain to you what the, um, after effects are, right? Like when they publish this blog post, they're expecting X, y, Z to happen, or they have, those are basically KPIs, key performance indicators. They're just metrics for like success for the contract content. So they can tell you like why they're doing something, how they're doing something, what it is specifically what they're looking for in a writer, or what types of things, why they liked your work.
So our job is to ask about, like ask the questions of what, how, why give me specifics and then hold them to as high standard. So our job is to then make sure that we're listening for specific things that they're giving us lots of clear information, that they're giving us lots of answers to our questions and not saying like, I don't know, or like, we're just trying it out.
So we're still asking these questions of like, what's the debt, like, what's the scope of work? Why are we doing this content? Do you have any metrics of for success or do you have ways that, um, you feel like this project will be a success? Uh, or you're asking them, you know, where do you see the future of this project going?
Um, you are asking 'em, right? Like why they're creating the content. Um, you're asking them. Um, who else are you gonna talk to? Like, who else are, is going to be involved in the project? What is the revision process? What is the payment schedule? Like, all those things that we have from those list of potential client questions, but we're just looking for better answers.
We're not looking for answers that just kinda like fly by night. We're looking for specific people who have long-term plans, who are like in the right boat, right? So the high expectations part is on our end we need to hold for a specific type of answer. We're looking for people who clearly communicate what they want and how they want it, and what direction and why.
And, um, if they're gonna track any success measures other than creating a content library, um, what the purpose of it is for their audience, that they can explain who their audience is, right? All of those things we're looking for specific answers on those and clear answers. So that's the deal is when we're talking to clients, the door to get into your schedule should be more like a screen door where you're like, Hey, like we can talk through the screen for a second, but like, you can't just come in and like join my schedule for any reason.
There should be a lot of like, you know, um, like maybe think of it this way, like your, you have a door to your house, which is like your work schedule or your clients, right? And you look through the peephole and you talk to someone through the peephole first. That's email, right? Then you're like, okay, cool.
They passed kind of the email test. And I, I do that a lot with, uh, new clients. I'm like, Hey, can you give me scope of work? Can you tell me why you're creating the content? Tell me budget. Um, tell me deadlines, tell me like what's the goal, right? That's the why of the content. Um, but then you like get them off email and you get on a call and that's like screen door.
Like, Hey, are you responding to the things in the right way? Like, are you telling me more information? Are you giving me a, a bunch of answers other than just like, we're just creating content. Um, but are you, are you really responding to all those questions? And then we're, we're only letting people in through the screen door after the right, the peephole, the screen door, and then we let them into the house.
Once they clearly have shown this is an ongoing project with other work, um, that might be in the pipeline. They answered the questions clearly and easily, and it's something that they expect, right? They're like, oh, of course you would wanna know that. Then we let them in. So let's see. Jennifer says, it sounds like the stress potential, the stress, wait a minute.
It sounds like the stress potential is a huge red flag. So I have a question. So, when it comes to the discussion of rates, what usually is the first indication of a red flag? Red flag for saying no. Okay. So the stress potential is definitely a thing, right? That's something that we're looking out for when we're looking for balance, right?
We don't wanna be on the nut, we don't wanna go down trained in nut town, right? So if someone's acting erratic, right? Or, or they're kind of all over the place and disorganized, that if you are super, like, um, type A person, like I'm very type A, I like plants, I like putting things in place. I like, everything has a place, like, I like things very organized.
So when I get clients that are disorganized, it's really difficult for me a lot of times. Like, I just, it just, it bothers me. I'm just like, deal. I'm just like, get it in shape, like, deal with it. Um, so that can be a, a red flag. Some people like this, like more go with the flow. I'm okay with go with the flow with certain things, but there's a lot of times when like, you just have too many things where like someone gives you a bunch of folders and they're like, look through this stuff and find something, and you're like, what?
What am I looking for? And that's not our thing. So when we're talking about rates, My thing with red flags is like that they don't, this is the first potential red flag. Not always a red flag, but that they don't have a budget. Like they haven't thought about what would I pay someone for a piece of content?
Like not even a budget, like we have $10,000. They haven't really even thought about like, okay, our budget is like, I think, you know, a dollar a word. So $800 for an 800 word piece makes sense, right? Like the, the, for me, even if they don't have a budget, which sometimes they don't, it's totally legit. They at least kind of have some kind of ballpark.
Or if I give a ballpark on a call, which is rare, but if I did do it, they have a positive or response like, that sounds about right. Right. Or they're like, okay, cool. And it's not like a big deal. So if I'm talking to someone for a red flag for rates and I need to say no, it's usually that you're in the wrong ballpark.
Like, it's usually very clear that someone says, we're willing to pay you a hundred dollars for a thousand words. And you're like, oh, I'm looking for a dollar word. So a thousand words. Or a thousand dollars. Uh, and that's a big gap. So they're either not giving you budget information or they're beating around the bush, or they're treating you like an employee.
They're treating you like it's a job interview and you have to prove yourself to get it, you know, to have them as a client, uh, which I'm not playing that game. So, uh, the other thing is that even if they don't have a budget, sometimes they can give you other good answers. So like, if I can give 'em like an eight, outta 10, they can answer everything, but they're like, oh, we're not sure on budget.
Like, this is a new project for us. I'm like, okay, cool. You know, um, or it's a project that I've done a bunch. So like if I say, um, I know that if I do this content strategy pack, like I have multiple content strategy packages, they range from 10 K to 30 k, or I have like a big giant brand messaging, messaging and positioning and content strategy, prac, uh, package.
And I'm kind of naming some of those numbers that I know are for specific packages and that's not flying. Well, that's definitely a no. Um, rate discussions often should be like, I don't know, I just feel like a lot of times it should be very clear, like when you're talking to clients, what they have in mind in terms of either per piece or per word or their overall ballpark budget.
Uh, there's always kind of this wiggle room sometimes when you have a client that's not really totally sure. Uh, if you wanted to give a ballpark rate, you can. It's not, I just don't like it. Like I, it, I give ballpark rates for content strategy cuz I have that ironed out. Like there's a very specific set of deliverables that go with that.
But if I'm quoting like a project of like five different types of content, I need to think about that. So when we're thinking about red flags and saying no, a lot of it too is your gut. Like if someone's not paying attention on the meeting, they may miss your invoice and not pay your invoice. If there's someone who's not plugged in, they can't answer the other questions.
They don't seem like they're focused. Um, I've had, this is another thing for me, I've been on, um, client calls where someone's like just yawning the whole time and they sound bored, like a phone call, not a Zoom thing, but they just sound bored the whole time. And I'm just like, okay, well, like what's, and, and it was really difficult to work with them.
Uh, so for me, it didn't even have to do with rate. It was just like, uh, an indicator that they weren't plugged in and interested. Like, I wanna work with people who care about the brand, who care about the performance, right? Like how it's gonna go forward and how they treat their customers, how that content is delivered.
Um, and rate is part of that discussion. But yeah, like I don't, I feel like sometimes it's also experience. Like for me, there was a bunch of things I had to learn the hard way, where like I, for me personally, saying no. Um, and other writers were fine with it and I just weren't, wasn't. Wasn't it? Yeah. Uh, but when you're saying no, I feel like that's also personal experience.
Like you have enough turn in your clients that you're like, oh, like I remember this conversation from last time. This isn't gonna work out well for me. Or like, it's also about kind of like write, writing things down, what works and what doesn't. Okay. So I hope that was helpful, Jennifer. Um, boo boo. Boo boo.
Okay, hold on. Vicky says, um, so you don't ask all those questions at the email level, right? Which are email and, uh, versus meeting I could, if I wanted to, um, I will most likely ask the most important ones. So for me, when I'm creating a barrier to entry for, for a client, I wanna know what's your scope of work?
Like, how clearly have you defined this scope of work? Do you have a budget? Because for me, right now in my career, I'm not getting on calls with people who like, Can't answer a few questions via email. Like, I want ver people who are very serious about what they're doing, why they're doing it. They have very, they have a lot of focus.
Earlier in my career, I was like, yeah, I'll kind of hash it out with you on the, on a call. So I'm asking about what the scope of work is, the budget, the timelines or the deadlines, any information they can give. Excuse me. Give me about details. So do I need to find, um, SEO keywords? Do I need to do a bunch of interviews?
Do I need to do a lot of research? Like what's, what kind of attributes are in this project? Um, and like, um, what's the other, like what the publishing timeframe is? And I'm trying to think if there's anything else I ask in the email that, that's kind of, I think what I can think of off the top of my head.
But I, I use that as a barrier to entry via email cuz I know if I get on a call, I have enough information that like, we're pretty much on the same page, right? We're on the same page in terms of budget, in terms of what this project is in terms of, uh, deadlines that I could probably fit into my schedule or what this, what's kind of that they've actually thought through the project in terms of multiple different steps, right?
So then when I'm getting on a call, like I'm getting on a meeting right, on a call with them, then I can figure out more about why they're creating this project or if it's byline or ghost written. Or I can ask them, why did you pick a thousand word articles? Right? We talked about that. Or, um, if I figured out like, Hey, we're not quite a fit on budget, but would you be able to move to this number?
Or if we did this, we could kind of mix and match delib deliverables. I'm using the call as a way to hash out. Other details, but I'm using the email as a way to just cut down people who have not thought about the project in, in detail enough. They can't give me information. They're just like, let's just hop on a call and talk about it.
And I'm like, no, no. Um, they haven't thought about any ki type of, hello? Oh my gosh, blue. They haven't thought about any type of timeline, budget, deadline, publishing, schedule, blah, blah, blah stuff. So yeah, you're not asking all the questions at the email level. You're asking the most important things that would have you want to work with someone, right Time, uh, scope of work, budget, timeline, comp, complexities of the project, right?
Seo, keywords, images. Do I need to do a bunch of research in interviews? Um, what's kind of going on with this project? Any other extras they can, they can give. We want them to have like a defined hashed out project. Sometimes they're like, we're not sure on budget. Oh my goodness. No. Go back to your hot hole.
Sometimes they're not totally sure on budget because they haven't worked with a freelance writer before, or they're not actually sure how it works. Um, but that's usually what ends up happening is you send a proposal and they're like, oh, now we have a budget. Or they're like, oh, that works for us. So, um, that depends.
But yeah, you're not asking everything about, um, in the email, you are ha you are putting up the first hurdle to, to entry, right? Your peephole questions like you're, Hey, what the fuck? Like, what's going on? And then you're like, cool, we've gotten past, like, what is this? And now we're getting to why, how, um, can you elaborate type stuff?
Was that helpful? Vicky, Jennifer says, very helpful. You're welcome, Jennifer. Okay. And Jennifer too. The other thing about, um, Jennifer, I know you well enough that you also, there's another thing too where like when you're talking about rate, and we, I should have said this. When you're talking about rate, you should also be kind of pushing the envelope.
You get to a point in your career where you're kind of pushing the envelope a little bit and when you start talking to someone who's like rehashing the same thing you've done a hundred times, you're like, Ugh, I really don't wanna do that blog post at 400 bucks. I really wanna do it at 600 bucks. Maybe that's a no for you right now.
Right? So you're kind of pushing the envelope in terms of clients, in terms of where you're taking your business in terms of getting to the next level. So sometimes a no just becomes kind of this like, I've already been there, like I've already been in that bubble. I'm trying to break out of that bubble.
So it just becomes a no cuz it's not aligning with where you wanna take your rates in business. I should have said that before. You're welcome Vicky. I'm glad that was helpful. Um, remember especially I feel like when Vicky asked that question, especially when we're thinking about, uh, clients, like if we've had a bunch of red light clients, if you feel like a lot of your clients have been red light clients, they're just not a fit for you, or they're like flaky and weird.
I would do the email questions. This was something for me that I started doing just because I was tired of tire kickers. Like I would get clients that like, just, you would send a proposal or contract and they would just flake. So I was like, you know what? I'm literally not gonna talk to you. I'm not getting on a call.
I'm not gonna waste both our times unless you can pass the first hurdle of like, you have your shit together. Right? So it's, that's another thing about, um, moving forward in your business is like there's elimination of a lot of clients who would never be a fit for you anyways. That's why we kind of wanna, like, I started implementing that cause I was like, I'm ti I was getting on, I did a calendar review and I was getting on all these calls that never did anything and I was just like, I'm not doing that anymore.
Like, no more extra calls. I'm o only getting on calls with people who are like legit ready to go and maybe we're not a fit. Fine, that's a no. That's cool, but I'm not gonna waste my time getting on, you know, like five calls a month or whatever it was, or 10. I don't know what it was, but. I'm not gonna waste my time getting on all these calls throughout the year that don't turn into projects.
Right. Okay. Let's talk about three real quick, and we might have to mosh, um, well, we kind of talked about three a little bit already, so when we're, one of the questions that I get all the time, if, oh, also, if you feel like this has been helpful, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you wanna build a freelance writing business and you adore, subscribe.
Also mini back up mi She's sitting like a little tiny panda right now. Can you back up? Tiny panda. Good girl. All right. Can you pee the feet? Good job. Good girl. All right. So a lot of times I get asked about like how do you balance getting paid and then also doing creative work as if you can't do creative work or interesting projects for different types of companies without getting paid.
Those things live together. A lot of times people, when they mean creative work, they mean poetry or fiction or things like literary contests or things that may not pay as much, which is totally fine, but there's lots of times where you can add creativity or interest, um, or fun things like, like d uh, fun descriptions into your regular content work.
Do you wanna come say hello to everybody? Cuz you're driving me cuz you're trying to sit on my foot with your butt. So there's a lot of ways that we can mush that together. Balancing pay and creative work comes back to cake and icing, but balancing pay and creative work also comes with understanding pay and creative work can go together.
It doesn't necessarily have to be like, I only write in. DevOps or cybersecurity to make money, what I really want is to just like write this other thing all the time. Like pick things that you're actually interested in. Don't just pick things that you think make money, because that never works out. Every time I end up talking to a freelance writer that picked a niche where they were like, oh, I just thought this would make money.
They hate it. They hate it. You have to pick stuff that you're interested in, things that you wanna move forward with. That's where the money is, is because you're interested enough to keep pursuing those clients, pursuing those projects, and then it works out. So your creative work could be fiction or it could be, like I said, I like to write about pets sometimes.
Um, or other like random things like, uh, green technology or sustainability or, uh, different types of like farming techniques and stuff. Um, or I like to write about business owners. Like, I like to write about people who are running small businesses. Um, but we're kind of mushing those things together so we don't have to like, take less pay because it's creative or because it's interesting to us.
We don't have to pick a niche just because it pays well. Um, we don't have to separate out that like this is where I get to be creative. It can only be in my fiction, poetry, icing niches. You can be creative in your regular stuff. You just have to find the right clients. That's why I try to explain to people that even though my LinkedIn says I work in FinTech and SaaS, I work in very specific sections of FinTech and SaaS that I like.
So for example, I work in Mortgage Tech. I work with a lot of companies that are trying to revolutionize mortgages. That's both FinTech and SaaS. I don't write in a lot of FinTech. Things that are like blockchain or complicated financial processes or stuff like that. There's always these little pockets that you can find so you can be in different niches.
Um, and you can balance those cool, creative, interesting things with what you're in, what you like to do, right? Those topics and the pay. Okay, so that was three. I gotta hurry up here. Okay, so that was three. Let's talk about four. Okay. I, man, I did like a chop drop on these. These are all like, they're all different sizes.
Hold on. This is kind of close. Is this kind of close? Hello? One. Okay, hold on. Maybe we can all get on the same page now. Are they all the same? Pretty much. They're pretty close. Okay. Um, let's talk about our uncertain income and deadlines and creating our own opportunities. So, number four here? Yes. Would you like to create your own snack opportunities?
Charlotte? You're gonna eat all the snacks. You're gonna eat all the snacks, Charlotte. Then we're not gonna have any snacks. I know. Go back, go back to your hub hole please. Thank you. All right. Can you do an around for everybody, Charlotte, around. Around. Come on around. You can do it. We, you have plenty of room that's not around.
That's down. Can you go around? Ch around. Come on around. Good job. Good job. You get it? Good girl. All right. Jennifer has a question. Jennifer says, hold on. Do you think that the driving force for ow, ow like in between my toes? Okay. Do you think the driving force forge? Okay. I'm sassy. I'm gonna pick you up and share you with everybody.
Come on. You can't put on the brakes, the driving force for getting on the wrong calls.
You're gonna be kicked out. You sass me. You're on the sass party today. Can you go back to your ha hole and be and be chill and zen for a sec. Hi. Can you lay down? No. Come back here. Beep beep. All right. Can you lay down?
Okay. There you go. Hang out right there. All right, let's try this again. And she's off Charlotte. Okay. Do you think the driving force for getting on the wrong calls or accepting projects so get getting on the wrong calls or accepting the wrong projects is because we're worried we won't be offered more work?
I think the driving force is fear of not having another client and fear that if you ask for what you want in terms of rates, you're, someone's gonna scoff at you. I think from working with lots of students that getting on these calls is like, the driving thing is that they're in scarcity. There's no more calls, they're, no one's going to email me.
Finally, someone found my website and they wanna work with me. I better take this project. There's no more work. Right? This is the kind of, uh, anxiety I used to have. So that's how I like identify with it a lot. Is like, when we get on the wrong calls, it's just like we're so desperate or we're so fearful there's no more work, or we don't feel like there's a good client around the corner.
We're just like, oh shit, we gotta get on this right now. So that's part of it. The other thing is that we're worried that there's, um, that this, there's another piece too where we're, we feel like we're competing. A lot of times when I talk with, uh, writers who come from platforms, right? I'm not gonna name 'em, but writers who come from platforms or who come from like cattle call type situations, they're like, I have to get on this call because I'm competing with a hundred other writers.
I'm good, da da, right? They're, it's, again, scarcity. There's only one spot and you're competing with the cattle call, which is not what we wanna do at all. The other thing is that they're afraid that, that not accepting this 400 bucks or whatever this work is, and this is what caused me to burn out, was if I'm accepting money and making money, then I must be going in the right direction, not the case.
If you're accepting low paying work, often you end up burning out, cuz all you're doing is accepting small transactions from a ton of different people. And it takes a lot of time to ramp all those people up. And it takes a lot of time to make sure you're paid on time. And there's all these like little 500, 400, 200, uh, 800, 100 little transactions, little dollar transactions.
Um, and it's just a huge drain on your energy and time and it doesn't actually make that much money. So I think the fear is those kind of, those things, scarcity mindset, the fear that there's no other work, no other clients, no one will find you, that you're competing against a billion other writers. Um, and that if you ask for the number that you want, that someone's gonna like shame you for it.
Right? They're gonna be like, I can't believe you did that. You know, like they're gonna have like a whole meltdown over it. And that's just not the case. If you ask for the right number to from the right client, they're like, they say things like That sounds about right. Or they're like, oh, that was just what our last freelance writer charged.
Or they say things like, sounds good, fits within our budget. Right? There's a lot of fear and scarcity that drives writers. And again, this is why I have that very long held vendetta with Anri Marga who invented the whole starving artist thing, right? We talked, we talked about this before, it was like 1849 or 1847, I think it was 1847.
But anyways, he invented the whole lab Boheme starving artist Bs. And uh, people just keep buying it. They keep eating the, the poison apple for some reason. Uh, but there's lots more work out there. There's lots more work for you. Plus you only need three to five clients. It's not a lot of people, right? It's not a lot of people to convince that you're great at your job and you don't even have to convince them, right?
If you have clips and experience, and I know Jennifer specifically is killing it. She is doing wonderful work and she's getting lots of views and likes and shares, and she's going to an amazing district competition. So I think the deal is like there's, here's the last thing I'll say with it. I think this is one more important thing.
Experience. A lot of writers don't understand the experience that it takes on these calls, so they just kind of accept it. They just accept whatever's given to them, rather than saying like, can we negotiate or can we talk about this a little bit more? Or, let me hear your goals. A lot of times newer freelance writers, and I was one of these people who were like, oh, it's a job interview.
I just hop on and someone just tells me what to do and I just go do it like a drone, right? Like a little sheep. And that's just not how this works. That's not how this works. And there's a lot of misunderstanding out there cuz a lot of freelance writers are coming from other jobs. Whether they're like, uh, whether they're high school students or college students who have had typical hourly, you know, regular jobs or they're coming from corporate or they're coming from a different type of structure, right?
They treat it like, I need to send a cover letter and I need to do all this stuff. And that's just not how it works. So the other thing too is experience. You're gonna get on a lot of wrong calls until you start understanding what's right for you. I can help you, right? I can Dr. Guide you in the right direction.
I can tell you what to look for. But there's also a big difference in preferences for black beans. Just kidding. Um, there's also a big difference in preferences for writers, right? Like, Um, like there are other people who need longer deadlines than me, or shorter people are faster than me. Right. I, uh, I taught a class last night for Lindy Alexander's, uh, right.
Earned Thrive course. So if you haven't checked that out, you should. I taught, uh, a class for her and we have a big difference. So she is very fast and I am very slow. So she's a very fast writer and I'm a very slow writer. But we're in similar situations, right? We have similar kind of businesses, and I think that that just depends on what you like to do and how your personality is, and how your, you write things like, I'm just, that's not my thing.
Like, I'm not fast. And if I were to sit around still and compare myself to Lin's fastness or Lindy's business, or who she's getting on calls with or her preferences, I wouldn't have a business that I really like. Right? That's what I did too, was years ago, 5, 6, 7 years ago, I was trying to build my friends.
Actually, it was probably, yeah, like five years ago. Um, I was trying to build my friends' businesses, right? I was like, oh, you're doing really well in this niche. I should do that too. Oh, you're really doing this type of thing. I should do that too, and just kept blowing up in my face everywhere. It was just landmine city and it was a disaster.
Uh, and then once I started realizing I have to build my own business with my own preferences and the my own things that I like, then I start getting more clients that are a fit for me, specifically for my specific personality, for how I work, whether that's fast or slow, um, or for what I like to do in terms of work or the types of content I like to create.
So that's another thing. I urge you to be more of yourself, get on a call and be more of yourself. And it's really easy to figure out if someone's a fit or not. If you're yourself and you also understand that you have your own preferences. My scoffing Scarlet O'Hara, you know, I still haven't read that, or, um, I still haven't watched that yet.
Gone with the wind, not all the way through. I've only watched parts of it. I need to get on that. Anyways, Vicky says, I'd like to learn about that too. I'm trying to line up some low hanging fruits so that I can look for more sophisticated Scott. Man, I've been talking too much lately. I'm stumbling over words here.
Um, more sophisticated stuff, but is that practical? I kind of like going across the board. Vicky, I'm gonna be honest. I like to shoot a bunch of different things and see how that works. Like, let me try some low hanging fruit. Let me try some dream clients. Let me try some people in the middle. Let me try some stuff I think might work.
Let me try some things that, you know, niches or types of clients that may not work. The, that's kind of the experience thing too, is like, I think just getting the repetitive experience sometimes can be really useful. So you start learning a lot of deep, ex deep, um, attributes about yourself and your clients from just kind of doing the process.
So it's not so much about picking this specific low-hanging fruit. I think sometimes when we're, especially when we're trying to ramp up our income, Try some things because there's lots of times in my business where I just tried some stuff and it ended up working out being something I really loved and being something that taught me a lot.
Um, so my, my advice is to, I, I think you should try to do it all. Like, not do it all, but I think that you should try, like, try a few different things at once. Not a hundred things. Try like three different things at once. So pick three different types of clients. One C like a type of client that might be more sophisticated in your mind, or a few dream clients, and then kind of a low hanging fruit type of client.
Um, but it's not, this is another thing too, Vicky, remember to keep in the back of your mind that there are writers who got their very first clips in the most prestigious places, right? New York Times Traveling Leisure, Kanye, NAS Traveler, Boston Globe. Uh, Washington Post, uh, wall Street Journal, whatever your big, uh, publication is.
People who've never written before have gotten their first clips there. They were like, I'm becoming a writer. And they pitched an idea and got accepted. There is no like magic level of experience that allows you, uh, there is no allowing either for, to go after more sophisticated stuff. You go for it, you go for it, and you try it and you see what works and what doesn't.
There's no like weird point that you get through where you go through like the toll and they're like, congratulations. By paying $5, you now can move on to sophisticated projects, right? Like, that doesn't exist. I think you should try a bunch of different things. And remember, the other thing too is the most, the highest paid work I've ever done was the easiest stuff I've ever done.
Right? Like the highest paid work. Was for, um, these like either very specific types of clients, like specific types of startups or these bigger clients that I've had. And it was like the easiest stuff I'd ever done. I got paid the most. And that wasn't about sophistication or experience. It was like I just went after it.
I just tried it out and I was like, sweet, it worked. So I don't think you need to experience, I don't think you need, uh, or well, I don't, I think you can try a bunch of different things at the same time to get that experience. Okay. Last thing we're gonna talk about here in four, which I haven't gotten to yet.
Um, sometimes people think that there's uncertain income with fiction and poetry, which is true, or with fun niches or with icing stuff, which is true. It can be more uncertain. But we're balancing that by being more particular with, um, what we're saying yes to, what we say no to, and the types of clients and projects that we're taking on.
So when I say creating your own opportunities, what I mean is. Being more out there, right? Get, get out there and try different things, right? Just like I was telling Vicky, creating your own opportunities comes from refining who your ideal client is. Trying different stuff, getting experience. Get on a bunch of calls, like send a bunch of Lois, see how many calls you can get on, not how many clients you sign, but start with, Hey, I'm gonna send a hundred Lois, what's the statistic I can look for for a conversion of calls?
Okay, now that I have that kind of number, uh, what are the, what are the clients in those calls that were actually a really good fit for me? Or what can I kind of try between? Um, getting clips in new niches or, um, um, publishing fiction and poetry alongside personal essays, alongside content about this other stuff, right?
That I'm writing for specific types of clients, creating your own opportunities. Is also about like doing, um, connections on LinkedIn or, um, being more particular about who you're marketing to, right? Like I often talk about my ideal clients are typically series B and series C startups who have between 20 and 50 million.
I know that, um, a bunch of clients for my students, um, some of them have to have over a hundred million in revenue to be a viable client. I realized that real estate brokerages need to have over a hundred million in revenue to have a budget for content. However, the tech tools that real estate agents use, right?
Those have tons of them. There's huge piles of tech tools, um, and platforms and systems and SaaS and blah, blah, blah, that real estate agents use. That is where the work and money is not in the brokerages that have to have a hundred million, those other tools that they use, right? The tools that serve the giant pile of hundreds of thousands of real estate agents.
Um, That's where the money is, right? And I only learned that through making mistakes, but it's also understanding where those opportunities are. Refining that client, what's kind of going on. And that's from experience, sorry, allergy season. My nose is very itchy. Um, that comes from reaching out to people, making more connections, getting on more calls, trying different things.
Not an overwhelming number of things where you're like, I've gotta do everything at once, but doing different types of stuff so you can see what works best. Like, do you get your best results for Lois from email or from LinkedIn? Do you get, uh, are you growing your network on LinkedIn with the right types of clients who, um, may not be ready, like they don't have the revenue yet, but when they are, you're already connected and you can send 'em a quick l o i Are you connecting with other freelance writers who may be able to help you understand your niche better, or who can refer work to you or, um, co-work with you and just talk to you about stuff.
Um, Are you trying to refresh your LinkedIn and your website so that you're attracting the right types of clients? Once you learn more about pain points or things that you're good at, right? Your writer attributes, there's a whole bunch of different things that we can do to create opportunities. Uh, and I feel like writers are so focused on this transactional, like job boardy type stuff.
They're like, oh, I just get the client right? Like, I gotta, I gotta get in the call and I get the client right? That's, we, we need to like, Um, what I used to tell myself, and this is like, um, this was like irons in the fire. How many irons can I put in the fire? Not when the irons get hot or which irons get hot?
How many irons can I just keep putting in that fire? And when one gets hot, cool. I've already been putting in so many irons in the fire, trying so many different things, or trying like refining processes that somebody's gotta get hot sometime, right? We're, we are doing things every single day to move our business forward.
I don't care if it's small or big, most of the time it's small. Good. I sent one LinkedIn connection today, or Good. I sent one LOI today. I will. I Hi. Woo. I hear you. You just carrying on. You're like the songbird of the live stream. There you go. So we're, we're, I don't care how big or small it is, the deal, is that right?
Like, there's that phrase that says like, um, Like, it doesn't matter how fast you go, as long as you're moving forward, that's kind of this deal. You need to be moving forward every day. I don't care how little it is. There needs to be some kind of situation where you're moving forward every day that's really important.
And that you're understanding you can try new things. Right? Oops. Do you find a little piece you can try new things. That's the cool thing about freelance writing. You can try a lot of different stuff and create your own opportunities. I've tried a lot of weird things that ended up working out for me and a lot of leaps, like every time I've taken a leap in my business, like when I started coaching, I was like, I don't know anything.
When I started coaching, I was like, how am I gonna help people? And then I had my first coaching student and my next coaching student and my next one, and I was like, oh, like I see like you, you know, you, you kind of have to take a leap sometimes and let the driver, right? My driver was like, I wanna help other writers get it.
Like they're, I see too many writers who just don't get it. They're not plugged into the right things. They're worried about all this ancillary stuff that doesn't matter. So I was more driven by, I wanna help other writers get it and make money and like build a business they actually like, right? Rather than just like, have money.
Um, they build these, these structures that they like, that continue on, that are built on a strong foundation so that like if something happens, the whole thing doesn't crumble like a house of cards. So I was driven more by that than worrying about having the answer to everything. And now that I've been coaching writers for a very long, well, like many years now, um, now I realize like even with all this experience and even after answering thousands of questions, right, I still don't know everything.
Right? That's just part of learning. It's part of growing, it's part of understanding that this is like a, an ameba business, but we have to try things we can't, um, we can't just get stuck in like this one little bubble. Okay. All right. Um, I think that's all the stuff I wanted to cover and I hope this has been helpful.
I don't have any questions in there cuz sometimes we have questions in the hopper. That people have emailed in, but we don't. One time I did get asked, um, to do a DOSA walkthrough and I still am planning to do that. I just haven't done it yet. Uh, it's, it's an intensive type thing. Like whenever I make a video, it's like 40 minutes, uh, of me just explaining stuff and that's like the basic version.
So we'll see about that. But if you wanna see a Dosa video, which is basically like how I run my business through this, uh, it's a, uh, crm. So a, uh, basically think of it as a customer relationship management tool or a client relationship management tool where it has my contracts, my scheduler, all that stuff.
Okay. Charlotte, would you like to say anything in your ha hole though? You have to go back to your ha hole. You've had so many snacks. It's like none. Any, you gotta back up. Okay. You got have everybody. High five. Good job. Good job. Super cutie. Oh my gosh. The whites of your eyes. Woo whoop. Good big girl. Big girl.
Yeah. Yeah. And Jennifer and Vicky and everybody else, don't forget it's okay to do research. It's okay to, to te to treat new client calls and new stuff as research rather than, like, it has to convert. We can use it as a research and infor, uh, information opportunity rather than like, this call has to convert.
Right. Sometimes we get on calls and it's gonna be a no. Right? But that's part of learning the balance. It's also like understanding, like getting more kind of data points. Cool. Okay. All right. We're here every Friday at noon Central time if you want to suggest a topic. Hold on. I lost it. Oh, here, it's um, if you wanna suggest a topic or you have a question, you go to mandy ellis.com/question and you could submit it.
Uh, I've done a lot of topics that have been recommended or asked for by different people. So if you have a question or topic you want covered on a livestream, pop it in there. The other thing is pricing guide. I have my free pricing guide, so if one of the things you're struggling with is pricing, go to mandy ellis.com/pricing guide and grab my pricing guide for freelance writers and content strategists.
I update it regularly. I updated it, I don't know, six months ago or nine months ago. So every time I collect new types of work that, uh, people ask me to add to it, and I added a ton of stuff to it this time. So Mandy ellis.com/pricing guide to get that. It's free. Um, I will see you next Friday, and I hope everybody has a good weekend. Bye.
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