Best Practices for Finding Expert Sources for Interviews
If it's been a big struggle in your freelance writing career to find the right expert sources for your articles, don't worry, you're not alone.
How are you supposed to go out and sift through all those people to not only find a true expert, but one that's the right fit for your piece? It takes a few right tricks of the trade, knowing how to spot a real expert from a phony, and understanding where to look and how far, but I'm walking you through all of that here.
Exactly how to find top expert sources who match your article's topic and can give you the best quotes and info so your editors continue singing your praises.
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So today's live stream is brought to you by Lisa Paskewitz. So while back, um, Lisa asked me about best practices for finding expert sources for interviews. And I said, I'm going to put that in a live stream because it's a really good topic to talk about. And I feel like a lot of people really struggle with finding, um, expert sources for their magazine articles, for trade magazines and even news stand magazine. So we're going to go over that. We're going to over best practices today. So Lisa, thank you for this topic. Shout out to Lisa, Lisa Paskewitz. I think that's how she says her name Paskewitz. So Lisa, if you see this and I spelled your, I pronounced your name wrong, just let me know. But, um, everybody thank Lisa for providing this topic today. So here's what we're going to go over. We're going to go over, um, how to find them, um, figuring out real experts from people who aren't really experts in.
Just want press, um, where we're looking for sources, how long we should look for sources. Um, and then finding basically like the right sources to give good quotes. So, um, here's where we're going to start. We're going to start with number one. Let's need just like see if I can handle myself today. All right. Number one. Whew. Okay. Number one is we are going to talk about, um, finding expert sources. So basically like our tricks of the trade. Um, for me, here's how I have found expert sources for the last 10 years, basically. Uh, maybe not 10, maybe like the last seven years that I've done reported articles. Um, so basically when we're looking for expert sources, there's a bunch of different things we need to do. We don't necessarily want expert sources who are sources in like a ton of different topics, excuse me all the time.
So what that means is, uh, we are going to look for people who are like super experts in our specific topic. Sometimes you end up getting pitches of you ended up using something like Herro, or you're connected to a bunch of PR people. Um, they'll just send you random stuff like, oh, this person's an expert in like this, this, this, this, and this. And then you like, it's too much. Sometimes what ends up happening is when you pick those people who are like experts in all of those fields, right. They're experts in all those fields. They're really only experts in one of those fields. And then what ends up happening is you interview them about a different field. And they're like, oh, I basically only know these, you know, four or five things. And you're like, okay, that's not helping me. So when we're looking for experts, we're looking for someone who really fits the topic.
Like who's someone who's been in the industry for a long time, um, who has worked in the type of thing that you're talking about the topic. So if you're talking about, um, let's say, um, prop tech, startups who created apps, like you need someone who has either a real estate agent who works with a ton of those apps and they can name them. Um, you need someone who can talk about maybe the development process, um, have someone who can speak to prop tech, startups, like why all these companies are growing and why they're being adapted by real estate agents. You're looking for someone with specific knowledge, um, specific knowledge for your topic. So the other part about finding, um, expert sources that I have kind of had as a tip of the trade over the years is I ended up, um, basically making my own lists.
So for me, um, I ended up just collecting all of these emails over the years from PR people, experts I've interviewed, um, Herro sources sometimes where I just like, I'm not going to use them, but I like their source requests. So I put it in there. I create them in Gmail. They're just like a basic list. Um, and then when I need sources, I just send an email to that list. And I just say like, Hey, I'm looking for, um, food tech companies to talk about this topic. If you ha, if you are a client are fit, like send me an email reply to this. So basically I just, um, send the email to myself. So like, I'll just send it to Mandy, Mandy, ellis.com and then I'll BCC my list. Um, cause that's like the appropriate thing to do. We don't want to like CC like everybody and have them exchange emails.
Like that's, you know, people's emails sometimes they're, um, they want them to be more private and I just don't think it's appropriate to CC. So I BCC everybody. Um, and then, you know, that way also when they send replies, it goes back to me. Um, it doesn't get sent a reply, all it doesn't get sent to everybody else. So I just started adding people to my list over time. I just started adding in and adding in all of these PR companies and um, all of these different sources that I had interviewed over the years. And now I have these big lists that have like hundreds of people on them, um, where I emailed them if I needed specific sources or if I email them, when I know, like I know there's several people on that list that are a really good fit for it. So as you go along, make sure you start creating these lists, make sure that you start creating these points, these easy points of contact with experts on that list that you know, and like, and trust and really give you good answers and good quotes.
And they really understand, you know, that they understand specific topics really well. So, um, when you're going through this, this should be number two, actually. So let's get rid of this and let's put this up. So number two. So number two is that you need to create a list, start creating a list of all of your sources, all of the people who are either PR companies or people that you've done interviews with that have done a really great job. So our number two thing is really important because it makes it a lot easier to find sources. You already know that the people on your list, um, are eager to talk to someone and they are interested in, in doing interviews is a lot easier to get them on the phone quicker. Cause they already know you. They've already spoken with you and they're like, yes, I can.
I can spare 15 minutes to talk to Mandy. I know it's going to be fun and quick, you know, and it's a lot better for getting your articles, um, filled up with great sources. Like there's some people where you just start getting to know them really well. Like you interview them two or three times and you're just like, oh, I know this topic is perfect for X. And then you can just reach out to them personally instead of sending the email. But the big bulk email where you BCC or your whole list is just a really great way to, um, find sources and figure out how to, um, really hone in on the right people for the topic. So that's another one let's go to a third one. So our third one is, um, last resort. So we want to make sure that we're using expert sources.
Like we can Google things. This is something that people ask me all the time is like, how do you find expert sources in terms of like, where are they hiding? You can Google people like Googling is not off the table. I have found so many sources by Googling specific things and then it popped up on the website. Oh, hello? Oh no. Um, we we've got a tiny, we've got a tiny Charlotte being here when you go to China, Charlotte Dean. All right, we'll do a quick pup date because you said no, one's sped you any tree dose today. And you're very sad, even though I gave you four Tito's before we got here, can you go to your habit hole? Go your, have a hole. Good job. Good job. Oh my gosh. What a tiny Dido you go, buddy. All right, we'll do one more.
You go. Good job. Good job. All right, everybody. Everybody's looking great today. You guys look like all stars. Oh, we forgot to move this so that it's in the proper place. So everybody's well lit and we can see them. All right. You guys look great today. You guys feeling great. You guys were like, we saw a pole outside. We don't know what to do with ourselves. It was very scary before we came up here, we have, um, like our, our bug people came in, right? Like we have a lot of bugs in, um, in Texas. And um, we, we for years have dealt with a watt. This is just like an aside. We have dealt with a wasp problem, like a bad wasp problem. They stay our dogs. Um, they build a ton of nest. So we got a bug company to come like, get rid of all the wasps stuff and other bugs.
Um, we still get all the good bugs. We still get all the geckos. We, uh, we have a new tree frog. His name is Chester. Uh, he's super cute. We still get all the good bugs. We just don't get any more of like the wasps and like the crappy bugs that are a big problem. So they saw a poll. So they, you know, they're, we're all on alert, all right. Back to our topic. So when we're looking for experts, Google still works. Don't forget this. We can Google. Um, like if you want to get crazy, like food tech expert, you can restaurant expert. Um, you can Google, um, gosh, anything. I mean, you can, you don't even have to say expert. You can just say like, um, consultant a lot of times, like if I do expert like food tech expert, uh, restaurant consultant, um, hospitality, tech advisor, like you wanna think of the terms that would get you to a website with someone who consistently interviews on that topic and calls themselves an expert or an advisor or someone who helps a company, a consultant.
Um, I've interviewed people who are just small business owners. And they're just say like, yeah, I own this small business. Um, they don't consider themselves an expert, but basically they help other companies. They advise them or they consult with restaurants. There's a ton of restaurant consultants or startup consultants, um, or advisors. So think of the types of terms you would search and Google, like number one, this is how I found some of my best sources is just Googling around. So a lot of people think it's like this mystical thing of like finding good experts. It's not go Google them. And then when you get to their website, here's how you evaluate it. Have they been in the press before? Okay, that's great. If they've been in the press before, that's great. That usually means that they have clips, that you can go look at their quotes and you're like, okay, these are good quotes.
I'm good with that. Um, or two, if they haven't been in the press, read their website, that's how they speak. Right? Read their website. If they have a blog, which they often do read it, is it good information? Is it quality stuff? Does it cover your topic? That's all critical stuff to finding people who give you really great quotes and who really understand the topic, read their stuff, not complicated. Um, the next piece here is that when you're looking through all of their, um, expert things, I always do a test. If I haven't spoken to someone before most of the time, I like a little mini test and this is because I am pre emptying good quotes. So here's how this works. I reach out to them. Hey Tom. Um, I, you know, I was looking, I'm working, uh, a little, sorry. So you say like, Hey Tom, um, I'm Mandy Ellis.
I'm a freelance writer working on, uh, top 10 food trends for 2022 for whatever magazine. Um, I came across your site and I think you'd be a great expert for this story because of X, Y, and Z. Um, I'd love to interview, uh, I'd love to do a quick interview with you, um, 15 to 20 minutes, um, this week, like always give them the timeframe this week, next week, give them the dates, let them know. Um, like when you want to do it, the interview, and then you say, if you're interested in available, here's a link to my calendar. I just linked to my dev Sato calendar. And then they do that. Um, the other thing you want to add in there, oh, actually before you get to the calendar part, I messed that up. So, hi, I'm interviewing this. I think you'd be a great source because of blah, blah, blah.
Um, give them a couple of questions. Hey, like if you're interested in, in available, can you answer these two questions for me and do to kind of honed in questions that you would ask during the interview? So like, I always say like, Hey, you know, two or three sentences, um, like I just want to see if we're a fit for the topic. Can you answer these two questions? If you want to do an interview, then you give them, um, like, um, let's say the question we were talking about food trends. So let's say like, um, can you let me know to gluten-free food trends for 2022? And let's say, um, your second question is like, um, what are what's one unique food trend that no other expert is talking about, right? You want to give them stuff. That's like something really unique and interesting that they can give you that you're like, okay, cool.
They get the topic, they understand it. And by their answers, right, by their typed up answers, there's like two or three sentences. You can usually tell if they understand the topic can speak well, um, can formulate great thoughts, which means you're going to get good quotes. Um, and it gives you a little jumping off point. So like you say, Hey, can you quickly answer this? I just want to see if we're a fit. And if the answer back and say, yeah, here's a couple sentences. You're like, great. I would love to do an interview with you. It seems like we're a great fit. And then you give them your calendar. Like I do this all the time. I don't think people do it enough. Um, people like often ask how you get good quotes. You pre like you preview, like not pre you, you, um, pre scan their answers.
So when you're reaching out to these expert sources do that. So let's talk about that as number four, I'm going to put four up here. Cause I know that sometimes when people are watching this, it's easier to just see the number and like skip through it. So number four is that you need to pre scan your sources. So now that we've found experts on Google, we've like looked at all their stuff. We've like, figured it out. Um, don't worry. We'll, we'll, we'll revisit in this video, like where to find more experts, local sources in Google. So number four is, um, that we want to make sure we pre like pre what did I say? That we pre, um, pre pre qualified. That's a good, thank you. Pre-qualifier sources. So there's a couple of things here. I always do this with people. I don't know. I asked them a couple questions or I ask them to send me some information.
If you're using Herro H a R O help a reporter out, which I use as my, um, sometimes I use it. It just depends on what I'm doing most of the time. It's my last resort. Most of the time, I'm ending up, looking on Google, looking through, um, uh, professional organizations, looking through colleges and universities, um, looking through specific places that these experts might hang out like, um, LinkedIn groups or, um, places where I know, like I Google different articles and I find different articles where I'm like, oh, Steve would make a great source. Let me reach out to Steve, blah, blah, blah, that stuff. Um, but when I'm using something like Herro, I usually pick the people who give me very detailed Herro answers back. So if I send out a Herro query, basically I say like, I'm very specific about what I want.
So I say like, need experts to talk about unique food trends for 2022, that would be like basically the tagline. Um, and then the query itself would be like looking for experts, looking for restaurant food, chef and consultant experts to talk about food trends. Um, they need to be talking about gluten-free. They need to be talking about a trend that no other expert is talking about. They need to be talking about trends that aren't just mainstream. They need to be talking about trends that cover all these different, um, types of food. Let's say like, we're talking about, um, different categories of restaurants, like full service and quick service and fast casual and fancy casual, all those things, uh, or upscale casual. Um, and maybe you say like Mediterranean and like Southern and all these things, then you say like, please only answer this. There's a box down there that says requirements, right?
You say, please only answer this if you have these requirements. So then you want to make sure that you put in specific requirements, like, do not answer this unless you are a restaurant owner or chef consultant, um, you know, advisor. And then when you send your hero query out, you get answers back. When you get those answers back. Like, I usually pick the people who write me multiple different paragraphs. They show me they understand the topic. They've given me a lot of information. Like, even if they're going to repeat some of that information on the phone call, um, I need to know that when they get on that call, they already have great nuggets of information. So if I'm using something like Herro, instead of emailing someone and asking them questions, like I pick the people who have the most depth in their answers, like bar none.
Why wouldn't I? Right. They're giving me all this information and I'm evaluating it against other people, pick those people because when you get them on the phone, they're really good. And most of the time at giving you great quotes at giving you extra information, um, most of the time when they're answering Herro, it's like information that they just type out. Um, it's usually pretty quick, but it at least gives you a baseline. When you talk to them on the phone, you can ask up questions, you can dig a little deeper. Um, you can have them kind of talk about some ancillary things. They say different things on the phone than they do in Herro and you can dig in and get better quotes, but you've already pre-qualified them that they're going to give you great information. So that's number four. All right. Let's talk about, let's go back and talk about other places besides Google to find sources.
We might have to make a second one for this Lisa. I'm just letting you know right now. Um, oh, and what we want to add, sorry. We're a little everywhere today. So thanks for joining us for maybe in everywhere today. Um, the experts from a phony part, let's talk about that when we do our, um, Herro answers or our answers within our emails. And then sometimes when we get a PR person, that's like, I want you to talk to Rhonda. And you're like, okay. Um, and you're like, what? Tell me about Rhonda. Like give me some information, you know, like you don't want to just accept the PR person saying like, I want you to talk to Rhonda. You're like, okay, I don't know anything about her, like, or him or whoever, you know, I don't know any about anything about them. Um, can you tell me, like, can you have them answer these questions? Can you have them, you know, you need some information there. So, um, where was I going with this?
Oh, there was something really important. I was going to say, oh, experts from a phony that's right. By asking these questions, we easily separate. We easily separate the experts from the people who are not really experts by asking them some information before we ever get them on the phone. Hello. We end up with a ton of stuff that just totally makes it obvious whether or not they understand the topic. For example, I've asked people questions before and they come back with these sentences that are like, not even close to what I'm looking for. They're on their, their mind went to a different topic. And then you're like, Nope, not working. I've gotten email responses from people who, um, I ended up like, obviously they don't understand the topic. They're like, well, I think it's this. It might also be this. And you're like, no, you need to know these things.
Um, there's a bunch of different times where it's just very easy to weed out an expert versus someone who might think they're an expert or who doesn't have the same depth of knowledge. We're really looking for deep knowledge in our sources. So it's really easy to do that. If you get a quick email reply from them. Um, and then also this is how you end up with really great sources that you can keep going back to again and again, a lot of times, um, newer writers, newer freelance writers end up getting on calls and they're like, oh, that interview was a bust. And it's like, well, yeah, you didn't, pre-qualify them. You didn't ask them for some information ahead of time. And now you only ended up with like three quotes and they're not even that great. Pre-qualifying like, pre-qualifying pretty much, I don't know.
I, I guess the split is probably 80, 80 10, 80, 20. So you want to, pre-qualify like 80% of your sources. There's some of your sources like, um, if you're going to interview like the mayor or you're going to interview some top ranked CEO, or you're going to interview someone, who's obviously a person of substance. I was call it a person of substance. If you're going to interview someone who is a person of substance there, a well-known figure, they've, you know, they've been around the block. Um, they, they really like, you don't need to pre-qualify them. Like the times that I've interviewed like international CEOs, like people who run companies that run on like multiple different continents or people, um, like mayors or people who, um, work in some sort of government, like city, government office. Um, I never pre-qualify them because I already know that they're experts in that stuff.
Like it's, it's pretty, um, it's pretty much, you know, um, they wouldn't have been in that position most of the time if they didn't have some sort of, you know, expertise there. So we're, pre-qualifying basically 80% of like, this is a real estate agent. Do you want to talk to them? This is a food tech expert. This is a consultant. This is a startup advisor. We're, we're doing people who we were that 80% is like, most of your sources for your pieces, like restaurant owners or other types of people that, um, don't have the same qualifications. Like they, they operate their own business, but you don't, you know, it's hard to find information about them. They may have a website, but it's not that great. You need to kind of pre-qualify them. Okay. So let's talk about other places besides Google to find sources. So that's how we figure out experts from phoneys.
It's really easy if you just ask those questions, plus most of the time people in higher ranking positions, um, they've been doing press interviews or they've had some press coaching. So that kind of helps. All right. Let's talk about, um, where we find sources besides Google. So you can use professional organizations, colleges, and universities you can use. Um, Herro which I talked about before you use prof net, P R O F N E T. That has basically a database of, um, sources like they're experts in there that you could go sift through and sort by topic and sort by, um, like their expertise and all this stuff, and reach out personally to these experts. So that's really helpful. Um, I always use other articles. Like I go look at other articles. Like I type in my topic, I go look at other stuff and I see if there's someone who's, you know, written about a similar topic or something who is a really good expert.
You don't want to copy paste someone. Who's like, oh, you talked about food trends from 2020 to talk about food trends over here. No, you don't want to do that. You want to find someone who's an expert in a bunch of different things like search for different types of topics and read articles at high-end magazines and high end publications. And high-end newspapers look for different sources. They're some of the best sources I've found have been doing that because I'm like, oh, you talked about this. And this is sort of a subset of that. Let's talk about this other, basically different slant on this thing. Um, you don't want to just like take a bunch of sources and be like, you talked about this here now, come talk about it here. You want to have someone who shows a depth of knowledge about a similar thing.
So let's say they just want to talk about the restaurant industry. That's a similar thing. You're like, cool. You talked about all this stuff about the restaurant industry. Can you come talk about, um, food trends for 20, 22 over here? So you can look at different articles and see if there's any sources in there. Um, when I do, um, I also end up doing LinkedIn posts. So like I'll put up my LinkedIn post and say like hashtag sourcing, you know, or sources. And I'll say for an assigned story, I'm looking for these types of people and what ends up happening there is I either get people in my network to reach out and say like, Hey, I'm a good source for that. Um, you know, I'd love to talk to you about that. Or I have friends or other writers or other people in my network who share that.
And then I ended up getting recommendations there. And that really helps finding experts because it's like all in your LinkedIn network, it's also using the hashtag. So the hashtag will pull in people who follow that hashtag. Um, it helps with PR companies sometimes. So I connect with all of my, I try to connect with all my sources and I try to connect with all the PR companies that reach out to me on LinkedIn. So like, anytime I need to do a sourcing or whatever, I can put it on LinkedIn and they can reach me. I also use my BCC email lists. Um, the other way you want to find sources is like most of the time people who are in organizations, they're really good, um, sources cause they're involved. Um, like for me, when I ended up finding a lot of sources for certain stories, I ended going to very specific niche based, um, organizations like they're either national organizations or local organizations.
And there are people who are involved in the care and sometimes they have a media person. So sometimes when you reach out to them, they're like, yes, talk to Carol. Carol is our media person. Um, she does all the interviews talk to her. Um, but a lot of times you can search databases for members. So these organizations end up having these big databases, like, um, FCS PSI, the food, um, I forget what it is, FCS FTSI, I've used a whole bunch of times, um, for finding members like their food service restaurant, people, they do all these different things and you can search their members and reach out to them. Um, but member databases are great. Sometimes you can find them through conferences. Sometimes you find speakers at conferences and you're like, oh, you would be great to interview for this thing. You can, you can, um, reach out to them.
There are lots of different ways to find expert sources. The key isn't so much the vast, vast, like expanse of the internet of finding these sources. It's really qualifying them. Like it's really sending them a couple of questions and saying, Hey, can you kind of talk me through this or picking the Herro responses that are very detailed and show they understand the topic. I think the mistake ends up coming in when you get on the phone. And you're just like, what just happened? Like that's how I'm going to be so many times, like when I didn't really get it, I would get on a call. And I'm like, what just happened? Like they just talked about stuff that had nothing to do with my article. I had no idea what was going on. Like it was a big pain in the butt. I just wasted their 30 minutes and my 30 minutes, like I can't use most of this stuff pre-qualifying is really important.
So there's all these different places to find expert sources. Um, sometimes people find them in Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, social media, Instagram, sometimes, um, people end up having all of these, um, different places that they find sources through all these different platforms that are available. Uh, so really try to like look around and be particular about who you end up asking to be your source. All right. I want to make sure we cover all these things in this video. So we talked about all those things. All right. Let's talk about, um, how far you should look. So we've talked about where you should look. So this will be number six here. Oops. We're having a, we're having a day. Alright. Um, six area. We did it. So the sixth thing we're going to talk about today is how far, and basically like how long should you be looking?
So let's talk about this. It's not that hard to find experts for your topics. So let's just start there. If you're struggling to find experts on your topic, which has happened to me many times, because it's like an alter niche topic, use all your resources. That means that you end up going to Herro you end up using profit at you end up sending your BCC email lists. You go on LinkedIn, you reach out to sources. You've talked to in the past, like you go to all the professional organizations, find the media person or find an expert like you do all of the stuff, um, to find an expert. The deal is that most of the time you will, even if it's an ultra niche topic, you'll some PR person or some Herro query will come through and you're like, oh, thank God. Like, great. This is a perfect fit.
Now how far basically is like, if you are having trouble finding sources, let's say that you have spent a week trying to find specific sources and it's not working out. You need to like, let your editor know. Cause they might have suggestions or you need to let them know, let the company know that you're working for. Cause so I I've done reported articles for many different companies and you just need to go back to them and say like, Hey, I'm having trouble finding sources here. Do you have any recommendations? Is there anything that, um, any type of thing that you're looking for that I can maybe search for you, couldn't get a lot of information from that. So if you go back to your editor that either give you sometimes an extension and say, yeah, why don't you try like keep looking? Um, sometimes they'll say like, oh yeah, there's Jill so-and-so and you can go talk to her.
And you're like, oh perfect. Um, sometimes you go back to them. They're like, oh, you know what? Let's just interview someone at the company. Let's just use one of our SMEs or subject matter experts to do the interview. And then that solves a lot of problems. So the other part is like, you always need to stop sourcing pretty much two days before your deadline. This is something that a lot of new writers make a mistake on. And I made a mistake on this was hello. We're going to do a quick date. So when you are looking for sources, you need to stop 48 hours before your deadline because you need to actually write the thing and edit it. Can you go into your habit hole? Can you back up? You look super cute, but you're in the wrong place. You back up. I got back up.
There you go. Good job. Here you go, buddy. You go, you took you. There you go, buddy. Oh, so gentle. Good job, buddy. All right. So you need to stop 48 hours in advance. And I made this mistake because I would say to the PR person, oh yeah, like we can definitely do it on Thursday. And my piece was due Friday and I'm like, oh God, this is horrible. So you want to stop doing interviews? Anytime you tell someone your timeframe for interviews, that needs to be two days. So if it's your deadline is Friday, you need to stop doing interviews on a Wednesday or whatever it is like if your deadline is Monday, stop doing interviews on Friday. Um, and you need time to actually write it, to get all those things transcribed. So I use Temi, T E M I to transcribe my stuff.
Um, it's basically just the robot version of rev. R E V. So rev transcribed with humans, Temi transcribed a little AI robot. Um, I've found that over the years that I've used Tammy, Tammy used to be like not great, but now it's like, it's, it's pretty much accurate. It's like pretty close. So I just don't use rev. Um, I use Tammy. So you need time to do your transcripts, put all your stuff together, pick the right quotes, write the article, edit it, clean it up, make it, make sense. All that stuff. Don't make the mistake of telling a PR person. Oh yeah. Like let's do an interview on Friday when the thing is due Friday, like don't do that. Um, and if it turns out that the expert sources like, Hey, I can't make our Wednesday interview. Let's do it next week. You're like, Nope, sorry.
I, my deadline, you need to set strict boundaries with this because if you don't, what ends up happening is you miss your deadline or your pieces garbled, um, or you might turn it in, but it's just like your editor's like, what did you just do? Like, what is this? Um, you need to make sure that you have enough time to put everything together, set strict boundaries with everything. So if you send out a Herro query, I always ended up sending my Herro query out so that it ends like three or four days before. Um, like mostly four days before my deadline, because I have to, most of the time when you send a Herrick where you then have to set up an interview, so you send the heroine query, set up the interview, you have to write the article. You need enough time to do that.
Um, the other piece is that, um, when you're doing these interviews, you need to absorb the information as well. You need to be able to like, not just get everything done and then be like, what did I just learn? You need to have enough time to actually absorb it. And if you make the timeline too short, you don't end up absorbing it. And then your piece doesn't come across as you actually know what you're talking about. So you need time for that as well. And when you're doing these interviews, um, make sure that you are planning for things to go slower than you expect. So, um, sometimes you have tight timelines, right? Like sometimes you have a week to do a reported article and that can be really rough. Right? You get an assignment on a Wednesday it's due the next Wednesday. That's basically like six business days to like find sources, write your draft, edit it, turn it in.
So when that happens, you can go into Harrow and click the urgent button and say like, I need this. Now. This is, I don't have enough time. Um, and that way you can get sources quicker. They'll put your, your query up earlier. Um, wow, you sure are active today. Sure are active. Um, and then you can also like immediately BCC everyone and say like, do your email lists and do your LinkedIn posts and be like, I need to talk to people by Friday. Like reply only if you can talk to me by Friday, you know, end of business. Need to make sure that you have all these boundaries here so that you get so that you get all the things that you need on time. All right. Let's see anybody have questions. You can pop them in the chat. If you feel like this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up.
If you feel like you want to learn more about, um, being a high earning, like build a law, this is, this is just how it's going today about building a high earning freelance writing business is also sustainable. It's not crazy. Make sure to subscribe below. Um, let's see. Any last things I think we went. So we went through all of our tricks, most of our tricks of the trade experts and phoneys we went through, um, our quotes, like why we get excellent quotes. And then also how far we should go. So are, how far is, don't go beyond those 48 hours before your deadline. If you've been writing report your articles, let's say you've written thousands of reporting articles, which reported articles, which I'm guessing you were probably not here. Like, cause you've already, if you've written that many, you probably know how to find extra sources, but in case you are, um, and you've written all of these things like, yeah, you can go closer to deadline.
I still don't like to break by 48 hour rule. But like, if things are really crazy and you're like, yeah, you can talk Thursday. And you're just like, it's due Friday and you can handle putting out all together. Feel free to go buck wild with that. But I still like the 48 hour rule. Cool. All right. Um, any last things we want to talk about with sources? What do you think I wish you would think in your little Hobbit hole, you don't want to think in your hobble hole. You want to think over there. Can you get in your habit hole, gotta get in your habit. Hole a job. Good girl. Yes. Good job. Bear. You've just stayed in your Hobbit hole. He's like, yes, this is what I do as a geriatric dog. So our last things are don't freak out. There's plenty of different ways to find experts.
There are lots of experts out there, um, to interview to give you good quotes, to provide really great expertise. It's okay to pre-qualify them. I know a lot of times I get pushed back. Like why did they have to do this? If they're doing a phone interview? And it's like, because that phone interview is going to suck. If they don't do this, pre-qualification like, I'm not wasting their time and wasting my time getting on a phone interview with someone who doesn't know what they're talking about and someone I can't quote, there's a big gap sometimes in like the, um, there's a big gap sometimes in like what you need and people like trying to get other people press. Right. And I love a lot of PR people they've helped me a ton with finding sources. They've helped me a ton with getting great people. But there are times when you'll talk to PR people who just want to push their client, they just want to like tell you to like, oh, just interview them.
They'll be great. And then you interview them and it's a disaster. That's having to be so many times don't you don't have to get pushed around by the PR people. You can just say like, Hey, this is a qualification. Like I, you know, I needed this information in order to make sure that we're a fit for this piece. Like you're, even if there's a lot of times where they think that just because you interview them, they get in the piece. There are lots of times I've interviewed people and they don't get into the piece of their stuff gets cut. That's how it is. Um, I don't like doing that. Right. They gave me their time. They gave me their answers and I don't like doing it. But there's times when you get on these calls where you didn't pre-qualify them and you kind of get like, oh, well they're an expert of 10 years.
And then you're like, okay. Um, and what ends up happening is they're they might be an expert. They might have been in the field for 10 years, but your particular topic is just not a match for them. It's not the thing. Like, it's kind of like the difference between like people. Here's a good example. I wrote a piece a long time ago about, um, wineries about how to buy and sell wineries. Like how do you actually do that? Um, it was like, um, the vineyard piece was, it was about real estate. Um, but the people who end up doing real estate are the, the agents, the real estate agents who end up doing these transactions. It is way different than what you do for a regular traditional house. Like the soil stuff. Um, when the vineyard will actually make grit, you know, like it takes a long time for the grapes to grow.
Um, it takes a long time, like, is this, are they selling a profitable vineyard? Are they selling like a vineyard plus a property? There's all of these tests that have to be done. Um, reports given like it is way different than just buying a traditional home. I couldn't interview a traditional real estate agent, a traditional realtor, like who works with regular buyers and sellers to talk about buying and selling a vineyard. Um, it's just not going to work. And these types of things, you have to be very specific. Like these that's like saying the person who buys and sells vineyards and the person who buys and sells traditional real estate. They've both been in the field for 25 years. It doesn't mean they can talk about their cross topics. Like someone rolling in is saying they have 25 years in real estate. Like that's not the same thing as vineyard, like buying and selling a vineyard and buying and selling a traditional house.
They need to be on your topic. They need to be specifically knowledgeable about the weird quirks that happen. Um, and I think for me, I often write about these like random topics that need very specific experts, um, like, like very specific restaurants sometimes, or very specific, um, types of, I dunno, a little quirks and, um, you really have to make sure they understand the topic before they get on the phone. It's totally okay to pre-qualify. Don't let any PR person push you around, set your boundaries with your deadlines. And it's okay to search far and wide for an expert. Um, there's websites like there's, there's plenty of things, excuse me, that you can look for in their website. Um, there's plenty of things that you can find that shows someone an expert. Like they, they have a wealth of stuff on the topic, a podcast, a blog, a newsletter, um, they've, they've been interviewed by the press.
There's all these things that make someone an expert. That's like, it's obvious that they understand your topic. So I hope that was helpful. Thank you, Lisa. Lisa Paskewitz. Thank you so much for this topic. I hope this was helpful. I'm sure we'll go over this again, just because it's a really in-depth topic, but um, oh, look at you. You look like a sad stuffed animal. I just don't know how you sit like that. You just sit like this little sad stuff an all the time. Good job. Look at you. You just look like a sad stuffed animal.
You're such a little Frenchy. You're friendship pebble. All right. So I hope this was helpful if you feel like it was make sure to subscribe below. Um, I do this every Friday. We talk about different topics. If you have a topic, if you have something that you want to talk about or you have questions on, drop it in the comments below, let me know what you want covered. What kinds of things pop up that you're confused about and freelance writing or, um, anything that you do writing wise? Um, pop it below. Also, if you've had any issues with finding sources, like pop that in the comments below, I'm curious, like how do you normally find sources? How do you normally go about the process? Do you pre-qualify your sources pop that envelope? Um, I think that's it. So I hope you have a great Friday and I will see you next week. Bye.
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