What if I’m Unprepared for My First Freelance Writing Client?

Starting your new freelance writing biz and not sure how to take on your very first client? We've all been there are square one, but if you have the right processes, systems, and techniques onboarding and working with your first writing client will be a breeze.

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If you have ever been feeling like you might be unprepared or scared about your first freelance writing client, I just want to let you know that that happens to everybody, right? This is the first time you're actually doing something. It's the first time you're going into freelance writing is the first time you're onboarding a client, working with a client. Uh, maybe it's the first time you're working with someone outside of your nine to five job. And man, it can be scary and overwhelming and you can just be like, what do I do? Like what if I'm on prepared? And I get a client, this is a question that I get a lot from newer freelance writers is like, what do I do? Like, what if I get all these clients I'm doing all this marketing, um, excuse me, I'm reaching out to all these people.

Like what if I, what if I'm unprepared and what do I do? And I just want to let you know that you will be unprepared. Let me just burst the bubble right now. You will be unprepared. It's the very first time you're doing something and there's nothing wrong with that. You don't have to let your client know that you're like scrambling trying to get things done and trying to put everything in place. But there are a few systems and processes that we can kind of go through. And, um, some little things that we can do while working with clients to make sure that we do our best with our very first client. It doesn't have to be perfect. And you're going to make mistakes. I just want to let you know that now, like you're, you're going to make mistakes. Things are going to go wrong.

Um, it's, it's just a natural part of the process, but there's that quote, that's really famous. It's like you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes. And that's kind of how I built a lot of my business is that I built a lot of things on failures. Like I'm blocks of failures rather than a lot of blocks of successes. Hey Linda, welcome in. So oftentimes people think that building their business is going to be this linear path or it's going to be this line where they're like, and then this will happen. And then this will happen. And then this magic thing will happen. And it's not like I can tell you right now, like it's kinda like this. You're like, oh God, what happened? I gotta start over. I gotta go over here. Now I gotta do this thing. And it's just, it's a huge disaster sometimes.

And sometimes that's what happens when you onboard your first client is like on your side, you feel like it's a huge disaster, but for them it doesn't really feel that bad because you're kind of like handling all this stuff on your side. Right. But there's a few things that we can do in terms of processes and systems and techniques for working with clients that really help us. So we're going to go over that today. I'm going to do a little bit of an update because they're being cute over there. So they're, there are sleeping. We're going to see if we can get them to treat us. We need, you want to treat them.

She's like you guys don't right. I want to treat you very you untreated. There you go, buddy. There you go, buddy. There you go. Good job, Minnie. Do you want one more trade up? There you go. Good job. You're in your little Hobbit hole. There you go, buddy. Good job.

You guys do that great today. All star pets. All right. So here's some things when we're onboarding our first client and we're unprepared. Let's see if we can get as, as we can. So that's the first thing. So let's talk about systems and processes. So when we're doing our first client, right, we're onboarding our very first year, then signing client. We want to make sure that we have a process set up for them to actually contact us. So that means we need to have at least a website or LinkedIn profile where they can contact us. Right? So that we have information on there that says who we work for, the types of content we write, how we can help people. That's kind of the basic bare bones that we need. We need a place for them to contact us. So now that they've contacted us, let's just say, we've got general idea.

We've got an inbox where they can, you know, cut, send us an email or get in touch with us. The next piece is that we want to have something, um, in order to set up a call. So for me, for a long time, Hey, Getty, welcome. Um, for me a long time I used Calendly because it was free and I could just set it up. So I'd say, Hey, that's great. Like let's get on a call and talk about your project. So then I set up Calendly. So they could just pick a time on my calendar that worked for them. Now I use dub Sato, um, and dub cyto is like the best. But if you're onboarding your first client and you don't want to spend, you know, 350 bucks and up Sato, um, or, you know, Deb Sato, you can use it for free for your first three clients.

So maybe you want to kind of go all in on freelance writing. And you're like, you know what, until I like, once I get three clients, hopefully I can afford three 50 a year for dub Sato. I'm just going to go all in. So those are kind of your two choices. So let's say someone sends you an email and you're like, great. Let's hop on a call. And I know calls can be nerve-wracking call is going to be really stressful, but, um, the best way to feel out a client and to kind of get a sense for their project and what it would be like to work with them is to talk to them on the phone. Like it is the easiest thing to just have a conversation with someone. And just imagine that you're sitting across from them, just chatting about a project and it's just a regular conversation.

You're not trying to win anything. You're not trying to sell them on anything or convince them to work with you or anything. You're just having a conversation. So the way to have that conversation is you send them a Calendly link so they can schedule an appointment. Or if you want to go to Deb Sato, it's free up to three clients. You can do that. Then they schedule an appointment and then you need some questions. Right? And do some questions, do ask your clients on the call. So I think I did a video on this, or I'm doing a video on this. It's been a long week, so I can't remember, but there should either be a video about this questions that you need to ask potential clients on your first call, um, or you'll be getting one soon. So there'll be a set of questions that you ask them.

Like, you're going to ask them about their project, uh, anything about their budget that they're willing to share, what the timeline is, uh, who you're going to be talking to. Like, is it going to be just one person or are there multiple people at the company? Um, what are they thinking in terms of publishing timeline? Is it ghost written content or violent content or thought leadership content or is it a brand content? Like what are we doing here? Uh, there's a whole bunch of different questions that we want to ask them. And we also want to make sure we ask about contracts and, um, we explain what it's like to work with us. So you need to think about how you want to work with clients, right? One of your processes and systems for onboarding needs to be like, well, what is it like to work with me?

How do, how do we move forward? Like, let's say the call goes well. And you're like, great, we're a good fit. And they're like, yeah, can you give us some information? You need to figure out what you want to do next. So, um, for me, what I like to do is send a proposal. So that means I happened to dump Sato. I write up a proposal, which means like I use a proposal. Um, I have a template in there and I also have templates below that you can grab the actual proposal. I use it's down below in the description. Um, or you can go to Mandy ellis.com/bundle. But in that proposal template, you're telling them about goals, the project itself, um, you're giving them testimonials if you have them or past clients, which if it's your first bite, probably don't have it. So you're just trying to say like, why work with me?

And then you give them, you know, basically, Hey, this is what it would cost. Then you attach that to a contract. You always want to make sure that you off work with a contract. Um, then you, after your contract, then you have your upfront invoice. So when you're working with clients, you always want to make sure you at least get some kind of upfront payment, especially with businesses, magazines, different story, you get paid after the work. So you want to make sure you at least get an upfront payment in case something falls through or, or something gets screwed up. You at least have something in your pocket to start the work with. Um, so you're going to do that proposal contract invoice. That's a process that we need to have set up and you can do it in Google docs. If you want, you can set it up and up Sato.

I looked up Sato because it's really easy for your potential client to just go from PO proposal to contract, to invoice. They can see it all upfront. If they have any questions about anything, boom, it's right there. And so that's really cool. Um, and then once you kind of do that, you want to make sure that, um, you have it all set up with however you want to process payment. So that means Stripe. That means, um, PayPal, or if you have an international client, it would, I like transfer wise, which I think is now wise. Oh, thank you, Linda. Linda says I'm going to pop this up there. She says her template bundle is excellent. Thank you, Linda. I, um, the template bundle, man, it came from a lot of frustration. So like the templates have provide proposal template, contract templates, um, all of these different like NDA things, uh, all the cool stuff.

So you can check it out below. But um, so then we want to make sure our payment is set up so that when we send this over to them, they can make the upfront payment immediately if they're ready. Um, so then that kind of helps us there. And if they come back with any questions or they want to negotiate something or talk about something that's totally normal, if you're onboarding your first client and you're nervous about it. And if you feel unprepared, like it's normal for them to talk about anything. And one of the things why we're asking all these questions and sending our proposal and contract and invoice is that we kind of front-load all the questions and issues, right? We're asking them a lot of questions on our first call so that we can make sure we're on the same page. We can make sure there's less issues when we work together.

We're sending them the proposal, the contract and the invoice. So that everything's up front. Like it's all clear from the very beginning when we work with them, whether or not, you know, this works with them or not like we've, we send them all these things where like, Hey, it's all up front, all clear, nothing's going to change. You're going to get the work. Um, we'll discuss anything, but don't be worried about feeling unprepared for negotiations or unprepared for certain processes or things like you can figure it out as you go along. Like, I know you can, I know that things can be really hard or like it makes you really nervous or scared, but you can figure it out as you go along. But we definitely want to make sure that we front-load things as much as possible. We want to make sure that we are, um, that we are getting our questions answered, that we're learning more about the project who their audience is, who we're actually writing for.

Um, making sure that they understand what's in the proposal, what's in the contract. What that means, what the payment terms are, how the invoicing works, all of that stuff is front-loaded so that we feel like, you know, prepared as we go into the relationship with our client and start doing the work. So we want to make sure that all of these things are, are done ahead of time. All of these things are given to the client. So we're like, here's all the information. Let me know if there's anything we can talk about. So then what we can do is focus on the work, right? What we can end up doing is making sure that we focus on actually completing good work, because we've already done a lot of front-loading, right? So now the pressure's off a little bit. We kind of like shake it off a little bit.

Let's say they sign everything. And with dump Sato, you can do, um, electronic signatures that are legally binding. But if you don't want to use them Sato and you want to use Calendly because it's free, you can also use HelloSign. Um, that's free up to three things per month, I think. So you can use HelloSign for free and that's legally binding signatures. You can just upload your contract and send it to them there. So, um, you want to make sure you do that. And then your next process here is we want to make sure we're focusing on the work itself. So when we're getting information from them, right, they're sending us a content brief, or they're sending us an outline or information about the content we want to make sure we really look that over. And if there's any questions that pop up, when we look over it, we want to ask them upfront.

Before we start working on the content, we want to make sure we know what we're doing before, before we ever start typing anything. We don't want to get halfway through the work and be like two days away from our deadline and be like, oh crap, I have questions. Nope. You want to look at it and see if there's any questions or anything confusing or anything that you need help on before you get started. This is really helpful for making you feel more prepared and moving away from feeling uncertain and scared about this client thing. It's totally normal to ask questions. You should ask a lot of questions. It means you're paying attention. It means you care about the content. It means you care about meeting their needs and making the content useful for them. Um, it means that you're curious, like you want to know it doesn't if you don't ask questions, then a lot of times what happens with freelance writers is they end up creating the wrong thing.

They were like, oh, well I want them to think I can handle it. So I just don't ask questions. It's like, no need to ask a lot of questions, just like any good journalist asks a lot of questions to make, you know, a really great article. We have to ask a lot of questions to make sure our content for our business clients is really great. Or even if you're doing editorial stuff, you have to ask a lot of questions and make sure you understand what you're doing before you actually do it. Um, I do have a Linda, I do have a template of questions, but you have that in the course. So you actually have more questions in the course. Then I give away on here on YouTube. So Linda, you have a lot more information within the course than you do here. So, um, I would look at that instead.

And then Getty says, yay. So I have a free pricing guide below. So it's, uh, it's linked below. But if you want to go to Mandy ellis.com/pricing guide, it's free. I updated all the time. It's for all the different freelance writer projects that you'll end up doing. So if you're starting out as a freelance writer and you want to make sure you're actually charging rates that are commensurate with experience, and also within the normal realm of what freelance writers are charging, I would grab that free pricing guide and the templates are below Mandy ellis.com/bundle. But I'm so glad that Getty likes them both. I try really hard to make them very like that. They're updated. They're things I'm using right now. Um, I asked for feedback on them all the time. So I think that's one of the things that we want to talk about as a strength is like, you're asking for feedback, you're asking questions upfront, right?

We're asking questions upfront. We're asking for information to make sure that we know what we're doing in terms of content. That's part of our process is like, Hey, as I'm like starting my writing process, I'm confused about this. Can you explain this? And your clients will appreciate answering those questions ahead of time, rather than you creating content. And then be like, this is totally wrong. Start over. Like, that's a huge pain in the butt. So let's say we move on and now we're creating the content and questions come up while we're creating it. Make sure you ask those, but don't just kind of go blindly and make sure you ask questions ahead of time. And then while you're writing the content, if anything else comes up, go ask your client, go ask them for anything. Even if it's a deadline extension, we don't want to ask for deadline.

Extensions is not ideal. Um, it's really sucky sometimes, but every once in a while, you know, we're along be in humans, doing human stuff and we make mistakes. And that means that we have to ask for deadline extension sometimes. So even if you need a deadline extension ask before the deadline has passed, don't ask on deadline day, you need to be ahead of time. So 48 hours or so before your deadline, or at least as much time as you can give. So let's say your deadline is a month away and you're like, whoa, I just realized I'm not going to make it. You need to tell your editor or you need to tell your client as soon as possible about any deadline extension. So we're going through the process. We're making sure that we are doing our writing. And then what we want to do here is, um, this is kind of a technique that I've put into place.

Um, for a while. It's just like when you submit your work, when someone comes back to you and they have feedback or edits or changes, like that's normal, that's part of the writing process. And if anything, the feedback and the edits that they're giving you are making your writing better. Like, especially if you're working with magazines and editors who, um, are creating good content, you've read through their articles, you've read through the magazine and you know, it's good stuff. They're working to make it as good as possible. They're not looking to make your work terrible, right? Every once in a while, you'll get some clients who don't really understand the rules of journalism. Like you'll have some business clients that try to change direct quotes, or try to change your case, study to something that's not truthful. And that you need to say something about and be like, Hey, not cool.

Uh, but most of the time when you're getting edits and changes, you're getting information where, um, where it's going to make your writing better and you're going to be ending up creating content that makes a better impact for their audience. It answers more questions for them. It helps them better. It's clearer to them. It's, it's making it more of what your client is asking for and more of what their audience needs. And that's kind of our bottom line, right? We're not creating content just for like fun time creation content. We're creating content to actually make a difference, right. To make an impact, to help people do things, to teach people things, to help them take action, um, to help them lead better lives. Like our content. Isn't just out there to be like, you know, do this, like it's should be informative. It should be helpful.

It should be something where people come across it. And they're like, oh, what a great piece? Or like, oh man, I really want to work with this company because its ebook was like so detailed and great. Or man, I really love the free pricing guide because it's so detailed. It's updated all the time. And I love that it has like tons of different project types, all that stuff. So we want to make sure that we are open to feedback that we're open to edits. And if edits don't always work out, there was some article that I read the other day that talked about editors who said like they only accept like 50% or less of their edits to be accepted by writers. So like they make all these edits and then they're like, can you check these and see what you think? So if a writer accepts a hundred percent of their edits, they're like, sweet, awesome.

So like most editors aren't even expecting you to take all their edits, but you want to take that feedback and incorporate it as much as you can. I don't think you can grow as a writer or become a better writer unless you're open to feedback. Like you can't just live in a black hole. My work is the best and everything I've done is the best thing ever. No, we want to become better writers. That means we need feedback. That means we need good editors and you can always ask for feedback, always ask how you can do better, how you can improve it, how it can change things up, all that, all that good stuff. So, uh, Linda has a question. I'm going to pop it up here. So she says, is it best to have them complete questions or should we do it during the zoom call or interview calls?

So there's a couple of things here. I think if you're just starting out and you're feeling unprepared for your client, I would just have them answer questions on the call. I would just have them answer naturally. I would feel them out. Are you a fit? Does this, are they, you know, are we having a conversation? Does their project and budget makes sense? Do, does it make sense the way they're talking about the project, they're not coming in there being like 24 hour turnaround, we need it yesterday. We're going to run your work through all these robots and like do all that. No. So I think when you're first starting out and you're feeling nervous, I think it's better just to ask the questions on the call, but Linda, I know you have some experience. I know you've been around the block for awhile, with freelance writing.

So for, for you and for other writers who are a little more experienced, there's a couple other options. You can have a form on your website that, um, filters out clients. So basically your form on your website would be, um, uh, like, Hey, what's your project, what's your budget, what's all this stuff. And you would have a dropdown menu for certain things. Like let's say you're only taking case studies or you're only taking projects that are $5,000 or more. You can have a form on your website that basically people have to fill out to contact you. Um, and then that way, the only leads you're getting in your inbox are like for that form. So there's that piece. I'm not a big fan of that because I feel like sometimes we just need to have a discussion discussion about it. And sometimes when you have a client, um, they end up being a longterm client.

That's like a $10,000 client, but you started out with a $1,000 job. It was just more consistent than you thought it would be. And they, it was more budget-friendly for them than they thought it would be. So if you say like, is your budget $5,000? I was like, oh no, our budget's a thousand dollars. Well, it was a thousand dollars over 10 months or, you know, there's a lot of different things that change for your clients. So I think for me, the form is not the best thing, but the other piece is that you can have someone book, a call like you can have someone send you an email, book, a call with you, then you send them upfront questions. So you're like, Hey, can you answer these questions ahead of our call so that I know more about the project before we discuss it.

So that's another option is like you just have them book a call, then send them a questionnaire before you get a call with them, um, to see if there's any red flags or anything that pops up where you're like, Ooh, maybe we're not a great fit or, um, okay. Now I have more detail about what we're going to talk about on the call. Uh, but my, my thing is just like, I found that when you use a lot of forms or when you end up, um, when you end up doing things more robotically and in that way where we're looking for fit, it's not just about project. It's not just about budget. It's about do we actually work well together? And that's the only thing that you can figure out on a call. Like you can't get that from a form. Uh, it just, it just doesn't come across, right?

Unless the form comes across and it has a huge piles of red flags and you're like, oh gosh, no, I'm out of here. I'm done. So there's that piece. But most of the time people are reasonable. People are respectful. Uh, but you just want to make sure that you're attracting the right ones. And I usually talk about this as a green light red light thing. Like you want to be a green light attracting green lights. You don't want to pretend to be a red light, pretend to be someone you're not or pretend to do other things to attract clients. Because what ends up happening is you're pretending to be a red light when you're a green light. And then you attract all these red light clients. And when you've turned in your green light work, then you're screwed because now your red light clients were like, why did you turn in green light work?

You're like, oh crap. So what you want to make sure you do? Sorry. I have hair in my face. Okay. I think I've got it. All right. So what you want to do is be a green light and hopefully on the other side of the call is someone else who's a green light. And then you guys can vibe on the call and see if you're a good fit. And then talk about the project. Talk about budget, talk about all these things. I think that's really, what's most important. Um, and the questionnaires are good. And I think they're better off when you get further along in the process. So like for me, I don't have a questionnaire. I have like a little guide sometimes that I send to people where they can look through like some ballpark, uh, rates and some ideas about working with me and then schedule a call.

So that way I know if they're getting on my calendar, that all of the things about my business already worked for them. But I think when you're first starting out, what you really want to do is start developing a feel for what clients work for you and what ones don't. And you need to get on a call and ask them questions live, to get real answers to that. So your option as if you're feeling unprepared and you're feeling kind of worried, just ask them questions on the call, your other options. If you are more experienced are number one, you can just have a questionnaire on your website that has different like questions you would have asked on a call. And then that way, when someone comes in your inbox, you have a lot more information about budget and project and timeline and what they're thinking and examples of what kind of content they want to create.

Or you can option. Number two is to have a questionnaire that you sent after they book a call. So you have more information before you get on a call with them that way. So that was a good question, Linda. All right. Yeah. This is a good one to remember, don't let your ego get in the way of edits, right? We want to make sure the edits are like really helping us. So that's number one, make sure the edits are actually helping the piece. Sometimes you'll get edits where you're like, Ooh, I don't know about that. Um, or they'll say like, Hey, did you mean this? Maybe you should say this. You're like, Nope. That's not what I meant. I need to clarify if you're reading this and it's wrong clarify, but yeah, sorry. We want to make sure that we actually, you know, remember the whole point of the content is to help people is to make that help them do things like a, how to list or a listicle or, um, any type of content you create should be helping someone make a choice or make their life better, or like figure something out.

It shouldn't be about like, well, my writing is my writing and this is my creative process. Like, no, the, it doesn't matter what your creative process is. If the content or is not helping people, um, it's a little bit different, right? Freelance writing. And the type of content that we create is a lot different than writing a novel or, or saying like, this is my artwork. And this is like where, what my vision was like. That that's a very different process. Yeah. And this is a good point too. So Linda says using a phone call gives you those, like that tone that you can feel how they talk to you and how they feel about working with a freelance writer. And you can kind of judge whether they're a good or bad client. Exactly. So, okay. We're almost at the end of our time, but I want to make sure that we get through a few other things.

So if this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up. If you feel like you want to learn more about being a freelance writer, make sure to subscribe below. So the last couple of things is now that we're in the editing process were, you know, like Getty said, putting our ego aside, we are trying to get everything done. And then we want to be, you know, really helpful in our processes. So the way that people get good testimonials, the way that freelance writers end up getting good referrals is that you're helpful throughout the process. Um, if you're really worried about, um, someone like not getting value out of the content or that the relationship is not going well with your client, like try to be as helpful as you can. So do the edits, ask questions, make sure you can help them with anything else, make sure that you follow up.

If you you're like, man, I know they said they needed help with this. I'll follow up and see if they still need help. But we want to make sure that we have a process for going through everything, right. We have from the very beginning, um, our first client, like we have our call, we have our scheduling tools. We have our questions. We have our onboarding process with our proposal contract and invoice. We've already spelled everything out upfront. So there's no surprises when they sign the contract, they see all the terms of like, what happens, uh, then you're going into your writing process. You're asking questions, you're following up with anything that as you write, you're like, Ooh, I don't know about that. Then you went through edits, doing all that stuff. Then you submit your work. And hopefully, you know, what happens is you did a great job in not only they do.

They say like, Hey, you did a great job, but um, you turn around the edits, you know, within 48 hours you make all the changes that they ask for to make the content better. Um, and you know, that really helps you get testimonials. Anytime you get an email from a client that says like, you did a great job on this, like this is going to work really well for us, ask them if you can have that as a testimonial, anytime you get a great email from someone, ask them, if you can say like, Hey, do you mind if I use this as a testimonial on my website? Um, and if they say yes, ask them to send a headshot. So you can put that on your website. But that type of like that technique of asking for the testimonial, like when they tell you you're doing a great job is a very easy way to get more testimonials.

Testimonials are a way to get more clients and better referrals if you're doing the right thing. So, um, you want to make sure that throughout the process, you're being helpful, inquisitive, curious, you're creating content that actually helps people and makes a difference. And you know what, even if you're just telling people trends that are going on right now, that helps people when they come across that they're like, oh, maybe I'll try that trend or, you know, see how that works for me. Um, Linda says, do you need to ask for the referral or will they gladly give you one? So sometimes they'll just give you a referral. Sometimes they're like, Hey, I talked to so-and-so and they need a writer. Um, here's their email. Feel free to tell them I sent them your way. Or sometimes you can tell them, I know some writers when they get someone saying you did great on this.

Uh they're like, Hey, can I use that as a testimonial? And then their followup after that is like, just want to let you know, my business runs on referrals. So if you ever find another one, like someone else in your circle, or you come across someone who needs a freelance writer, if you feel comfortable giving a referral, I would love that help for my business. So you can ask them for referrals. But, um, you know, you, you kinda just like, you want to play a different game there. So you either want to let them know, like after they give you a testimonial that you're doing good work that, Hey, like my business runs on referrals. If you feel comfortable referring me to other people do that. Um, but if not,

You know, no worries. Cool,

Awesome. Uh, we're almost out of time here. So any other questions pop them in the chat and I'm happy to answer them, but I just want to kind of wrap this up here as you go through your first client process and you're setting up all these systems and all of these ways of going through things, you're going to make mistakes. I already mentioned this, but you're going to make mistakes. And all the freelance writers who have gone before you have made mistakes, like even me, who's been freelance writing for about 10 years. Um, we all have issues and our own stuff and roadblocks and that's normal. Um, even if you onboard your first client and it's like, you're driving on a bumpy road and everything's like, oh my God, oh, you know, even if it that's what it feels like, that's just, what's going to happen.

It's normal. We are starting something new. We're trying something new. We are starting a business. Right. And we don't really know how everything goes yet. We're doing our best to make sure that we're providing the client with as easy a process as we can. And if we kind of implement the things I mentioned here, like the processes, like the systems, the steps, the techniques that really makes a great client experience. And it also helps us get more clients. It helps us, um, you know, like I can't tell you how many times I've had people, whether they signed contracts with me or not complimented beyond SATA, or like complimenting me on my processes because it was so easy for them. They were like, wow, this looks so professional. Like, what program is it? This and, um, that kind of stuff helps you, you know, with your reputation as a writer, get referrals, get testimonials, create a great client experience.

And that's the whole point, right? We want to create a great client experience, want to create great content that actually helps people. Um, and we want to be, you know, open and curious to feedback how we can make things better, how we can improve processes in the future. Um, and how we can kind of make the process. Like if you're a first onboarding for your client is really Rocky, how we can kind of improve that. So when you get to the end of your first job, whether it's a one-off or you're, you got a retainer, when you get to the end, kind of look back, like, look back on the job and see like, where could I have made better choices? Where could it have gone better? Where could I have helped more? Where could my content improve? Like, do I need to do this or this?

Uh, what other people can I read? What other, like, uh, what other by-lines have I seen in my niche? Or what other, um, magazines can I read that would help me write better to learn from their word choices and learn how they write all of that stuff really helps you, not only just with writing in general, but your client experience. And if you feel unprepared and you're worried, like don't, don't freak out, it's going to be okay. Even if you make mistakes, it's going to be normal. Like I still make mistakes. I've been doing this a long time. I still make mistakes all the time. It sucks. And sometimes I cry really hard about them. Um, but that's normal like that that's gonna happen. Running a business is hard. Being a freelance writer is hard and that's why not everybody does it. Not everybody really sticks around.

And you know, it's, it's people want to think about it being easy. They want to think about it being like, well, I'll just write whatever I want and get paid. I'll be a freelance writer and I'll write about whatever I want and I'll just magically get paid. And that's not always what it's like. Sometimes you have to make hard choices. And sometimes that means that you have to let go of certain things that are hard to let go of. I know I've had to do that and I've continually have to do that. Um, and it's hard, but as long as you kind of realize that you're learning from the process and that at least if you made a mistake, you're not starting from square one again, you've already had all this experience. You're working from a place of like, Ooh, I made that mistake. I know it's a mistake now because of this, this and this, here's how I'm going to fix it in the future. That's going to make you a better writer, a better business owner, um, better client experiences, better testimonials, better content. Um, okay. So one last question from Linden here, and then we're going to hop off. Oh, we're going to do a pup date too. So I'm going to give you guys pup date. Oh, their sleep, wake up. You guys want some Fritos?

Oh, there she is. She's like, yeah, I'm ready. Oh, I like your back teeth. Hey buddy. You go. There you go. There you go. Good girl. Good job. All right. Cool.

We got to pump data in. Good. We did it. All right. Linda's question. Is, is it good to record the conversations to remember what you've discussed? Should you get a transcriber or do yourself? Okay. I find, I don't, um, record my initial client calls because I take notes while it's happening. And I've been on like thousands of calls now. Like, so I don't need to, when I first started out, I would take way too many notes. Like I wouldn't listen very well and I'd just be like, oh God, like, I'm going to forget something. Um, but just take notes on the important things and really listen to them. So you can see if you're a fit. If you feel like having the recording will help. You remember, like, if they give you this long diatribe about their project and you're like, like, if you have a client call and you don't record it and they give you this long diatribe about a project and you're like, oh crap.

I wish I had recorded that. Um, just like make sure for next time that you feel like, okay, I guess I'm just going to record all my client calls. So I have information. If you feel like you forget stuff, or it's really hard for you to take notes and listen at the same time or take notes while someone talks, um, then record it, just let them know. Don't like, don't do something creepy and like record them without them knowing. And just be like, it's only for internal purposes. Like no, uh, the rules and the law, um, change by state. Whether or not you have to tell someone that you're recording, but any good writer and journalist and like all the people who write reported articles, like whatever you want to call yourself. Um, you know, you have to tell them you're recording, no matter what state it is, just tell them, Hey, do you mind if I record this meeting, um, to help me with my notes and proposal process later, uh, do you mind if I record this meeting?

Just so I have accurate information in case we decide to work together. Do you mind if I record this meeting so that I can make sure that I have to ask you less questions later on just frame it as this thing that helps them? So, um, that's one piece. The other piece is like, if I get a recording, I go put it in Temi, T E M I a it's just a little robot and it transcribes your stuff. Some people use otter.ai. Uh, but I found that Otter is not as accurate as Temi Temi T EMI is the robot baby of rev, R E F rev is humans who transcribe things. So if you submit something to rev, it's a, I think it's a dollar 25 a minute now, but it goes to separate humans. It goes to like three or four separate humans. They transcribe it and then put it back together.

So this is how they keep your information that sensitive or confidential, private, like nobody has the full recording. So they can't actually put it all together. So there's that. So you can do rev if you want the humans to do it for a dollar 25 a minute. Um, and Tammy used to be 10 cents a minute. I think it's 25 cents a minute now. So for the robot, it's a dollar, a minute cheaper. Uh, and I find it's close enough. Like when I first started using Temi, it was wildly like wildly off. Um, it was, it was really hard, like when I used to get the rev transcripts and then I use Temi, I was like, oh, this is not good enough for like a journalistic article. It's not close enough, but if you're doing a client call and you just kind of want to, um, like you just want the transcript.

Temi is great. Any transcripts that you see from this live stream that you find on my website, like, I always link to the full transcript below the video, just in case people don't want to watch the video and they just want to read, um, that's through Temi. So if you want to see how accurate Temi is, sorry, versus the video that I'm doing, you can watch the video and read the transcript on my website and see how accurate it is. But I don't, I used to transcribe things myself because, you know, like I said, we all make mistakes, uh, and that would take me hours and it was a disaster and I would do it because I thought I needed to like, hear it to remember it when I was writing. Um, but I, I just don't, I, I realized after a time I didn't need that. And so, um, if you do transcribe things, Tammy's close enough, don't transcribe them yourself. It takes too long. Tammy's is a good option. You can use otter.ai or you can use rev. Cool. I think that's all the questions.

Yeah. I agree with Linda freelance writing is a really hard job, but we can keep going. We're going to figure it out. It's all going to be all right. Um, yeah. Keep going, Linda. Yeah. So determination is really important. Um, I hope this was helpful if you ever feel like you're kind of worried about being unprepared as a writer, these kinds of steps and systems will kind of walk you through your first client and getting basically like them get the client call to onboarding, which is that proposal contract and invoice step, um, to actually completing the work, asking questions upfront, want to front load as much as possible so that when we actually do the work, we had a lot of information. Um, then we are open-minded and curious about edits and, um, then we get testimonials feedback, referrals, pay attention to all those processes.

And, uh, remember it's supposed to be fun. Last thing here is, remember, it's supposed to be fun. Your freelance writing things should be fun. And even if it's hard, sometimes it should still be something at the end of the day. You're like, I'm glad I did that. So don't forget. We all start at square one. We all make mistakes. It's going to be all right. Um, you're not going to be unprepared now cause you got all these good things. So I hope this was helpful. Charlotte's over here begging for trios. I don't think you can see her all the way. Cause she's like sitting right underneath the camera and Charlotte, can you back to your hot, a

Hole? Can you go back to your, have a whole, the back to your huddle hole?

There we go. For some reason she's really clung on to the term Hobbit hole. Like if I go tell her something else, she didn't cling on to that, but she really hung, hung onto the term Hobbit hole. So now I tell

Her to go back to her Hobbit hole. Good job guys. All right. Oh, lost it. Fredo down. There you go.

All right. I hope this was helpful. I will see you next Friday at noon central time. We'll talk about a new topic. Uh, good luck on your first client and I will see you later. Have a great Friday. Bye.

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