VOLUME 23, ISSUE 1 – JANUARY 2024
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. HAPPY NEW YEAR & HERE’S to a “BETTER” 2024!
II. RUNNING A DIFFERENT KIND OF WRITING BUSINESS
Small-Biz Writing Coach: When You Know Your Gift, Stand Your Ground
III. THE POWER OF REACHING OUT
NYC FLCW: “Ask (for Help) and Ye Shall Receive…”
IV. JUST LIKE “CLIFF NOTES” FOR YOUTUBE!
WA FLCW (+Many Other Hats) Shares Cool Labor-Saving Utility
I. HAPPY NEW YEAR, AND HERE’S to a “BETTER” 2024!
I decided to take a stroll down memory lane while putting together this first E-PUB of 2024. I visited the archives for some older “Appetizer” gems with “evergreen” relevance. Wow.
I couldn’t believe how long and rambling most of those early pieces were. Like 1.5 pages, single-spaced, broken up into, maybe, 4–5 dense paragraphs. Ugh.
Yet, they slowly evolved and improved into today’s ever-shorter issues. Bottom line, do this long enough and your writing gets better. It just does.
Yet, fact is, back in 2002-2003, my oversharing-style writing was apparently good enough for both my well-paying clients and my E-PUB readers, and it’s only improved since.
Let 2024 be your “better” year – better writing, better skills (and this can help), leading to better clients. On that note, let’s eat!
II. RUNNING A DIFFERENT KIND OF WRITING BUSINESS
Small-Biz Writing Coach: When You Know Your Gift, Stand Your Ground
When you know the value you bring to the table and what it can mean to your clients, you’ll interact with clients more confidently.
That’s the message of this solid piece from friend, colleague, “business-building coach for writers and copywriters” and E-PUB regular, Ed Gandia.
There’s a story I’ve come across a few times, most recently in the excellent book Essentialism by Greg McKewon.
When Steve Jobs was looking for a logo for his company NeXT, he turned to renowned graphic designer Paul Rand—known for his work on the logos of IBM, UPS, Westinghouse and other famous brands.
As the story goes, Jobs asked Rand to come up with a few options. But little did he know that Rand didn’t work that way. What happened next is most enlightening. Read the full article to find out.
There’s a very powerful lesson in this story:
When you know how and why you can help your clients solve their problems—i.e., when you know why you do what you do so well and why you want to do more of it (and less of the stuff that keeps you from leveraging your true genius)—you need to stand your ground.
Because every time you bend and let a client cross a boundary that’s important to you, you lose something. You lose the respect of good clients. You start feeling like you’re not making the biggest contribution you could be making.
Learn how to make sure that doesn’t happen, in the full piece here.
III. THE POWER OF REACHING OUT
NYC FLCW: “Ask (for Help) and Ye Shall Receive…”
Got this great piece from NYC-based financial content writer, David Rodeck, whose clients include Forbes Advisor, Kiplinger, Fidelity, and Prudential.
Excellent advice for anyone starting out or even seasoned folks who want to connect with like-minded souls.
Starting out as a freelancer is lonely. You don’t have a manager or coworkers to teach you what to do. If you want advice, you just have to ask. It’s a tip I wish I’d followed at the start of my career.
Finding a Mentor
When I launched my financial-writing business ten years ago, I had no clue how the industry worked and whether it was a viable business. One day I googled “financial freelance writer,” and the top result was Don Sadler.
His website gave me a rough idea of what a freelance business should look like, along with an impressive blog, client list, samples, and testimonials.
In the early days, I’d visit Don’s website from time to time, to learn more, yet never reached out directly.
Then, last year, I finally emailed him to say how he inspired my work.
He was thrilled by the note, we hit it off, and now we have a monthly brainstorming call. During one call, he mentioned that a beginner contacted him, and that he’d shared all kinds of great advice—just what I could have used starting out. Oops.
Now that I’m established, I get regular contacts for advice. For the most part, I’m glad to give it, which is why there’s so much power in reaching out.
But there are guidelines for getting more and better support for your business.
Read the full article here to learn those optimizing tips!
IV. “FIELD” GREENS: III. LIKE “CLIFF NOTES” FOR YOUTUBE
WA FLCW (+Many Other Hats) Shares Cool Labor-Saving Utility
Great to hear from WA (state)-based Mike Klassen, who describes his twisty career trajectory thusly:
“I started as a freelance writer 20 years ago last month, moved into design, then voiceover, and now back to more writing and editing…while still doing the design and voiceover.”
Mike shared this nifty AI tool—potentially useful to writers:
Summarize.tech: Provides great printed, AI-generated summaries of YouTube videos. This can be helpful in certain research situations where you need to wade through a lot of video material.
When I need to be completely confident about certain information, I don’t completely trust AI.
But for getting up to speed on certain subjects, or when you just want to know where certain content might be discussed in a long video, this is a nice tool. The free option may be enough for most people.