Treasa Edmond: 0:00

Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast, where we talk about real challenges faced by freelance business owners. Today, we're discussing a situation that might resonate with many of you out there the tightrope walk between maintaining a steady, profitable output and preserving your creative energy and content quality. It's a balancing act that can leave even the most experienced writers feeling stretched thin. Act that can leave even the most experienced writers feeling stretched thin. So, whether you're a seasoned content writer feeling the strain of constant deadlines, or if you're just starting out and want to establish healthy work practices, this episode is for you. If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Treasa Edmond. I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt, imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asked a question I wasn't ready for. I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business. Each week, my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights. Monday through Thursday, we answer your questions, and Fridays, we dive deep to explore how our co-hosts embrace their role as the boss of their business. Welcome to Boss Responses.

Treasa Edmond: 1:25

We are back for day two with Jessica Walrack and Jessica. I'm asking you the question today. This says I'm a content writer and the type of content I write is on the lower side of the pricing spectrum, but it has high volume, so I'm doing pretty well financially. Lately the back-to-back deadlines have been getting to me, though. I'm trying to figure out how much I can reasonably accomplish in a day without suffering from creativity burnout. I know I can't just write for eight hours a day. Quality still matters, so I don't want to write crappy content. How can I figure out what my limits are without testing them until I crack? I'm really interested in your response because I know you kind of specialize in capacity stuff here.

Jessica Walrack: 2:04

Yeah, that's a great question and you know I learned my limits the hard way.

Jessica Walrack: 2:09

To be honest, I did work and work and work until I felt burnt out Me too.

Jessica Walrack: 2:15

But over the years I've learned to spot the early signs and just really pay attention to how I'm feeling throughout projects, like after I'm done with any assignment, I analyze how long it took me, how that breaks down per hour and per word in terms of the payment, and then I write down notes on how I felt about the project, things that I liked, things that I didn't like and that might include I felt like this took way too much time for what it was worth.

Jessica Walrack: 2:48

Maybe there was an aspect to it that was super time intensive, that I would charge more for in the future and just really gauging how I feel. I think that's really important and then drawing those boundaries, like paying attention to that and then putting it into action and how you schedule things and that really helps. So if I write for eight hours a day one day, the next day I need three hours or four hours. My average I've learned over time is kind of like five hours before sentences start to look weird. I'm like looking up words like is this a word I'm like okay, I got to close my computer and take a break.

Treasa Edmond: 3:25

I when I can't spell simple words or when I think they start looking wrong. No-transcript. I love your idea of doing a recap at the end of a project, and just how did you come up with that?

Jessica Walrack: 3:43

I think it was really from having things happen on projects that I really didn't like is where it started, and I just learned to optimize my roster and find my ideal clients and have a business that I actually enjoy and don't feel imprisoned by, like I have to pay really close attention to what I actually like and don't like. So when something went really wrong, I'm like I never want this to happen again. I don't want to experience this ever again, and so I just started taking notes and then over time, it just became a habit.

Treasa Edmond: 4:12

That's brilliant, and that's not something I've done and I think I'm going to actually start. I think I've done it informally, but I've never made it a formal process and I think that's a formal process that would really help a lot of us A lot, and at first I was the same too.

Jessica Walrack: 4:27

It was like I didn't like that.

Treasa Edmond: 4:28

I'll remember for sure next time, but then there's so many things it's hard to keep track of it all, yeah, and yeah, and I think we overestimate our ability to keep track of all of that and I think it's an unreasonable expectation to expect us to do that, because you have a lot of things going on. All of us do, and it's not good to do that With the creativity burnout. I could never write for eight hours a day. So if you can do that, you are a superwoman. I'm impressed Once in a while and maybe it's the type of writing I do, but I can go four or five hours a day and that's my limit, and I never schedule more than five hours a day for writing.

Treasa Edmond: 5:07

I do always block out time right before the deadline for the procrastination writing because that seems to work really well for me. Is it really procrastination if you scheduled it? That seems to work really well for me. Is it really procrastination if you scheduled it? That's a bland one. We'll have to look at that. But the test quality does matter.

Treasa Edmond: 5:29

I know what it takes for me to write quality content, so I think in this case, instead of trying to figure out what my limits are, I would just be very diligent in carving out the time to make sure that I can do the quality writing If quality writing requires me to have a quiet location and a specific candle burning and dim lighting whatever it is, then I would make sure that I have the ability to set that mood to do it. I'm actually the opposite, when I'm doing ghostwriting and I'm chugging out a chapter at the last minute for a client not that I would ever do that. I do all my writing with a lot of time and thought, but I go to a coffee shop where I can ignore people. So I've discovered that I need to ignore something to write. Really well, If I'm stuck at home or the office writing, I put on British Murder Mysteries that I've already watched like 100 times because there's all the noise in the background.

Treasa Edmond: 6:21

But I set the mood and for me that's how I avoid burnout. Not that it doesn't still happen. I think it's really important to point out that burnout is seldom permanent. Yeah, so it can happen, and if you do need to test your limits by getting to that point, then do it, but just realize that you need to do some self-care to get over it and then get back in the saddle and do your thing.

Treasa Edmond: 6:47

This is one of those situations I want to point out to people. You are an employee of your business and I know a lot of freelancers are not buying into that and they should. You're running a business and you are your business's employee. So one of the ways to figure out on the limits especially is would you require an employee to do this? Would it be fair if you had another employee and you asked them to do this thing? If not, then don't hold yourself to that standard. I'm just pretty hard and fast on that, and that's the question I constantly ask myself. Would I lob this on an employee last minute and expect them to do really great work? If not, then I'm not going to require that of myself either.

Jessica Walrack: 7:32

Yeah, and if you're starting to feel that pressure, like she says, lately the back-to-back deadlines have been getting to me, though. To me that's a sign, that's one of those little warning signs. Okay, something needs to change. Maybe you need to start looking for a client that's similar work but pays a little bit more.

Treasa Edmond: 8:10

Yeah, and then once you get into that position, it's like you feel that relief and you can feel like, ok, now I have more creative juice. I don't feel that pressure or that scarcity Like I got to get this without sounding like a ladder climber, but really moving up in quality on both my clients. The pay scale and the work that I'm doing constantly be improving. Eventually you'll reach a pinnacle I haven't yet. I've been doing this for 20 years. You can do it for a long time and take baby steps if you want, but I really think it's important to consistently move up.

Treasa Edmond: 8:43

The people that you work with when you very first start freelancing are not the people you should be working with a couple of years later or 10 years later or 20 years later, no matter how much you like them, no matter how much you like the work. You should constantly be moving forward with your business, because you owe that to your business. You just have to do that. That's a complicated topic. It is a complicated topic and burnout is a real thing. We didn't even really talk about that, but burnout is a real thing and you do not want to consistently push yourself to the point of burnout, because if you do it over and over again, then you will absolutely end up hating your business, and I don't think any of us do what we do because we want to end up hating.

Jessica Walrack: 9:27

Yeah, and I think that's the natural flow of what happens. Like, when people start, they take as much work as they can. They're like I can work any time, the more I can work, the more money I can make, and you just like go, go, go, go go. Once you don't have an employer saying, okay, clock out. If you're completely new to this, I think that it's natural to kind of get to that place. But yeah, definitely not somewhere you want to say it can really take a toll on your health.

Treasa Edmond: 9:54

And all of your health your mental and your physical health for sure. Boundaries are not for other people, they're for yourself. So even if you're setting a boundary with a client, you're setting the boundary to gauge how you're going to react if they cross it. You need to do those same things with you for your business. So your business can only require so much from you before you cross a boundary. If you cross the boundary, how are you going to react to that?

Treasa Edmond: 10:23

I think that's one of the most important aspects of not getting burned is I have these boundaries. I'm not going to cross them. If I do, bad consequences. So what do you do? Do you have to get rid of a client? Do you have to not take the next project because you need a couple of weeks to recuperate, whatever it takes, and build your business so that you can get to that point and maybe just don't get to that point at some point, but, yes, those are all really important. That's day two. Tomorrow we're going to talk about a topic that I read about a lot on social having problems, finding new.