Treasa Edmond: 0:00

Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast. As I was editing today's episode, I celebrated for a couple of reasons. The first is this is the 50th episode of the Boss Responses podcast. It took me a while to even get started on this podcast Imposter syndrome was smacking me up beside the head hard but I've enjoyed every single second of recording the podcast, of talking to my guests, and I have some really great episodes already recorded that you'll be listening to in the next few weeks. I'm always looking for great guests, so if you know someone who should be on the Boss Responses podcast, let me know. Tag me on LinkedIn, send me a DM. I really want to make sure that I'm bringing the people onto the podcast who can help you grow your business. Also, questions we always need more questions to feature on the podcast. Second, every other sentence in this entire episode was a nugget of amazing information.

Treasa Edmond: 1:05

Our special guest this week is Jessica Walrack. Jessica is the founder of All Things Freelance Writing, a community that helps freelance writers build their ideal businesses through its blog, weekly jobs newsletter and other resources. She's also a freelance finance journalist with 11 years of professional writing experience. You can find her work regularly featured in national publications, including US News and World, CBS News Money Watch, Newsweek and Wall Journal BuySide. I've really enjoyed having Jessica on the podcast this week and, as I mentioned close to the end of this episode, I hope we can bring her back in the future to talk about some of the sales side of the business.

Treasa Edmond: 1:51

Today we're going to talk about two topics that are vital to freelance business owners. The first is niching down. Should you do it? How should you do it? What does that actually look like? There's a lot of information out there and it's contradictory. Jessica gives some great advice that I think you're really going to enjoy hearing. Our other topic is going from an outbound marketing business to inbound clients how that changes your business, what that looks like and how you can make it happen your business, what that looks like and how you can make it happen. Jessica is very transparent and she shares that. The process didn't happen for her overnight. She worked really hard for several years before everything started clicking for her. Today she's sharing what she did, so that maybe you can skip a few of those steps. It's a longer episode today, so let's not waste any more time, because I know you're going to want to hear what Jessica has to say.

Treasa Edmond: 2:50

If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place. I'm your host, teresa 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, jessica. Thank you so much for being here with us this week.

Jessica Walrack: 3:42

Yeah, it's a pleasure. Thanks for inviting me.

Treasa Edmond: 3:45

It's been fun. We've had a lot of this week. Yeah, it's a pleasure. Thanks for inviting me. It's been fun. We've had a lot of deep conversations. Yeah, definitely All right. So today we're learning more about you and we're actually diving pretty deep into two different topics, and we'll get into those. But first tell me a little bit about you and what you do.

Jessica Walrack: 3:59

Okay, yeah, I'm a freelance finance writer and journalist. I specialize in covering the economy, banking products, loans, budgeting, insurance, things like that for fintech companies, media companies, news sites, and yeah, I've been doing that for about four years and then I was a generalist for about seven years before that. And then how many years before that were you a generalist? Seven, so a total of 11.

Treasa Edmond: 4:31

11 years. That's a good long time to be running your own business. What did you do before you started as a freelancer?

Jessica Walrack: 4:39

I was in sales, so I did sales to consumers for about five years and then B2B sales for about two to three years.

Treasa Edmond: 4:51

So that's a big difference.

Jessica Walrack: 4:53

Yeah, there's overlap. I found that a lot of the things that I learned because they would send us to these sales trainings and I would have to do a lot of outbound and things like that. So a lot of that I found came in handy as I was crafting sales content and putting calls to actions. But instead of doing it in person with another human being, I'm doing it through writing. But it helped a lot in kind of the client acquisition and getting things going.

Treasa Edmond: 5:22

So that's a big perspective shift. I know as a content strategist working with big B2B companies, one of the biggest kind of breaks I see in the content system is the content teams creating content that supports the sales team and then the sales team actually utilizing that in some way. So you have had a completely different perspective shift to where now you're creating the content and how does that make you see things differently from where you came from?

Jessica Walrack: 5:53

I feel like, especially over the past few years, as everything's shifted more online, it's kind of all melded together. I feel like marketing used to be one silo and sales was another, and now it's more of all melded together. I feel like marketing used to be one silo and sales was another, and now it's more intertwined. Like content as people refer to it versus the copy is often educational. You're raising awareness, you're bringing people into the buying cycle and nurturing them through, and then the copy is more of what sales was, where you're trying to make that hard sale, maybe on a landing page or something like that or an ad in the moment. So I've really been able to take that experience and put it all together, although I am more drawn towards the educational side. So I've always really enjoyed kind of teaching I've done it in every role I've ever had and so long form kind of content I've leaned towards that more.

Treasa Edmond: 6:49

That's where I lean as well, but I am seeing that breakdown in the silos and how everything is coming more together, and I agree with you on that. I understand you believe in the importance of niching down. Can you share your journey to discovering your niche and why you think it's so important?

Jessica Walrack: 7:05

Yeah, like I said, I was a generalist for seven years. I stumbled upon freelance writing. I never had really heard about it before and my husband and I were actually trying to start a different kind of business and to get it going we had to hire a website copywriter and someone to write our blogs. And so we went through Elance, I think, at the time, and that business was getting started, but it was just slow and so I was like, in the downtime, I'm going to go on Elance myself and see what I can find. So I think I applied for 40 positions before I got a chance. But landed my first gig and made money online for the first time and that little light bulb. I'm like, oh my gosh, okay, this can work. And yeah, I just navigated it, kept applying, trying all sorts of different things and slowly learning more about what this industry is, what the business is, over time. But I reached a point where I was just ready to take it to the next level and I was really struggling to take it to the next level and I was really struggling with issues like I wasn't really getting inbounds. I was putting a lot of time into marketing all the time. I wasn't really happy with my clients, like they were scope creeping, they were not paying me on time, but I didn't have the other clients or the ability to get them to write my other clients off. So it was just really frustrating and I'm like, okay, I'm at the point where I need to do something else or I need to make this work, basically.

Jessica Walrack: 8:32

And so that's when I decided to niche down and I tried a few different things. I started by getting on LinkedIn, building a brand, and that started to get some traction, and so I thought maybe I'll get more into the branding side and I'll do branding guides and mission and vision statements and all the stuff to get people set up. I had done that for some clients in the past, but it didn't really take off. I got a few clients, but it was so much work and there's so much back and forth and so much research and I was just like spending way more time than even before and making less money. So I was like, okay, this isn't really a good fit.

Jessica Walrack: 9:13

So I went back to the drawing board. I looked through all my work. I'm like what do I like? What's in high demand and what's paying? Well, I need to do some find something that ticks those three boxes, and I just realized it's the finance blogs. I really enjoy these. I hardly ever need revisions. My clients need a lot of them. They pay some of the best of any of my projects. Why don't I give this a go, why not? I already have one or two clients in the space. So, yeah, I updated everything, my LinkedIn, my website, went all in on it, kept posting on LinkedIn and the leads just really started coming in from all these high, big brand name companies, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have been getting on calls, struggling, selling myself so hard, and now this business is just coming to me. This is like the magic formula. Amazing, it was the most exciting thing ever, and so at that point, I really understood the power of niching and having a very specific offer. And so, yeah, I've been on that truck ever since.

Treasa Edmond: 10:19

So let's talk about impact. How did narrowing your focus really change your business, both initially, obviously, you had a lot more leads coming in and then, in the long term, what changes did you see that you had to make? Because your client portfolio, I'm sure, just completely changed?

Jessica Walrack: 10:36

Yeah, and it was a gradual process. Last year was the first year that I was 100%. All I wrote was finance articles, so I was still doing other stuff, but on the marketing front, that's all I was doing. I still had some other clients, so it was really just a process of removing all the bottlenecks that I was running into. So I'm getting better at the finance writing, I'm realizing what obstacles I run into in this area, and so I was able to, now that I had the lead gen sorted, I could focus on the next problem, which was optimizing my workflow so that I can get through my work in the time that I want to get through it, so that I can get rid of these problems that are really annoying and taking too much time, so I can fine-tune the clients that I want. All of those things became the next focus, and so everything I would say from that point it was just really fine tuning it and, yeah, getting rid of those issues.

Treasa Edmond: 11:38

And I like that you solve the problems one at a time, because I think a lot of people get overwhelmed. They're like, okay, these are all the things I don't like, that I want to change, and then they have this massive list and you just solve the big problems and then the little problems went away with them, which I think is really cool. So, looking at your business now and then looking back at it when you very first started specializing, like four years ago, what are some of the differences that you see?

Jessica Walrack: 12:06

Maybe even how you feel about it. Yeah, I love it. I love my business, and at that time I was just surviving and I was unhappy. I was ready to throw in the towel. So it's just night and day.

Jessica Walrack: 12:17

I've gotten time back. I was able to start a second business. I've been able to create this whole online community and give back to other freelance writers who might be struggling with things that I struggled with, and I have time to do the newsletter. Just other passions I have time to refinish furniture, which is like a hobby that I never even knew I liked, and take pottery classes, and it just feels actually getting your life back, having space and time to, more time to spend with family, more resources, be able to do the things that you want All those things. I just think it's priceless. I'm really thankful that I discovered that change and that it worked and that I've just been able to stay on that path and then grow in other ways too, where before my business was all consuming, it was taking all of my time to try to make it work Right.

Treasa Edmond: 13:07

So let's move back to those years when you were kind of a generalist. I know a lot of people who prefer to stay generalist, or they want to work with a variety of clients or they want to do all of that. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But there is power in narrowing your focus and working with a specific group of clients. One it does help you up level. Because you up level your skills, you make your business tighter and then you do have room, and I think a lot of it is creating space in your life, which is what we want our businesses to do right. We don't want them to consume us. For those people who are generalists, or for people who are generalists and are ready to make that switch, who want to uplevel their skills in their business, what advice would you give them?

Jessica Walrack: 13:52

I would say and we've kind of talked about this before it doesn't necessarily have to be an industry niche. It can be a niche in the type of writing that you do, such as blogs or email or ghostwriting, or any aspect of your business that is more specific can be a niche. So it can be any kind of specialist area that you do and like ghostwriting Maybe you write emails, maybe you write blogs. It doesn't necessarily have to be like finance or health or an industry, and also it doesn't have to be the only thing you're doing. It's a marketing positioning strategy. It's how you're presenting yourself in the market to attract people to you. That doesn't mean that's all you're doing on the back end. So I did a variety of things for the first few years. I just on LinkedIn, that's how I presented it and that's what I was hoping to attract and it worked. But that doesn't necessarily have to be exclusive and you can start and try things and test it out for four to six weeks, see how it goes and if it doesn't, that's okay.

Jessica Walrack: 14:58

Switch to the next thing. Like people don't remember, people don't care what you did six months ago. What's going to matter is the consistent messaging that you're sending now and what you stick with. So, yes, it does definitely build momentum if you are doing the same thing for a long time. Now that I've been doing it for two years, three years, I have a lot more people who will say they see a finance position come up and they message me. Hey, jess, I think this would be perfect for you. That didn't happen as much in the first year. So once you find your thing, it definitely helps to be consistent, but I don't think you have to feel so much pressure that you're locked into this thing forever. You can try it out, see if it's a good fit, and if it's not, you can move on to something else. Marketing is really a big experiment.

Treasa Edmond: 15:44

Yeah, I like that you brought that up. This doesn't have to be an entire pivot of your business just to choose one area to focus on. It's actually just a marketing focus and then you see if the marketing works and if it doesn't, you try a different marketing focus. So you don't actually have to make any back-end business changes into what you're doing and what you're not doing until you see whether or not the marketing works, and I think that's a really good point. So you don't have to stop doing all of the work for the other clients. I wouldn't recommend it. I've seen it happen and I've also seen people who have been hit by this downturn in the market and they're like, ok, while this is going on, I'm going to go ahead and pivot and niche down and do my thing. That's fine, but you should probably still be trying to find work in what you're already doing while you're doing that. It's just the freedom to try new things. That's the point.

Jessica Walrack: 16:34

Yeah, and I'm not saying that this is the only way this worked for me. This will work for everybody. That's definitely not the case. I know generalists who are highly successful and they've been that way for decades, so different ways can work. I'm just saying this is one way, and this worked for me.

Treasa Edmond: 16:54

And you have to look at why they're successful. You can't just say, well, they're successful because they're a generalist, or they're successful because they're just a finance writer. You can't do that. There are other factors that we don't see, that are happening, that are creating that success for them. Sometimes it's relationships, sometimes it's their marketing, sometimes it's just who they know. So all of that stuff comes into play. So you cannot gauge your success in the same area based on what you're seeing online from other people. It's just not possible. So give yourself grace. What about misconceptions? Because I'm telling you that until recently, I had a lot of misconceptions about niching down. So are there any that you would like to debunk particularly?

Jessica Walrack: 17:37

Yeah, I think that I see a lot of coaching materials, I guess, like courses and things like that, that say you have to niche down right out of the gate If you want to start a freelance writing business. You pick a high profitable niche and then you go to market. Yeah, and I don't necessarily think that's the best thing to do all the time, right? Especially if you have no samples, no experience, no testimonials, nothing. It's going to be difficult because the people who are looking to hire experts they want to see proof, and that's what you're saying.

Jessica Walrack: 18:12

If you're niched down, is that you're an expert in this thing? Right, maybe if you're coming from a background of like I know a lot of nurses who recently transitioned out of working in hospitals into freelance writing and so they're going into the health. Ok, that's a little bit different. Maybe you're new to writing but you have this subject matter expertise in the area. I can get that. But if you're not really wanting to transition from what you were doing before and use that, then it can make sense just to come in and get your feet wet and try different things and see what you like and experiment, see where that demand is what pays the best, where there's high demand and base the niching decision on actual, real data and evidence rather than just a guess or something you read online.

Treasa Edmond: 19:00

Yeah, I think we should all applaud that statement. Base your business decisions on data and evidence. People Do that. I love that. That's so true. So when we were talking about doing the podcast, you mentioned that you'd gone from 100% outbound which a lot of us do when we start to 90% inbound on your client intake. I'm a big believer of getting to the point where clients come to you or clients are referred to you. I think that is the mark of a successful business or one of the benchmarks. So there are a lot of benchmarks, but I think that's one of them. Can you walk us through your process of making that shift from 100% outbound to the 90% inbound?

Jessica Walrack: 19:39

Yeah, like I said, I have a sales background. I was doing a lot of cold calling in my B2B position and so I carried that over into this and I started on work platforms and I would just apply, apply, apply. So these are already people in the final stage of the buying cycle. They know that they need a freelance writer, they know exactly what they need, they have a budget, all these things. So it's not exactly a cold pitch. I'm just competing against all the other people who are trying to get this position. So I did that. I would spend about an hour every single day, sending at least 20 applications every single day to try to build a regular influence, my business and my business flow. So it's a lot of work and I see a lot of writers struggle with this. They're like I sent five pitches and I haven't heard anything back. I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Jessica Walrack: 20:44

Oftentimes it's just a volume issue in the beginning, because you're new, if you don't have that much experience, you don't have that much proof. You don't have that much proof, you don't have trust, connections, all these things that make outbound easier, and so your conversion rates are going to be probably around three to five percent, which means you need to be sending a ton of outbound to to get results. So that's where I started. It was a hustle, it was a grind for a few years really to get the thing going and I also didn't really have that much confidence in myself and my skills and my abilities because I was new and I was learning and I really didn't know what I was doing that much. I was kind of learning as I go and so over time, as I got more experience and worked with all these different types of clients, as I got more experience and worked with all these different types of clients, I started to believe more in myself and what I delivered and the value that I delivered to these companies.

Jessica Walrack: 21:40

And it just really helps to have positive interactions with clients who really appreciate your work. And then you say okay and I worked with a few editors throughout my journey too that you get back this document and it's just redlined like crazy and it's so frustrating to see that. But those were some of my biggest learning opportunities to figure out exactly how to improve. So now, looking back, it's like those were pivotal turning points where, after I worked with a real high caliber editor. I could get better clients after that and better. Long story short, it was just really gaining experience, gaining confidence, building relationships, building trust with people, and then niching down and building my presence and aligning everything. So all of this stuff built on each other to the point where then I had an online presence. I didn't really have an online presence for a long time, like six years.

Treasa Edmond: 22:34

I was just hustling like writing, writing, writing because you don't need it if you're in the job boards.

Jessica Walrack: 22:39

Yeah, I had my profile which had all my reviews on it, and then once because I was on Elance, and then it got bought out by Upwork and shut down.

Jessica Walrack: 22:47

So that was like I lost my source, because there was kind of a drop-off between the two. And so at that point I went on to LinkedIn and started connecting with people in like 2016. But nobody was posting. It was just you're connecting. People were like messaging on there, using it like a resume site, but yeah, so I really started seeing the switch when I niched down, aligned my whole profile, put all my testimonials together in my niche and started posting on LinkedIn and Instagram and then doing SEO for my website and so creating that constant presence to raise awareness about what I did, started to bring in optimizing my profile for my niche, started to bring in the inbound and, yeah, and now it's been about three years and it's just it keeps going and keeps on building. So I do still like to keep an eye out all the time. I do the job board, so I'm seeing jobs every single week, people hiring, so when I see something good, I'll send a little message.

Jessica Walrack: 23:50

Or if I see a publication that is like a dream publication, I want to be, in, I'll DM the editor and I'll just be like, hey, I'm a freelance finance writer, would love to connect. And a lot of times they're like, oh, we're looking for somebody. I count that as outbound still and I'll do a little bit of that. But yeah, it's been. I'm really thankful that it's turned around and tide has turned, but it's definitely not something that's just going to happen out of the gate. For a lot of people, right, you have to build your skill set to the point where people are happy. They're sending you glowing testimonials that you can build that proof. And a lot of people are aware of what you do. They're telling other people like it's not just clients coming to me, it's a lot of fellow writers that I know and if I see something that's a good fit for them, I'm sending it to them, I'm sending them referrals and they do the same to me. So it's just this whole network that builds momentum.

Treasa Edmond: 24:46

It's not an overnight process, and that's another one of those things we've talked about before. You cannot gauge your success based on someone else's, because they may be way further in their journey than you are, and that's just not in anyone who promises you a we can make you successful overnight thing.

Jessica Walrack: 25:04

They're just lying, it's just and I say not a single person would envy the grinds that I went through. Nobody would want to be doing what I did all those years. I got so many no's, I got so much rejection. I remember applying to e-byline to try to be a professional writer 20 times of getting rejected. It's a grind and people often see the end result of that and it's like, oh, how did you get there? I want to be there. You know there's been a long, there's a lot. It's like the iceberg thing. There's so much that has gone into this and it does take a lot of persistence. I think anybody who's really committed to it and I do think you can fast track the process. There's some things that I definitely took longer to get to, just because I didn't know, like in hindsight. But yeah, it's definitely a process.

Treasa Edmond: 25:59

And that's something that and I know. You have your community where you help people, and you have your newsletter, and both of them do this thing. So when you're looking for people to help move your business forward, that's one of those things that you should look for is find people who are helping you solve individual problems, not people who are making sweeping claims on how they're going to help you build your business or do this thing.

Treasa Edmond: 26:22

So if you're struggling with outbound marketing, then go to someone like Jessica who has perfected a process. See if that process works for you, try it out. If it doesn't, go find another one and try it. But don't spend all of your time doing that either. You still need to be doing the rest of the work and doing the slog.

Treasa Edmond: 26:40

I've met a few people who have just like golden luck and they meet the people that just jump and skip them to the front of the line every single time. They're rare. The rest of us work. We work to get there and that's important. So marketing huge. Making sure everything's dialed in on messaging huge. You just kept trying things. That's also huge. I love that. You've gotten to the point now where your marketing's out there doing the work for you and when you do outbound, it's outbound that you really want to do, and I think that is something we should all aspire to. But what were some of the biggest lessons that you learned during that transition from doing the grind reaching out? And I know one of them was when to stop and let your system work. But what are some of those that really made an impact on you that you still remember and have actually applied to your daily processes.

Jessica Walrack: 27:34

Oh yeah, one thing is the feast and the famine.

Jessica Walrack: 27:38

I would really, just when I had no workout, panic and I would hustle, hustle, hustle on my marketing, and then I would get this influx of clients, and then I'm overwhelmed with my work and so I stopped marketing and then it's just like this endless cycle of that and it's frustrating and it's so stressful.

Jessica Walrack: 28:02

And so just learning what marketing works and how to maintain it on a regular basis was a turning point, just realizing, okay, I can do 10 applications a day, every day, no matter what, no matter if things are good or bad, steady input is going to create steady output or whatever the other way around. And then, even still, with LinkedIn, I keep a steady presence on there. I have two businesses now, but they both follow the same principles. Nobody else is going to be out there keeping awareness for your stuff besides you. You have to keep that steady base going, and it's not just about, hey, I offer this, hey, I offer this, hey, I offer this. It's like hey, this is who I am, this is what I care about, this is what I've learned, this is how I can help these are my experience.

Jessica Walrack: 28:50

Humanizing. Yeah, it's just really putting yourself out there truly what you think is funny in the industry, what challenges you see, what you think needs to be improved. That helps to create awareness around who you are, no matter what you're doing, and then that helps with all of your businesses. So, yeah, I think that and it's also enjoyable because I get to meet people who share the same passions as me and care about the same things and I felt really true friendships and relationships since doing this.

Treasa Edmond: 29:21

So it's enjoyable too and it helps business their business on LinkedIn or interacting on LinkedIn, because they really hate social media. But you just said you enjoy it, you found the enjoyment in it. Have you ever had that where you just I'm like I can't post another thing this week, or how do you stay motivated?

Jessica Walrack: 29:42

to keep doing that. Get it too. I was never like a huge social media person. Linkedin's the first one I've ever really put true effort into and made true relationships on it. But I do have to be careful. I can't.

Jessica Walrack: 29:58

I have burnt out from LinkedIn before. It's a lot to be putting ideas out there on a regular basis and then, as that builds, there's comments and there's a lot of messages and that's just a lot of people to be responding to and thinking about. Like when you close the phone you're still thinking about it. What did that person say? Oh, what about this, what about that? So I definitely have had to learn boundaries on what to do and I'll take time off and I'll take breaks and there'll be times when I might do more or less, but I do try to keep the presence steady at least one or two posts per week on an ongoing basis. Sometimes it will be a higher, but not forever. I'm not the five posts per week type of person for the whole year because it's just, it's a lot to handle and I get up and flow.

Jessica Walrack: 30:45

Yeah, yeah, it's really an ebb and flow, and I'll take time off too, every once in a while, but I'm in a building phase right now, so I have been more honed in on LinkedIn. I don't know if that will last forever, but, yeah, I definitely can understand the struggle with it and I think you have to be careful. It's easy just to get pulled into all the conversations and be on there way more than you need to be, even, and it can eat into your work time. So for me it's like, okay, I'll get on, I'll do a post, I'll do 30 minutes of interacting and then I'm done. I got to focus on my other stuff.

Treasa Edmond: 31:19

And if you're not careful, the negativity that is rampant on social media can just overwhelm you. So you really have to gatekeep what you allow.

Jessica Walrack: 31:27

And you do have to pay attention to things.

Treasa Edmond: 31:28

Yeah.

Jessica Walrack: 31:29

Yeah, I've had some people most people on LinkedIn. I feel like it's more positive than a lot of the other platforms, but there's still some people that I've just had to say like all their comments would just kind of rub me the wrong way. It just felt like they were maybe passive, aggressive or coming for me for some reason, and I would find myself like how do I respond to the? Taking too much energy and time trying to figure out how to respond? Block it.

Treasa Edmond: 31:55

Yeah, it's not worth it. I'm a big believer in blocking, especially trolls or people who just want to poke. So you mentioned something and this wasn't on our initial. Let's talk about this list, but I want to take just a few minutes. You mentioned the feast and famine cycle, and this is a big deal for a lot of freelancers, even veteran freelancers who have been doing this for a long time. How do you break that?

Jessica Walrack: 32:20

I think it's consistent marketing and then it's increasing your amount of inbound, because even now I still have I don't think the surges and the dips ever stop. But I think you can get to a point where your dips are not zero. Your dips are not. I can't make my savings goal. Your dips can get higher and higher and your searches are going to get higher too, but as that whole thing lifts, then you're never going to be in that kind of frantic. Oh my gosh, I have no work. It's okay, this is my minimum. I say keep raising that bar until your minimum is where you're good and your maximum is where you're growing and better.

Treasa Edmond: 33:03

It takes pretty consistent effort to get there. I think you also have to seriously do some business basics work. You have to make sure your rates are dialed in so that you can meet what you need. You have to make sure that your cash flow system is set up and that you have a buffer so if something does happen with the inbound, you're not panicked and go out and do that reactionary marketing. So it's not just a forward-facing situation. I think that you have to do some business work on the back end as well, and I'm sure you've done that, and a lot of us forget to talk about the systems. We just do the thing. This is what we're doing in marketing, and no, you actually have to do all of this. Make sure you have the right bank accounts.

Jessica Walrack: 33:48

That's boring. And also the repeat clients. I'm not replacing my clients every month, right, all I'm doing. I'm looking for more opportunities that excite me, that I would want to integrate. I'm not looking for my anchor clients. I have those. So it's like having that repeatable income is key because it's not a revolving door. You have that base that you can rely on. It's just trying to fine tune it on an ongoing basis and make it better. I don't think I'll ever get to a point where I'm like I'm good, I got my roster, I'm good, I'm not going to do any more trying. It's a constant evolution.

Treasa Edmond: 34:25

There will always be attrition, always, and sometimes you'll have a retainer client or a repeat client that you work with for years and it's just not working for you all of a sudden, all of a sudden, sometimes, the attrition is on your end and you're letting people go. I think you should be. I think unless you have filled your roster with absolutely ideal clients which has anyone then you're going to be letting people go every once in a while. And I love repeat clients and retainer clients and I have set rules. No one retainer client can be more than 10% of my income, simply because if you lose one, I don't think it should be a crippling. That's me. I don't think it should be a crippling blow to my business if I lose one client and that's a big thing.

Jessica Walrack: 35:05

I have a 20%, but 10% that's even better.

Treasa Edmond: 35:10

Yeah, and it may be. I also supplement mine with larger clients as well, because I have books or a content strategy and you want to make sure that you're still maintaining that base with the retainer, the consistent work. It's a tricky thing and I think feast or famine breaking out of that is going to be a little bit different for everyone. But there are certain pieces of groundwork that you have to lay down and doing that marketing and getting the clients coming to you are top of that.

Treasa Edmond: 35:41

Yeah definitely so, looking back on your business thus far, is there anything you would do differently if you were starting over?

Jessica Walrack: 35:50

One thing that I always think of is, for me, a big pivoting turning point was getting recognizable bylines. Like I said before, I was trying to get into this like program where you could get really high ticket clients, and at the time it was e-byline, and they just always kept saying no, because I didn't have these national publications. I had tons of bylines but they didn't know any of them, and I had such a hard time breaking in and getting my first one and I hear a lot of people say this too and so I actually ended up getting one by accident through Clear Voice. Have you heard of Clear Voice? Yeah, yeah, they have a talent platform, so I got into that and then they got the client and then offered it to me, and so then I got three or four bylines through that Finally, just like it just happened.

Jessica Walrack: 36:43

But now that I know that you can pitch publications like I share pitch calls every single week now and it's like Business Insider, cnet, like all of these well-known companies, and they just take pitches from freelancers. So if you have a good story, a good angle, they'll take it. It doesn't matter what you've really done before if you have a lot of them, if you have a good story. So I never knew that I was really only on the content marketing side. I wasn't aware of the whole publication side really until like 2020. So I think if I was going back I would pitch those regularly and I would try to get in and get a good byline earlier, because I think that once you have one, that's like instant trust, you can put on it your logo, on your profile and all that stuff and then more people are willing to trust you from that that no like trust thing.

Treasa Edmond: 37:34

Some people diss it but it really really does matter. And the byline thing I have issues with that because I'm a ghostwriter. I will never have a great byline. I'm okay with that and it depends.

Jessica Walrack: 37:44

It's a different audience. Your audience doesn't want you to have those.

Treasa Edmond: 37:48

They want one behind the scenes when you're setting that up for your business. That's one of the things you want to look at is where do I want to go with this, and is this something that I really need to focus on? Maybe I'll start looking for bylines now. All right, so let's talk about your all things. Freelance writing newsletter, because it's pretty awesome.

Jessica Walrack: 38:05

Thanks. Yeah, I started this about a year and a half ago now. Each week I round up opportunities that are posted on LinkedIn, on Twitter. Sometimes companies reach out to me and ask to have their gig featured. Companies reach out to me and ask to have their gig featured and they go through a vetting process just to check where the rates are at if they're a legitimate company. And then, yeah, I just curate that list each Friday and send it out to our community, and along with that, I often interview other experts in the freelance writing space or content marketing space and I'll include tips from them. I'll include something from my own experience, maybe a tip and then breaking news.

Jessica Walrack: 38:46

So it's just a place for freelance writers to stay in the know with what's going on, get free leads delivered to their inbox and just learn from others in the industry. And my whole thing is really I just I've been through the trenches of this. I know that it's not all rainbows and butterflies. It takes hard work, and so I just really like to amplify other voices who are coming from the same kind of place, who have been through this. They're not just putting out advice, they're speaking from experience and it's not just going to be like, hey, do this and get six figures. It's like real actionable things that I would actually find helpful and I think others would too. Yeah, it goes out every Friday morning at 8 am and it's totally free to subscribe to.

Treasa Edmond: 39:31

Even if you have a lot of newsletters that you don't read. Get rid of one of those and sign up for this. Yeah, and read it and actually read it. It's important. So, jessica, how can people find you online and connect with you and sign up for your newsletter and anything you mentioned? I'll make sure those links are in the show notes for the people as well.

Jessica Walrack: 39:47

The newsletter is on Beehive and there's a link to it. We'll add one here and then I have it on my LinkedIn featured section also. And then, yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn, just search for Jessica Walrack, and I like to post there pretty regularly. I respond to all the DMs that aren't pitch slaps, I mean. I'm sure one or a few drop through, slip through the cracks, but I really try to. I love to talk with others in the freelancing community so you can DM me there or connect, and I accept pretty much all the connection requests. And then, yeah, you can learn more about All Things Freelance Writing at allthingsfreelancerwritingcom. We have a podcast, a blog, a lot of resources on there.

Treasa Edmond: 40:26

Yeah, and, yeah, podcasts people. We love podcasts, right, so go listen to that. I'll make sure there's a link to that and I'll put it in my preferred podcast list on the list as well. And then one last question, jessica what advice would you give to service providers looking to create lasting, successful partnerships with their clients? Oh, that's a good question.

Jessica Walrack: 40:48

Big smile.

Treasa Edmond: 40:48

We have a big smile, folks.

Jessica Walrack: 40:51

For me, it just all comes down to building trust. As soon as I get a client, I just can't wait to win their trust. They're often kind of nervous. At first. They may be like, oh, make sure you get the keywords in there, make sure that this has headers, and I'm like, trust me, I got this and so winning them over. I just love that process and then building that trust on an ongoing basis. It's meeting the deadlines, it's paying close attention. If you run into a problem, reaching out to them and coming up with a solution, asking them how they might handle it. All of that just helps to build really strong relationships where they can see that you really care, you're an expert, you really know what you're doing and you're putting 100%. And then, on the flip side, is that client really invested? Are they paying close attention and can we match in that way where we're both really engaged? Okay, this is match made in heaven and it can just go on and be a really enjoyable work experience.

Treasa Edmond: 41:53

It's finding that perfect fit and I think that's important. I look for that and I think every other person I have talked to who has built a truly successful business, that was one of the hallmarks for them is finding the clients that were a good fit and it matches an energy and expectations and all of the things have a desire to work with you.

Jessica Walrack: 42:16

Those are important and then they're your advocate. Then you have somebody out there who knows you, knows you, who trusts you, who's worked with you for two years and you never miss a deadline. That's a powerful person to have out in the world, and then that person is going to write you testimonials and they're going to recommend other people to you and all that stuff.

Treasa Edmond: 42:34

Jessica, we need to have you back because you were in sales. We need to have you back in the future and have a chat about the buyer's journey and how that relates to freelancers, because you just mentioned advocates and that is the stage of the buyer's journey that a lot of big businesses even forget about. For freelancers especially, I think it's absolutely vital because that's where your referrals come from. So, yes, that's a future topic. We won't go into it today. Thank you so much for being here with us, jessica. We've really enjoyed it and just absolute phenomenal advice. I've enjoyed it.

Jessica Walrack: 43:05

Thank you so much for having me. It's always fun to talk shop with other people who have been in this business for a long time and we can just really get into the nitty gritty corners of it. All right, thank you so much. Thank you.

Treasa Edmond: 43:19

Bye.