Money and Media: Presented by FinCon

You just landed your first gig as a freelancer. There’s nothing quite like that feeling. You have flexibility, freedom, and a chance to shine as a writer. Whether you’re freelancing as a side gig or trying to transition to full time work, scoring that first job is exhilarating. But what do you do next?

Growing your client base is essential. It means more money, more opportunities, and more connections. It’s also an incredibly daunting task. Gerri Detweiler from Nav stopped by to share five action steps that anyone must take to be a better freelancer.

Detweiler walks you through each part of freelancing, from perfecting that first pitch all the way to making it easy to get paid. She even shares some uncommon advice, like why reading your published pieces can make you an editor’s go-to choice for freelancing.

Plus, stay tuned for an exclusive discussion with hosts Joe Saul-Sehy and Bethany Bayless about how to be a better freelancer.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/better-freelancer-gerri-detweiler 

Freelancing can be a dream job. But what makes it that way?

Robert Farrington of The College Investor understands the world of freelancing from both sides. With The College Investor celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, Farrington knows a thing or two about freelance work.

Robert worked as a freelancer himself, and he’s also hired over 30 freelancers as a business owner. He stopped by to share freelancer tips on how to get paid, how not to get fired, and everything in between.

Plus, he’s got a plan for brands and companies who hire freelancers that lets them maximize their ROI while treating freelancers well, too.

Also in this episode, Bethany Bayless visits StacksHouse in LA and interviews its founder and FinCon alum, Farnoosh Torabi.

Stacks House is a massive Instagram museum for financial empowerment filled with 11,000 square feet of selfie-worthy exhibits like Debt Boxing, Retirement Rodeo, Stacks Salon, Gold Bar, and Money Moves Room.

Stacks House will be open in Los Angeles for only 5 weeks, April 17-May 19. Reserve your ticket using the code FINCONstacksLA for a 15% discount on tickets.

Paula Pant discusses brands in the context of being a freelancer verses being a brand ambassador.

She attended her first FinCon when her brand, Afford Anything, was relatively small and walked away from it with two solid freelancing gigs.

In this interview she discusses how to connect with brands, and how to be cautious when it comes to aligning with brands, and how to trade your time and skill set as a freelancer.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/brand-partnerships-paula-pant 

Miranda Marquit is one of the most prolific freelancers in the business. As someone who has been freelancing for more than a decade, she knows a thing or two about life as a freelance writer.

Miranda sat down with us to share tons of tips about how to get started freelancing.

Oh, and that idea that it's OK to work for free when you're just getting started? She had a thing or two to say about that as well.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/get-started-freelancing-miranda-marquit 

We recently sat down with Derrick Hicks, the Director of Marketing at ConvertKit, to discuss what brands can be doing to put out great material for their audiences and consumers. He gives us his top 5 pieces of advice for brands when it comes to putting out high quality, traffic engaging content.

What is the content you are putting out as a brand? What are your top 5 pieces of advice for brands when it comes to putting out high quality/traffic engaging content?

For more information, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/quality-content-tips

Try ConvertKit free for 30 days (https://finconexpo.com/go/convertkit-30-day-trial) and sign up for the Landing Page Challenge (https://finconexpo.com/go/convertkit-30-landing-page-challenge) -- you could win $5,000!

We recently sat down with Darbi Masters, who attended her first FinCon in Orlando in 2018 as an audio producer looking to connect with Podcasters or brands with a podcast. It was there she connected with FreshBooks and has since assumed the role of co-producer and host for the new FreshBooks podcast #IMakeaLiving.

In this conversation, Darbi discusses the expectations she had when attending FinCon, how she approached brands and developed relationships with them, and how she was able to quit her other jobs and work exclusively with FreshBooks full-time.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/freshbooks-freelancer-darbi-masters/

Financial services aren’t always the easiest thing to talk about or to put into human language.

By using influencer marketing, brands like USAA have influencers tell their story and humanize their message.

We recently sat down with Kristi Francisco, Senior Communications Manager for USAA, to find out how they are working with influencers, creating and delivering content, and how both those strategies serve their overall mission.

For more details, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/influencer-marketing-usaa/

At FinCon15 in NOLA, Tiffany Aliche attended a session by Ellie Kay talking about how to be a 6 figure brand ambassador.

Because of that session and connecting with Ellie, Aliche grew to have an audience of over 700k women and is now works with fortune 500 companies as a brand ambassador.

Today you’ll get ideas on becoming a brand ambassador through Tiffany’s story of:

• Finding an Agent
• How much should you charge to be a brand ambassador
• What counts as work when you are a brand ambassador
• How to get sponsored on media appearances

For more information, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/category/money-media-podcast/

What is a Content Audit and why is it important? If you have a lot of content over the amount of several years, you may be sitting on hundreds of posts that aren’t doing anything for you or your blog.

Tom Drake discusses the ways to go through your content in a systematic way, the tools you can use when conducting your audit, how to find key words, and the things to keep in mind when starting out that will lend to a content audit in the future.

For more information, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/category/money-media-podcast/ 

Jim Wang, the founder of Wallet Hacks, has been blogging for 14 years. In a recent interview with the FinCon Team, Wang gives practical steps for honing your message and assigning a purpose to every blog post you write:

1. Assign a purpose to every post on your blog 2. Choose from 3 different buckets: Money Generation, Audience Connection, Traffic Driver 3. You may be losing readers by mixing the buckets

For more information, visit the show notes at https://finconexpo.com/blogging-tips-jim-wang/