This week Rachel & Lynne chat with communications consultant and writer Helen Dehen, talking about her commitment to upskilling herself and the many courses she has done - which have helped to drive her business and profitability.

During our chat, Helen talks about her early career in TV journalism and her move to freelancing when her twins were born. She shares some of the courses she did in the the early days and how they positioned her to build a strong and successful freelance writing business.

Helen talks about:

• The value of investing in professional development and networking
• How it gave her confidence in the early days of freelancing
• What the return on investment has been with some of the courses she has done
• Her experience with continuous learning, sharing insights from her experiences with various courses, conferences, and coaching programs
• Her favourite courses and what she wouldn't do again

Connect with Helen via her website: https://www.hydoralane.com.au/ 

or via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-dehen/ 

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com 

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co 

This week on the podcast, Rachel and Lynne chat with Petra Buchanan, an executive coach and mentor and company director with an international executive career in media, technology and business sectors. 

We talk about:

• the changing role of women within media
• what a non-executive director role involves
• being the only woman in decision-making rooms
• mistakes freelancers make
• common challenges facing women in media careers
• the importance of good mentors, and so much more

Here are some of the links from our chat with Petra:

https://psbventures.com.au/

https://www.womeninmedia.com.au/

https://www.womeninmedia.com.au/plans-pricing

https://www.womeninmedia.com.au/programs/women-in-media-queensland-offers-a-5000-scholarship

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co 

This week, we talk to agency owner and copywriter Alana Wulff about contracts: what they are, why you need them, and the stuff that can go wrong with and without one. Tune in to hear:

• How Alana started using contracts in her business and why
• Why a contract is a living document you need to keep updating (especially when something on a project goes awry and you want to protect yourself in future)
• How having a lawyer in your back pocket can be very useful (and what to budget for)
• Actual contract horror stories and how they were resolved
• What happens when your client wants to you to sign their contract and you want them to sign yours
• And much more

Find out more: Alana @ Studio Himmel: https://www.studiohimmel.co/ Himmel on IG: https://www.instagram.com/himmel.words/ Studio Legal: https://studiolegal.com.au/ Tools Alana loves: Pitch (for presentations) https://pitch.com/ Rachel's List resources: Cor Blimey Contract Bundle https://www.rachelslist.com.au/toolkit/product/cor-blimey-contract-bundle/ Find us: Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au Lynne: www.lynnetestoni.com.au Rachel’s List www.rachelslist.com.au Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details. Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

Have we got a treat for you! This episode with content strategist, business coach and consultant Treasa Edmond is full of gold for any freelancer wanting to move up the value chain and secure more high-paying clients.

In our wide-ranging chat, Treasa talks about: 

• The different between offering content strategy and a strategic consulting
• Which one is an entry point for high-paying work
• How strategy can open the gates to providing more effective content
• How and why value pricing is better for this type of work
• Her favourite client-finding strategies
• Common mistakes freelancers make

Capcut is here: https://www.capcut.com/ 

Treasa's podcast is called Boss Responses: https://bossresponses.com/ 

Or take a look at Strategy Bosses: https://bossresponses.com/strategy-bosses-community/ 

Or through LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/treasaedmond/ 

 

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au 

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co 

 

This week on the podcast, Rachel & Lynne's guest is freelance writer and author Sue Williams. Sue talks about her long and successful career as a writer and journalist and how it led to non-fiction books and now historical novels.

During the episode, Sue talks about:

• How her career started and when she moved to freelancing
• Her love of travel writing and why she still does journalism
• Why following a brief and making it easy for editors will give you more work
• Why it's hard to pitch story ideas, and why it's important
• How she secured an agent and publisher for her books
• The challenge of writing historical fiction and why it's harder than she thought
• How she uses AI and why it will never replace human content

Connect with Sue via her website: https://suewilliams.com.au/ 

Her latest book is The Governor, His Wife and His Mistress, and is available from all good bookstores.

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected]  for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co 

This week we are chatting with Carolyn Tate, a former journalist turned agency founder. Carolyn talks about her career as a freelancer, setting up her agency, and what she has learned along the way.

During our discussion, we talked about:

• How the way she worked changed after an ADHD diagnosis
• How her freelance career took off after she started thinking like a business
• How she learned that rejection is just part of freelancing
• The challenges of hiring and managing staff
• How and where she finds clients
• How AI has affected her work - and how she uses it
• Why following the brief will bring you repeat work

Connect with Carolyn through her website: https://www.stellarcontent.com.au/ or email [email protected] if you are interested in pitching your services

or via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyn-tate/ 

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au  Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com  Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au 

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co 

 

 

 

 

 

This week on the podcast, we are chatting with public relations expert, strategic advisor, and entrepreneur Karen Eck, talking about how freelancers can improve their visibility - and stand out in what is now a competitive marketplace.

Karen talks about:

• What her career in TV publicity has taught her about visibility
• Why your work won't always just speak for itself
• Why you need to be 'asset-ready'
• How to write an effective bio
• How and why networking can be a powerful tool to secure more clients

Connect with Karen via her website: https://eckfactor.com/ 

Take a free Visibility Health Check at https://www.powerofvisibility.com.au/ 

Register interest for Collabor8 Women at Collabor8women.com

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co 

We are back from our break! And we have a great episode for our return - featuring content strategist and LinkedIn mentor Beck Cofrancesco. Beck talks about how to make LinkedIn work for you, how to find clients and why she started a local business meet-up group.

During our chat, we talk about:

• Why she started freelancing
• Her new LinkedIn newsletter and why she started it
• How her newsletter has informed (and changed) her LinkedIn strategy
• Why she has two newsletters 
• Her favourite client-finding strategies 
• How to get out of the feast or famine cycle
• Why meeting in person is better than online in terms of building relationships

Connect with Beck via her website: https://marketinggoodness.com.au/ 

Or follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-cofrancesco-marketing-goodness/ 

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au       

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com   

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au 

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co 

 

 

 

RE-RELEASE. Continuing with our summer series of re-running our favourite and most popular podcast episodes, we are sharing an episode from August 2022, with agency copywriter Damien Whelan.

If you're as Mad Men-obsessed as we are, you're probably keen to know how copywriting on the agency side differs from other types of writing that copywriters do. 

In our chat, we talk about:

• How did he get into agencies? 
• How does he come up with clever one-liners?
• What's it like working on an ad campaign for a billboard?
• How do pitch meetings pan out?
• Do they often pull all-nighters?
• How can freelancers get into agencies and become indispensible?
• And is there really is a decanter of whisky on everyone's desk?

Connect with Damien via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damien-whelan-14700b51/ 

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au  Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com  Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au 

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co 

This week, we are starting a special summer series, repeating some of our most popular episodes. First up is our most successful episode ever - with grant writer Martina Donkers. 

In an inspiring talk, Martina shares her story about finding her niche, how grant writing works and why she loves being a digital nomad - all from a hammock in regional Western Australia!

We chat about: 

• How and why she decided to specialise in grant writing
• The different sorts of grants available
• What makes grant writing different
• Why the criteria really matters
• How to price this sort of work
• The realities of being a digital nomad

You can connect with Martina (and check out her latest courses) via her website: http://www.martinadonkers.com/

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au 

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: [email protected] for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co