Edit Boost Podcast

In this episode, I talk about four things that I believe every freelance editor needs to think about if they want to create a thriving business but aren't quite there yet. Two of them might surprise you! **** I have a new offer to help freelance editors create, and actually implement, a marketing strategy. And if you sign up before 30 June 2023, you can save $500. Contact me through editboost.com or simply message me through any social media platform and let's see if I'm the best person to help you. If you're tired of not earning enough money and if you're ready and willing to do something about it, this is a great opportunity to get the support you need.

Today's episode continues on the theme of 'do what's best for your business'. Is a website essential for your business today? Tune in and find out what I think!

Today I talk about practice, and why marketing is like any other skill: the more you do it, the better you get at it.

I often think about why freelance editors don't do marketing. In today's episode, I talk about two  reasons for not taking marketing action and why you might need to change your mindset. I also share a little about how my business has been going this year. **** If you want help with your marketing mindset or strategy, contact me through my website and let's have a chat: www.editboost.com 

If you don't have enough clients then what should you do? Today I talk about three marketing strategies and how to assess whether you need to change what you're doing. **** If you want help with your marketing mindset or strategy, contact me through my website and let's have a chat: www.editboost.com 

I'm back! After 21 months, I have decided to bring back the podcast. Today I'm talking about why I stopped, why I've come back to it and what you can expect from now on.

065: I've had a lot of fun so far talking to editors and guest experts and creating solo shows for the Edit Boost Podcast. Receiving so many wonderful messages from people who've been inspired to do more marketing and get more clients has been really rewarding. But I've decided I need a bit of a break; I've created a lot of podcast content and it's time to step back. And just in case you need to hear it from me, it's ok to stop doing something or hit pause on something, even if others are enjoying it. The point of content marketing is to grow your audience. Of course, the free content can help people. But I think it's disingenuous to think that our main focus should be on creating free resources, even though it's easy to get stuck in that thought pattern. After all, it feels safe (and can be fun) to keep creating forever, without sharing it. There's more I can do to share my work with more editors who need my help, but that takes time and energy, and it's hard to do that while also recording more episodes. So I'm hitting ‘pause' and I look forward to talking to you again in the future! Before you go, a quick question: Are you making the best use of the content you've created? ……………………………. If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

064: Featured editor: Michelle Bourbonniere, Edited by Michelle Feeling daunted by the thought of SEO? ‘Search Engine Optimisation' for your website can sound complicated and like it's only for technical types. There are several things you can do to help your website to appear near the top of online search results (that's the point of SEO) but, actually, is SEO the most important thing you need to be doing right now? Many editors tell me they have to get their websites ‘right' before they launch their services — so much so that they spend their time on creating content and fiddling with their site, hiding away from the outreach needed to find clients quickly. My guest is a freelance editor who specialises in SEO and does keyword research and content planning for her clients. But Michelle also maintains a great perspective on what place SEO has in your marketing mix. In this episode we discuss how SEO is a long-term strategy, and how having the best optimised site isn't going to get you clients overnight. It's important to connect with people beyond the website. Until your website brings in results from your work on SEO, being active on social media and via email with your audience gets your website out there and builds that ‘know, like and trust' factor. ............................................. Mentioned in this episode: Take a look back at our episode with Yael Keon, email marketing expert Ep039: How can email marketing benefit my editing business? Michelle's training on keywords and Google Search Console Training videos https://editedbymichelle.com/editboost   ……………………………. If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

063: Featured editor: Elen Turner, Elen Turner Editorial Services  Given the challenging times we're in, it's understandable we can feel afraid of not having enough work. This worry can lead us to taking all the work we can, even if it leaves us stressed out and overwhelmed. And the recommendation is always to continue marketing, even in good times, so we continue to have clients ‘in the pipeline', opportunities lined up at the end of each project. After bouncing back from an unfortunate loss of work during 2020, Elen is now in the position of being overwhelmed with jobs and yet worrying about continuing to attract new clients. With barely any time to do marketing for her business, she's afraid to slow down while also trying to carve out time to create the breaks and the lifestyle she wants, with part-time business hours. We look at how to say no to work that doesn't serve you, and how keeping metrics on your business activities can help you to gain perspective on your ability to gain and retain clients even during the tough times.   …………………………….   If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

062: Featured editor: Andrew Pelechaty When you're changing careers into the field of editing, it's challenging to make a start and find paying clients. You can feel unsure of yourself and completely ‘green', a newbie. But rarely do we start with a blank slate. We can make use of all of our professional experience and current contacts. Today we're talking about the situation my guest editor, Andrew, is experiencing. He's done significant voluntary work as an editor and proofreader immersed in his sporting passion of rugby league. He's also helped on projects with a basketball-journalist friend. In his league side-gig he's managed a team of 20 writers, revealing project management as another hidden talent. Despite the feeling that he's starting from scratch with finding paid editing work, Andrew has plenty to offer. It's all about positioning himself in the right way to attract his ideal clients. And also gathering social proof through testimonials from his pro bono work will help to demonstrate his value to potential clients.   …………………………….   If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

061:  As editors, we like to learn, read and look at things from all angles. If we're not feeling ready and confident in our business, we can focus too much on consuming more content. We convince ourselves we need to know more to do more; we need to learn more before we can take action. But most people know what they need to do. The problem is that they are not being the person they need or want to be. Becoming a confident business owner means taking action before you're ready. Which means believing that you are, in fact, a confident business owner. Not a fan of ‘fake it till you make it'? Try ‘act it till you become it'. And if you're not feeling it, dig deep to find out why. What are those fears that are holding you back from being the confident business owner you want to be?   ……………………………. If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

060: As editors, when we're putting our content out into the world to attract more clients, being scared of rejection and fearing criticism can be seriously debilitating to business. When you're assuming the worst and not wanting to deal with negative feedback, it's safer and easier to just not put things out there. But it's not a useful approach when you're trying to get clients I know it's hard. We're the face of our business. Any comments and feedback on the work we put out in the world is something we're prone to take personally. But growing in business starts with embracing rejection rather than avoiding it. If you're feeling like the fear is holding you back from sharing a blog post, promoting your services, increasing your prices or asking for feedback, think about what meaning you're assigning to the possible outcome of your marketing efforts. In this episode I encourage you to undertake a practical activity to examine what you're telling yourself in those moments. It's an important exercise to pushing past the fear and embracing the opportunity to grow. ……………………………. If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

059: Often it seems that, in our minds, we've equated helping people with giving things for free. And at the same time, we believe that making money is somehow a bad thing. But in the end, we're running a business, and the purpose of a business is to make money. In this episode, I explain how we can think differently about the action of helping people with our editing services. We post information and editing tips online to be helpful. Being helpful online is great and it builds our brand and positions us as an authority. But the free content isn't going to make an author qualified to do their own editing, based on just reading a series of blog posts. The best practical help we can give an author is to provide our editing services. Are you taking the next step to invite potential clients to work with you? ……………………………. If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

058: When it comes to running a business, it's really important to acknowledge our emotions. Our actions come from how we feel. So while most of us want to be given a to-do list, most of the time that isn't enough. We have to change the way we think and feel in order to do the things we need to do to find more clients and earn more money. However, when it comes to some business decisions, we need to look at the numbers and NOT rely on our emotions. For example, when you're spending time and energy on creating content to promote your business, but not getting any enquiries, it can be tempting to say ‘it's not working' and then stop doing what could be valuable marketing (if directed to the right place). Or alternatively, you could try to do more of it, hoping that will work. But more of the same won't necessarily help you get results. You're much better off examining the data, then making evidence-based decisions to know where to put your effort. People might not be seeing your great content, so it could be just a matter of actively sharing what you have more widely, rather than writing more blog posts. Or people could be seeing your content but not staying or engaging with it. So you could put more work into your copywriting to make it more compelling or make the call to action clearer. Using online tools to analyse what your problem is, rather than jumping to conclusions with only the feeling that it's ‘not working', can help you use your precious time and effort most effectively to boost your business. ……………………………. If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

057: This is the first of a series where I'll be talking about the most common mistakes I see freelance editors making when trying to promote their businesses. In this episode I'll be talking about the problem of not understanding what your clients want. I see this mistake when editors are posting online about what's involved in editing. Most likely it's only editors who are interested in editing. Authors have different concerns -- maybe they don't understand the publishing process or they are scared their writing isn't good enough. To attract your ideal clients, you need to understand what your clients' thoughts are. Find out what worries them and what they want help with. Then talk about how you can help them solve that problem. ……………………………. If you want to find more clients, earn more money and have more free time, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

056: Featured editor: Jen Tolnay, Jen Tolnay Editorial and Writing Services Jen has plenty of corporate editing experience and wants to move toward her ideal work in fiction book editing. She's almost finished a course and has gained a bit of experience from pro bono projects. So what's stopping her from pitching to clients who could benefit from her skills? Feeling hesitant at switching to a new field of editing is entirely normal. We're confident in our own skills in the work we've done already. We feel like we need to get qualifications and more jobs under our belts in order to show credibility. But Jen has dragged out the completion of her editing course. She's wondering where this resistance is coming from. If this is happening to you too, think about how this behaviour serves you. By not finishing the course, Jen doesn't feel like she's qualified to pitch for new work in fiction editing. So she can stay in her safe, familiar territory. But that's not what she wants for her future. So it leads to her feeling stuck and frustrated about how to carve out this new niche for herself. We discuss this and other aspects to establishing a new niche, or even more than one. Niching in one area makes it easier to talk about in your marketing, but if you've got other things going on in your business where you can get work in a variety of areas, there's nothing stopping you from doing that. Pursuing a niche you love doesn't mean you have to drop all the other work you're good at and that has brought you income through industry connections. Believing that you'll lose work if you establish a niche can hold you back through fear. If you've got a feeling that you know your way forward but there's something holding you back you just can't put your finger on, consider where you might be self-sabotaging your own progress.   ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

55: Building an email list of people who are interested in your business, so you can contact them directly, is a great idea. We've talked about email marketing on the show before, when I spoke to email expert Yael Keon (Ep039 ‘How can email marketing benefit my editing business?'). It's recommended to have an email list for your business, rather than relying on people randomly seeing the content you post to your social media pages. But clients often ask me how to go about getting people to sign up to an email list. We do this using an ‘opt-in' or ‘lead magnet' and this is something I took a while to get around to doing. If you're not familiar with opt-ins, they just mean a piece of valuable ‘content', like a pdf document, a checklist, or a webinar, for example. You offer this for free so that people will join to your mailing list, giving you their email address in exchange for this thing that they'd find useful. There's no need to go all out with a 100-page e-book. There was a time when this was a trend but, more often than not, people just downloaded the e-book and left it unopened! The best lead magnet is something actionable that your ideal audience wants and will use. I've taken ages to get started on creating a lead magnet I'd be comfortable using. I had made various excuses around why I hadn't put my opt-in out there. Whenever I feel resistance to doing something, I know I need to look deeper and find out what's blocking me. I had to coach myself through the process. Are you also thinking about growing your email list? I thought that sharing my process for developing my email list and how I've started to create an opt-in for my own business might help you. ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

54: Today I want to talk to you about what coaching is, as well as what it isn't. The term ‘coaching' is used widely today, and conjures up different meanings for different people. Some people turn to a coach when they seek to be held accountable to their goals. Others want someone to give them advice (which I think of as mentoring) as to which direction they should go with their business. Regular listeners to the Edit Boost Podcast will have heard me coaching editors to help them identify their desired goals and decide the first steps to get there. But I've also given advice from time to time. My approach, as reflected in the coaching calls on this show, is a mix of coaching and mentoring that my clients have found effective for getting them unstuck in business. It's been so rewarding to see my clients' businesses take off after I've helped them uncover their own potential, step into their confidence and take action to achieve the goals that are important to them (as opposed to other people's expectations). Today I'll share with you my thoughts about what coaching is and what it isn't; hopefully this will give you a better understanding of what I mean when I talk about ‘coaching'. ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income', my e-course and group coaching program.

53: Featured editor: Sue Toth, Sue Toth Writing and Editing Services Today’s episode talks about the fear many of us experience when quoting for editing jobs. Even if we’ve had a consistent run of incoming leads and enquiries, something makes us worry about never getting another client. The fear of not having enough work actually kept Sue overloaded with work she didn’t really love. Taking on as many projects as she could that came her way didn’t leave her with any capacity to find the work she was really looking for. The fears really play out when evaluating whether to take on a new project. It helps to take the emotion out of the quoting process and there are a few ways we can tackle this. I suggest starting by reflecting on what goes on in your mind when you’re about to quote on a job. What are you telling yourself? Are these thoughts and assumptions serving you? I discuss with Sue, step by step, how to address the worries that crop up for her when deciding whether to quote for editing work. It’s important to know your numbers – your track record and your income needs – and develop a decision-making flow for handling quotes that relies on facts rather than your thoughts. Having a sound process will guide you through sensible quoting that will serve your business, not your fears. ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

Featured editor: Michelle Waitzman, http://michellewaitzman.com It’s fairly common for editors to pick up whatever work is going, even if it’s not their ideal type of editing, type of project or type of industry. We think, ‘we’ll do this for a while until that ‘thing’ comes along...’, the ideal project that will set us on the path to the work we most enjoy. But after a while it’s become a habit to do the same work, and we’re stuck, getting known for doing work that we’re not keen to continue doing. Today’s guest, Michelle, wonders if it’s the right thing to change the pattern of work she’s been doing and seek out the work she’d enjoy more, even if it doesn’t pay well. So, I challenged that assumption. How do you know you won’t find clients who will pay you well for doing the work you love? But be mindful of what messages you keep telling yourself about the thing you really want to do. In today’s episode I discuss with Michelle how she could change her positioning to attract the work she most wants to do. We discover, as we’re near the end of our chat, that zeroing in on what it is that we love can mean peeling back the layers of habit we’ve built up over the years of striving for a successful editing business. Is it time you stepped back to consider whether you’re fulfilling your life and business goals? ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

051: Featured editor: Olivia Wroth, SuperScript Writing and Editing and Accessibility Matters Over the years, your editing business might change in structure, while you try out different projects or outsourcing, and there might be ups and downs in your ongoing client load. You’ll start to work out what parts of the business are most enjoyable to you. And one of the advantages of having our own businesses is that we can start to create an editing business that works for us, plays to our strengths and involves less of the things we dislike. This week I met Olivia, who’s taken on an agency model in the past couple of years of her 25-year business, outsourcing her editing work, resulting in most of her workload being admin for the business. The shine has definitely faded from that mode of working, and she’s looking for ways to transition into a business that will see her enjoy her work through to retirement. It’s a great time for Olivia to reflect on the overall picture of her business now, compared to where she wants it to be. It’s never too late to try new things. And while she’s scaling down her active editing work, Olivia can be researching and training in other activities she’d rather enjoy - podcasting and presenting to share her expertise with the world. You don’t have to keep doing things that no longer serve you. Tune in to this episode for advice on checking in with what you want from your editing business, to ensure you can keep energised and enjoy the work you’re doing well into the future.   ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

050: I’m not really one for celebrating the numbers in business but this one seems significant. I’ve now recorded 50 podcast episodes, being a mix of solo shows, coaching calls and expert interviews. I receive lots of positive feedback about the value of the podcast, and I’m so glad to be delivering value through this medium. The podcast is also a tool in my business. Presenting this podcast has come at a time of growth for my business as well. While I’m committed to helping editors develop their mindsets for business success, I, too, found my mindset changing in the leadup and throughout producing this podcast. In this, my 50th episode, I’m sharing with you the top five things I’ve learned over the course of this podcast that I hope will be of value to you in starting and growing your freelance editing business. ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

049: Featured editor: Kerry Murphy, Kerry Murphy Editor  When you’ve come from a high-pressure work environment where multi-tasking was the norm, it’s not unusual to carry through those work habits to your freelancing efforts. There’s so much to be done when running your own business, and it all seems important. The pressure you feel to need to do it all at once can lead to you spreading yourself too thin. If, like Kerry, you’ve found yourself running from client work to sample edits, from blog posts to client onboarding, from content creation to social media posts, with no clear path for what’s most important, you might benefit from our discussion in this episode. We talked about how some ‘busy’ activities are sneaky ways our brain distracts us from difficult things like putting our content out into the public or delivering editing work to a client for feedback. We instinctively resist putting ourselves in a position where we’d feel vulnerable, preferring instead to compile more background material. But that’s not going to win you more work! Once you can recognise your unhelpful patterns of behaviour, you can get more strategic with how you use your time and focus on income-producing activities. Kerry’s now taking on board the idea of protecting her time through setting boundaries, and stepping back to prioritise her tasklist in terms of what will bring in paying clients. It’s a process, and if this sounds like you too, maybe you can pick up one or two tips for changing your habits to increase your productivity. I’d love to hear how you get on. ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

048: Featured editor: Glenda Cohen, GCC Editing  Glenda is wondering when will be the right time to take the leap from her teaching job into full-time freelance editing. While no-one can tell someone when’s the best time to transition to freelancing, there are certainly some practical steps you can take to set yourself up for success. When transitioning into a freelance editing business, it’s common for self-doubt to creep in. Starting over can be scary and we can suffer from a lack of confidence, even if we have versatile skills and good training in editing. It’s easy to sabotage ourselves into holding off on big life changes. If you really want a freelance business but you keep telling yourself that you can’t succeed, you’ll find it really hard to convince other people to hire you. Building an editing business is only partly about your skillset; your mindset is important too. Glenda says she’s come away with some concrete steps to take and tips for keeping a forward-thinking mindset. While it was easy to be discouraged early on in her shift to freelance editing, Glenda has found talking about what’s holding her back and getting a fresh perspective really helped. .......................................................... If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.  

047: Today’s episode involves me musing about my business. I hope that it will show you the power of self-reflection in uncovering why we don’t do the things we say we want to do. The lightbulb moment for me was that, even though I have a list of editors who want to appear on the Edit Boost Podcast, my timetable was too busy to organise a guest for today’s show, so I had to do a solo show instead. It was a sure sign I needed to change something. I realised that I have stretched myself too thin, across too many business products. There was some fear there, about having multiple backup plans. And if I’m honest with myself, I’ve been making excuses to not put 100% effort into any one thing. I also realised that I (still!) have a strong need to be liked by everyone, even though rationally I know that that’s not possible and not necessary. If someone doesn’t like what I have to say or doesn’t want to work with me, it’s not the end of the world! What fears or beliefs do you need to shed a light on? I’d love to hear about it. ............................................................ If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

046: Are you feeling like social media is a waste of time for generating leads? Are you lacking confidence to start posting? If you’re not being purposeful about it or taking consistent action on social media, you could be missing an opportunity to find clients for your editing business. In this episode, I’ll be sharing some tips to help you make your social media marketing efforts more effective. There are a few aspects I find editors struggling with, including: not being in the right ‘place’ not getting your messaging right (TIP: if you’re only connecting with other editors, it’s time to revisit your approach) relying on organic reach overcomplicating things. I’m often asked about how to market on social media and I think many listeners will find these scenarios familiar. Take a fresh look at your social media activities and make sure you’re using social media as an effective tool in your marketing toolkit.

045: Featured editor: CaTyra Polland, Love for Words CaTyra wants to be earning a full-time income from her editing business. She knows she can’t do it all herself, so she’s brought on a proofreader and a virtual admin assistant to allow more time for her to do editing. But she’s had to turn work away and wants to grow her team so that she’s not the only editor doing the projects. It’s a big change, and it’s easy to feel worried about the time commitment for recruiting a new team member, how they’ll fit in, how you’ll delegate to them and how clients will react to their work not being personally done by you. These can all be enough to stop business owners from expanding to create the business they’d dreamed of. Growing your team is about more than finding a good editor. It’s about finding a fit with the work culture in your business. If you’re feeling uncertain how to proceed, it’s helpful to work through the issues in advance. How can you build trust with a new team member and embed clear communication for a good working relationship? And what if things don’t work out? Bringing in help should reduce your stress, not add to it. And giving clients assurance of the same high-quality work from your business is important. If, like CaTyra, your business vision includes building your team and yet you haven’t taken the steps needed to achieve it, this episode might give you the inspiration you need to get on with it and grow your business with confidence. ................................................................ If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

044: Featured editor: Eve White, White Editing Thank you to our featured editor Eve who has opened up to the challenges so many of us experience in the search for clients. This is the episode we all need to hear. We cover a lot of ground, including niching, your marketing message and method, and the all-too-common imposter syndrome. Whether you’ve moved into editing after a career in a particular field, or have been doing a small amount of editing and are wanting to ramp up your business, the best advice is to use your networks, right? But what happens when the networks we had in the industry have faded? We’ve contacted all the people we know and had a few successes, but now what? In today’s episode I talk with Eve about how she can find new clients when she’s coming back to the field she used to work in – science and academia – and doesn’t have many active contacts anymore. When ‘cold-calling’ or reaching out to new people to find new leads, it’s important to be clear on who you help and how you help them. I know I’ve said it before, but ideally you need to identify your editing niche. It makes it so much easier to market your services when you can target your message. Add to that the old imposter syndrome showing up, making you feel not qualified enough, and reaching clients you can help with your editing services can feel tough. Are you ready to back yourself and put your message out there? ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

043: Featured editor: Belinda Pollard, Small Blue Dog Publishing Is your overflowing inbox taking up precious time in your day? Belinda is rather like me, a multi-passionate editor with many different interests. But looking into all of the multiple opportunities that come her way leaves her constantly busy and working long hours to get through the work that does get booked in. We talked about some ways to screen enquiries to help protect her time for the leads and proposals that would be the most profitable or worthwhile for her. It can be challenging to make the time to take a step back but it’s important to take control of your time and reduce the feeling of running from enquiry to enquiry. Getting a big-picture perspective on what you want out of your business and worklife can be helpful to dig yourself out from under the weight of an overflowing inbox. If you’re spending more hours on busy-work than client work, perhaps these strategies would be useful to tame your workload. ……………………………. If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

042: It’s time for you to do the work! I know many editors find promoting their businesses challenging. While there’s no shortage of marketing training and even the most basic marketing action – putting out a social media post – doesn’t take much, there could be any number of reasons why the action never happens. I talk about some of these underlying ‘limiting beliefs’ in this episode. Most commonly, I hear ‘I’m too busy. I don’t have time for marketing’. So, let’s find out if time is really the barrier. This week, your challenge is to do one action to promote your editing business. I know some of you will find this really hard. If you do feel confronted by the thought of making your business more visible, it’s a good chance to sit with that thought and dive into why you’re uncomfortable. ……………………………. If you need some help to work through what the issues are for you, you can book in a call with me or join my e-course and group coaching program ‘Boost Your Editing Income’.

041: Many times, and not just with editors, I see websites and social media content that appears to be directed at industry peers rather than clients. It’s easy to think only about what we ‘do’. Editing techniques and tactics fill our days. But when you’re developing your public messaging, it’s really important to keep your potential client front of mind. They don’t necessarily need to know how to do editing; they may not even realise that they need an editor. Instead, people need to know how your editing work helps them solve their problem. If you’re stuck with how to write your marketing content, think about these key points: Who do I help? What challenge are they facing? What outcome are they seeking? Keeping these key points in mind will help you to keep client-focused so that you can: publish free content that helps your potential clients write website copy that makes it clear that you’re the best person for them create services that help them solve their problem. Focusing on outcomes when you describe your services helps your target clients to appreciate what they’ll get from working with you, whether they understand the term ‘editing’ or not. ........................................................ If you want to get clear on your money, marketing and mindset, check out ‘Boost Your Editing Income’, my e-course and group coaching program.

040: Featured editor: Hilary Cadman: Cadman Training / Cadman Editing Emerging from behind the work we love, to promote it to get more clients so we can do more work we love … it’s always a challenge. When you enjoy the work you do, and you love to serve your clients, it’s hard to see what you do as building a money-making business. But it’s going to be difficult to earn the money you need for living if you don’t view yourself as a professional who makes money. It’s even more challenging when your professional identity is shifting, such as from editor to trainer, and when you’re going from recurring clients and referrals to building a new audience and pipeline of leads. Today’s episode covers tips for adjusting your mindset as well as your marketing tactics in this situation. Hilary Cadman has been a technical editor for 20 years, working on large reports for large organisations. She started running her own editing business in 2009. Even though she’s been writing and delivering training courses since 2005 and producing self-paced courses for the last seven years, she hasn’t really thought of herself as a professional trainer. Her income is primarily from her editing work. While maintaining a stream of income from her regular editing clients, Hilary is hoping to increase her training income. In this episode we talk about how to reframe the way you view your business and adopt a mindset that helps you promote your work as a service to clients. If you’re feeling stuck about how to promote your editing services online, you could share a few lightbulb moments with Hilary in this episode.

039: Featured expert: Yael Keon https://yaelkeon.com/ Have you thought about doing email marketing for your editing business? Perhaps you’ve subscribed to a heap of newsletters and wondered whether starting a newsletter would work for you. How would you start? What tech is involved? What would you say? Maybe you think it’ll be too hard to keep it going. I'm pleased to be speaking with email marketing expert Yael Keon as she explains all the ins and outs of how email marketing can help editors to build an engaged audience. We cover where to start and what platforms you might consider when starting out. We also talk about the ideal frequency for your emails and the kinds of things you might want to write about to engage and nurture your audience. If you’re stuck about whether, or how, to use a ‘lead magnet’ to encourage people to opt-in to your list, we cover that too. As a service-based business, using email marketing is another way we can serve the people who want to hear and learn from us. So if you’re on the fence about whether to get into email marketing, this episode is an excellent one to listen to.

038: Today I’m talking about what I consider to be the three pillars of business: money messaging and marketing. Working on these pillars to grow our editing businesses is always underpinned by mindset. If you hold unhelpful beliefs in these areas, it’ll be hard to succeed. My group coaching program/e-course ‘Boost your editing income’ helps you work through your mindset on these topics so you can grow your editing business with confidence. Have a listen to this episode to get a taste of what will be covered in the course. What’s one small action you could take now to move the dial on one of your business pillars? ---- The latest round of my e-course is underway, from 15 February 2021. It runs for 4 weeks and you’ll have two live group coaching calls per week with me. There’s still time to join. If you’re keen to learn how to ‘Boost your editing income’ you can register for this round here: https://ecourse.editboost.com/courses/boost-your-editing-income

037: Featured editor: Carly Catt, Catt Editing  Do you feel compelled to behave a certain way to please your client? Wanting to be seen as helpful and approachable, you’re responding straight away to after-hours messages. Pretty soon you’ll be resentful of the feeling of being at someone’s ‘beck and call’. And your client will have developed a false expectation of you and your business. Many of us don’t apply healthy boundaries for working with clients at first, because we’re trying to please and impress them. If you’re feeling a bit stretched by client expectations, it’s time to take a look at setting some boundaries. Having clear boundaries helps you and your clients to clarify expectations about how you’ll work together in a mutually respectful way. Carly wanted to know how to develop trusting relationships without being too casual with clients. In Carly’s case, she often built a rapport through social media interactions. But moving clients through to a professional relationship can happen through taking small steps in the right direction. We talk through measures Carly can put in place now to avoid problems arising later. Remember, it’s your editing business and you get to run it the way you want to.

036: Are you making progress with consistent action on the small things? Or is it the small things that are tripping you up? When you’re feeling stuck with achieving the goals you’ve set for your editing business, it’s important to take a moment to reflect on why. How is it that you’ve had the same thing on your to-do list for a long time with no results? Consider what might be blocking you and then make a pathway forward with small, achievable steps. Listen in to this episode for some tips on making the most of the year ahead. ---------- You can get help and accountability for your goals in my Facebook group, the Edit Boost Community.

035: Featured editor: Liz Charpleix, Iris42 Editing Services Finding those first clients is always challenging. And when you do start engaging with new prospects, how can you seal the deal and lock in that editing job? If you’re finding it hard to know where to look to connect with clients who need your services you’re not alone. Our clients sometimes don’t know what they’re looking for either! They might not know how to engage an editor to do the work for them. So, the onus is on us to do the hard work, and get creative, to search out clients and to lead them through the onboarding process, with clear pricing and payment processes. Even when you do start with the people you know, making the approach can be awkward. To build up your client base, you need to work on demonstrating your value and being confident, focusing on what your potential clients need. In this episode, we discuss various ways to get started with finding and engaging new clients.

034: Featured editor: Laura Portwood-Stacer, Manuscript Works  Are you getting more enquiries than you can handle? It’s a good problem to have! But it can be a real drain on your time and energy. Laura’s in this position at the moment. She works with scholarly authors who are working on books and shows them how to write scholarly book proposals. With one-on-one services as well as online courses, she’s always booked out and turning enquiries away. We all want to help the people who come to us for editing services. But you're only one person and there are only so many hours in a day. You'll need to find ways to address the enquiries you can't respond to personally. Otherwise you’ll be spending all your time on admin, responding to prospects. In this episode with Laura, we discuss some options for Laura to consider when the enquiries are pouring in, so she can give her attention to her existing clients while also being helpful to prospects and her network of fellow editors. We also talk about pricing. This topic comes up often when I’m talking with editors. You might find some of this discussion useful for your own situation.

033: Featured editor: Cecily Myers, Creative Collaborations, http://www.creativecollaborations.org/ Cecily’s been doing freelance editing, focusing on creative collaborations, while working full time. She’s hoping to find more clients so she can transition out of her job to pursue editing with a good pipeline of work. Cecily knows she needs to find ways to stand out in a crowded market. In this episode, we discuss strategies for social media and email marketing to help attract people who need your editing skills and to build relationships with potential clients. We also talk about pricing. How we price our work can be a reflection of how we value our own skills. It can be tempting to lower our rates in order to win editing work. If this sounds like you, you might find this discussion valuable.

032: In season four of the Edit Boost Podcast, I’m looking forward to a mix of solo shows, interviews with other editors and talking to guest experts on marketing, money and mindset. I’m starting with a reflection and sharing three things I learned in 2020 about myself and my business. You may find these insights resonate with you. If you’re inspired to ‘do the thing’ after listening to me and other editors in the podcast series, I’d love to hear about it. If you’d like to join me on the podcast to talk about your editing business, please fill out the form at editboost.com/podcast.

031: Featured editor: Dayna Reidenouer, True Love Editorial Services Dayna has moved into editing work from a strong background in proofreading and writing. But she’s feeling daunted about landing her first freelance editing clients. Without a portfolio and testimonials, she feels like it’s an uphill battle trying to convince potential clients to work with her rather than a more accomplished editor. So of course we’re talking about confidence. New freelance editors forget all the other proven skills they bring to the role! But I also believe the task of finding the people who need your editing help gets much more achievable when you focus on a niche. You’ll be able to target ideal clients more easily with your marketing and show up where they are online. There are plenty of ways to get your message out there, even if you don’t have a website yet. In my experience, marketing gets easier with practice.

030: Featured editor: Helen Bradford www.helenbradfordeditor.com In this episode we talk about defining your brand and how to get your brand message ‘out there’. Being able to define your own brand is important when marketing your editing business to potential clients. Helen has reflected on what her brand means, becoming clear in her own mind how she helps people. This part of building a business mindset can be really challenging - often as editors we’re so familiar with what we do, we can find it hard to describe it in terms of the outcomes for the client. Helen has built a good presence on LinkedIn - she was inspired by my recent efforts to post more regularly on Twitter! She’s looking for ways to build brand awareness, to generate more leads and repeat business. Maybe you don’t have a pithy catchphrase or website, but don’t let that hold you back from putting yourself out in front of clients.

029: Featured editor: Jahleen Turnbull-Sousa www.maplewoodeditorial.com Today’s guest editor, Jahleen, has steadily built up her business to where she feels she has more than enough work and is looking to scale. She’s not sure how best to invest her time to achieve business growth, doing the work she most enjoys, while avoiding overwhelm. She asks, ‘Is there a way to maintain and increase my success without increasing the number of hours I work?’ My first instinct is to suggest that she increases her rates to incrementally achieve the next stages of business growth. Jahleen has been doing that, so we work through some more strategies to help her create a business she’ll enjoy and thrive in.

028: Featured editor: Lenore Hietkamp https://www.heatherfieldediting.com/ In this episode of the Edit Boost Podcast you’ll hear from Canada-based editor Lenore Hietkamp, who’s decided to turn to coaching after 17 years of editing. Having decided on this new direction, she continues to be drawn into her familiar role of copyeditor. With ongoing work in copyediting and a steady stream of referrals, Lenore’s not making the progress she’d like towards making this change she’s been thinking about for a while. No-one wants to disappoint their valued clients. Join us as we talk through navigating this tricky transition.

027: Featured editor: Kath Kovac Have you decided to change your editing niche but don’t know how to kick-start the transition? I’m speaking with Kath Kovac in this week’s episode. Her editing business grew from word of mouth and she’s enjoyed a career in science editing. Having done a few other jobs and realised she’s keen to do more work editing children’s nonfiction books, the thought of re-establishing herself in a new niche is a bit daunting. Where to start? As freelance editors we get to work on different topics and take up work where our interests, and client opportunities, take us. You might have established your career in one niche and then your interest takes you in another direction. But making a decision to change your direction doesn’t automatically translate into taking action. We have a habit of throwing up our own roadblocks at important decision-making stages. Have a listen to today’s episode to learn how to spot and plan around those roadblocks to take the next action step to recharge your editing business.

026: Featured editor: Cecile Shanahan https://cecileshanahan.vpweb.com.au/ How much does our business name matter when marketing a business? Would you rather spend time and money on targeted marketing efforts to reach potential clients or on hoping you’ll be found in a Google search? As I discuss in this episode, I think it’s best to focus on getting the message right on your website — who you help and how you help them. This is more important than our URL or business name. In the end, referrals by word of mouth are powerful. If that’s working for you, consider whether there’s any need to put energy into overhauling your business brand and website. 

025: Featured editor: Amber Riaz, A4 Editing As we so often do when starting out, Amber took every opportunity for editing work in order to build momentum. She accumulated a wide range of experience in a variety of industries. Three years down the track, Amber has begun to identify the kinds of projects she enjoys and is most suited to. She’s considering defining a niche for herself. Amber shared her concerns about going down this path, ‘What will happen to my business if I start to narrow my field?’ This is a common fear. But there are some definite benefits to niching in your editing business. Deciding to niche can change your whole approach to marketing your business. It's worthwhile exploring what beliefs you have about niching and to embrace your specialisation. Join us for a discussion about what it would look like to niche in your business and how you could make niching work for you.

024: Featured editor: AJ Collins, AJC Publishing For all of us who are committed to doing the best editing job possible for our clients, overdelivering on projects can be a tricky business challenge. Our guest editor, AJ Collins, has begun to tackle this issue in her business to reclaim all those unpaid hours. We always strive to exceed our clients’ expectations, but we also have to be accepting of their wishes as well as their budget limitations. Join us as we discuss establishing boundaries and how to head off any potential problems in ‘scope creep’ as they arise. If you’ve ever felt the pressure to overachieve in your editing work, this episode may help you identify strategies for healthy work habits.

023: As humans, we are really good at making things more complicated than they need to be. Especially in 2020, when we have information at our fingertips, literally. For example, if you look for help to get your business marketing started, whether it’s finishing your new website, starting a blog, creating your social media profiles or starting an email list, you’re likely to be overwhelmed with information. If it’s too technical for you to do it yourself, there are plenty of specialists you can engage to do these things for you. Or, how about creating a niche? I think about how many people I work with who have the knowledge, experience and expertise, but they don’t make a move. Why don’t we do the things we say we want to do? Are you often finding yourself saying you’re too busy? What’s really stopping you? Start by acknowledging the stories you’re telling yourself and where you’re making things more complicated than they need to be.

022: It seems like they’re everywhere: downloadables, online courses, paid memberships. With ever-increasing access to technology, there’s a growing number of people creating digital products for their businesses. In 2016, I decided to take my in-person writing workshops and turn them into an online product. I had very limited time for editing and thought that having an online course would be a great way to supplement my income. However, I underestimated how much work would be involved! In this episode of the podcast, I share my story about what worked and what didn’t. I also provide some tips to others who are thinking about going down this path.

021:  The harsh truth is that without clients, you have no business. And even though there are things we can do right now to find clients (such as sharing our marketing message or contacting potential clients), these outreach activities feel quite scary to many people. So we can fill our time with other busy-work instead, and we convince ourselves that these are absolutely critical things to be doing right now. I’m talking about creating a logo or getting yet another editing qualification. Of course, there is a place and time for doing those things, but if you have no clients then your focus should be on getting some money coming into your business ASAP. In this episode, I’ll share how it’s so easy to get distracted by these ‘procrasti-tasks’ that keep you from the important work of actually starting or growing your business. I’ll help keep you focused on the key things you need to do to get your first clients.