All Things Freelance Writing: Recent Episodes
Jessica Walrack
Join the community of freelance writers sharing their knowledge and building thriving businesses they enjoy! I'm the host, Jessica Walrack, who has been a full-time freelance writer for 9 years now. Tune in for regular interviews with freelance writers sharing insights about their zone of genius. Come for inspiration, actionable advice, and ongoing support on how to build a successful freelance writing business. https://allthingsfreelancewriting.com/
Drashti Shah is a freelance writer from India who now lives in Italy. She joins us in Episode 7 to talk about how to build a successful global freelance writing business as a non-native English speaker.
What does she share?
-An overview of where her business is now
-Resistance she ran into because she's a non-native English speaker
-How she overcame that resistance
-Final advice for other writers who are non-native English speaker
-What she's been up to lately with her business
-How to stay in touch with her
More about Drashti:
Drashti aims to use her skills and combined experience over the years as a writer, designer, and entrepreneur with a business degree to help small business owners, creatives, coaches, and freelancers create content that speaks to their audience, inspires them, drives leads, and generates sales. Efficiency, creativity, and honest hard work are the three mantras she lives by. When not writing or traveling, you can find her with her nose in a book or elbow deep in her latest DIY project.
You can find her on:
Her Website
Instagram
LinkedIn
In this episode, we chat with Lia Stoll, a freelance disability writer and the co-founder of Lara Guide Dog School.
Lia has an incredible story. At a young age, she witnessed something that started her on a path she would follow all the way until today — a path that aims to help people with disabilities to live as independently as possible.
She shares what that experience was along with how it led to starting a guide dog school, becoming a freelance disability writer, and being an overall advocate for disability inclusion.
Additionally, she shares helpful advice for writers, business owners, and really just people in general about how to speak about and to people with disabilities.
You won't want to miss this one!
Get in touch with Lia:
Lia's blog
LinkedIn
In this episode, we chat with freelance writer and cold pitch coach, Maya Capasso.
Like many of us, Maya had a rough start with cold pitching. She was uncomfortable with it because she didn't want to blindly cold pitch a huge list of contacts. However, she soon figured out a personalized approach that helped her to start closing deals.
Now she's fine-tuned her approach, helps other writers with it, and is spilling all the details with us!
Listen to learn:
- About her journey with cold pitching
- An example of a cold pitch that landed her a deal
- How long it should take to research prospects
- How to identify with prospects to pitch
- The components of a cold pitch
- Mistakes to avoid
- Overcoming mental obstacles
- Following up on pitches
If you'd like to learn more from Maya or get in touch with her, you can find her at:
Website: mayacapswrites.com
Instagram: @mayacapswrites
Twitter: @mayawriting
Also, here's the link to the FB group where Maya and I met that is super awesome!
Female Freelance Writers
For 13 years, Amber was a professional actress in New York and Los Angeles. She starred Off-Broadway in 50 Shades! The Musical performed and taught at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. She also did improv around the world with Baby Wants Candy. But mostly, she played the role of “getting ignored by agents.”
Growing tired of waiting for auditions, she switched careers completely to freelance writing. Today, she is a regular contributor to The New York Times, MTV, Thrillist, IFC, Bustle, Greatist, Healthline, Parade, and more.
She also teaches Freelance Writing for Creatives, a 10-Week Course to take you from “where do I even start” to “I just got paid to write about podcasts.” Her students have been seen in Huffington Post, McSweeney’s, Vulture, Thrillist, Polygon, Insider, Vox, and a whole bunch of other publications.
After working with students for over a year, one thing that Amber sees hold back many writers is when they procrastinate and don't send pitches because they're not "perfect." So in this episode, she talks about overcoming perfectionism and all you need to know about the pitching process.
Don't leave empty-handed! Check out Amber's awesome resources below!
Instagram
Free Writing Job Listings Newsletter
List of 250+ Publications That Pay and Take Pitches
Hi and welcome to Season 1 Episode 3 of the All Things Freelance Writing Podcast with guest, Laura Ansbro!
I’m your host Jessica Walrack and today we have the pleasure of talking with Laura Ansbro. Laura’s a freelance content writer who's been writing for 4-5 years and specializes in creating engaging, persuasive long-form content for writers and other comms professionals (like PRs and marketers).
In this episode, she talks about the ins and outs of her niche: subcontracting for comms professionals and other writers. Plus, you’ll learn:
- Pitfalls to avoid when building a writing business
- Why other writers aren’t your competition
- What Laura loves most about the freelance life
- And much more
Want to hear more from Laura or hire her? Find her on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-ansbro/
Brianne Hogan is a writer, editor, author, actor, storyteller, and podcast host. She has bylines in over 60 publications including the BBC, Buzzfeed, Elle, Scary Mommy, and the Washington Post. She's also the author of Joy in the Stars, a book from BuzzFeed, and Friendship Signs.
In this episode, we pull the curtain back to show how Brianne achieved all of the above.
Listen in to learn:
- How she got started freelance writing.
- What it's like to freelance full-time writing for big publications.
- How it works, what the work flow is like.
- How the pay works.
- How pitching works.
- What she does when she gets a no.
- How big bylines led to 2 inbound book deals!
- How she got a literary agent.
- Why writers need to just go for it.
You can hear more from Brianne on:
- Her Instagram
- Her Website
- The Do You With Brianne Hogan Podcast
- Her Substack Newsletter: Not Related to Hulk Hogan
Sarah Colley is a freelance content writer, consultant, and strategist that helps tech startups, B2B's, and more to drive leads (not just traffic) with her smart and scrappy distribution tactics.
She's written for brands like Dooly, metadata.io, Rewind, Go Guardian, and many more.
In this episode, she defines content distribution, explains why most companies are just scratching the surface, and shares her top tips for generating leads and traffic through smart content distribution tactics.
Listen in to learn how you can go beyond email, surface social shares, and even SEO to get your content in front of targeted audiences that need to see it most. This will be super helpful for freelance writers who want to drive faster, more targeted results for their clients through their content writing.
Contact Sarah Colley, Freelance Content Writer:
Book a call: https://www.writedestinationagency.com/contact-1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahcolleypr
Website: https://www.writedestinationagency.com/