How To Find Freelance Writing Work FAST When You Need Money NOW

Are you a freelance writer struggling during economic uncertainty? 

Tune in to this episode of The Talk Freelance To Me Podcast where host Ashley Cisneros shares actionable strategies for finding freelance writing work fast when you need money quickly. 

Ashley draws on her experience freelancing during the Great Recession to offer tips on rebuilding relationships with past clients, networking with other writers, and using platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook groups to drum up new opportunities. 

You'll learn how to create customized pitching templates, organize job leads, and approach marketing agencies directly. 

This episode is a must for any freelancer seeking work in a challenging job market.

Time Stamps

05:18 Tips for approaching current clients to discuss future opportunities 

07:08 Strategies for reconnecting with previous clients

12:41 Importance of networking with other writers and creative professionals

15:21 Finding freelance writing jobs through platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook groups, newsletters

19:13 Using LinkedIn to showcase work and find opportunities, pitching marketing agencies

25:44 Tracking outreach efforts with a spreadsheet

32:46 Organizing emails and staying on top of job leads

34:23 Creating customized pitching templates for different niches  

37:00 Scheduling time for business development activities

About Ashley Cisneros Mejia and Talk Freelance To Me

Talk Freelance to Me™ is a multimedia company that helps women writers monetize their gifts to live life on their own terms. Led by 20-year freelance writer, journalist, and entrepreneur Ashley Cisneros Mejia, the company achieves this through the Talk Freelance To Me™ Podcast featuring interviews with freelance writers and freelance creatives, online programs like the Freelance Success S.Y.S.T.E.M.™ Course, and other digital products.

Full show notes here.

Chapters

• 5:18 Tips for approaching current clients to discuss future opportunities
• 7:08 Strategies for reconnecting with previous clients
• 12:41 Importance of networking with other writers and creative professionals
• 15:21 Finding freelance writing jobs through platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook groups, newsletters
• 19:13 Using LinkedIn to showcase work and find opportunities, pitching marketing agencies
• 25:44 Tracking outreach efforts with a spreadsheet
• 32:46 Organizing emails and staying on top of job leads
• 34:23 Creating customized pitching templates for different niches
• 37:00 Scheduling time for business development activities

Transcript

0:00

I want to hold space for you and just share that. I know what it's like to be laid off. I know what it's like to have scary months where the phone isn't ringing. Nobody's emailing back. You're not getting a lot of bites. It can be scary. So again, you're not alone, but we're here about solutions. Welcome to Talk Freelance To Me, the podcast for women freelance writers, 1099 independent contractors, and solopreneurs. I'm your host, Ashley Cisneros Mejia. For more than 20 years, I've worked as a journalist and freelance writer. Today, as a mom of three kids, I'm passionate about helping other women leverage their free time. Freedom that freelance offers on top freelance to me. We're all about the business of freelancing. If you want to learn how to monetize your talents, make money on your own terms and design a flexible work life that actually works for you. This show is for you before we get started. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite social media platforms. Review us on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. And don't forget to share this episode with a friend. Visit our website at talkfreelancetome. com for free resources. Join our email list to be the first to know about our latest offers. Thanks for tuning in and let's get into the episode. Today I just want to check on you. How are you guys doing out there? To say that the world of freelance writing has changed in the last year, in the last several years, would be, I think, an understatement. There's a lot of things going on. We have this revolution from artificial intelligence, AI tools like chat GPT and other ones that have joined. In the marketplace now, the economy, at least here in the United States has been a little weird. Certain people say that we are in a silent recession. Other people say that we're not there yet. I've gotten a lot of DMs from writers, both beginners and folks that have been doing this for a little while. And a lot of people are saying that 2024 has been, well, weird. And so I wanted to share some actionable steps on what to do when you need freelance writing gigs right away, because you need the money quickly. I love marketing. I had a marketing agency years ago, and so I'm all about creating a marketing plan and marketing strategy and having ongoing marketing activities that you're doing all the time to make sure that your pipeline is. Always filled so that when you get to a lean month or a lean season, you're insulated a little bit, and maybe you can mitigate some of that risk. But that said, I know that life throws you curveballs sometimes. Sometimes things happen beyond our control. Sometimes our clients decide to change course, to go another way, and that's okay. And that has a big impact on our businesses and our income situation. So I want to hold space for you. I want to tell you that you're not alone, that we've been here before. When I started freelancing, I started because of a job loss in 2009, and I needed something to help me make ends meet while I searched for my next nine to five job. And in different parts of my career, I've freelance full time. I've done it on the side, or I focused on something entirely different, like a nine to five job, or I've had a marketing agency before as well. So I think the beautiful thing about freelance is that you can make it work for you, , when you need it. But we've also been in weird places before in 2009. I mean, that was the great recession and it was not an easy market for anybody. There was a lot of people who were laid off similar to now. There's been a lot of layoffs in media and tech. And so. I want to hold space for you and just share that. I know what it's like to be laid off. I know what it's like to have scary months where the phone isn't ringing. Nobody's emailing back. You're not getting a lot of bites. It can be scary. So again, you're not alone, but we're here about solutions. We're here to talk about strategies and that's what I want to talk to you about today. And I, I'd like to organize this podcast, our conversation today into different categories into different buckets, if you will. And I think first is your network. You've probably heard it before. Your network is your net worth. And it's so easy when you are busy and you are slammed and you're just trying to meet deadlines to neglect your network a little bit. And it's hard. It's hard. You don't want to be a fair weather friend. You don't want to pop up just when you need something, but the truth is your network is the first place to go when you lose a job when you need a job when you're looking for something new and similarly with business when you're looking to drum up business when you're looking for referrals. When you're looking for new opportunities. So the first way I like to think about it is your current clients. Your current clients are your lowest hanging fruit. And I want you to think about not just what you're doing for your clients right now, but think about what you've done for them in the past. If you've just wrapped up a project with a client, think about what's next, put yourself in their shoes. Pretend that you are their business consultant, because that's really what we should be. We shouldn't just be busy bees. We should be, we should position ourselves as solution finders, as partners with our clients to help them achieve their goals. And so think about what they might need next. What can you recommend to them, if anything, that will help them continue on whatever you worked on together. And it could look a lot of different ways. It could be, you know, are they. Are they launching a new book, say you, you're doing ghostwriting for a, a thought leader, an executive, what are they going to need to promote that book? For example, are they going to need a one sheet? Are they going to need language for a landing page to sell their book? Are they going to need a social media strategy, social media campaign? And actual social media posts with graphics created that you can schedule and help them with. Do they need a drip campaign as part of this book that maybe you've helped them write or edit? So think about what's next. Anticipating your client's needs can make you that more indispensable and it can open new doors for business. And don't think of this just as I'm upselling them. I'm trying to make more money off of them. Really think about things that are going to empower your clients and help them get to the next level with your help. Next, let's think about your previous clients. And these can be clients maybe you haven't spoken to in a while. Maybe they are clients that you just wrapped up services with and You haven't talked to them in a couple of months, maybe they're low hanging fruit because they have already purchased from you before. They know how amazing you are. They know your work product. They know what it's like to work with you. So you're not, again, you're not selling your skills to them because they already, they already know that you're, you're great. So it's really about. Creating a strategy to rekindle your business relationship to catch up with them and to show genuine interest in them and to see if there's opportunity if they need other services. And also thinking about what are things that again, you can recommend to them that maybe they haven't thought about before. And so how do you do this? Well, I have a couple of tips. I have four tips for you on how to approach this, how to approach old clients that you haven't talked to in a while when you need work. Number one is be friendly and personable. Even though you might be stressed out about money, you don't want to exhibit. Desperation. You want to also do your homework. If you haven't spoken to them in a bit, you want to first Google them, Google your client. If you follow their personal accounts on social media, you can see what they've been up to visit their website, look at their news section of their website, their blogs. Do a general Google search. Maybe your client's been in the news or their company's been in the news. And so that way, when you create your message to them, you can maybe comment on some of those things. And I don't mean buttering someone up necessarily. I mean, if it makes sense to do so, if it's authentic, if it's genuine, you want to show that you care about them. And that you're interested in what they're doing now. So if it makes sense, mention those things, if they've done a cool accomplishment, congratulate them, comment on it, you can reference other projects that you've done with them in the past, maybe even to jog their memory. Some of these clients, depending on how long you've been at this, they may have moved to a different company. Maybe a lot has changed. I think it's important to reference. What you did together, what project that you worked on together doing. So we'll really jog their memory and also call to mind your skills and your capabilities. It also communicates that you're proud of the work that you did together. 2nd, you're going to want to fill them in on what you've been up to lately. So this can be just a sentence or 2. you can tell them what you've been doing professionally. If you've learned a new skill since the last time that you guys have spoken, if you've won an award or helped a client achieve something special, go ahead and mention it here. It doesn't have to be braggy, but I think it's cool to mention, to let them know that other things that you can offer them now that maybe you didn't before. Number three is try to offer something of value of goodwill. And this doesn't have to be complicated. It can be an industry trend that you heard about, maybe an interesting news article that you think they'll appreciate. Maybe it's an opportunity that you hear of. Maybe there's an award for CEO of the year that the business journalist providing, and you can share it with them, , as an opportunity. Other things are. Introductions to someone in your network that you think is relevant to them. That's would be valuable to them. That's something that you can offer. But again, you want to show that you're invested in their success that you're willing to provide value because you're reestablishing trust after a relationship has been dormant and the objective again, you want to try to secure some more work. So these little details will help you in, , getting a more. Affirmative, positive reply. I think final tip is to go in and ask for the opportunities. I think it's okay to express directly that you enjoyed. Working with the client in the past that maybe you have a few openings in your schedule and you want to see if they need help in their business offer ideas to them again, maybe in your research in Googling them and seeing what they've been up to. You see that they're launching a new product. Suggest creating a press strategy for that media relations strategy, press release at minimum, and maybe you help them with media relations. If that's something that you've done to help them, maybe get publicity and placements. Maybe they can be on a podcast like this 1. Social media, think about what they might need and you can offer those ideas. They may see your email and say, Oh my goodness, we were just talking about, we needed a writer for X, Y, Z. Giving, coming to them with some ideas is also valuable because it shows that you're, you're thinking strategically. And again, you're being that consultant. Now that we've spoken about clients, let's talk about your colleagues. So I think of these in two buckets, actually three buckets. So first are fellow writers. Second are other creative freelancers and creative professionals that offer similar or adjacent services. So thinking of graphic designers, web designers, those kinds of folks. And then the third bucket would be other. Professionals that you know, who might be in completely different industries, but you have rapport and they, maybe they know a lot of people and they can help you think about referrals or people who might be able to use your services. Let's chat about the writers first. So when you're going through a slump, there's no one who can understand that more than a fellow writer talking to other writers, sharing information about lead. This is really powerful. You can share information about leads and rates and all of those things, but you can also create a. Ongoing relationship where you can share overflow work where you can share referrals say, , you specialize in personal finance writing and your friend does law, , writing or legal marketing. Having those relationships when that person, when your friend finds a personal finance writing gig that is not up their wheelhouse, but is useful to you, they can send it your way. Those relationships are really, really critical. If you don't have them established, I think it's something that you definitely want to consider. Planning for in the future because again, writers help other writers next thinking about those other service providers that offer adjacent work. I think of these is also very powerful referral partners because a lot of the clients that they're working with may also need copywriting or ghostwriting or something of that nature. So again, this is graphic designers, web designers, developers, photographers. These are great people that if you've worked with in the past to think about, make a list of who, , look at your LinkedIn file, look at your. Your email address book, look at your phone to jog your memory on some of these folks in your network, because they make great ongoing referral partners as well. Finally, that third group is just other people, other professionals in your space. Maybe they work for companies, but you never know who knows who. So you want to make sure you're hitting those people up when you get to like a dry spell and ask them, do they know anybody who needs a writer? It's important to, to remind people of what you do, because if not, they're not going to be looking out for you. Cause it's not top of mind. Really important is to have a specific ask in mind and be able to articulate that when you're approaching folks from your network and to always, always, always express gratitude, always look for ways to return the favor and. Have a mutually beneficial relationship and express that gratitude, whether you receive a lead or not switching gears now. So we've talked about people in your network. Now let's talk about the internet and all the beautiful things that you have at your disposal. So big ones are job boards, freelance job boards, and maybe if you have had clients for a while, you haven't looked at any job boards in a while because maybe you haven't needed it. Freelance writing newsletters. There are often standalone freelance writing newsletters that you can sign up. for and get email alerts. Sometimes people, some of these organizations and influencers will create weekly, sometimes they're daily even, and you can sign up for them. Sometimes there's a cost associated and a lot of them are actually free. A couple of ones that I really like pro blogger has a great job board. I also like freelance writing gigs. com media Bistro. This is one. Initially, it was for folks that work in media and marketing and broadcasting, but they also have freelance gigs that they post sometimes as well. You can pay to have a profile and to be, they have a lot of different offerings, classic classes and things like that. But you can, anybody can go on the job board on media bistro. com and look at it. So that's a great place to find work as well. One of my longest Running custom publishing clients for brand journalism. I found them on Media Bistro in 2009. So that's a good one. I also like opportunities of the week newsletter. Shout out to Sonia Weiser. She puts this together. You can pay what you can. She also has a sponsorship program. So if you can't pay something right now, you can email her. Just Google Sonia Weiser. Hers is the opportunities of the week newsletter. She has a really good, really good. Product there. There's also Kaitlyn Alford. I really am a fan of hers. She has a freelance writing tips and opportunities newsletter. I believe it's every Friday. She sends out a hundred freelance opportunities. Some of them are freelance writing. Some of them are other types of freelance work. And she also is really prolific on X or formerly Twitter. So you can follow her there because she has a lot of good information too. Also speaking of X. Look on social media. So for many years Twitter was the place to find out about freelance writing jobs specifically in journalism I would say a lot of journalists editors are Would hang out on X and I think a lot of them still are there even though the platform has changed for a lot of Reasons, but you can follow specific hashtags think of hashtag freelance freelance writing hashtag writing gigs freelance jobs Content writing, you can monitor these tags and also there's notification settings that you can edit in your settings to receive real time updates to if that's something that you want. Facebook , specifically, I'm thinking of Facebook groups. There's quite a few active freelance writing and freelance in general Facebook groups, and sometimes there's job leads posted there. Sometimes you'll see a writer who's in a bind and they need to outsource a piece of a project to other writers. It's a great way to pick up it. Work to two of my favorite are female freelance writers. That's a really good group. And I also like Jennifer go forth Gregory's group. It's called the freelance content marketing writer. Both of those are really good. There's also professional associations usually have their own Facebook groups, SPJ, which is a society of professional journalists. They actually have a freelance group and it's free. Anybody can be part of it, even if you're not a member of SPJ. Also, I like the ASJ writer group that when you do have to be a member in order to join, but that's a great way to look for writing opportunities as well. LinkedIn. LinkedIn is probably my favorite. It's the goldmine. As you may know, you can search for people with different interests. Titles, for example, editors, content manager, content director, public relations director. You can look for people at specific companies that you're trying to target at specific outlets that you're trying to target. What I love too is being able to search for posts so you can literally type in the keywords in the search term, looking for a writer. Or need a writer hiring content writers. Any of those phrases, if you type them in, anybody on LinkedIn, who's a member who's posted something with that phrase will pop up in. And sometimes these might be old queries, but you can still see people who are looking for a writer that you can leave a comment and you can engage with. You can also see who they are and send them a message on LinkedIn. Also, I need to mention the LinkedIn jobs feature. on LinkedIn. Most people think of this more for nine to five permanent type of jobs, but you can still use it. You can type in the keyword freelance as a search term. You can find out about opportunities that way. You can use terms like freelance writer, content creator, other words related to your niche to see what's been posted lately. Also, Really important to remember is to optimize your profile. Take 15 minutes. Look at your profile. If you've got old content related to other jobs that you have, and maybe they're not related to writing freelance writing or something like that, you might want to Definitely copy and paste that content and save it somewhere. Save it in a Google doc and make a note on there that you removed it from your LinkedIn profile and maybe include the date so you can refer to it later. But your LinkedIn profile shouldn't just be, , , online version of your resume. You're really using it as a marketing branding and actually an SEO tool. So you want content on your profile to be related to the type of freelance work that you do. So you want to include keywords related to your niche. And also use your profile to showcase your work. For example, a lot of writers get stuck on, Oh, I don't have a portfolio or I don't want to pay for a portfolio, or I don't know how to make a website, or I don't have the money to pay for Squarespace or something. You can actually use your LinkedIn profile when you're first starting out. I also like clippings. me. I think you can do like 10 posts, 10 clips on there, and you can use that as your portfolio. But when you need work fast, I don't want portfolios to be what you're worried about. You can actually use your, you can put writing samples on your LinkedIn profile. You can include a blurb about the client, about what the objective was for this specific, , freelance writing., I think Work and actually what I really love is on LinkedIn. You'll notice that each profile has a featured section. You can actually upload graphics. Like you can make graphics of your work if you just have like a PDF, you can just you can literally Google free PDF to JPEG or PNG converter and you can turn your PDF into a picture and you can upload that to your featured section and people can click on it and learn more about it. You can also just blink directly to published works. And so you don't even need necessarily a portfolio. I don't want that to stop you. You can direct people to the writing samples on your LinkedIn profile itself. And really quick. I know I've talked a lot about LinkedIn, but it's so good for, I mean, it's, It is the professional social media platform. It's made for job seekers, jobs, career, associated things. Take 15 minutes and request recommendations. If you are connected to old clients, old colleagues, even old employers, and you haven't requested a recommendation, that's a great way to get credibility fast and to also remind people that you exist. They may. Have work for you take maybe 15 minutes and just think about these people that you've worked with. Search for them on LinkedIn, make sure that you're connected with them, connect with them. If you haven't already and request a recommendation from them, they can also endorse your skills. So all of those things help you appear higher in the search results on LinkedIn. So you definitely want to take a moment to really make the most of your LinkedIn profile. Also, some people swear by Slack channels. That's a place that you can look for work as well. I've heard Peak Freelance has a really good Slack channel. I've heard Journalists of Color have a really good writing in general Slack channel as well. So definitely check that out. Ask around. There may be other ones that I have not been a part of yet. Okay. So we've talked a lot about where to go to find advertised freelance writing gigs, but we also need to be pitching services. And when you're thinking about pitching your services, a lot of times we think of pitching in terms of media outlets, for example, writing a story and coming up with like a story pitch and sending them, sending it to a media outlet. Okay. But you can also pitch your services directly to companies. And I would recommend starting with branding agencies and marketing firms first when you really need work, because a lot of times, , these, these agencies, that's what they do. They already have clients that they serve. Sometimes they need things with quick turnarounds. And if you are the person that pops up at the right time, you might find yourself. With work and you're not doing all the business development activities. They're literally telling you. Here's what I need done often. As you may know, the pay isn't as much as what you can get. If you work directly for a client, but again, you're not doing the business development. They are literally bringing you the work. So I think it makes sense, especially when you are pressed for cash. So to find agencies, you can do just a Google search and use. Terms like marketing agency, public relations firm, branding agency in conjunction with your niche keywords. So marketing agency for hospitals, say if you've done things for hospital marketing or legal marketing agency, law firm marketing agency, things like that. You can then create a Google spreadsheet to track your efforts. You can include maybe a column of the company, a column of their website. A key person in some cases, that might be a content director, a public relations director account services person. You might have to look on their website to identify who the right person is, but you can do that research again. I wouldn't. You don't want this to take a lot of time, maybe just spend 15 minutes doing a search another 15 minutes figuring out. The contacts at these agencies and pitching them and maybe repeating and doing this, like, on an ongoing basis so that you can track your work and you can find contact information. Sometimes it's right on the company website. Sometimes you might find the name of the person on the company website, and then you can use linked in to find their contact details. There are also services that you can use to. Find email addresses for people 1, I think it's hunter. io. You can also sometimes if you see, if you find. Contact information and email address for 1 person at the agency. A lot of times you can guess what the format would be for the key person. So, say, it's actually this now, say, you're trying to find out the email for Ashley's this narrows., and then on the company website, you find out there's., an office manager. Listed Susie Brown dot. At talk freelance to me. com. Well, then you can guess that Ashley's narrows. His email might be Ashley's is narrow. So talk freelance to me. com because it's follows that same format. So don't let, don't let anything get in your way work to figure out what the email address would be. And you can offer your services as a subcontractor to these folks. You can mention your relevant experience. If you've worked for agencies before you can mention that and include relevant links and. Specifically to clips and work that you've done. You can also target companies straight out the gate directly. You can pitch. People usually the people inside of these companies would be the content managers, content directors. Sometimes they're called the communications director, VP of communications, PR director. You may have to dig a little bit to figure out who the right person is at the company. And I would pick companies related to your niche. You want to be able to convince these people right away that you would be great in that. You can do this work with your eyes closed. So picking companies related to your niche is a good way to do that. Also do an Internet search to find industry. Industry news related to your niche. If you have a local business journal, like there's a company called biz journals, and they have business publications in a lot of the major cities here in Orlando, it's called the Orlando business journal. You can look at the news happening in the business community to see about product launches, to see some companies that have gotten funding. Usually these companies that are moving and shaking are great prospects to reach. Cause a lot of times they're going to need content. They're going to need help. If they're launching a new product, they're going to help with marketing and writing is a big part of that. So I talked a little bit about creating a spreadsheet to track everything. And you want to also think about a plan. So setting aside time, what that looks like for you, maybe it's one, Hour a week for research another hour for outreach and other designated times to do follow up emails. You just want to keep track of when you contacted people. So you can monitor. Also, if you've received your response and just so that you can keep track of where the opportunity lies. So if you're ready to start pitching companies, here are a couple tips. First, you want to do it via email. You want to make it personal. You want to make sure to use the name of the person that you're reaching out to make sure that you've Googled the person to learn a little bit about them research. Of course, the agency or the company that you're reaching out to, if there's specific campaigns or projects products, if they were in the news, go ahead and mention that you want to show that you've done your homework. And also, When you are showcasing your work, you don't want to just include your portfolio link. I think having a beautiful portfolio is awesome. Some people, especially agencies may really want to see your portfolio, but more importantly, include direct links to your most relevant, best work for the person that you're speaking to. You don't want to make them work. So you don't say you've been doing journalism or writing as long as I have. I don't want to send people just to A general location and have them have to sift through things you want to showcase. Here are the 2 pieces, the 3 pieces that I think are most relevant that I really want to make sure that you see. And then if you want to include your general link, you can as well. If they want to see more also highlight your unique value proposition. So talk about that. You can help them solve their problems. That you can help them with situations like content overflow, tight deadlines, product launches, unexpected project needs. If you are able to jump in during peak times or emergencies, you're going to stand out as a valuable asset. Be clear about your services and what you do. Don't just say you're a freelance writer. Talk about your, your niches, of course, your credibility, who else you've worked for, what other publications you've, Written in you want to talk about the different types of work that you can do. So if you do blog posts, mention that if you do ghostwriting, talk about that. If you're really great at SEO, mention that don't forget to follow up. I think everybody's so busy these days. It's okay. If you haven't heard say in a week or two to follow up and you can decide what feels good to you. Some people keep following up until they're told. Don't contact me again. And I think that's fine. You just want to, , present yourself as someone who's collaborative. You want to express your enthusiasm and these are all things that are helpful and making you stand out. And don't forget, these are all the pitching part is, is like planting seeds. So seeds you plant today, they may not bear fruit until months for now. It might be weeks from now. You don't know when it will be. That's why it's really important to have an ongoing system. But for this purpose, we're talking about how to drum up business quickly when you really need the money, the pitching, you never know when that, when those opportunities are going to bear fruit. Now, so how do we stay organized with all of this? We have talked about social media. We've talked about email alerts. Organization is really key. Have a dedicated email for your business. If you don't already have a professional email, that's just for your writing business and keep it professional so that you can use it for correspondence for pitching. And you can also use it when you're signing up for these job leads, you can use folders, whether you're using outlook or something like Gmail, you can use folders and filters to keep your emails. Organized. So I like to have different folders for different things. Sometimes I have folders for different newsletters. Sometimes I have them for different niches. You can use your filter settings to actually skip your inbox and go directly to these folders. And then you can go through the folders at a specific time that works well for you. You may choose to just have them in your general inbox. And as you get them, you can go through them. It's whatever your preference is. Okay. Whatever is going to help you still be responsive to opportunities, but not let it overwhelm you. You can experiment with things like in Gmail, they have stars. You can star a specific sender. So that way you'll notice them more when an email arrives in your inbox from them. You can play with notifications. A lot of times people talk about. Silencing all your notifications so that you can concentrate and I think there's value to that when we are in a critical need where you need money fast. You don't want to miss opportunities and you want to be quick. So you may turn on certain sound notifications for different. Email addresses and you can experiment with that more big, big, big thing that I want to mention to you is templates. Gmail has a templates feature in their email and other email clients do as well. You can go ahead and create a general pitch email. Some people call it letter of introduction, but it's that general information where you're asking for work. You're telling about your credentials. You're sharing. Links to relevant clips, things like that. I would actually create a couple templates based on your niches. So, for example, if you do health care marketing, legal writing and parenting information, you might have a parenting template. Legal 1 and hospital 1 and that way you can actually go ahead and tailor that information. So you can talk about in the hospital 1, you're naming all the outlets related to. Say, you're right for backers or you're writing for health care type of organizations. That's already customized and the links you can actually include. You can have your clips on Google drive in different folders and then you can. Go ahead and have the clips that you want to share for each of those niches. You can actually go ahead and put them in your template as well, as well as a general link to your profile if you have one, but you can have all of those things ready on the go. So as you receive queries from some of these newsletters, for example, you already have your template ready to go. You can just toggle over to it. It will populate and you can customize it a bit. Also think about having If you don't want to have the templates within the email client itself, you can actually have them in a Google Doc. So you can just have a Google Doc, call it, , pitches or job responses or whatever you want to call it, it makes sense. And you can have the different ones pasted. So you can have one that's called hospitality, one that's called healthcare, and so on. And then also have a section for your writing clips, maybe sub folders for the different niches. You can also do sub folders for the type of work it is. So, say you have 1 folder for white papers, 1 for articles, 1 for thought leadership pieces, so on. I would also think about having the Google Drive app and the Google Doc app On your phone, if you're using those specific programs, so that way, while you're on the go, you can access those links and those items quickly to respond to things. Other things that I would mention to you, we've talked about filters and folders is setting alarms and calendar time. So look in your schedule and figure out when are the times that you are going to be working on marketing. You're going to be working on pitching. You're These job alert emails, go ahead and carve out the time in your Google calendar. And something I also do is create an alarm on my phone. So that way I have like that redundancy. My calendar is going to ping me or my phone is going to ping me. And I notice that's when I'm dedicating this time to drumming up business. We've spoken about a lot today. I just want to give you that gentle reminder that this too shall pass that you wouldn't be this far in freelancing or in your career. If you didn't have resilience and you can do the same now that marketing, creating a marketing plan and marketing strategy and pitching and business development, all of that is an ongoing thing. If you haven't been doing a lot of that, now's the time to create a plan to do so to go ahead and create. Systems in place, scheduled times in place, so that way, during the lean times, you are a little insulated and maybe it won't be as hard for you. I'm going forward. Just remember abundance. There's plenty of work out there. The way that we work is changing, but it's always been that way. We've always had changes and with the right approach, there's plenty of work for you to. And with that, we've come to the end of another episode. Please make sure you hit subscribe and give me a five star review on Apple. Check out the show notes and grab my free Niches Get Riches freelance writing worksheet to brainstorm the best niches for your writing business. Until next time, this is Ashley Cisneros Mejia. Don't forget, we all get this one, Don't constrain yourself to a box that you were never meant to fit in. It is your right to profit from your own creative gifts. Our music was composed by Donna Raphael of World Instrumentals. Talk Freelance to Me is a product of Fenix Creative Studio.