Freelance Success Strategies: What I Learned at the ASJA Conference

How can you build a thriving freelance writing career in today’s competitive market?

In this solo episode of The Talk Freelance To Me Podcast, host Ashley Cisneros Mejia takes you behind the scenes of her experience at the ASJA Writers Conference in New York City. From networking with top editors to learning about the changes in the freelance marketplace, Ashley shares key takeaways, industry trends, and powerful insights from industry leaders like Teen Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief Versha Sharma.

She also discusses the importance of differentiating yourself as a freelancer, developing new skills, and crafting a seamless client experience—plus, she dishes on her experience speaking on a podcasting panel at Fashion Institute of Technology and attending a Broadway show with fellow writers.

Visit https://talkfreelancetome.com/episode-37/ to read the recap blog and see resource links.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

• How to stand out in an increasingly competitive freelance market
• Why niche expertise and skill expansion are more important than ever
• The top takeaways from ASJA’s Client Connections event for pitching top-tier editors
• Insights from Versha Sharma on resilience, diversity in media, and choosing aligned clients
• Why podcasting can amplify your freelance brand (and the best tools to get started!)
• The behind-the-scenes process of Broadway production and storytelling lessons from "Buena Vista Social Club"

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: Returning from ASJA NYC & conference highlights
• 2:39 What is ASJA? The role of this exclusive professional writing organization
• 5:41 Why freelancing is more competitive than ever – and how to stand out
• 8:41 Keynote insights from Versha Sharma (Teen Vogue) on resilience, diversity, and the future of media
• 11:44 The importance of developing complementary skills as a freelance writer
• 14:21 Ashley’s experience on the ASJA podcasting panel + best podcasting tools for writers
• 20:10 Client Connections: Pitching major publications like Forbes, Adweek, and Fortune
• 23:45 A Broadway moment: Seeing Buena Vista Social Club and meeting the producer + lead actress
• 34:28 The power of community: Meeting like-minded freelance writers at ASJA
• 38:35 Final thoughts: Why investing in networking and professional development is essential

Transcript

0:00

We have to. Look for new ways to generate income, look for new ways to keep our skills high, to keep learning things, and to get even deeper in our niche. The other thing that I'll say about that, from my personal experience, is that when you have multiple options for freelancers for the same service or the same product, the experience becomes a differentiator. So if we can differentiate ourselves by making the client experience seamless. Easy value added. That's another way that we separate ourselves from competition in the crowded market.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 0:40

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 the freedom that freelance offers. On Talk 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. So today's show is just going to be me. I just returned from an amazing experience in New York City at the ASJA conference. It was held at Fashion Institute of Technology, which is located in Manhattan in the Chelsea neighborhood, and it was. a wonderful experience. I left super early in the morning. My flight left at seven. So I was up at three 30 to get ready, get the Uber and then make it to the airport in time to go through security and all that jazz. And then I got back late Wednesday. So as I'm recording this right now, it's Friday afternoon. and I'm just playing catch up, but also just really reflecting on what an amazing experience it was. And I took some notes, I wanted to share just some of my things that I've taken away from the experience, things that I learned, people that I met, and so that's what this episode will be. ASJA stands for the American Society of Journalists and Authors. It was founded in 1948, and it's known as the nation's largest professional organization of independent journalism. nonfiction writers. And so this includes journalists, content writers, authors, and so on. I joined ASJA, I think it was 2023. They have a big commitment to DEI, actually. That's something we'll talk about in this episode, because it's a theme that came up a lot in the conference. But they have an awesome Scholarship program. They reach out to writers from underrepresented communities and invite them to experience the conference as a way to recruit and to include more writers in the community. And so I was lucky to be picked in 2023 and that was my first opportunity Time attending the virtual conference. It was a great experience so much so that I just went ahead and joined as a full member. And then later in September of 2024, they had another virtual conference. This was the first time that I participated in one of their signature programs called client connections. Basically think of it as speed networking for people that want to hire writers and writers themselves. And so I got to meet with some incredible organizations. The last go around. This year was my first time going in person and actually this conference that I just went to was the first time that the conference has been held in New York City in six years. Every other year they rotate. So they do some sessions, some conferences in like in person, and then they alternate and do virtual the next time. So this was really meaningful. I've been to New York City a handful of times, but it's been. a while. It's been a very long time since I've gotten to go, and this was really special because it was held at Fashion Institute of Technology, which is right in Manhattan, right in the middle of everything, and it was just a great experience all around. Beyond ASJA's commitment to DEI and welcoming writers like me who maybe hadn't heard of them before, one of the things that I really appreciate about ASJA is its commitment to professionalism. To even join, they have a couple different memberships, but to join as a professional member and even an associate member, you have to apply and you have to showcase that you have experience writing for national outlets. With the associate membership, that's to like mid level freelancers who maybe have written for like regional publications. And then they also have a retired tier for journalists and writers who are not working right now. They're retired, but they still want to support the community. And what I love about that is it creates this membership of really seasoned, experienced, freelance writers, and journalists. I just appreciate that so much because it gives me access to networking with other colleagues of a certain level who can really teach me a lot. So the ASJA conference was a three day event, and it kicked off this past Monday. One of the things that I think was a A theme for the whole three day conference was just that freelancing is more competitive than ever before. That's why it's even more important for us to really dig deep into our expertise and into our niches to differentiate ourselves and also acquire new skills that are complimentary to what we do as writers and reporters. So that we can offer even more to clients. One of the trends that was mentioned during the conference is that the freelance marketplace is even more competitive than it's been in years prior. And this is really due to a lot of layoffs. Unfortunately, we see that's been a theme for the last few decades where. There's a lot of people being laid off, a lot of extremely talented people in media and tech being let go. The job market is really difficult right now. It's very challenging. There's people even that I know in my network who have been out of work for a year or more. It's hard for everyone. And so a lot of those professionals are turning to freelance as a way to make ends meet. And that's exactly what I would encourage anybody to do. But what that means for those of us already in this space is that It is getting more competitive. Now, does that mean that we stop freelancing? No, I think you have to pick your hard and that's my philosophy at freelancing and working for a company in general, either there's trade offs for everything and there's pros and cons to everything. And right now the market for just finding a W2, a nine to five job is really tough. And so freelancing is also tough. So we have to. Look for new ways to generate income, look for new ways to keep our skills high, to keep learning things, and to get even deeper in our niche. The other thing that I'll say about that, from my personal experience, is that when you have multiple options for freelancers for the same service or the same product, the experience becomes a differentiator. So if we can differentiate ourselves by making the client experience seamless. Easy value added. That's another way that we separate ourselves from competition in the crowded market. One thing that I noticed that was mentioned at the conference was that there was a recent editorial hiring survey and it revealed for the first time that those people that were being surveyed were identifying as freelancers more than staff writers. And that was the first time in that surveys. History before it was the other way, more people were staffers and then there was freelancers as well who were participating. And so again, it just underscores this idea that we need to be adaptable. We need to continue to innovate, add new skills and make sure that we are delivering a world class client experience so that we continue to be the freelancer that our clients go to when they need services. The first day of the conference was probably one of my favorites, and I think it was because of the two keynotes, so we had the opportunity to hear from Varsha Sharma. She is the editor in chief of Teen Vogue. I love that she, in her PowerPoint, she shared images of her early career and her experience being this first Southeast Asian editor at the helm of Teen Vogue. She talked about being Indian American growing up in Louisiana. She talked about going to New York and working in politics first and really just paying her way. She slept on her couches of her friends to climb the ranks. And one of the images that was really encouraging and motivating is she had a picture of her with Anna Wintour. These iconic Women in publishing that are now her personal mentors, but she also spoke about failure. She spoke about failure being a common thing that we all experience and that it's essential for us to learn resilience. She shared a cute image of her baby. She's a first time mom, so she was pretty transparent and What it's like to balance your professional ambitions with motherhood. It was refreshing. I thought it was honest. I really liked it. She also commented on the magazine's commitment to diversity, the magazine's commitment to taking hard topics and really digging in deep. As a service to the readers. A lot of the readers of Teen Vogue are teens, but also even younger people still in their twenties. She talked a lot of that responsibility that the magazine recognizes that it has. She praised ASJA for our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion. I appreciated that. I think it's. A reminder that we need that as freelancers and as business owners, we have the ability to make choices and who we do client, who do we do business with, we have the ability to make choices and who we do business with, who our clients are, who we collaborate with, both Supplies who we patronize for services for subscriptions for things we need to run our company both professionally and personally, and those are we can align ourselves with organizations that share our same values. We still have that power. Some people in the audience. talked about, we're asking Versha about what kinds of media she and her team are consuming in order to learn more about what's important to Gen Z, to Gen Alpha, to young people. Two podcasts that I hadn't heard of that she mentioned. First is Let Me Say This. Second is Vibe Check. I'm going to write a blog post to accompany this video, and so you can see links to some of the resources that I mentioned there. She also shared that Teen Vogue is super transparent in how they work with freelancers. They have a whole webpage dedicated to what they look for, topics, and they even have contact information for the features editor, her email address directly on the webpage, and so I'll share that also in the links. Something else was just the importance of developing complementary skills to what we do. So we write, we research, we can interview, we can report on things, but just really honing in into our multimedia storytelling capabilities. So learning how to get audio, high quality audio. Audio that can be used by our clients thinking about photography pictures images video content All of these things allow our clients to be able to use our reporting and showcase it in a more immersive way There was a panel about making it as a six figure freelancer, and there was a book publisher, Anna Sproul Latimer. She's a book publishing industry expert. And so she talked about monetizing newsletters. She shared that she has a sub stack that makes about 40, 000 a year, adding just extra money to her income. And she sees it as a way for direct audience engagement. There's a lot of authors who want to work with her, a lot of authors that want to get their book published, and so she has a built in audience. She provides great content in her substack, and she'll still give tips and things like that, but her best content is located behind a paywall. And so it just gave ideas on what's possible for other freelancers to replicate. On day two, there was a great session that I appreciated by Emil Wilbeckin. He's the founder of a company called Native Son. It's an organization that helps Black gay men. And he was sharing a great tip about interviewing to really ask guests or interviewees about their process. About the way that they work. A lot of people We appreciate that interest that we express in how they work, how they solve problems and so on, their approach. And so it gives an opportunity for them to share more about this. And usually you can uncover other tidbits, other angles for more follow up questions and story ideas. There was a panel on visual storytelling, and the tip that I took away from that is that when you are capturing video and images, to make sure to get a variety. So don't just get vertical images and video, but get horizontal because your clients can use those in different ways. Whether they're embedding it on a webpage or using it on TikTok, you want to be able to give. Uh, diversity of formats of the images that you're sharing and to also think about capturing b roll Multiple angles of your subjects and so on it just gives more flexibility in your storytelling and it gives more options to your client Day two. I also had the honor of presenting on a panel about podcasting and this was great. This was a really big Moment for me. I feel like I've been talking to different audiences and doing speeches and trainings for a while, but this was the first time I've ever presented in New York City. And I think that's a big deal, especially at FIT. I consider that really well known school. It was just prestigious. It just made it feel special. I got to speak about podcasting with Holly Rizzuto Palker. She is a talented podcaster. Her podcast is called This Mama Is Lit. She is also an actress. She is a comedian. She writes. She does a lot of different things. She is pitching a new book. So I got to hear her pitch for her new book. And so that was exciting to hear and fun just about her process and how she's going about vetting different Agents and publishing houses, if you will, and I also got to present with Estelle Erasmus. She's She's amazing. She's a very seasoned journalist, about 30 years in the magazine business. She's an author of a book called Writing That Gets Noticed. She's a professor at NYU. She's also a podcaster. Her podcast is called Freelance Writing Direct. And I definitely look forward to interviewing her in the future. So she was talking about how she used her podcast. as a way to strategically market her book when it was about to come out. We also had two other ladies that were going to join our panel, Jennifer Fink and Brianna Avenia Tapper. Jennifer's podcast is called On Boys. She has a subject matter expertise in raising Sons raising boys. Brianna's podcast is called writing stories. Unfortunately, both ladies got sick. They were unable to attend, but I definitely look forward to binging their content more and working with them possibly in the future. During our session, we talked about why you should have a podcast, the benefits that it can offer writers, how to get started, some of the basic tools that you'll need to get started, best practices, and so on. One of my questions that I commented on was about the tech, about editing. And I was talking about a couple tools like Audacity, GarageBand, that are free tools that you can use. to edit your podcast, but I also was raving about Descript. I found out about Descript a couple of years ago, but I, when I initially started my podcast, I had a person who was editing the audio for me overseas. And then I would edit the video portion myself using Wondershare or from like a video editing software. When I interviewed Sarah Griesenbach on this show, she has a podcast also on B2B Marketing, and she was like, have you considered Descript? You can DIY it, it has all these AI features now, it's super user friendly, and it's probably, for a monthly subscription, it's cheaper. Then, um, outsourcing this piece, especially since for my podcast, I have a video version that's on YouTube and then I have the audio, of course, and since then I've been, I just love Descript, I have used Descript, I have an affiliate link to it, if you'd like to try it, what's different about Descript is basically you can take any video or audio file, drop it in, The software will transcribe the content and it will have the text, the transcript in a text editor. Here's where the magic is, though. When you want to make a change and edit in whatever you're creating, all you do is take your cursor, highlight the section that you want to delete, and delete, just like you would a Google Doc. And it makes the corresponding edit to either the audio file or the video file. So you're not using Those little tracks at the bottom and dragging them back and forth to find the right place to cut the content. For me as a DEI wire, it's so user friendly. There's also AI components like sound studio to improve the audio. So even if you're interviewing someone and they don't have a mic, maybe there's AI elements in Descript that will improve that sound automatically. And it will make it sound like you actually were recording in a studio. So again. Descript, shameless plug. I am an affiliate for it and not just, even if there was no affiliate program, I would still recommend this product for me. Initially I tried audacity and because it's free and I was YouTubing it, I call it going to YouTube university and trying to teach myself the problem for me was that. I was frustrated. Like I couldn't learn it fast enough. I'm sure if I actually put some time into it, I could learn it, but I was creating resistance. And for me, I knew it was important that if I ever wanted to get this podcast out into the world, I had to remove any resistance. Removed any obstacles and just make things as easy as possible so I could get out my message into the world. And so that's why I really like Descript and I think it's worth it because it's super user friendly. We had a great, a lot of great questions from the audience. I got to meet other people later who heard the panel and they were saying that they're going to start a podcast, which is super cool and very encouraging. And I'm just excited because I think that there's so much knowledge, especially with journalists. We interview a lot of people. A little bit of knowledge about a host of things and for some topics we are experts just because we've reported on these same topics for years and by virtue of our assignments, we get to connect with experts and so I think. That podcasting is just another vehicle to take your messaging and allow people to experience it in a new way. So I was very encouraged by that. The other event on Tuesday that was really big was the Client Connections. This was that speed networking feature that I mentioned earlier. This time, because it's an in person conference, because it was an in person conference, the Client Connections was in person as well. So they had this big hall. with lots of long tables and they had editors or say directors of marketing or anybody that like agencies that hires freelancers. Those folks were seated in those tables and then they had little place cards with numbers on it. And so prior, basically anybody who wanted to participate in this event could get the list of all the outlets that were going to be there and we could rank. Basically, I think it was six or seven of the ones we wanted to meet with, and we could rank them by preference. And then the organizers used a lottery system to basically make assignments for us. The meetings are each nine minutes long, and that sounds like it's short, and it is. It feels even shorter. And so they would allow us to go in for each of those sessions, those nine minute increments. And literally ring a bell and then when they rang the bell, we could make a dash to the person we were meeting with, sit down, do our pitch, try to sell ourselves to them, listen to what the editor was looking for, their feedback for us, get an idea for what they needed, get their information, and then they'd ring the bell again at the end of nine minutes and we all had to clear the room and do it again. And so that was very, it was fun. And it was also stressful. The good thing is you get a list of the outlets ahead of time. And the outlets provide ASJA with kind of a synopsis of what they're looking for, how they pay writers, trends, what their preferences are, whether they wanted us to pitch story ideas during our time together, or whether they just wanted to use the time to get to know us. And that was good because we could study that. And then closer to the conference, we got a list of where the tables were. And so with the tables, you could see the name of the person that you were meeting with. So we had time a couple of days, maybe to Google the person that we were meeting with, get to know a little bit more about them, maybe think about what they might be interested in so that we could tailor our pitches and our talking points for that specific editor. So that was great. I got to meet with some really cool people at Fortune and Adweek, Forbes, VQ, which is the alum magazine for Vassar College, and a company called Onward Publishing that they do a lot of work with healthcare clients. It was all fun. A lot of these professionals who are leading these organizations are super seasoned, have won so many industry awards. I was inspired by them, but also maybe a little intimidated just because I respect their work so much and what they've accomplished and they were super down to earth. They were open and I just had a really great experience. Maybe they'll use me for projects. Maybe they won't, but. it was still a great opportunity. The Client Connections provides a forum for you to get FaceTime with someone that you may not always have access to for the specific purpose of talking about getting work. So it's not like other networking events where you're talking and you're just trying to like get it in there that you provide these services and you're trying to start the relationship so you can pitch yourself. This, the purpose of this event was for pitching. So I think it's highly valuable. So that was Tuesday. Tuesday, as you can tell, was a very long day. It was like the longest day of the conference. But I have to mention to you something special that happened. Outside of the conference, and that was, we went to a Broadway show. There's a show that's in preview right now called the Buena Vista Social Club. And it was at a theater in Broadway. And I was so excited because I have seen Broadway on tour shows here at my local theater called the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. But I've never seen a show, a Broadway show actually on. Broadway, like in New York. So this was very special to me. One of the members of ASJA, one of the leaders, Stacey Freed knows the producer, a producer from the Buena Vista social club. And so she used her connections to basically even get as an opportunity to meet with one of the producers after the show. Another member, Debbie Kaplan. She's actually one of the leaders on the board too, I believe she's the one who organized. us to go, did all the coordination of the logistics and posed it to the membership and bought the tickets and the whole nine, which was a lot of work. And I really appreciated it because this is not an opportunity that I get every day. So Debbie, thank you. She organized a group of 47, I think it was 47 or 48 women writers to, and it was open to men, but just happened that women went to all go to see this musical together. And it was so good. I cannot rave about this Musical enough. So it was inspired, it's set in Cuba in the 1950s. I want to say it was 1958 or so. And it's actually based on a real story of a legendary Cuban singer named Omara Portuondo. And the story spans. It's decades of Cuban history, and it follows the lives of musicians who were impacted by the rise of Castro. And it tells this story through the lens of two sisters who are singers. There was just, the music was out of this world. All the songs were in Spanish. They were in son, danzon, and bolero rhythms. The musicians, the voices, first of all, gave me goosebumps. The musicians were fantastic. The one who played the cuatro, which is like a guitar, but. four strings. He was playing that instrument like a Jimi Hendrix, a Santana, a B. B. King. There was so much energy and passion. The energy in the room was a lot. I'm pretty sensitive and I don't know if I'm an empath, if that's the right word, but I can get overwhelmed in crowds. I asked Debbie if I could sit at the aisle, because I know how I get, especially around other people, like I can pick up on their feelings. But this was just beautiful. The music was incredible. Enough. So in the preview session, there's people like us that get to preview the show. I imagine it was like friends and family or other people who had a connection to the show or people in the show that got to go. And there was people literally shouting. There was people dancing. There was someone behind me that kept saying, and I think she was Cuban. She was saying, Oh my God, I wish my dad could see this performance. I wish my grandpa could see this performance. And there was really emotional times within the. Story of the two sisters, because the two sisters are performers, and there's an American record company that's interested in signing them with a deal. One sister is, this is our chance to get out of Cuba just in the nick of time. This is a chance to get a better future for ourselves. Let's go. And the other sister, Omara, the one, she's like the title person. She doesn't want to go. She wants to stay in her home country, and she's really big about singing all the old Afro Cuban songs and singing them specifically for her people. The Buenafistic Social Club is the name of the little club on the other side of the island where all the locals would gather and sing their traditional music. And so Amara, out of the two sisters, would go there, even though her sister was saying, that's not what we're A place for us to go to, it's dangerous and they do separate, not to spoil the story, but it was very emotional in showing how the two sisters felt, the hard decisions that they had to make, and what family separation looks like. It struck a chord. The people in the audience were so passionate about it. The girl who was behind me, I could hear her sobbing. Everybody got emotional. I cried at different parts. It was raw. It struck a deep emotional chord. I'm not Cuban, but I live in Florida, and I've lived in Florida my whole life, and I have a lot of Cuban American friends that I care deeply for. And so, I have heard their personal stories about their families making that difficult choice to come to the United States and what that means. Some who still have family in the island. And That theme, no matter where you're from, what country you might be from, of making that decision to leave, making that sacrifice to leave, who's left behind, and what it does to a family, was profound and meaningful. But like I said, Stacey Freed, so the play itself, the musical itself, was beautiful. The acoustics were incredible, the theater that we were at. was awesome. I loved that experience so much. But after the musical, one of the writers had made arrangements. She's friends with the producer, one of the producers, I believe, Robin Gorman Newman, who is a writer herself, and she welcomed us in her apartment building. She had the common area where the residents can go hang out. And again, it's pretty late at night by this point. She was just sharing with us how she became a producer, what it's like to raise money and get investors for different productions, what determines a successful production versus one that fails, what it's like to win a Tony. She's been nominated for Tonys as well. Just amazing lady and really open. And she, it wasn't just about us, she kept asking us about our feedback about the musical. She was explaining to us that as this preview process, the production team is making changes to the musical every day. So she wanted to hear what feedback we had for her. I told her that I really enjoyed the story, the way that they shared what was happening in Cuba at the time through the lens of these two sisters. I felt like There was a push and pull between the sisters of having to make difficult choices for safety, financial stability, but then also artistic integrity and love of home. I commented that it reminded me some of the themes. of the story reminded me of what we see with Bad Bunny right now, where he has reached international superstardom, but he refuses to translate his lyrics into English. He was, and actually this was a meme a couple months ago, but basically he was interviewed about his new album and the fact he was asked, do you care that Non Spanish speakers are not going to really understand fully the lyrics and he was like, I don't care and that was funny, but it was also like, no, this art stands on its own and it's going to be pure to its own and I'm not going to alter it basically to accommodate other people if you want to understand it. Learned the Spanish. I was like, wow, a cool thing to see. The other thing is that he Prioritized for his new tour doing his first several shows in his island in Puerto Rico He wanted to make sure that his people got first dibs first access to the performance and not just the world, not just other people that have lots of money. And that was a theme that Omara in the musical, she was talking about. She was like, why don't we ever sing our songs for our own people? Like we're always singing for these tourists. So choosing to center your art. For your people, not for the money, but just for the joy and the love was amazing at the same time. I felt the musical did not villainize a sister who left because of survival because of opportunity. The musical is a commentary, I think, on family estrangement. but that love never fades. It touched on a lot of things. It touched on colorism. It was deep. I enjoyed it so much. I feel like a lot of people will relate to it and the whole show feels like a party. So I highly recommend if your travels take you to New York City or if you have, if you can make a trip to New York to see Buena Vista Social Club. It opens in March. I'm going to include a link to the show page so you can buy tickets if you want. This was an amazing experience. And after just that, just going to the show would have been amazing. Meeting Robin, the producer. Amazing, like such an opportunity, but we were also surprised because Issa Antonetti, who's the young actress who plays the young Omara, the main character, joined us for like maybe 30 minutes into our talk. She comes in and, mind you, an hour before we had just seen this girl, phenomenal, like her voice is otherworldly. And she was singing her face off in that performance. And so then she comes in and she's just calm and she's in her street clothes and she's not in her costume and her wig or anything and was so kind and sweet. And she and her partner were there and she talked to us also about. This being her Broadway debut about having her family come to one of the preview nights and seeing the show and how proud they were about her experience singing with her dad's band and then singing now and meeting the other members asked and how all of them are Latin X or Latina, however you want to say it a lot were Cuban and how. She also told us about different exercises she has to do, not just to warm up her voice, but cool it down. Dietary things that she has to think about in terms of food she can eat or not eat so that her voice remains strong and ready. She talked about being in the preview phase and getting new notes and like things changing every day. And she said, yeah, there was 14 pages of changes just today. So that was really cool to get to meet her. She was. Wonderful, and I definitely see continued success and a bright future for Issa. So she was great. Now I want to just talk about some of the friends that I made. One of the things that I love most about this conference is that I met my people. Like, I feel like I met. People who understand what it's like to be a freelance writer and journalist and who work for themselves in this way. I got to meet Karen Warren. She's an amazing travel writer. She's based in Georgia near Atlanta and she and I were talking about our experiences. She wrote a book. We were talking about. Hurricanes affecting places where we have friends and family, her family in Mississippi, mine in North Florida. We walked together on the way home from the performance and she's just a good person. I feel that energy. I had great conversation with her and I appreciate her. Charmaine Seitz. She's a writer. She spent 20 years living in Ramallah, and she really captivated me with her experiences with Palestinian culture. She's married to a Palestinian man, has Palestinian kids, and she's writing an upcoming memoir about her experiences. So she was at the conference to pitch her memoir. We also talked about podcasting and monetizing your podcast. I really enjoy it. I think she's based in Pennsylvania. She was amazing. Arlene Ambrose, I met her on day one. She is a writer from Alberta, Canada. We talked a lot. She writes about mental health, emotional wellness. She's actually a registered nurse. We talked just about health. We talked a lot about her perspective as a Canadian on what's happening between our two countries right now. She was awesome to meet. I also met Peggy Holzclaw. She's a writer in California. She's a ghostwriter. She writes a lot of books for clients. And she was explaining to me that process of ghostwriting and getting a client ready to launch their book. Really fun. And she has a lot of other interests too that were fun to talk about. We went to a non fiction book writers dinner. They had little dinners after the conference, and you can meet with other writers who specialize in whatever your beat is, or your vertical, your topic. So I met with some of the non fiction book writers, and I met, I sat down next to Dr. Sue. Bowness, she's from Toronto, Canada, and she just released a new book called The Feisty Freelancer. I bought her book. She signed it for me. We had a good discussion about freelancing, about her life in Canada, about our cats. I really enjoyed talking to her. And Christina Hernandez Sherwood, she's a health writer based in Philadelphia. Her work just won an award. It was a story about Black women's maternal care. And she's a mom too. She had great energy, super kind. She does a lot with membership for ASJA. So I think you should talk to her if you want to join. And these are only a couple, like, these are only a couple of the amazing people that I met. There was a lot of women, as you can tell. And I also wanted to give a shout out to Madison Collins. She's a student. She is going to be Graduating from FIT in May, she shared, so congratulations to Madison. She is from Alabama originally, so we were talking about being from the South. She, I was really impressed with her. There was wonderful keynotes throughout. Some of my favorite, I think, were Versha Sharma's. Teen Vogue on Monday and also Stephanie Chang. She's in charge of The Trust which is the internal content arm of the Wall Street Journal. And these women are giving these amazing keynotes and they ask for questions and I loved it that Madison made sure to always ask a really insightful, thoughtful question. And I just complimented her on that at the reception after because I love it when young people take advantage of opportunities. I love it when they're enthusiastic and not shy about taking up space. And Madison was great. So I know that she's going to have a very bright future. There was another student, Alexander, that I got to talk to. He's I was studying more like trade and sourcing materials as it relates to fashion. And so I just love talking to the young people that were there. Attending ASJA's conference in person was a very special treat and opportunity. Being a mom of three here and a wife and a business owner, I had to make a lot of plans and Yeah, I plan a lot to be away for two nights and three days, but I'm so glad that I went. I learned a lot. I met a lot of people. I had an opportunity to do some potential business development through client connections. And I just think that ASJA is doing amazing work for the freelance community. And I'm excited that I got to take part. On my blog on talkfreelance to me. com, I'll have a word version of this. my insights with links. So if you want to join a ASJA, I highly recommend it to any freelancer. And with that, we've come to the end of another episode. Please make sure you hit subscribe and give me a 5 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 Phoenix Creative Studio.