This week Rachel and Lynne discuss luck, visibility, and career resilience with guest copywriter Mel Barfield, managing partner at Copy or Die, host of the Indie Business Club podcast, and a Freelancer magazine columnist.

Mel shares her career shift into freelancing after moving while pregnant, how expectations and mindset can block opportunities, and why "luck" is largely created through action, relationships, and optimism. She talks about creating and noticing chances, acting on hunches, reframing setbacks, and expecting good outcomes. Practical tips include breaking big goals into chunks, building personal authority, asking for opportunities, avoiding overly negative public posting, networking with curiosity, and using LinkedIn strategically to connect with ideal client job titles without cold pitching.

Connect with Mel via:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniebarfield/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/allcopymel/
Substack: https://indiebusinessclub.substack.com/

and the agency she runs with Dave is https://copyordie.co.uk/

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

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

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week Rachel and Lynne discuss how freelancers can use Instagram and TikTok to make money and win clients with guest Keenya Kelly, a social media strategist known as the "TikTok Queen,". Keenya has over 500,000 TikTok followers and has generated more than $4 million through short-form video.

She explains how TikTok shifted marketing toward entertaining, educational, scroll-stopping videos (often under a minute), speeding up the like-know-trust factor and purchasing decisions. She recommends prioritising consistency (at least weekly), creating stronger content rather than posting anything, and using tracking links and automation such as comment-triggered chatbots to convert views into leads and sales.

It's such a valuable episode as Keenya talks about how she batches her workflows using B-roll, scripts, and organised storage, as well as using AI for competitive analysis and video ideation, and highlights authenticity, newsjacking, and how to better repurpose content.

Connect with Keenya via her website: https://www.keenyakelly.com/

Or on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@keenyakelly

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

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

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week on the podcast, Rachel and Lynne discuss how public speaking can help freelancers become more visible and attract clients, despite battling nerves. We are joined by media trainer and journalist Theresa Miller to talk about her book Speak Up on becoming a successful presenter and media spokesperson.

Theresa shares why knowledgeable people often stay quiet, why it matters to "speak up" in an era of misinformation and AI fakery, and how to manage those all-too-common nerves. She outlines practical strategies including researching your audience, tailoring your message to their needs and pain points, using structure and story (including the hero's journey), and ending with a clear, ideally dated, call to action.

We also chat about pathways into speaking, the role of in-person events, as well as Theresa's career lessons and favourite tools of the trade.

To buy her book https://www.theresamiller.com.au/books

Her online course: https://www.theresamiller.com.au/online-course

This week on the pod it's just Rachel and Lynne as we answer a listener question about how to nail client calls.

We compare warm leads (often via referrals and niche networks) with cold leads (often from Google), and share tactics and tips on how we handle professional calls, including researching the client (website, socials, ABN and reviews); being punctual and prepared; using interviewing and soft sales skills along with reflective listening.

We also discuss how to handle the question of budgets by stating indicative pricing, adjusting scope, offering tiered options, and focusing on value, plus being prompt with quotes, setting validity windows, and clarifying terms such as deposits, SEO non-negotiables, and limits on revisions. We also cover longer discovery calls for web copy projects, using transcripts/AI notes, and the value of meeting clients in person to build trust.

Here are links to some of the article we discuss:

• Why to offer tiered pricing (blog) https://rachelslist.com.au/why-you-should-offer-tiered-pricing-as-a-freelancer/
• Client brief template (shop) https://rachelslist.com.au/portfolio/client-brief-template/
• Quoting freelance projects with Lynne Testoni (shop) https://rachelslist.com.au/portfolio/21062/

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

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

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week, Rachel & Lynne welcome mind, body, spirit expert Maggie Hamilton – writer, social researcher, former publisher and founder of Allen & Unwin's Inspired Living imprint – to discuss opportunities and challenges in the genre.

Maggie explains why the genre appeals to her, share the most influential titles and authors in the space, and outlines common mistakes writers make when exploring this space.

She recommends adding case studies, interviews, research, and broader references to spiritual traditions and thinkers, plus using universal language for international audiences. It's a broad and inspiring conversation, covering ghostwriting, speaking opportunities, traditional vs self-publishing, and the importance of early structural guidance.

Maggie also previews her Writing NSW online course, covering submissions, readership, permissions, genre "languaging," and creating punchy chapters and introductions.

The Elif Shafak book on Rumi is The Forty Rules of Love.

Maggie's course for Writing NSW is here: https://writingnsw.org.au/whats-on/courses/online-mind-body-spirit/

Her website is: https://www.maggiehamilton.org/

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

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

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co

This week on the podcast, Rachel and Lynne welcome back Lindy Alexander, to discuss how pitching is changing for freelancers and what it takes to get editors' attention.

Lindy is an award-winning travel writer and founder of The Freelancer's Year and she explains why she created courses after readers asked about her pitching strategy, and describes the tighter commissioning landscape as budgets stagnate and editors become more time-poor.

She outlines common pitching mistakes, including pitching broad topics instead of specific stories, writing lyrical but unclear subject lines, and not knowing a publication's voice, tone, readership, or sections.

Lindy shares what gets commissioned now: concise, clearly angled pitches tailored to a particular vertical, with relevant sources where needed, and how strong pitches can build relationships with editors, even without prior contact. She also covers following up, learning from rejections, and balancing travel writing with running her Travel Writer Accelerator course.

Connect with Lindy via:

This week, Rachel and Lynne discuss podcasting as part of a freelance content strategy with guest Caroline Winter, a former radio journalist and co-founder of POD Talk.

Caroline shares lessons from creating her eight-part narrative series Sick as a Dog about the veterinary industry's mental health crisis and explains how her agency finds clients and produces podcasts for organisations.

She outlines what new podcasters need, including clarity of focus, defined audience, strong preparation, hosting skills, consistency, and good audio quality — plus practical ways to test an idea's longevity. Caroline also covers agency realities such as pricing, client psychology, measures of success beyond monetisation, emerging podcast trends, and tools and habits that help her work efficiently.

Connect with Caroline here: https://www.podtalk.com.au/

Listen to her work here:

Sick As A Dog https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/sick-as-a-dog/id1675843578

This week, Rachel and Lynne are without a guest, as they share six small, actionable things they wish they'd done sooner in their respective freelance businesses, to become more visible, win better work, and run their businesses better.

They discuss:

• How investing in professional headshots boosted Rachel's confidence and credibility
• How Lynne benefited from switching from a free Gmail address to a custom domain email
• Why Rachel put practical systems in place using tools like templates, trackers, Moxie, and Trello
• How Lynne found value in attending paid conferences and networking events to build relationships and create indirect opportunities
• Why packaging her services (including creating a services guide) helped Rachel clarify offerings and pricing
• And how regularly increasing rates – even in small increments – can keep up with rising costs while reinforcing value

The professional photographer we mention is Simona Janek: https://simonajanek.com.au/

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

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

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co