BEST OF 2025: Using ChatGPT as your marketing brain, with Steven Lewis
Release Date: 01/26/2026
How to make time to work on your freelance business
The Content Byte
This week Rachel and Lynne are responding to a question from listener Stephanie about how to make time to work on your freelance business. It's a bit of a choose-your-own adventure because we have such different work styles and systems. Rachel uses a mix of a bespoke paper diary (Creator’s Friend), Outlook, Google Keep, batching, and Friday “work on the business” time, plus automations in Moxie (forms, pipelines, calendar booking windows, templated replies, and auto-created Google Drive folders). Lynne has a paper-free setup using Trello, an electronic calendar, “salami tactics”...
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Creating customer-centred content with Mat Patterson
The Content Byte
This week, Rachel and Lynne are chatting with freelance writer Mat Patterson (morehumancontent.com), who argues small and medium businesses and freelancers should lean into being personal, flexible and customer-close rather than copying big-company systems and jargon. Mat shares his path from web design to customer support to writing, explaining how support work builds communication skills through fast feedback. His work includes newsletters, podcasts and articles for customer-centric SaaS and customer experience companies, focused on clearer, more engaging messaging. We also chat about: ...
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The systems freelancers need to succeed - with Leticia Mooney
The Content Byte
This week, Rachel and Lynne are chatting with freelance business coach Leticia Mooney about building an “engine room” of systems across customer experience, sales and finance so clients feel safe, payments are smoother, and work is easier to deliver. Leticia says freelancers often skip systems because they assume their work is unique, but writing includes research, analysis, delivery and communication, all of which benefit from good processes. It's a great discussion about how to make your business run better and free yourself up for creative work. So many tips, including the PDCA...
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How to create your own career luck with Mel Barfield
The Content Byte
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...
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How to make money through TikTok and Instagram with Keenya Kelly
The Content Byte
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...
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Theresa Miller on speaking up and the opportunities it brings
The Content Byte
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...
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How to nail client meetings
The Content Byte
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...
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Writing in the mind/body/spirit field, with Maggie Hamilton
The Content Byte
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....
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How to pitch to editors - with Lindy Alexander
The Content Byte
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...
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Establishing a freelance podcasting career, with Caroline Winter
The Content Byte
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...
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