#021 "Kaleigh Moore - Apprenticeships for Freelancing"

The Brandon Zhang Show

On today’s episode I talk with Kaleigh Moore a freelance writer with present clients including AT&T, Shopify and Stripe. Kaleigh also writes about retail for publications like Forbes, Vogue Business and Adweek. In todays conversation, we talk about the apprenticeship model in freelancing, how she has streamlined her writing process and the future of sustainable fashion.

Links:
1. Kaleigh's Website
2. Kaleigh's Twitter
3. Brandon's Twitter
4. Brandon's Website

Mentioned:
Creative Class
5 Key Takeaways

1. The apprenticeship model for freelancers is kind of like training wheels. So if you're not ready to fully dive into prospecting, and trying to get new business, but you know that there is an established writer out there who's doing what you want to do, and they are maybe really busy and need help. Just putting out the ask and saying, hey, if you ever have overflow projects, or you need help with things, I would love to use this model with you and to learn from you.
2. So I roadmap that [client onboarding] out from the very first conversation when I work with somebody new. And then also, if I'm training somebody as well, I always make sure that they see the full process and how things are progressing step by step as well.
3. Yeah, a lot of different things. I worked in a lot of different industries on a lot of different types of writing projects. I quickly learned was that I had to learn from scratch every time I said yes to an opportunity where I didn't know anything about the subject matter. And that was exhausting. So the quicker I could specialize and really lean into what I already had a foundation of knowledge around, which was the e-commerce world, the easier the tasks would get.
4. But I heard somebody on a podcast a while ago, talking about how if it [a book] is not a good fit, and they don't enjoy it, they just give up on it and devote their reading time to something else. And I've just finally accepted that that's okay to do. And I think that that's also helped me maintain a better reading habit because I'm not trudging through a book that I hate. I'm like, okay, it's fine. I'm going to pass. I got what I wanted out of it. I saw what it was I'm gonna move on.
5. I think probably the biggest theme that's emerged over the years is that especially writers are often very uncertain about their abilities, and lacking a lot of confidence when it comes to pitching themselves or feeling good about what their first draft looked like, or hitting publish on their own blogs if they have something interesting or unique take on something they have this habit of second-guessing.