Emma Siemasko is the founder of Stories by Emma, a marketing company that helps tech businesses create content that gets results.
In this podcast you will learn:
Why you should have set days working on prospecting
Why you shouldn’t be afraid to subcontract when you don’t have skills or time
A better way to think of side projects and how they can increase brand awareness and let clients know about your services
Emma Siemasko on freelancing and running a business:
Why you shouldn’t think of a marketing activity as side projects. Emma believes they may not necessarily land you high paying clients but they give back to the community and help build your personal brand. With every new side project, Emma aims to try a new experiment and satisfy your curiosity
Emma doesn’t consider herself a freelancer, she calls herself a business consultant. A freelancer does everything on her own. A business owner you have to get comfortable that you can’t do everything
How she found her skills in content marketing, writing, and building an audience could be package up into a service—gifts she wants to share with many people
Emma’s entrepreneurial bend pulled her into working as a consultant and why she feels inspired to work for herself and manage her own time, workload, and clients
Why she’s not looking at growing into an agency
Emma in-house guest posting strategy helped her build a network to launch a freelance career
Why Emma subcontracts her work and why she’s transparent that she works with a team
Don’t subcontract your work until all the hours in your day are used up. Emma uses Monday and Fridays reserved for marketing work
A word of warning: Don’t get too caught up on admin work, that’s one hire you can make to increase your freelance revenue
Most of Emma’s best work comes from referrals, but don’t rely on it to run a sustainable business. Emma tops out at working with 5-7 clients at one time
Learn how Emma onboards new clients with a minimal workflow to take her from reactive to proactive
Emma Siemasko on writing:
Why and how Emma has created her own writing sanctuary to produce her best work
Why Emma needs absolute silence for writing
How Emma made case studies her writing specialty
Emma is a writer by nature, but she nurtured herself into a business writer
Writer’s block is real, but it comes across in the feeling of a funk or a chore. “you just don’t want to write right now”. And it could be due to burnout or being overworked. That’s when you need to take some time out
Resources and tools:
Emma and Kaleigh Moore’s content series, ASK CONTENT GALS
Emma’s protect mangement tool, basecamp.com
Google Docs
Emma’s favorite productivity tools: Hemingway, Hubspot templates, gorgias (email template writer)
To become a better writer: The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker
About our guest, Emma Siemasko:
Emma Siemasko is the Founder of Stories by Emma, a marketing company that helps tech companies create content that gets results. Emma specializes in longform content, case studies, and content marketing strategy. She's worked at a content marketing agency, in-house at a SaaS company, and now helps growing tech companies every day. She also co-leads an event series called ASK CONTENT GALS, where she fields questions from struggling content marketers.
Find Emma on:
Twitter: @EmmaFayeS
About our host, Adam Rogers:
Adam Rogers is the host and producer of the Boston Content Podcast. By day, he is a content marketer at Shopify, the ecommerce platform. By night, he is still Adam Rogers but it's nighttime. He loves writing, but he's sure it hates him. He's a lover of books, music, guitars, and his wife Lacey.
Find Adam on:
Twitter: @AdamRogersUK