Today’s guest is Jimmy Daly. Jimmy is the marketing director at Animalz, an NYC based content marketing agency for SaaS businesses.
In this podcast you will learn:
How to look past hourly rates and secure ongoing projects
How to use freelancing to land your next big career move
How Jimmy could have avoided failure in launching a freelance career and his tips for freelance success
Jimmy Daly on freelancing:
How Jimmy almost closed down Swipe File but an email from Noah Kagan saved it and how 5000 people signed up to his list in one day
Learn Jimmy’s process for article research and curation
How Jimmy’s content marketing strategy was inspired by the success of writing about his strategy
Jimmy’s results on trying his hand at passive income with online courses and why should apply an economic value to your writing
How Jimmy navigated being let go and how he tried freelancing
Why trying to make the same salary as a full-time employee becomes a challenge as a freelancer
Activating his network landed a few writing placements at Sumo and Animalz
Why figuring out your pricing and rates is vital to freelance success and why you should look past hourly and think about projects
How Jimmy used freelancing on the side to help him land bigger and better clients, then onto a great full time job
Look automating or outsourcing so you can focus on the work that pays
Tips from two editors that will significantly increase your chances of getting work
Why Pat Flynn is the ultimate freelancer
Jimmy Daly on writing:
How learning to write quickly has powered Jimmy’s writing process
An insight into Jimmy’s process for writing content for the Animalz blog and how departments like finance and HR inspire him
Learn Jimmy’s secret for developing his content speciality and why the body of the blog is more important than the blog itself
Music being an essential part of productive writing sessions
Why writing is the cure for feeling “better”
How Jimmy uses a journal to brain dump to power his writing and workday
Why writers block is different for novelists and b2b content writing
How sketching is the key to Jimmy’s first draft
Why you should study writers that aren’t in content marketing to improve your writing
“Make sure there is something you can sell without having to put in time for every dollar earned.”
Tools and resources:
Jimmy’s essays on content fundamentals: Big Wins for Content Marketing, Blogs Are Libraries, Not Publications, and Hub and Spoke Content Strategy
Core Content Marketing Concepts on the Animalz blog
Writing tools and writing management tools: Quip, Airtable, Draft, and Sketch
Jimmy’s Spotify playlists: Deep Focus, Productive Morning, Acoustic concentration
Gregory Ciotti’s blog, How music affects your productivity, on Fast Company
A writer Jimmy follows to improve his craft: Washington Post’s Gene Weingarten
Jimmy’s email course: 5 Days to Better Content Marketing
Listen to Jimmy’s podcast with Animalz on content marketing strategy
About our guest, Jimmy Daly
Jimmy Daly is the marketing director at Animalz, an NYC based content marketing agency for SaaS businesses. Jimmy’s scaled a great marketing career working at brands like Vero and Quickbooks while dipping in and out of freelance work. Jimmy is one of the most insightful writers in the B2B content marketing space and you can find some amazing insights of his and the great minds at Animalz on their blog. For some of the most influential reading and an insight into what inspires Jimmy—and many other content marketers—check out his weekly email Swipe File.
Find Jimmy on:
Twitter @Jimmy_Daly
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