Freelancing can be a lonely journey. But it doesn’t have to be.
Many freelancers struggle to find consistent work, navigate client relationships and stay up-to-date with industry trends. They often feel isolated, unsure where to turn for support or guidance.
Not Rachel Smith, my guest in this week’s episode. Rachel is the founder of Rachel’s List, a thriving jobs board and community for Australian freelance writers that has been going strong for over a decade.
But here’s the kicker: Rachel’s List started almost by accident.
Early in her freelance career, Rachel found herself frequently recommending other freelancers when she couldn’t take on projects. This informal network of referrals gradually evolved into a highly successful business that has transformed the freelance landscape for countless writers.
These days, Rachel’s List isn’t just a job board. It’s a vibrant community where freelancers share information, find overflow work and access practical skill-building masterclasses. The success has even spawned a popular podcast (The Content Byte) and an annual conference — The Content Byte Summit.
I was thrilled to bring Rachel on the show to share her insights on how freelance opportunities have grown and changed over the years. We go deep into this idea of building a small community of your own. And we discuss the skills freelancers need to thrive in today’s market.
Whether you’re a seasoned freelancer looking to expand your network or a newcomer trying to find your footing, you’ll find a number of valuable insights on building a supportive freelance community and turning connections into business opportunities.
The notes that follow are a very basic, unedited summary of the show. There’s a lot more detail in the audio version. You can listen to the show using the audio player below. Or you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Key Topics and Bullets:
- The significance of a strong community for the longevity of a product or program
- The value of a private community and its unexpected benefits
- The impact of developing and growing a network of peers in freelancing
- Avoiding isolation and benefiting from professional support
- Engaging deeply in selected communities rather than spreading too thin across multiple networks
- Building trust and professional relationships through consistent connection and support
- Advantages of online groups for sharing industry insights and leads
- Seamless flow of information and potential for collaborations
- Benefits of networking and community in the freelance industry
- Getting work through connections and trusted sources
- Prioritizing building and engaging a professional network for securing opportunities and support
- Value of community for members and monetization strategy
- Resilience and not allowing external factors to derail progress
- Overview of the Content Bytes Summit in Sydney and its focus on sustainable business
- Gaining confidence and support through online communities
Timestamp Overview:
04:10 Ed– I’m glad we’re doing this, and we finally made it happen. I want to make sure that, for people who don’t know who you are, maybe give us a little bit of the origin story. And, and then we’re kinda gonna get to talk a little bit about networking and, you know, how to kinda create a group of trusted peers. But, you know, tell us a little bit about you, your freelance business, how you got started, what you did before, you know, and how you ended up here.
Rachel– Well, I, you know, I find with freelancing, there’s often 2 stories, like people who are pushed into it through redundancies or, you know, something happening and people who really take the leap consciously and make that choice. I was the pushed one. I mean, I’m in that camp. Yeah. So I sort of got out of uni. I moved to London and worked there as a sub editor on magazines. And then, got back to Sydney and worked for various magazines and also worked as a movie rear reviewer for a long time. And then, the dotcom bust happened. It’s around 2000- 2001, and the market was just awash with journalists. And, and that was, yeah, that was really hard. So I was sort of, you know, I had at that time, I was working for a company called Scape that was sort of a website, that was, you know, a little bit ahead of its time. It was a joint venture between sort of a TV company and a big digital movie company, and they just sacked everybody. And so I was yeah. I ended up working for the TV, for channel 10 for a while, and I was, like, doing the email marketing. This is years ago, like, so different to the email marketing we do now.Like, back then, I was taking the scripts from, you know, the anchors and the TV, journalists and turning them into stories and putting them on a newsletter for their, you know, subscriber list. And then that whole entire content department got the sack as well. And, so I was really like, right. Okay. I’m in this flooded market.There’s no jobs. What do I do? And I was like, right. I’m gonna freelance. I’m never going back. This is it. I’m starting. And, yeah, it was a hard couple of years. And I slowly started to pick up work and jobs, and that’s when I started doing the movie reviewing. I got one gig, and then I got a second one. So I was really isolated. I’ve sort of been pushed in this direction. I didn’t know any other freelancers. There wasn’t it wasn’t like it is now where, you know, there are all these communities and stuff like that. I really felt alone and very disconnected. So I met these other 2 freelancers who through a job share arrangement, and we didn’t know each other. We were just, like, communicating through notes on our work because I would come in one day, and then I’d have to pass on a story.They’d finish it. And we just realized these notes got funnier and funnier and we were like, let’s go to lunch and meet each other. So we did. And that sort of started this list of freelancers, who wanted to meet, and kind of get out of the Garrett, so to speak, and have lunch every month. And that list completely snowballed. It would have been over the space of about 2 years. It went from 3 people to maybe 200, and then it got to 800 people. And around that time, because I was very much in the magazine world then, editors started to send me jobs and say, can you put this on your list? Can you put a job on for a feature writer? Or we need a sub editor for next week. Or we need, you know, an editor or we’ve got a perm job coming up. So I just started, you know, sending these jobs to my list of 100s of people. And the only stipulation I had even back then was, to be on this list, you had to have a track record behind you. So you had to have experience and that sort of thing. So this list became this curated list that was very well known for being very high quality freelancers, who could hit the ground running. And editors loved it, and they used it a lot to the point where it became so big that I had to make a decision, like, what do I do? Because I was splitting it in 2 to send the newsletters out. Otherwise, they’d hit spam folders and that sort of thing. And I was like, right, I really need to create a website and try and monetize this because it’s bigger than Ben Hur.
09:26 Ed– And so today, you have I wanna make sure I understand. 4,000, those are companies looking for freelancers, or those are freelancers on the list?
Rachel– Yeah. So we’ve got about 3,000 registered job seekers who are Okay. A mixture of like, they’re in the membership, but they’re also just registered and approved. Because you come on and you register, these are all Australian Australian job seekers. And we’ll look at check them out, make sure they’ve got a track record in a creative field, usually journalism, content, or copywriting, and then we approve them. And then they will get newsletters with the job headlines and all the information, and it’s up to them to say, well, I actually want a membership. And we’ve got a couple of tiers that are really reasonable, and they can either do monthly or annual. Then we have a list of job job posters that register to post jobs, and they are publishers, academics, agencies, blue chips, small business owners, a whole range of different kinds of job posters that need writing, content.
12:36 Ed– I love the fact that you saw this, that you saw a business opportunity here, that you were what I like to call a market maker. You know, you’re matching buyers and sellers, and you had built this brand and this level of trust with your audience. And you had a process that companies and people who needed writers really, they trusted you. They trusted your process, the quality of your list. And, I mean, what a great opportunity for everybody. So kudos to you for seeing it and for getting creative with it. That’s really cool.
Rachel– Oh, look. It’s been a journey. I didn’t like… I said, lots of trial and error. I had to, you know, hire the right developers. I stumbled there a few times. I had to learn about project managing custom site builds and, you know, planning all that out, marketing, SEO. And it’s really interesting, you know, I was listening to one of your episodes with, I think we’ve talked about this before, Shane Sams.
13:42 Rachel– He talks about, you know, you create this product that fulfills, you know, it’s like a pain killer. Fulfills a pain point for somebody, and then you add the community. And so they come for the product, and they consume that, and then they stay for the community. And I remember listening to that and thinking, wow, I did that with Rachel’s list without really realizing it. Because you asked earlier, when did it snowball again? It really snowballed when I realized, hang on, what’s missing from this is the community aspect and I started the Facebook group. I’m pretty sure I started that in about 2016 or maybe 2017, and then it just went because, you know, people love people love a jobs board, you know, lots of well paid jobs coming through that they can see that there’s work in the market. But I really now hear over and over that my members pay their membership fees for that community. And it’s really unbiased, but it’s a lovely place to hang out.
18:18 Ed– Well, let’s talk a little bit about the, really the underlying core message here, which is really this idea of developing and growing a network of peers, the value that that brings to your business and to others and how it enriches your life as well. So tell us a little bit about maybe some of the lessons you have learned, just from seeing not just yourself, but others get involved in a community of like minded peers and, and how it’s changed people and made thir businesses better, their lives richer.
Rachel– Absolutely. Well, I I think it’s crucial. I think in freelancing, you know, you can feel like you’re operating in this vacuum all the time. You know, it’s a really lonely life and it’s not good living in your head too much and not having people to bounce things off like you would perhaps in a perm job if you’re a bum on a seat somewhere. And I think, you know, it’s a really unique position, isn’t it, to be working for yourself? And our families can be sympathetic to bad days, but there’s something really powerful in being able to pick up the phone to another writer and say, hey, this crappy thing just happened to me. How would you handle it? You know? And I have slowly, over the years, brought together a tribe of people who I can do that with and feel like I can trust them to do that with, and they do the same with me. Not a lot, but just a handful. But it’s just those people you can call on, you can commiserate with them, share your wins, and share those bad times.
22:36 Rachel– I think you were mentioning as well, like, creating your own online groups is a really big thing because there could be just maybe 3 people that share leads or that have discussions about what they see going on in the industry. You know? Like, what’s the word on the street? You get a bit of intel about a magazine that’s, you know, frozen its freelance budget. And no one else knows about that, but your friend does because she’s one of their key freelancers. Or, you know, you wanna pitch to someone, someone shares a contact with you. So it’s all of those little things that kind of become more seamless, I think, when you’re in an online group. I mean, if you like, one is a WhatsApp group with some other writers. I’m also in a new business owners group with different businesses, not not specifically writing businesses, but they’re all sort of small businesses.
25:37 Ed– Sometimes we want the perfect group. We wanna create, oh, that’d be amazing if I had this trusted group of peers. And it was only a few of us, but I want it to be just right. And you’re focused on perfection Yeah. And not taking action. So you never take action.
Rachel– Well, you know, I’m in the midst of trying to create something at the moment. And for me, it’s been about it. I don’t think it’s something to rush. If you want it to be a professional group that is going to complement everybody in the group and they all come from slightly different angles or, you know, have something different to share, that’s really what you want because all those people, will have different viewpoints on, you know, a problem that you might be having. So for me, like, I have just been there are 2 freelancers that I know and work with separately, but they know each other. So it feels like a natural progression for me to bring the 3 of us together. But then I also am thinking, who else might be a really good addition to that group? And then just reaching out and saying, are you interested in this? Is it something that we can, you know, like, perhaps formalize in a monthly thing or maybe a WhatsApp group or a private Facebook group where we’re just the only ones in there? I’ve seen those work really well too.
29:06 Ed– I’ve seen groups or I’ve I’ve heard of I haven’t seen them. I’ve heard of groups that started out this way and then ended up being 4 or 5 people, and they kept it small. But then they met a couple of times somewhere. Like, they planned a trip to have, like, a weekend meetup, and I thought that was really, really cool. Like I said, I have in my group coaching programs, we have just a community, and we do it in Slack. And we also in one of my groups, we meet twice a year in person. And that just changes everything. Because once you meet somebody, you’re there collaborating with them in small breakouts and 1 on 1 discussions and then going out for dinner, talking in the hallways during the breaks.
29:52 Ed– It just changes the relationships that elevates it dramatically. And then they are getting together, and they’re having discussions, you know, amongst each other. And then even when the program is over, I’ve had some people who, there’s one group of 3 ladies who I wanna say they’re going on 6 or 7 years after my coaching program, still meeting every Friday. Every Friday, they meet. And they collaborate, of course, throughout, you know, the month, but they, it’s pretty amazing. So, yeah, it happens organically, but I would say don’t wait. Right? Don’t wait for somebody to take the lead. If you’re inspired by this, you know, you take the lead. If you’re inspired by this, you know, you take the lead.
Rachel– I agree. The other thing I was gonna mention, which is an amazing app that has sort of inspired me to do this with this group that I’m currently looking at putting together is Voxer. Have you used it?
35:39 Ed– So, Rachel, what are some of the key skills do you think are really essential for freelancers to develop, especially right now in the market that we’re facing?
Rachel– I think there are definitely a few, and the first one is to start a newsletter. So one thing that I think and that I see working really well for people, especially now when algorithms are going bananas and AI is freaking everybody out, is email marketing. And whether that’s to a few clients on your, you know, your normal email once a month or whether it’s a weekly substack, I think you need to start something, show up, and share value. Because we hear all the time, don’t we? Build a list of subscribers. It’s the last thing you have full ownership over. And I think, and I’ve seen from my own email marketing, that if you’re consistent with it, you can definitely get engagement, especially if you get really nerdy with all the metrics like I like to do.
39:10 Rachel– I think it’s about watching, tweaking, and being consistent. The 3rd skill I think freelancers need is to learn SEO, even just enough to help you optimize your site. Because ranking for just a few keywords, like, it takes a while for that wheel to start turning, but once it does, it can mean fabulous lead generation. I probably share about 30% of the leads I get with the Rachel’s List Facebook group as overflow work. So that’s another reason to be in a community. You get and other people share theirs as well. So you’re constantly, you know, getting stuff from a jobs board and stuff from, you know, other members in the community. So but SEO for your own business is essential.
41:17 Rachel– I still lose clients like anybody. I still lose regular gigs. But I try and think of that door slamming as a window opening somewhere else, and it might be opening to something new and really cool that I hadn’t expected. And I feel like, as a freelancer, you have to believe that you can turn things around and maybe be a bit dogged about it. So not focusing on all the bad stuff that’s happening and not perhaps not being around people that just wanna focus on that doom and gloom, but looking for people that are more optimistic and more dogged about, you know, moving forward. And, because I think once you start believing that you can’t move forward and that you’re in trouble, that just compounds. You know? And you might be better off. I’ve seen a lot of freelancers come into freelancing and decide they actually wanted to be in a perm job because they just wanted to feel more secure and not have to think all the time about, you know, where do I go now? What do I try next? And all of that sort of stuff.
44:50 Ed– I love it. I love it. Well, speaking of conferences, you know, you and Lyn have put together a pretty amazing conference that I was just thrilled to be a part of last year, the Content Bytes Summit in Sydney, and you’re doing it again this September. And I wanna make sure that people know about this because, first of all, even if you don’t live anywhere close to Australia, there are some options for you to check this out. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about the summit and how people can learn more about it?
Rachel– Look, we were so glad to have you and Jennifer there. It was amazing to have you guys fly in, for the very first one and to kick it off for us. 2 rave reviews, of course. People just loved you guys. But yeah. So we’re in the 2nd year now, and it’s really the summit is an extension of our podcast, The Content Bite, which I do with Lynn Testoni. And last year, we had very much an AI focus. This year is more about building a sustainable business, you know, getting paid well, setting up processes and systems so you’re not burning out. And we have an amazing lineup again this year with your friend, Austin L. Church, is opening the 1st day for us.
46:18 Ed– He is always just so thoughtful and shares mind blowing information. He’s opening the conference?
Rachel– He’s opening on the 1st day. Then we have a really brilliant copywriter, Bernadette Schwert, who’s opening day 2, and she will be talking about how to find high paying clients in your niche. But there are just so many, exciting sessions and panels this year. I mean, you can learn about creating digital products from Lyndy Alexander, email marketing from Kirsty Fanton. Susan Reock is returning, and she’s gonna be doing, like, not tear downs, but kind of glow ups on freelancer websites. Like, how could this convert better? How could, you know, what could you do to your website to make it work better and harder for you, which we’re so excited about. And we’ve got top editors talking about pitching and content chiefs talking about getting corporate work. And we’ve also got Brooke McCarthy coming, and she’s gonna be talking about how to craft a freelance marketing plan that you can stick to.
51:11 Ed– Well, Rachel, this has been fun, and such an important topic. I think we need to do more of this. My observation, by the way, I should mention this, has been that over the past 5 years, but especially over the past 2 years, I’ve noticed a significant trend toward more and more writers in my communities getting a big portion of their work through their network. So for that reason alone, if you want a business justification, do it for that. I think you may start thinking that that’s gonna be the biggest thing, but you’ll quickly see that the benefits go far beyond that. You know, you suddenly won’t feel as lonely. You’re gonna feel way more connected to like minded people, and that just enriches your life. So I wanna encourage everyone to not just say, oh, that’s really nice. I should do that. No. Like, make it a point to take the first step over the next few days.
Rachel– I agree with you. And I think, like you say, it really does open up those work doors for you, you know, because we all go through those awful times where, you know, an agency drops us or a regular gig, you know, that we’re really comfortable in suddenly disappears overnight. But when you’re in a community, you have that layer of support and you can say you’ve got these people that know you and that you trust, and you can say, you know, this just happened to me. Has anyone, you know, got anything? Has anyone got any overflow work? Or, you know, can I collaborate with anyone on this? And it will be amazing how many people will step up and help you when you’re in that stage. I’ve seen it time and time again. So without that, you know, you’re kind of back to the drawing board doing it yourself, you know, ramping up your marketing and, like, you know, sending sending, you know, LOIs and all of that sort of thing. But if you can go to your community and ask your tribe just if they can help you, if they’ve got anything, anything at all.
53:02 Ed– I think more and more, clients or prospects would prefer to reach out to their network and see if they know someone than to put something out there publicly. Yep. It’s just they don’t, they just don’t have the time.
By the way… whenever you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you grow your freelance business:
1. Grab a free copy of my book.
It’s called Earn More in Less Time: The Proven Mindset, Strategies, and Actions to Prosper as a Freelance Writer. The title says it all. 😉 — Click Here
2. Get my Business-Building Toolkit.
Too many freelancers lack a critical set of business skills that would enable them to earn more in less time doing work they love for better clients. I’ve taught these skills to my coaching clients for years. And now I’ve packaged it in a way that will enable you to start getting results FAST. — Learn More
3. Join my implementation program and be a case study.
I’m putting together a new implementation group this month. If you’re earning $5k+/month (or the part-time equivalent) from your freelance business … and you’d like to grow your income quickly with better clients … just hit reply and put “Case Study” in the subject line.
4. Work with me privately.
If you’re a 6-figure writer who’s trying to earn more in less time, with less stress, I might be able to help you get there faster than you think. Just email me at ed@b2blauncher.com and put “Breakthrough” in the subject line, and I’ll get back to you with more details.
