#370: How to Stay Top-of-Mind without Being Annoying — Melissa Mitri’s Low-Stress Approach to Nur...

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey there.

Welcome to another episode of the High Income Business Writing Podcast, the number one podcast for freelance writers, copywriters, and solo marketers who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. With over 1.3 million downloads from listeners just like you across 101 countries. Now, you know that it's supposed to help you grow your freelance business, but the idea of reaching out to prospects and clients just to stay in touch or to follow up, that really starts to feel awkward fast. You don't want to annoy people, yet it often feels like all you're doing is circling back to ask the same old tired question. Are you ready to hire me yet? Are you ready to get started? Are you ready to work on that project which just starts to feel a little desperate and just kind of pointless after a while? But what if there were a better way to build real connections? A way that didn't feel like a game of endless follow ups? And just for small talk, on this week's episode, I'm joined by Melissa Mitry, a successful freelance health writer and content strategist who's built a thriving business without relying on traditional networking tactics. Melissa shares her refreshingly authentic approach to connecting with editors and brands, and her approach focuses on empathy and generosity and strategic follow ups instead of the same old boring approaches to follow up. And I think you're going to walk away with some really simple, practical ideas here, things that you can start implementing right away. So we talked about a few things, including redefining networking on your own terms, even if you're shy. How Melissa stays top of mind with clients without being pushy, low stress ways to add value and to build trust before landing a gig, simple follow up tactics that don't feel annoying or salesy, and much more. If you've ever wondered how to build and strengthen real relationships with clients in a way that feels good and authentic, you're going to love Melissa's insights. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Hey Melissa, welcome to the show. Great to have you.

Thanks so much, Ed. I'm glad to be here. I've been following your podcast for some time and I'm really grateful to be here to have this conversation.

I'm glad we are. And this is going to be a really fun conversation. I think very fruitful for a lot of people. We're going to get into some unique ways to build relationships That I think is going to resonate with a lot of listeners. But before we do that, I always like to ask guests to let us know a little bit more about what they do, what kind of clients they work with, what kind of projects they work on. Just so people have a little bit of context, they know where you're coming from.

Yeah, sure. So I am a freelance writer and also a registered dietitian, nutritionist by trade. So I've been a dietitian for a little over 18 years and also work as a freelance writer for mainly health and wellness outlets and brands. And so I work with a variety of clients in terms of writing a few major media outlets like Everyday Health or Eat this, not that, so kind of those larger publications. But I also work with several health and wellness brands, supplement brands mostly. And also I work and write for a few health and wellness applications. So like health and fitness applications that many consumers may use. And I help to create the content for those applications, whether it be their blogs, articles, or also helping to build some of the pieces of the application in terms of kind of the flow of the user and some of the motivational messages for them as well. So kind of using my nutritional expertise and background and utilizing that for a lot of these wellness brands.

That's really cool. So you got quite a bit of variety then in your work. It sounds like.

Yeah, definitely a good mix. And, and, and I mostly do am I freelance writing, but I also review a lot of articles. So I do serve as an article reviewer as well. And I think that's, you know, there's so many different things that you can do as a writer in addition to just writing. And I know you talk about this a lot in some of your episodes as well, but, you know, some of the work that I do, depending on the client, they may already have established writers. And so in those cases they may be looking to myself as a nutrition expert to more serve as a reviewer, where I'm looking at the articles that are already written and making sure they're factual, confirming that the references are all from reputable sources, for example. And then a lot of times, you know, with these companies, these brands that I work with, I may serve also as a consultant, where I'm attending conferences on behalf of them or kind of providing additional expertise as needed to.

That's super cool. I'm curious, health and wellness, where are you seeing the growth in that space as a writer and consultant?

Yeah, that's a great question. So in terms of like specific areas in nutrition or.

Yeah, just like what do you, what are you seeing? Because obviously the journalism work, you know, as a whole. Right. Has been on the decline because publications are suffering. And you know, I know that some are doing well and many of them have moved online, done away with print entirely. But where are you, what pockets are you seeing that are growing? Like, I'm particularly intrigued by, you know, those applications that you mentioned. And you know, I never thought about, gosh, there's opportunities there for writers to. Not just in terms of, you know, the writing that's involved there, but also the Messages, the instructions, etc. So where are you seeing some of the growth in that market for someone like yourself?

Yeah, yeah. So definitely some changes have been happening, as you said. One of them being that the shifts sort of in the economy and the market with a lot of editors being laid off or sort of restructuring for those big major outlets. And so for that piece, it's kind of resulted in more of the editors kind of having. Doing some of the writing themselves or having less writers overall. But then in turn that's also opened up more opportunities for writers to do more of the article reviews like I'm doing. So there's a few of the outlets that I previously wrote for or just solely wrote for that now I'm providing more of those medical reviews, but in a higher volume. And so their rate for that is still pretty good. And it's very flexible work, work that I say that I doesn't require quite as much concentration that I could almost do when my kids are right there next to me, which is super helpful at times. But then the other piece to it is of course AI and which is, you know, affecting a lot of areas of the writing world, of course, but not necessarily always in a negative way. But there's been a lot of kind of drive in terms of if there were any outlets that I was writing for that were. And not really those large media outlets, but more the brands that are moving a little bit, that were using more AI driven writing, then again they're looking for more. So any credentialed experts out there, whether nutritionist or any other credentialed experts, expert, more for that advice piece. So kind of expanding not just to the writing piece, but again reviewing articles, fact checking articles, especially if they were written by AI and then also serving as more of a consultant and writer for some of those other areas. Right. Like not just the articles or blogs, but kind of expanding to other areas where it really requires more of that expert expertise and it can't really be written by AI because you need that personalization. Like in the health and wellness applications, for example.

Yeah. The more nuanced and specialized the knowledge, the more you're going to need someone in there to make sure that, that that information is applied correctly.

Exactly. And someone that has that expertise and that real world experience is really important to really speak to the user or to the reader, because that's incredibly important. That's how it's going to make that content stand out.

Of course. Okay, well tell me a little bit about this idea of building a business, a solo business, without necessarily having to cold pitch all the time or having to do traditional networking. Because I know that you do quite a bit of networking, but it's different. Right. So why don't we establish that definition? What does networking mean to you?

Yeah, it's a great question. So I think a lot of times when we might think about networking traditionally, we may think of, you know, that being a little bit intimidating or scary, especially for a lot of us freelance writers that, you know, may be used to working from home kind of in a solo environment. And so networking can mean a lot of different things to me personally. It really means just connecting with others in whatever way feels most natural to you. And so I think that's really the key key is thinking about yourself. And you know, even in terms of when you're thinking about how when you're, you know, you have a preferred platform that you'd like to post on, on social media, for example, preferred way of communication, you really. Networking can mean it doesn't have to be going to a large conference or being around a lot of people, but it can mean just having a coffee chat with somebody on Zoom. It can mean just sending a message saying hello to a potential prospect on LinkedIn. So it's really just kind of connecting with people and first kind of taking that step back and taking the sales side out of it so that you don't feel that pressure. So I think for anyone, including myself, I like to just naturally build that connection. And I found that's really worked well for my writing business. Meaning instead of just that traditional cold pitching, which not to say that that doesn't work and there's not a place for that. But in a lot of cases, kind of taking that initial step back and thinking about from the other person's perspective, whether that's an editor or another prospect that you want to potentially work for, you know, really just first just introducing yourself and maybe paying them a compliment, maybe starting out, talking about them versus what you do. And that takes the pressure off yourself to not feel salesy and it just starts to slowly build that connection with them.

Yeah, okay, I like that. So basically being a human.

Exactly. It's like going back to the basics.

No, but, you know, I say that half jokingly, but it's. Somehow we forget when we put this, you know, business owner hat on, we forget how to be a regular human connecting with another human. Right. So we for some reason act really silly when we put that other hat on and we do things that we would never do in the real world. Like, why is that? Why do we feel like we need to act a certain way, do certain things that if we thought about them, of course they're not going to work.

Yeah, I think it's a lot of, you know, it stems from a lot of places. I think there's. We all have this internal pressure. I think we want the consistent writing work. Right. Or many of us, we want that. That same end goal of that consistency with the writing work and not to have any lulls. And so we're feel this pressure to kind of, you know, just jump out and really try to land the gig and be super serious about the conversation. And while, of course you want to always be professional in your conversations with others. But I think, you know, being human first and foremost and really just connecting and being yourself is really important and whatever that means to you. So I think the first step is really just thinking about the person on the receiving end and kind of putting yourself in their shoes. You know, you're more likely to. If you think about your own emails or your own messages that you're receiving on LinkedIn, for example, you're much more likely to respond to an email or a message from a familiar name. So if you establish that relationship with that person first and they at least saw that you messaged them once before and they saw your name, then they're more likely to take a look at that message the second time if you reach back out to them versus a complete stranger. A. Especially when they're being bombarded with messages from a lot of different people.

Absolutely. Tell me a little bit about how you think about this in terms of your connections, the connections you make. So you mentioned one of them is, let's say you're on LinkedIn. And it sounds like, you know, that you're constantly on the lookout for interesting posts that you can maybe comment on or like or share. But I'm trying to kind of get an idea of how you approach it. You know, if you were to deconstruct your mo. What does that look like? If you were to turn it into an actual written recipe, and I know maybe that's not how you do it, you do it in a very organic way. But for somebody who kind of wants more practical advice, what would you say? Say, what would you tell them they focus on and be on the lookout for?

Yeah, so I would say first, so if you, you know, as a number one starting point is think about those, you know, a handful of people that you like to connect with. So first, you know, establishing that connection and connecting with them on LinkedIn, if that's possible. If not, you know, you could be following them and starting with building a connection by commenting on their post, as you said. So really responding, though, in a sort of genuine way where you're sharing your thoughts that are, you know, in sharing your thoughts, you're sort of, you know, sharing your expertise without being, again, overly salesy, but you're showing them that you know your stuff and that you're, you know, if you do that several times, they'll start to see your name more often. And so it could be either commenting as a starting point, commenting on their posts, or just sending them a genuine message with your comments. If you want to be a little bit more direct and send them, you know, get into their inbox and send them a genuine message. So depending on the client and the type of writing work you do, you may just offer them like a genuine compliment. And after doing this a few times, you start to recognize their name. So, for example, if there's a topic that they're posting about that really resonates with you or that you're really familiar with, then you can, you know, add in an additional recommendation that can really add to that post again to show that that expertise. And then if it applies, this may not apply to everyone, but in certain niches it definitely can. So in certain fields, like the field of nutrition, for example, there's a lot of opportunities for you to provide quotes to editors or brands for their articles. There's a lot of companies that are looking, if you do have a certain area of expertise and they're looking to experts to provide quotes to kind of build up their articles and make them more well rounded, you can offer to be an expert source and that's another way where you can kind of continue their relationship and show your value.

Okay, those are great ideas. So that's kind of the initial touch point. How do you then stay top of mind? Right? Because I can see, like, if I started doing this much More deliberately, after about three months, I'm going to lose track of who I've been reaching out to, connecting, liking, commenting, or emailing. How do you track this or do you track it? How do you stay top of mind with folks?

Yeah, so I definitely do track it, and I think I would definitely recommend doing that if you're contacting more than a handful of people, prospects at any given time. So I started out using an Excel spreadsheet and keeping it super simple with the technology. But then over time, now I use more of a program like ClickUp. Um, ClickUp I really like. So I find it simple to use where you can set reminders to check back in with people and kind of have a flow to that. So I would definitely recommend at the very basic level, just starting a running list of prospects and, you know, include when you last reach out to them, what you said or the gist of what you said to them, if they responded, and then when you're following up again. And so you can kind of set a cadence of, you know, checking back once a week, for example, not necessarily do you have to check in with everyone every week, but setting a cadence of at least looking back at that list and kind of building it and, you know, so that you remain top of mind and you don't go too long without reaching back out to them. I think that one of the biggest things that's really important is staying in touch with prospects and with clients, current clients, even when you aren't getting work from them, especially when you aren't getting work. So, for example, I found personally in the past it's really easy to so have clients that for a while I was getting consistent work and then it stopped. But then I was busy with my other clients that I really didn't take the time to reach back out to them because I said, well, I don't really need the work right now, so I'm just going to kind of let it be and reach back out when I need them. Well, you know, if you go more than a few months without reaching back, then, you know, it's easy for them to forget about your services. And when you do need the work more, it, you know, might not be the right time for them. And so I think really saying, you know, legal, when you don't have those lulls, just, you know, checking in with them every few weeks or so, depending on how often you're typically getting work for them, just to say hello, maybe pitch a couple story ideas if you haven't heard from them, and just Let them know that you're there to support them because you don't always know what's going on on their end.

I'm a big believer that I've been teaching that for years and the people who take me up on it and understand the value of doing that, it pays off massively. We're very much aligned there. And I do like your idea of maintaining some sort of a list and just on a weekly basis, maybe looking through it and see, okay, whom have I not touched or touched base with in X number of weeks and then just kind of finding the three or four who may might be next and just reaching out to them. I've kept it kind of non scientific in that regard, but I do like your idea of doing it weekly because I don't know and you tell me if you agree. If you don't have a weekly habit or at least twice a month. And I used to do this on Friday afternoons, for example, then it becomes kind of a free for all. You don't know when to do it. Or you could set an alert, but that alert could go off in the middle of a really busy day. So to me, having a certain day at a certain time where I, you know, I know that I'm going to dedicate that hour, for instance, to just kind of touching base every other Friday, that is way more doable than I think, you know, trying to do it some other way or trying to just say, well, I'll remember. Have you found the same to be true?

Absolutely. I think that, you know, having that once a week, you know, plugged into your calendar, it keeps you consistent with at the very least checking and keeping that practice top of mind. Because if it is kind of wishy washy and you're like, oh, I'll do it when I have the time, then it's just going to just like anything else, it's probably going to keep falling off. And I also found, you know, just to add to that, like waiting till later in the day to do it is not always helpful either. So. Because if you're busy with your work, then it might just fall off and say, well, I don't have to do this today, I could just leave it to the next day, I think. So if you are going to schedule it, it also can be especially helpful to schedule it earlier in the day because it does need to happen. It is part of building a sustainable writing business to maintain those connections and check in with.

Yeah, agreed. Okay, so what else could you touch base on or what kind of message you Mentioned a few things. I remember you said, just saying hello. Okay. Another one could be a story idea, which by the way, if it's a brand instead of a publication, it could be some other idea for an article or white paper or anything like that. So it doesn't have to be a, you know, a traditional story idea for a publication. What else? What are some other things that you have in your toolbox so it doesn't always feel like the same thing over and over again?

Yeah, so I think that, you know, depending on the situation, if you've, you know, established that initial connection and you are either hearing back or, you know, whether they get back to you and maybe they don't have the writing work right now, or maybe they didn't get it back to you yet. You know, I think another avenue you can try if you're open to this is, you know, also offering other services or even a quick tip for them. So you mentioned that, you know, we mentioned the pitching the story ideas depending on, you know, who you're pitching to. But for a brand specifically, you know, that could be the case as well. But you can also, you know, mention something that you saw on their website and then you might think of a specific topic that they might need or a specific avenue that they haven't approached. You know, maybe updating content if you see that some of their content is outdated. Or you could offer other services in addition to writing if they say that they don't need or they have enough writers right now, you can offer to do reviews, you can fact check articles, you can update content, or you can provide your expertise for special projects. So if they know there's other ways they can utilize your services. Again, if you're open to this, I think that's always helpful to try to, you know, kind of vary your income sources as much as possible, especially if you're in alone with writing work, to kind of expand on some of the skill sets that you may have. Because even for content marketing, there's a lot of different types of writing that you can do, even if it's not just specifically articles like you mentioned. You can suggest white papers or if it's a company that has a product, you know, you can do a review of their product on their website or on your own website, or there's so many different things that you can pitch. I often like using chat GPT if I'm looking for ideas, a lot of times too, just to kind of flush out some thoughts that are already in my head. So kind of utilizing what you Already know about the brands and some ideas that are floating through your head and kind of prompt the AI tool to think of some other avenues for you I think could be really helpful if you're stuck.

Yeah, I love using AI for that. I call it repurposing and remixing. So it's like here, all these ideas, you know, what are different ways I could repurpose or remix these into something else? And usually it's overwhelming the number of things that it will come up with. So it sounds like you take the approach of, hey, have you ever considered or have you thought about doing X with X? Why? Or splintering off these things from A and B? Right. So just bringing ideas to the table. It seems like you do quite a bit of that.

Yeah. So I think it's just, you know, again, thinking about it from their perspective and just showing a little bit of value. So you don't want to give everything away. Of course you're not. I'm definitely not recommending to work for free or share all your expertise, you know, before landing the gig. But if you think about it again from their perspective or even from your perspective as a consumer, if you think about somebody that you know, a service that you have purchased in the past or are thinking about purchasing, this is a similar sort of scenario where this person on the receiving end is going to pay for your services. And so when they have multiple exposures to you and you're, you know, you communicating to them, they are more likely to hire you when they've already seen your expertise a few times versus, you know, just a one time scenario where you really don't, haven't established that trust yet with that person. So it's kind of thinking about it from your perspective as a consumer. They really sort of are a consumer, even though it's a little bit of a different scenario. But the situation is very similar in how it works.

I know you had mentioned to me that, you know, because you do work with several publications and we're in a market where editors are being, you know, laid off, budgets are being cut left and right. I'm curious, what role does empathy play in your approach? Right. Because many times you never know where that person's going to be, you know, what's going on in their world. So how do you navigate those waters?

Yeah, great question. So it's always important to approach your communication in a way that takes them into account. Right. So if you don't, you know, as you mentioned especially now over the past several months, there's been a lot of changes in the market. And oftentimes we really don't know what's happening until we hear about it after the fact. And so I know I've had personally a few of my editors, they got laid off and they, you know, they didn't let, they let us know like the day of. And sometimes they weren't even aware of it. And so you really don't know what's going on behind closed doors. And I think taking that into account and really just approaching your communication with everyone in a gentle manner so that you know, that does it. It's not to mean that we're not reaching out to them because of that, but I think just, you know, approaching it in a way. For example, if you're sending an email to a potential prospect, then you know, you can in the subject line, say checking in for example, versus pitch or maybe a more traditional sort of subject line that's a little bit more salesy. And if you are sending a pitch, that's fine too. But it may be in the beginning of that message, you know, let them know right away. I, you know, I understand that market is challenging right now and I'm just letting you know that I'm here to support. Just wanted to share a few story ideas or just a few suggestions, whatever it is, depending on the prospect that, you know, kind of just letting you know that I'm here when you're ready. And again, the way that you approach might be a little bit different depending on if it's a new prospect or the current client that you're reaching back out to. So if it's a completely new prospect, again starting out, letting them know that you understand how the market is, that you are an expert in X, Y and Z. And if they are looking for help, then these are the, you know, the things that you can help them with and just kind of come at it from a place of service versus asking for something. I think it's the really bottom line with the communication and then the same thing with if it is a current client that maybe you just, you know, they go, you feel like they ghosted, you haven't heard for them for a while, just reaching back out. And that could be where, you know, a checking in subject line message may be really helpful and just a really brief email just letting or message letting them know that, you know, just checking in. I haven't heard from you in a while. I know the market is tough and you know, just letting you know I'm, you know, here's a few ideas for you know, for in there, when you're ready or if there's anything else I can help you with. And that's where you can share your other, you know, areas of expertise if you are open to that. Letting them know that if you know the market is tough and they don't have the writing work for you, then there's other areas that you can help them if they need that.

I always found that I was the most effective at what you just described when I had plenty of work. So a lot of people ask me, well, what's the point of doing any of this when I'm slammed and, you know, I can't take on any more work? And I say, actually there's some very good reasons why that's when you should do it. Number one is that I bet you're not. I call it nurturing. Nurturing your relationships. I bet you're not nurturing your relationships when you need work because you're not nurturing at that point you're prospecting and you're pitching number two. So now you don't need work. So just shift your effort from prospecting to nurturing because you haven't been doing it, number one. Number two, you're going to quickly discover that you're going to be the most effective at it at that point because you're coming to it with a totally different energy. You're there to, like you said, you're coming to it from a place of service rather than from a place of desperation or from need. It doesn't have to be desperation. So what I would encourage everyone listening to, even when you're slam, when you're book solid, you really should make it a point to continue you're nurturing because that's when you're going to be the most effective. And that's when you're planting seeds for the time could be a month or two months from now when you actually do need more work and you haven't been making those, you know, some people call it deposits into the relationship bank accounts. If you haven't been making the deposits, you're going to be overdrawn when you do need to make withdrawals. So I love that. That's. Yeah, I. Coming to it from that place of service is really important.

Yeah, I think that could take the pressure off of it too. And I completely agree with what you were just said too, in terms of when you're not, you don't really need the work as much then it feels so much more. You feel more confident too. And I think the communication comes out that way, and it really does show and takes that pressure off, and it comes out more natural and there's less pressure on you. You're really just kind of nurturing that relationship. So then when you really, truly do need it more, like you said a few months down the line or whatever it may be, you've already built that connection and you're not scrambling to try to do it all at once.

What would you say to somebody who feels like they're bothering people? You know, everything you've said involves reaching out to others. And sometimes it's a shyness thing, but sometimes it's a feeling that I'm bothering, you know, others. How would you respond to that?

Yeah, so it's definitely a fine line. I think everyone kind of has their own thoughts when it comes to what is considered being pushy. But I personally feel, and I've seen this consistently in practice, that it's always better to over communicate than under communicate. And so again, if you think about the person on the receiving end of your message or your email, no matter how busy they are, they're getting bombarded with hundreds of messages a day. And that's not to say that you shouldn't message them too. That because they're getting bombarded with lots of messages every day, if you don't check in regularly enough, your message or email is more likely to get lost in the mix of all of that. And so what I would recommend is to try again to think about it, that you're coming from a place of service, you want to serve that client, you want to help them and provide your expertise, and they need that. They may not know that they need it. And I can't tell you how many times that I've reached out to prospects or podcasters or others that, you know, the first couple of times I didn't hear back, and I questioned whether, you know, whether I should check back with them that second or third time. And often the second or third time is usually when they would reach back out and say, yes, I'm interested, and usually a thank you, because they were appreciative that I was persistent in that. Because we're all very busy. I'm sure we could all relate to having, you know, just a full inbox, and it's difficult to keep up with. And so if we rely on just one message that we're sending, it's really easy to get missed.

Gosh, I wonder if I was one of the ones you reached out to a few times.

Yeah. So you are One of the ones.

You know, it's funny. And I can tell you, because when the one I did respond to, I saw that it was like your third attempt, and I honestly don't remember seeing the other two. So I'm glad you did, you know, because we always say, oh, they've seen all of them. In fact, I think most writers feel, not only did they. That they read all of them, but they thought about them all day long and they wondered, why is this person bothering me? And I can assure you, as someone who gets pitched all the time, who gets, you know, people reach out to me all the time. I don't look at an email and stew over it, you know, the rest of the day. In fact, many times I just miss them. So you're not bothering people. And I think especially if you approach it the way you're talking about, you're actually different. You're standing out because of the approach, because you're not doing what everybody else is doing. You know, you're actually adding value, checking in and offering ideas.

Right, Exactly. I mean, it's really just checking back and helping that person by doing it. Because we know that, like you said, that's happened to you, that you might have missed emails because you're getting a lot of. And you're very, really busy. And then that's the case for most of these editors and brands that are out there, that they're in the same boat. And so it's. A lot of the times it's not intentional. It doesn't mean they're not interested because they're not reaching back. They probably didn't even see it. And they're. It got lost, you know, way below in their inbox. And so I know that happens to me, too, because as a writer, I'm also, because I write for some of these large publications, I'm considered a journalist as well. And so I'm getting a lot of these PR emails constantly, these pitches and things. But if I think what another thing that it's important to mention when you are reaching out is one, to not be afraid to reach back out, but two, to make that subject line really clear, like you said when I had, you know, mentioned to you that it was the third attempt, I think that's making it clear to the person that, you know, oh, maybe it's something that, you know, I want to check on, or I missed this before, and it kind of just increases the urgency of it a little bit. And it doesn't have to be that exact language, but I think just Making that subject line stand out in any way that you can, where it doesn't just look like a traditional pitch or traditional letter of introduction where, you know, for example, if you have a mutual connection with somebody that they know, then maybe sharing that in the subject line. I know personally, that has worked for me in a few instances where they're more likely to open my email in that situation. And so I think anything that you can add that personal touch in that short subject line to increase the likelihood that they open it is really helpful. And if they don't open it that first time, then you can change the subject line a little bit just to show again that sense of urgency, you know, like second attempt or a follow up check in, just to show that person that, hey, I'm not bothering you, I'm just checking back in with you because I know you're busy and I know that you might have missed this.

There you go. As we close, I'm curious, what if you had to pick one simple, relatively low stress action that a listener could take this week to actually start building and strengthening their relationships with editors, with past and current clients, with dead leads, what might that be? Because you've offered some great ideas and sometimes, you know, a list of great ideas is wonderful, but there's no clear starting point. So what would be a really easy way to get started?

Yeah, so I think so in terms of for prospects. So for potential clients or editors you want to connect with, I would say just start with just pick five, five potential clients that you want to connect with and send them a message or comment on one of their posts. So just connect with them on LinkedIn, engage with them again before you ask for anything in return, and just start that initial conversation with them. That's something really simple that only takes a few minutes to do, and it can get you over that hump of just getting into the process of that consistent prospecting. And then for current clients or clients that you really haven't heard from in a while, I think just send them a check in message. Just put checking in the subject line and, you know, just let them know that you're, you know, checking in with them. Ask how they're doing. Right? Because again, this is the human touch of, you know, we're not just asking for work, but we're asking the person, you know, really how are they doing? You hope they're doing well and just checking in to see if, you know, you need any help with anything. And then that could be that initial conversation where you build from there.

Smart that feels very doable. So where can I send listeners to learn more about you, your work, what you do? What's a website? Social channels.

Yeah. So I'm the Most active on LinkedIn. So you can find me on LinkedIn just by searching for my name, Melissa Mitry. It's M I T R I. And then on my website, melissamitri.com I have a lot of blogs on the website. I have a lot of information and I also for any health professionals that are listeners out there, I do provide writing mentoring for new writers as well, if that's an interest for anyone.

Awesome. Well, thank you, Melissa. This has been great. You know, it goes to show that, you know, nothing you shared here is particularly complex. It's actually simple, but it falls into the simple yet hard category because we make it hard, not because it needs to be hard. And I think you've shown us how you can make it simple and easy. That's what I love most about what you shared. So thanks for simplifying it for us and showing us that this is something that anyone can do.

Oh, my pleasure. I'm happy to have this conversation. I think. Yeah. Final words would be just to not overthink it and just to be yourself and have that conversation.

Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed the episode. And just a quick reminder to grab your free copy of my latest book, Earn More in Less time. The proven Mindset, strategies and actions to prosper as a freelance writer.

You can get your free copy@b2b launcher.com.

Or you will also find the detailed shownos to this and all my other episodes. Enjoy and have a great day.