#20: How Leslie Lang Built a Successful B2B Tech Writing Business

It pertains to travel , hospitality , food and agriculture so essentially all of the fun things . She also consults with businesses on content strategy and she copy edits books , both for those self-publishing and for small presses .

Leslie also offers her clients video production and she currently produces regular vlogs for two YouTube channels , doing everything from planning content to scripting it , conducting interviews and editing . I encourage you to check out her passion project . It's called Midlife Dialogues and you can find it on YouTube .

On her channel , leslie interviews people 50 years and older who are living interesting lives , and they really are interesting . Today , however , we're going to learn more about Leslie and how she got started as a writer , how she runs her business and more about how she manages her clients . Let's just jump right into that interview .

If you're a freelancer , business owner or anyone who deals with clients , you're in the right place . I'm your host , teresa Edmond , I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt , imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asks a question . I wasn't ready for .

I created this podcast to empower you with the boss responses you need to grow your business . Each week , my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights . Monday through Thursday , we answer your questions , and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-host embraced their role as the boss of their business .

Welcome to Boss Responses , leslie . Thank you so much for being with me and for answering questions all week .

So I ended up going to college for journalism , started out working in broadcast journalism a little bit radio stations , radio news and did some other stuff , and eventually started for newspapers and magazines , and I've done several different things over all these many , many years and now I've gotten to the point where I am writing mostly for marketing agencies or

directly for technology companies . That's the bulk of what I do . A B2B technology content marketing writer is how I describe it . So I write for companies now like Microsoft and IBM and Google and Adobe and big companies like that . It's taken me a really long time to get to this point , but I have .

Finally , I'm writing about all kinds of tech topics , like anything from the cloud and SaaS to a lot of AI . Ai is huge now the Internet of Things , cybersecurity , all kinds of things like that . Hospitality , travel , tech technology covers almost everything these days , so all kinds of it really does .

So I always say I write about technology . My goal is always to write about tech in a way that is it's both interesting and easy to understand , because it is fascinating what's going on with technology and it's also kind of complicated sometimes .

So I got to get in there and figure out whatever it is I'm writing about and then try to make it both of those things interesting and understandable .

So I started freelancing for newspapers , just dipping my toes in there , and then I kind of just kept going . Freelancing for magazines was the next step . Then I started ghostwriting books for people . I had a business for a while helping people write their family histories , which was a really neat thing .

I'm like a genealogy geek and I love it , but it was a hard business . To where I lived , I just couldn't find enough work to keep that going . Some people are doing that successfully . I had a hard time with it . It was the coolest thing I did , though . I really loved that .

And then content marketing sort of started getting big and I saw the money and the jobs going that way and I followed them and I really liked doing that . I've never looked back .

I just started doing that and have grown that business and it takes a while , but I've gotten to a point where I've got a real , solid business doing the content marketing writing now .

Now there's all these Facebook groups that help you and people who are more than willing to help with their knowledge of how to do it , and there's so many resources about how to do it . I wish I'd had that back then .

I took a lot longer than I should have to get to the point where I am now , just because I was flailing around by myself trying to figure it out .

So you go from working for a boss or a company and then all of a sudden you're working for multiple clients or not working for Let me rephrase that , because I'm really adamant about this with everyone You're working with , so you're working with multiple clients simultaneously . What challenges did you deal with in that area and how did you address them ?

Yeah , you know , just suddenly be working for a lot of different people and I've always felt and I feel it more than ever now it's you know , if you know what you're doing and you work hard , it's actually a much more secure way to work than working for one company that can lay you off the second they want to .

When you have a lot of clients , you're protected against that , except let me tell you a quick little story

. When the pandemic happened , I was specializing in writing about and just stop and think about this for a moment travel technology and hospitality technology .

Oh no , travel stopped and hotels and everything that encompass hospitality pretty much stopped , and I went from doing very , very well to having a month , I think like June of 2020 , I had zero work on the books , which had never happened . I was doing very well , it was just mind boggling . That was an extreme example .

Usually , working for a lot of different clients is a safer way to do it . Now I know I need to be more diversified than that . Who would ever have thought travel and hospitality would fall apart ? Yeah , really , but diversifying as I have now , I've got my foot in a lot of different areas . It's a great way to work . You've got all these different clients .

But the challenge , which is what your question was , is how do you manage that ? And I think the challenge for me was just the figuring out how to organize that . I have to write everything down . I organize on a Google calendar because I keep nothing in my head . It turns out and if I don't write it down it's just gone .

So I really depend on my Google calendar and every step of everything is in there for the day that I need to do it . And that's how I manage a lot of different clients . I just keep everything very tightly organized on a calendar .

I worry if something happened to my Google calendar . Oh , not good , not good , good .

Sometimes I have the Otter app on my phone . If I'm doing a zoom interview with someone . You're not always controlling that zoom interview and able to record . Sometimes you can , but if I'm recording the zoom , I also have Otter running . I just run it on my phone .

I set it down right next to the computer so I have a backup and plus it's giving you , it's doing the transcription for you . It's not only recording the calls , it's just wonderful . So I don't know how we all did it without that , but I remember it was a big , horrifying pain , to be honest .

The other thing that I don't know if everyone knows about Otter let me throw this in here , since we have a minute to talk about this so you record , you do an interview , you have it transcribing on Otter and then you can go on your computer and go back to that Otter transcript that's been created .

You can listen to it as you read through it and you can even put it on a faster speed .

So it goes quickly and if there's some area you know you're going to use , some quote or some paragraph that you know you're interested in , you can just go right to that part , listen to it , check it , make sure the transcription is right , fix it if you need to , and then just browse with your eyes , look down to the next part you want , click on that part

. It'll play just that part of the audio , correct it . It's just so easy to use .

I use FreshBooks for my invoicing , which I really like , and it also makes things very easy . That's what I can think of off the top of my head . But yeah , all these systems have sort of come about bit by bit but make my days and my business much more organized and easy to deal with .

So I make sure we're on the same page ? Just because when you don't do that , you sit there and have a half hour phone call with someone , which is such a waste of time because at the end you realize they want to pay you five cents a word .

I'd need to know more about this project to give you my rate , but can we just or I might say , if I know enough about it , for an article of that length with that many reviews , I might charge between this and this . I just get that price out there at the beginning , because that's going to separate the wheat from the chaff .

And this is something I've seen more often lately is people are like I have bad clients and I'm like , no , you have the wrong clients and it's because you didn't qualify them and then you didn't set expectations .

So we know it's crucial you and I both do it , but how do you make sure that your clients have a clear understanding of the project scope , timelines and deliverables ? Do you do a contract , a statement of work , or do you just lob it out there in an email ?

I'm understanding that it's this , that you're going to need it this time , that this is what you need , whatever . But yeah , I think you just have to and this comes with experience , although let us teach you . If you don't have the experience , you have to ask the questions .

You have to make sure you understand what the project entails , what they're looking for , so that you don't have project creep . I always try to state to in my email back okay , this is my fee and it includes this , this and this . Anything beyond that will be charged additionally . Nice , because you know . Then it's very clear and right .

Then they can say okay , wait a minute , we do want this , and then you can make an adjustment till everybody's satisfied that you're on the same page . That's very nice , same with the timeline , make sure you know when they need it and what your due date is , and that it works for both of you and deliverables .

You need to know exactly what they're expecting from you . Those are just things you need to ask about and keep on top of until you're sure you both agree .

It doesn't happen very often , but it does happen . All right . On that note , dealing with difficult clients it's a challenge . It's a challenge no matter how long you've been in the business or in any business . How do you handle challenging situations ?

We had a question about this earlier this week that neither one of us deal a lot with disagreements anymore , because we've nailed down how not to .

When you do have a disagreement or something's gone wrong with the project and they're placing the blame on you and it wasn't your fault or whatever the situation is , or even if it was your fault , how do you deal with that so that you can maintain a positive working relationship if it's a client you want to keep ?

. So yeah , first of all , I can't even think of a challenging situation or a disagreement that I've had with a client in years because , like you said , I think if you do everything right to start , you eliminate those problems .

So that's the most important thing I'll say in general , if you do have something that comes up where there's disagreements or there's a problem , the number one thing to do is to just attack it , and I mean that in a way I don't mean that in a vicious way . I mean straightforward , be straightforward .

Okay , get the phone call because things get hashed out better on phone calls always and say okay , I'm so sorry . Well , I don't know if you want to say that , but you say I realize that we have a problem with this particular thing , so let's talk about that and figure that out and what we need to do . That'll diffuse a lot of problems right there .

If they see okay , she sees this too and she's willing to work with us , maybe half the time you can resolve it right there . And I would always want to resolve it if I can , because I don't know if I'm going to want to work with that client again , but I want to end up with having had a good situation with them People . That's human nature .

If it doesn't go especially well and you've done all the right things , then why didn't it ? I'd spend some time thinking about that . I'd think about is it the client ? Am I working with the wrong kinds of clients ? Maybe they're not as professional as they should be ? Did I handle it wrong ? Maybe I'll run it by someone else that does what I do appear .

What would you have done ? Maybe I will work with that client again , maybe I won't . That's very possible , I think . Try to head things like that off by making sure you know what's going on at the beginning and being very , very clear both ways , and then when something comes up , address it and try to clear it .

You asked yourself all of those questions because you're not sure of where you are . But that attention to detail and I think I've said this in every call so far your onboarding of your client , whatever that looks like , however detailed it is , needs to be thorough .

It doesn't all have to be written out on a checklist the way I do it , but it needs to be thorough . That stops a lot of this before it starts . If you pay attention to what's happening while you're working on the project , though , you see those potential issues before they become issues , and that's what Leslie is saying .

You step in there and you head it off and you say , hey , I noticed in an email the other day that someone had said this thing and that actually isn't where we're going with the project and I don't want to get to the end and have someone with unreasonable expectations .

Can we deal with that now , or can we discuss that to make sure everyone's still on the same page , and I do that constantly . Communication , and its proactive communication , is how you do not have challenging situations and disagreements .

But if you reach an accord at the beginning so that you know that you're both walking the same path , that's the big thing , makes a huge difference . So I'm so happy you've been here , leslie . So now I understand that you've recently done something that is not content writing .

You are starting a YouTube channel , which I'm excited about because that's on my agenda after I get this podcast going , is it ? Oh , that's exciting . Yes .

So what I'm doing is the main gist of this channel is I'm talking to people who are doing really interesting things . At that point of their life They've started something brand new , or they've taken something on , or they've got a hobby or they've changed how they're living .

There's people doing such interesting things and that has always been really interesting to me and I decided I'm going to start interviewing these people and putting them up on YouTube . So I'm just doing interviews and teaching myself to edit , which I also really enjoy . Remember , I started in broadcast journalism . I'm enjoying that and I also .

I have one episode up now and it's something else that I think will appeal to that age group and it's a book review for really good novels I've read recently , so I'm going to have other content interspersed within these interviews , but I'm really enjoying it . It's really fun . That sounds interesting to anybody . Please check it out

at YouTube . Midlife Dialogues .

I'm thrilled you're doing this One because I think you're going to find a young demographic that watches you as well , because when I grew up , learning from our elders and quotes , there was something that was really important .

We didn't have all of the internet , we didn't have the school of TikTok and the school of YouTube , so we actually had conversations back in the good old days , where people talk to one another , which is fun .

But I think this is such a great way for younger people to hear from the generation right before theirs so that they can actually learn from them , because I think there are a lot of issues caused nowadays because that connection is gone .

I just look around and so many of my friends are doing interesting things , which is what got me started and I was like well , this is kind of exciting , yeah .

I've really enjoyed having you and I hope you'll come back in the future and we can talk about how your YouTube channel is gone , All right . So last question what advice would you give to service providers looking to create lasting , successful partnerships with their clients ?

I was asking Teresa did she hear the birds in the forest outside as we're recording here ? This is what I want to do . I want to work with people who need the skills that I have and I want to enjoy my workdays . So creating lasting and successful partnerships to me is just finding the right kind of clients .

I know what it is that I like doing and I know how to do this content marketing , writing about tech . There's a lot of people that need that . So it's about finding those people and then having good relationships with them .

These are real people and when you can chit chat a little bit , kind of have these little bits of friendships with people , that makes your day more interesting . It makes their day more interesting . It makes it easier to work with them , friendly , little back and forth . So I would say be yourself , be friendly , do the whole job .

That's what I raised my daughter saying do the whole job , do a good job . That's one of my things I always think about is I want them to hire me again , so I'm going to get this thing in on time and all those little things .

They said they needed a headline and a deck , and those are going to be there and I'm going to have reviewed and made sure I hit everything . Do the whole job . So they don't have to come back to you and say , hey , what about this ? That's part of it .

Just do a good job and clients are going to be thrilled to work with you and they're going to continue to do so .

And if you do all of those things and it seems like a lot , but it's not , it's very simple steps to take Then you'll walk away with super fan clients who will not only hire you for new projects but they'll refer you out . And once you start getting those referrals , your business will snowball and you'll never look back .