Me (far left) with Lynne Testoni, Rachel Smith, and Ed Gandia

Earlier this year, I got an email from Lynne Testoni and Rachel Smith, the co-hosts of the Content Byte Podcast. They invited me to speak at the Content Byte Summit they were planning in Australia. Since Australia is one of my favorite places in the entire world, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. But I got so much more than a trip Down Under from saying yes. 

I’ve been to a lot of conferences and the Content Byte Summit was by far the best conference I’ve ever attended. If they offer it again, you should absolutely attend – either in person if you can or through the virtual ticket. At every single session, I had a light bulb moment, and I took home so many things that I want to put into work in my business. I thought I was going to the conference to help other writers and honestly, I feel like I got more than I gave. 

And now I have a ton of new Australian writer friends. Plus I got to meet Ed Gandia in person for the first time. We’ve been friends for 7 years and only live a few hours from each other, but we met for the first time on the streets of Sydney, Australia. And in one of the best small world stories I’ll probably ever be a character in, one of the attendees actually rescues dachshunds in Georgia. She founded a rescue before she moved to Australia and still plays a large role virtually. We were both actually trying to save the same weenie dog from literally across the globe the week before.  

Whether you were able to attend Content Byte Summit or not, I highly recommend checking out my friend Melanie Padgett Powers’ podcast episode #166: Smart Advice from the Content Byte Summit.  Mel attended virtually and put together a really great overview of takeaways from the conference (and her list is longer than the one I shared today!). Listening to this podcast episode is a great way to tap into the wisdom of the conference if you weren’t able to participate (or even if you did but couldn’t absorb all the goodness at the time). 

I’ll be sharing more takeaways in a few weeks but wanted to give you some quick takeaways now while it is still fresh in my mind. I could honestly write pages and pages of my takeaways, but here are things that have been on my mind since I landed back in the USA.

1. Confidence is a learned skill. I was sitting next to Lindy Alexander of the Freelancer’s Year when she shared this brilliant insight and it immediately resonated with me. I’ve spent years overcoming imposter syndrome myself and trying to help other writers with the same struggle. And I was still holding onto the notion that I wasn’t confident because it was a personality trait that I wasn’t born with. 

But Lindy is a million percent right, we can learn to be more confident. For me, the more I act like I’m confident and make bold moves with my business, such as negotiating for more money or turning down a client that isn’t a fit, the more confident I become in my gut instinct and business abilities. In the Content Byte Podcast summary of the event, Lynn compared confidence to a muscle – the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. And she is a million percent right. When we take small steps forward, we learn the confidence we need to make the bigger ones. 

2. Sometimes the right answer is a “niggle” not a neon sign. Valerie Khoo was talking about picking the right micro-learnings, such as courses and certifications on LinkedIn Learnings, when she told us to look for the niggle not the neon sign. That really resonated with me. When I’m thinking about a decision in my business, I often feel a tug in one direction. But I find myself waiting for someone to give me permission or tell me to head in that direction – likely leftover habits from my employee days. But she’s so right. You have to listen to the niggles. Otherwise, you may miss an opportunity that was meant for you because you were waiting for a neon sign. 

I recently listened to a “niggle” about going to Content Marketing World. I got the feeling that I need to go – that there is someone I need to meet or something I need to hear. It was more than ‘I should go’ or even ‘I want to go,’ but ‘I am supposed to be there.’ I’m confident that there is a reason why I need to be there, even though I’m not exactly sure why. I’m heading out today and am very excited to figure out why I feel called to go. And yes, I’ll be sure to share what I find.  

3. I need to stop giving away my expertise for free. I was blown away by Ed Gandia’s keynote and it made me really rethink my business. He talked about how writers are often intimidated by offering strategy and clients often don’t think they need it. He said that instead of pitching strategy, writers should look for opportunities, such as ideation, content audit, brainstorming, and content plans in their conversations and then offer a package to your client with a separate fee. He was right – I’m already doing a lot of this for free and I need to increase my value to clients by offering it as a separate service. 

4. AI is not going to take our jobs. A lot of the sessions at the summit were on AI. I expected to hear a similar tone that I’ve heard among writers since the beginning of the year – fear that our profession is doomed. But the conversation had shifted, and the consensus was that freelancers still have (and will continue to have) an important role in content marketing. While our industry is transforming and we need to evolve, we aren’t all suddenly going to have no clients and need to go work at fast food because of ChatGPT.

5. Stepping out of my comfort zone is worth it. I’m not going to be cool about it. I was REALLY nervous giving the keynote address the second day. I felt a huge pressure because the organizers literally flew me across the world to present. And I wanted to make them proud. Yes, I woke up at 3AM and didn’t go back to sleep that morning. And by 4AM I had emailed Lynne a new set of slides. 

I’m not a natural public speaker and I used to get sick every time I presented. But I’ve continued to do it over the past decade, and it’s gotten a lot easier for me. After I got a few minutes into my speech, I hit a groove and was very proud with how it turned out. I even got teary after I had finished because I’ve never worked harder on anything in my life as I did my keynote, pretty much daily for more than three months. And now that it’s over, I feel a bit empty, since it’s been a part of me for so long. 

I’ll be sharing bits from the keynote over the next few months in blog posts. But the gist of it was that you need to have the courage to build the freelance business that works for you.  What works for me – last minute projects, unlimited revisions and working odd hours – is not a fit for most freelancers. And that’s totally okay.

I’ve learned the hard way that I have to build a business that works for my superpowers, weaknesses, personality, and goals. It’s easy to say, but it’s really, really hard to do. I often feel like an outsider in the freelance community because I do things so different and break all the freelance rules. But I was miserable and not very successful when I tried to do it the “right way.” But now that I do it my way, I love my work and I’m earning a high income. 

Did you attend the conference? If so, what were your biggest takeaways? If you didn’t, share your thoughts on my takeaways.