The Power of Connections Thanks to Beautycounter
The following is a story about the power of connections cloaked in a modeling project I was involved in last week.
My dear, lovely, beautiful friend, Annie Einan is an amazing force of a woman. Not only does she have this presence that makes you want to be around her, she shares her most authentic self with you. She is a mom, a wife and a storyteller for Fluence Creative—an agency she and her husband launched as a joint venture (psst…you should totally check them out if you’re interested in crazy good branding and design work).
And now, she adds to her list of roles: your new connection to safe beauty… Read More
Celebrating 200 Years // North American Review
The North American Review was founded in 1815. It is the oldest literary magazine in the US and it publishes out of my alma mater: University of Northern Iowa. In the early 2000’s I was a graduate student in the Masters of English Creative Writing program and one of my first memories of launching into graduate study was knocking on the door of the North American Review.
I was 22 years young, pregnant and living in the basement of a Mennonite church. I had no fears knocking on that NAR door because I was tired of being lonely and the thought of being able to read manuscripts and get paid to do it…well…was it all a dream? Read More
Writer and Editor Celine Murray Interviews Claire DeBerg on Freelance Writing
I had the great pleasure to be requested for an informational interview with Celine Murray, a new and powerful writer and editor in the Twin Cities freelance scene. Below is her interview of me from last week.
As a part of my freelance writing internship for Monkey Outta Nowhere, my supervisor has made networking events a priority, so this morning, I had the pleasure of picking the brain of Claire DeBerg, a full-time freelance writer and editor based in Minneapolis, MN. Claire was very open about her experience as a freelance writer, and I learned a lot about what it looks like to freelance on a daily basis. Since she gave so much good information, I decided to narrow it down to what I considered the top five pieces of advice I got out of the interview:
1) Stay open to grunt work
4 REASONS YOU NEED A CONTENT CALENDAR
I officially started nerding out on content calendar creation in the year 2007. This was the year I was introduced to a marketing guru with a serious thang for Excel. I think I might have taken an online class, in fact, to get up-to-speed about how to navigate the (wondrous!) world of the big XLS.
While I learned how to organize spreadsheets to the point where we’re about to leave the house to buy groceries and I’m like, “Hey, want me to just throw our grocery list in an XLS and organize it by food group and aisle!?” And then my family is like, “Oh gawd, no, not again.”
But seriously, once I learned how to use the delicious tool so plainly referred to as a spreadsheet (it should be called a Lickety Split), I graduated to the next level and witnessed how powerful it can be for my freelance business.
Content calendars are often what I propose to new clients. I can capture the current online strategy of my potential clients in an XLS and then offer a new way to gather and distribute their content (also shown in an XLS). Showing the process in a visual way is powerful and for clients who are needing their content organized and disseminated, presentation of a content calendar often seals the deal for me.
I’ve come to realize Lickey Split Content Calendars are powerful tools in the business of freelance writing and content creation for these reasons: Read More
Claire DeBerg // Writer 