This week on the podcast, Rachel and Lynne welcome back Lindy Alexander, to discuss how pitching is changing for freelancers and what it takes to get editors' attention.

Lindy is an award-winning travel writer and founder of The Freelancer's Year and she explains why she created courses after readers asked about her pitching strategy, and describes the tighter commissioning landscape as budgets stagnate and editors become more time-poor.

She outlines common pitching mistakes, including pitching broad topics instead of specific stories, writing lyrical but unclear subject lines, and not knowing a publication's voice, tone, readership, or sections.

Lindy shares what gets commissioned now: concise, clearly angled pitches tailored to a particular vertical, with relevant sources where needed, and how strong pitches can build relationships with editors, even without prior contact. She also covers following up, learning from rejections, and balancing travel writing with running her Travel Writer Accelerator course.

Connect with Lindy via:

This week, Rachel and Lynne discuss podcasting as part of a freelance content strategy with guest Caroline Winter, a former radio journalist and co-founder of POD Talk.

Caroline shares lessons from creating her eight-part narrative series Sick as a Dog about the veterinary industry's mental health crisis and explains how her agency finds clients and produces podcasts for organisations.

She outlines what new podcasters need, including clarity of focus, defined audience, strong preparation, hosting skills, consistency, and good audio quality — plus practical ways to test an idea's longevity. Caroline also covers agency realities such as pricing, client psychology, measures of success beyond monetisation, emerging podcast trends, and tools and habits that help her work efficiently.

Connect with Caroline here: https://www.podtalk.com.au/

Listen to her work here:

Sick As A Dog https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/sick-as-a-dog/id1675843578

This week, Rachel and Lynne are without a guest, as they share six small, actionable things they wish they'd done sooner in their respective freelance businesses, to become more visible, win better work, and run their businesses better.

They discuss:

• How investing in professional headshots boosted Rachel's confidence and credibility
• How Lynne benefited from switching from a free Gmail address to a custom domain email
• Why Rachel put practical systems in place using tools like templates, trackers, Moxie, and Trello
• How Lynne found value in attending paid conferences and networking events to build relationships and create indirect opportunities
• Why packaging her services (including creating a services guide) helped Rachel clarify offerings and pricing
• And how regularly increasing rates – even in small increments – can keep up with rising costs while reinforcing value

The professional photographer we mention is Simona Janek: https://simonajanek.com.au/

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au

Rachel's List www.rachelslist.com.au

Thanks (as always) to our sponsors Rounded (www.rounded.com.au ), an easy invoicing and accounting solution that helps freelancers run their businesses with confidence. Looking to take advantage of the discount for Rachel's List Gold Members? Email us at: hello@rachelslist.com.au for the details.

Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co