Quality Work Archives - Deborah Beckwin | Content Strategist for Mental Health, Healthcare & Edtech

June 15, 2023

Small Business Life — Can’t Do It Alone

If you’re a small business owner (or an executive or manager), you’ve seen posts like this before, and it’s usually some pitch for a business coach. And, well…this will be like that. But not quite. I Know Some Thangs… I’ve been working in content for about 11 years now and it’s been a roller coaster ride. I’ve learned a lot about about content but also about working with all kinds of people. A lot of important life lessons about work and the importance of healthy, respectful relationships that make the work even better. And even if I know a lot about business at this point, there is absolutely no way I’d go along my small biz life without having some sort of help. There are too many things to navigate: sales, profitability, customer service, marketing, service delivery, taxes, contracts, keeping your business edge…and on and on it goes. …But I Could Always Use Some Help I have worked with a couple of business coaches before, and I realized that coaching is definitely different than therapy. And one key difference is the approach. From my experience,and I admit that this is a bit reductive: coaching is a lot more in your face than therapy. You can come with your issue and the coach is basically like, how do you plan on overcoming that obstacle? It’s more motivational. Get out there and make those sales or give that presentation or overcome that work challenge. And sometimes, you just need that prompting, that strong accountability. […]

June 2, 2023

Two business women of color sit on a window sill smiling and talking

How to Successfully Work with a Content Professional

I’ve been thinking about my experiences as a content professional over the past 11 years and what I wish I could tell past, current, and future clients about how to have a successful engagement with a writer, strategist, or consultant. And then I saw that Melissa Malec, a UK-based B2B content writer and strategist, came up with this nifty carousel on LinkedIn, which was based on her expertise and the expertise of six other freelance content folks. Definitely worth reading. There may be some overlap, but these are some things I’ve found have made consulting engagements more productive and enjoyable. Have a marketing plan. Remember: even if they have extensive experience in marketing, a copywriter or a content strategist is not a marketing CEO or marketing manager. Copywriting and content strategy should be parts of a larger marketing strategy. If you don’t have a strategy or plan, you’re basically flinging spaghetti on the wall and hoping it sticks. And that won’t get you visibility, clients, or revenue. If you’re just starting out, check out SCORE’s marketing plan guide. Do your homework. When you hire a content professional, you hopefully scoped them out. You looked at their testimonials. You looked at their portfolio. You had a good conversation with them where you learn how they work and if they’re a good fit within your organization. You paid for a trial post or article. But you should know what this consultant will be doing and why and how that drives your bottom line. Be […]

February 10, 2021

Two businesspeople, a white man and a white woman, give each other a high five while smiling. They sit at a table with a laptop, two mugs, and papers strewn on the surface. For the blog post, "Lessons Learned from Two Collaborations" by Deborah Beckwin

Lessons Learned from Two Collaborations

I’ve been reflecting on the idea of collaborations with my work, and I wanted to share some musical geekery that may help you not only get to know me better but also help you to choose better people and organizations to collaborate with. So, here goes… A Music Snob Briefly Reviews folklore and evermore Besides being a content strategist/writer/editor, I’m a bit of an erstwhile musician (I’m a classically trained pianist). And I really enjoy listening to music of all sorts, which is, honestly, not really a remarkable hobby. I mean, really — have you ever met someone who hates music? I doubt they exist. I’m also a bit of a music snob, and I cut my snobby teeth in the indie rock music scene of Chicago (I even sang at Schuba’s once). And last year, a lot of musical artists released their quarantine albums. And Taylor Swift was one of them. (God help me if the Swifties come for me, though! ? If you are one, please bear with me and my musical review here.) AND, I admit, this woman is fiercely loved and protected by her fans. And she has felt like she’s lived very much under a microscopic gaze of scrutiny. Last year, Swift released two albums — folklore and evermore. She worked in a previous collaborator/producer, Jack Antonoff (he’s worked with my faves Carly Rae Jepsen and The Chicks on their latest albums). Previously, Swift worked with Swedish producers who are known to make some solid […]

October 28, 2020

A stack of gingerbread cookies in a bakery window

Tasty, Customized Solutions — How I Work

Just wanted to share some insights into how I work and what you can possibly learn from it, especially if you’re a business owner. “Take what you need and leave the rest.” I love this idea from the recovery community because sometimes, we can get hung up on doing things by the letter of someone else’s idea of what works. And it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately in terms of my own business. For example, today I decided to take down my content creation packages. If you go to my services page now, there are no submenus. I have always sold based on what my clients need — and that is always bespoke and customized solutions. Conventional Advice May Not Work I had one (former) toxic mentor and one (current) supportive mentor suggest that I create these packages. And, it made sense at the time. I was excited to create services that I know people need. But none of them sold. OK — technically, one package did sell in an exchange for other mentoring services. But it was still customized! It can be really easy to blame myself, and sure. Maybe the value wasn’t clear enough. Maybe I wasn’t fully tuned into my ideal audience. And it’s true — I wasn’t tuned in enough because they typically don’t purchase this way. What Are Other People Doing? If I look at other colleagues and see how they sell their services, I typically do not see any packages. They sell services […]

October 1, 2020

A white woman dismissively holds up her hand and looks away as a woman of color looks annoyed.

Checking Your Inner Karen — White Women in the Workplace

This a post I have avoided writing for years, because I just didn’t want to deal with the possible blowback of white denialism. But it’s on the 4th anniversary of the last day (September 30th) I worked for an employer in a 9-to-5 capacity. Hooray for self-employment and biz ownership! The Concrete Ceilings of Patriarchy and White Supremacy So it seems like a good time to reflect back on how patriarchy and white supremacy have been barriers in my career as an employee — by white women in particular, and how they uphold patriarchy and white supremacy explicitly and implicitly. And they don’t have to go full-on ballistic Karen to do that. These concrete ceilings I believe are the main reasons Black women end up being the fastest demographic of people who end up creating businesses and start-ups, but are still less likely to obtain funding (CNBC talks about it here). Simply put: Black women like me go into business for themselves because of the barriers of advancement in traditional employment. Aggressions, microaggressions, being consistently paid less than their white counterparts, being consistently passed up for promotion, full-on racist and sexist behaviors from fellow employees and managers…it all pushes Black women out the door. Black women create businesses mainly out of sheer necessity. And other marginalized groups, such as disabled folks and LGBT folks (and you can imagine the intersections if you’re queer, disabled, and Black), probably have to do the same thing because of the lack of work protections […]

July 27, 2020

Spongebob Squarepants Meme "Me Helping Clients" with a buff Patrick Star and "me trying to do stuff for myself" with Patrick Star with a nailed board in his head while holding a hammer.

Client Work vs. My Own Work

Do You Feel Like This Meme? Ah, the struggle to balance my work with with client work! 😩 I saw this meme that my friend and colleague posted the other day, and I thought, wow, this is at the heart of my business. We really do need each other to succeed because we can’t do everything by ourselves. It’s probably at the heart of your business, too. You realize that there are some things that people can’t necessarily do on their own — such as heal from childhood trauma or recover from heartbreak or mourn the loss of a loved one. If you’re a therapist, intuitive, or any sort of healer, you’ve trained and gained experience helping others grow and live their best lives. For me, I’ve trained and gained experience in helping others consistently connect with the people they want to help through the written word. That’s also known as content marketing and strategy. 😉 And I want to make sure that people aren’t nailing themselves in the head when it comes to their own content! And sometimes, you just want to do that yourself — write your own content, post your own social media, have your own unique voice out there. But who has the time? The Time Crunch with Work So, I get it. I also find it hard to carve out the time to create my own content. Sometimes, I feel like this Patrick Star meme. And it’s not because I don’t know how to write. […]

September 17, 2019

Equations written with a black dry erase marker on a glass in a lab setting

Life As A Lab — A Great Experiment

I’m going to let you in on a biz pep talk I need to give myself right now, about living my life as a lab. First of all, I’m a recovering perfectionist. But just like recovery, the process of giving up the strictures of perfectionism have not gone in a straight line. I thought I had licked this back in high school, when I realized I couldn’t be #1 at everything — I could only do my best. When I entered college, after meeting so many people who were so much more intelligent than me, I learned that competing with myself was the best option. It still is. But in growing my business, perfectionism has reared its ugly head many a time. It creates a sort of tunnel vision that doesn’t really help me see the big picture. I can’t see how far I’ve come because it seems like I have a long way to go. And there are reasons for this pressure: I want to help more people. I want to accomplish more things in my personal life. I want to be successful, like right now. But all of those things take time — specifically, you have to be open to experimentation. Life as a Game One thing about being an adult — someone may tell you about how a certain life event is going to be, but then you could experience a different outcome. But let’s talk about something a little less life-or-death…gaming! As a stress reliever (but sometimes […]

November 7, 2018

red, white, and black sign that says " WE OFFER 3 KINDS OF SERVICES GOOD CHEAP FAST BUYOU CAN ONLY PICK TWO" Pick Two — These Two, a blog post about quality work by Deborah Beckwin

Pick These Two If You Want Quality Work

We all want quality work done when we hire someone. And we all know the adage above, and yet we’ve all worked with clients who want the mythical unicorn of all three. I love this website: http://fastgood.cheap/ because it shows you that this unicorn really does not and will never exist. Try and see if you can get all three switches to be on at once. But out of the three pairs of service types, I argue that most folks really do want fast and good work. Yet we all know where the rub is — the cost. Cheap & Fast or Good & Cheap? There are times you may want good and cheap work, primarily when you’re not in a hurry. But how often are business owners willing to wait on work? There may also be times that you want work done cheap and fast. Maybe you just need some prototype or a mock-up of a product. Quality may not be important in this case, but maybe it should be. So back to the cost. Sure, it’s great to get a deal–and who doesn’t love a deal? But you have to decide what’s important to you and whether you’re willing to save the time and effort it would take to skimp on quality. Are You Willing to Invest for Quality Work? It’s an investment to upgrade a website, to start having consistent, well-written blog posts, to create an email campaign. And the people who create this content are typically professionals. […]

September 4, 2018

A row of hard hats hanging on a red wall outside with a quote by Sophocles

The Meaning and Honor of Work

To all those who got a day off work in the U.S., Happy post-Labor Day! Although if you’re an entrepreneur, solopreneur, or small business owner like myself, maybe you didn’t have Labor Day. Either way, most of us are back in the thick of work today. So I hope it’s been an easy transition back. Over the past few days, you may have seen a social media dust-up about someone who tried to shame actor Geoffrey Owens, most known for his role on The Cosby Show. Someone snapped photos of him working at Trader Joe’s in New Jersey, as if to say, wow, look how far he’s fallen. What happened next was remarkable and heartening. I saw so many people on Twitter come to Owens’s defense, like this tweet of a random act of kindness Owens and his wife did for a then college student. Other famous actors opened up about their day jobs, like Mike Colter who was on the TV show The Good Wife, but he had to wait tables to make ends meet. Even the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, tweeted support for Owens and many other creatives like him. This morning, Owens spoke out on Good Morning America, and it really warmed my heart (the video is about five minutes and worth your time). I loved that he was wearing his Trader Joe’s name tag. Owens was definitely at first hurt by the attempt to shame him, but when so many people came to his defense, he didn’t have much time […]