Kim Calvi, Owner of Boston Edits – The Word Lady (TM)

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W four cy Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four cy Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin Helena. Thanks everybody for joining in again today. I'm Kevin Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four cy dot com. We're streaming live on talkfour tv dot com in addition to on Facebook and that's at Winning Business Radio, and of course we're available on podcasts after the live show and many other platforms including YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, pretty much wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts, it's about one hundred in number. We are there. The mission of this show, Winning Business TV and radio, as regular listeners and viewers know, is to offer insights and advice to really help people avoid the mistakes

1:30 of others, right to learn best practices, the how tos, the what tos, the what not tos, to be challenged. And I always say it, certainly and hopefully to be inspired by the successes of others. But you know, virtually every successful person that I've ever talked to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers. So while we all have to get our knees scraped once in a while, I always say I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it. Today. My guest is Kim Calvey, owner of Boston Edits. The word Lady. We'll get into that in a bit. Here's your bio. Kim Calvey founded Boston Edits, LLC twenty one years ago, that's two thousand and three. Prior to starting her company, she held roles including a technical editor for a large public technology company, a contracts editor, paralegal for a law firm, an editorial assistant at a consumer law organization, a bilingual proofreader at one of the largest financial institutions in the US.

2:25 In short, Kim writes content for B to B professionals. As she says, she loves what she does since she truly enjoys learning about other forward thinking professionals. You know how they become subject matter experts in their relative fields and what makes them better and different. She enjoys providing content media services to senior level B to B decision makers, such as blog writing, website content documentation, editing, PR marketing, collateral across all social media platforms, in particular Google Business Profile, which maximizes search engine optimizy optimism and increases client visibility. She also hosts her own podcast show, inviting B to B guests and clients to discuss their services and what is distinct about their business. Her other services include social media management and facilitating industry related periodical advertising. When she's not I love this line. When she's not wielding the proverbial red sharpie in her hand, she spends her time with her partner Brad either downhill skiing at Loon Mountain in Lincoln, New Hampshire, or surfing in Newport, Rhode Island. Other passions include reading, cooking, and working out. She's a weightlifting officionado and a yoga devote Kim, Welcome to Winning Business Radio and TV. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for having me. It's a real privilege.

3:39 Oh well, it's a privilege for me. Tell us just to give us a little bit of background. Where did you grow up and tell us about that town or city. Well, I grew up in a lot of places because my parents were still married to each other. My father was a commercial pilot so was transferred a lot, so I lived pretty much all over the United States. But we are from Hingham, and after my parents split up, I finished high school and andover on the North Shore. But now I'm a resident on the South Shore, so I've come full circle. And I did spend a little bit of time in my twenties living in Spain by myself. That's very cool. That's where you learned Spanish. See that was second nature. You didn't have to think about that one. So when you were younger, what were your earlier interests? When I was younger, how young is so what high school? So when I was well, actually when I was in junior high, I entered a couple of writing contests for fiction, And I mean, fiction is not really my thing. Obviously. I love to read fiction, historical fiction and so forth, but I am not a fiction writer. There's too much story arcing and character development. But at least I tried. But reading and writing has always been my thing, and I think I got into the habit of writing, oddly enough, from my grandfather, my internal grandfather. He used to write letters to me and I would write back. So that was when I was really little, you know, and that just continued throughout my life, you know, until he died.

5:09 So I've always been around books, you know. I remember going to the library when I was four years old and being so proud to get my library card. Yeah, libraries are my first love. That was my job. When I was in high school. All my friends thought I was crazy. They were like, why don't you want to babysit or work at friendlies? And I was like, I am happy around books. So anyway, so yeah, reading, writing, being around books, that's that's been my thing since forever, since I since forever. So that's why, I asked, because very often that's how people end up where they are, you know, right always, but quite often. So, Now, college, what made you choose Emmanuel College in Boston and then to major in business administration? Okay, so I went. I went to college as an adult. I didn't go to college right out of high school. I waited until well, I wait, yeah, I waited until I was in my late twenties, early thirties. And I was grateful that I went because I felt like I got more out of it than I might might have done it on right out of high school because it was a business Was that a conscious decision not to go right away? More, by the way, there's no judgment in that some people. Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean it was one of those things where, well, it was one of those things where circumstances were such that it was it was. It wasn't something that was going to happen right out of high school. But I always knew I would get there, and I did. And when I did go, I I loved the idea of the school and being being you know, I'm a Boston girl. What can I say? I lived Derry ROI King, and and I loved the school, they had an adult learners program was called e KEP was an Emmanuel College Adult program. I think that's what it stood for. And everybody in my class was. I mean, I was actually on the younger side, you know, and really yeah, yeah, I was going to say at

6:41 at you know, in your late twenties, going to college to me is an even greater accomplishment because it's more difficult life's going on. Yeah, oh for sure. And and I did. I I you know, I did four years in three years while working full time. Because I I think there's something to be said, you know, when you when you waited that long and just that driven you just it's what to do with wanting to get it over with, That's that's not it. I mean, although I definitely felt that way about my accounting courses. But yeah, but but everything else about it was just richer. It was a richer experience, and I felt like I brought more to the table, and I know I definitely got more out of my education there. So I was glad that I went. And you know, no looking back, that's awesome. Here's a question I like to ask often, how did you get your first professional job? So my first professional job. Smiling already because the story always makes me laugh. So all right, so I came home from Spain and I was living in the North End. I'd gotten myself a little studio apartment and I was doing some temp work and I landed this temp job as a temp perceptionist. And I was actually started off as a temp for the temp and so anyway, so the other temp didn't come back, and so they had they kept me. And I think I started like in the fall or something like that, and you know, months were going by, and so anyway, so and I kept asking the HR person, you know, I, I'm really interested in the job. You seem to like me. Can we just put this together?

8:03 And yeah, yeah, yeah, nothing ever happened. So back in the day when I had a tremendous amount of bravado, I the office was you got off the elevator, you're right there in the reception area. So one Monday morning, and this is back in the day when everybody was still reading the paper, the president of the company got off the elevator and I'm sitting there with the paper and he said, good morning, Kimmy, what are you doing? And I said, looking for our job? And he's like, aren't you happy here? And I said, yeah, I said, I am, I said, but it's been months and nothing's happening. And anyway, long story short, within two weeks they had hired me. That's awesome, Yeah, that is awes and I got a better job. They ended up they didn't hire me for the receptionist position. They put me in the IT that the tech because it was a consultancy. They put me in the IT department, and I was you know what it's worth. It was the only female, and I was young. I was in my mid twenties and around surrounded by professional men have been doing this a long time, and they had me. My boss at the time, Bob lovely gentleman. He decided he wanted to start a weekly newsletter for the company and he put me in charge of that. So my first big girl job, you know, I was just lobbying for the receptionist position. I ended up with something far better. And I think that's been a huge part of the trajectory that's been my career. Was that the Yankee Group. Yes, it was yeah, okay, I just I just I picked on your LinkedIn profile to get it.

9:20 But then you landed, so you're there for a couple of years. Then you landed or at least not too long after, at very large company the subject of Aaron Brockovich for those that have seen that movie, W R. Grace. Yes, yes, tell us about that position. Yeah. So I somebody just called me out of the blue one day and you know, we've got this marketing position, and you know, we saw your resume and I don't even know where they saw it, don't ask me, and they were just like, you know, this is what the position is. This something you think you'd be interested in. It's a little more dynamic. And because at the time, I was in school, so I was doing a lot of contract work, a lot of temp work, because I didn't want I mean, I was working full time, but I didn't want the pressure of working necessarily for a company. You know. I just thought, Okay, I've just I've got to pay the bills, but I really want to focus on my studies. Anyway. But once I got that down pad, I was glad to take this position, and I learned an awful lot about marketing. I learned a lot about event planning, trade shows, you know, publication, packaging. One of the things that I did was a special project. We worked with the Architectural Institute in Boston and we created a We partnered with them, we created a contest, and I mean I designed the brochure and wrote all the content for it, and then these architectural students had to create a fictitious building in the Charlestown area in the Navy Yard.

10:39 To this day, I still have the brochure that I designed. So that was one of the little little things that I learned there. Yeah. So yeah, I'll interject the question your most important lesson learned, but i'll skip it for grace and I'll go to Graphique de France. Yes that I can't speak French, but you're there for a couple years. Tell us about that company, very intriguing name. Yes, okay, So the owner of the company, Jean Bracques, was from France and he started he started, I guess over here he was selling I want to say posters, but I don't think that's right, so please don't pull me. But in any case, his company grew and so it became a like a lot of the calendars that you see at the bookstores are from to France. If you look on the back you'll see they'll see the logo, greeting cards, posters and postcards.

11:28 And it was a temp assignment and I loved it. I mean it was you know, talk about a creative outlet, you will. You just walk into the showroom and there's all these wonderful products and everything from I Love Lucy to the Flintstones. Maybe not the Flintstones, but you know, like you know, the Jetsons or whatever, and then like some vintage Barbie, you know that kind of thing. And it was just like this is great. I mean, this, this is just so much fun just to look at. And I started there covering for somebody who was going on maternity leave, and they liked me so much. When she came back, they created a job for me. And yeah, and there was only one editor, believe it or not, the whole company. And to this day, I still keep in touch with her. She is retired, I believe in Nello's in Arizona anyway, her names anyway, she she was doing all the editing and she was inundated, and I was like, well, you know, I send it, send it my way, and that's what I did. I helped her out a lot. It was it was a big part of my job that they created for me. So again another stepping stone, another little, a little, you know, piece of the puzzle that you know, eventually led us to where I am right now. But anyhow, so what was your key takeaway from working there? Oh, let's see, collaboration because we had the writers, we had the artists, you know, the designers, we had the licensing group that we had that you know that that you know, they would they would call the people who you know own the I Love Lucy logo and all of the imagery for that. So there was a lot of collaboration. And yeah, that's that was my biggest takeaway there.

12:56 And I really enjoyed it. I really did. I like that job. It was hard to leave that one. And then you went to Fidelity not too long thereafter, a huge company, well known national international brand tell us about that role. So that was another one where someone just called me out of the blue and just said, you know, I saw your experience and this is what they have a need for this. You know, it's it's contract that could lead to permanent but for the long haul, it's it's contract. What do you think? And I was like, well, Okay, why not? And so I went there and had the interview and liked it because it was editing and it was more editing, so it was building on what I had been doing primarily a fifty percent of the time at Griffique de France. I was like, what were the materials at Fidelity? Okay?

13:39 Sure, so for one K prospectuses, stickers reports, Oh goodness, some of those pretty technical? Then very it was very technical. Yeah, And so my job was to edit them, first of all in English, and then we would farm them out to companies that would translate them. And what we had to do is we had to make sure that when they came back they were translated into Spanish, Spain, Spanish because properly. Yes, exactly. So that's what I was looking for too. Yeah. At a client in the shell, still client from time to time, and a friend political advertising for the Spanish language, and she said, people without her people just butcher it. Oh yeah, it doesn't translate. Well, it's like it's like reading Chinese directions for an American product, you know, yes, yes, yeah, that sounds about right, yeah yeah yeah. And the colloquialisms too. That's really what we were looking for. And it's just like, okay, if we're using a word, a particular word, we have to describe something or to that's associated with a particular product. It has to be throughout, you know, the the entire document. It can't we can't call it something else, someplace else. All right, we're going to take our first break right here. We'll be back in about a minute with Kim Calvey of Boston Edits. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away.

15:11 More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Have you ever dreamt of being on the radio, Well, now it's your chance. Be a radio show guest on the number one ranked internet radio station and promote you and your business for free. Yes you heard it, free business advertising right here on W four cy dot com. Call five six one five zero six four zero three one now to get booked on one of our shows. That's five six one five zero six four zero three one. Get your free advertising now, and now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helenatt. We're back with Kim Calvey.

16:12 She's the owner of Boston Edits, LLC. And she is, I don't want to get it wrong. I'm gonna look at it, look at it one more time real quick. The word lady, Yes, where did that come from? It seems appropriate? But did you come up with that? Did somebody else come up with that? Someone gave that to me. I was at a networking meeting one morning and another member who had trademarked her which her line of business the mortgage lady. She said, right, and she said you should call yourself the word lady. I was like, well, let me Yeah. So I looked on the USPTO web website to see if it was taken and it's not, so I took it. There you go, good move yep, all right. So now take us to the now Consumer Law Center there for about four years. To me, when I hear that, I think of you know, people go there for not just a job, but for the for the mission. I don't know if that's true with you, but tell us about that role in that firm or that organization.

17:12 Better said, yeah, so that role that came to me a good time in my life as well. I mean, I have to say, I mean just I'm lucky. I have been very lucky. So that came to me, and I you know, went for the interview, and I knew that, you know, I was like one of three or four people, and so they offered me the position. I was there for four years and it was a great four years. It flew by in a flash. And my job was and was to edit the chapters or books, depending on what cycle there. And sometimes we were rewriting chapters for supplements and other times we were rewriting whole books. And the lawyers there wrote their content and we had to edit it to make sure stylistically that it was correct, you know, grammatically that then and I mean which that was actually a minor thing because most layers are pretty good writers actually, but also just the way it laid out on the page, and like and then just the like the footnotes, the detailed the way a legal footnote is written, that sort of detail.

18:14 And there were a couple of books where I have to say, like I remember going through one of them and there was a footnote that was like three or four pages long, just the footnote and you have to go through it and then you know, of course the writing is smaller, you know, it's it's it's a very detailed thing. Then yeah, I loved it. This is kind of probably a dumb question, but I'm gonna ask anyway, how do you not go cross side when you're editing something? Yeah, well, that's an excellent question. I think that I've only recently started wearing glasses. I didn't wear glasses when I was working there, So I just think that it's I think you go cross sight if you take your eyes away from it too often. And we would actually talk about that. I remember in staff meetings myself and the other editors that you have you know, the manuscrit tier, you know, the correct manuscript here, and then you've got something else over here. So you're looking at like to at least two different things, sometimes three different things at the same time, and you cannot take your eye off of it. And the second you do, then it's like you can't. You lose your place. It's very disorienting. So where was I?

19:12 And you start to panic and do I have to start over? And yeah, it's it's almost like it's better to keep your eyes on it no matter what. So that's a good answer, all right. So right around that time or just there after, you get became certified, took more education, certified, became a paralegal in twenty fourteen, and then you worked at a law firm. So start with why the decision to become a paralegal. So I had gone to law school for a couple of years and I liked it, but I love the reading and the writing, the litigating forget it. I mean, if I want to argue, I'll do that for sport, but I want it's not what I want to earn my living at.

19:56 So but I thought, okay, I should at least continue this to some degree, and so I decided I've finished my studies as a paralegal. And at the time I met my partner, whom I know, you know, and he even said, he's like, there's so many lawyers out there. He's like, just he's like, you know, everybody needs a pairalegal. And he was right. So in any case, I'm glad for the education for both, but as it turns out, I'm terrible at both. So because I worked when I worked for a law firm, you know, it's a law firm, right, and law firms they have their own cadence, they're their own animal, and you know whether they're you know, and they operate differently from from in house counsel, right, so you know, and and I tried both and again I'm just I'm just not very good at it because at the end of the day, when you're reading and you're writing something, you really need large chunks of time uninterrupted by yourself. And as a paralegal and probably as an attorney, you know, if you're a busy attorney, you've got paara legals working under you. They're constantly asking you for help or something. And then are legal You've got attorneys coming at you. And it's just at the end of the day, it's just not my style.

21:04 So at the end of the day, you played your strength so well. I was just going to say, there's the takeaway there, the lesson. First of I'll do what you enjoy, Yeah, and know your strengths, know your lane. That's really good. All right. We're at another very large company, public company, Analog Devices, so I'm familiar with tell us about that role. So that was that was really short lived. That was a very brief contract role. But the reason I included in my experience is because that was supremely technical, I mean, more so than any of the books I edited at the National Consumer Law Center. I mean they had a whole i mean style, guides and directions on every little thing. And that's not a criticism. It's necessary because the products they're building, you know, that they're selling, are very technical and meant to improve the quality of life and so forth. But that was not particularly creative. So I'm glad for the experience because it does reinforce, you know, my natural tendency to be detail oriented. But in terms of content, it wasn't anything that was like, oh, I'm really enjoying this so or passionate necessarily passionate, Yes, that a better word. What's that? Not necessarily passionate about semiconductors? Right?

22:26 Yeah, for some people, but not this person. So yeah, all right, then Boston edits, right, So you found that it you know, a while you were looks like, while you were at Graphique or somewhere around that time frame, right, So yeah, so it I mean I legitimized it five years ago, in twenty nineteen, but I've been doing it on the side for years. And that's honestly. You know. Once I was finished with analog devices, once I finished my assignment there, it was like, you know what, I have enough of a background, I have enough connections to get started, and I've done enough work, so let me just And I was in a position where I could. I had the luxury of attempting, you know, to start my own business, and here I am five years later. So tell us about the process, you know, the pitfalls. What was the hardest part of starting the company formally, I mean, to make it a living. I think the hardest part was just just I'll tell you what the hardest part was. I would go to when I first started, I went to every single networking group that came my way, large, small, early in the morning, after work, all of that. I went to every single one, and and I would I mean, looking back now, it's like, I can't believe I managed to get anything done. But you know, you go you do that when you're starting up because you want to get the business right and you don't know where it's going to come from. So you go everywhere thinking that you're going to

23:56 get you know, just planting seeds everywhere. You possibly can and within a few months. Maybe that's too long. Maybe maybe I'm one of the luckier ones. I guess, I don't know, but it became patently obvious to be very judicious and where I would spend my time and introduce myself to my target audience. Really, so I became very aware of that quickly and have been focusing my attention on that pool of referrals and so forth since then. Now we do an LLC yet or did the LLC become later become common later? That came in twenty nineteen, Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's so. Yeah, So that was like, that's what I mean.

24:41 It became official, right, you know, yeah, five years ago, five and a half now, yeah, wow. And your early clients came from that networking or do they come from other ways? They? I was in ninety percent of them came through the networking. You know. Obviously, my partner, Brad knows quite a few people, so he made some introductions, and then they made introductions, you know, they introduced themselves. And I did to belong to a couple of other networking organizations too, and I made some contacts who made referrals and so forth, So I will say, I mean what helps is getting your message out, but getting it getting it out correctly, And I hope that's I mean, that's obviously what I helped my clients do, right, because everything's transparent to us, and I was very careful about that. I want to be absolutely clear about who I was and what my services offered, you know, my companies, what my company is about, and why it's valuable to people who might need my services.

25:34 All right, so let's dig in there. We got a few minutes before the bottom of the hour break tell us more about Boston edits. So I say to people, Boston ad it's because I mean, I love to read and I love to write, and this day and age, writing for writing is writing's sake is not enough. There has to be there has to be a couple of different purposes to it. Obviously, when somebody is writing, they're publishing, have something to say and they want people to read it, and that's fine, that's valid. But the writing that I offer my clients is has search engine optimization baked into it because it's digital. So like for example, and I've seen this before, where somebody will will publish a website, right they they finally, you know, they had they put their website together. They've got the content on their webs Yeah, it took the months.

26:22 They did it themselves, and you know, but they they were they they it's so transparent to them that they just wrote. They just wrote it. They didn't have a copy edited, they didn't send it to anybody to have another, you know, set of eyes. I mean, maybe there's significant other pretty awful to say, but I've seen plenty of websites with typos in them. Oh it's it breaks my heart because it's it's like you can't rely on spellcheck. But that that's another story anyhow. So you know, they have their best friend look at it, or their significant other or it even had people say, well, you know, my high school student at home is pretty good in English, and I'm like, okay, And younger kids are certainly more tech savvy, right, So I mean there's there they're there might be some truth to that, but it's still wise to have a professional look at it, right, somebody who's been in the trenches for a long time. And so, you know, when I see people they've they've got a good website, but then they don't know how to advertise it, right, like they don't they're you know, they're not using Google effectively, or they're not they're not using their LinkedIn profile. I mean any but any of my clients. Talk to any one of them, and they'll tell you they've heard me say this a million times because it's true. You know, Google looks for consistency and it looks for visibility, and that's part of the reason why search engine optimization is so important. If you want to be highly visible, you have to bake in that content, right, So you have to in the trade, we call it stuffing. You don't want to use you know, the same word every other word like sales for instance, Right, you know you don't want to do that. That's stuffing and that's obnoxious and everybody hates that. But it has to be mentioned enough on your different pages on your website so that Google indexes that. And you have to also

27:52 be advertising in other places where you have a social media presence, like your LinkedIn profile. Not just your LinkedIn profile, but if your company has a LinkedIn profile has to be used there too, And then you know, you have to post you know periodically they say periodically, but I mean some people post every day. I don't know where they find the time. Some people post once a week, some people post twice a week, and that's just posting. Write a couple of sentences about what it is you do or something you noticed in yeah, video, something like that, right, you know, so Google indexes all that and in order to be you know, because you you, everybody wants to be like the first result on the first page of the search engine results page, right, so that all of the writing supports that goal. So that's what I provide for my clients. That's why that's that's a long explanation, but that's that's what it is. With a bit of understanding of what makes social excuse me SEO work. How realistic is it to be the first place on a list? So it's realistic if you're constantly using it, and if you're using it, you know, like if you're for example, if somebody is looking for a divorce attorney, let's say on the North Shore, Okay, and they say, you know, divorce attorney near me, divorce attorney Essex County divorce litigation, or guardian ad litem.

29:14 If if that family law attorney specializes in either one of those, for instance, that's going to be all over their website. It's going to be they're going to post about it frequently regularly across all social media platforms where they have a presence, So likely they're going to be they're going to come up on the search engine results page. They might not be first if somebody else is paying Google. Right, Yeah, that's that's and that's a different animal. That's another way to go. Oh, that's fine. But to do it organically, and I say, you know, when you look at Google analytics, you look at something organically, it's better if you're doing if you're if you're promoting yourself the way I've suggested, because versus throw dollars at it exactly. So it's a good gag. You can look at your analytics and you can do that for my clients. I see, okay, well you know where how many you know they got phone call? Which I think that's going away by the way, with Google's phone calls. But how how often is somebody coming up first on the search engine results page? Or are they coming up second on the search engine results page? Are they at least coming up on the first search engine results page not buried on page three somewhere.

30:22 Yeah, nobody'll ever get there, right exactly. All right, We're going to take our second break right here, and then we're going to come back and dig more into the work that you do and what it looks like for your clients. Will be right back with Kim Calvey. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin heleneth on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. The yp dot com website is your local search engine. If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews. Or if your car breaks down, you can use the YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night. While it has great local coupons for all sorts of things in your area. No matter what, when or where. If you're looking for something, YP local search can help you find it. So go to YP dot com or download the app to search local, find local, and save local. And now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helene. We are back with Kim Calvey, owner of Boston Edits, LLC, and the word lady. All right, so take us through. Let

31:53 me mention a topic that you reference in terms of the work that you do, and just give us a little bit about that particular service. Writing blogs, Okay, it's one of my favorite things to do. So I write blogs for my clients, not all of them, but some of them. One of them in particular, I've been writing his blog, his monthly blog for every month for the past four years now. And yeah, and so the way I managed that initiative is he and I meet once a month, same time via zoom. I record the conversation and then he just talks about whatever it is he wants to talk about in business and his business, or maybe not his business, but maybe something he's seeing in the market as a trend that other business owners should be aware of, because a lot of his clients are business owners. And so then I take that and then I write my blog based on his comments, and it's usually two or three pages, and then I send it to him and he approves it. He makes a couple of edits, which is good. I always worried what somebody sends me something back without any edits. It's like, did you even read it?

32:55 Because sol is the term of art that they know that once they read it, they're like, oh, I should say this here. Okay, that's fine because that didn't come up in conversation, and you know, he'll send it back to me. And then I posted on one of his websites, and then I posted on his LinkedIn profile, on his businesses LinkedIn profile, and you know, just make sure that and then I push it on his LinkedIn profile, push it to all of the groups that he belongs to, to really cast the net why, to really emphasize that he's a subject matter expert in what he's talking about, and he truly is. And he's one of the nicest people I've ever met. I mean, all my clients are nice people, because you know, I avoid working with jerks, but very good, right, And he's a pleasure to work with. And I learn as much as you know, I mean, I'm not just writing, but I always pick up a tip or two as well, and so I get more out of it than just the writing. I love it all right, new website copy and differentiate that from additions or edits to existing copy. I don't know, Yeah, so well I'll do both. So for example, somebody will say, like, I've I've gotten new clients who they have a great website. You know, they came to me with a great website, but there were a couple of you know, typos on the homepage, and and I would point that out and old then go ahead and do an entire

34:27 copy editor proofread of the whole website. Copy editing and proofreading are two different things, by the way, so I would, so I will, and then we make those changes, and there we go. Sometimes someone will come to me and they'll say, like, one of my first clients, she had a website that was like it was launched when websites were the new big thing, right, So it was a while ago, and her law practice changed a little bit, her father retired, so there were some changes we had to make to her website and also websites back in the day, you know, started out. We're not as dynamic, we're not as snazzy, right, very truncated, very ugly. Right. The first website I was involved was the mid nineties. That's a while ago. Yeah, yeah, and maybe hers was too. So anyway, so I inherited that and so I basically I rebuilt her website and it completely changed the look of it, and then we rewrote all of the content too, because when the website was launched, she was a younger attorney. Now she's certainly more established. It's more to say she's been published, she's more accomplished in her practice area.

35:32 And so we had to make sure that we emphasized that on her website, which we did, and so that was you know, that was that was good copy. That was that was a good project. I mean talk about you know, sinking your teeth into something for sure and making a difference. That's good social media content. I think we get that, but talk about it and collateral m right, So collateral that's a broad term. So that could yes, So what that means is pretty much anything my client needs it to me really. So like for example, I've had clients, one of my first clients still a good client in Manchester, New Hampshire, and I mean I built his website for him, did the and I still manage it to this day, write his blogs. But I also because he's involved in a lot of charities, He's asked me, you know, can you write this letter, can you you know, can you put together this help put together this bursure for his own company. I put together sell sheets. He asked me to do that. One day. He just called me up.

36:30 So I'd like to have sell sheets on these four topics. Okay, so I did you know. We had a conversation about it so I could get some more detail. But then I just curated a lot of the content from the website and then just obviously what I knew about him, what I know about his business. So that's an example of collateral, and those would be charged hourly versus project or retainer. Well, no, for my existing clients, those are there. It falls into the auspices of what I do for them as a retainer client. Yeah, yeah, I'm occasionally though, I mean, like I a client will say, like I've got a couple of clients that they have me just do their social media posts, you know, once or twice a month, whatever it is. But if they were asked me, look, I need to brochure, Okay, then that's a separate project, right. But the thing with editing copyright. It's really I don't like charging by the hour because I don't know how long something is going to take, and I certainly don't want to misquote somebody. I'd rather just say here's the here's the you know, the investment fee, you know, for it for the entire project, you know, versus here's what I charge an hour. That's because I don't want to overcharge it. I want to undercharge you know, nobody. Somebody's gonna somebody's gonna lose under that arrangement. No, that's very good website development. That's starting from scratch, right, Do you do the technical part? Do you find that out? No? I do that. I do that too. I build it right from scratch.

37:55 Yeah, yep. And I you know, yeah, I've done I don't know how many have I done now, I don't know, more than a dozen, less than twenty in the past five years. Yeah, they a look different. My fingerprints are all over, but they are just good. That's rolled up your sleeves because you know what, I see a number of websites that look very much the same. Right, Yeah, well is that well? See, here's the thing. So another one of my trademarks is your voice heard through the written word. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. Go ahead, Yeah, okay, so we've heard this before. Two and two will always equal. For it doesn't matter who does the math, right, but what matters is how we get there. So you could have you know, a again, I'll just go back to family law. You could go, you know, you have a family law attorney who focuses on you know, litigation and is also a guardian ad item and focuses on complex asset division for instance. And then you could have another family law attorney who who you know, focuses on the adoption or restraining orders or same sex unions. Okay, so those those are different subjects within family law A number one, number two. The way they express themselves, those two different attorneys is very different. One might be a little bit more you know, to the point, and and somebody else might you know, and they're not I mean, I'm just I'm just making this up now, but somebody else can be a little bit more fluid, and the way they communicate and

39:28 just you know, more relaxed, and and so they're they're their tone is different. So the writing has to reflect that, not just the language, but their tone. Because what I say to my clients when they before, you know, when they're contemplating working with me, is you know, we want somebody to go to your website and we want somebody to look at your website and read it and say, I like how this person communicates. I feel like how they're how they're communicating resonates with me. And that's personality there, Yes, individual personality, not just that they're subject matter expert, but also what makes them unique different because you know, again somebody else could do the work, but you're going to get you know, a better result if you like the person how they're communicating with you. So that's important to capture in the content industry. Publications. Yes, so a couple of my clients, one of them I've gotten into Forbes in Fortune and that was great.

40:22 It wasn't yeah, it wasn't just advertising. It was a full page article about his particular practice. That's going to be difficult what his practice or no getting an article published. They worked with us, you know, they were really good there. They were pros too, so they made it easy. I mean, I think that if I hadn't been involved, it might have been a little it. I might have taken a little bit longer because you know attorneys. Attorneys are there to do their job, okay, you know, like they you know the social media that that's somebody else's job, right, which is why they have me. So I was able to I mean, they interviewed him directly, but I saw the article and I was like, okay, well, before you send it to him, you have to let me see it first because I know I'm going to have to make some changes that he's going to want before he sees it. So we're going to make it is easy for him to review as possible. And that's what happens.

41:07 That's really good. Yep. Yeah, so well it's the value add So anyway, so it was published as a full page. It's it's beautiful, it's you know, one of the things I'm most proud of in terms of projects, proud of for myself. Was certainly proud for him. And then yeah, another same attorney and then another attorney. I got into some publications that are sent out to country clubs, which makes sense for that particular potential clientele. So yeah, so that's that's something that comes my way to that I know I've got connections on LinkedIn and news outlets and publications. So every now and then it's good to know those people because they'll reach out to me, or maybe I'll see something that they post in the feed and it's kind of like, oh, hey, I saw that you wrote about this.

41:54 I'm curious about that because I might have somebody who might be interested in that. Sometimes it works that way cool. I like it. Video bios m yes, so so I have video equipment. That's one of those things that's not especially developed with Boston edits. But I do have all of the lighting, and I do have all of the sound equipment and so forth. So if anybody wanted to do a video, you know, like I could go to their office and you know, with their their company, and you hook up the mic to them the mic pack, and we could walk around their office, set up their background. You make sure they're in the right place, right environment, right, lighting? Oh yeah, for sure? Yeah yeah, I mean I've got the backdrop, I've got the lighting and oh yeah. Is there a loss somewhere that says that lawyers have to be in front of books. I think they think there is. I think they think there is. That's funny, right, yeah, But but I mean, I've you know, a couple of lawyers. You know, one of them likes to sit behind his desk with plants behind him, and another one likes to sit at his conference table, and you know, just just with a couple of So I mean, everybody's got their own style, and I think that it's important too. I mean that style is just as important as the content. I mean, the content is written, and that's fine, but to really make an impact, you had to have the for lack of a better way of putting it, window dressing. And because the style, the presentation is what matters too. For sure. Hey, you mentioned something a little while ago. Clarify copy editing from proofreading. Yeah, so proofreading

43:29 is basically like a cognitive thing. For example, like when I proofread a blog that I'm getting ready to publish. Before I hit send or published, i'm proof reading it, I already know that I've copy edited, so and proof reading is easier because I'm looking for cognitive like, for example, is every is the first letter of every sentence capitalized? Is there a period at the end of every sentence? They're crrec spacing between each sentence one space or two? One will do one now and honestly, it took a long time for me to get used so I freely admit that. You know what I mean, you probably know, but most people don't realize why that was. Because in typing school they would teach you period space space. Yeah, oh I remember that, and on online and digital doesn't need that spacing, right, yep, I know, but it still took me a long time to get used to. So yeah, so that's another thing that's for proof reading in particular. That's what I have to correct a lot of it. I took a typing class in high school. You did so paid off. I mean it paid off right exactly. Oh yeah, yeah. So so I will proof read, you know, to make sure, like cognitively, that everything looks the way it's supposed to quote where they're supposed to be. Like, for example, and this is a big one, sometimes a word will repeat at the end of one line and the beginning of the next. Yeah, that's that, you know, that's something else you have to look out for. But and and there are other checks that us word nerds performed to make sure that nothing is you know, published before it should be has to be you know, correct. So that's that's an example, copy editing is

45:01 different. Copy editing is when, like, for example, and I've got a couple of clients who they're very good writers. So they write their own blogs, and that's fine and that's what they want to do, but they will send it to me to copy edit, and you know, I take out my proverbial red sharpie and I make it bloody because like, for example, like maybe they'll use punctuation that's not quite correct, or they use a word like the world, I don't know, increase, they use it three times in two sentences, like that sort of thing. That's copy editing, Like that's getting into the copy. That's that's okay, We've got to polish this up a little bit, use other words, use other punctuation, maybe shorten a sentence, or maybe take a sentence that's too long and break it into two. That's copy editing. How about this is something I learned in the eleventh grade. It's amazing how we can think back and remember this stuff.

45:51 The first sentence has to be the subject line. Yeah, I don't think most people do that. I think they write with more of a stream of consciousness. Then that's the rule. Yeah, okay, but rules are made to be broken. So lots of times you'll get an introductory sentence, like for my own writing, I'm I'm good with that. I will start off like I don't and and this is this kind of you know is cont well, it is, but it's also it's you know, I mean, I've been told I have an intense personality, but when I'm writing, I start off kind of slow, like I will say, you know, this year has been you know, we've noticed this in the market. We've noticed this da da da da da. But how about how does it how does it relate to this subject? You know, it kind of lead up to it instead of landing on someone like a ton of bricks. I mean, both are effective and in the right context, both are necessary. Either is necessary. All right, So here's the point you mentioned before. H I'll just read this is from your from your bio or from your website, employing copywriting skills, line editing, copywriting, copy editing, and profiting skills as appropriate. Your goal is to pair the foundation of American English grammar rules with consistent use of your client's original voice to create a unique brand entity, sorry, a unique brand identity which speaks clearly and concisely to their intended audience.

47:20 That kind of summarizes that. Well, I think, thank you, Yeah, yeah. I worked on that sentence a while because that there are three different thoughts and that's one sentence. You know, it's like, okay, and I say that to people. Let me break it down for you. My writing is three pronged, write your voice American English grammar, and I just drew a blank? What's the third thing? The I can't even believe this, hold on, just scrolled past it. This is what I'm saying when I talk about things being transparent. Foundation of American English grammar rules consistently used for your client's original voice and unique brand identity. The brand identity, because that's the thing that is. The brand identity is really the result. So if you have somebody's voice, you use grammar correctly, it's going to create a unique brand, a new unique product for your client, which is their brand, their brand identity. You know, how they how they want to come across. You know, it's just I mean, they're subject matter experts, So how do we present that again in a way that is going to resonate with their intended audience? And honestly, you know, their intended audience isn't just who they want for potential clients. It's also there are good referral sources too as to make sense to their referral sources. So you know, that's that's another reason why it's important to be very clear in what what you do and who you know who for hey, believe it or not, we are up against the end of time here who I know? Right, So it's just going to go fast. Who in the listening and viewing audiences should reach out to you and why? And those watching and listening, you'll

48:50 see the well watching in particularly, you'll see the crawl with her details. Sure. So the a good referral for me is somebody who is you know, they're a top performer. They're busy with what they're doing their B to B and they know that their social media presence is lacking and that it's sporadic, like maybe they have a website but they haven't looked at they never look at it. They haven't looked at it in five or ten years. And you know, they know that the content is you know, it could be could be more robust now because maybe their business has changed a little bit. Maybe they're offering a couple of other services they've expanded. You know, they're they don't use social media to the full because they'd like to, because they know that they should. You know, their LinkedIn profile is you know, barely a secondary consideration, but they'd like to start using it more because they know that the referral sources are looking at their LinkedIn profile. So they want to present well, they want to posture themselves. Well. So good clients for me? Are you anybody in B to B who just knows that their social media presence, you know, and also that they're not using Google effectively either, so you know, your website Google LinkedIn in particular, on top of everything else that we talked about. Those are good clients for me.

50:01 People who know that they just need to turn it up a few notches to streamline their online presence and really showcase why they're subject matter experts and what it is that they do. Yeah, try a Google search on what you think people are searching and see where you land. Well that's the thing. Yeah, Yeah, a lot of my clients will say to me like, yeah, I can't even find myself. I'm like, listen, thank you so much, Kim. I know you've been here. Thanks for being here. I appreciate it. This was fun. Thank you so much. Kevin. You're welcome, and thank you everybody for watching and listening. This is a show about business and business challenges. If you've got concerns about the growth of your company, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio, or you can drop me a note. One of my many email addresses is Kevin at Winning Business Radio dot com. Our company is Winning Incorporated, part of Sandler Training. We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. We know are not right for everybody, but hey, maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you to producer and engineer one for another job well done. Thank you one. Be sure to be our next week Monday, June tenth. We're gonna do it all over again. Until then, this is Kevin Helenan. You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Helenan. If you missed any part of this episode. The podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio.

51:23 For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio w four cy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio