"What kind of editor do I need?"
(2 min read)

Excellent question! It depends on what stage of the process you are in and the needs you identify. It likely also realistically depends on your budget.



There are four generally accepted types of editors:

• Developmental Editors
• Line Editors
• Copyeditors
• Proofreaders

What is a Developmental Editor?
This is your "big picture" editor and the first line of editors you may hire. This person reviews your story arc, chapter organization, and offers suggestions about your genre or ways to tighten up your story line.

What is a Line Editor?
This editor works more at the paragraph and sentence level to ensure smooth flow of your work. This is where language and style improvement happens. 

What is a Copyeditor?
This is often who you think of when you think "editor." These editors look at grammar, spelling, punctuation, fact checking, and general consistency.

What is a Proofreader?
A proofreader is your final check to make sure there are no typos, double words, incorrect words (to, too, vs two), or punctuation errors. They even check typesetting to be sure headings are consistent and there are no "orphans" or "widows" - words that hyphenate poorly across pages or paragraphs. Proofreading and Copyediting are two distinctly different services but often blend together for authors. Many such editors ensure they're proficient at both levels to offer both services. 

Extra Book Assistants

• A ghostwriter writes on your behalf. You may have a story burning inside you but have no time or talent to actually write the work. A ghostwriter would partner with you to get your voice on paper and into the world.
• Alpha or Beta Readers are an audience guide to help an author be sure the work resonates with readers. They help catch any jarring transitions or inconsistencies in characters or plot that weren't necessarily addressed by editors who more deal with the words on the page. These may be paid or free services. 

"Aunt Suzy" is Not a Good Editor
Whoever you ask to assist you in the editing process of your book, it really is worth spending at least some money for fresh, unbiased eyes to review your work to make it the best it can be. "Aunt Suzy" may have been a high school or college teacher, but she loves you dearly and will read as if you're absolutely brilliant. 

It is not unusual for humans to "read" words that are not actually in print. As the author, we know what we mean to say so may "read" words that aren't on the page. It's also easy to more quickly skim the work rather than see every dotted "i" or crossed "t" for errors in words or punctuation. In writing the work, you've reviewed and looked at the work so many times, you become a bit "blind" to how it may flow or read to others. 

I've added a couple of resources for your reference.
This post summarizes and touches lightly on the differences between the types of editors. The Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) offers publicly available resources to help guide you including a more extensive Guide and a Rate Chart to help you budget for editors.

You've poured your heart, soul, and time into this work - doesn't it deserve the best treatment with editing services optimizing it? 

I provide a number of services - including proofreading and copyediting - for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!

Q: "What's one thing you wish more authors knew before handing over their manuscript for proofreading?" 
(3 min read)

What an amazing question! I actually have three ideas for you to consider to streamline the process and maximize your budget.

Get familiar with the publication process
There is A LOT to know ABOUT publishing before you get serious about writing. 

• How long can you expect it to take to have a finished product once you're done writing? It can be as long as a year with a publishing house or a few months if you're doing it on your own with guidance.
• How will you publish - through a publishing house or independently? 
• What is your budget like? This will be important as you consider the number of editors to involve in your process, your marketing plan, and number of ISBN codes to purchase to name a few.
• Wait - NUMBER of ISBN codes? Yes - you need a unique code for each publication method (Kindle, paperback, audio, and more)
• Will you publish exclusively on Amazon or additional locations? Amazon has a very particular system that does not translate well to other publishers and more ISBN codes may be needed. 

Get your marketing plan in place
Books don't sell themselves! It takes a lot of work and time, by you or others if you hire assistance.

Marketing is best if you begin creating an audience while you're still writing your work! Create your tribe as you go. Keep them involved in your process along the way. Share all the highs and lows of putting your work out there! You'll have a hungry market by the time you're ready to sell.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Consider creating a website for yourself, your upcoming book, and maybe future books!
• A website makes a great place to host your blog to journal your journey along the way and get readers interested. Give them a way to leave comments and interact!
• Social media - focus on two social media platforms where you think your audience may be. Some even feature particular zones for authors! Don't spread your time and energy too thin on many platforms. 
  • TikTok has BookTok within it - kind of a hashtag within TikTok.
  • Bookstagram is within Instagram. 
  • Goodreads has an Author Program to promote your book.
  • Create a social page for your book on any of the social media platforms.
• Email subscriber lists are a great way to involve your audience in the process!
  • Email addresses are all yours and not at the whim of social media.
  • You can include pieces of all of your other locations (blog, socials) inside one email. 
  • Emails can have interactive aspects to ask questions, create polls, and involve your audience in publication decisions like choosing a book jacket or title.

The more you can involve an interested audience along your publication journey, the more likely they will be to buy once produced and share with others.

Proofread BEFORE formatting
Finally to tackle proofreading in particular! Proofreading is the FINAL step in your editing process! You should have at least 1-2 other editors involved prior to proofreading. 

• Developmental editor - If you need a hand before you really even start writing, this is the best place to start. This editor helps you formalize your book outline and flesh out some character or story development. 
• Alpha or beta readers - These are readers to provide feedback on your story, whether they were carried away in the work, or if they felt gaps. These can be paid or unpaid roles, but choose folks who are not your (biased) loving family. 
• Copy editor/line editor - These editors help you fine tune the word flow, move sentences around, cut or build sentences as needed.
• Proofreader - The final step to literally dot your i's and cross your t's! A proofreader will make sure any typos are caught or the correct to/too/two was used. They will help you adhere to a style guide. Fiction authors may be more inclined to create worlds and break rules to suit their intent rather than follow a style guide. 
• Formatting - Your publisher takes care of this or you may decide to hire someone to assist you. This ensures the numbers are where your readers expect (even pages on left, odd pages on right) and the page size is correct for how it will be published. Page structure can be radically changed with minor word changes. If at least a couple of editors have reviewed your work already, a proofreader's review after formatting isn't a crisis.

When to Hire a Proofreader? 
​A proofreader takes action at the end of an author's process, but there's much to consider before you get there. 

• Plan out your entire publication process - do your research into what's involved
• Get your marketing plan in place
• Get proofreading done BEFORE formatting but AFTER at least one other editor!

Any advice to add from your experiences with proofreaders?

I provide a number of services - including proofreading - for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!

Which is Best?
(3 min read)
​
As we wrap up our Human vs AI series on Read. Write. Engage, we'll look at how AI is doing to ENGAGE your audience. Our earlier editions focused on AI in (proof)Reading and Writing. 

My take on AI in proofreading - strongly on Team Human.

AI in writing - AI does better, but I still lean heavily on Team Human.

To ENGAGE your customer, there are useful AI tools available, but it all relies on human involvement and simply BEING human—interacting with other humans as a human.

How Does AI "Engage" with Customers?
To ENGAGE your customers, there are a myriad of tasks you do. Engaging is a composite of activities to ultimately connect with your customer. 

• Various marketing efforts - create a brand kit, strategy, create PR items
• Website creation and maintenance
• Emails & Blog posts
• Social media
• Meet & Greet your customers, potential clients, and fellow business leaders

What CAN AI Do?
AI may be in template-based products you use. This includes Canva for logo, flyer, or newsletter designs. AI can be in template-based website hosts such as Wix, Squarespace, and WordPress. AI is embedded to help you get creative to improve your words, images, or overall design. 

AI is amazing at analytics. AI can help you be more precise in customer messaging by reviewing your donor or sales information. AI can review your sales data to help suggest products to your customer for you to personalize your emails. (CRM or Customer Relationship Management tools such as Hubspot)

AI can help you review your Pinterest idea boards for your next event to nail your clear decorating favorites or logo design ideas. 

AI is useful in social media management to schedule posts, help you write the content, and capture the most catchy headline for your post or blog. 

AI can even help identify potential customers. You can use it to bring your customer personas to life. You can identify where your customers are - conventions to consider attending to network, appropriate businesses that fit your model, or potential contacts to cold email or connect on socials. ChatGPT and similar tools are great assistants for this.

What CAN'T AI Do?
​AI does no good TALKING to your customers. That simply can't be replaced. It's up to YOU to TALK with your customers in person, in messages, on the phone, and in emails. 

AI is supposedly able to compose emails for you and can become seemingly adept at getting familiar with your writing voice if you use it frequently. It definitely needs oversight and a final review before hitting "send" and often needs some adjustments, but it can help you make the task easier. 

AI is supposedly useful on websites and phones with "chat bots" or "AI agents." They may help in a limited manner, but I've never met a useful chat bot yet. After about three questions, I'm ready to throw the phone or computer in search of a human, except now I'm frustrated, which isn't a great way to talk with someone, and it leaves a lousy impression of your brand.

There is absolutely no replacing the benefit of human interaction at networking events, even if those events are online. AI simply can't do that.

Team Human or Team AI
AI can be a useful tool. It is no replacement for the human factor. Any use of AI should be to complement you as a human. 

The ongoing development of AI will push us to clarify and identify what IS important to us about each other and what the human factor is. 

What is the best way to ENGAGE your customers? Be human! YOU are the secret ingredient!

Where do you use AI in your efforts to ENGAGE with your customer? Love to hear your thoughts!

I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!

Which Is Best? 
(3 min read)

As we continue our Human vs AI series at Read. Write. Engage, we'll take a look at how AI is doing in writing tasks. Last week, we considered AI as a proofreader where I'm still strongly on Team Human. 

In writing, AI is more useful.

AI in Writing
This is a task AI has been trained to do as one of its core functions. We can now ask AI to return information to us from a variety of "voices" or reference points and it does fairly well. We can provide prompts such as "You are an experienced marketer" or "Provide the information at a level of a 5th grader" and get reasonable suggestions.

Paul Roetzer of the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute and SmarterX has created a JobsGPT using ChatGPT as its basis. Paul is a marketer by trade. He notes on the home page of JobsGPT that in Content Creation, "LLM can generate drafts for blog posts, social media content, and email campaigns. It can also assist with editing and optimizing content for SEO and engagement," saving 30-50% of your time. JobsGPT was introduced in this blog post dated August 13, 2024 for how dated the 30-50% reference may be. 

AI in Research
​This is another task AI has been trained to do and it does fairly well. For the benefits of AI, writing and research are two of its highest skills. 

Research is key for many writing tasks, be it writing an article, blog post, a term paper, or simply providing information to others. Many times it's useful to find details, further information on a topic, or corroborate (or refute) whatever point a writer is trying to make. 

We now have two tasks useful for AI in writing. 

Can I Write A Book with AI?
I'd give that an emphatic no!

Many editors - and readers - can tell the difference. It may not be noted immediately, but heavy AI use will get caught at some point, even years later. Many proofreaders and editors find themselves on the front line of identifying AI generated or plagiarized material in books. An ethical concern develops about reporting it to authors or publishers or even editing books with a high percentage of seemingly AI generated material. 

Former Harvard President Claudine Gay faced fierce consequences with questions of plagiarism that she strongly denied. The use of AI makes it more difficult to clearly define your words vs someone else's. 
​
It's fascinating to find that AI books are becoming more visible due to the volume of work produced daily, even attributed to legitimate authors who had nothing to do with the work! Amazon is trying to stem the tide (and confusion) by limiting self-published Kindle books to three per day. 

Do We Need Humans?
Can I get a hearty "Heck yeah!" on this! 

Whatever writing AI provides, it needs shaped. All AI developers admit and recommend this. AI has been trained with an enormous volume of information to synthesize quickly in a general way to provide a generally satisfactory response suitable for a broad audience. 

Whatever information AI provides, humans need to shape it further with prompts or put their own writing to work. AI provides broad, general information. 

AI continues to need fact checked. "Hallucinations" occur where the AI may provide examples or websites that aren't even real yet look very real. AI tends to be eager to please and does its best to provide what it thinks you're looking for, whether it's real or not. Always ask AI for its sources, but even those need confirmed.

AI cannot replicate your very special and individual voice and perspective on the world. AI is data and information,  an aggregate of many, not feelings or experiences. 

Team Human or Team AI?
I have to admit to a blend on this. Many humans using AI do find it useful to assist writing and research. 

Personally? I weigh more heavily on Team Human here.

• I'm fortunate to be decent at writing. I know not everyone is.
• I use it to assist research as an amped up search engine. 
• It's a useful idea generator to find connections I may not have made.

Transparency and AI
A discussion is always advisable to be clear the level of AI used to create a work and be sure all are agreeable. I see a Human© tag becoming likely in the future!

In the realm of writing, are you on Team Human or Team AI? Love to hear your thoughts!

I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!

Which Is Best?
(3 min read)

Ah, a classic response - "it depends." 

It depends on the level of accuracy you want. Yes, humans do have failure rate—tools are your friend—but there are plenty of examples sharing "hallucinations" of AI or simply wrong source material or "where did it even get that from"!

We should be able to agree that AI needs humans to double-check its work. AI is very much in its infancy and is in a training phase. You wouldn't let your 4-year-old proofread your doctorate dissertation or business proposal, would you? 

What About Cost?
Ah—another "it depends" response.

Many seem to choke on the price to hire a trained proofreader. Absolutely understandable. If you're an author, there are many layers of editors to consider hiring, each with a different purpose, giving pause to consider how many is really necessary or useful. Can't you just pass it to Aunt Mary who used to be a teacher? I suppose so, but how long has she been retired or what subject did she teach? Is she really the best proofreader to help your project be amazing?

There are many less expensive options on Fivvr or Upwork. Many offering their services on these platforms are often new to proofreading or from another country where English is not the native language. It makes a difference in how your work is proofread. 

What About AI Options?
Many have heard of Grammarly as a great AI editing/proofreading resource. There are similar services available. Grammarly readily notes it uses AI to "improve" writing suggestions. Be sure to see if your AI proofreading tool follows a style guide if it's critical for your work.

If you need to follow a particular style guide for your work, Grammarly admits it uses a rather general frame of grammar reference. If you need to follow CMOS (Chicago Manual of Style), AP (Associated Press Stylebook), AMA (American Medical Association), or other style guides, Grammarly will not be useful.

Team Human or Team AI?
Many proofreaders and editors feel bound by a standard of ethics to call out writers using a high level of AI to create their work. I'll admit, I advise caution in this. Many now blend their own words with assistance from AI. It's a subjective scale to decide level of human vs AI and determine what's predominantly AI.

Plagiarism checkers have historically been challenged on their level of accuracy. This is an interesting article from the University of Kansas urging caution in plagiarism checkers. We're all cautioned on the need to fact check AI results. I've found many instances of AI "hallucination" or just plain making things up. Many folks even fight suggestions offered in Office's Word with good reason! 

AI is useful as an idea generator and to help refine your thoughts, but as a proofreader? Sure, I'm biased, but I'm on Team Human all the way for proofreading. 

Transparency and AI
The best bet is to be up front with your clients how much of your proofreading work is human vs AI assisted. There are a number of tools available to proofreaders to maximize their eyes catching errors. I wouldn't consider all of them "AI," such as the use of "macros" or PerfectIt. Could an author use these tools themselves and not a proofreader? Sure thing! I suggest it depends on the cost of the tool and your time, how prolific you may be in your writing, vs hiring a trained proofreader who may use these tools to assist their human read-through. Hiring a proofreader should carry the expectation of 1-2 human readings of your work and not fully rely on tools.

I predict a day will come soon where work will be stamped as Human© as there is already a demand by some to note AI use.

In the realm of proofreading, are you on Team Human or Team AI? Love to hear your thoughts!

I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors. I look forward to discussing ways to Engage your customers - Let's Chat!

Evacuation Planning
(3 min read)

Natural (and unnatural/man-made) disasters have been in the news a lot in 2024 and 2025 is not starting much better. Hurricanes, Polar Vortex, and fires to name a few large-scale recent disasters. I've been incredibly fortunate in my life, but the "prepper" is strong within me. I suspect that's a combination of being raised by Depression-era parents and being Mom of a family of four. Let's now add a business owner to the mix!

How Do You Plan
You start with the advantage of Time with no disasters in your life. (a crazy schedule does not count as a "disaster"!) On one of your "CEO Days," start with simply 30 minutes - more if you're lucky - and make some lists. Grab your favorite drink and some calming music for background noise. Whatever you do to get focus.

Start with a Checklist
There are plenty of checklists readily available on an online search. There are books on disaster planning. If you live in an area with a higher risk of natural (or unnatural/man-made) disasters, you may even have a "bug out bag" of items in the back of your vehicle to simply GO if the need arises. 

Reviewing a basic list as shown here, these are items you may have multiple copies of depending on your needs. Items may be in a fire resistant lock box and you have copies ready to be portable. You may have some items stored elsewhere deemed safer or at least in more than one location. (not all in your home) This is often recommended for external hard drives/tech back-up. The idea is chances are high that disaster would not impact multiple locations.

Goals - Love 'Em or Hate 'Em?
It's that time of the year when everyone is talking about or thinking about GOALS. It's a natural topic at a milestone like the start of a new year.

But it doesn't need to be only at the start or end of a year. Any time is good! And sometimes they need updated along the way. 



Focused or Loose Goals?
How detailed do you get?

• Do you create SMART goals? (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely)
• Do you call your goals Resolutions? (maybe less intimidating?)
• Do you prefer to keep your goals fairly general and let the winds of the world guide you? 

Quitter's Day
The 2nd Friday in January has become known as Quitter's Day! By this time, many have already fallen short of New Year's goals and just quit all resolutions. Perfectionism is a challenge for many and some decide "If I can't achieve all of them, then none of them are worth pursuing." 

No One Size Fits All
You can find a lot of "Goal Gurus" out there with a variety of suggestions for how to develop goals.

• Jon Acuff has a number of books on the subject. His philosophy is "...a goal is the fastest path between where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. Best of all, finishing a goal feels amazing." Jon is also very data driven as a motivator for goals. He suggests  folks create spreadsheets or some sort of tracking mechanism to note progress or even number of times taking steps to achieve a goal. It IS exciting to check boxes on achievements and even count achievements!
• James Clear is more about process than goals. "Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress." A goal treats "a symptom without addressing the cause." 

What Kind of a Goal Setter Are You?

• Do you even bother with goals or learned long ago you do fine without them?
• You create and track your goals religiously along the way? 
• Somewhere in the middle with a few specifics but more go-with-the-flow?
• More process based and create systems rather than goals?

As we look to the new year, how are you setting yourself up for success? 

If you're looking for strategy or marketing assistance to create engagement for your business, Let's Chat! I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors.

Networking - The Key to Your Next Job
That is not an understatement. Various sources indicate 70% or more of jobs are attributed to the power of networking. The number is hard to pin down but multiple sources agree with its importance. I've written about the value of events, volunteering, and LinkedIn. 

What IS Networking?
Networking is simply meeting and chatting with others. This can be done in person, at events, virtually, online - however you meet people. I'm at local recent events in the photos.
​
PHOTO: Three smiling women sitting around a table reviewing resumes.

WHY Network?
Many employers tend to hire someone they know personally, are at least familiar with, or someone in their organization is familiar with. It reduces the "get to know you" factor to identify a fit for a corporate culture. 

Many jobs aren't even officially posted on job boards but are shared among employees to share with contacts. Employers may even have an incentive or bonus program to encourage employee referrals! 

PHOTO: Group photo at a local restaurant.

Who is in Your Network?
Basically everyone you know, including those you only vaguely know, like those you connect with online. Anyone and everyone can become part of your network - you just never know!

• Family
• Friends
• Co-workers
• Past employers and employees
• Connections on social media
• Fellow conference, webinar, "live," or audio room participants
• Networking associations
• Fellow volunteer and club members
• Those at your child's school or extracurriculars
• The person standing in line with you!

How Do You Network?
Simply begin chatting with folks - anyone and everyone! Have a ready smile and be prepared to make small talk. Play a game with yourself to find commonalities with who you're speaking with! Indeed offers a number of ideas.

Introverts: Baby steps. Start online or wherever you're comfortable. Start with comments on socials posts. Begin the conversation by writing something - nearly anything! - about a topic that's easy and comfortable for you: gardening, something you did over the weekend, a special hobby or talent of yours. Then respond to comments. Then try it again. Attend LinkedIn events - lives or audio rooms - and simply be seen, react, comment if that's an option. 

Have business cards at the ready to continue conversations on socials or by email when you meet someone in person. 

Follow-up after chatting with someone if you have a way to reach out! That's where a business card can help provide email addresses or social profiles. 

Offer a way to demonstrate your skills and personality! Consider volunteering to assist someone or create a small free gift that fits with your business. A gift can be

• a downloadable informative pdf
• a list of resources
• a quiz to educate and have fun 
• something tangible like a tea bag or small candle that relates to your business

Offer your Time if that's better suited to your goals. Volunteer at an event related to your field of interest or job.

Get Focused!
It makes a difference! Occupational Outlook Quarterly offers a resource that remains timely.

• Webinars, courses, certification programs - focus on your career or skill aspirations.
• Use the power of A.I! Prompt for lists of potential businesses that meet your desired job criteria. 
• Social searches - LinkedIn has a robust search filter option to identify jobs or skill sets to develop a focused list to connect with or follow. 
• Find opportunities to interact with those in your focused field or business. 

Getting Warmer?
I'm a far bigger fan of the power of "warm" leads over "cold." 

• "Warm" leads are folks you have some thread of a connection with - you're in the same social media group, you're seen commenting on posts, or you've met in person or virtually.
• "Cold" leads are those you have zero recognition or connection with - straight out of the blue. You may strike it lucky with these, but they're really a long shot. Those who recommend reaching out to "cold" leads admit it takes sending messages to hundreds before getting even one response. 

Do you network? Love it? Hate it? 

If you're looking for brand marketing or communication assistance, I offer a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, fellow entrepreneurs, and authors - Let's Chat! 

Current Fave Podcasts
Do you listen to podcasts? They're a favorite free education tool of mine! Many can also be found on YouTube if you prefer video content. This is my one-hour guaranteed daily education time while walking the neighborhood.

Marketing Focus
There are a few on my current "Can't Miss" playlist that I catch as soon as they're released. As I developed this list, I realized there are a number of marketing shows I listen to fairly regularly. This does not include a few others I'm looking forward to testing, but I won't make recommendations if I haven't listened. 

I was originally going to also cover LinkedIn and A.I. podcasts, but the list for all became far too long. Future content!

General Marketing Podcasts
All of these podcasts are easily searchable but a link is provided to find them. You should be able to find nearly all on whatever your podcast player platform is. 

Names are linked predominantly to the host's LinkedIn profile for your following and connecting convenience - one prefers Facebook/Instagram over LinkedIn. 

• This Old Marketing with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose: These guys are a fun hour to catch up on the marketing news of the week, perfect on your next walk or gym session! They're long-time, experienced marketers and published authors. 
• Marketing Mentor Podcast with Ilise Benun: Ilise covers the gamut of marketing topics. Most episodes run from 15-30 min but there are outliers on both sides. 
• Content Inc with Joe Pulizzi: These episodes are very short - 5 minutes weekly is Joe's goal. These are bite-sized nuggets of actionable marketing. 
• Distribution First with Justin Simon: Justin shares weekly how to produce once and distribute in multiple formats to maximize your marketing energy.
• Do This Not That with Jay Schwedelson: Jay is a fun listen who keeps testing new focus concepts on his show. He also posts generally 3 days/week, roughly 10-15 minute sessions. His shows are a mix of marketing and random pop chat. 
• Easy Email Marketing with Yael Keon: Yael is focused on email. If you're aiming to get into or improve your email delivery, from content to tech topics, Yael's an amazing resource. 
• Enthusiastically Self-Employed with Brenda Meller: Brenda covers a variety of business topics that really all come down to marketing in a very personable, friendly way. She regularly features LinkedIn audits she does for clients for all to learn from.
• Deliberate Freelancer with Melanie Padgett Powers: Melanie's been featured here, here, and here on prior podcast blog posts. She's very good to listen to for content and style. She's on a summer break at the moment, but I'm looking forward to her getting back in front of a mic. Melanie covers marketing and business concerns for all solopreneur/freelance businesses. 
• Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield: Amy has a treasure of marketing resources on her website! Her episodes are more often 45-60 minutes in length (perfect for your exercise session!). 
• The Marketing Book Podcast with Douglas Burdett: If reading is your jam, this podcast is focused on book reviews and author interviews on strictly marketing books. How he can power through a book each week is beyond me! I'm regularly adding items to my Audible Wish List when available. 

Any Favorite Marketing Podcasts?
Do you have any favorites to share that we missed? Love to hear what you find useful in your marketing education!

If you're looking for strategy or marketing assistance to shine a spotlight on your business, Let's Chat! I provide a number of services for nonprofits, small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors.

What is Co-Working?
​Co-working is meeting with other individuals to share work time while increasing focus and productivity. 

According to Merriam-Webster: "being, relating to, or working in a building where multiple tenants (such as entrepreneurs, start-ups, or nonprofits) rent working space (such as desks or offices) and have the use of communal facilities."


History of Co-working
Co-working is said to have begun as early as 1995 in Berlin, Germany. The term is credited to Bernard DeKoven in 1999. The first "official" co-working space is considered to be in San Francisco in 2005. These references can be found in many articles. A solid history is available thanks to a LinkedIn article by Matthew F. February 2024. Another good history is brought to us by coworking resources in April 2021.

Where Can You Co-Work?
As of 2017, Focusmate has been offering this concept online. I discovered it June 2024. They offer some great science behind why co-working works, complete with footnotes. They also have a great pricing structure - free for up to 3 sessions/week, roughly $7/month for unlimited sessions, and they offer business plans. 

I've been participating in a weekly co-working session created by a few editing friends from a Facebook group. One person has created a recurring weekly zoom-style link and added weekly Events on Facebook as a reminder. There's a related discussion group to let each other know if the leader will be taking the week off and to communicate for someone else to manage the link or motivate each other. 

I've headed to a local Panera on my own or with a colleague or two for years to work on projects related to an organization, each doing our own thing or sharing ideas on a certain collaborative project. I didn't realize I  was "co-working!" 

How Does This Work?
The appeal is primarily to those who work from home who would like the accountability of committing to showing up at a particular time and place (productivity method + goal strategy) or who want a bit of social resemblance to a work site. 

Whether you meet at a physical location or online, the general concept is you arrange to meet at a certain time - someone is counting on you as an accountability partner. You show up with a brief introduction and your goal(s) for the session and you get to work. You reconnect for a few minutes at the end of the session as a check-in on goals and success of the work session. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Focusmate tends to have 50 min session blocks that start at the top of each hour giving you a 10-minute stretch or bathroom break. You can schedule as many as close together on your calendar as you wish. You may be part of a group on Focusmate to find partners within that group, or you can partner with anyone who is a Focusmate user from around the world.

There are desk sessions and active sessions (exercise or clean together). It's tricky to find particular people until you've had a session with that person or send someone an "invitation" to find your calendar to collaborate.

Once you collaborate and it seems to work well, you can "favorite" someone to more easily search for sessions on the calendar. Focusmate has an active Facebook group where members can seek and respond to others with similar interests to partner in these sessions.

Is It Useful?
I've become a big fan of these co-working opportunities! As a solopreneur, my home is my office. Scheduling these sessions helps me focus on work activities with someone else who is working. It does improve my productivity and keeps me accountable - I promised to show up. 

It's also a fabulous networking tool as you meet others from around the world, in your affiliated field, potential clients, or completely unique individuals! It's useful to get out of your own space and interact with others. 

Have you had any co-working sessions using Focusmate or some other platform? Love to hear how it went for you - likes and dislikes. Looking for a co-working partner to make progress on your goals? Let's chat!