When business is at a crossroads, illuminate the path

Plus: A very special bumblebee, justice for Catherine Howard, and book recommendations.

The Clothesline is a weekly newsletter offering cozy content for writers from Vanessa Chiasson. If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while and receive value from it, I’d encourage you to upgrade to a paid membership.

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

The spectacular autumn colours seem even more beautiful this year as Ryan and I enjoyed press trips in Quebec’s Eastern Townships and New York’s Adirondack Coast. I hope you and yours have an incredible, delicious long weekend filled with gratitude.

Also: Clover is now a bumble bee.

THIS is why all freelancers need to work hard, so we can afford delightful costumes for reluctant pets. 

Workshop News!

My 2025 planning workshop for writers will take place on Friday, December 6th! You can read all about it and grab your tickets here. 

Pro-newsletter subscribers, I have a special bonus for you… read on to the bottom of the newsletter.

AI Insights

Curious about what some of the top minds in our industry have to say about AI and the future of media freelancing? The Canadian Freelance Guild has put together an incredible panel, which includes the CEO of Medium and the president of the Communications Workers of America, to discuss exactly that. The cost is $20 for non-members and there are a lot of discounts available for folks who are members of partner organisations (like TMAC and SATW). Read more and register here.

The Book All Freelancers Need

Robyn Roste’s eagerly awaited book, Marketing For Freelance Writers, is now out. Focusing on marketing, branding, platform building, social media, and networking, it builds a case for why freelance writers need strategic systems and suggests simple ways to market their business in a meaningful way. I just ordered my copy and you can too! Here’s where to find it.

What Else Have I Been Reading?

• The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson. What gets a person through the great unknown? Books, community, and more books. Oh, and maybe a handsome suitor or two.

• … Which is exactly why I also loved The Air Raid Book Club by Annie Lyons

• A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson. With the exception of solving a grisly death and accompanying side mysteries, I was exactly like Pippa as a teenager.

• Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. Withhold a woman’s pursuit of creative genius at your own peril. 

• Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII by Gareth Russell. Catherine Howard’s legacy has been dealt a rough hand but this book corrects the record. Key reading for anyone interested in Tudor history.

Self-employed friends, are you feeling at a crossroads with your work, your business, your LIFE?

2024 has been a challenging year (yep, I know that’s quite the understatement). There is uncertainty in the economy, in politics, in global affairs. It’s incredibly hard to know where to go, what to do, how to push forward. Frankly, it’s hard to just keep maintaining the status quo some days.

I think joining the autumn cohort of Illuminate Your Biz can help.

Illuminate Your Biz is a six week course that I created with my friends Becky Santisic and Lara Wellman. It’s designed to help small business owners and self-employed people gain clarity and confidence about their online messaging. Using a combination of video lessons and live group coaching calls, we show you how to focus on who your ideal audience is and how to improve communication in ways that take your visibility to the next level.

If you’ve invested in small business classes and courses before and have been disappointed when the live sessions turn out to be nothing more than a chaotic Zoom room with hundreds of participants and bland questions, we feel your pain! That’s why we focus on having small cohorts and why the three of us take turns hosting the live calls - you get a variety of feedback and perspectives from real people.

Who are some of the people who’ve been in Illuminate Your Biz before? We’ve had lawyers, leadership coaches, children’s event programmers, retail shop owners, folks who are in the first year of self-employment, people who have never known anything but self-employment, solo proprietors, duel-owners, people looking to expand their business and people curious and downsizing and narrowing their focus.

Check it out. The program starts on October 21st and costs $199 (Canadian). There are also limited VIP spots available that offer extra private coaching sessions for $499.