Case Study

James Carpenter

James has been an incredible editor for 15 years and has even won multiple awards for his work. But he lacked a central brand presence and website, and didn’t have a specialty – like many freelancers, he just took on any editing project that came his way.

As a result, he was often passed over for work he really loved (ie. fiction editing) because he wasn’t seen as an authority in that area, income was inconsistent, and he wasted tons of time reinventing the wheel for all the different types of editing jobs he took on. Lots of clients didn’t want to pay the prices he deserved to charge, and many micromanaged him because they just saw him as a hired hand rather than an expert of his craft.

Here's what I did for James:

Helped James get clear on who he wanted to work with, what his special brand sauce is that makes him different than all the hack-job editors out there, and what he needed to do to gain control over the kinds of projects and types of clients he was getting.
Created a professional photography, design and messaging strategy that showcases him as a badass editor who knows how to make your book shine, but friendly and caring enough that people feel safe sharing their book babies with him.
Wrote the copy for his website so that it hooks his perfect clients, makes them feel deeply understood, and makes them realize they don't want to work with anyone but him.
Curated and highlighted his many awards and happy client testimonials, so people can immediately tell he's a trustworthy expert who is worth paying more for than your average freelancer.
Consulted with James on how to structure his services so he could save time, further position himself as an expert, and maximize bookings.
Built him a high-converting WordPress website & business cards so that he has a way to confidently promote himself and attract fulfilling, profitable, and sustainable work that he truly enjoys.

“The whole process was so much more straightforward and less time consuming than I thought it would be. I feel like I’m going to be seeing the value of it for a long time to come.”

Before working with Tracy, I’d never thought about my business as a brand. So as a result, I didn’t have a whole lot of control over the kinds of work that I was getting. My clients, you know, a lot of them are great, but some of them weren’t, and it was never really seemed up to me as to which of those I was going to get.

I had some major hesitations about going through this process. I mean, I’m somebody who has sort of an instinctual revulsion against the idea of branding in general. I also had a longstanding fear about narrowing down what I do. But Tracy was really, really respectful and articulate in talking about a lot of this stuff – especially in the BrandSauce interview, really met me where I was and kind of like steered me in a new direction without it being too scary, which I really appreciated.

I think one of the biggest takeaways from this experience has been that it’s really surprisingly empowering to think about my business in a more purposeful way, and think about what’s special about what I do. It’s given me a lot more insight into why people hire me and enjoy working with me, as well as clarifying the kinds of people that I want to work with. This was all a huge revelation and really psychologically valuable to me, even beyond the business value.

So yeah, I absolutely recommend working with Tracy to anybody who’s in a similar situation as me. The whole process was so much more straightforward and less time consuming than I thought it would be. Our intensive days working together were really enjoyable. She was super open to my feedback and made it really easy to make adjustments as I wanted to. It was a painless process and one that I feel like I’m going to be seeing the value of for a long time to come.