How to Hit Reset on Your Freelance Business with Melanie Padgett Powers

Are you running your freelance business with intention—or just reacting to deadlines?

It’s easy to stay in motion as a freelancer. Between client work, content marketing, invoicing, and trying to keep up with everything else, we often skip the most important work: thinking strategically about what we want from this business and how we’re actually doing.

On this episode, Ashley is joined by Melanie Padgett Powers, a longtime freelancer, managing editor, writer, and host of The Deliberate Freelancer podcast. She shares why stepping back to plan is essential, how she created the idea of a “solo business retreat,” and what creative freelancers can do to build in reflection time—even if they’re short on capacity.

 ABOUT MELANIE

Melanie Padgett Powers is the owner of MelEdits in the Washington, DC, area, where she is a magazine managing editor, writer and proofreader for membership associations, primarily in the health care and science space. Melanie has a journalism degree and was previously a newspaper reporter in her home state of Indiana. She is also the creator and host of the Deliberate Freelancer and Association Station podcasts. Melanie lives with her husband and two entertaining cats, Maxy and Daisy. She loves all things books and reading, Washington Nationals baseball and solo travel adventures. Connect with Melanie on LinkedIn.

 Full show notes here.

Chapters

• 1:11 Who is Melanie Padgett Powers and what’s her freelance background?
• 3:16 How did Melanie transition into freelance work?
• 8:36 Are membership associations a freelance opportunity?
• 12:41 What is a solo business retreat for freelancers?
• 17:46 How can freelancers design a low-stress business?
• 22:10 How has podcasting shaped Melanie’s freelance journey?
• 29:17 Where can listeners find more freelance resources from Melanie?

Transcript

Melanie Padgett Powers: 0:00

I named them solo business retreats and it's really just a time to slow down, reflect, work on your business. Not for your clients. You have to schedule it. Because it's not gonna happen in between those phone calls and meetings and when you're trying to do the work. Is what you are doing working? Do you like it? You should be loving what you're doing.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 0:23

Welcome to Talk Freelance to me, the podcast for women freelance writers, 10 99 independent contractors and solopreneurs. I'm your host, Ashley Cisneros Mejia. For more than 20 years, I've worked as a journalist and freelance writer. Today as a mom of three kids, I'm passionate about helping other women leverage the freedom that freelance offers on top freelance. To me, we're all about the business of freelancing. If you want to learn how to monetize your talents, make money on your own terms, and design a flexible work life that actually works for you. This show is for you. Before we get started, don't forget to follow us on your favorite social media platforms. Review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen, and don't forget to share this episode with a friend. Today I'm sharing a conversation with someone I've looked up to for a long time. Her name is Melanie Paget Powers. She's a longtime freelancer, a former journalist, and the host of one of my favorite podcasts for creatives. It's called the Deliberate. Freelancer. In addition, Melanie runs her own business called Mel Edits. She works with membership associations, especially in the healthcare and science industries. She also works as a managing editor, writer, and a proofreader. Melanie brings decades of experience under journalism and editing, and she's someone who really understands what it takes to build a freelance business on your own terms. We talked about a lot in this episode. She shares how to get clear on what's actually working in your business and what's not. We also got into her solo business retreat method, which I absolutely love. Melanie offers simple, doable ways to create space, to think, reflect, and to plan your next steps. And I think the timing couldn't be better as we head toward the end of the year. A lot of us are closing out projects, taking a breath. Or thinking about what we want 2026 to look like. So this conversation is full of practical tips that you can apply right now. So with that, let's get into the episode. Melanie, welcome to the show.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 2:38

Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here and thank you for that very sweet introduction.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 2:41

I love your work. I love your journey. For people that have not met you before, can you tell us a little bit about your background in journalism, the podcast, and how you got to where you are today?

Melanie Padgett Powers: 2:55

Sure. So I started out in journalism. I was 14 and I wanted to be a newspaper reporter. Like I knew when I was very young. I was one of the lucky kids that kind of knew what they wanted to do. And I went to school for journalism, got a degree, started out in newspaper. Porting started out as new newspapers. Absolutely loved it. Except the pay and the hours. Yeah. And this was in the nineties when we actually had jobs but still very low paying and crazy hours. And so I did that for a few years. And then I also wanted to get outta my small town, my small Indiana hometown, and so I moved to DC. And I came out here thinking I wanted to be an education reporter of some aspect, and then I fell into associations and I got my first job as an assistant editor of the monthly newspaper at the American Public Health Association and realized that even though I didn't know in the beginning what public health was, I didn't know what membership associations were. I found out very quickly, I was very. Thankful that my editor at the time wanted to hire a journalist and so she hired me. I absolutely loved public health and I loved membership associations. I really liked writing for this dedicated audience that we didn't have to go fight to find the audience. They were interested in the mission. I could write on a topic that I liked, but use all of the journalism aspects and ethics that were important to me. And so I was in membership associations in DC and as I said, fell into healthcare and worked almost entirely at healthcare associations for about 13 years. And then I didn't like my last job and I was reaching an age where I was tired of being the good kid and doing all the things that all the grownups told me to do. Yeah. This was like forties feeling like I was grown up. And I just, I quit my job and I. I have a entrepreneurial husband. I think that was really helpful in realizing that I could make my own way and figure it out and do what I wanted, and, because I'd seen him do it and he was very supportive. And so I went freelance, and that was October, 2013, which blows my mind. And I've never looked back. I've absolutely loved it. And so I'm a freelance writer and editor. Now almost entirely for membership associations. In the beginning it was a little different. I had some associations, some other things, but now I've really niched down to associations and when I write, it's almost always healthcare and science. That's so cool.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 5:34

I love that. And kudos to your boss. For, being deliberate and wanting a journalist and wanting to hire a journalist and seeing those skills. You've done so many different roles and applied. I'm sure what you've learned in J School and what you've always been talented in to a variety of different positions and things. What parts of your journalism background do you think have been most valuable and where you are now as a business owner of a freelance business? I.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 6:06

Funny enough there's, two and neither are associations, which is, might say something about associations. Yeah. But I would say that my very first job my hometown newspaper, it was called Whitewater Publications. So we called it the pub and shout out to the pub and. They hired me as an intern when I was 20 and still in college and, but threw me in. I was a reporter. I did, and I learned so much there because it was hands-on all summer and for a couple summers where I was a reporter, a writer. I learned how to. Cover county meetings and town council meetings. I took photos. Back in those days, I'm aging myself, we pasted up the newspaper. I copyedited my editor, so I just did every little thing I could try, anything I wanted. We did special supplements when I was interested in trying something new. So they just gave me the freedom to really do everything in journalism that I wanted to do and I learned so much. I had a great editor that really. Helped me. He really taught me about reporting more than anything and how to cover the news in a small town. So I learned a ton there. And then when I was at associations, I actually left an association for two years and went to a content marketing agency here in DC called TMG, which no longer is around, but I was there for two years and I. Was basically, I was a managing editor of Healthcare Association magazines there, so I was doing the same thing but with an agency, but, and because they were leaps and bounds ahead of associations, that's where I just learned so much in two years about the process of building a magazine and. Just how to work with the designers and how to work with photographers, how to hire a photographer and illustrator. And the process that I use today and that I share with my clients is almost entirely based on the best practices that I was taught at TMG. So there's so much in those two years of packed in that are incredibly valuable to what I do now. That is so

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 8:17

cool. That is awesome. That ability to do everything at the, pub and really all the customer service things that you learn dealing with John Q Public and community leaders and elected officials and getting, answers for things and dealing with. With all kinds of personalities I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. But that's so neat. Let's talk more about the membership. When you were talking about how membership associations are interesting 'cause they have that bought in audience that's like really passionate about whatever topic it is. Can you talk more about that niche membership associations? Do most membership associations have their own internal publication? Is this an area of opportunity for other freelancers listening?

Melanie Padgett Powers: 9:05

I do think it's an area of opportunity. Associations like everything are changing. There's a wide variety in associations where the CEO or the executive board just got rid of the magazine with sort of no notice. Done, it's gone. Or they said we're gonna take it online. And by that they meant an e-newsletter once a week, which is fine, but isn't a magazine. And then there were associations that said, you know what, we really can't afford the print and mailing anymore. But we still recognize that at most associations, the magazine is the number one member benefit. It shows up time and time again on surveys that's the number one member benefit. So in my opinion, as my very biased opinion, getting rid of it is not exactly the smartest move, but I acknowledge it. Printing and mailing is super expensive, so some associations have. Allowed their communications team magazine team to really have a thoughtful process to switch that online onto a content hub, not a flip book, not just posting a few articles now and then but really just moving that online and thinking about how to do online first. And I think that's been really successful. And of course, and that opens opportunity for freelance writers. Again, some associations hire freelance writers. Some only use members as writers and so that they might have opportunities there to do editing of the writer content. That might be a little harder to get into. A lot of that is done internally, but I think finding the industry that you're interested in tech or education or healthcare or whatever it may be and finding those associations online that still have some sort of. Print magazine or online presence that needs writers, that hire freelance writers. There's definitely still opportunities. I don't think associations are not hit as strongly by the economy and the economic downturns as other parts of the country. They are right now, some of them are struggling. Many of them survived the pandemic. And so yeah, I think it's still an niche in an industry that's still going strong. That's

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 11:22

very cool. I love that. One of the things that I've heard you speak about in your podcast and in your content is just really this mindset shift about realizing that as freelancers, we are business owners, we are small business owners and, embracing that and, taking that on. You've also talked about solo business retreats. Like when I think of. Big companies will have annual retreats or quarterly retreats and those, that shift I think is so powerful and encouraging because we really are in charge of everything. The, business retreats, advice, can you tell us what yours look like? How can a freelancer listening to this maybe create one if they've never done that before?

Melanie Padgett Powers: 12:09

Yeah. And it's funny you mentioned the corporate retreats because I named them solo business retreats just on a whim because it made me laugh because I knew I wasn't leaving my house, right? I was like, oh, I'm gonna have a business retreat in my house. I'm very much a homebody. I've changed that up over the years. I, don't remember how it started. I just started having them. And then when I started talking about them even before the podcast, it really connected with people and with other freelancers. I've done them where I am. Left the house I've stayed in the house. I've gone somewhere free, like a coffee shop or a library. I've tacked them onto conferences and done it at a hotel room. Maybe the day before a conference. I've even had intentional ones where I've gone and rented an Airbnb for a couple days and done them. But they can definitely be free. They can be at your house. I think the most important thing is to get away from your desk or wherever you are, every day working. Get away from that. It just tells the brain that today is something different. Whether you're usually have an office go to your dining room table or if you're usually at your kitchen island, go to your backyard and on a nice day. And then I always have an agenda. I write out a, really brief agenda. Otherwise, you're gonna get to the retreat and just think. What am I supposed to do today? Think about my business. That's overwhelming. What do I, where do I start? To start out, I would say think big picture. You can have business retreats that are focused on very specific things like. Today I am gonna write my marketing strategy, or today I am gonna work on that new project for my business. But I would say to begin, start out big picture. And it's really just a time to slow down, reflect, work on your business. Not for your clients. You have to schedule it. Because it's not gonna happen in between those phone calls and meetings and when you're trying to do the work. You really need to dedicate time to it and don't answer your email. Take it as this is my out of office day. And then with the agenda, it's it's a way to zoom out and think big picture about what you wanna do with this business. Is what you are doing working? Do you like it? You should be loving what you're doing. Maybe you're good at it, but it's boring. You like. Maybe it's bringing in money, but you're not feeling fulfilled and satisfied. That's not a long-term strategy, right? So there's a lot of different things you can do. I do a couple of different techniques. You can do a SWOT analysis if you've never done that before. That's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. I do something similar to that I learned from a coach years ago where you create a grid on a piece of paper and you put in each box unique brilliance, which I, a phrase I love. High competence, and incompetence, and unique brilliance is the things that are the things that you absolutely love to do and you're great at, right? That's what you should be focusing on. And it's not just services, it's things in your business. Like for incompetence, it might be cleaning my house, doing my taxes. Schedule check and check scheduling my podcast in their queue appropriately. And so those incompetence things might be things that maybe you can get rid of some of them, or maybe you can outsource them, right? Hire someone to clean your house or make that a goal if you can't afford that now to, I wanna get to the point where I can pay for these things. So that's another thing. And another great thing that I started doing that I do regularly is I. I come up with a little numbering system and I rate all of my current clients and then I rank them based on the point system that I've created. And it could be whatever you base it on. I give people points for paying well, paying on time. Yeah. Being super easy to work with. All the things that are important to you. And you may think that you know who your favorite clients are and your sort of least favorite clients, but really being able to rate and rank them shows you in black and white oh, those clients that I keep thinking are. Pain in the butt clients. They really are. And they're really ranked, yeah, at the bottom, maybe I should just get rid of them, or These clients are amazing. Maybe I should reach out to them more to see if they have more work for me because they're so easy to work with and I love them. So that's just a couple of things that you can do during the retreat. And I, it, I always find myself getting. Really energized at having a plan and some new ideas and this view of my business of where I am and where I wanna go.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 16:39

I love that so much. That advice is fantastic to have that plan to really embrace being in charge of this whole thing.'cause when you work for someone else, all of that is dictated. Your goals are given to you, your deadlines are given to you. Exactly. But that's the cool thing about our type of work, our freelance life, is that we really are in the driver's seat, and so we can. Go where we wanna go and create the vision we want. I love that. You also talked about not getting like overwhelmed and, just starting with one thing, starting small, starting with something specific. Can you talk about other practices that have helped you design your business to be as low stress as it can be? A business that supports you and doesn't drain you and stress you out.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 17:26

Yeah, there's a couple things and people might not wanna hear the first one, but track your time. I know this isn't for everyone, but I'm such a big proponent of time tracking, and I'll explain why. It's because when you track your time, because you will. If you don't track your time, you will overestimate or underestimate how long something takes you, whether it's a client project or sending an email or posting on LinkedIn, or I only went to Facebook for five minutes, but it was really half an hour to play around, right? So it's the reality. It's the cold, hard reality there in front of you when you track your time. But what it really helps you with is determining how long is. Certain type of project takes. And so for that next project, you can price it appropriately, and I'm connecting that to the feeling less overwhelmed and less stressed. Because when you price it per appropriately and give it a project rate, not an hourly rate, not a per word rate, ideally, but a project rate, then you're being paid. What you're worth and what your value is, and you're working on a project I hopefully, that you like, or at least you're being paid a lot of money to do a project that isn't boring. And you won't resent it. You won't resent yourself for underpricing. You won't resent God, I don't wanna have to go do this. You won't put it on your schedule that says, oh, it's gonna take me two hours. And then you realize it's taking a day and a half. And that just really knowing how long something's gonna take you and knowing that you're gonna get paid well for it, appropriately for it can really reduce the stress and it brings in I think it brings in better clients. It allows you to say no to things. So that's my number one. The other one that I think has been really helpful is knowing your peak productivity time. And that's the time where for writers, it's when we do our best writing. So anytime you're doing as Cal Newport calls it, the deep work or that focused work, what is best for you, don't. You have to find it for yourself. Don't buy into the if you're not a morning person, you're not gonna be that like

everybody says I have to get up at 5: 19:28

00 AM and I have to journal and I have to read and I have to make a big, nice breakfast and I have to go do my exercise and. I know that's never gonna work for me.

I'm never gonna be that 5: 19:39

00 AM person.

I think I tried to be the 6: 19:41

00 AM person, and that's not gonna work either. I don't have kids, so I don't have to be up early. I'm more like, I get up at seven or eight, but I know that it takes me a while to get going. But I'm also really good at writing in the morning, so I just have my morning routine. That is my routine. And then I focus on writing in the morning. So knowing your peak productivity time, and maybe it's against the societal norm that work is set up as nine to five. Maybe you're much better riding at 10 o'clock at night. So if the be the most that you can set up your business in that sense may, if you're a night owl. Do your meetings and your interviews during the day. Do your admin during the day and save that writing time for the evening or whatever your freelance business is. You know that deep work for your peak productivity time. Really build your routine and your schedule around that as much as you possibly can. I acknowledge that there are client meetings and. Maybe if you do interviews or other types of meetings, you have to work around other people. But as much as you can value that peak productivity time and honor that and block it off if you need to on your calendar, I think that really reduces the overwhelm and sets you up for success. But also to en we don't talk about enough to enjoy your day. To enjoy your, yeah. Work to get excited when it's time to do that big project because you're firing on all cylinders.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 21:16

That's so good. And it's such the anti bro, like Yeah.

Up at 4: 21:22

00 AM and you're doing your HIIT workout and your cold plunge. Yeah. That's not me at all. No, and I, think that's fantastic. I think that's, so often I feel like. There is, there's so much noise and there's so much messaging from all directions in terms of this is how you succeed in business. But I think to your point, it's so helpful to look inward and to say, what do I actually like? Who do I actually like working with? When do I actually wanna do that work? And picking something that works for us and not trying to. Apply one of those one size fits all things that just doesn't, it doesn't work.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 22:02

Yeah.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 22:03

For everyone. So I think that's really refreshing. You give such great advice. You're we were talking at the beginning about your podcast that Deliver It Freelancer. I think it's such a thoughtful resource. For freelancers and especially an opportunity to learn from someone like you that's done a variety of things and has been in the journalism industry. From 14 you said that's, quite a history there. Can you talk about how podcasting has, how you've incorporated it into your work, how it's shaped your freelance journey?

Melanie Padgett Powers: 22:40

Yeah. And it's quite interesting too because you and I were both saying that our podcasts are our passion projects, right? Yeah. I they're not, I didn't create this podcast to get more work. It's not geared toward clients. I don't have anything to sell to freelancers right now. It's fine if you do. But, so I think I was a little. I, didn't expect all the things that it would give me, right? I think it was a little naive in the fact that it, really opened up my network in a way. I have friendships. I was able to reach out to people and connect with people, both listeners and guests on the show that I would never have otherwise met. Maybe I would've been too shy to introduce myself because I thought they were like so amazing and whatever they were doing. I get a lot. I benefit from listening to my guests. I get a lot of advice. Sometimes I've told guests, wow, this is like a therapy session. Thank you so much. Yeah. And then even in my own shows my solo episodes, it allows me to think about my business in a different way. Think about things that freelancers are doing or not doing, or have questions about. And so really just, is an extension of, again, what I was saying with the solo business retreats, re reevaluating, evaluating where my business is, where I want it to go, and then just broadening my network to tons of people that are outside of what would've been my writing community, my editing community, my association community, just so far beyond that, that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 24:16

That's awesome. I love it. Especially, I think you mentioned that liking to be like a, like you're, I don't know if you're an introvert, if you would describe yourself that way. Oh yeah. I certainly am. And like I need I can't, people too hard. Or else I need a day off to recover. Yep. Yeah. The nature of our work, it is we can be in our little caves typing and creating, but it is nice to realize that we're not alone, that there's. Other professionals who have chosen this slice, this flavor of entrepreneurship?'cause it is different. Freelancing is a different beast altogether. But it's cool that we're, not alone. We can learn from one another, we can get ideas and I really feel like our way of working. Is the future. There's so many people, unfortunately, that have lost their jobs and not just in our industry. Journalism has been, has experiencing these cuts for decades. Even in the tech industry, which is, I don't know, I always thought that tech, you were relatively safe from some of those, budget cuts. But that's proven to be not the case. So I think there's gonna be more people. Entering and thinking about how do I take what I know and give it directed directly to clients. And so I'm glad that there's resources like your podcasts and these conversations where people can apply these ideas to what they wanna do. It's really cool.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 25:46

Yeah, it's hard out there right now. It's and it's and as I offer advice and connect people I'm always trying to keep in mind that you might've tried everything that I've ever mentioned and you still might be losing clients. And I just try to acknowledge that, I don't wanna be Pollyanna all the time. I'm very protected in the membership association world, but I lost half my income when the pandemic hit and had to figure things out then too. And it's just a little frankly, can be nauseating and terrifying right now because there's so much disruption and change and un unease in our industry and in our country. And it's, yes, it's really difficult right now.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 26:37

It is. It is really difficult. I think that's why I am, grateful for these conversations because with people who are listening, that might feel like I don't even know where to begin. I don't even know what to do. And I think even just. Implying your idea at the solo business retreat, even if it's scaled to what they can do. Like you said, going to the library, going to a coffee shop.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 27:01

Yeah.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 27:02

Finding a park in the neighborhood. Just getting away from the desk for a while, putting the phone on silent. Not answering client emails or any emails. That could be a great. Way to check in with ourselves. As a whole what is this? What's going on? How are we feeling? Because I think sometimes we do get into this, I don't know the cycle or we're running on spiraling. Spiraling, yeah. Spiraling and just maybe burying ourselves into the work. Or, into, I don't know, busyness not to, yeah. To avoid, seeing what's, happening. So I appreciate that a lot. Very much what's next for you? Where can people find you on online? I know the podcast. They can find it. I'm, assuming in all of the major podcast outlets. Tell us more about what we can expect from you.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 27:56

The podcast is still going strong. I say that hesitantly. It is still going strong people. I am on a sort of unintended hiatus. I've gone on a hiatus the last couple of summers, but this one started a little earlier in May. I didn't intend that to happen, but I hope you all stick with me and still follow the podcast. I haven't gone anywhere. I will say, honestly, the reason I do that is because of my own overwhelm or my own. Just uncertainty with the world and the, as a passion project, it gets pushed to the bottom no matter how many times I try to schedule it and get ahead and get things in the queue and, I would rather. Just acknowledge that yes, I haven't done an episode for a few weeks than to stop the podcast. I don't wanna stop the podcast. It's been going since 2019.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 28:47

That's amazing.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 28:48

And I just, amazing. I just don't wanna give up that community and I don't wanna do that to people. And I do get a lot from it. So it is still there. You can find it at. On all the podcast apps, you can also go to deliberate freelancer.com if you wanna easily scroll under your desktop through all the topics and show notes and the links are all there to to all the resources in the episodes. And then I'm at mel its.com for my business and these days I'm mostly on LinkedIn. So you can find me on LinkedIn at melanie paget powers.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 29:21

That's so cool, Mel. Thank you. Thank you for that. I appreciate it so much. I love your website. And I think Austin Church also mentioned your website in one of the trainings is like a great example because it's, your URL is really good. What does Mel do? Mel edits? Yeah. Then even like the imagery, it was just beautiful of you working in your office. It's just a good example for. For everyone to look and see how we can apply some of those best practices. I wanna thank you for being such a great leader and a voice in our community. For anybody listening you have, you've been doing this since 2019, your podcast, so there's a whole archive of wonderful episodes that even if you are on your summer hiatus while we're recording this, there's so many great episodes to go and listen to, to rediscover, to listen to again. So you have a great body of work too, that people can enjoy. So I appreciate it.

Melanie Padgett Powers: 30:16

Yeah, thank you for saying that. Go listen to the archives. Yeah And, thank you for this conversation, Ashley. I really am honored that you asked me to be on your podcast, which I also love, and it's been really great speaking with you.

Ashley Cisneros Mejia: 30:28

And with that, we've come to the end of another episode. Please make sure you hit subscribe and give me a five star review on your favorite podcast app. Check out the show notes and grab my free guide to help you diversify your freelance business. It's called. If you do this, try that 220 plus smart ways to diversify your freelance services. Until next time, this is Ashley Cisneros Mejia. Don't forget, we all get this one precious life. Don't constrain yourself to a box that you were never meant to fit in. It is your right to profit from your own creative gifts. Our music was composed by Donna Raphael of World Instrumentals Talk. Freelance to me is a product of Fenix Creative Studio.