Announcing The Savvy Scribe Podcast!

The Healthcare Marketing Network is proud to add a new podcast to its list of healthcare podcasts. Hosts Carol Bush, Managing Editor of the HMN and Janine Kelbach, Operations Manager of the HMN invite you to tune in to a new podcast celebrating and supporting the life of a freelance healthcare writer. As the host of the Get Social Health Podcast, I was thrilled to have my Healthcare Marketing Network colleagues join me in the podcast universe.

To kick off their first episode I interviewed them to find out why they decided to launch a podcast and what they plan to cover. Give a listen or drop in at the timestamps in the transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Janet:                                00:00                    Welcome to The Savvy Scribe, a podcast for freelance healthcare and medical writers and creatives who want to grow their businesses. Your hosts, Carol Bush, and Janine Kalbach will cover a wide range of topics on writing, sales and managing your freelance practice. Podcast episodes will feature interviews, inspiration, laughter, and important information to help healthcare freelance writers. The Savvy Scribe is a production of the Healthcare Marketing Network. Now, let's join the conversation.

Janet:                                00:31                    Well, this is exciting. It's the very first episode of The Savvy Scribe podcast and I want to be very clear. I'm not The Savvy Scribes in this situation. It is my partner's Carol and Janine Kalbach. They are my partners in the Healthcare Marketing Network. They are the writers in our organization and I've been bugging them for a really long time about sharing their expertise. They know so much, so I finally talked them into doing a podcast. You are listening to the inaugural episode of The Savvy Scribe podcasts, and I guess I should say welcome to me to your podcast.

Carol:                                01:12                    I love that Janet. Oh my gosh, this is Carol. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the managing editor and as Janet said, partner with the Healthcare Marketing Network and I'm beyond excited that we have you in our back pocket all your podcasting skills, tips and tricks. Definitely, you have been coaching for a long time and we finally took your advice.

Janet:                                01:35                    Janine, what do you think about starting your very first podcast?

Janine:                              01:38                    I am so excited. A little nervous because we all are new at this except you, Janet, you are the expert in this field for sure. Carol and I have been practicing, scripting, and thinking of topics and it even makes us more excited.

Janet:                                01:53                    We know what I work with you in the Healthcare Marketing Network. One of the things that amaze me as you are both nurses and you taught me the true meaning of the word "workflow". My background comes from "wing it" and you all are not that way at all and so everything is scripted and planned and organized and it's interesting because I have very much the idea of, oh, let's just jump in there and see, but that's not the way you guys operate at all.

Carol:                                02:23                    I think it's that preparation and meet whatever that quote is, but definitely it does come from our nursing background and workflow. Probably the whole care plan where we're assessing, diagnosing, making the interventions. Yes, definitely we want it to be a conversation and bring our community and our colleagues, healthcare, freelance writers across the globe actually resources that are going to take their business and their craft to the next level.

Janine:                              02:57                    But even in that nursing, it's easy to get distracted and pulled into different situations, so prioritizing is always the top of our list. That's why we do the scripting to prioritize what's important are actionable steps and whatnot.

Janet:                                03:11                    Well, believe me, it's not a criticism and I think I can do a lot better if I organize my own podcast with bullet points and the topic. Tell me a little bit about starting a podcast. What is it that you actually want to share with your audience?

Carol:                                03:28                    As I alluded to a little bit earlier, we want to share that actionable information that's going to help our healthcare freelance colleagues take their business and their crap to the next level, and I think action of bold at Janine related to is really what we want to come across real information from our experience building our businesses as healthcare professionals who are also launching a freelance business, but we want to really also source the wonderful knowledge and experience of our vibrant community. We have a community of over 600 healthcare professionals who are also freelance writers and business owners, so we're really looking for practical information, tips, tricks, and a lot of humor to you can. We were in it to have fun, so we want it to be actionable in every episode. We want folks to be able to take something away and apply it into their own freelance practice.

Janet:                                04:38                    I know you've planned some very specific topics to address on your podcast, so what kinds of things will you be talking about?

Janine:                              04:45                    We're going to talk about online presence, you know, building your website or portfolio tips and showcasing your skills, productivity, and organization, which is personally my favorite topic, social media tips, and tools that we use in our business and scheduling platforms. The craft of writing, like how to write and the business of writing where you start your own freelance business.

Janet:                                05:07                    Why did you pick those specific topics to focus on?

Janine:                              05:11                    I think because those are the questions that we usually get from people. With over 600 people in our community. We're constantly getting questions from different people and usually, I should say the most health care professional questions we get are about starting a business. But then everything else wraps around that so well first to even start a business on writing. Do you know how to write? So yes. It really goes back to the basics and then building from that point how to build your website, your portfolio and things like that. I'll go around the business of writing.

Carol:                                05:44                    One thing I think is interesting that Janine pointed out, regardless of experience level, we can have new writers who are interested in starting a business, but we also a lot of questions about managing business negotiation, n