Being Freelance

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No Fear - Copywriter Prerna Malik

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When Prerna’s husband couldn’t work due to ill health, her side project of writing suddenly became crucial for their family.

Over time they realised it had real potential, her husband joined the business, they hired others as ‘Content Bistro’ served up hungry businesses around the world.

It’s an amazing story. She had no money, no other options and no fear. And no idea how much her life was about to change.

We chat about work-life balance, investing in your business, marketing yourself and more...

More from Prerna Malik

Content Bistro site

Prerna on Twitter

Prerna on Instagram


Who the hell is Steve Folland?

Steve's a freelancer helping businesses use and make video & audio content in much better ways. Find out more at stevefolland.com, track him down on Twitter @sfolland or lay a trail of cake and he'll eventually catch you up.

In 2015 is decided to create the freelance podcast (well, there weren't any others doing this then) where freelancers could learn from each other via their stories.

Check out Steve's Being Freelance Vlog that documents his weekly wanderings and wonderings as a freelancer.


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Transcript of Being Freelance podcast interview between Prerna Malik and Steve Folland

Steve Folland:      Hey, I'm Steve Folland. Thanks for listening. This time, let's find out what it's like Being Freelance for copywriter. Prerna Malik.

Prerna Malik:       Right from the start, when we started together, my husband, who is also my partner, we had clearly defined responsibilities for the home, and the business. Because, working from can get tricky when both of you are working together. Reaching that code and code six figures feels great. It makes you feel, "Okay, yeah. Now the sky is the limit. Let's go for it."

Steve Folland:      Yeah, so there is Prerna, who is our first guest from Indian, actually. Had people from all over the world, from Sweden, from Australia, from the Lebanon, from, obviously, the States, and, of course, Europe. Anyway, yeah, really looking forward to hearing her story, that's coming up in a moment. She is a freelance conversion copywriter, and also ... I mean obviously, we'll go into this, but from what I can see, works with her husband on the business, as well, under the business name of Content Bistro.

Steve Folland:      So, anyway, links to what she's up to are at beingfreelance.com, where you can find over a hundred guests. In fact, more like nearly 130, I think, at beingfreelance.com. Wherever you get your podcast, please his subscribe, so that you don't miss out on what comes next, and if you've not heard them all yet? Then go back through the archives, and have a good old listen.

Steve Folland:      Also at the website, you'll find loads of articles to help you, and the vlog where I document my freelance week, as well. So, please hit subscribe on YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts, and help spread the world. If it's somewhere where you can review it, or some way that you can spread it, then please do. That would be much appreciated.

Steve Folland:      But let's crack on, and chat to freelance copywriter, Prerna Malik. Hey Prerna.

Prerna Malik:       Hi Steve. Thank you so much for inviting me.

Steve Folland:      Thanks. Whereabouts are you based by the way?

Prerna Malik:       I'm in India.

Steve Folland:      And where, for people who know India, where are you?

Prerna Malik:       Okay, I'm in a place called Gorgal, it's a suburb of New Delhi.

Steve Folland:      Oh, cool, okay. So, as ever. Let's get started, hearing how you got started being freelance.

Prerna Malik:       Oh wow, so yeah. It's a long story, because I've been in business now for seven years. So it all started about eight years ago, or so, and I had a mom blog, called the Mum Writes, very imaginative, I know. But I started it because I was a new mom, and my daughter was nine months old at that time. I loved being with her, but I also needed something that was creatively stimulating, and that would allow me to use my brain better.

Prerna Malik:       So, I started a blog, because that made the most sense to my sweet, deprived brain. This was like November, 2008, I remember because, like I said, she was nine months old. That blog kind of led me to getting noticed by small businesses, who started reaching out and asking me to write for them. Then, at that time, I was super active on Twitter, so there were clients who'd started saying, "Okay, why don't you manage social media for us?" So I took a couple of courses, just to be sure I knew what I was doing, and jumped in social media management.

Prerna Malik:       This was very, very part-time, because my husband Mayank's full-time job was, you know, what was supporting us. I was just having fun, and I enjoyed have a little side thing going for myself. But then, around January of 2010 is when my husband got really sick, and he was in a lot of pain, and doctors here just couldn't diagnose, because he was told at times he had arthritis, sometimes it was TMJ, sometime it was gout, it was crazy. Then, it finally reached a stage where he was in so much pain, he could not go to work.

Prerna Malik:       There were we with no job, no real income, and eating our way through our savings 'cause yeah, no income. Since my daughter was really small, I couldn't go back to full-time work. I used to be, I have a corporate background, I used to be a communication skills trainer with Dell and, before that, with American Express. So, 2010 was literally our worst year and best year because, while we did struggle a lot, we also jumped into starting our business, in March 2011. How that happened was, we realized we had a good thing going with the part-time client work that I was doing, and we could grow this.

Prerna Malik:       So, March 2011 is when we came up with the name, our current business, Content Bistro, used to be called Social Media Direct at that time. Because social media management were the main services, and blogging, were the services that was offering to clients. We started with those.

Prerna Malik:       We started reaching out to some of our past clients and telling them that we're doing this full-time now, and we'd appreciate referrals. Things started looking up on the personal front as well, because I'd been blogging on my personal blog about my husband's illness, and a friend reached out to me and asked us to get his pH levels tested. It's like a regular blood test and, when we got that done, we found he had chronic inflammation. And, doing some research again, helped us identify that changing our diet helped. So we started making those changes as well, and yeah. Six months down the line he was relatively pain-free and, about a year later, he was absolutely pain-free and was playing tennis. That was incredible, like I said.

Prerna Malik:       So, this first year was a lesson. I often say this, it was a lesson for us, in humility and hustle, and I did a lot things that now I think about it, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh." But, it was what was needed. For instance, our first website was created pro bono because I reached out to one of my first bosses from my corporate life, and asked if they could create the website for us, but that I had no money to give them, so if they could do it pro bono for me. It was tough, but so worth it, because those lessons? Those are for life. Yup.

Steve Folland:      Wow. So if it hadn't have been for your blog, you wouldn't have started a business, but also your husband wouldn't have got better?

Prerna Malik:       Exactly. Exactly. I am so grateful to the Internet, and to the blogging world. Because, like I said, I'm in India and, my friend who reached out, was in the US, and then my clients were spread all over the world, and they were trusting us with their social media business, with their blogs. Say what you will, the Internet brings us closer.

Steve Folland:      But all through that time, you know, you're building up the early stages of a business, but you're also, if my math is any good, maybe got a one or two-year-old by that point, as well. So not a school years kid. Was she in nursery at all? Or were you totally working in-between looking after her?

Prerna Malik:       No, she started going to playschool, so that's like preschool here, and then she went onto nursery. But she started preschool. So she used to go there for about three hours, and how I used to work was, I used to wake up really early. That's how I became an early bird. I used to wake up at 4:30, and I used to work from 4:30 to about 7:00, which is when I used to wake my daughter up, get her ready for school, and give her her breakfast and stuff, and then go drop her. Then sometimes I would just stay over there, because coming back home for two hours and then going back made no sense. I would just sit over there, in the waiting area, take my laptop, and work from there.

Prerna Malik:       So yeah, I learned to work from pretty much anywhere.

Steve Folland:      Man, yeah. Cor, it reminds me, I did that when our daughter was settling in, 'cause I used to look after her at first, when I went freelance. And just when she was starting nursery, and she'd settle in, and she was only there for like an hour or two. I used to drive just around the corner, there was a McDonald's drive-thru, with a few seats, and I used to sit in one of those seats, making a cup of tea and a donut last, while working. Yeah, 'cause it just wasn't worth driving home again.

Steve Folland:      If I'm right in thinking then, so your husband did have a full-time job but, as part of you, realizing you could make money online, working remotely, he then became part of that business as well, with you, right?

Prerna Malik:       Yeah, exactly. He's done his MBA, from Cardiff, in fact and he takes care ... He's like a COO, you know, so he takes care of all the marketing, and strategy, and all the finances, and the pricing decisions, and all of the stuff that I don't enjoy, honestly.

Steve Folland:      So does he only do that for your business? Or is that one of the services you offer, as in he ...

Prerna Malik:       No, we offer it as a service to our clients as marketing strategy and planning. Yeah, he works with them on revenue forecasting, and things like that as well.

Steve Folland:      So suddenly you find yourself working together, as well. How did that go? Were you working from home?

Prerna Malik:       Yes, yes. We work from home.

Steve Folland:      And were you literally working in the same room, or did you have an office? What was that like?

Prerna Malik:       Oh yeah, so when we started we had no money, right? It was like no money. So we used to work from the same room, our dining room, things are different now, happily. But yeah, it used to be a lot of fun. It still is, and there's just something exciting about jumping into a business, where you don't have any fear. Someone asked me this recently. She emailed me and she said, "What were your fears when you were starting your business, and how did you overcome them?" I said, "I'm really sorry to disappoint you, but I really had no fear.

Prerna Malik:       Because there  was no option. He couldn't go back to work. He wasn't going to get a job. He had been out of the workforce for about a year, and we'd realized this business had scope, and potential, and that even though the going may be tough in the beginning, because we were starting with a zero dollar budget, it would be totally with it. And this year we cracked 210K, so I would say it's been really worth it.

Steve Folland:      That's awesome. How did you set about growing your business? You started off doing social media, but you soon realized there were other services that you could offer. But you mentioned that you have clients around the world. So yeah, how did it evolve?

Prerna Malik:       Oh yeah. So, social media and blogging they were what I started to be noticed for, and we got the opportunity to work with some amazing entrepreneurs, and industry leaders in the online marketing industry, and the blogging niche. So I was working with Tsh Oxenreider, the Art of Simple, with Anne Samoilov of Fearless Launching, and Andreea Matei of Launch Grow Joy, and a whole lot of amazing entrepreneurs.

Prerna Malik:       Around 2015 is when I started getting a lot request to do copywriting for my clients. And I'd taken a couple of copywriting courses, and then I had all of Joanna Wiebe, of Copyhackers, her eBooks, and I jumped into copywriting. So, we rebranded to Content Bistro in 2015, to include both copywriting, and content creation services as well. So that's how Content Bistro came about.

Prerna Malik:       We've, over the years, focused a lot on building relationships, and also on just doing a lot of good work, to get our clients great results, because that really helps you get referrals, and get noticed for being good at what you do. So those two things were key in helping us get great clients, get regular business, and again, like I said, even though I was in India, it really didn't make any difference to our clients, who are all across the world.

Steve Folland:      I guess, in some ways, it might help. For example, we're talking now, it's half two in the UK, so I don't know that that is. It's probably 9:00 a.m. in the States, is half six. So pretty soon, probably when your daughter was five or whatever, she would have been going to bed maybe. And so, would you then be working in the evening? Is that synced with the States, for example, or would you work while they slept? Or ...?

Prerna Malik:       Yeah, so when I was doing social media, yeah. I used to work in the evenings as well. I was working very long hours, and then I used to wake up early in the morning, and then cover the nighttime. Or Mayank would take over, he would ... So we would kind of split the shifts between us. Remember, this is when we were doing social media management, years ago.

Prerna Malik:       But, with copywriting and content creation really, no. I work my own hours. I work from Monday through Friday, and I work the time that suits me. My daughter is in school from, say, 7:30 'til 2:30, she leaves for school at 7:30. So I start work around 9:00, 9:30, and then I wrap up at about 2:30, 2:45. So, right now, I work my own hours unless, of course, I have a call, or a meeting, or an interview like this one, in which case then I'm at my laptop in the evening.

Steve Folland:      Yeah. So, how do you deal with remote clients? Is it whatever they want, or do you say we're gonna do it all by email, or we're gonna all chat via Skype? Or, how do you share any project management tools with them? How do you work remotely in that way?

Prerna Malik:       Okay, yeah. So, a couple of things. You really need to set your expectations about how you work, when would you respond to emails, whether it would be 24 or 48 hours, or it's gonna be instantly. So, in my case, I set their expectations at I reply to all emails within 24 to 48 hours, I don't usually weekends unless required, and we do use a project management tool. We ask the client if they have a particular preference, because honestly I'm familiar with all of them, so it really makes no difference. But if they're not, then we use Asana, although I'm really liking Trello these days as well.

Prerna Malik:       We also have a schedule for calls, which is I send them a link to my calendar, and I have certain days. I use team days to kind of boost my productivity, so I have call days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I just send them a link to my calendar, and then they book a call.

Prerna Malik:       So it's all very streamlined, and it's very important for anyone who's working remotely with clients, with a time difference as large as ours, to be very responsible about setting expectations, and letting your clients know when should they expect to hear from you, and then live up to that expectation. Don't drop the ball. Very important. Don't say I'll reply to you in 24, 48 hours, and then be gone for three days, or four days. Yeah.

Steve Folland:      Yeah, and do you use a tool like Cabinly for your calls, or?

Prerna Malik:       Yeah, I use a tool called YouCanBook.me.

Steve Folland:      Oh yeah, yup, which is a similar thing. 'Cause what's great about that then, is it takes out the timezone conversion, doesn't it, for you? So it automatically shows the times in their timezones, which is so useful.

Steve Folland:      Now, on your website I noticed you've got what looks like, I don't know, it looks like maybe you offer packages? Is that something that you've developed over time?

Prerna Malik:       Yes. Yes, in fact our product ties, our packaged services, have played a huge role in helping us have our best year ever, this year. We have been able to do that while working very few hours. Like I said, I start my day at 9:00, 9:30, and I wrap-up by 2:30 in the afternoon, and we didn't launch a single E-course. So my package services have been hugely popular, and a big part of our business.

Prerna Malik:       I love offering services like that. In fact, I just had someone, earlier this week, sign up for a marketing package. So it was straight off, from the site, and I usually have people do that. I asked her on the call, how did she find me? And she was, "Because you were mentioned on someone's site, on a list of recommended people to work with. And, when I came, you were the only copywriter who had a package that I could buy." I was like, "Wow. That's gold."

Steve Folland:      Yeah. So is that, I guess that's like the fact that it lets them figure out what they might get, and how much it might cost, before they even in touch. It sees whether it's right for them.

Prerna Malik:       I also do projects codes, like everybody else, I have people reach out to me via referrals, or even be on a site saying, "We heard about on such-and-such podcast, or we saw you on so-and-so site. So I need a sales page for my launch. Would you be able to do that for me?" So, I also have those standalone kind of things, then that's perfectly fine, but I love packages. I like having those options onsite.

Steve Folland:      Yeah. I mean, you mentioned there, people finding you in various places. Is that something you've strategically gone out to get featured on certain blogs, or podcasts, or whatever it may be?

Prerna Malik:       Yes, I have. So, my husband and I, we work on a marketing plan on a quarterly basis. One of the things we include in that is visibility and outreach. I've been very intentional and strategic about guest-posting, and appearing on podcast interviews, and being the guest expert for other people's courses, as a copywriter expert, going in there and teaching sales page copywriting, or email copywriting. So yeah, absolutely. I've been very strategic about it.

Steve Folland:      So, do you reach out, like in a custom way, to each particular bit, or course, or podcast. 'Cause I should stress, by the way, that I contacted you, you didn't contact me. I can't remember how I found you, but it just goes to show that all of these things build up over time, doesn't it? Then, of course, is may have been, I don't know, it may have been on Twitter, but eventually I would have been on your website, and then I would have seen all of these different things that you're up to, and I see your story, because that's on there as well. So it all builds up over time.

Steve Folland:      When you're reaching out, are you being very bespoke to each one, if you see what I mean?

Prerna Malik:       Yes, I know it's time consuming. I have a basic structure for the email that I send out, but I don't use a copy/paste kind of a thing for everybody. That is why I have to be very intentional and strategic about it, because it takes me time. I study the person's site, or listen to their podcasts. I connect with them on social media, and try and see how best can I serve their community or audience, what kind of content would they like? Whether it's a guest post, or an interview, or a guest expert session, if they've got something going on like, do they have a course?

Prerna Malik:       Then I write out an email, highlighting who I am, where I've been featured. All of that is pretty standard. Like I said, that I do have a structure, but I also talk about, if it's a guest post, I'll say, "Here are a few post ideas. This is what they would talk about. This is why I think they would work, because I've seen a similar post. Got great engagement, but it didn't touch on these points. So your readers enjoy this content, but I'm sure they would like more depth, or more tips about it, or something like that."

Prerna Malik:       So yeah, I do customize my pitch.

Steve Folland:      Yeah, no yeah. That's great. Was there a point, over the past seven, eight years, where you felt, maybe that snowball, that most businesses feel, as things start to pick up speed. Was there a point where you felt it really take off?

Prerna Malik:       Oh yeah. I think it was year four was when we made 100K, and that is what I would call was our tipping point. We realized, my husband and I, the scope and the potential that this business had. Since then ... In fact, it's been growing since year one, which is a great thing, but reaching that code and code six figures feels great, it makes you feel, "Okay, yeah. Now the sky's the limit. Let's go for it."

Steve Folland:      Did that take a certain amount of pressure off, you know, given that you were literally ... You said you were starting with no money, you eaten into your savings when your husband was sick.

Prerna Malik:       Yes, it totally did. We could invest more in our business, you know. We could travel a lot more. We could do a lot of things, including switching on the air conditioning when we're working. It also showed us, you know, that when a business, the growth is ... You just can't put a number on it. You can't say, "Okay, you can get a 10% raise every year," like you would do in a job, or a 15% hike and be happy. But no. It's just exciting to know that you have full control over growing it.

Steve Folland:      So you must have a lot of leads coming in, I presume, and a lot work coming in, perhaps a lot of regular work. So how do you manage your workload, and is it just you two, for example, or have you built in a team? Have you brought in other people to write with you. Because otherwise, it must be a case of saying no to certain things.

Prerna Malik:       Yeah, so I do say no to certain things, certain projects that don't align with either my area of expertise, or my values. And we do have a team. We have a small, lean and mighty team. So, besides my husband and me, we have a full-time, in-house editor, who goes through all the copyright, and edits and proofreads it. We also have a graphic designer, and a tech team for all the back end stuff, for the website, and things like that. There's a husband/wife we've been working with for a long time. Then we have contract workers, like our bookkeeper, our lawyer, and all those kinds of things.

Prerna Malik:       Writing is solely my domain. I love to write. I don't sub-contract, I don't have other writers writing for me, I love to write, and that's totally me.

Steve Folland:      Interesting. So there's about seven or eight perhaps then, behind supporting you both, but you are taking that writing, which is where, there's no way of getting around it. That's a time-consuming thing to do.

Prerna Malik:       It is, it is. So here's the thing. Besides a good team for work and, like I said, my husband, who's also my business partner, takes care of a lot of the stuff that I just don't deal with, which includes, you know, talking to the lawyers to get contracts done for our plans, or the bookkeeping part of it, the invoicing, and the accounting, the taxes. I don't bother with it at all. That's his stuff.

Prerna Malik:       So we sit down together to work on planning our marketing, on planning strategies, that's where I have influence to share. But for thing like this, where my input is not needed, I don't spend any time on it.

Prerna Malik:       The other thing is, as our business has grown, we've also gotten at help at home. And something we did right from the start, when we started working together, we had clearly defined responsibilities for the home and the business. So that helps a lot as well, because working from can get tricky, when both of you are working together. But, having those clearly-defined responsibilities helps a lot.

Steve Folland:      So, it's about the communication between the two of you, as to what your work and domestic duties, as it were, may be?

Prerna Malik:       Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, also trusting each others decisions completely, keeping each other motivated and focused, because there will be times when you feel burnt out. There will be times when you feel overwhelmed. I've had my shares of meltdowns, way, way too often, especially in the early days, when you're working so hard, and you're spending way too many hours on the laptop, and sometimes things just don't seem to be moving as fast as you would like them to. It can get overwhelming. So, being a sounding board for each other really helps, and just keeping each other focused, and motivated makes a huge difference. Yeah.

Steve Folland:      Yeah, that's great. Just going back to that team thing as well, because you can year the 100K or the 200K figure, for example, that you say. But, obviously, there is two of you. You've also got other people who then that money gets dispersed, other than taxes and things like that.

Prerna Malik:       Yeah.

Steve Folland:      If you could tell your younger self one thing about freelance, what would that be?

Prerna Malik:       You know, I'm gonna kind of go against the grain, or the trench here, and I would say nothing really. Because, given the situation we were in, with our backs against the wall, without any fear. We kept costs low, we worked really, really hard, so really nothing. If the situation was different when we started, say we had more money, I would have invested earlier in more learning resources, and also in traveling overseas to meet clients, and attend conferences.

Steve Folland:      That is an interesting thing, that whole thing of, even as you started to eventually have money though, it's still quite scary spending it. Or maybe it wasn't. But, in my head, I still think, "Oh well, if I pay somebody else to this task, for example, for you hired your first person to do something for you, or to book that plane ticket to wherever, and to buy a conference ticket, that could still seem scary." I don't want to put words in your mouth, but that's how it feels to me. Did it feel like that to you?

Prerna Malik:       Oh no. It felt liberating.

Steve Folland:      Brilliant.

Prerna Malik:       It felt exciting to be able to hire someone to do the stuff that you don't like doing, or really isn't your skillset. Because I said, when we started off, I was doing all the graphics for my blog, making all those photos, and PicMonkey, and other tools, and things like that. And oh my gosh, I was so glad to have someone who would take it all, and do it for me. In fact, things like migrating my site from blogger to WordPress. I did it myself. I struggled. So, when I could hire our website support team, I'm so happy to pay them every month. I cannot tell you. We've had them on retainer for, I think a couple of years now, and I enjoy paying them every month. Same for investing in courses.

Prerna Malik:       I will, however, say that we're very selective about what we invest in. It has to have a clear return on investment. It has to have a clear outcome for us. How is it gonna help us grow our business? Would it free up our time? Would it help us give better results to our clients? So, we're very selective. I do not sign up for every single course that comes my way, no matter how tempting it may be. We carefully evaluate everything that we invest in, and that's what's really helped our costs low.

Prerna Malik:       This year, for instance, out of what we made, the 210K, nearly 60% of that was profit, 40% went into business expenses, taxes, charity, and reinvestment.

Steve Folland:      And especially because, I don't know, I guess, in a different time, let's be honest. Pre-Internet and things like that, the outcome of your husband getting ill, for example, and the effect for that would have had on you guys, would have been totally different. And, instead of that, this whole thing has flourished.

Prerna Malik:       Oh gosh yes. Like I said at the start of this interview, I am so grateful for the Internet. I've made the most wonderful friends. I worked with some incredible, incredible people, I've learned things that I never would have, and we've created a life for ourself. That, without the Internet, I don't see it being possible.

Steve Folland:      Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story, and your tips, and your advice. It seems to me, that streak that you had really early on, which carries through to the whole investing thing of being fearless, serves you very well.

Steve Folland:      Make sure you go to beingfreelance.com, and there will be a link through to Content Bistro, which is Prerna's website, with her husband, and the business. You can link through and check out the blog. The blog which is on there, does that still relate to your original blog, or is that somewhere else?

Prerna Malik:       No. I shut down the Mum Writes a few years ago, yes. I would not keep up and it just wasn't fair to my readers, and I really believe in walking the talk when it comes to work-life balance. So, it was yeah. It was just not working out, and we just took the really tough decision, because I was emotionally attached to it, but yeah. We did shut it down.

Steve Folland:      But it was more important to get that balance for it?

Prerna Malik:       Exactly. Exactly.

Steve Folland:      Would you have any thoughts on how to get that balance right though? Given that you're both working really hard, I mean, I know you talked about very clear job roles, as it were, between you both, both domestically and work-wise, but how you manage that tightrope of work-life balance.

Prerna Malik:       Oh yeah. So, a couple of things, I also used team days, so I'm not bouncing between different projects, and I'm super-focused when I'm working. I'm ruthless about shutting down distractions when I need to write, or even do my research.

Prerna Malik:       We've got strong boundaries around our workdays, and we protect those, which ensures that our work done, so it's not laying unattended, or stressing it out. Then you've got time to, you know, if it's family, or around with my daughter, or I enjoy baking, so I can do all of that without worrying that, "Oh my gosh. I have to finish that email. Or I have to, you know, get back and answer messages, or whatever."

Prerna Malik:       So processes and systems are key, as is having a solid calendar so you know what you're doing as a business, in terms of marketing, and kind of focus our energies. The other thing, what I want to share was that I've learned that sometimes it's important to just step back, and not force yourself to work, or be creative. If you're stuck, take a break. It's a lesson that I learned. I just kind of got burned out, way back in the day, and it didn't come naturally to me. My husband, Mayank, had to sit me down and talk to me. He was like, "You really need to learn how to take a break." Because I'm a Type A, and I can just go on forever. Yeah, it's very important to just say, "It's okay. The world doesn't explode if you decide to take the day off."

Steve Folland:      Well what did burnout look like for you?

Prerna Malik:       For me? It was that I was in tears. I felt that everybody else was doing way better than I was, and that I was just not making any headway, and I felt, "Why am I even doing all of this?" So I took a few days off.

Prerna Malik:       That is when we realized the importance of travel and vacations for us. So we make it a point to travel, at least three to four times in the year, as a family, or it could sometimes be just me, traveling for business. But that really helps me step back, and enjoy the world away from my laptop.

Steve Folland:      Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for chatting to us today. Go to beingfreelance.com, links through to Content Bistro, and to find Prerna online, so you can reach out and say hi, and see what they're up to.

Steve Folland:      But yeah, it's been an absolute joy to speak to you, and all the best Being Freelance!

Prerna Malik:       Thank you so much. Thanks Steve.