If You Care About Quality, It Shows

“An artist is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness

to challenge the status quo. And an artist takes it personally.”

- author Seth Godin

When I left my first newsroom job, our sports columnist dedicated a few inches of his column to a farewell. “You may not have agreed with Lois,” Charlie Kitts wrote, “but you always knew she cared.”

He captured in those few lines the difference between how I work and how so many others do. It comes down to giving part of yourself to every interview, every document, and every person you encounter.

I had spent seven years at my hometown paper, The Almonte Gazette, so the coverage there was personal. When a young man died in a car crash, I wrote his obituary without having to do any research since I had known him since kindergarten. As I moved to other communities, I didn’t know the background of each person as well, so I delved deeper to make sure every story reflected a personality and shared some wisdom.

That outlook carried into how I worked with reporters on the stories they chose to cover, how they were edited and presented on each page. As a fundraiser, I treated every donor as if they were the only donor. Every person featured in a testimonial was the only person in the spotlight.

As a freelancer, my approach applies to every client. I don’t return work until it has been thoroughly read, understood, and polished to your specifications and my standards. Last week, I returned a file to a client who light-heartedly pointed out that I had missed the addition of one comma. I went right back to review it and found that I had actually missed two, so I corrected it and confessed.

The writer or idea generator of each piece I handle has their focus on their work alone and want someone to care nearly as much as they do when they offer to change it for the better. It would be easier to churn out text as many agencies do. I worked for two of them before walking away in frustration.

They didn’t care. And they didn’t expect me to, either.

The bottom line is that to do the best job possible, you have to invest yourself in every step of the process. I pitch to individuals and promise high-quality writing and editing. Then I deliver on it, whether I’m writing a book, editing one, crafting a press release, or shaping your communications plan or strategy.

As Charlie says, I care. And that will never change.