INTRODUCING EMMA MASLEN

Today on the show I’m chatting with the courageous Emma Maslen from Rescue My Resume. Emma helps professional women to achieve their next dream job through amazing, confidence boosting resumes and coaching to nail that dreaded job interview. 

WHERE IT STARTED

Emma started her business 5 years ago and would meet with her clients on a one-on-one capacity in cafes to write their resumes. Then covid hit and she had to change her business structure to move her packages online. She developed her website and packages over time and ended up with an extensive website that wasn’t intuitive and clients had to go to multiple pages to find out what she actually offered. 

So she had to stop and reflect on what she actually liked working on the most, which was interview coaching. She simplified her packages and now includes everything from resume writing to LinkedIn profiles as well as interview coaching in an easy to find program that helps professional women walk into the interview room feeling confident, upbeat and positive. 

PRICING EVOLVES OVER TIME

Emma definitely experienced imposter syndrome in the beginning of her business. But over time she found confidence in her skills, knowledge and experience and felt empowered. The demand increased for her services and she was working around the clock so she started to regularly increase her prices and has built a powerful business structure that suits her, her family and the life she wants to create. 

REACH FURTHER

Emma was mainly operating through a word-of-mouth marketing structure and then she found The Modern Marketing Collective which helped her market her business to a much greater audience and discover her passion for posting regularly on LinkedIn and using video marketing. She now has a great following and loves posting a mixture of educational posts, testimonials and sales posts in a very organic and authentic way. 

YOU CAN SAY “NO”

Throughout Emma’s business journey she’s learned that sometimes working with a particular kind of client will not be worth the money. She’s in a much better mental state if she doesn’t have to deal with the stress of turning around and working with someone who is incredibly demanding. It’s important to be discerning and find your ideal client to have a positive, successful and rewarding partnership throughout your business relationship. 

I loved listening to Emma’s journey. If you’re looking to improve your resume and interviewing skills, you can work with her in her online Not Just a Resume Template program, or 1:1 via her Resume Rescue, Next Level Career and Job Interview Coaching packages. 

I encourage you to learn from her triumphs and challenges, marketing strategies, how she maps content, her advice and the experience that has come from running a very successful business for over five years. 

Enjoy!

LINKS: 

Where to find Emma Maslen: 

Website: https://www.rescuemyresume.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rescue-my-resume/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rescuemyresume.au/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rescuemyresume/?hl=en

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[00:00:00] Emily: Welcome back to the show. Today I’m talking with Emma Maslen, who is Rescue My Resume, Emma helps professional women to win their next dream job through confidence boosting resumes and job interview coaching, and her clients can work with Emma in her online, not just a resume program or one-on-one via her resume rescue.

Next level career and job interview coaching packages. Emma works from home and coaches online using Zoom, which allows her to juggle work around her three kids age between seven and 12 and HER two Greyhounds. In this episode, we’re chatting about how Emma got started raising her prices, auditing and simplifying her offers, saying no to clients who aren’t the right fit, finding a passion outside of her business, and the advice that she would give to herself when she was just starting out.

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Emma as one of my students in the modern marketing collective, and I’ve loved seeing her evolve and grow her business over the years. So without further ado, allow me to introduce. To Emma, Thank you so much for joining me today. 

[00:02:00] Emma: Thank you for having me. I’m very excited to be here. 

[00:02:03] Emily: Absolutely. I would love you to start off, Emma, with telling us a little bit about your business, what exactly it is that you do, and then what it is that you offer in your business as well.

[00:02:13] Emma: Okay, so, I run a business called Rescue My Resume, where I support professional women to move to the next level in their career. and the focus is around sort of improving their career confidence. so I do this by helping my clients to articulate and understand what their amazing skills and achievements actually are.

[00:02:31] Emma: And I sort of do this by writing their resume. So I’m essentially a resume writer, but also write, you know, the cover letters and LinkedIn profiles. And I also coach people for job interview preparation as well. so I work with my clients in sort of two different ways. So I work with a lot of them one-on-one. So I meet with them online for a resume consultation, and then I write their resume and other documents for them. and I also work with people, by my online program, which is called not just a resume template where clients get cover letter templates, with detail instructions on how to complete them as well as their LinkedIn profile. Yeah, so that’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

[00:03:06] Emily: This is after a few iterations, what did your business start? Like, what was your first, I guess, foray into your own business What were you offering? Did it look anything like now? Was it very different?

[00:03:18] Emma: The one-on-one work was similar, so I started off, pretty much just resume writing and a one-on-one capacity. So I started the business about five years ago and, just worked with people, met with them usually in cafes. So this is pre pandemic where I used to actually go and, print out the pre-draft and go to the cafe and meet with them, and then I would write their resume for them afterwards.

[00:03:37] Emma: And I used to do similar work to what I do now. I guess I didn’t appreciate the service I was offering back then, and it was a very different price point to where I’m at now, I guess. but the service is pretty much the same. And I guess I’ve just evolved, the packages that I offer and moved to the online program as well to offer it, at a lower price point.

[00:03:54] Emily: Yeah. In a more leveraged way as 

[00:03:57] Emma: You? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. 

[00:04:00] Emily: So I know Emma, that you made some, changes to your business over the last year and one of that you just touched on was increasing your prices as well just reviewing your offers. And I believe just simplifying what you had, I think it would be really valuable for the audience to hear your thought processes around that, and perhaps what stood out to you, why you decided to do that. Let’s start there and then we can talk about what the result has been. But do you wanna maybe even explain what offers you had and then what you realized about that and then what changes you made? 

[00:04:33] Emma: Yeah, so I guess I used to have lots of different pages on my website with lots of different offerings and people would build up their own package essentially. So they’d, you know have the resume and, and the LinkedIn and, then they’d add a cover letter and then they’d add interview coaching and they could add on extra editing. And I had so many different, options for people that it was sort of a bit confusing and like it kind of did make sense in terms of they were adding on the package that, suited them, but it was too confusing to explain to people a lot of the time. And also I just, my website was a big mess cuz it had it’s grown over the years and I just added different pages and sections and once I does offering kind of career coaching as well which I sort of incorporate into my resume sessions anyway, so, there as well. And there was a separate page for interview coaching and it was just a, it just seemed like a big mess and people had to go to multiple pages to find out what I actually did. you know, I was getting busier and busier and I was like, well, what do I actually like working on the most.

[00:05:23] Emma: So, I really love interview coaching. That’s my favorite part of the job. So I’ve, you know, really been focusing and pushing that side of my business. So that’s one of my new service offerings is really pushing the interview coaching, um, and helping people in that way. And then when I work with my one-on-one clients, I now, I guess, have simplified the package that includes everything.

[00:05:42] Emma: Because people generally do need everything, whether or not they recognize it at the start. They usually do need complete rewrite of their resume letter, LinkedIn profile. And then they also need the interview coaching to help them even the most confident, most senior professional women. And that’s usually who I work with. They still really need that coaching to help sell themselves at the job interview. It’s quite, hard for people. 

[00:06:05] Emily: It’s not something that comes naturally, I think, to anyone, and to have that external person that can, yeah, coach and support and point out blind spots and give encouragement, I can imagine, is just invaluable and so appreciated. . 

[00:06:19] Emma: Yeah. Yeah. they really do appreciate it. Especially like they’re going, might be going into an interview with a recruiter or an interview with the hiring manager directly rather than a panel, and they don’t know how to approach the different types of interviews and really giving them the confidence to go in there proactively to sell themselves a good thing. 

[00:06:33] Emily: So what, was the outcome or what’s been the experience and outcome so far, Emma, from really looking and auditing everything that you offered. And then I think moving from, instead of, and I, like this was how I started my business. It was like, okay, someone asked for this, I’ll offer this. Someone asked for this. Oh, I can do that too. I’ll offer that. and then it becomes just a whole lot of different things people can have. And my philosophy is really okay. now, once we kind of move beyond that phase, look more strategically what am I best at? What do I enjoy the most? And then how can I turn that into like one or maybe a, just a small handful of really intentional offerings that are. Designed to create a specific outcome for my ideal client. What has been the result of that so far for you, and then also for your clients, do you think, or people that are looking at working with you? 

[00:07:21] Emma: Yeah, so I think with my, you know, one-on-one packages the big. you know, everything included packages selling really well and I’m always like every week surprised that it’s gone as well as it has. So that’s been really nice, a nice thing to do. And I really take the time to focus on that one person at a time. Like, I don’t take on too many clients and it’s just, yeah, it’s. , it’s gone really well. It’s very steady, I guess, which is really good. I forgot to mention before, I also simplified my online template offering as well. So I used to have, I used to sell a template separately and then the online program separately, and I’ve kind of just combined those two. And so people want the template. They now go into the program where I give them the detailed instructions. So it was kind of changing the messaging around the online program, and that’s also been selling quite consistently as well, which has been really great. So, yeah, it’s all around messaging really, I think.

[00:08:09] Emily: It really is. how did you work on yours, Emma? What did that involve? 

[00:08:14] Emma: I went back to basics. So I basically went through the mono marketing collective system. Again, I went back to the start and particularly around the messaging module and I, at that same time, was completely rewriting my website. Pressly deleted all the old pages and started again. So that was such a, good thing to do. I came up with like new, service offerings. basically four new areas or services that people, how people could work with me. And look, I’ve changed that since then. Like, uh, the first four that I came up with didn’t, one of them didn’t quite work. And, you know, I recognize that and then have changed that up slightly since. But yeah, just working out, what people want and, how to speak to those people as well. And just really simplify. Simplify 

[00:08:54] Emily: Yes. I think it’s gonna be this really complicated advanced strategy, but it’s like, oh, okay. No, it’s always just the basics, like, all right. Let’s dig into the pricing side of things if you’re happy to have a chat about that. What do you think changed in your mind from when you were originally meeting people in cafes and you kind of mentioned at the start not charging a whole lot to then putting your prices up and being where they are now? What’s changed for you? Because I guess it’s, not to put words in your mouth, but it’s often around the way we see ourselves and see the value in what we have to offer, but what’s, what’s that look like for you? 

[00:09:26] Emma: Definitely a bit of imposter syndrome at the start. like I, don’t have a recruitment background. I sort of fell into resume writing and learn it through, I guess it’s a different way, and then I just discovered that I was good at it and that I’m good at getting information out of people and then putting it on to paper. So I think at the start, I thought, oh, what what would I be willing to pay for a resume? And I was charging, I think, $300 for a resume, a letter and case selection criteria responses, which would take me days and days to write and I was like, oh, if I have three clients a week, I could, you know, afford to pay myself. That was kind of my thinking and I’m like, I was working around the clock. Cuz it takes a long time to write a resume and especially key selection criteria. But yeah, I quickly did put the prices up as demand increased, and it was, I guess a lot of my business growth has been word of mouth. So as I’ve gotten more and more busy, I just put up my prices on a fairly regular basis. 

[00:10:20] Emily: Brilliant. I love that way. And it’s such an iterative process too, and I think it’s, I think it’s just kind of the rite of passage we all chronically probably undercharged, but at the same time, it’s the payoff to finally just getting started and getting our first few clients and actually figuring out what we’re doing and then building up from there. And I think to have that word of mouth coming in is just a testament to the service that you offer. It’s such a great signal of a, great business when you are getting the word of mouth and the referrals. I know as well, Emma linkedIn quite effective for you. Is that right? Could you give an overview of how you approach it? How you use it? 

[00:10:55] Emma: Yeah, it’s funny, like when I, I started out, I had no idea about any sort of marketing. So I think I had a, my website and I had a Facebook page to start with. And then I think I did a facebook ad once and someone found me on Instagram. I’m like, but I don’t even have an Instagram so I thought I better start an Instagram page as well. And that’s when I found the Modern Marketing collective, which was just been amazing in learning how to, I guess, do Instagram and Facebook really well and gimme the confidence to start doing video and that sort of thing as well. Which has been really helpful. But yeah, obviously I’d never really, that seems silly, but I didn’t think that linkedIn would be, I was too scared to use LinkedIn, I think, which is ironic because I’m actually helping my clients to use LinkedIn, 

[00:11:33] Emily: It’s always the stuff we have to learn ourselves. Sometimes, like, it’s like what we help our clients with and we’re like, oh, but I can’t be on there. I don’t wanna do that. 

[00:11:41] Emma: Yeah, yeah, Like I think I used to just do basic posts, the same posts that I’d, educational posts that I’d write. Same for Instagram and Facebook. and that was fine. At least I was building up a, profile. But then I guess networking with LinkedIn, like growing my connection list as well was within a, bit of a strategy for me. And then when I started doing the kind of, Instagram stories at the start and our reels started doing video on LinkedIn, which got great engagement and great, great feedback from I focus on LinkedIn now. It’s where I post daily or every second day. Try to post and mix up the style of posts that I do. So mix up with videos and normal posts and now sort of document posts, got a good following on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is quite different to other platforms, but it’s also very similar. Like could, you know, you mix up your posts between, you know, educational posts and testimonials and the odd sales posts here and there, but, it is very similar, but it’s just a different, different vibe, I guess. 

[00:12:30] Emily: Yeah, and it’s different nuances. And I think that’s the thing with marketing is that once you learn and really get a handle on the fundamentals, then it’s just about applying it to the different platforms, suited to the platform itself and the different nuances on there. But the overall strategy and understanding your content and the intention and purpose behind the content and why you’re actually doing it is the key. 

[00:12:54] Emma: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s the same, like I do have the same approach across all platforms. But yeah, I focus on LinkedIn and then I’ll just do the odd posts on LinkedIn. I don’t get that many clients inquiries through Facebook and instagram. But they’ll still look at your profile. So even if a client’s been referred from a friend, they’ll still check out your profile. So it’s important to have a presence on all the platforms I feel. 

[00:13:13] Emily: What have been some of the challenges for you, Emma, over the five years or so? What’s been kind of things that you’ve found most difficult of either running the business or being in business? 

[00:13:27] Emma: Yeah. I think learning to say no to people, like say no to clients that don’t quite fit sort of my ideal clients. So I’ve had a lot of, over the years you’ve said, I’ve said yes to someone cuz they were referred from a friend. But they’re really just in an industry that I’m not familiar with and it’s not my area of expertise or that I don’t gel with them, on a one-on-one basis. So learning to say no to particular types of clients, I guess over time has been one of the challenges. And I think learning to say no to clients as well in terms of getting too busy. So I guess over the last five years I’ve had periods where I’ve gotten ridiculously busy and taken on. Clients are desperate. So you say, oh, okay. And then I end up working all weekend or all night because I’ve said yes to a client. So learning to say no from that perspective as well. And then you kind of recognize that you can’t help everybody. 

[00:14:17] Emma: And so that’s why having my online program’s been really good because if I don’t have time to help someone on a one-on-one basis, they can use my online program and do it themselves and then get some feedback from me if they want it. I did that this week. I was already booked out, but I had someone who was, yeah, someone who was, you know, had a job clothing on the weekend. And so I was like, well if you, you do the draft using the online program, I can click do a quick edit of it for you on Friday. So it just means that I can help more people.

[00:14:42] Emma: And I guess from a financial perspective as well, it can be challenging cuz I guess, demand is up and down and, December, January are generally pretty quiet for me. Saying that last December was huge for me. So it’s a very, you just think it’s unpredictable. But just making sure that you’ve, I guess got, it’s got some planning around knowing that you’re gonna have some busy months and some quota months and just planning your finances accordingly.

[00:15:03] Emily: Yeah, allowing for that ahead of time. For sure. That makes sense. Yeah. With the saying no side of things do you think it’s saying no, just that it’s finding it really difficult to say no to people and wanting to kind of please everyone. Or there’s also the thing around, ah, well it’s also the money. You know, this is a potential client that I, could kind of help why would I say no to them. Do you think it’s been both over time? Do you think it’s one more than the other? 

[00:15:28] Emma: Yeah, I think it’s probably a bit of both, but I also think that I’ve recognized now that sometimes working with this particular sort of client will not be worth the money , even though it might be a lot of money, I know that it won’t be worth the stress and I’ve, I feel like I’ve finally come to that point now in my business where I can go. You know what, I’d rather have no clients this week. I know that I’ve still got enough to pay myself this month, and I’ve been a much better state mentally if I don’t have to deal with the stress of turning around someone who’s really demanding. and there’s always other people that can help them as well. There’s thousands of resume writers out there, so it’s not like I’m the only person in the world who can help them.

[00:16:04] Emily: It’s a good thing to remember as well. You don’t have to save everyone or help everyone. They will survive without you. There are alternatives. They are resourceful. what an amazing place to get to where. You can see there’s an opportunity there. You can see it’s maybe not gonna be a great one or a very enjoyable, or it might be a little bit painful. And you have that ability to say, actually, like, the money’s just not worth it to me. And to be able to just say no is, I think so empowering. 

[00:16:33] Emma: Yeah. Yeah, like I feel so lucky. I feel like I’ve, and it finally got to a really great place in my business where I’m working with my ideal clients and I’m getting just the right amount of work and I have time to do other things in my life. So, yeah, I feel pretty, pretty fortunate. 

[00:16:47] Emily: Fortunate Yes. But also you’ve put in the work and intentionally done all the hard things to get here as well so well

[00:16:56] Emma: Yeah. I look back to, you know, Particularly those pandemic years, I was like working crazy hours working at night cause of the kids and just really putting so much into it and now I can kind of reign it back in and I don’t have to do nearly as much work now, which is awesome. 

[00:17:12] Emily: I actually didn’t know, Emma, that you had until recently. You’ve got three kids, you have a Greyhound, and you’re doing some fostering of other greyhounds. How do you make your business work around all of that and also you’re writing a romance novel, which is so cool. So 

[00:17:29] Emma: Yes, yes, Yes I’m not sure it’s gonna be very good. I’ve started, I’m writing it going, oh, is this any good? It’s hard to know when you’re writing if it’s any good. So anyway I kind of do work around the kids. So I, do the school drop off and then usually go to the gym straight after that. And then I sort of start work around 10, 30 most days. and then do school pickup as well most days. So one of the main reasons I started the business.

[00:17:52] Emma: So I would have time to do that sort of stuff for the kids and also get to the gym cause I was finding it was too hard. going to the office was just far too hard to find the time to do that sort of things. And also now giving the time to walk the dogs . Yeah, so I feel, again, very fortunate that I’ve got the time to do that. And you know, sometimes, yeah, sometimes I have to work at night and occasionally, and like this morning, I had a client at 8:00 AM. Fine. but it means that, other times I’ll have extra time during the day and now I’m blocking out a couple of half days a week to work on my novel and that’s really fun. Cause like, you know, obviously resume writing can be quite dry and I was getting a bit, oh, I need something else in my life. And so doing this creative writing has been, yeah, really good. Give me something else to think about and something else to focus on. 

[00:18:36] Emily: For those that are listening and perhaps their business is at the start or they’re listening to you and like, oh my gosh, that is the dream to be able to. to be able to have that flexibility to be able to be at a point where I can turn down. clients perhaps that don’t feel great to be working with the clients that I love and have really solid pricing. What would be some advice or encouragement or something that you’d like to say to those people that perhaps where you were when you started your business four or so years ago?

[00:19:05] Emma: I think that just recognizing that all the hard work will pay off eventually, and that if you do a good job, then you will get the word of mouth referrals, if that’s sort of, people will talk about you and recommend you and eventually that does mean that you can put your prices up and choose who you wanna work with. So, If I could go back and yeah. Talk to myself from back then, I would go. It’ll all be worth it. You know, like, like it was stressful. But it’s coming out the other side and it just means that, relatively easy now, which is amazing. I can’t believe I’m saying that. 

[00:19:38] Emily: I know, right? It’s like, wait, wait. Am I allowed to say that. Am I allowed to say it’s relatively easy? 

[00:19:42] Emma: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, like, course there’s always gonna be, low patches where you’re hating it or something’s not going well, but you, make the decisions. You can choose who you work with you can choose your pricing, And I think sometimes you forget. You think, oh, obviously money is an issue. You do need the money. Sometimes you do have to say yes, but hopefully we’ll get to the point where you can, choose who you work with 

[00:20:04] Emily: And I think as well when you take on clients that perhaps aren’t the ideal fit or they’re from a different industry, if you’re at the point where it just makes sense to take them on, I also say you know, that you don’t have to kind of advertise, you don’t have to have them on your website. Keep your message focused on the people that you wanna attract. Even if you’re taking on a few other people here and there, or other businesses or whatever it might be that don’t quite fit doesn’t mean that you have to put it out there and put them in your portfolio and all that type of thing. 

[00:20:28] Emma: Absolutely. Absolutely. 

[00:20:30] Emily: So couple of last questions for you. What are you working on at the minute? What’s something that you want to get better at or improve on 

[00:20:37] Emma: Definitely goes back to the creative writing side of things. So I guess it’s more of a, personal, you know, endeavor rather than focusing on my business. But yeah, improving my creative writing which just tells me, I guess with writing in general, like with my clients, even just writing a resume. It’s a lot of thinking thinking about what you’re gonna write before you write it, and that’s the the novel writing, like it is a very similar process, but also quite different in terms of, you know, you’ve gotta incorporate so many more different things into a creative novel. So that’s the main thing I’m working on. And just in terms of my marketing, just being more consistent with the business. So as I mentioned before, like a lot of my clients are still referrals, but a lot of them is also through LinkedIn. So just making sure that I’m really consistently showing up and making sure you know, I’m really delivering value in terms of my education, sort of focused posts, but not always just being educational or being a little inspiring occasionally as well. So yeah, I try to mix it up plan it out, which I think, again, one marketing collectives helped me in that. I used to just each day go, what am I gonna post today? And I always put, spend so many hours on it, whereas now I can just, put aside a day, a month and block it out and just write a whole month’s worth of content. I might change it up as the month goes on, depending on what’s happening, but at least I’ve got it there ready to go, if I need it. So yeah, just being more consistent would be my other, my other big.

[00:21:59] Emily: I think that’s pretty much on everyone’s list. Hey, 

[00:22:01] Emma: Yeah. Finding the time to actually set aside time to plan it out is the hard thing, I

[00:22:07] Emily: Yeah. But it sounds like you’ve done a really good job. do you have a one week a month? Is that what you are doing at the minute with mapping out your content? 

[00:22:13] Emma: I sort of do one day a month where I kind of just brainstorm and kind of plot them out and just, do some base, two to three posts a week put them up as drafts or, um, schedule them and then I can move them around if I need to. And then I usually email my list once a week as well. So set all those up once in a month and stuff like that 

[00:22:32] Emily: Couple last questions. I feel like you’ve kind of covered this, so thank you for dropping it in. But um, what’s been kind of the best thing for you from the modern marketing collective for you and for your business? What’s been, I guess, the most, most effective or valuable or helpful thing from there?

[00:22:47] Emma: Everything Um, just being able to make sure that, I guess my messaging is clear across all my platforms, like my website, and I guess that’s the good thing about One collective is that it’s not just. Instagram, it’s everything. So it kind of helps me, yeah, plot everything out and I guess help with setting up online programs. I know you’ve now incorporated that into the program as well. So I’m gonna re-looking at my online program and that sort of thing as well and it’s good that it’s always there and you can go back and focus on what you need to focus on at that particular time. So, yeah, no, I’ve loved the program, so I think I joined. I can’t remember how many years ago it was now and then I left, but they’ll come back cause I recognized that I needed that, regular support and encouragement 

[00:23:32] Emily: Thanks. Emma. No, it’s awesome to have you there. So where can everyone go to find you, to check you out, to follow you, and for those that are really wanting some help to step up in their career and have your guidance what’s the best places? 

[00:23:45] Emma: Oh, so many places you can find me on LinkedIn. So my name is Emma Maslen, so I do most of my posts through my personal LinkedIn profile. So feel free to follow me or connect with me. My website is rescue my resume.com.au and my Instagram handle is Rescue My Resume And I think Facebook’s the same. Thank you. 

[00:24:02] Emily: First podcast interview Emma?

[00:24:04] Emma: It was good. Thank you. 

[00:24:05] Emily: You’re a natural