We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christina Lyon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christina below.

Christina, appreciate you joining us today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. So, we’d appreciate if you could open up about your growth story and the nitty, gritty details that went into scaling up.

I knew it was time to scale when my freelance writing clients kept increasing the volume of weekly content, to the point where I couldn’t fulfill the demand myself. This was a truly enlightening experience and provoked quite a challenge. Would it be ethical if I hired writers to help me, well, write the content my clients paid me to write? Ultimately, I could either tell my clients no, and force them to hire another writer. Or I could recruit help from qualified and talented writers, and show them the process and quality my clients expected of me.

I of course disclosed these changes to my clients, who allayed my trepidations immediately. They weren’t upset that I was recruiting help, they were happy that I could handle an increased workload without compromising quality.

While I was a bit unsure of the decision to scale, I didn’t want to limit myself or be in a position to not meet my client’s content needs. But I’ll be honest, finding the right writers to bring on to my team was incredibly difficult.

I started on platforms like Upwork, but struggled to find high-quality and consistent writers. Then I expanded and started publishing job listings on LinkedIn and in Facebook writing groups. This is how I recruited two of my current writers, who have grown with me from when I first started hiring, and as we’ve expanded into a writing agency.

Looking back, I’m grateful for being in the trenches with freelance writing for about a year before I decided to scale. I gained the skills and tools to know how to do my job efficiently, but also train my writers to meet the incredibly high quality standards my clients expect.

It was anything but an overnight success. I’ve had more writers not work out than actually work out. And the same goes for all the contractors I’ve hired, from editors to project managers to social media marketers. Finding great talent is like finding a diamond in the rough. When you find one – keep it and keep polishing it.

I’m incredibly grateful for my loyal and dependable team, and as a founder, it’s absolutely essential to make them feel as special and rewarded as they deserve to feel. I see them as my equals, my colleagues, and my friends.

If you want to continue scaling sustainably without having a high turnover, you have to pay fair wages, incentivize your team with bonuses and raises, and go above and beyond to treat them well.

When I started hiring, I promised myself that I would treat my team the way I had always WISHED a boss or manager had treated me: like a valued ally and respected peer.

It’s easy to make scaling all about your bottom line, and of course, you have to be mindful of those profit margins, otherwise, you’ll be in the red. But at the heart of every business should be the wellbeing and livelihood of your team. After all, you won’t be in business long without them.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi! I’m Christina Lyon, a content writing agency founder and creative entrepreneur. I started out in 2018 as a freelance writer, but really, my journey in the blogging space started in 2016 when I traveled to Italy for study abroad and started a blog to document my adventures.

Upon returning to the States, I was supposed to transfer to Cal State Long Beach to pursue my Bachelor’s in Journalism. But my heart was pulling me in another direction. I truly didn’t have a passion for journalism, and instead wanted to pursue blogging as a career.

My start was rocky as heck. My first few clients were nightmares. One tried to blackmail me, the other undermined my value. But over time and with persistence, I got into a groove and started working with fabulous clients in the beauty, marketing, and ecommerce spaces.

I scaled from a freelance solopreneur to a content writing agency by hiring a dynamic team of talented writers, editors, and marketers. We’ve had some challenges this year with the breakout of AI writing tools, but we remain committed to crafting authentic, human-generated content that can’t be replicated by robo-writers.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Always be transparent with your team. I’ve found that breaking news to them, whether good or bad, is best done by being forthright and upfront. And if it’s bad news? Soften it with something good in any way that you can. To maintain high morale, especially during times of conflict, choose to compromise. See if you can meet them in the middle and encourage them as you work through hard situations. And above all, always make your team feel valued and special. This year has been the hardest for our business due to the rise of AI and the economy. Our response? We treated our team to a retreat in Upstate NY because we wanted to meet face-to-face after working together online for several years. Even in tough times, it’s important to show your team how grateful you are for them. It doesn’t have to be a retreat, it could be a small gesture like a gift card or a bonus for a job done well.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

It’s really important to establish a connection with your clients beyond just a working relationship. A great way to do this is to engage with them on social media, and share what you’re comfortable sharing about your life. The stronger the bond you can forge with them, the more loyal they will be to you because you treat them as more than a paycheck. Networking and building genuine relationships is the best way to go, because loyalty is met with loyalty.

Contact Info:

• Website: lyoncontentagency.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lyoncontent/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lyon-content/