We were lucky to catch up with Halona Black recently and have shared our conversation below.

Halona, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

I certainly wish I had started my business sooner. I started out as a freelance writer almost 10 years ago. I was disillusioned with working in the field of education at that time and was tired of having to give my time to a system that I felt did not put the concerns of students first. I had always wanted to be a writer, but was unclear about what kind of writing I wanted to do and how to actually get people to pay me for writing stuff. I had several blogs in the past where I wrote about my experience in education then moved on to health and wellness. And I was hired to teach workshops in the community to show others how they can start their own blogs. However I was still clueless about how to make money. I was fired from my job in higher education and collected unemployment. During that time, I started doing a few classes teaching healthy cooking. Then I got a job at Whole Foods grocery store in the kitchen to practice my culinary skills. I then got a yearlong job teaching healthy cooking to children. Then I decided I wanted to write about food. Somehow I managed to find a few media outlets who would pay me $10 to $50 per article to write about food, health and other topics. I knew the pay was low, but I still had an employee mindset. I thought that if I could just make $100 a day, I would survive. That was a poverty mindset. I was woefully unprepared to run a business. I wish I had known someone earlier who could help me learn what being a successful writer looks like. After a year of struggle projects, I got a yearlong editing gig with the local education department that paid me $30 an hour. This was enough for me to pay for 3 months of coaching. During that time I learned how to set my rates, how to look for high paying clients, how to figure out what industries I could write for, etc. I took other professional trainings after that as well. I knew how to write well, I just needed support with the business part of having a stable business and creating income.

Halona, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m an Author Coach for women travelers who want to turn their travel tales into a book.

How did I get into this field? I started off as a freelance writer 10 years ago. When I turned 40 I wanted to reinvent my life. So I moved to Thailand in July 2018 with the intention of only staying 3 months. I’ve been abroad ever since and have lived in 10 countries since then. I’m currently in Mexico. I was able to continue my business as a freelance writer while living overseas. I pivoted to author coaching when I realized how much growth I had gone through as a result of being a solo woman traveler. I experienced growth in my heath, self esteem, and my business. And I met many other women with similar lifestyles who had done that and much more! I started with just a couple of people here and there who knew I was a writer and could possibly support their book projects. So I placed a formal coaching format around the “woman travel author” focus and I haven’t been more excited about it.

I work with women travelers who want to write a nonfiction book that either details or is inspired by their travels. So these women have stories to share in the form of a travel memoir. Or perhaps they want to share life lessons to inspire others. Others may be coaches or consultants and want to incorporate their travel stories into a topic that demonstrates their expertise.

I offer manuscript reviews for women who have written a book — or a good portion of it — and they need to know if what they’ve written is any good. They want to know if the book connects with their ideal reader and what they should do to make the book better. I read the manuscript and leave the author with a written review that we can discuss over a phone conversation. The author is left with clarity on the top 3 things they need to do next to get to publishing.

I also support authors who are writing their book from scratch. We work 3 months at a time to pinpoint the book’s focus, draft a marketing plan, create a book outline. At that point, it’s all about helping the author be accountable to their writing goals each month until they have a book they can publish.

Lastly, I have a group for women travelers who just want to get writing, but may not be ready to write a book yet. I call it the Wednesday AM Mindful Journaling Circle. We meet online at 8am ET for an hour for meditation and journal writing. The topic always centers on wellbeing and creating the life of our dreams. There is no cost to participate in the circle.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

What has helped me build my reputation in my market is podcast interviews. People who know of me on social media is usually because they saw me talk about my story on a podcast. I’m always willing to share with other women how they can live a life of travel or how they can use writing to fund their lifestyle. I’m just now starting to use that same tactic to grow my author coaching for women travelers business. There are tons of travel focused podcasts, blogs, communities that are hungry for new content. This is a great space for me to introduce myself as an expert and offer value to their listeners.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I am partial to using email to both nurture and foster brand loyalty in my author coaching for women travelers business. I send an email 3 times a week offering tips on journaling, writing books, publishing, and marketing. The people who come to me are usually somewhere that fits any one of these topics. That means once they are ready to engage my services, all they have to do is hit the reply button and I’m available.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://HalonaBlack.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/halonablack
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/halonablack
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/halonablack
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/halonablack
• Other: https://halona.substack.com