Melissa Hoyer and the ultimate portfolio career

Rachel Smith: Hello and welcome to The Content Byte, a podcast for freelancers who use their words to make money. I’m Rachel Smith, a freelance journalist, copywriter, and content producer. I’m also the founder of Rachel’s List, a jobs board and community for Australian writers and other creatives. 

Lynne Testoni: I’m Lynne Testoni! I’m a journalist and content writer as well. Rachel and I are your weekly co-hosts, and every week we bring you all kinds of tips, tricks, and some fabulous guests to help you make the most of your freelance business.

Rachel Smith: Hey, Lynne, how are you today? You’re back from Western Australia.

Lynne: I am. I’m right back into it. I had a nice week with family, and I think it’s one of the things I love about freelancing. You can work anywhere. I managed to get work done and I saw my family at the same time. And I know you’ve been away. We’ve just had a long weekend and the week before you were relaxing off grid somewhere. 

Rachel: I had two long weekends in a row, which is never good when you have a 10-year-old because they start to expect the Monday off. But I’m very excited about our guest today, Melissa Hoyer. She’s a journalist and media commentator and she has a really varied career, so I think this is going to be a great chat.

Lynne: I think so too. She does interesting things. I follow Melissa on Instagram, and I think she’s great. I love her career. Let me read a little bio for Melissa and then we’ll get her into the hot seat!

For nearly 20 years, Melissa Hoyer has been a high-profile journalist and commentator specialising in popular culture, lifestyle, fashion, celebrity, and social issues. She’s got a no nonsense down to earth and witty approach to style and pop culture. She’s a popular communicator in all avenues in the media, including tv, radio, print, and digital. She’s also big on social. She’s got more than 90,000 followers on Instagram and she’s just starting a Substack that we’re going to talk about.

Thanks, and welcome Melissa! 

Melissa Hoyer: Hello. So nice to be with you both. It’s fantastic. Thanks for having me!

Rachel: 90,000 Instagram followers. What’s your secret? 

Melissa: I remember there was something that I did, and it was probably about 12 to 18 months ago, and it just really resonated and, and it was shared a lot. Then literally I remember thinking and I looked that next morning my numbers had gone up and up and up, and then it sort of just kicked off again. So, I did something else. Now it was all about, I put up something that was incredibly shareable. 

I think it started with, when I went to see Kylie Minogue in Las Vegas. I went to her show, and I put up a really short, sharp reel, a part of her performance, and it just happened to be really, really good. I mean, as in I didn’t spend hours editing or doing all that because I think the more authentic things are, the better, and it just was a moment, and it was shared so many times.

I know, I grew a lot then. And when Jennifer Coolidge was in Australia for South by Southwest the year before last, and she was giving a talk about White Lotus, and again, I just put a reel together. But it was one beautiful story. She talked about, not so much fame, but about the thing about feeling good about yourself is to always go and see the bad stuff. Don’t always go and see the good stuff, you know, whether it’s theatre or music, or watch the good TV shows, go and see the shit. And it was just because it makes you feel really good about yourself. And I put this up and that reel, I think got like a couple of million views again because it was shared.

It started off like that and I don’t post a lot of grid posts. I probably put up more stories, but when I do post a grid post it has its own carousel album. I want to make them as interesting as possible, as opposed to just putting up avocado and toast. You know those days of seeing what everyone had for breakfast that morning. 

Rachel: Well, you are absolutely doing something right. Give us a bit of background about your career and how it’s evolved over the years. 

Melissa: Okay. Well, my first job was working in the PR department as a publicity assistant for Myer and I was dealing in publicity. I was dealing with a lot of journalists obviously, because that’s what you do.  At that stage there was a woman by the Skye Yates, who was the fashion editor of the then Daily Mirror newspaper, which when Australia had afternoon papers there was The Sun was in Sydney, there was the Daily Mirror in Sydney and I’m sure in Melbourne, Brisbane. We’re talking before we are doing this now. We were physically reading newspapers. She was taking a 12-month sabbatical, and she knew that I’d wanted to get into journalism. I was talking to her a lot and the editor, and they said, why don’t you come and do the fashion editor role at the Daily Mirror, and I thought this is fantastic because I’d been studying, and I wanted to get into media. 

It was the perfect segue, I thought even if it’s 12 months, what amazing experience that is. So anyway, I resigned from that job, took that job and then Skye Yates, who unfortunately did pass away over the weekend, which I just heard. It’s really ironic that we’re talking about this. I ended up staying at News Corp. Skye got her job back, but at that stage they sent me over and I was the fashion and social editor for the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

I then stayed there for ages. I think it was over 20 years and then I left and within that time I started doing stuff on Foxtel. I created a fashion show, firstly with a guy called Martin Beattie, who was my co-VP. Then we dealt with Steve Vizard’s company and then I co-hosted it with Hugh Jackman. Whenever I see him, we always laugh and he said, as a joke, he’ll say, it was that fashion show, you know, that’s what got me. 

Rachel: You must be watching what’s unfolding for him right now. 

Melissa: I am. I know and it’s because he’s such a lovely guy. Deborah’s such a lovely woman and you know that you read stuff, but you just think, you know what it is and that personal stuff. You know, we read it all and I think this is an interesting thing because I was sort of doing social pages and stuff like that, but writing gossip was never my thing. I just feel maybe it was because I was brought up a good little Catholic girl or something. The physicality of writing gossip. I just could never. I always just look at the really good gossip columnists that we’ve all, you know, read or seen, and I think, well, good on you. I just can’t put myself out there, weirdly. 

Rachel: Maybe it’s because you know them. 

Melissa: You know what, I think that actually is the case a lot. When you have sort of met people or you’ve worked with them to a degree. I love doing celebrity interviews. I love asking the questions. That’s why it’s funny, even when I talk about myself, I’m not a hundred percent comfortable, I’ll do it. I remember one of my teachers said on one of my reports, ‘Melissa, is very inquisitive’ and that was way back when I was a kid. I always think about that, and I think that has sort of followed me through my entire working life. Whether it’s being away for a travel story or I’m at a restaurant or I’m doing something, I think where did that fish come from? Or if I’m interviewing a celebrity, I just love to hear their stories as opposed to them sort of turning it around and saying, what about you? It’s that constant curiosity. That’s the word I love, and I just think I’ve got that on my social media handles, you know. Curious, because I think I’m always curious. I think as we get older too, it’s so important to keep your mind constantly curious.

Rachel: It sounds like you’re freelance now. Is that right? 

Melissa: Absolutely. When I left News Corp and then I went actually back to News as an editor at large in news.com.au, when it was in its infancy, and then I stayed there until the middle of Covid and then as we all know with the media world. That role was interesting at news.com because I was still doing a lot of commentary for different TV shows, whether it was Sunrise or the Today Show, or the Morning Show. I became, which was lovely, a bit of a go-to as the, let’s go and get a grab from Melissa on a pop culture issue. It’s funny, after this I’m doing something for one of the networks, doing a bit of a commentary on the rise of, dupes as in people creating, whether it’s beauty products or whatever that they’re doing, so like a dupe. I think you have to get to that point where you get known for being able to encapsulate an issue or something quite succinctly. And I really enjoy doing that.

Rachel: How do you feel celebrity culture has evolved in the age of social media? Because you’ve seen it change so much. 

Melissa: It has its great points and its bad points. I mean, the good points for celebrities, they can put their message out there, literally from the horse’s mouth, so, they’re not using an army of publicists or leaving it to the journalist or the columnist or the commentator to then create the story. I think in that regard, it’s like with all of us, we can all put out our message, whether it is a personal thing or whether we’ve written a story or where we’re putting up the link to this podcast or whatever. We use our own platforms and that’s where I think social media’s been fantastic. We can use, and celebrities particularly can use their own platform to tell their own story. But then of course, the adverse thing is then, once you’ve put something out there, particularly if you are a big-time celebrity, then you have to be prepared for the potential backlash.

The fact that you are then, so getable, you are so available to your followers. And then, I think the one thing probably, well, a lot of big celebrities don’t do, and what they say they don’t do is read the comments. Because I know often, I’ll go to a story that’s written about someone and you read the comments, and you can just go down that rabbit hole. You could imagine, if you were reading a story and there were a thousand comments all negative about you, if your constitution isn’t tough, I think that would be a really tough thing. I always wonder when celebs say, ‘I never read the comments’, I think with some that probably is true, but I could imagine there would be a few that would read every comment, and I think it mentally would totally drain you.

Rachel:  You would be in a huge spiral, wouldn’t you?  

Melissa: You would, because when I sometimes read comments from stories that I’m reading and being directed at the person, they’re horrendous. You know, that’s the purely serious part of social media. The bullying and the disgusting language and everything that can be told what you owe and you this and that. I mean, it can be so cruel and that is I think, the absolute downfall part of the rise of social media. 

Rachel: It’s really interesting, isn’t it? Because it’s brought us more accessibility with these celebs, but there was something recently, there’s apparently this big rift in the Beckham family with the son and everything and his wife and I think what’s interesting about those sorts of stories is you then hear other stories about where the brothers have commented or done an emoji on some comment, and so that snowballs as well while everybody unpacks it. You know, so there’s all that as well. 

Melissa: That’s right. So as soon as you then comment on a comment, then you create a new story, because you might be the sister-in-law or the cousin, and then you might have put a thumbs up to a particular comment, and then that becomes, oh, and cousin Joanne put a thumbs up, so that must mean it’s true.

Rachel: It’s a whole new entertainment journalism world compared to when I was at TV week. 

Melissa: The snowball just becomes greater and greater and then that’s when us as the public who are reading the stories and we go, what are we to believe? The amount of people, I’m sure you two have as well, are people who will send you through, whether it’s memes or stories, and they’ll say, oh, look at this. Did you read this? Or, mainly with images now with AI. 

I remember there was a shot going around recently and a woman that I know who is quite elderly, she sent me this photograph of an alleged photo of Meghan Markle and her daughter. And this lady sent it through to a community group that I’ve got where I live in my little world. I look at this lovely photograph Meghan Markle and her daughter and it was beautiful. And I was just felt awful. But I actually then did a reply all and I just said, look, I don’t mean to be rude, but actually that is total AI and it’s not true. It’s not. And then the lovely woman, she messaged me back privately and I just said, please don’t think I’m being rude, but this is where stories then start blowing up and then someone else sends that and they say, but blah blah sent it to me, and it is a picture of thing. And so, this is the AI issue, there’s so many things that, and I will say particularly for our older generation. My mum, if I probably sent that to her, she’d probably think, oh, isn’t that sweet? Because they’re a different gen, there are different groups of people who aren’t in so many areas that a lot of people aren’t aware of how AI works. 

Rachel: They take in on face value.

Lynne: This whole culture is moving so fast. Social media. It’s this constant hungry beast that needs to be fed. How do you decide what you cover? When you dip in, when you dip out? How do you decide, how does that work for you? 

Melissa: That is the interesting thing because things might happen, and I do like writing quick and I mean quick commentary pieces that are very reactive of something that’s happening of the moment. Every morning I’ll get up and I’ll see what’s happened overnight. And sometimes an idea will come into my head that could be really potentially a good comment piece and then I approach one of the publications all online nowadays, obviously, that they may like a comment piece on that particular matter and they’ll either go, oh no, it’s sort of done, but isn’t it funny?

But then you think it’s a 12-hour old story and they’ll say, oh no, it’s already done. I think we all have to work very quickly now as well. Particularly in this space, particularly if you’re doing a lovely, big, strong, longer feature on a travel profile or something, then I’ll sit, and I’ll spend a day or two to really let it soak in and then write it accordingly. But even so, deadlines are always in the back of my mind. It’s very rare I think that any of us now can sort of say, oh, well I’ve got a couple of months to do that. 

Even with print, when I was doing weekly columns for the Sunday papers, there were different days that we had to have different pages put to bed. That’s an old language, of course from heritage media days. But at least it didn’t all have to be done a couple of hours before. You had actually different days – on the Tuesday can we have that fashion page done and then by the Wednesday we’ll start doing that lifestyle interview that you’ve done, and we’ll lay that out. As we know, it’s a different ball game now with digital, but I actually like the pace of digital to be honest.

Rachel: You obviously wear a lot of hats. You commentate, you do radio, you still do a lot of writing. What’s your favourite thing to do? 

Melissa: My favourite thing is actually TV commentary and radio and talking. I like writing, but I much prefer to, I could get up on a stage now be it at a launch of something or talk about a particular issue, or if I’m about to introduce a celebrity who’s here for a reason. I actually love that. I love that one-on-one and seeing people in an audience and then reacting to whether, if I’m interviewing someone, I love that. I really just get a real kick out of that. I still get a kick-out of when I see a story having been published, you know when you actually see your data. You know and with a really good SEO headline and there’s still a buzz I get out of that. 

I think all of those, and I love putting it together really. Hopefully social media posts that I’m proud of, whether it is a reel, and I think I like to keep in that social world things sort of authentic as you know, as in a lot of people are putting together the most exquisitely, beautifully edited reels and they’re amazing and they’ve used cameras, they’ve used drones but some of them I think, look so good, they actually look as though they are ads that have cost half a million to produce.

I think that has been quite a pushback now particularly with Insta, people wanting more authenticity as opposed to everyone looking the same and just looking all polished, filtered, and polished to death. 

Lynne: Talking about Instagram, we talked about this a bit off air because it’s a very glamorous life you lead. It looks like it’s really fabulous, but I know that it’s a lot harder than it looks. And there’s a lot of work that goes into what you do and where you go. What’s a week really like for you and how do you manage that? 

Melissa: That’s interesting Lynne, because something that I think probably a lot of people get asked who put up stuff on social media that is perceived to be, people say, ‘oh Melissa, oh, you’re so busy. You’re always going to these amazing things. You lead such a great life.’ And yes, I do go to some great things, whether it’s an opening night or I just had a lovely weekend as guests of Thredbo in the snow because it was their big opening weekend and happened to be snow and it was just fantastic. All of that, people would see on your Instagram and think, oh, your life is constantly that. But let’s face it, if I started to put up the fact that after we speak today, I’ve got washing to do, we’ve got normal stuff to do. I’ve got to take the dog to the vet. I’ve got cook something for tonight for dinner. Because I choose not to put up stories or anything about the real side of all of our lives the perception is that my silly little life is 24/7 going out to parties and going out.

You think if I go to something that is like two hours out of a 24-hour day, you put that up as a post, and that’s the assumption that, oh wow, that’s what she does all the time. It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. I mean that, not in a negative sense, but because I don’t put up all the normal stuff. But then I think you do have to temper your platforms with that as well. With Mother’s Day, my mum, who hasn’t been very well, you put up a shot of that because you also have to be everyone, we’re all real. I was in hospital a couple of months ago for a couple of weeks and I really tossed and turned would I put something up. I think I just was getting out of hospital, and I put up a post saying, I’ve actually been in here and I didn’t want to do it as in, I bet you’ve been wondering where I am because it’s so not about that. I think when people announce they’re leaving social media, it’s not a plane boarding lounge. If you choose to leave social media, just go. I don’t think you really have to do the big announcement. Maybe if you’re a big celebrity, yes. 

You know when people say, I’m going to be off social media for the next week because I need some me time and literally seven days later, they’re back. It’s like, ‘oh, I’m back. Did you miss me?’ I think, no, and it’s not being nasty, but well, I think everyone’s got their lives and if you’re living every moment of your life just to see what everyone else is doing on social media, that is quite seriously, that can be quite mentally draining. I think you can’t just use social media as your total form of entertainment. 

Rachel: I think you’re right that a lot of people just don’t notice. It’s like with email marketing, the advice is if you’ve dropped the ball and haven’t sent a newsletter for three months, do you go back in and say, I’m so sorry I haven’t been in your inbox for three months. People don’t even really remember. You don’t have to make a big song and dance about it.

Melissa: There are times that even I think, I better put something up and it will be something in the back of my mind saying, I better put something up. I mean, if you are unwell or you are choosing not to put things up, real friends know that you’re not well or whatever. I think we probably think we are much more important, or a lot of people think they’re much more important than they really are in other people’s lives. 

Rachel: You mentioned the smoke and mirrors and having all these different things to do. What are the challenges though of juggling all the multiple income streams that you have, and do you think it’s like inevitable for us as writers to do this now? We have to have these multiple income streams to make a living. 

Melissa: Well, certainly in my case, I’ve had to, because I look at you two and you two are incredibly prolific from a writing point of view. I love writing and I enjoy writing, and I would love to do more but I think there is so many more freelancers out there that you do have to also concentrate on potential other streams to potentially make money. No one’s going to say, oh my God, we need to get Melissa Hoyer to write that, because I’m not the best writer in the world. I actually quite enjoy doing those other things, whether it is a hosting gig or a television appearance. And then the other thing, which is interesting because there are so many people out there, so many more freelancers and a lot of people doing a lot for nothing. I think we are all finding that there are always people who will just say, I will do that for nothing because I’m getting a byline. We are also competing with, with that as well. And then let’s face, if you are a website owner and you are going to get a story that it’s going to be okay and the person is going to fulfill the brief and they’re going to do it for nothing as opposed to giving it to someone who’s going to charge whatever, they’re thinking purely financially sometimes as opposed to thinking quality. 

Rachel: That can come up a lot in travel writing, I think. I’ve heard you have these grey nomads pitching stories and offering to do it for nothing, but it really undermines travel writers out there who’ve made a living of travel.

Melissa: Absolutely. The assumption then is well, you’ve got the free gig, if you’re doing a travel piece on blah, well, you’ve got the trip away, so just be grateful you’ve got the trip away. 

Lynne: It’s interesting too, I think this is more prevalent in the glamour parts of the business, which is where you are. I mean, I don’t have anyone wanting to work for nothing to write about bricks at that end. But when you’re writing about a celebrity or doing TV stuff or travel, there’s much more of that.

Melissa: That’s so right, Lynne, because the assumption is in those worlds, whether it’s a beauty or frocks or fashion week or travel or opening nights, people will say, I’ll throw some words together and I’ll do it because I’m getting a night out. It’s relative, so I think maybe I should be writing more about bricks Lynne!

Lynne: I’ll give you tips later!

Melissa: I love writing about anything, but I love that whole that lovely umbrella of popular culture is so many things I would write about anything, so, hello everyone listening.

Lynne: We’ve had a lot of journalists that we’ve had on the podcast, and we see in our freelancers lives that leaving media and retraining and that seems to be much more prevalent. Obviously, media is in a bit of trouble. Has there been a moment when you’ve considered that? 

Melissa: Yes, absolutely. Not that I have ever thought, that’s it, I’m absolutely getting out of it. Actually, there’s one moment a couple of years ago, I started studying more and not because that sounds all grand, but you know how you just think as you get older, again it’s that curious thing. I remember when I was really young, I wanted to be a doctor. You know, we all wanted to be a thing, but even way up until like I finished school. I think, I just had this thing about being a doctor and then I got this media bargain, so Dr. Hoyer didn’t happen, but then a few years ago, I think it was just during Covid, I actually thought I wanted to start studying or doing something. because we were all, I know again, in my particular fields of media, that was just all decimated.

I mean, let’s face it, there were no events on, there was no one traveling. There were no celebrities coming here to interview. There was nothing. I remember a lot of alcohol brands were doing Zoom things where they’d send different journalists or media, like a little pack of something and then at six o’clock that night, there’d be a Zoom where they’d have their cocktail maker host a class, and we would all be on Zoom, and we’d be following along and following the lead and then doing it, if we were choosing to write a piece about virtual cocktail hour, 

Rachel: The Covid cocktail packs. I remember those too. 

Melissa: You know, it is all fun, but there’s only so much of that you can do. In my world, to be honest, Covid really decimated a lot of the types of pop culture tentacles that I work under, and it’s come back, but certainly nothing has really gone back to pre-Covid days because during Covid, people were doing things for nothing and then post Covid they just continued doing things and I think it hasn’t really changed in some areas. I think you really have to just figure, I’m always hustling, I’m always sending emails to editors of different, whether it’s publications, whether it’s websites, and then I send examples of the commentary pieces I can do, the lifestyle pieces, the travel pieces. I’ve got documents of links to my stories that I’ll send. You know they’re hoping, and someone might say, okay, well, you know, so it’s a constant hustle. I spend a lot of my day hustling. 

Rachel: What about the TV commentating do you do, the celebrities and lifestyle topics and that sort of thing? I know people would be interested to know is that work really well paid. Is it hard to get into, is it all about who you know? 

Melissa: Initially, when I was in newspaper land and then the news.com landing page at that stage because I was doing celebrity and fashion and all that again, perceived glamorous stuff. When they need a comment from someone, whether it was Nine News, Seven News, and that was very much in the free to air days, they would send their camera crew and journalist over to News Corp or to Fairfax or whoever, and be okay, Melissa Hoyer, social editor. They wanted to use someone who already had a knowledge and was known. So that really established, I guess now, and I don’t do it as much because the budgets just aren’t there.

When I was doing a lot on Sunrise and the Morning Show and I’m saying pre-Covid and even early Covid, there were budgets and now I don’t do as much because I don’t think there are budgets for those things. Now, when you’ll see a particular expert talking about whether it’s health or fashion, that has changed a lot for me. I don’t do as much, only because I don’t get as asked as much because I think they’re after budgets then they probably think, well, we better not. We can’t be asking all the time for everyone to be doing things for nothing. But today’s thing when I do a comment piece and literally the camera crew will arrive at home, they’ll set up some lights. It’ll be five minutes. I’ll be in, I’ll be out. There’ll be no payment for that. You know? So, you have to either make that choice where, and maybe I’m talking out of school saying that, but you have to be real. You know, if I was to say, oh, okay, well I’ll send that invoice, they’d probably just say, well, oh no, that’s fine, we’ll just send the crew to someone else. 

Rachel: Do you think of it like a visibility or marketing thing for you? 

Melissa: I guess I do to a degree, but when it was getting to the point where I was out being asked a lot to do and it was all going to be nothing for nothing. You have to value your own. You can’t do everything for nothing. The person who is shooting me on that shot today, is he doing the camera work for nothing? No. producer doing that for nothing. No. So I don’t do it as much because I think all of us freelancers, you do have to band together to a degree as well and, and say, well, that we do have to make a point that we can’t be doing everything for nothing because that doesn’t pay my huge gas bill I got the other day, the electricity bill, the insurance. So, it’s a tough one. But, you know, and I also get to the point where I think at my stage of career and life, I’m sure you two have said, I’m me, my brand is me. Do I need the, you know, when people say, oh, it’s good for the exposure, oh, please. No, I have got to the point where people kind of know me in my little crazy area, cést la vie. I think that, but don’t think of the exposure. No, no. It’s fine but thank you for asking with that. No, thank you. 

Lynne: What about media events like MCing? You said you do that. I know they’re often paid, and they’re usually paid. I mean, I do get asked to do things for nothing and I say no, and I do it occasionally, but I know it’s also a lot harder than it looks. There’s a lot of research. Do brands approach you and how does that conversation go? 

Melissa: It’s usually brands or the organiser of an event will message, we’re doing this event, would you be interested. And then, they’ll say, and please send us what your fee would be, which I always think if it’s something for charity, which I involve myself in a lot of worthy events. Sure. I would not expect to be paid. But if I’m doing something for a commercial company and I know I’d do a good job. You know, I’ve never had anyone complain about it and I think that is really important. People just think, I just get there, and you can just grab the microphone. 

I always like to go knowing about exactly every element, every moment of whatever this the person is, or the business I’m about to do something for. So, the research is there, and I think whether you do it shows if you know your subject matter. It shows and if you’re doing an on-stage interview with a celeb or something, if people are looking at their questions all the time and they don’t let the interview flow. That is so frustrating when someone is answering a question and then the interviewer doesn’t continue with this beautiful flow that the celeb or the CEO or whoever you’re talking to. I love them going totally off script and going, right, they’re continuing on with that train of thought that we’ve just heard from this celebrity, but I hate that when they basically get cut off because each interviewer looks at their questions and goes, ‘oh yeah, right, so, when you started working, what were you doing?’ It’s like, no, you’ve actually just stopped this amazing train of thought that your celeb. So that is really frustrating and that’s what I love in my mind, I know exactly what I want to get. A person that I’m interviewing, whether it is a hosting gig, whether it’s an interview, and then it sort of evolves and always in the back of my mind, the five amazing key points or what you want to get in order to write your story.

I think I love that continuing curiosity of hearing someone speak because you know what they’re saying is then they often will say the most interesting things unprompted. 

Rachel: I love that. Let’s talk a little bit about relationship marketing for someone who you used to be on staff, now you’re freelancing. I think you’ve talked recently on LinkedIn about having a crazy good career, contact list and you’ve talked about pitching and that sort of thing, hustling a lot. Do you think it’s important to keep in touch with lots of people? Is that what fills your pipeline? Do you have a system?

Melissa: I think it’s important, and I think it’s interesting going back to when we were talking about the perception. You go to events and all that sort of thing. I make sure that I’ll at least once a week I’ll go to something that I’ve been very kindly still invited to because I may not have been any use to this particular company. But I think it is still really important when you are freelance to still get out there and be visible. And that doesn’t mean going out at midnight because I could not think of anything worse. And when I was doing a social column, yes that’s what I was getting paid to go to an event and the photographer was there and the next day we’d write it up and it would be in the eight pages of social column pages. But then it’s a way different world now, but I still think it’s important to be out there and to still see different editors and so I probably choose quite wisely, well hopefully choose an event to go to that, I think. Oh, that’ll be fun. Well, number one, I want to go to it, and it’ll be good because I’ll be able to catch up with blah and blah. I think it is still important to have a presence. And I know that is probably, a lot of people think, I couldn’t think of anything worse than having to walk into that room especially when it’s winter and it’s getting cold. 

I mean, the lovely thing about being freelancers well, you can sort of be home all day, doing your stuff and still be in your UGG boots, but you when you have to go out at six o’clock to an event and put on the red lipstick and get dressed and do your hair, put on a pair of shoes aside from UGG boots, it’s, you know. I always say, no, I’m doing this. I have to, because if you’re not visible, particularly in the world in which I am writing about and you know, when you disappear, you kind of disappear. 

Lynne: I’d love to talk about your experience as a freelancer, because I know after being on staff, I think you’ve written about this on your socials a bit. Is it hard being a freelancer because do you think you get forgotten more, or even though you probably write the bulk of those stories compared to people in-house. 

Melissa: It is interesting. I love the freedom of it. I mean, the fact that you can then choose to have an entire weekend if you’re writing something, or you can then like take a whole week off if I’m going somewhere.

I think having been on staff and then going into that freelance world, a number of years ago, it was a big leap because you are, when I first left newspaper land, and this was before digital kicked in, I remember people saying, why are you doing that? It was right at the start of digital. I leapt into that digital space really early on. I think it sort of worked positively back then because there weren’t many, everyone was either an absolute born and bred freelancer, that was their gig, or they had full-time jobs.

When I left a full-time job and went freelance, not a lot of people had done that then, if that makes sense. Nearly everyone had a job. They were on staff for whether it was a magazine, a newspaper, producing a radio or TV show, there were more full-time jobs. I got into that digital space early on. But I think I probably don’t get thought as much for freelance gigs because I think there is an assumption, oh, Melissa’s so busy because I look at her social media, it’s not so much going on, we won’t even ask her and I’m actually thinking, I actually put up a thing on LinkedIn. I’m being quite serious. I think that’s what you might be referring to in just a few weeks ago, saying hi, reminding people that I can do this, and I can do that, consulting with some companies too, just about their social media presence and suggesting stuff they should do.

I still do a little bit of work with a thing called the Bay Street Initiative, which is actually with the New South Wales government and the federal government are really trying to enhance. They’re going out economies of different sort of precincts like Double Bay is a precinct in Sydney that they’re really trying to amp up as somewhere to go. There are local governments putting money into these initiatives. I really love trying to use the experience I have, the media experience I’ve had in other ways because you have to think of other ways you can use your knowledge and your contact list. I think on that post I said, I’ve got a groaning contact list and contacts that like all of us, we’ve just met over the years and when you do new things, you think, that would be a good person to talk to about that.

I’m always looking for stuff because every day I don’t wake up and there’s an email saying, can you write this? No, I have to think about the story and suggest, would you like this story? And sometimes, as you probably both know, it gets a little bit tiresome, but it keeps your mind going and keeps us young, I think.

Rachel: I know you have a fairly newish Substack, so tell us a bit about why you started that and what your plans are for it. 

Melissa: I think it’s so new that I think I’ve only put one thing on it.

Rachel: So, it won’t be a blind entertainment column?

Melissa: I’ve got a website as well. I can actually go into my WordPress and write something very quickly and copy the shots, do a great SEO headline. I can do something on that and then I can put that directly up onto my website within half an hour if I choose to. I did think, I better go onto Substack because everyone’s on Substack. I haven’t started it, but I’m going to be really honest, I haven’t really become passionate about it yet. And I mean, I keep getting all these notifications posted on Substack and I’ve chosen to keep those notifications on because it actually reminds me that Melissa, you actually need to really get your Substack going. I really have to try harder, Rach. 

Rachel: Fair enough. It’s one more thing, isn’t it? 

Melissa: You start following me, but I’ll promise that this week I’m going to actually really do this. I do have to, because really what I’m putting up on my website, I should just be writing that and putting it from my point of view. It doesn’t have to be a thousand-word extravaganza. It can be just something, a train of thought that is just coming to my mind. I can just go bang, bang, bang. And I think that’s what I want when I read someone’s Substack, that’s what I want. I want to read someone’s immediate, whether it’s crazy thoughts or relevant or good newsy thoughts about something.

Lynne: We do love to ask all our guests about their favourite tech tips or the tools they’d be lost without. What are your favourites? 

Melissa: I am loving ChatGPT because I mean, if you’re just trying to think of whether it’s a spike for a good headline or just a spike for a good lead to a story that you are writing. I’ll just put in some elements and then it will give me some ideas, but I’m not one of those people who go, give me a 500-word story on blah, blah, blah. Because I’ve known people who do that. I think that is so wrong, but that’s their choice, they could do that. I’ve used Canva a bit. 

Rachel: What about social media? Do you use anything for scheduling or anything?

Melissa: A number of years ago, I started schedule things, but I do everything very much on the fly. An X-post versus a Facebook post versus something on TikTok versus something on Instagram. To me, they’re all, I use different tones, so I can never just do the one SEO headline for all of them. I know that probably sounds very time consuming, but for me it isn’t because I like to write things that are attuned to that particular platform. 

I remember quite a number of years ago, starting to then put everything across every platform, but it was all the same headline that just didn’t work. And I know a lot of media companies shared all things. I was in that space for so long, particularly at news.com. But sometimes I’ll look at a headline that doesn’t really work now on X and on Facebook and Instagram. 

Rachel: This has been such a great chat, Melissa. Thank you so much. Let us know where people can find you and check out your portfolio and your socials and your Substack.

Melissa: Everything is on me and my Melissa Hoyer website. But I’m pretty simple. Everything is just Melissa Hoer. So, if you chuck in the name Melissa Hoyer on Instagram, on LinkedIn on X, it’s all there. That’s how early I got in. I was lucky. I actually got my Melissa Hoyer without having to put ones or, anything else. So, it’s basically everywhere, I’m just Melissa Hoyer. 

Rachel: Silver Linings of being in this business for decades!

Lynne: Thanks so much, Melissa. It’s so lovely to chat with you. So interesting and we had a good laugh. I’ll put links in the show notes to all your details. The many aspects of Melissa Hoyer out there. 

Melissa: Yes, thank you, Lynne! 

Lynne: Don’t forget to, if you love the show, leave a rating and review on the platform where you find your podcast, and we’ll be back next week. Thanks, Melissa. Bye everybody!

Rachel: Thank you. Bye!

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Credits:

Connect with Melissa on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/melissahoyer/

or via her website: https://melissahoyer.com/ 

Find Lynne www.lynnetestoni.com 

Find Rachel www.rachelsmith.com.au 

Rachel’s List www.rachelslist.com.au 

If you have questions you’d like us to answer in our next Q&A episode, just send them here.

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Episode edited by Marker Creative Co www.markercreative.co