Meet Tara Whitaker

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

Tara, thrilled to have you on the platform as I think our readers can really benefit from your insights and experiences. In particular, we’d love to hear about how you think about burnout, avoiding or overcoming burnout, etc.
I’ve experienced burnout a few times in my professional career. When you’re a solopreneur and wear all the hats, you can get too much on your plate very quickly. That’s exactly what happens to me. I do a better job of curbing it now, but it can still sneak up on me if I’m not paying attention.

One thing I’ve found that’s super beneficial for both avoiding and overcoming burnout is figuring out what my “signals” were that would pop up when I was approaching burnout. Learning these signals is also a good way of avoiding burnout, but since I was already experiencing it, I ended up working a bit backward. For me, my biggest signals are working during my typical “off” time, an inability to focus, lack of motivation and energy to do anything, extreme fatigue, and poor eating habits. Experiencing one or two of these isn’t a big deal, but if more start occurring, that’s when the red flag comes out and I need to make changes quickly.

After figuring out your signals, it’s all about starting small and giving yourself grace. Pick one thing you’re experiencing and make one small change to fix it. For example, if I don’t want to exercise, I’ll do some stretches while working or watching TV. Or if I’m tired, I prioritize napping. If I have too much on my to-do list, I delegate one thing to someone else.

All that said, at the end of the day, even after all these small steps, you have to give your brain and body a chance to recover. You can’t force or rush it. It most likely took a long time to get to your breaking point, and it’s going to probably take that long or longer to recover from it. The more you rest, the faster you recover.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I wear a lot of hats in the freelance editing world. I’m a book editor, the founder of the Freelance Editors Club, a business coach for freelance editors, and the host of The Modern Editor Podcast. I’m also a wife, mom of two, and an avid reader and Netflix connoisseur.

The most rewarding part of my job is the privilege of working alongside the most incredible women and nonbinary editors. We heavily focus on putting community over competition, sharing knowledge and connections, and maintaining a safe space for editors. It’s a privilege to watch these editors grow and evolve into successful business owners. There’s nothing better than a community member or coaching client telling me I’ve made a difference in their journey!

I’m really excited to launch a digital product library in the second half of 2024 that will help freelance editors manage their businesses with more confidence and clarity. I hear from editors all the time on how they want to improve their efficiency and get more organized, and the resources I’m creating will help them do that and more.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three most impactful qualities in my journey as an editor and coach have been perseverance, grace, and authenticity. Being a business owner is completely different from being an employee, and I had a lot to learn when I decided to venture out on my own. I had to be able to handle slow periods, roadblocks, and challenges when they popped up (and they did pop up). I wanted to give up many times, but I knew that ultimately this was the right path for me.

Grace is a huge factor when you mess up, or things don’t go exactly as planned, or you’re not growing as fast as you’d like. Everyone is on their own journey, and your only competition is who you were yesterday.

Authenticity goes hand in hand with alignment for me, which is ultimately what directs my vision for my business and how I operate. Knowing my values and goals and being able to measure every task, project, and client to those standards makes business a whole lot easier.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?
I like to have a variety of tools to choose from when I feel overwhelmed because overwhelm can manifest for me in different ways. I’m a big fan of deep, intentional breathing. It calms my nervous system and helps me refocus. I do this either on my own or along with an app.

I also revisit my to-do list and get ruthless about what needs to be on it. Prioritization is KEY. I’m a big fan of the 4D method (Do, Defer, Delegate, Delete), even though I’m not always the best at incorporating it.

I remind myself I need to take things one small step at a time. Small steps can equal big results. And I ask for help.

Whether it’s help around the house, help with childcare, help with your business, or anything else–get OK with asking for help. None of us can do life alone (and weren’t meant to in the first place).

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Jessie Hearn Photography

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