This week on the SHIPSHAPE.PRO podcast we hear from Georgia Tindale. Georgia, located in England, is an established writer in the maritime industry and over the past few years has wrote heavily in the SuperYacht space. From a masters in Philosophy and Renaissance Literature to writing about the most extravagant ships that sail the seas, we hear her opinion on what it really takes to be a successful writer in the SuperYacht Industry!

Transcript —–

Merrill [00:00:00] You are listening to the SHIPSHAPE podcast today. On the SHIPSHAPE podcast, we got Georgia Tindale. She is a writer coming out of England who’s been in the marine industry for some time now, and we’re going to pick her brain on how she got into it and, you know, the various tips that she can give if someone were to come in and try to be a writer in the marine industry.

 

Talha [00:00:22] Welcome to the show, Georgia.

 

Georgia [00:00:24] Thank you very much. Great to be here.

 

Talha [00:00:26] Yay. So let’s start from the beginning. How how long have you been involved with boats and marine stuff?

 

Georgia [00:00:33] So basically, I started in the industry back in 2017 and I started as an editorial assistant for Superyacht Times, which many of you may have heard of. They are an Amsterdam based Superyacht publication media company. So I basically finished my Masters in Medieval and Renaissance literature at Cambridge University in the UK and thought, What can I do? That is the absolute opposite of academic writing because.

 

Talha [00:01:06] I think they have both.

 

Georgia [00:01:08] Notes of it in Cambridge. They tend to just have the tiny little, tiny little punts on the river. So I basically found out that academia was far too isolating and antisocial for me. I wanted to do something that was a bit more personal, had a lot more people in it. So. So, yeah, that’s that’s how I kind of fell into it. It was an internship in Amsterdam about yachts, which I was not expecting to end up in at all.

 

Merrill [00:01:36] So did you have any knowledge about boating or yachting before you actually started it or you just saw like the gig and you’re like, Okay, I’ll try this out?

 

Georgia [00:01:46] Yeah, basically. Basically that really I didn’t have any prior knowledge of the maritime industry. I was born in Whitby, which is a small town in the north east coast of England, which does have boats, but, you know, small fishing boats. And I’d never taken much of an interest. So it was more a case of there’s a fantastic editorial writing opportunity and a brand new industry that I knew nothing about. Let’s just pardon the pun, dive into it and see if I can make it into a real a real job rather than an internship. And it all went from that, really.

 

Merrill [00:02:21] Where all your friends like, What are you doing?

 

Georgia [00:02:24] Yeah.

 

Speaker 4 [00:02:27] Yeah, yeah.

 

Georgia [00:02:29] And I mean, I don’t know how it is in other countries, but in the UK it’s one of those things where you finish university, finish your master’s, and it’s a question of what do I do next? And the logical alternative would have been to get a job in London, you know, in marketing and publishing. But I thought that in terms of an adventure and a new opportunity, this could be something quite special. And I’ve been fortunate enough that it’s kind of served as a springboard for my, you know, my career ever since, really.

 

Talha [00:03:01] Very nice. And so do you like traveling intrinsically anyway?

 

Georgia [00:03:05] Absolutely. No, I’ve always loved to travel, and that’s one of the fantastic things about working in this industry is that obviously water tends to connect to countries internationally, so you end up getting to travel a lot and that’s a massive, massive part of of having done my job.

 

Talha [00:03:23] Interesting. So you because you said you got this internship in Amsterdam. Were you in Amsterdam anyway and like. No. No.

 

Georgia [00:03:31] No. So I was in the UK finishing university, saw the internship and then thought, I’ll move abroad. I’d never been to Amsterdam before, so I just I just took a complete punt and luckily was a good idea in the end.

 

Talha [00:03:45] Wow. And so how much have you and you ended up on a superyacht like actually traveling, or did you end up in an office job? Like how did that go down?

 

Georgia [00:03:53] So it’s the Cypriot Times office is basically on one of the most, most central canals and Amsterdam. So it’s just a very nice canal building. And you work I work that 9 to 5 like a normal office job. But as I kind of rose up the ranks from editorial assistant to assistant editor to editor, was gradually given more and more responsibility. And with that responsibility came to me to various boat shows. So I’ve been lucky enough to go to Miami and Monaco, Cannes, and have just sold off as well, which is also a good show, but maybe less slightly less glamorous in terms of its. Yeah, reputation. But yes, so I’ve been to quite a few shows with them.

 

Merrill [00:04:41] So obviously one of the things about the marine industry is you kind of need to know about boats in order to really be effective at writing. So what was the how did you figure out how to write on boats and what was that learning process like?

 

Georgia [00:04:56] I had some very good mentors when I was a. York Times. Shout out to Jennifer Wattles, who was a former editor, and she was phenomenal in just taking the time over my articles and taking the care to make sure that all the terminology was used correctly. And actually, once you if you actually, you know, concentrate and make sure that you ask the right people the right questions, you know, even the stupid ones, you can get your head around the yachting terminology and the maritime terminology quite well. And also it helps saying it. You know, my trips to shipyards and marinas have been really helpful because then you actually get to see the various parts of the boats in reality, and that makes it kind of easier to conceptualize. Whereas if you’re only sat in an office, it can all feel a bit abstract.

 

Merrill [00:05:44] So you just had a decent amount of exposure to it right off the.

 

Georgia [00:05:47] Bat, basically. And you know, a lot of the content could be a little bit me, which is helpful actually at the beginning, because then you learn what it means for a boat to be delivered or launched. You know, you learn these terms quite quickly and then it becomes second nature to you.

 

Talha [00:06:02] So give us Georgia. Like the current situation. What is the Superyacht writing industry? Or maybe you can even speak about the broader superyacht industry. What is it looking like right now, especially like post-pandemic and all that?

 

Georgia [00:06:15] Yeah, it’s an interesting place to be. Very interesting. You’ve obviously got all the headline grabbing things at the moment with, you know, the war in Ukraine and Russian oligarchs and all that. So that’s has kind of brought the CPO industry more into the spotlight than it’s used to be. It tends to operate in a quieter, a private, discreet space where it can for the sake of the owners. But in terms of how the industry’s fared with COVID, it’s actually fared very, very well. Lots of people decided that, you know, life is too short and they want to buy a superyacht and go cruising with their family. And it’s also a very, you know, very COVID safe way of traveling, because once, you know, everyone on your boat doesn’t have COVID, then you can be pretty sure that you’re safe because you’re not interacting with a larger bubble. So and in terms of the brokerage market, it did extremely well. There were record numbers of yachts sold during COVID and now coming out of it, the question is, can they actually, you know, order books are full until 2026. More supply of materials can be an issue. You know, actually delivering on those orders will be interesting, especially given the complications in the supply chain caused by Covid’s, Ukraine, etc.. So it’ll just be a question of delivering on those promises and those orders that have been made during the pandemic.

 

Talha [00:07:41] Mm hmm. So you’re saying prices are only going up?

 

Speaker 4 [00:07:43] Yes.

 

Georgia [00:07:45] But I’m no market expert. I’m just a I’m just a mere writer. So don’t use me as an indication as to whether you should buy a barrel.

 

Talha [00:07:53] Yeah. Yeah, I was just saying, if you want a superyacht by now.

 

Speaker 4 [00:07:59] Exactly. Yeah.

 

Merrill [00:08:00] Okay, here’s a good question. So how would you even define a super yacht? You know, when I talk to people, I’m like, okay, Like a boat is under 35 feet. A yacht is over, you know, 35 feet. And it goes to some number that no one’s really defined. And then mega-yacht is this range of boats. And then there’s the super yachts, right?

 

Georgia [00:08:22] So I’ve just had to do a quick conversion because I think it matters. But as far as the industry is concerned, a superyacht is either 25 meters plus, which is 82.0 to 1 feet, as you know, or it’s 30 mates is, which is basically a hundred feet. So that’s 98 foot. So depending on your definition, it’s either, yeah, 30 or 25 meters. And then this question of mega yacht, Giga yacht, Superyacht or whatever, at least in terms of how I see it, it’s a superyacht. And then if you’re an American, it might be a mega yacht, but anything else is just muddying the waters. I don’t like to take a it just gets a bit ridiculous.

 

Talha [00:09:09] But so so for for our listeners to just tell us a little about like what each of these even mean like because the Maryland I know you know the smaller boats the forties and even the 16 Yeah we’ve been and we’ve been on like 100 foot boat but then what happens once you. Or even like maybe and we can fill in the gaps about the forties and sixties and a hundred. But what happens once you cross 100 feet. What does that boat even look like? What are the amenities on board.

 

Georgia [00:09:32] Yeah. So basically, as far as I see it, once you’re over the 25 meters, it’s, it’s a superyacht and that’s it. That’s the end of it. I don’t make a demarcation after that point. So it’s a superyacht and then that’s it. Even if you get up to like 200 meters, for example.

 

Merrill [00:09:50] Just by the name of a terror yacht, I mean, I feel like that’s such a bad ass name. I’m going to have to find one of those on the market.

 

Georgia [00:09:59] Absolutely. I think I might have just made it up. But certainly I’ve heard Gigawatt before.

 

Talha [00:10:06] So.

 

Merrill [00:10:06] Damn, that was really good.

 

Speaker 4 [00:10:08] Yeah. Yeah.

 

Merrill [00:10:09] So what is a day in the life of Georgia when you’re when you were working for the superyacht times? What would you have to do? What was the day like?

 

Georgia [00:10:19] Okay, so basically it was a question of getting myself first and foremost to the office in Amsterdam, which involved the absolutely wonderful commute over 10 to 15 minutes cycle ride through Amsterdam City. Well, Amsterdam City Center, past the beautiful churches and canals. I mean, it was not really much of a hardship, to be honest. So I’d have my like 15 minute cycle to work and then get in, open the inbox and then deal with whatever had happened in the industry since I was last in the office. So it basically be writing up press releases and publishing them and getting things online. And then on more rare occasions it would be traveling to boat shows and going to the printers to see the issue of the newspaper physically printed, because that was one of the best parts of my job actually getting to oversee that physical print process, which is quite rare nowadays actually in media. But yeah, largely at desk, look at dealing with emails.

 

Merrill [00:11:18] And how many articles and press releases would you be working on at any given time?

 

Georgia [00:11:24] It would. It really depends. That’s the thing with a news job. It depends kind of on the time of year. Like now, for example, it’s quite a busy time of year. There’s lots of boat shows going on, lots of things happening in the industry. And and also you have to bear in mind it wouldn’t just be me, they’d be the editors, and then we’d have, you know, at least a staff writer and an intern helping to pick up the article. So on a good day, I would probably get like between eight and ten things online, but that wouldn’t all be done by me. There’d be a few of us working on it and then working on longer term stuff as well. Like for the printed newspaper, longer features.

 

Merrill [00:12:01] Are there are a lot of, you know, publications out there in the superyacht industry or were you guys one of the bigger ones?

 

Georgia [00:12:07] Well, Superyacht times is certainly one of the one of the leaders, but there are a few and there’s Boat International based in London that quite they’re the main competitor to Superyacht times, I would say, but there’s quite a few others as well dotted all around the world. Wherever people are interested in boats and yachts, you’ll get a superyacht publication. So you know, lots in the Med and also further afield in the States, Russia, other places.

 

Merrill [00:12:34] Did you ever go out to Russia?

 

Georgia [00:12:35] No, not with the not with work. I went on a school trip when I was about 15, but I haven’t been for work now.

 

Merrill [00:12:43] What is your dream gig?

 

Georgia [00:12:45] Dream gig? Oh, it would have to be going to Scandinavia on a yacht. Staying on a yacht, and then, you know, going kayaking on the fields and diving and exploring that area of the world by yacht. I say that because I know a couple of people who did that, and I was extremely jealous.

 

Talha [00:13:03] Interesting. And it’s to Jersey, I want to backtrack a bit. Tell us more about like what sort of articles and stuff you were writing for The New York Times? Like, was it like new yachts or destinations or.

 

Georgia [00:13:15] Yeah, so, so Superyacht Times is primarily a news publication. So that’s the USP when I was there at least was very much getting the news online first, which, you know, from a Google point of view is good because then, you know, you get to the top of Google and you get very good traffic to your site. So that was kind of the priority was getting it fast. So a lot of it was news stuff for the website and that would be your yacht deliveries. So yachts being handed over to their owners, yacht launches, yachts being commissioned. So every time a yacht was sold with rights to every time a yacht was, you know, moved to its place where the owner would pick it up, we’d cover that and just basically yachts moving around because and that’s interesting to people because this, you know, such big objects. You wouldn’t write about little boats, would you?

 

Talha [00:14:08] Yeah. And you wouldn’t think it would be public information sort of like that either, right?

 

Georgia [00:14:12] Well, yeah, it totally depends on the the owner, because some projects they want to keep private and they don’t want to announce that it’s been delivered or launched. But, you know, all are like that. And it’s also quite obviously quite good for the shipyard from a marketing promotional point of view to be able to wave the flag and say, Hey, look, we’ve delivered this absolute incredible project. You know, for an American owner who we’re not going to name, but, you know, this is this. So it’s finding that balance, I think, between privacy and also them wanting to continue to have work going forward.

 

Merrill [00:14:47] Are you an artist?

 

Georgia [00:14:49] Am I afraid of sharks? Yeah, I’m more afraid of people, I think, than I am of of sharks. If you look at the number of people killed by sharks and then the number of shark go by. People. I mean, crikey.

 

Merrill [00:15:01] Well, I guess what’s the difference between a superyacht owner and a shark?

 

Georgia [00:15:06] Yeah, that’s a very good point. I guess Superyacht owners don’t have to keep swimming in order to be alive.

 

Talha [00:15:14] They’re not.

 

Georgia [00:15:15] And they also tend to have smaller teeth, but not always. Actually, that’s not true. That’s not true. Don’t quote me on that one.

 

Talha [00:15:23] So do you. Do you like your profession, The writing profession?

 

Georgia [00:15:28] Yes, I do. I absolutely, absolutely do. And I feel so incredibly lucky that I get to do something so interesting and so creative and people will pay me for it. I mean, it’s it’s incredible. I started off writing professionally when I was about 15, and I’d write articles for people for, you know, £20 an article or whatever. And it’s built from that. And it’s just absolutely phenomenal to be able to come up with something creative. And every single article, pretty much with no exception, feels like the opportunity to do that for people. And getting the positive responses from clients just makes it, you know, absolutely worth it. Really, really does. I’d recommend it to anyone, even though it can be quite hard to get a decent, decent paying writing job nowadays because there’s just so many people wanting to do it.

 

Merrill [00:16:16] Hmm. Well, it does sound cool, so that’s probably why everyone wants to do it.

 

Georgia [00:16:21] Yeah.

 

Talha [00:16:21] Yeah. And are you are you branching out that way? Are you seeing this sort of, like you said, like there’s so many writers out there. Yeah. So the supply is definitely picking up as well. And I don’t know about the demand, but like, now there’s social media, there’s, you know, other ways to articulate, articulate yourself and get your voice heard. How are you branching out?

 

Georgia [00:16:42] Well, I think the important thing about how to to make sure that you do sort of stand out is both this idea of yet branching out and being flexible and being willing to do, you know, all different types of writing. I’ll say if someone says, Oh, can you help with social media posts, can you help with newsletter? Can you help with longer pieces? You know, just saying yes to any opportunity you get in that sense. Because even if you’ve not done it before, you can pick it up because it’s all very similar skillset and then you’ve got another string to add to your bio. So. So that’s good. But then in terms of, you know, you’ve mentioned so many other writers, the way that I think I’ve managed to keep work and keep my name, you know, keep myself a little bit known in the industry is just being niche like be as nation you possibly can. Because if I wanted to write about, you know, the states of the world at the moment and Brexit or, you know, Russia or something, that’s going to be thousands of people talking about the same thing. But if you find your niche and you find the thing you can write about, that is a bit different. Clients will trust you to do that and you’re not having to compete with thousands and thousands of other people for the same job. Just a question of supply and demand. And so you just can’t be too picky when you start. Like if I had said, Oh, I couldn’t possibly write about boats, I’m not in boats. I don’t know anything about boats. We wouldn’t be where I am today. And now I am interested in boats because you can develop it kind of organically.

 

Merrill [00:18:06] Yeah, we’ve seen all sorts of, you know, wild writing when it comes to boats. Obviously there’s a huge group of people that are just, you know, they hear boat and they’re like, Oh, well, I could never get into that, so they never get in. But the people that are like, Oh yeah, we can do a ton of research, we’ll figure it all out. And then they send you back an article and it makes zero sense about boats.

 

Talha [00:18:30] You know, you’ve seen it happen a lot over it. And it’s not it’s not just articles, though. It’s it’s true of just communication in general. Is that like what Georgie was saying is that it is a niche, just communicating well as a niche on its own anywhere, and then boating or marine stuff is a niche. And then finding somebody who can boat or rather knows the terms and blah, blah, blah and everything and writes well, yeah, is a super niche. Yeah.

 

Speaker 4 [00:18:59] So yeah.

 

Talha [00:19:00] Right. So you managed and especially and then you’ve even dug further you learned the superyacht industry which is like super, super niche, right. So and, but you’re right then when you become that sort of targeted, then, then you can name your price, write your own price.

 

Georgia [00:19:15] Absolutely. That’s the thing. And you just have to show people that you can do it and have the confidence and then you quickly find that you can do it and people give you the trust. And I have to say, although it may be surprising, the Marine and Superyacht Industries are some of the warmest, friendliest working you can possibly ask for. Everyone is so sort of dedicated and passionate about what they do, and it’s just been such a warm, welcoming environment to come into as a graduate fresh out of university. You know, it’s not corporate, it’s not, you know, dog eat dog world or whatever, but very, very friendly. You know, it meant that I could rock up to the Monaco Yacht show as a 22 year old. You know, not. From an extremely affluent background or whatever. I feel comfortable because the people there are just fantastic. And as long as you care about the boats and you care about what they’re doing, they’ll respect that and respond to it. And you can have really, really interesting conversations. Nothing pretentious whatsoever about it in my at least in my experience.

 

Talha [00:20:18] And you’re right, and a couple of our guests on our shows have sort of mentioned this are the people who basically live in the water. And if you’ve got a super yacht, at least some of the time, live in the water. Those people are usually on their on on a certain wavelength. And they’re not overly stressed usually. Yeah, they’re not. Again, there’s not like a general rule or anything, but versus in the dog eat dog world that you’re describing on sort of land where everybody is just out to get their piece. Once you’re on a boat and everybody’s on the same boat you like, it’s much more there’s much more camaraderie, perhaps even definitely.

 

Georgia [00:20:52] Because you have, you know, you’ve all got a shared, shared experiences and a shared goal of, you know, getting from A to B and not ending up with the sharks. So I think that’s probably got something to do with it.

 

Merrill [00:21:03] So how were you, you know, doing all this writing and whatnot? How exactly are you promoting yourself? Are you just built up a word of mouth? You know, business model in which people know who you are and they reach out to you or you actively, like market yourself?

 

Georgia [00:21:20] Well, I have to say I am very lucky in that when I left my position at Superyacht times, which was on very good terms, actually the boss of the company gave me permission to email basically every one of my contacts and tell them I was going freelance, which was kind of him actually, and that’s all I needed. I just emailed every one of my contacts with my freelance email address and said, You know, it’s been wonderful working with you, seeing you at the shows. I’m going to be freelance if you want to work with me, you know, you can get in touch. And that’s honestly all it’s taken. Because a few days after I sent that, you know, my inbox was full of people saying, Oh, we’d love to chat with you. And it was, you know, kind of my old boss to let me do that. You know, he didn’t have to. And that meant that, you know, when I was at shows as well, people actually recognize who I am. And I think it would be how do you say But I mean that many wow. Writers in the industry. So, you know, it’s maybe not too surprising, but yeah, all word of mouth. I’m hoping to launch a website this year, which will just be very basic sort of landing page. How to contact me, a few examples of work and a couple of pages. But I certainly haven’t had to kind of aggressively market myself, which I’m very grateful for because that’s not really.

 

Talha [00:22:37] Such a good place. Yeah, Yeah.

 

Merrill [00:22:40] But three tips for someone that is interested in getting into writing and, you know, going down the path that you took, what would they be?

 

Georgia [00:22:50] Okay. I’d say the first one I’ve already mentioned. But yeah, do your best to find your niche. Try and find a thing that you can write about that makes you, you know, it’s useful to someone because people are not going to pay you to write about things you’re interested in from the off you can make the thing you write about something you’re interested in. And I feel I’ve been really able to do that with what I do. But do not assume that you can write anything and people will pay you for it. Go the other way round, find your name. And then also, you know, it’s a bit of a cliche, but don’t be too precious. You will be edited and that’s a good thing. You know, I’ve spent my whole career being edited and now, you know, I edit as well as one of my services book. Don’t get Precious about your writing because it’s going to be edited for a reason. There will be occasions where it gets edited and it’s worse than when you sent it. And again, take the money and it’s not part of the process. The client knows best if.

 

Speaker 4 [00:23:49] You’re going to do this.

 

Talha [00:23:51] Even if you want the gig again, just give them what they want.

 

Georgia [00:23:54] Absolutely. And then third one, just again, slightly cliche, but read as much as you can. Like, honestly, I do put down my moderate success in writing to the fact that I read absolutely voraciously as a child. And I hope that kids still do read. I don’t know. I don’t have children myself, but it really, really helps if you have a wide vocabulary because, you know, sometimes you’ll have to write the same story about a yacht being delivered and it makes a lot more interesting to the wider world if you’ve got many different ways of saying that. And that will only come by reading widely and exposing yourself to how other people do things.

 

Talha [00:24:31] Basically good stuff. Okay, so Georgina, I do want to dig a little deeper into a couple of things. One of them and again, and you don’t know how you feel about this, but like on smaller boats, it’s already about like pure attention to details. I see the people who climb up the ladder and like they just have this eye for detail. They just see everything and it’s beautiful every single time. And how important is that even in what you’re doing and writing, especially when you’re dealing with. These super wealthy superyacht clients.

 

Georgia [00:25:02] Absolutely vital. Absolutely vital. I mean, one of the amazing things about a superyacht is basically obviously money is an object to some extent. You know, there is a budget. But in some ways, compared to other products, money is no object, which means it’s an opportunity for talented craftsmen and women from all around the world to really, really strut their stuff and show what they can do. And that is one of the most amazing things about a yacht, is it is this, you know, beautiful object that’s been handcrafted a lot of the time with all the tiny little marble details and, you know, little details and the bathrooms and even the way the windows are curved to just so many things are that and done with such care and such attention because, you know, they’re not having to worry too much about every single penny. So, yeah, it’s absolutely vital. And then in terms of how you write about a boat, it’s the same thing. You know, one of the striking things about working for Superyacht times was how seriously people took our article. It was incredible. I mean, if I wrote an article and said the boat was 26.3 meters and it was actually 27, I would sometimes get a call from either the shipyard or the broker that sold the boat, saying, By the way, you go the length of our boat. You know, people really do care about these things because it’s such high value products and products that they really, really care about. And so that is reflected as well in the care that you need to take when you write about it. And but that, I think, is it is a great skill for any writer to learn that, you know, you can’t be sloppy. These things matter because it’s people’s livelihoods. You know, whether I write about a particular designer’s thing that they’ve done on a yacht or not, might be the difference between them getting the next job or not. You know, you have to you can think about it that way. True.

 

Talha [00:26:51] And you sort of alluded to this before, but did you actually get to propose your own articles and stuff?

 

Georgia [00:26:58] Yes, that was one of the great things about Superyacht times is because it was very much a space where I got to grow from effectively an intern up to an editor. There wasn’t a strict structure of how things were done because it was very much growing and it starts it’s not really a startup anymore, but it very much was when I when I was there and I did get to have a lot of control over the content and the newspaper that they print now quarterly, but used to be every two months, I could basically set the tone of a lot of that content working with Maureen, who runs the company. But yeah, a lot of my stupid ideas would make it in there in the end, because there was no one to tell me. No.

 

Talha [00:27:40] Maybe some tips on that though, like how does a writer sort of approach, you know, it’s I don’t know if it would be considered cold calling, but for all intents and purposes might be and say, hey, you know, you should use these articles. They work there. How does one do that?

 

Georgia [00:27:57] Well, the thing is, because The York Times has a really fantastic reputation. It was tended to be the other way round. People would come to us and say, Please really write sponsors. And so it was more, you know, be a question of finding out what’s actually interesting, because they all think that they’re interesting. And of course, and they are to some extent. But, you know, there are only so many topics in the industry. So you have to think about how to make it different from last year’s, you know, yachting publication that covered quite some of the boats. But there was never a problem getting enough content. The main thing is how do I make this content different to the 26 other articles that have been written about this? And that’s the challenge, actually. That’s the fun challenge of it.

 

Talha [00:28:39] And what about the freelance side of.

 

Georgia [00:28:40] Yeah, in terms of pitching to people?

 

Talha [00:28:43] Pitching, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

Georgia [00:28:44] I think it’s just ideas are very much important currency and one of the lessons you have to learn is not to give it away. That’s been one of my learning points actually, that if I pose a load of articles to a publication, they may well say, Brilliant, we’ll do that in-house. Thank you for the ideas that’s happened to me before. And so you have to be quite careful, I think, with pitching too much, because coming up with a fun article about a boat can be quite difficult for people. So. So yeah, but in terms of finding enough work, I’m lucky enough that that’s not really been an issue recently. But yeah, it’s just having a decent, strong, succinct pitch that makes the client’s life as easy as possible. So saying, you know, I’ve got these people lined up, I can do this. It’ll be interesting to your readers because this kind of do it. Chances are they’ll say, Yeah, go on then.

 

Talha [00:29:35] And you made it sound really simple. There is like a dual circles for Wow. So you have a do you have this down a science then. Nice.

 

Speaker 4 [00:29:47] Yeah, exactly.

 

Talha [00:29:49] All right. So and then you had a question.

 

Merrill [00:29:52] Yeah. So what other things are you doing outside of the marine industry that’s writing involved?

 

Georgia [00:29:58] Well, the I do a bit of other writing isn’t Marine based. Yes. So I’ve recently been working with a publication called Parliamentary Society Magazine, and I actually did one of my favorite interviews, which was with a Saudi journalist, and it was basically about the time he got accused of being a terrorist by one of our wonderful tabloid publications. I think it was the Daily Star in the UK, and it was basically an article looking at how he dealt with being branded a terrorist, for which there was absolutely no evidence, by the way, and that being in some of the tabloid press and how we managed to contain the story. And the fascinating thing about this story was that he did manage to contain it and basically ran up the rest of Fleet Street in London via the where all the publications are based and said, you know, please don’t publish this story. It’s not true. And they did. And nowadays that would not happen if you were if that kind of slur was made and it was put on a social media platform.

 

Talha [00:30:59] I was going to ask.

 

Georgia [00:31:00] It’d be much, much harder to contain the story. And I thought it was a really interesting reflection on, you know, disinformation and the spread of that and how you can or can’t contain it nowadays versus back then.

 

Merrill [00:31:12] Well, when I have some cover ups to do, I’m going to definitely say yes.

 

Talha [00:31:17] George is saying it’s not plausible anymore. No. Yeah, don’t do bad stuff. That’s what you think.

 

Georgia [00:31:23] But don’t even get accused of doing.

 

Speaker 4 [00:31:25] Yeah, I don’t even think.

 

Georgia [00:31:27] That’s the thing.

 

Talha [00:31:29] You know, you’re right, though, but.

 

Georgia [00:31:30] Outside of outside of the industry and outside of writing, I’m also training to be a counselor or therapist, and I’m doing that at the moment. So that’s my kind of other stuff alongside the writing. And they work quite well together, actually, surprisingly.

 

Talha [00:31:45] But they do.

 

Georgia [00:31:46] I mean, it’s all just talking to people and listening to their stories. So yeah, you know this up.

 

Talha [00:31:51] Write better. Copy and copy helps you. Yeah. See what? Especially now, like you said, with everything online, you can almost sort of see which copy does better than other copy, right?

 

Georgia [00:32:02] Yeah, definitely.

 

Merrill [00:32:04] What is one thing that you must never do when you’re, you know, in the marine industry as a writer?

 

Georgia [00:32:10] Well, one thing you must never do is commit to too many things that you can’t actually deliver on time. And I say that having or having done that before. But yeah, basically. So it’s basically a question of knowing yourself and being realistic about how long something actually will take you to do, because the worse and you don’t want to overpromise to a client and under-deliver, that’s that’s a pretty big no no. But also in my experience people tend to be very understanding. If you just communicate with people and say, look, X, Y, Z has happened, the article is going to take a just a little bit longer. They tend to be a lot more responsive. So I’d actually change that. To say one thing you must never do is boast a client.

 

Talha [00:32:54] That just gets nasty.

 

Georgia [00:32:56] Also not a fan of ghosting in personal life as well. I think the pandemic has made a few people a little bit too keen on ghosting, and I think it’s a pretty immature way of dealing with someone to.

 

Talha [00:33:07] Go through that. So on maybe digital, but the best gig, I was a finalist. Did you think maybe it involved a 300 foot boat or something?

 

Georgia [00:33:18] Yeah, I have to say the most kind of intellectually stimulating thing I had to write was probably that thing I just described about.

 

Talha [00:33:26] Doing.

 

Georgia [00:33:27] The Palestinian thing.

 

Talha [00:33:28] The Palestinians.

 

Georgia [00:33:29] Exactly. But in terms of the most fun, A quite enjoy. I enjoyed going around Superyacht. It was called Tez at the time that the name is now changed. It’s on 111 meter lists and yachts and the interior of it is basically like it’s come out of the sea. It’s really stunning. It’s the most ornate thing you’ve ever seen. Helipads, just absolutely everything you could possibly want on board a superyacht. I don’t want to go. I got to go around and basically just bask in how ridiculously beautifully ornate and take notes.

 

Talha [00:34:04] I need to take notes.

 

Speaker 4 [00:34:05] And.

 

Talha [00:34:07] And yeah, exactly thing.

 

Georgia [00:34:09] And it was it was like being in a palace. It really was. Yeah. Floating to the sun. Actually, I got a little bit complacent because I thought, you know what, I’ve seen it. I don’t need to see any more boats of the sea. The biggest, but it’s very much not the biggest. Actually. 111 is big, but there’s this big around us. So yeah, so much to say.

 

Merrill [00:34:32] So what’s the worst job you’ve ever had?

 

Georgia [00:34:36] Worse job, I think. I think the hardest bit of doing any news writing is probably the fast turnaround with articles. So I think the hardest parts of, you know, having worked for a news publication is just that thing of having to turn an article around very quickly whilst after boat show it can get quite stressful because there’s no. Internet, but you feel like it needs to get online within 20 minutes or else you need a top spot on Google. You know, I’m really in the scheme of things, it’s not a big deal when you’re like 20 years old and really, really wanting to do well in your job. It can be very stressful. But now I don’t do breaking news in the same way, so it’s a little bit more laid back. But I really, really do respect the people who have to cover news in any form at that pace because it can be relentless.

 

Talha [00:35:27] So have you ever lost a gig like what happened?

 

Georgia [00:35:29] And I think I’ve never lost a gig, really. And I have.

 

Talha [00:35:34] 100% success rate. Congratulations.

 

Georgia [00:35:35] Well, I’m not sure I’ve been approached and then given them my rights and then they’ve gone for someone cheaper, like if that counts as losing a gig. But I’ve never started something. And then a client said, You know what? We don’t want to work with you anymore. It’s more been that they’ve their priorities have been, you know, saving money, which is actually fine because there are people who do what I do for less and that’s fine. But I mean, I bought myself so suddenly. It does seem to be a few people who do as well, not just me and somewhere.

 

Talha [00:36:09] Where are you on that debate? Some people would be like, you should tell people your prices straight upfront. Some people are like, Yeah, price is the last thing you discuss. Where do you find yourself on that?

 

Georgia [00:36:18] Well, I do have a lot of Dutch clients, so I can’t get away with not tying them up. Right, because they’re incredibly direct. So that doesn’t work. But no, I think upfront, really, I think, you know, if someone emails and asks the right, I’ll say this is my right, because at the moment that’s fine. There’s enough people who are happy. And I also I know it’s a fair rate. I know that I’m, you know, in representative of how other people do in the industry. So I think the more transparency, the better. But also you need to be flexible. You know, if if they really can’t pay that and, you know, I’ll need to see their bank statements to know.

 

Speaker 4 [00:36:53] But, you know.

 

Georgia [00:36:54] Have some have some flexibility. But you don’t want to sell yourself short because you’re doing what you’re doing for a reason. You’re good at what you do. And also you’re not paid for the time you’re not working, if that makes sense. You know, there’s so much time doing Aardman emails, chasing invoices, all that, and that is not factored into your rates unless you make an active effort to do so. So it may sound like a big number to you, but when you think about all the time you’re not getting paid for, it suddenly starts to make a lot more sense.

 

Talha [00:37:24] Because it’s a shed, some light on that because you had a 9 to 5 for years and then, you know, and it’s almost are you entrepreneurial of that level right. Is that you took the jump in I’m going to do my freelancing and now you know that that fixed income is gone. You know, like how how was that jump for you? And like, how have you adapted to it?

 

Georgia [00:37:45] I mean, it is definitely a jump, but I also love it’s a personality type. I think I’m very much love having control of control of my own destiny, which is a bit of a, again, slightly cliche thing to say, but that’s how it feels because everything you’re doing, you’re doing for yourself and for your client. So, you know, you get a little dopamine hit, you get a little reward for every single article you publish because you know, you charge for article. And so if you work hard at what you’re doing, you will get rewarded for that. Whereas in a 9 to 5, it doesn’t necessarily go that way because, you know, you’re given a fixed amount of money no matter what you do, which means all those cliches about standing around the watercooler, which aren’t really the main thing. Now we’ve had COVID, but I just love the idea of, you know, I can take the morning off, but then work really, really hard into the evening if I need to. And no one no one can tell me otherwise. So maybe I’m completely unemployable from now on. But I love that freedom, honestly, You know, I’ve not made millions and millions of euros in my first year freelance, as is often the case. People don’t. You know, it takes time, but that freedom is worth its weight in gold.

 

Talha [00:38:55] I just think the ceiling is just a glass ceiling. It could be millions and millions.

 

Georgia [00:38:59] Well, let’s see. But it doesn’t. It doesn’t.

 

Talha [00:39:02] But it’s good to hear, right? It was almost like teachers and writers and stuff weren’t making enough money and now they are. I guess. I don’t know.

 

Georgia [00:39:09] I think that to be honest, in my experience, the people who seem to be making the most money doing writing are doing it on a freelance basis.

 

Talha [00:39:17] That’s a good way to look at it, you know?

 

Georgia [00:39:18] Yeah, because I think a lot of publications don’t value it as much as they could, but when you’re doing it freelance, you value yourself and you can set your rate and then people will either be prepared to pay it or they won’t. But some entry level publishing jobs in the UK, I don’t know what it’s like in the U.S., but they’re absolutely terribly paid. And again, it’s supply and demand. People are willing to do it for that so they they won’t be paid any more than that. Really.

 

Talha [00:39:43] What’s an interesting way to look at that? So let’s maybe start wrapping stuff up. Georgia, any pro tips you’d like to share with us on your way out? Mm.

 

Georgia [00:39:52] I think I’d just like there to be a bit more awareness of the fact that Maureen and. Yachting jobs actually exist. So I’m trying to work on that by working with various recruitment agencies within the industries to write their blogs for them to try and make the industry more accessible. And I know the word accessible and CPO may sound like somewhat of a contradiction in terms, but if you think about it.

 

Talha [00:40:18] But they need to create. Right. For example.

 

Georgia [00:40:20] You do your graduate job. This is what I mean. Or even just a gap year job. You finish school, you don’t know what you want to do. You could go work in a pub or a restaurant in your local town, or you can learn, you know, you can learn on the job, get very good tips. So I’ve.

 

Talha [00:40:36] Traveled.

 

Georgia [00:40:37] Around the world learning and skill sets and get qualifications that you can actually use back on land. You know, if you gain these hospitality qualifications and, you know, learn how to do laundry really well, learn how to do all these things or technical things in terms of the actual, you know, operations about, you can use those skill sets back. Ones have a few months with your friends traveling the world and then, you know, also save for a mortgage or a house deposit. I do know people who’ve got their entire house deposit from, you know, working a couple of seasons on a boat and you will not get that from working in a pub. So I think, you know, and also there’s a massive shortage of crew at the moment. I don’t know how it is outside of this of your industry, but there is actually a big a big gap in the market for crew. So yeah, I think it just.

 

Talha [00:41:27] Goes to the other big things, right, is that it’s such a super niche that like .01 percent of people are ever going to see that. So if you managed to, you know, get a seat on a boat like that and be it be a great experience.

 

Georgia [00:41:40] Absolutely. And the thing is, obviously buying a yacht that is always going to be there. I would never. On a yacht. Well, never say never.

 

Talha [00:41:49] Never.

 

Georgia [00:41:49] I am unlikely to ever owned a yacht, but I have been on them and I have been able to see and experience and meet the craftsmen and women and write about it because it’s accessible in that way. You know, you can be involved in the industry and participate without having to be, you know, a millionaire or a billionaire. And I completely understand why people don’t know that. Well, it would be good if more people did.

 

Merrill [00:42:11] Well, don’t worry, Georgia. I’ll invite you onto my terror yacht.

 

Speaker 4 [00:42:15] Thank you.

 

Merrill [00:42:18] So, Georgia, where can people find out about you and get a hold of you?

 

Georgia [00:42:23] Well, as I said, I don’t quite yet have the website ready, so it would have to be very old school and just an email. So the email to reach me for any sort of work would be just my name. Georgia Tindale gmail.com. I’ll keep it simple in terms of how to get in touch, but there will be a very exciting website launch hopefully this year. And then not only have all my stuff on it.

 

Talha [00:42:48] Awesome. Let us know if we can help you with anything.

 

Georgia [00:42:50] Thank you.

 

Talha [00:42:51] Yeah. Best of luck, Georgia. Thanks for coming on the podcast.

 

Georgia [00:42:55] Thank you for having me.

 

Talha [00:42:56] Good luck with all your Supergirl adventures.

 

Georgia [00:42:59] Thank you.

 

Talha [00:43:00] Hopefully we’ll have you back at some point. Shipshape. Duck Crawl, The number one resource in the U.S..