A Note from Julie, the Greenhouse Curator:

I’ve become a little obsessed with grow lights lately.

 

I have a few spots in my house where I’d love to put plants, but they don’t get much natural light. Then I saw someone on social media showing how she uses grow lights in darker areas of her home. I decided to buy a few and try them out.

 

And yes, they really do work. A grow light gives a plant usable artificial light when natural light isn’t enough. Some grow lights are really only strong enough to keep a plant alive. Others provide enough light for the plant to actually put out new growth.

And because I apparently can’t think about plants without thinking about proofreading, I started wondering what “light” might look like in our businesses. One thing that came to mind was visibility.

 

You can be an excellent proofreader or editor. You can have strong skills, catch things other people miss, and be really good at what you do. But potential clients can’t hire you if they can’t see you.

 

And for a lot of us, that part is hard. We’ve trained ourselves to notice inconsistencies, question wording, check details, and improve other people’s work. We may not have trained ourselves to market a business. Talking about our skills or saying, “I’m good at this” can feel much less comfortable than opening a document and getting to work.

 

But maybe marketing doesn’t have to mean becoming louder or more promotional. Maybe it’s just adding some light and helping the right people see what you can do.

 

That might mean making your website clearer, sharing something useful on LinkedIn, letting former clients know you have availability, or talking about a problem you regularly solve. Your skills are already there. Marketing just helps more people see them.

And visibility isn’t the only kind of light I’m thinking about. Sometimes we need to shine it on what’s already going well. We spend so much time spotting problems that it can be easy to overlook a great client relationship, a useful system, or a skill we’ve gotten much better at.

 

We can even provide light for someone else through a thoughtful comment, a referral, or a quick word of encouragement.

 

So here’s my challenge for you this week: Where could you add a little light? Maybe something good in your business deserves more attention. Maybe your work needs to be more visible. Or maybe someone else could use a little encouragement from you.

 

Even one small grow light is enough to change a dark corner.

Here are three posts I enjoyed reading on LinkedIn recently. Click the links below to read them.

When I first saw the word “shoo” in this transcript, I knew that couldn't be right. But without the audio file, it took me a minute to figure out that “eschew” is more likely what was said. The end of the sentence helped with the context.

To eschew something means to deliberately avoid or stay away from it, often for moral or practical reasons.

Catch of the Week screenshots come from my transcript proofreading. I can't change what a person said, but I can make sure words are spelled correctly and punctuation marks are in the right spots. If you're interested in learning more about transcript proofreading, I wrote an article about it here.

No grow light needed here. My kitchen windowsill gets plenty of natural light to keep my pilea plant happy. 🌞

Let's keep growing together!

What did you think of today's email? I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or feedback. Email julie@theproofreadergreenhouse.com

 

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