Today we’d like to introduce you to Noella Keresoma.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
For a little over a decade, I have been working full time as a critical care nurse in Southern California. After the pandemic, I realized how much the public lacked knowledge when it came to issues such as: vaccinations, proactive healthcare, and the irrational purchasing of toilet paper. The pandemic was also a huge learning curve in the healthcare setting, especially for new graduate nurses.
After countless opportunities of teaching new nurses and my patients, I learned how to share my knowledge and information in a way that seemed to make a difference. So, I decided to start a content creation company to combine my knowledge of nursing with my side talents for writing, proofreading, and video editing, to expand my ability to help others.
Copyediting became my main focus after I became friends with a romance fiction author who initially tried to recruit me as her beta reader. Through our text conversations, she realized how meticulous I was with my grammar. After her tenacious insistence to expand my medical copyediting skills to include creative literature, she hired me as her editor. We have now successfully worked together on three of her four novels out on Kindle Unlimited.
Currently, my main focus is medical legal report proofreading/editing for medical experts. I also read and fact check manuscripts or documents with medical content to ensure accuracy and appropriate readability for the intended audience. My next big project is developing a video podcast on tips and tricks for new graduate nurses to succeed in a post pandemic healthcare environment.
I chose “tapa cloth” as the name for my business because I wanted a unique representation of my culture through my work. In the Polynesian culture, the tapa cloth is used as a family’s way to keep track of their history and share their story. It is made from the bark of the mulberry tree and decorated with designs signifying the important history of each family and/or village.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been quite an off road adventure. I did a lot of research into starting a freelance business: watching videos, reading articles, reading books, messaging other freelancers, subscribing to organizations to help me network, etc… Pretty much followed the step by step formulas that guaranteed immediate success. And, it’s still a work in progress.
The biggest challenge is regrowing, or broadening, my network of people I interact with through my business. Being a nurse is a very humbling experience. It’s also a career in which I find most people don’t always understand what I do on an in-depth level. So, typically my network consisted of other nurses, respiratory therapists, doctors, and healthcare staff. When I talk to other healthcare workers there is such a commonality, especially post pandemic, that it’s easy for me to understand a healthcare culture in another place, and vice versa. Now, entering into a business that is focused on networking with a different set of people, it’s like my freshman year of high school all over again.
Despite what people see when they meet me at work or in public, I am a very shy and introverted person. I always admire my mom who is so sweet, has so much confidence, and can walk up to anyone and instantly gain their whole life story; just because she said hello. I’m so blessed to have the perfect role model and free mentor in her to help me overcome my imposter syndrome with my business. I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable in expanding my networking circle since consistently making an everyday effort to be the first one to make an introduction. I have also learned to be patient with myself when potential clients don’t email or call back. I remember that it is not a reflection on me or my business and that the right connections will be developed over time.
Another challenge that many freelancer’s like myself face is the culture shock of independence in working for yourself and setting your own schedule. Thankfully, the discipline of setting my own schedule wasn’t an issue. My current job in nursing requires a lot of autonomy, discipline, and independence. So it was easy to take that skill and apply it to being able to assess what my schedule between my full time job and my business was like, and make functional work hours that don’t make it difficult for my clients and I to interact. I have such a productive and hard working personality, the challenge with an independent schedule was remembering to take a break. While freelancers don’t traditionally clock in and out, there needs to be a separate work time and break time, especially when I work at home.
The other caveat to freelance work, is being creative and disciplined enough to find ways to stay productive in your business when you don’t have an active contract, or a ton of project proposals from clients. The most important thing I’ve learned in my life is that everything happens for a reason, and I can only control my end of things. So, when work is scarce, it pushes me to stay active and look for other ways to enhance my business. I can spend more time going out and networking since I don’t have to focus on a project. I can put more dedicated time into the writing and editing workshops and classes to further my experience and practice, without the distraction of my full-time job and an editing job. Or I can just take a much needed break and enjoy time with my friends and family.
Smooth road? Definitely not. But I drive a truck built to off-road and handle rugged terrain. So, I am used to always being ready for the unexpected adventure!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Tapa Cloth Media, LLC?
Tapa Cloth Media is a freelance multimedia content marketing business. Along with being the sole owner and operator (for now), I am an editor, writer, and digital content creator that works remotely from home. One of the reasons I chose a communication/marketing route as a freelance business, is because as a nurse I have come to greatly understand the importance of effective communication. How information is communicated or produced, and how it is received, can be the difference between life and death in an acute care setting. So I equate in trying to create quality communication on behalf of the authors or writers that I work with, to bring life to their projects.
I copyedit and proofread nonfiction reports and manuscripts for medical legal experts and healthcare topics. I also copy and line edit romance fiction novels, as well as provide authenticity (or sensitivity) reading for characters and settings based in healthcare and medicine.
When I am not reviewing manuscripts with my proverbial “red pen”, I am also writing my blog about American football; tackle and flag. I also provide writing assistance with my focus being on medical or healthcare topics, such as helping friends put together their dictated notes, or taking a piece of health education and translating into terms that a layperson can understand. I also like to write fun newsletters, blog posts, or articles that focus on health, sports, and travel adventures.
Through my company, I also create photo and video content for social media, both for myself and some of my author-clients. Feel free to check out my public profiles for business on Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram.
I owe my unique work ethic for my business to my parents, my patients, and the mentors who helped me succeed as a nurse. I have a dedicated and committed work ethic. I always try to put myself in the mind of my clients and their situations. My parents always taught me to treat everyone with the same respect and compassion that I want to be treated with… even when the client may be rude, demanding, or difficult. They taught me to work hard and give my 100% to every job or task I have ever been given.
Being someone who works nigh shift, I understand the importance of promptly replying to my clients… I once was kept waiting by another business for four hours, which cut into my sleep going into a 12 hour shift later that night. I also believe in being transparent with my clients and try to keep them updated as much as possible when I am working on their projects.
Being in healthcare has taught me how to be able to change the approach to a problem in the moment and stay calm amongst the chaos. My clients can rest assure if I find a tricky problem, I’ll have at least one solution to help them work through the challenge.
My dream for Tapa Cloth Media (TCM), is to create a one-stop cost efficient content creation platform for medical experts, independent authors, and small to medium-size businesses for their marketing projects.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I mentioned that I am very shy and introverted. When I was a kid, I was so nervous about going up to the counter at Del Taco to order an extra side of French fries. I was convinced my dad and my sister were sending me to be tortured. I remember my dad saying, “I would never send you somewhere that wasn’t safe. And if you want to succeed in life, you can’t let your fears keep you from what you want.” After the biggest glare I could muster, I shyly walked up to the counter and ordered my French fries, paid, and ran back to the table we were sitting at, letting out the biggest sigh of relief.
I laugh at that now because when people meet me at work or through my business, they always seem to comment on the amount of energy I have; even when I should be dead tired. They are also amazed that I can talk constantly in what would be written as run-on sentences. So, when I tell them I am very shy and introverted— and prefer to spend downtime at home or just with my pets—they don’t believe me. Ha! Guess the French fry pep talk did me some good!
What’s even more surprising to people, especially once they find out I am shy at heart, is that I prefer to meet someone in person or with an actual phone call when I am getting to know them. Despite my bashful nature, I rely on the tonality and facial expressions of my clients to better understand them. It helps me to identify where my focus should be based on the emphasis and important parts of their projects.
All my initial consults are done by phone, in person, or zoom meetings because I believe in the importance of getting my clients scope of project right with the least amount of miscommunication.
Pricing:
- Medical Legal Editing/Proofreading: $0.07/word
- Fiction/Creative Writing Copy & Line Editing: $0.02/word
- Fiction/Creative Writing Proofreading: $0.009/word
- Medical Authenticity Reading/Fact Checking: $0.009/word
- Writing Assistance/Writing Projects: $0.25/word
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tapaclothmedi.net
- Instagram: instagram.com/tcm_medicaledits
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553952179262
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/99027519/
- Twitter: https://x.com/TapaClothMedia
