Fifteen years of writing the wrong things
In the early 2000s I was deep into LiveJournal. For anyone who doesn’t remember it, LiveJournal was one of the first platforms where people wrote publicly about their lives, their thoughts, their ideas. I was completely absorbed in it, writing regularly, reading other people’s writing, thinking carefully about how to say things well. At the time it was just something I loved doing but it turns out it was also a fairly clear sign of where I was headed.
The (long) detour
After university I ended up in government, where I spent fifteen years writing policies, strategies, papers, reports and briefs. The style was bureaucratic, the language was prescribed, and creativity wasn’t really the point. What it did teach me, though – and this part I’m genuinely grateful for – was how to write for the right audience. How to distil complex information into plain language. How to structure ideas so they’re easy to follow. How to say something clearly and concisely without losing the meaning and detail. I became very good at writing things that needed to be understood, but the work was never quite the right fit.
My decision to eventually leave had nothing to do with the work itself and everything to do with where I wanted my time to go. I wanted to be present for my family in a way that the job wasn’t allowing, so I left. And then I came back to the thing I’d always known I was good at, this time on my own terms.
What writing the right things feels like
What lights me up now is finding words for people who don’t have the time to explain what they do but are so passionate about it. Small business owners who are genuinely excellent at their work but struggle to articulate it in a way that the right people can find and understand.
What this means for the people I work with
Fifteen years of writing inside a system that valued clarity and precision over creativity gave me a foundation that many copywriters don’t have. I know how to take something complicated and make it understandable. I know how to write for a specific audience rather than a general one. And when someone trusts me to find the right words for their business, I don’t take that lightly.
If you’re a small business owner who knows what you do but struggles to say it clearly, I’d love to help. Get in touch and let’s talk about your business.
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