Discovering my way with words
Hey! So, this is my first ever blog post for my own business, Wicked Creative. And it was quite rightly pointed out to me that the best thing to start with would be an introduction, so here I am. I apologise in advance if you have heard this before!
So, I’m Dee. Copywriter and content creator based in Kent, about 40 minutes by train from central London. Despite being based in the UK, I work with a lot of different businesses based in far flung destinations around the world…. Dubai, Australia, Singapore, Germany and the West Coast USA to name a few. Remote working is great, but I would love to visit some of these businesses* in person one day…. !
* by businesses I obviously mean places too!!
I've got experience in working with a wide range of industries, but I primarily focus on B2B content and my specialist areas include dentistry, ophthalmology, cosmetic surgery/aesthetics, chiropractors and pet/veterinary content. I also have worked extensively on content for the retail sector, writing about retail trends, customer experience, omnichannel selling, POS SaaS systems and more.
I fell into the rabbit hole of copywriting in 2015 - completely by accident - and discovered a whole new world of opportunity and a myriad of amazing people. Needless to say, I haven’t looked back since! As longer as I can remember I have always written ‘stuff’. I have always been told I have a ‘way with words’. My memory is shocking, but I have a few distinct recollections from my childhood. One was my auntie buying me a book called ‘How to be a Writer’ when I was in my early teens. Another was placing 3rd in a local poetry competition when I was probably 9/10 years old. I remember we had to go to the local theatre for a presentation and I got a £5 book voucher - a bloody big deal at the time! When my grandad sadly passed away when I was 17, I was asked if would write a poem and they read it out at his funeral. Writing quickly became my only real talent - I scraped through secondary school with reasonable GCSE’s - except English and English Lit which I secured an A* and an A in respectively. Yet, for years I didn’t do anything with my skills. College, a string of jobs in travel/hospitality and offices saw me through my early 20s until my eldest was born in 2006.
So, how did I get from here to copywriting? I started an Open University degree in 2007 which I completed over 6 years (getting married and having another baby in the mix too) with the aim of doing teacher training when the kids were older. I graduated in 2014 with a 2:1 in Humanities with Honours and in the gap year before I planned to start teacher training, I discovered copywriting was a ‘thing’. People could potentially pay me for writing something other than poetry or a novel and I didn’t have to become a journalist either! Starting out with no experience and no clue, I signed up to Upwork - yes, yes I know. At the time it was ODesk, but honestly - I wouldn't be here today without it. Within a couple of days I had secured my first gig and from there I built up a portfolio that led to me getting reasonably paid work. A few clients that I originally started out with on Upwork approached me directly after our contracts ended and I still work with them now… many years later.
So that’s my story. When I’m not working, you can generally find me hanging with my husband and kids watching movies or going for long walks down the coast, soaking in a bubble bath with a book or planning our next family adventure. I’m going to be aiming to blog more regularly from here in, so I hope to see you around!
Dee x