I have no degree in marketing. I have a Master’s of Fine Arts in creative writing, specializing in poetry. I’m self-taught when it comes to brand storytelling and voice, which are the specialities I’ve developed over a decade of freelancing.
My dad always used to want me to take business classes in college or grad school, and of course I never did. I thought business was gross.
Dad, you were right. I wish I had a few business classes under my belt, or heck, a business or marketing master’s degree!
So what I did instead was hired a business coach in 2019, who worked with me for 3 months, essentially teaching me BUS 101, encouraging me to raise my rates, and cheering me on. I grew so much from working one-on-one with her. (Thanks, Charmaine!) I also did a trade with my life coach friend, who helped me get clear, organized, and accountable. (Thanks, Adela!) 🙏
What I like about working with brands is the opportunity to bring a little poetry, an unexpected element, into a brand’s voice. When I say voice, I mean the written elements of the branding — the website, Instagram and social media captions, the email newsletters, even lookbooks and print collateral. If the visual branding is gorgeous and elegant, or hip and playful, the way the brand speaks needs to match (and should be grammatically flawless).
I find joy and fulfillment in the creativity, research, and collaboration that goes into my professional writing. There’s also the thrill of discovering each new client, and the satisfaction in knowing my work is valued — which is not something I experienced in the world of academia.
Coming from an academic background, I was looking at a lifelong series of adjunct gigs (waiting at the end of each semester to see if you’d get classes again), or perhaps a full-time instructor position like I had at Loyola University (renewing yearly, around $37,000), or — if I got a PhD — perhaps a tenure-track position, although even that can be stagnant. Obviously we all know that teaching isn’t terribly valued or well compensated in the U.S.
So I leaned into freelancing, and 2019 (the year I also spent money on a business coach and worked with a life coach) was the year I made the most I ever had.
And now I work with some very exciting international brands. 🥂
But, sure, sometimes I still feel a little “yuck” about marketing, especially when it comes to social media, where we’re all (and by “we” I mean mostly women) selling products to each other that we don’t even need. Personally, I absolutely avoid fast fashion and prefer buying gently used items from consignment shops. I think consumerism is a trap in which intelligent women are caught, their power weakened. If we’re always trying to fix something about ourselves or buy the jeans/boots/dresses that are cool right now because the jeans/boots/dresses that were cool last year are no longer cool, then we’re wasting a lot of time that could have been spent on other pursuits. (Sort of like what Naomi Wolf said in The Beauty Myth, long before she became a conspiracy theorist, “A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one.”)
So how to reconcile my anti-consumerism sentiments with marketing? My poet side with capitalism?
I do so by being selective about the clients I take on:
Choosing brands with an ethical, slow fashion ethos, like Lekha
Working with creatives whose work I truly admire, from interior designers to photographers to architects, like TIEK BYDAY and CICADA
Taking on luxury clients whose branding invites opportunities for poetry and playfulness
Working with a talented branding studio, Also Known As (formerly Minmoo), creating the voice for new brands or refining the existing voice of businesses who are re-branding
I still teach at an online university; at $22/hour, it’s my lowest-paying gig.
Why do I continue teaching? It might be the comfort of having a foot in the door of academia, the access the JSTOR, the tiny albeit reliable amount of monthly income, the W-2. It might also be the interesting backgrounds of my adult students, who often infuriate me, rarely read the directions, and yet are sweet and excited for the chance to earn their degree. I’ve learned from them about being a military veteran looking for a next chapter in life, about being in a dead-end job and hoping a degree will propel them toward their dreams — all the things that keep us educators naïvely mired in the low-paying world of education.
So, yeah, thank the goddesses for freelance copywriting.
One of my goals is to become like my idols, We All Need Words or That Explains Things. If you know a brand or biz that could use a little brightening when it comes to their written communication or storytelling, send ’em my way! (Or send them to kristindianesanders.com/writing-wingwoman.) For Paid Subscribers, you can schedule a 30-minute Brand Voice Audit with me, for free!
And my other goal is to help coach new freelancers toward raising their rates and finding professional success. I’m always hoping to help women make more money. To that end, and because I’ve had a number of folks reach out to me over the past year with freelancing questions, I’m offering 30-minute Writing Wingwoman Freelance Brainstorm Sessions free for all paid subscribers.
As a special offer for Paid Subscribers, get the following free at the link below:
30-Minute Brand Voice Consultation
or
30-Minute Writing Wingwoman Freelance Brainstorm Session
I’ve got much more to say on this whole topic, and I’m an excellent cheerleader for other entrepreneurs. Make sure you’re a paid subscriber to get all the good stuff! 😉