How Did I Get Here?
Hello. Thanks for visiting my website. Seeing as you’re here, I thought I would tell you the story of my career.
The road to copywriting has not been a straight one for me. I graduated from Communications Studies in DCU in 2011, having specialised in video production. Those were dark times. There was no work for a recent graduate who didn’t really know what she wanted to do, not paid work anyway.
Throughout college I worked as a supervisor in the Quiksilver store in Stephen’s Green. I worked my way up to Manager, honing my creative skills at every opportunity. I made my own window displays, painted a blackboard wall that I covered with seasonal drawings, and shot flat lays for the shop’s social media. I also started a food blog where I shared my own recipes and reviews.
I was working. I was writing. I had money to keep myself in mojitos and I could grip a skateboard. Things were good, but there was always something missing. I wanted to be paid to be creative. I set myself a deadline – and with no job to go to – resigned in September 2013. It was terrifying, but as Joey Tribbiani once said, “I needed the fear”.
From there I took on internships and freelance work for friends and old colleagues. I even sold handmade embroidered Christmas garlands on Etsy for a time under the name Coton et Cœur. I learned a lot about what I wanted to do, and what I didn’t want to do. But I didn’t give up.
I was eventually offered a job as Digital Content Officer with international aid organisation, GOAL. I loved my job. I wrote every day and felt like – in my own small way – I was making a difference. I was responsible for all digital content: social media, blogs, stories from GOAL programmes. I even ghost-wrote for a few celebrities and higher-ups when they visited the field.
When I joined GOAL I was confident in my abilities, but shy. The thought of presenting filled me with dread. My boss, David Leach encouraged me. He sat beside me every week as I presented at our weekly inter-departmental meetings. He gave me feedback, positive and negative. By the time I left GOAL I was presenting to country leaders from around the globe. Thank you David for believing in me.
Leaving GOAL was a tough decision but the opportunity to join McCann was too good to pass up. I joined as a member of the social media and content team. After seven months, I was promoted to Social Media and Content Manager. I was responsible for the social team’s output, overseeing everything from strategy, copy, art direction, design and editing. That role made me the creative I am today. It gave me the ability to see creative work holistically. What we do only works when insight, words, pictures and placement all come together perfectly. I relished the challenge of this role, but while overseeing other’s work, I found myself missing writing.
A while later, McCann were looking for a copywriter. At first I didn’t think I could apply because of the gap I would leave where I was, but the MD, Stephen Conway assured me that was his problem to solve, not mine. For that I will be eternally grateful.
I went through the same application process as external candidates. There was an initial interview with the McCann CD, Graham Stewart then a presentation to him and the Group CD, Stephen Moore. I put my heart and soul into it and got the job.
I have been a copywriter ever since.
My journey to copywriting had given me a lot of skills. I was a good writer, particularly for digital channels, and a good presenter. I could edit video and had a keen eye for design and composition. It had not, however prepared me for the world of traditional media.
The first radio script I wrote was more like a short drama, it must have been a minute and a half long. But I asked Graham for help, learned from my mistakes and absorbed the knowledge around me like a sponge. Now radio is one of my favourite media. I’ve gathered some of my radio work below for you to listen to.
I love what I do. I get to write every day and every project is different. I have written radio and press ads, six sheets, video scripts and treatments, animations and even a children’s book.
I have helped to create brands and informed how they speak to the world. I have made work for Microsoft, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors With our Borders (MSF), Dublin City Council, Zurich, safefood, Nakd, Novartis and countless other clients. You can see a selection of my work in the projects section of my site.
I have made work that I could never even have imagined when I left Quiksilver in September 2013. Work that I will forever be proud of.
Joey was right, sometimes you do “need the fear”.