Copywriting
A buffet of writing styles. Tuck in.
Website Copy: assured, low-key sophisticated, playful, knowing.
The client required new web copy to fit with the established brand tone and bring a little more edge and playfulness.
— Our Story - Our Famous Tale —
Born from the blending expertise of Matthew Gloag in the 1800’s, The Famous Grouse is named instead after the occasion for which it was originally intended - a rewarding refreshment for the gentry after a day shooting on the moors. Our founder decided to forgo his own self-promotion, favouring the cherished whisky moment over personal fame.
Matthew’s unpretentious quality remains an assuring characteristic at the heart of our whisky blend today. The guiding principles too are rooted in our founder’s heritage of quality and expertise. Born into the trade of his grandfather’s family wine and spirit business, Matthew and generations of Gloags to follow have worked with expert blenders, stillmen, coopers, merchants and retailers to make our whisky Famous.
Fame isn’t ever a truly overnight process, and nor is our blending. Good flavour develops in good time which is why our marrying process can take months. You can’t hurry love. And you certainly shouldn’t hurry whisky. Allowing the elements ample time to create a balanced fusion removes the need for any harsh filtration so that our round smooth flavour is preserved.
Far from formulaic, our approach leans on the devoted expertise of the very best blenders, overseen by our Master Blender, Kirsteen Campbell. Guaranteeing our consistent Famous flavour is a continued labour of love and careful ‘nosing’. The trusting relationship we have with our suppliers too is built on a shared commitment to quality. Some of these fine folk; farmers, maltsters and merchants have worked with us for generations.
— Gifting Page —
Everyone deserves their fifteen minutes, so why not make someone Famous with a personalised bottle. There are few sweeter things than a dram with your name on it.
Step 1: Make Someone Famous - Chose someone special to receive their personalised bottle of The Famous Grouse. What better way to celebrate somebody than to immortalise them in a whisky bottle.
Step 2: Make It Your Own - Enter the name of your deserving recipient into our personalised labelling section. Add a longer message on the back of the bottle to give them due tribute.
Step 3: Make It Official - Preview your handiwork as it will appear on the bottle before confirming your order.
Step 4: Make Someone’s Day - Add the delivery address for your famously thoughtful gift and send it on its way. Surprised smile can be anticipated within 5-10 working days.
Ghost Writing - Amazon Best-Selling Book - Foreword
I interviewed the client to understand the impact she wanted to create with this book and understand the meaning and heart behind it. I loved capturing her unique voice to tell her story and communicate her powerful message.
Foreword
Before she rises.
I haven’t always felt free. For years I felt pressed down, suffocated and confined. I didn’t chose the circumstances that made me feel that way, so I didn’t consider that I had a choice to feel otherwise. I couldn’t see that I had a choice in anything at all.
Anyone who has endured painful adversity or suffering will identify with that feeling of helplessness. When you’re out of options and seemingly powerless over your own destiny, there doesn’t seem to be a way out. And if low self worth has been enforced over and over, you feel you are the last person with the power to turn things around. As a teenage mum I was familiar with the phrase, “You’ll never amount to anything”.
I have put together this volume of remarkable stories because I want women to hear a different narrative. Whatever you are facing, you do have a choice. You do have the power to turn your life around. As impossible as it might feel when you are in the darkest of places, I want this book to shine a light on the future available to you. You do not have to stay in darkness forever. And you do not have to remain in the grip of that past.
My own story started with a turbulent upbringing witnessing substance abuse, suicide attempts, my brother’s death at 16, domestic violence and the knock-on mental issues of depression and anxiety. The odds seemed stacked against me and statistically I was a case for a lifetime of downward spiralling.
One night, in the clutches of anorexia, deep into debt and with my son unexpectedly rushed to hospital I found myself facing what I can only describe as a black hole. Terrified that I might lose him any day I needed to be at the hospital with my son, Tyler. I had to quit my job to be there for Tyler and at the same time I had bailiffs knocking on my door. I couldn’t even afford the parking ticket at the hospital. So there I stood, sleepless and inconsolable, teetering on the edge of this black hole where I don’t know if my son would live or how I would continue to provide for us.
That was the moment. That was the point when something sparked inside me and I realised I had to do something about it. Nobody else could change my circumstances apart from me. I had to heal myself from illness and from the scars of my upbringing. I had to take responsibility for what happened next because the responsibility was mine all along. I took my clunky laptop to the hospital, I sat by my son’s bed and I started blogging. I started to create something that I could grow. That was the first small step in claiming back my life and designing something beautiful.
It’s been a journey from that point to heal and to create financial and emotional freedom. My son is happy and well now, my family life is rooted in joy and love, and life continues to be a journey. In all of this I recognise that there is still so much to learn and understand and grow into, because personal growth never has a finish line. Although it’s not the end of my story, I come from a place of healing and strength to now share the journey so far. I do this in the hope it will help others who recognise themselves in the ‘before’; women who are still in that darkness or still in the grasp of past experiences that they just can’t move away from.
Each of the women who have contributed to this book have come on their own remarkable journey. I approached them because they have come through healing and now stand in the light of their own strength. From this place they can now share their whole story as a powerful and inspirational gift to other women who might not yet be on the other side of healing. It takes bravery to lay bare their past vulnerabilities and hurt and I am honoured that they have agreed to share themselves so completely. From the bottom of my heart I thank and admire the contributors.
My heartfelt desire is that you recognise yourself in the darkness only so that you can recognise yourself in the light available to you. You too can transcend your pain. Your journey doesn’t end in the depths of despair, there is hope for you to rise also. Hear these women’s voices alongside you as they say “I know this pain too”. And feel them holding your hand still as they rise, lifting you with them into a new chapter.
This book has a message of power and of grace. We only step into power when we first give ourselves the grace to forgive and rise from our past.
Corporate Social Media: research, think-pieces, value, brand awareness.
The client required Social Media content that would position them as an authority in Workplace Culture and Employee Engagement. Content pillars and brand tone were crafted to show credibility and spark relevant and engaging discussion.
Sales Copy (extract): empathise, connect, persuade.
The client works with a niche customer avatar and required copy that would speak directly to their experience.
What Is The Mastermind?
This is a Mastermind that dismantles the systemic ‘norms’ of how you 'should' be building an online business. The online space is filled with noise about constantly reaching for MORE because nothing is ever enough. More launches, more money, more features… But at what cost?
If you’ve been trying to keep up with popular online business models being peddled, you’ll likely know the cost already: exhaustion, burnout and sacrificing time with people you love.
You quit ‘the rat race’ to run your own business but find yourself caught up in the same pressures, compromises and competition…And even though you’ve achieved the level of success you wanted, you’re now craving a different kind of ‘more’ that isn’t just money and popularity. You want more impact and now real CHANGE to what you see in your industry.
Does this sound like you?
This is your invitation to make those powerful, systemic changes and step with me outside of the way things have been done before. Not just for your sake, but for the wider impact you can have on the world around you.
The world of online business needs leaders and experts who are unafraid to shake things up.
Dr Kathrine is a sociologist, qualified psychotherapist and coach who is calling TIME on ‘the way things are’ and ‘the way things have always been done’. It’s time to get outside the echo chamber that just amplifies the voices of the rich, famous and powerful. It’s time to shatter that mould so that real knowledge, real expertise and fresh perspectives are heard - that’s where you come in.
Humour: a bit of fun.
This is my personal collection of woeful temp job tales, where I invite readers to laugh at me, with me.
A Clipboard-Wielding Medusa
Job Brief: Lead generation for a will writing firm, only qualifying leads (MUST have a landline) count towards the target.
The shifts for the will writing company were usually entirely solo.
I would arrive at the shopping centre before 9am to locate my stand, a roll out banner and a branded wheelie bin with the clipboards inside. It’s where I could put away my handbag and my dignity too.
And then I’d just begin. Like a street performer in Covent Garden drumming up a crowd, I’d start addressing people in the shopping centre, often from afar because people knew to avoid me…
“GOOD MORNING SIR, HAVE YOU CONSIDERED MAKING A WILL?”
I spent the day saying that. Outwardly smiling and repeating myself, inwardly urging passers by to set fire to me.
I stuck with this self-persecution because the commission was very good if you met the lead generation target. The target had an absolute hold over me and meant I came back early from my lunch break on a shopping centre bench most days. I never once missed the target.
One day, the lady on the flower stand nearby went and complained to the shopping centre management that I was putting off her customers by ‘shouting around everywhere’. It took the wind right out of my sails because I’d just found the confidence in using more volume. I had a quick cry and carried on, at a lesser volume.
I understood that people did not like me – if I’d popped into town I wouldn’t want to speak to me either, I’d want to get back to the car before the parking runs out. People had different ways of letting me know how they felt:
The Early Palm towards my face would let me know that a person wouldn’t be responding vocally.
The ‘you’ve already asked me’ made me feel bad. But not that bad.
People often physically steered away from me, avoiding eye contact like I was a clipboard-wielding Medusa.
When you have to explain to people that they can’t put their rubbish in that wheelie bin because it is in fact your work desk, it doesn’t do much for the self-esteem.
This job was character building and you couldn’t pay me enough money to do a single hour of it again.
Cheese Rolling In The Back Of A Van
With the lofty title of Team Leader I took this job far too seriously.
I was ‘supervising’ a group of very young people giving out cheese samples on the South Bank. The central location made it a risky shift: people I’ve worked with might see me in a branded T-shirt and yellow hat, cheerily wielding a plate of cheese. (Doesn’t shout, “Made It”.)
It was a very real fear. And so was the prospect of under-delivering as Team Leader.
It had already been a tense morning with THE CLIENT watching us from a bench, insisting that none of the staff spoke to one another and that no member of the public made it past us un-accosted by free cheese. My panicked means of implementing their requests was to immediately shoo the team apart as if I were scattering pigeons, and take it upon myself to single-handedly accost every member of the public. I didn’t look like a well person.
We ran into further trouble when the samples were flying off the plates faster than the team were preparing them. I marched round to find out why the cheese-rolling team was not keeping pace. I had my suspicions they were slacking. These were the lucky few who got to remain out of sight, preparing the samples in the back of a van behind the National Theatre. Note, it wasn’t a kitchen van – it was a van you couldn’t actually stand up in. They had the task of rolling each cheese slice into a cheese cigar before piercing it with a cocktail stick. Like a sorry little canapé. Anyway – they were having a very leisurely time showing complete disregard for the IMPORTANCE OF THE DELIVERY OF THE CHEESE CANAPÉS. Ever effective in my management style, I looked very cross and asked them to hurry up please now. The situation out front looked very bad and I feared I would go down in history as the worst Team Leader ever.
I really don’t know why I cared. This promotion was for one day only. It’s not like I would lose my job the next day – the job didn’t even exist the next day.
It then rained, a lot. We all had to shelter inside another small van with the cheese, while a lot of other cheese got wet.
By this point my stress levels were very high, I felt like I’d lost complete control of the activity and the team and my entire life. I made it to the end of the 15 hour shift with no new friends and a few key learnings:
1. I never had any control over the situation to begin with.
2. I never want to supervise students rolling up cheese again.
3. As Team Leader I could have gone home after 2 hours and got away with it.
I was paid my fee and never got hired by that agency as a Team Leader again. Fine. Fine by me.