Copywriting

Fallen down the social media rabbit hole again? Did you get here from Facebook? Instagram? Twitter?

It’s okay. Welcome.

The first part of recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Hi, my name is Caroline Peterson and I spend too much time on social media.

Hey, Caroline.

To be fair, part of my job as a copywriter involves writing and managing social media for some of my clients, so I do have a legitimate reason. But, we’ll get into that later as I don’t want it to come across as an excuse while we’re all holding hands singing Kumbaya.

Depending on who you ask, social media is an evil entity dividing us daily or the ultimate unifier, connecting us casually.

It can bring us hard-hitting news or our 5-year-old newphew’s birthday party pictures. It can make us laugh with silly memes or create catty misunderstandings fueling gossip. We all know how quickly the judgments start and BAM—the hide, block or delete button is used. Social media can be brutal! Heck, my own mother even deleted me on Facebook 8 years ago. #truestory

In November, I participated in #NaNoWriMo. For those short on time to google that bizarro hashtag, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s when us writers buckle down and bust out 50,000+ words in one month. That’s roughly 1,700 words a day. (Or 4-5 pages a day for those stuck in permanent term-paper PTSD.) It’s a lot, but that’s the point. When you’re a writer, you can often find yourself putting your own creative work to the bottom of the To Do List because, there is always more to do, more to write, more to research.

But, sit down for one month and focus on getting one project finished? That seems more doable.

Cue to me getting a backlog of blog posts written for this site. I had 10+ drafts started and 40+ ideas on my Blog Posts Google doc. While this month is traditionally used for novels, I’m part of an awesome co-writing group that suggested we use the time to focus on our own creative writing and businesses. At the time while writing this blog post, I currently have over 10,000 words written. YEE-HAW.

This meant I needed to cut out the distractions in my life to be able to spend an hour or two every single day to sit down (or stand pantsless) and write, while still staying on top of my other work priorities.

• I pushed the tequila in the back of the cabinet.
• I painted and redecorated my office to make it a more comfortable place to sit for hours at a time. (Something I should have done when I moved in, but it got shoved to a lesser priority behind bleaching the bathroom walls and floors until they sparkled. Swear, I’m not a serial killer.)
• I adjusted my shared schedule to block off writing hours so clients could only book meetings in the afternoons.
• I bought 5 candles from Bath & Body Works.

Then,

I took a break from social media for the month of November.

Now, this isn’t the first time I’ve stepped away from social media. A few years ago, I left Facebook and deactiveated my profile for nearly 6 months to get away from the constant comparison machine. I did this way before it was the cool thing it is to do now. #trendsetter

But this time, I wanted to prepare myself properly to step away from the social media monsters while still maintaining my access to them for my clients. Talk about having a constant temptress to seduce me back into the beast. But this wasn’t as hard as I thought, as you’ll see below.

In the last week of October, I set up a couple weeks of social media posts for Not Your Average Gal and scheduled them out, promising to only check in on them to reply to comments and interact as needed. I let followers know I was peacing out for the month so they were aware I wouldn’t see Jimmy’s 5th birthday party pics or see the invite to another event, at least not right away.

As November rolled around, the first thing I felt was that a weight had been lifted.

I felt relief.

Pure and utter relief.

I knew I spent an unproductive amount of time scrolling, clicking and posting. I knew when I went to check on my notifications that I fell down the rabbit hole of scrolling “just to see” what else was going on. That often turned into laughing at memes, rolling my eyes at cliché quotes and feeling pangs of jealous at those beach vacation pictures. Now? I didn’t have to see any of it.

As the days and weeks went on, I noticed more connection.

I felt connected.

Connected in a different way.

Connected in the moment.

My mind was free from thinking about posting statuses or photos. Which is something you don’t realize you think about a lot, until the avenue in which you’re expressing those things, is closed.

As a writer, throughout my day, lots of entertaining thoughts come to my head about something I’ve seen or experienced. Typically the first avenue I take, if it’s hilarious (and c’mon, it usually is) is to post it as a status on Facebook or caption on Instagram.

I still had those thoughts run though my head, but I now had the headspace to use those creative juices for something more focused. More focused in the moment. I realized how fleeting those thoughts were as they came and went. Even if I had posted them, it would be for what? A few more likes and followers? Sure! But, for November, it wasn’t worth it.

And as I’ve discovered, it isn’t as worth in the long haul either.

I felt relaxed.

Relaxed enough to actually finish a book, two in fact! Instead of scrolling at bedtime, I read one of those things that has a creaky spine, smooth pages and, as I found, sits perfectly against your sleeping husband, freeing your hands for chips and guac. What you don’t eat chips and guac in bed? HOW PRIMITIVE.

Not looking through the comparison machine allowed me to enter some fun fictional worlds of novels that I’ve been missing out on for…well the less fun, but also fictional world of Facebook.

I felt enjoyment from detouring from the rat race.

I did a lot of cool things in November! I was a model in a photoshoot. I danced and sang on stage in a number for my late theatre director. I set up my first Black Friday sale for my business. I redesigned my office. I went to a Celine Dion concert. I drove through the first blizzard of winter like I grew up here or something.

ALL of this, I would have posted. All of it. I think about how much time that would have taken away from me and it legit makes me sick.

Why do we feel that pull to post it? Because we want to share the cool things we’re doing of course! That’s a super natural thing. But at what point does the sharing turn from show-and-tell into show-and-like. If no one sees any of these cool things (or hits like) did they ever happen?

It’s a fine balance, but one I’m willing to walk a little bit tighter.

I felt out of the loop.

From mundane meeting event invites to the more life altering news of a friend’s parent passing away, I missed some key information. Since I was still logging into Facebook and Instagram for work, I did see some notifications, but to prevent the slow seduction of checking my newsfeed I used an extension to get rid of my feed. (You can find my tips about this below.)

So I missed some things, but honestly? Not the important stuff. I helped to take care of my friend post-op and talked with her for hours. All that stuff that she posted on Facebook, I’m assuming she filled me in on during our chats. I went to grab a coffee with a friend and she told me about her father-in-law passing away. Maybe she had discussed it on social media channels, but she was telling me face to face, which gave me an opportunity to not only tell her how sorry I was, but show her.

This month gave me the opportunity to reevaluate how I spend my time and what is worth my time. I truly believe social media, when used well, is great for connection. It certainly helped me survive the often lonely journey of med school to residency.

I don’t see myself deactivating or deleting my profiles any time soon. But I do see some serious benefits to continuing to use the techniques and tools I used to keep the social media beasts at bay.

The Tools I Used:

• Freedom
• Newsfeed Eradicator
• Took Facebook app off my phone

Have you ever taken a break? Would you?

Hey there! I’m Caroline. The chickadee that runs this here part of the interwebs. In speaking with my people—that’s YOU—it’s come to my attention that a small (re)introduction is needed. Starting my own copywriting business, then moving 1400 miles, while also desperately trying to find the perfect mascara, made me realize readers really liked hanging around here.

Truth be told, I never forgot about it.

It lurked and nagged in the back of my mind the way your laundry does when you think you can begin to just wear your underwear inside-out. Did I just compare you to dirty underwear? Yes.

Hang with me.

A mentor of mine died last week. Death can put so many things in perspective, that unadulterated slap in the face that taking the comfortable path isn’t what life is about. The kind that reminds you the people you surround yourself with in life who truly love you, love all the bits and bobs about you. Imperfections and all.

A teacher at the funeral, whom I haven’t seen in 20+ years, told me she reads my musings and loves taking a glimpse at my take on life. Side note: How cool is that?! This website feels like a little part of me that I open myself up to and very often, as life gets busy or sad or confusing, it suffers. I thought it was time to get back to the regularly scheduled program.

So, to all of you who have seen me IRL (In Real Life, for those who have one) in the last few months or have written to me or commented about how much you enjoy this little fun bit of the internet, how much you identify with being not-so-average, how much you appreciate keeping it real—thank you.

For those of you who don’t know me or aren’t familiar with the Not Your Average Gal community—welcome! Let me (re)introduce myself. *cue the music*

Who

My name is Caroline Peterson. I dropped out of dance class in second grade because, being the tallest and most rhythmically-challenged, I was perpetually shoved to the back. Plus, during practice they placed us in one of two groups: those with dance experience and those without. I always ended up in the latter, with a girl who had a broken leg.

From there, I grew up, traveled the world, meandered around marketing jobs, married a med student who is now an ER resident and started my own copywriting business.

What

In simple terms, this is a corner of the internet that proudly shouts the benefits of not being average. We take different paths in life. We speak opinions that may not be popular. We fiercely defend and support women. We embrace differences and support self-love, however it may look. We like to watch people squirm at Thanksgiving dinners.

This lifestyle brand immersed in the world of traveling and living an unconventional life is also how I do business. I work with brands that want some KA-POW! put back into their messaging. Currently, I’m working on redesigning this site so copywriting is at the forefront. (Don’t worry, this part is not going anywhere, just getting a fancy make-over.) What is copywriting? It’s the writing portion of marketing and advertising. Those hysterical brand campaigns you laugh at? A copywriter wrote that script, social media post, email, billboard or tacky political slogan. Consider us word wizards. *adjusts pointy, star-covered hat*

Where

HERE, silly. Well, technically here, too:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

I currently live in a sweet little area north of Detroit, by way of Fort Lauderdale for the past six years. I’m originally a Michigander, you know the ones who point to their hand to show you where they live? We moved to Fort Lauderdale so the hubster could start medical school and while it may have taken me a solid year to adjust to geckos finding their way into the hood of my car, only to reappear by flying up the windshield when I hit a certain mile per hour on the freeway, I learned to love it. We spent 2 years apart while the hubster started his residency back up in Michigan. Now I’m up here too, sniffing my bikinis that smell like coconut sunscreen and petting my sand-filled sandals. Too weird? Too bad.

Now that the hubster is in his last year of residency, we’re not sure where the next stop is. We’re so freaking close to the finish line after well over a decade on the medicine journey, that I’m not sure what to do with my hands!

When

On the business front, I be closin’ deals every day. Did that sound as lame as I intended it? Good.

We traveled to Japan and the PNW this year and typically, I write about such adventures. That got backlogged playing that untimely bitch-of-a-game called perfection. Making time to edit photos perfectly. Waiting for the perfect time to sit down and write. Hoping the perfect words capture my travels. You know what perfection is? It’s a fun sucker. I’ve even written about it before here!

But in full honesty, even with perfection’s grip fully clenched around me, this has been a truly tough season for me. Learning, failing, celebrating and succeeding are a few of the feelings and lessons experienced in my first year of business. The hubster worked all night shifts (and then some) in his third year of residency, which thankfully ended in June, and it was Rough. Yes, with a capital R.

Want to know how rough? There are literally support groups for spouses and significant others of doctors. And I’m in one!

Suffice to say, as I’m coming up for air, I’ve got a plan of attack to keep everyone entertained ’round these parts. You’re welcome, world.

Why

Because we’re all a heck of a lot more alike than we want to admit. Hand-to-heart, traveling reiterates this every single time I step up to customs and hear the pound of another stamp in my passport. We all have such similar hopes and dreams and dammit, it doesn’t take a plane ticket to see that if someone is writing about it.

It’s also refreshing to find relatable content in an often Instagram-filled world that doesn’t make you want to scream, “THERE IS NO WAY SHE LOOKS LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE.” I wrote about mental health years and years before it became a buzzword and found that sharing our struggles can make others feel a little less alone (and crazy). We’re all in this together.

Because as a copywriter, I know I can start a sentence with, ‘because.’ Compelling content can take many forms: novels, self-help books, protest signs, breakup letters. Words are powerful. When they are used for good—to bring a sensitive subject to light with compassion and care or to reinvigorate a work-horse brand that helps thousands of people by adding a small ingredient called personality—it’s electrifying. It’s that A-HA moment, the one where you’ll find me buried in my laptop, furiously typing away trying to get the words out.

I’m truly honored you’re here for those moments.

One week before my birthday, I turned in my resignation as Senior Copywriter, a position I’ve had for nearly five and a half years. Part of me knew I couldn’t let another birthday go by feeling so hindered and part of me knew, for a long time, it was as simple (and as complex) as it being time to move on.

In what seemed like a blink of an eye, I began wrapping up my projects, transitioning over brands and saying goodbye to beloved clients and coworkers. After my last day, I gave myself the weekend to decompress—which looked a lot like bad food and good Netflix documentaries—so I could wind down after nearly 5 and a half years of work at an ad agency.

By Monday morning, I took a deep breath, put my yoga pants on, and…

I began my journey of running my own business freelance writing!

So What Happened?

I gave growing pains at the job the good ol’ college try—pushing through, convincing myself that things would get better. We all do this in our jobs, in some capacity, because no job is perfect. No job is the end-all-be-all, and patting ourselves on the back about the swanky corporate position we hold can only take us so far. After a longer time than I care to admit vocalizing concerns, spending whole sessions talking to my therapist about work, making the same complaints to the hubster and dancing around the subject of how my job was, I had to accept that a position I used to love, a position I had stayed in Florida for, wasn’t the right fit for me anymore. If it wasn’t going to change, I needed to make a change. (Maybe I had changed?)

Many may think I waited too long. Others may think all jobs are meant to be toiled at for 9-10 hours a day regardless of lack of fulfillment and you just need to deal. Some may not experience it as I did. I did what was right for me.

As I’ve stated many times here, I’ve always wanted to be location independent, working remotely with or without pants. The thought of being able to do that, choose clients I want to work with and be able to see the hubster more became more and more enticing as time went on.

When I gave notice to my boss, he was incredibly understanding and gracious. He had been nice enough to allow me to work remotely 2-3 days a month when the hubster started his ER residency in Michigan. But he also knew the toll that takes and was kind enough to tell me how much he values employees wanting to grow and move on. It was reassuring.

I learned so much. I don’t say that facetiously either. (I’m sure I could tell you stories and mean girl antics that would make your hair stand on end though.) In the end, I know I gained a wealth of knowledge about copywriting and client relations. It was a good experience with memories and laughter to last a lifetime. An unexpected nice benefit was developing meaningful friendships. You don’t always get that in a workplace and I’m lucky enough to call some colleagues—friends.

So What’s Next?

The hubster and I worked really hard to save enough money so I could have the time that’s needed to build my freelance business. And by really hard, I mean, strict personal budgets, forgoing airline tickets to see each other and cutting out nice, but not needed, services. I miss you Sirius XM and CycleBar! (I do have a bike at home, you know.)

What took me awhile to understand is that my side-gig, this blog and some minimal freelance work, was really tough to do…on the side. Most people have their passion projects or side-gigs that they do after their day job, and often it’s something different than their day job. I’d leave for my corporate job around 8-8:30 am and get home at 7pm, at the earliest. That’s a lot of hours doing copywriting, to come home and…do more writing. It became clear that when things picked up at work, my blog and picking up anymore freelance clients would suffer.

I changed it up for a very long time, working before I left for work and then when I got home. The results weren’t very eventful. If I really wanted to make this a full-time gig, I needed to buckle down, save some cash and then do it full time.

So here I am. I’m not sure what to do with my hands most days! I’m able to go to doctor appointments in the middle of the day, take a break after writing and head to the pool and go workout whenever the hell I want to.

A work-life balance! Say what?!

The immediate task is to build processes that allow me to streamline: pitching, signing and working with clients. Freelance writing and copywriting isn’t a new trade and I have so many resources at my fingertips to help me through.

Looking for a writer? Work with Me.

Not Your Average Gal finally got her big girl business wings! I will be able to focus on creating content for this site, as well as for my clients. This Not Your Average Gal community is fiercely loyal, and I want to continue to grow and expand, allowing other wonderful folks to join the not so average looney bin family. That change may mean more affiliate links, sponsored content and chances to work with brands. While not having a regular, comfy paycheck does scare me, I’ve gladly accepted that the new income, is multiple streams of income.

Are you ready to join me on this adventures? LET’S GO!

The Last Big Question

No, I’m not moving back to Michigan as of now. I realize this may cause a curfuffle (side note: what an underused word) with some, but I’m not sure I care.

Ooooooh, she’s feisty today!

While I know it may rock the good ol’ Great Lakes boat, the hubster and I don’t want to live in Michigan permanently. He’s nearly halfway through his ER residency there. If anyone is willing to fund 2 sets of moving costs that will occur close together, be my guest. Plus, what satantic cult do you belong to if you think I’m moving to Michigan in February? Additionally, the hubster said I’m not allowed to move because the condo we rent in Fort Lauderdale also gives us a country club membership to the golf course I live on. Priorities. 

I do have connections here that will help me build clientele here initially. Ultimately, I’d love to work with clients all over the world and travel around working remotely.

Could I move in the future? Sure. That’s beauty of freelance.

Great Risk for Great Reward

I am so excited (and utterly terrified) about the opportunities I will seize on this freelance journey. This is the beginning of pushing past my comfort zone, taking a risk and believing in myself. I’ve asked myself this plenty of times: If not now, when? So watch as I suit up, tighten my harness, tap my helmet, take a slow, calculated, deep breath and peer over the edge. It’s time to jump.

Here’s to Not Your Average Gal and new adventures!