I'm Just Getting Started
How I'm launching my career as a copywriter
My name is Michaela Winters, and my greatest achievement over the past week is that if you Google "Michaela Winters writer," the first result to crop up is my website.
I began as a freelance writer just out of college after I graduated in 2021. At the time, I was a big partier, I went out drinking and stayed up late, and then slept in late and in general, did not have a lot of self-discipline. At the time, I wondered why I wasn't making enough money doing copywriting. Looking back, it's plain to see that it was my own fault. I was not getting out of bed to work a full day, instead only dedicating two to four hours each day to writing. I stopped eventually, getting a job as a host at the Cheesecake Factory. Then, I landed a job as a Special Education Classroom Assistant at an elementary school. When that didn't work out, I found myself in the corporate world. Why was none of this working long-term?
(From left to right) My sister, my mother, me, and my father.
The example that had been set for me my entire life was that one should follow their passion into their career. My mother is Lisa Bany, a well-known and successful improv teacher at the Second City and author of several books about theatre. My father has made his career as a naturalist, working with animals and communing with nature at the River Trail Nature Center, and has been featured in many news articles and segments. Even my younger sister is pursuing her dream in audio engineering, working at several music venues in Nashville, TN, while working on her own projects at the same time, with her website set to launch soon.
My passion has always been writing, since I was seven years old and my second-grade teacher, Mr. Trask, told me I was the best writer that had ever been in his class. It was one of those teacher-student moments that, even if he doesn't remember, his words have made a significant positive impact on my life, and I am grateful to him every day. Through my vocational journey, the pattern I've noticed is that nothing I do works long-term if it is not my passion.
Me, age 11
This brings us to today, as I am writing my first official blog post to go on my website. People around me have already expressed interest in knowing how I'm getting started, so let me explain. Back when I was just out of university, I signed up for a site called Writers Work, submitting a one-time, lifelong subscription payment. I was lucky that I still remembered my password, as I was able to get back into my account, and am currently using their document editing tool to create this post. I utilize their toolbox a lot in my day-to-day routine.
I begin my day, first and foremost, by checking my email. After that, I do "training." This began with the university training modules that are featured on Writers Work. I finished with those last week, however, and am now working on getting certified in SEO with a free HubSpot course. Every bit of training I do is to further my career and bolster my resume. It should be said that if I do have a task that is on a deadline, for example, writing an article for a potential job that has asked for a specific writing sample, that takes priority and goes before my training time. The same will be said for when I get actual gigs. My clients come first, always.
After training, I work on my own projects. For the first few days, I was building my website. Then I updated my LinkedIn. Up until today, I have been working on my Fiverr account. Now, I am using the time to make my first blog post. As I want only one or two blog posts per week, the rest of the days will be spent using this hour to submit article pitches to publications.
My lunch break is spent eating and then doing some cleaning around the house. After lunch, I apply to at least six freelancing jobs. Then, I spend the last hour of my day working on my novel.
Sims that I made recently, Jonathan and Deirdre Worthington
Being a freelancer and setting your own schedule, I have learned that having a routine is crucial. At first, I was adhering to a strict eight-hour work day. Then, however, I realized that the point of freelancing instead of having a traditional job is that I don't have to do it that way. In the Sims 4, a video game I play a little too frequently, when a Sim works from home, they don't have to work for a set number of hours. Instead, they have a certain number of tasks to get done, however long that takes them. Ever since rearranging my schedule with that concept instead of being strict on hours, my work has felt a lot freer and less stressful.
All of this being said, there is no guarantee that I will be successful. For now, I am putting trust in my impeccable writing skills, as well as my expertise in organization, with the hope that they will get me through and help me succeed in my dream of making a living doing what I love: writing.
