The Who & Why

You’re probably wondering - Who am I, and why does it matter?

Why should you spend 20 min listening to me?

Well, I can answer the first part pretty easily.

The second part will be open to your own interpretation.

As you already gathered, I’m Megs.

I’m a creative copywriter, a ghostwriter & professional word-nerd from the Pacific Northwest, more specifically, a small town in the Northwestern most point of Washington State, where it rains more than it doesn’t, flannel was hip before the grunge movement, good coffee is a religion, and fresh salmon is a staple, not a treat.

While writing & storytelling have always been my passion, it was only very recently, like 3 months ago, that I made the decision, and gave myself permission, to leave the soul-sucking corporate world, and turn my side-hustle into a full time, grown-up business.

Before I start boring you about how AMAZING my life is now, owning my own business, LOVING my boss (she’s a pretty badass bitch), partnering with other kickass passionately driven entrepreneurs, working from wherever I like, whenever I like, and only putting on real pants when absolutely necessary - let me tell you story...

Once upon a time, in a small Western Washington town, there was a pretty average girl. She came from an average family, brought home average grades, and expected nothing more than to live an uneventful average life - working for someone else to fulfill their dreams & bank account.

This average lifeplan made the girl kinda jaded and really chapped her ass, to be honest. She didn’t understand why other people could run the world, while she was stuck being average & doing the dirty work.

In case you haven’t already guessed - that angst-fueled girl next door was yours truly.

And I’m embarrassed to admit that it took nearly 2 decades for me to wake up to the realization that the only person keeping me in that average life box, limiting who I became, and what I could accomplish, was staring back at me in the mirror.

I’ve always subscribed to the belief that to truly know & understand someone, you need to know where they’ve come from, and some of the experiences that have had a hand in shaping who they are.

So, here goes nothing.

I babysat throughout my teen years, but once I hit high school I decided it was time to find a “real job.” This was back in the olden days when jobs were listed in the newspaper, with actual ink, on actual paper and tossed onto the front porch by some kid on a bike.

After a few weeks of scouring through the classifieds I found a position that not only interested me but was something that I was confident I would be able to accomplish with ease.

The job was for a local bakery, selling their yeasty carb-filled goods at our local farmers market on the weekends. The job description included being on-time, friendly, and able to make change - all skills I was pretty damn confident in. I was 15 after all, and in College Prep classes - so basically an adult.

I stopped by the bakery & completed the necessary application, providing them with a copy of my humble resume, typed up on my mom’s old typewriter - again, this was in the dark ages.

I was super excited to get a call the next day, asking me to come by for an interview, and arranged for my mom to pick me up at school between classes, so I could make it to the interview and back before anyone knew I was gone.

This was my first real job interview, and it went well - for the most part. I answered their questions, showed appropriate levels of enthusiasm for the position, and provided them with multiple references ready to vouch for my time management, maturity, and organization skills.

As we were leaving the office, the interview complete, I remember not being able to feel my feet touching the ground. I was floating on cloud 9, sure that I’d wow-ed their socks off and would be hearing back with a job offer in no time.

I was SO excited to be the first of my friends to have a real job and NOT be working fast food!

I was definitely already imagining how jealous my friends were going to be.

As we reached the front door, and I thanked them again for their time & consideration, the bakery owner asked one last, off-hand question - “where’s your car?”

I answered, innocently & honestly, that I didn’t have a car yet, or a license, but had reliable transportation and lived within walking distance so would have no issue getting to work on time.

The owner stopped and gave me a look that made my skin crawl and all hope disappear.

“Why don’t you have a license?” he asked.

“Because I can’t get it until next year when I turn 16” I replied.

And with that, he snapped, asking why I had wasted his time.

I was a kid and he had better things to do - real applicants to interview.

I’m proud to say that I did NOT snap back at him.

I did not tell him that my birthdate was on the original application, or that I had marked that I did not have a valid driver's license where it asked.

I walked to the car where my mom was waiting and managed to hold back the ugly sobs until we had pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street.

The experience, an exchange that lasted no more than half an hour, over 20-years ago, has stuck with me as a lesson of the disgusting truth that in the corporate world, it was okay to be judged & disqualified from positions and opportunities based solely on factors that are completely out of my control, like my age or my gender.

This is the first time I can remember thinking how amazing it would be, to be the person making those decisions, yielding that power, and using it for GOOD. Of course, I didn’t take action on that utopian fantasy until a few months ago, in the midst of a world-wide pandemic, but we’re not quite there yet…

Needless to say - I didn’t get the job.

After graduating from high school, I went on to hold positions as a nanny, a waitress, an insurance agent, inside sales associate & call center team manager. All jobs that taught me valuable lessons - things I’ve been able to carry with me throughout the years, both personally & professionally. But none of them ever felt right and I would find myself before too long, feeling disillusioned by the inflated promises, inequalities, and favoritism surrounding me.

My fight or flight response would be triggered, and I would quickly make for the nearest exit.

After 20 years of feeling like a fraud - a chameleon - like I’ve been wearing a mask to change who I am, what I stand for, and what I’m willing to do, in order to fit the wants & needs of everyone else, I finally realized enough was enough!

I set a goal for myself.

An ultimatum if you will.

I gave myself 1 year - 365 days - to either figure out a way to love and accept what I was doing, or to find a way to spend my time doing what I love. With the caveat that I’d like to be able to pay my bills, travel, and not have to resort to living off road-kill, in a van down by the river.

No judgment or offense.

Van life is great for some folks, it just isn’t my style.

The first thing I did after making this crazy decision was to share my goal with someone else - someone who would keep me accountable and apply appropriate pressure when I started doubting and second-guessing myself.

For me, this was my then-boyfriend, now husband.

Yes, we decided to get married mid-pandemic as well - but that’s a story for another time.

I knew that I wanted to pursue a career and a business that allowed me to tap into my own natural skills and expertise.

I wanted to write, but what? And for who? And again, there was that whole, not wanting to be broke & living in a van down by the river thing.

So, I turned to the interwebs and spent days exploring every dark rabbit hole I could find that related to making money by writing.

I kept finding myself drawn to copywriting and ghostwriting - terms that are often misunderstood and misidentified as dealing with legalities or skeletons on motorcycles - and I pretty quickly realized that these were going to be the perfect umbrella, covering the countless different forms of writing that I enjoyed so much, and allowing me to serve a wide array of clients, translating their passionate ramblings into cohesive copy that authentically shared their story in a way that connected with their audience.

Next was deciding WHO it was I wanted to work with.

At first, I made the horrible decision that I wanted to work with anyone & everyone who wanted to pay me.

While that may sound fine & dandy to some - I quickly realized that by focusing on everyone, I was back in the same position I’ve been in every other job I’d held.

I was doing what someone else wanted, on their terms.

That had to change.

I decided that if I was putting the time & effort into birthing a business, damnit, I was going to do it with people I actually liked & wanted to see succeed!

I had to narrow my niche, my area of focus and made the decision to work primarily with female coaches and service providers - although I do have a few clients of the male variety that have swayed me.

Now, my entire business plan revolves around being my own boss, owning my own business, and working within the values and standards I personally hold as non-negotiable.

No more waffling on those values, or negotiating on who I am, and what I believe to be right.

I choose who I want to partner with, to facilitate the success of their business, as well as my own.

For me, my dream clients are those passionately driven female coaches & service providers that are fulfilling their own purpose. Those savage business leaders that are making shit happen, and are unapologetic about any feelings that may be hurt in their authentic pursuit to empower others.

These are my people.

I set about creating a website - huge shoutout to Squarespace for making this absolutely painless & surprisingly fun - a Facebook page, and IG account, and I got to work networking online to get my business in front of as many people as possible.

My first clients were ladies that I’d known from before, in a past life, that I’d reached out to via Facebook, sharing the exciting news about the insanely scary jump I was making.

These amazing gals may not realize it but they gave me the confidence I desperately needed, to realize that I could actually make a go of this self-employed, small business owner thing!

After 3 months of balancing both my full-time day job, and a quickly growing copywriting side-hustle, I was finding myself exhausted, mentally, physically & emotionally - and losing serious steam. I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be able to juggle both jobs, and the perfectionist in me was unwilling to let either responsibility drop below my standard 110%.

I knew that if I wanted my new business to succeed, I needed more time & energy to devote to its growth, and without the ability to add another 10 hours to each day or streamline caffeine, this simply wasn’t going to happen.

And so, at the gentle nudging of my amazing husband, (thanks Babe!) I turned in my notice.

363 days after setting my original goal, I told my boss I had to go.

2 days shy of my self-imposed deadline - I left the corporate world.

I excitedly waved goodbye to waking up every morning only to put on a mask that censored who I am, and camouflage me, to better fit the “normal” mold.

I said so long to guaranteed regular paychecks, health insurance, and paid sick days.

I ran as fast as my curvy non-athletic body could from annoyingly unnecessary meetings that should have been emails, disjointed expectations & constantly changing management styles.

I laughed & cried at the promise of NEVER again having to sit in silence, biting my tongue, as another Karen screamed profanities at me, about a supposed offense committed by the company at large, but now something I personally was accountable for resolving.

Then, I sat back down, threw my hair up into an ugly troll-do, rolled up my sleeves, turned on some gangster rap & got to work building my empire.

And that, my new friends, brings us to today.

I’ve been in business, for myself, for just over 3 months now.

I wake up every morning, without an alarm clock.

I spend the first few hours of the day working either from my desk, or the couch, writer’s choice - and will make my way to a local park, diner, or beer garden to work through the afternoon while also improving my health by soaking up as much Vitamin D as I can, here in the precipitous Pacific Northwest.

And that, is who I am, where I’m from, and why it matters.

In future episodes I’ll be chatting with some of the other amazingly savage business leaders that I’ve met and connected with along my journey so far, answering your questions, and dropping some industry knowledge bombs to help with developing and creating your own professional copy & content as you build your own small business!