Natalie Millhouse: life of a Copywriter

Continuing our series on supporting female entrepreneurs – our Copywriter Natalie Millhouse, impresses us with her love of words and shows you how to get your content sparkling

Describe a bit about yourself and what you do.

I am a freelance creative copywriter and I have been copywriting for a looooong time. I love the challenge of finding interesting angles to tell a unique story, trying to reach sometimes illusive target demographics, and surviving the creative process to meet often unmovable deadlines. I am also a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle, where I am exploring identity formation on social network sites, and a Casual Academic teaching Introduction to Digital Communications.

What item can you not survive your day without?

Coffee is my life partner. Don’t tell my husband.

What made you want to to be a Copywriter?

I love writing in general and studied it, amongst other things, at university. But I knew little about copywriting at the time. I actually fell into the copywriting profession while working in publishing. I had an assistant/sales job in Newcastle, but I was really there to get my break into writing in print media. I wrote occasional small pieces (between cringe-worthy sales calls), but all substantial pieces were offered to senior staff to write. So when a position came up within the same business to be an in-house copywriter I thought I’d give it a go. I guess I thought, at least I would be writing. I got the job and the company was very supportive in providing some really great training opportunities to hone my skills as a copywriter. One of the courses the company sent me on, the ADMA Digital Media Creative School, changed everything for me when I topped the class and was offered a job in a Sydney Advertising Agency. I never looked back.

What do you enjoy most about working at Be Visual Co?

I have known Ingrid since I was a teenager. I know her cracking sense of humour and what a genuine, down-to-earth person she is. It also helps that Ingrid is incredibly talented. So when I was working part-time as a freelancer, after becoming a mum to three precious children, and Ingrid asked me if I was interested in some copywriting work as part of her Be Visual Co creative agency, it really couldn’t have been more perfect.

Where were you working when you learnt your biggest career lesson and what was it?

My first Sydney Advertising Agency wasn’t a great fit for me. There was great work being done, but staff morale was low and tensions were high. Even though I was a junior copywriter at the time and jobs weren’t easy to come by I decided to make my move before my trial period was up. It was frightening to be essentially ‘giving away’ my first great job opportunity, but when I secured a better job soon after, and discovered what a great copywriting job really was, I knew that I had made a good decision. So yeah, that is my biggest career lesson: The bigger risk is to stay in a job that is potentially damaging, than taking the leap into the unknown.

How do you (try to) achieve a work-life balance?

I’m not sure I do… My days are generally all about looking after small children, so it’s fair to say very little work gets done within the traditional working day hours. No Dolly Parton anthem here. My evenings are generally when I get to keep my copywriting skills sharp, once the kids are tucked up in bed. I also need to spend time on my PhD research and head into the uni to teach rooms full of undergrads. So basically, all of this means I am tired…a lot. Which explains the coffee addiction. This also means my ‘work-life balance’ is often very precarious. But I wouldn’t change it for a thing. I want to work and I’d rather work evenings so that I get to spend quality time with my kids while they are so young. Freelance copywriting and a flexible research candidature and casual teaching arrangement has given me the freedom to still have a career and family. But I do hope my ‘work-life balance’ improves over the next few years! It’s exhausting 😉

What has been your biggest influence (person or experience) career wise to date?

When I was working at Wunderman, an international advertising agency specialising in digital and direct marketing campaigns, Matt Batten was the Creative Director (now at Edge Agency). Matt was a huge influence in my early career. Firstly, he had pulled together a fantastic team of creatives. So working and hanging-out with such creative and talented people was fantastic. Matt was incredibly talented and creative in his own right and had a great work ethic too. He was really supportive and really pushed me to be a better writer and creative thinker. Also, quite a rare thing for advertising agencies, Matt was a big believer in work-life balance. He never expected the team to be working overtime unless it was absolutely necessary, where most other agencies expect the long hours as a normal part of the job. Matt taught me a lot and if I hadn’t left Sydney to start a family, I would probably be still happily working as part of his team.

What advice do you have for a budding Copywriter?

A lot of copywriters come from a creative or editorial writing background, not necessarily an advertising/marketing background. And so at first it can feel strange to have so many constraints on your writing through the presence of the ‘brief’ and the pressure to convert the writing into sales or brand growth. But in my experience, having clear boundaries and objectives always provides better copy in the end. Even if you tear your hair out in the process. So my main piece of advice is embrace the brief! (I’m sure some marketing execs who know me and read that will be choking on their coffee…hahaha).