How to Become a Copywriter on Accident

One day, like many others have before, I found myself mindlessly browsing YouTube when a video popped up in my ‘suggested’ list that piqued my interest. It talked about how some knucklehead made a ridiculous amount of money in just a month and set off on his dream lifestyle, and how one day I could too with just a few simple steps.

First of all. Working in my pajamas? Down.

Secondly. ‘Copywriting’? What the heck is that?

Upon an extensive and thorough amount of research that resulted from a painstaking three-second search on Google, I learned what copywriting was.

It’s just writing.

Literally. That’s it.

Websites. Emails.  Sales docs. Heck, even Instagram captions.

Seriously. Instagram captions.

And people get paid to do it. And that’s when I had a thought. A little lightbulb that flickered on in my head and illuminated corners of my brain that made me realize one very important thing:

I already am a copywriter.

And had been for many years, without even knowing it. If you took a look at my bio, you’ll see I wrote that I’m obsessed with words. It’s true. All day long I find myself looking at words, breaking them up into their prefixes and suffixes, and looking for their roots. Heck, sometimes when I get bored I even count off the syllables of words on my fingers looking for cadence.

(Before you even think it, yeah, I know. I’m a little weird)

That’s why I was so shocked when I found out what copywriting was. It seemed like a just an extension of what I like to do, and something that I already had been doing for years. Why wouldn’t I want to pursue a career in this field? It seemed like a natural progression.

Everything started when I was in the fifth grade. As we were getting prepared for middle school, my elementary school was offering extracurricular classes for students that showed excellence in different academic areas. English, science, math, and probably one or two that I’m forgetting. But considering I am so inept at math that I would go on to take basic algebra three times just in order to graduate high school, I was picked by my teachers to enter the advanced English class and starting learning at a middle school level.

That class went off without a hitch, and as I got older I found a different outlet in school to continue my passion for writing—the coveted school newspaper. I was on the news staff from middle school all the way until college, working my way up to Editor-in-Chief and winning state and national awards. It was there that I really began to find my voice as a writer, inject my style and humor into opinion columns and news features—realizing that this thing called writing was kind of my jam.

I started to get serious about writing, however, after I was spit out into the world and started working and going to college. I needed an escape. Something to take me out of the nonstop craziness of the world. Something that calmed me down, helped me organize my thoughts, whether conscious or subconscious. And I found it. I took my love for writing, reading, and movies, and gave storytelling a go. I wrote drafts of my semi-autobiographical novel (twice), and have worked on short stories as well to keep my chops up. Check out my first published story here.

While all this was happening, I started my first entrepreneurial venture with my friends, as we launched a podcast company that focused on stories told on the big and small screen. Now, once again, I know what you’re thinking. Of course he started a podcast. Who doesn’t nowadays, right? You’re right. I was on a podcast. Heck, I even hosted for a while. But while I was creating on-air content, it also fell on me to write everything for the marketing and advertising of the show. Social media captions. Email campaigns. Websites and landing pages. Dare I say:

Copy.

I did that for three years, cutting my teeth and using the power of my pen to help launch our little venture from the ground up. I learned a lot in that time, and fell in love with writing all over again as a way to promote myself and my mission, and motivate people to come along for the ride.

That’s why that video talking about copywriting blew my mind so much. I was so excited because I already was a copywriter. A seasoned one at that. I had success in writing across multiple domains including social media, web content, and news content. Heck, even fiction. I had to get started. I had to use my talents (and acquired skills) to help lift up other people around me. And thus, LoveLanguage was born.

It is rare in life for someone to align their passion with their talents. Most of the time, common wisdom tells us that if people want success, they should focus on just their talents, and ignore passions altogether. I find doing so might bring success financially, but will leave one’s soul starving for the enrichment that makes life worthwhile.

I am fortunate enough to have turned my natural, inborn talent for writing into a passion that saves me every day. It was a long process, but after years and years of following that little spark—the little rush of adrenaline that percolates from my fingers all the way up to my brain when I’m locked into a blank Word document and letting my voice come alive—I found the wind in my sails, and became a copywriter on accident.

Onward!