There’s a reason Dolly Parton (and many others!) found success singing about why working the 9 to 5 sucks—for a lot of people, it just does. And when you’re neurodivergent like Comprehensive Copywriting Academy student and coach Cleo, it can almost feel impossible.
But since going freelance as a copywriter and being in control of nearly every aspect of her professional life, it has made it a lot easier for Cleo to thrive. Not only is she financially supporting herself as a single parent, she’s also working a heck of a lot less than 40 hours a week. In this episode, we hear all of the ways having a neurodivergent mind has been an asset for Cleo as a freelance copywriter and the wider impact it’s having on her personal life, too. Plus, we get to hear about a pretty mammoth win that puts her in a very exclusive club with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald!
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A Sneak Peek at the Episode
[1:39] Our hosts are joined by CCA student and copywriting coach, Cleo, who tried several other careers before copywriting, including resume writing.
[4:27] Cleo encountered a lot of messaging about how it’s “impossible to make money as a writer”. But copywriting excited her as it seemed like a viable path for making good money as a writer.
[5:49] Financially, Cleo has been able to support herself solely through copywriting for a couple of years now. It provides 100% of the household income for her and her daughter (while working a heck of a lot less than 40 hours a week!).
[6:48] Cleo was diagnosed with autism as an adult. But working from home as a freelancer allows her to leverage her neurodivergent strengths and be more flexible in finding workarounds for her weaknesses—something that seemed impossible in a normal 9-5 office job.
[10:05] Having a neurodivergent mind has been an asset as a copywriter because she can tap into her creative side a lot more and embrace her ‘busy brain’ through the diverse range of client work she does.
[12:01] A big part of Cleo’s journey has been accepting that the way she works might look different to other people. She has learnt to accommodate her needs and give herself the freedom to explore the working patterns that suit her the most—without any shame attached.
[15:30] Nicki reminds us that, no matter how your brain works, you don’t need to put your pressure on yourself to conform to a way of working that is not natural for you.
[18:17] Whether it’s therapy, self-help books, or connecting with people who have similar struggles, there are many ways to practice self-acceptance and stop trying to force yourself to fit into a certain box.
[21:07] While there are anxious moments in freelancing, it helps Cleo to know that she is the one who has the power to deal with those problems. But when we work for someone else, we give up a lot of that control. You just have to earn your own trust as a freelancer by proving to yourself that you *can* do it.
[26:10] Sometimes, we don’t realize how much of an impact small things like having control over when you eat or who you work with, can have on our mental health.
[28:45] Copywriting and freelancing in general can be so much more than a career—it gives you so many opportunities to work on boundaries, which have a wider impact on your confidence, self-acceptance, and self esteem.
[32:32] Cleo is also a creative writer and had a gigantic win recently when her first novel got accepted for publication (after working on it for ten years!).
Must-Hear Takeaways
As with every episode, we highly encourage you to listen to the entire conversation! But here are a few of the highlights:
“When I started out freelancing, I had this idea that I had to be working this 9-5 like a ‘real job’ and that I had to do things a certain way. And I ended up really pushing myself to the point where I had a lot of burnout and overwhelm and really struggled in that first year or so before I realized that I had to do this a different way. And I think that is something that likely going to be common for people who have mental illnesses, disabilities, neurodivergence, is just that you have to accept that you aren’t going to be able to do it in the same way as everybody else is doing it and be able to accept that.” – Cleo
“A huge part of this process as well is the self-acceptance towards the things that are part of my brain and how I work, while also being very serious about tackling those anxieties and figuring out how to deal with them. And the opposite of anxiety is trust and I think that for me at least working for an employer is putting something so important to my life in someone else’s hands and I always feel more anxious when something important is in someone else’s hands than when it’s mine. So while there are certainly anxious moments freelancing, absolutely, I think that it helps to feel like I am the one who has the power to deal with those problems. But that trust takes time to build and you have to sort of earn your own trust and prove to yourself that you can do it.” – Cleo
“I think that being able to work from home and not just work from home but work from home for myself, has just freed up so much my ability to use the strengths the come from being neurodivergent and find workarounds for the weaknesses, and just have that flexibility to tailor my work life in a way that would almost certainly be out of the realm of the possible for most jobs.” – Cleo
“Copywriting and freelancing in general can be just so more than a career and have such a bigger impact on who you are and your overall confidence and self-acceptance and self-esteem.” – Cleo
Mentioned on this Episode
Related Links
- Setting Boundaries as a Copywriter
- Building Your Career for Maximum Flexibility
- Tips for Neurodivergent Copywriters
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Last Updated on June 10, 2024
