The origin story (everyone’s got one)

When I was 30, I was going nowhere. I was bored and uninspired and wanted out of the job I was doing.

But I couldn't find a way.

At the time, I was a secretary in a law firm. Back then, there weren't a lot of career opportunities for secretaries. And if you worked in the legal sector, you were stuck in that sector. No one in corporate wanted to know me. Believe me, I tried.

It was all a bit sh*t.

What to do.

I needed a plan.

Being a tenacious individual, I went to see a psychologist who specialised in career testing. By embarking on this process, I would find out what my strengths were, and take it from there.

So I spent a sunny Saturday afternoon in an upstairs room of a gorgeous terrace townhouse overlooking Royal Parade in Parkville (a lovely area, as Melburnians will know) doing what felt like MILLIONS of multiple-choice questions. Using a ye olde pencil, because the internet was not as internet-y as it is today.

I returned to see the psychologist the following weekend, and sat on a comfy couch in a downstairs room of the same very fabulous terrace townhouse where she gave me the results.

*Drumroll*

Natalie - your no.1 career trait is .....

LITERARY.

*Gasp!*

No. 2 is .....

SALES.

WHHHAT?

Literary, hmm, ok. I love writing. But where is writing going to take me? In 2001 there weren't a lot of options that occurred to me. Unless I wrote a book or something. Meh.

Sales. Now that was puzzling. Really?

I pictured myself on the floor of a Harvey Norman department store, hair slicked back, demonstrating the features of the latest Bosch dishwasher to an unsuspecting elderly couple.

Sales. Me?

Ridiculous.

This test is bogus. BOGUS! I wasted that Saturday afternoon answering a zillion questions with my trusty HB pencil for NOTHING.

Sales. Come ON.

The test results went in the bin. I carried on.

20 years later, I recalled that moment and my eyeballs bulged in surprise. I was eating a donut at the time and that random memory lept into my brain, as it often does while consuming delicious products containing both fat and sugar.

For the past 18 years, I have LITERALLY been LITERARY-ing my way through life writing SALES documents.

Bidding - it's the very attractive love child of writing and selling, and I managed to stumble across it and make it my career.

Apart from bidding though, writing is selling whether you like it or not.

Copywriting, content writing, creative non-fiction writing, social media posts, emails and letters. This is all writing with intent, with a message that is compelling, persuasive and meaningful to your audience so they will buy, or talk to you, or ask for more - or follow you.

And in 2023, AI is showing its value in helping us take it up a notch.

I can't wait to see what the future brings!