BLOG - Audrey JoAnn

ATTRACT YOUR PERFECT CLIENT BY CHANGING THIS ONE THING

May 20, 2019

When I started freelance writing, I took whatever I could get. I began by freelancing part-time when we lived in Nashville, and most of my work came from friends who work in marketing with clients in every field imaginable. I was writing email content for healthcare, regulatory compliance, and event businesses and blog posts for electric vehicle, nutritional supplements, and home security companies. I copy-edited for a local magazine and wrote an assortment of stories for them in lifestyle, design, and local talent realms. Like I said… I did it ALL.

It was honestly thrilling at first to be able to research all of these random industries that I knew nothing — and I mean nothing — about and turn that information into content that informs, educates, and converts. I just felt lucky that people wanted to pay me to put some words together as best as I could, especially given I had no real marketing background or legitimate insight into the random businesses I wrote about, other than what research I could conduct online and questions I could ask the clients. I accepted every project I was offered, and that allowed me to begin building a solid copywriting portfolio.

7 THINGS I’VE LEARNED FROM 7 MONTHS OF MARRIAGE

May 16, 2019

We almost missed the realization we’d been married for 6 months. It’s not because we’re falling into the “old married couple” category yet (although some of my friends might disagree), but our half-year anniversary fell on Easter this year. And it fell on the day after an overnight girls’ trip to New Braunfels to see my idol, Maren Morris, in concert. So, you know, there was a lot going on.

It was also my brother’s birthday, and the reason I realized it was John’s and my half-anniversary is because my brother beat me to the punch, texting me first thing in the morning to wish us a happy 6 months before I could send him a birthday note. I remember when we announced our wedding date more than a year ago, he made us laugh because he immediately said, “That’s my half birthday!” What can I say? We Swansons like celebrating our birthdays, half or whole.

THE ONE THING MISSING FROM MY FREELANCE BUSINESS

May 13, 2019

If you know me personally or follow me on social media, you know I jumped into freelancing full-time about a year ago almost to this week. Last May, my now-husband John graduated from grad school with his MBA, and we packed up our stuff into a POD before driving from Nashville down to Austin for him to start a new job.

I’d been freelancing a bit in Nashville, plus nannying full-time to supplement our income, but when we moved, we decided it was a good transition time for me to jump into freelancing for real. And oh man, that was a trip (and I’m not talking about the move from TN to TX). First of all, going from working for other people to working for and relying on yourself is a whole mindset mess that I still have a hard time wrapping my head around some days.

NAPA + SONOMA TRAVEL GUIDE

January 30, 2019

Hey, hey, friends. It’s been a while! Between the holidays, new year, and preparing to finally go on our honeymoon, life’s been moving fast. Two weeks ago, we were in Northern California to celebrate our marriage and sample a lot of wine on our honeymoon, and it was the most incredible trip. If you’re traveling to wine country anytime soon, I have tons of recommendations for you that we wanted to share!

Luckily, John’s parents are wine lovers and have traveled to the area a few times, so they had a lot of knowledge and know-how to share with us. For example, I figured we would be staying in the towns of Napa and Sonoma, since we were going to…Napa and Sonoma.