Elle Ross: Curious Leads for Clear Copy
Issue 15
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Elle’s Story
A decade as a dental hygienist.
You wouldn’t guess, with that background, that Elle is now working as a copywriter. It’s a big shift!
After five years of working as a hygienist, Elle started to teach in her old dental hygiene program for the University of Alberta in Canada. As a freelancer of sorts, she had come full circle.
Elle was reminded of her time as a student. She was so nervous when she first learned the skills she now had the opportunity to teach. It was a lot of fun!
As her career progressed through the next five years, her work at the dental corporation transformed from purely hygienist work to a training role for the company’s hygienists.
For both her job at the university and her work as a trainer, Elle was writing regularly, which she realized she enjoyed far more than her hygienist job. She started trying to figure out how to incorporate more writing into her life.
ClearCopyWorks
As luck would have it, Elle was due to have a baby and go on maternity leave around the time of this realization. She decided to take that time to figure out what she can do with her writing.
Step one was to figure out what to do. Entrepreneurship had always been in the back of Elle’s mind. She knew from a young age that she wanted to work for herself, but didn’t have a clear plan to make that happen.
Her first option was to start a blog, but shortly into discovery Elle realized that monetizing one wasn’t her top choice.
Next up was course creation, because that was very similar to her work with the dental company and her side gig as an instructor at the university. When she started working on that, however, she didn’t have a clear goal in mind and couldn’t figure out how she would make money on the venture. She dug deeper.
While she was researching course creation, copywriting found Elle. Her only frame of reference for the work was what she had seen on Mad Men, so everything she has learned since then has been through coursework like Comprehensive Copywriting Academy, which she highly recommends.
Six months of studying, writing, and learning led her to decide to start her company.
ClearCopyWorks was born in April 2021.
Since then, Elle has grown quickly. She has worked for a designer, augmented reality, local boutiques, real estate, and more.
As a niche-less copywriter, Elle’s approach is “give me a good brief, and look out”.
Her clients agree.
Elle’s Advice
Find community! The marketing world is full of fantastic people who will help you get started and to get your name out. The support from these new friends is invaluable. Check out #freelancechat on Twitter each Thursday!
Key #1 for copywriting: narrow your audience down to a specific WHO. You can’t persuade effectively without knowing them well.
Don’t say yes to every client. Sometimes you know you’re not a great fit! That’s ok. Send them along to someone you think will serve them best.
You can connect with Elle on Twitter as @ClearCopyWorks, or on LinkedIn. Read her blog on ClearCopyWorks.com
Word from Will
While I couldn’t drag out any of the names of companies ClearCopyWorks has created copy for, just chatting with Elle had me convinced that she will be a top choice for me when I need work or advice for my own ventures. Her story is one of constant learning and success. She’ll help you do the same.
I learned so much from my conversation with Elle that didn’t fit the scope of Procrastineur, but if you’re curious about her life, her knowledge of copywriting, dentistry’s quickly-moving industry, or her husband’s job as an athletic director (and as a fantastic father of two!), do reach out to her. She’ll definitely entertain and you can both go down the “rabbit hole” together.
Build on.
Will