Living the Writer's Life: Zoe Blarowski
How One Writer Traded in a Time Card for ‘Camp Stove Tacos’

Zoe and her son by Rainbow Falls in the Monashee Mountains, British Columbia, Canada.

How did you decide to start a career in copywriting?

The last job I had was in health information. One day, it was announced by upper management that more than 60 percent of the staff in my office had been terminated. I got to see the fallout from all the layoffs and cutbacks. The whole experience was heartbreaking.

Needless to say, I wanted to find a better way of making a living. In 2014, I found an ad for The Barefoot Writer online, and I decided to join. You gave me hope that I could actually build a viable career in writing, and a few months later I signed up for the Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting from AWAI.

I got my first paying client soon after that. And in 2016, I finally quit my office job, and I’ve never looked back.

You write a lot of web content and provide SEO services. What makes SEO such a valuable skill?

It adds so much value to everything you write for the web. You can really help a business simply by improving the SEO on their site and helping them get found.

And for copywriters, it can really help your bottom line. Since I took AWAI’s SEO Copywriting Mastery program, I can now offer more services. In fact, a previous client contacted me for additional work. I ended up charging them more for the same type of project I had done a year before, all because I could add SEO services to the mix.

What are your favorite things about living the writer’s life?

Biking the Myra Canyon Trestles near
Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

I love the flexibility. It allows me to work around my family and make time for what I feel is important, rather than punching a clock like I did for years. My passion project at the moment is building a money-making website about meditation.

What are you most proud of in your career so far?

I think the fact that I’ve made it this far without quitting! There have been a few times I’ve wanted to give up the whole idea of becoming a professional writer. Persisting with my writing career has helped me face down a lot of my own mind trash and kick it to the curb for good.

What’s one of the most important lessons that you’ve learned?

A big lesson I’ve learned is that you need to invest in yourself. I became a Circle of Success member with AWAI in 2015, before I even had my first client. But with all the resources available as a COS member, I was able to start my writing career off right.

I landed my first client a couple of months after I joined, and I’ve been gradually building my business and improving my skills ever since. Without making that initial investment, I don’t think I’d be nearly as far in my career as I am today.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Submit spec assignments and take any opportunity to have your work seen by prospective clients. This is how I’ve gotten noticed by some of my past and current clients.

Especially when you’re a new writer, you might not have a long list of writing samples and experience to show a potential client. But if they can see an example of what you can write for them, you can get a huge foot in the door.

Can you share a story of a really fun vacation you took?

This spring was the first time we took our 3-year-old on a big camping trip. It rained for most of the trip, and there were clouds of bugs everywhere. We visited waterfalls, went hiking, and discovered that you can make really good tacos on a camp stove. It goes to show that life doesn’t have to be perfect to be awesome!

Zoe's Living The Writer's Life story was originally published in Barefoot Writer. To learn more about how you can start living your dream writer's life too, click here.

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