About Me

Hi, I’m Lorna.

I love living in the countryside with my little family, where most years I fail to grow very much veg, do a bit of knitting, make a few jars of chutney and maybe some bacon or cheese. As you’ll see writing hasn’t always been my profession, but it has always been a part of who I am.

Wonky handwriting and bad spelling

My Mum says that when I started school my teachers commented that I must have swallowed a dictionary, I guess I’ve always loved words! When I was five I wrote wobbly stories with wonky handwriting and bad spelling, until Father Christmas brought me a typewriter which improved the handwriting if not the spelling!

Of course everybody “knows” that you can’t make money as a writer, so I didn’t even consider it. Have you ever noticed that society likes everyone to fit the same mould? We’re meant to get a job and work for an employer, anything else makes people a bit uncomfortable.

Always writing

I chose to work with young children, a career that I truly enjoyed for twenty years, but all the time I kept on writing. I’ll never forget the feeling the first time I sent off an article to a magazine and got a letter back with a cheque. I couldn’t believe it and sending the second one was terrifying, what if it had just been beginner’s luck and they rejected everything else? They didn’t of course, but you can doubt yourself even when you have proof that you’re actually quite good!

Over the years I wrote for parenting magazines and professional magazines, I was the resident parenting writer on websites, became a blogger for Huffington Post, wrote a book, ebooks and courses. Friends asked me to help them word job applications, leaflets and newsletters but it never occurred to me that I could write for a living. Instead I moved from nannying to become a parenting consultant.

A lesson in ethical marketing

When I first started work as a consultant I set up a website and a facebook page, I got some clients through recommendations and a few carefully placed ads on relevant websites. I tried google advertising, facebook advertising and adding my name to business directories. It all worked, a little. Nothing was reliable though, especially not without a big advertising budget.

I signed up for a few marketing courses and one “expert” recommended some tricks to get people engaging with posts. I tried them out and they worked but it didn’t feel right. Then I got a few negative comments accusing me of click bait titles and worrying already vulnerable people. They were right! I cried that night, I couldn’t believe I had got so far from my core values.

Getting it right

The next morning I took a deep breath and changed my posts. I left that expert’s group, unsubscribed from her newsletter and unfollowed her on social media. Cutting all ties felt brilliant! It was like being released from a trap I hadn’t even realised I was in. The only problem was, what to do next.

That was when I started to study content marketing. What I do might take a little longer than a viral click bait post but it is reliable, authentic and most importantly it feels good! You can be a shining light for your clients. Sharing your knowledge and expertise, building relationships and actually supporting them through the changes they need to make. I believe that your online presence should reflect the caring and trustworthy professional you are and content marketing is the way to achieve that.

Juggling, and dropping the balls

When you’re self employed it can be so difficult to juggle everything. There are so many things to do and marketing can feel like one thing too many. You want to work with clients, not spend half your time trying to find new ones.

You know that feeling when your children ask for dinner and you think “but you just ate, how can it be time to cook again?” That’s how I sometimes felt about marketing. I’d only just written a blog post, how could it have been a whole week already? Now I had to think up a topic, research it, plan the post, write it, find pictures and upload it to my website, again. It just felt like a never ending cycle. Something had to change, I loved to write but I couldn’t keep up with that as well as working with my clients and looking after my own family.

The solution was there all along!

One day I found myself sitting at home in a room literally lined with bookcases. It suddenly struck me that a lot of those books were about writing. Every kind of book a writer might want or need, all there on my bookshelves. At the same time I met some lovely writers and I realised it was actually something I could do. That was the answer I was looking for, I didn’t have to fit writing in around seeing clients, I could make writing my work!

Making a difference

These days I get to use my years of training and experience to help other businesses. Every blog post or web page I write goes out into the world and helps my clients to reach the people who need them. I don’t want marketing to feel like a millstone round your neck, I can free you from that and let you do the things you do best.

Together we make a real difference, and that’s a ripple effect that I’m very proud to be part of.

If you’d like to find out how I can help you to change the world, just get in touch. I would love to hear from you.