Lois McKenzie

Up Club

In May, I’ll finally be opening the doors to a course which will be a live teaching & coaching of a curriculum I’ve been developing for, literally, 5 years (not one to rush things 🤣).

My deepest desire is that this will be the least wanky and most practical course you could ever possibly take for your writing. Yes, it will be a copywriting course. But more than that, I want to help you really rebuild your relationship to writing and the written word.

The curriculum has been developing for 5 years, yes. But it’s also based on an almost 17 year (!!) career flinging ink for everyone from Fortune 500s to best selling authors. From writing taglines for $500 hairbrushes to defining the most important thought leadership of industry-shifting personal brands. We going deep (we just will not be diving). 

We’re going to activate fresh thinking, cultivate your breakthrough ideas and learn how to express them, all through your writing.

Sweet Talk is an 8 week copywriting, messaging & writing course that will teach you how to write copy so good that brands, clients and customers will be tripping over themselves to sell their ideas TO YOU.

Because when you know how to write really, really good copy it feels less like selling people and more like offering an invitation into a world they already want to be a part of.

This course is perfect for you if

❤️‍🔥 You're a creative, entrepreneur, founder, service pro, coach, marketer who wants to master copywriting for your own business...

❤️‍🔥 You love writing but struggle with wrangling that creative energy for long enough to write copy that you really cannot wait to share.

I’m not claiming to be some gate-keeping, untold-secret-holding, answer-to-all-of-your-prayers, genius word guru (although that does have a ring to it). But I will teach you the tools I've learned to generate $10m in sales & $4m in capital as a top conversion copywriter over a decade.

Send me a DM if this tickles your fancy. Spaces are extremely limited.

Copy & Messaging Consultant & Copywriter

Elaina Ray International

Content Coach

Marketing Director

Do It Marketing

Sales Director

Copywriter

Various

I didn't always want to be a copywriter. I just wanted to write.

I would be nose-deep in books, fantasising about one day toiling away at a desk in dungarees with a pencil in my hair (I was an Enid Blyton fan, OK) and writing things that people would be utterly enamoured by. 

Life happened. 

And over the years, I heard things like, 'starving artist', 'nobody makes any money writing books anymore' and 'you can write, but you also need to make money'. 

So, I did what any self-respecting creative would do. I went into advertising 😬

I started writing headlines for a daily print news cycle, moved on to writing website copy for restaurants at a local 'digital marketing' agency, when nobody even really knew what that word meant. 

Then I started writing taglines and headlines and product names for startups for an agency in New York. From $500 hairbrushes to Beef Jerky, my job was making things sound good. 

I honestly thought I'd hit peak career and imagined myself moving to New York and swanning about in cafes, this time the vision was a little more refined. Perhaps a pencil behind the ear. 

But, life happened again. 

When I got pregnant with my daughter I knew I didn't want to live as a slave to fast-paced advertising agency life... so I set out on my own (lol why did nobody tell me that would be even worse).

Since then, I've ghostwritten two best-selling books, I've written sales pages that have sold 7 figures. I once wrote an email that got a 66.2% Click Through Rate and generated 6 figures in revenue overnight (true story).

In all of this time I've done everything possible to only work with brands who's values I can get behind. While, I am aware copywriting is hardly the Lord's work, I try to make an honest living. 

Now, I spend most of my time educating business owners on how to do these kinds of things with their own words. Through coaching & workshops, and now a new course I'm launching in May 2024.

If you read all of this, come say hi.

Freelance Writer

Bolt Digital Agency

From working with every possible different brand as a freelance writer to becoming the Head Copywriter at Bolt Digital Agency, my career evolved significantly over the years. 

With Bolt I had the pleasure of being back in real, fast-moving, digital agency life. It was exciting. Every brand something new and different. 

My role was to write high-converting stories for our high profile clients -- lots of VC backed start ups that secured multi-millions in funding after we were done: dating apps, luxury hotels, global fintech startups, and even granola bars. 

Each assignment was a masterclass in articulating unique brand messages, appealing to diverse audiences, and launching or scaling businesses effectively. 

As Head Copywriter at Bolt, I also hired and mentored other writers, and if you've ever taught a subject, you'll know that's the real key to deepening your expertise. Figuring out how to help someone else articulate something, and then letting go of the reins was a whole new education in copywriting. 

It was also amazing to be hiring writers from earlier on in my career -- I have such a good idea of the market on both sides of the coin that has helped me serve clients immensely.

Head Copywriter

Blackpool Gazette, Johnston Press

As a fresh-faced 17 year old who had life-long dreams of becoming a writer, a decidedly green idea of what that might actually take but filled with ambition, I found my start at the Blackpool Gazette as a junior advertising copywriter. 

I caught two buses to get to their head office and asked to speak to the editor -- if I could go back and speak to myself now! The receptionist was a little amused and didn't expect her to let me in. But, for some reason, she did. She appreciated my tenacity and instead of giving me some spicy hot story to get out and report on (which is how I'd imagined it would go in my head) she suggested I join the advertising team writing headlines. 

It wasn't quite my Vogue fantasy, but it was a start. So I took it and jumped in. 

Turns out coming up with headlines under 10 words for high-pressure advertising sales reps is a good education – a proper crash course in advertising and copywriting and I was fortunately quite good at it. 

Learning the art of writing sticky 10-word headlines for high-stake clients, I discovered the heart-thumping pressure and invaluable advertising lessons of a daily print news cycle. These experiences sparked my lifelong love for concise, persuasive copy that remains both my arch nemesis and my best friend.

Junior advertising copywriter

Million-dollar verbal carpentry | Copywriting & messaging strategy that has earned our clients $8M+ in sales and $4M+ in capital.

Growing up my Mum had books everywhere.

All over the house.

Instead of a bedside table she had a leaning tower of books.

Cups of half-drunk tea perched perilously on the edge of whichever one had landed on top.

One slight wrong move or sharp turn with the bedcovers, and cold, long-forgotten tea would spill everywhere.

Which, of course, happened often.

Because she was always lost in one of three or four or five books she was reading at any given moment (she likes to start a few at once, so "you never finish one too soon").

We had two huge bookshelves that still weren’t even enough to house all of the books

-- and of all of the furniture we bought and sold and lost and broke over the years, those two, gargantuan wooden beasts survived until the day she moved to live on a boat (that’s a whole other story but thankfully the Kindle was invented).

There were piles of books on top of the shelves, beside the shelves, next to the couch.

Even in the kitchen.

My childhood friends still to this day remember our book-furniture house.

This all-consuming love-of-stories is something I got from her. I never realised it at the time. But, this is one of the greatest gifts my Mum ever gave me.

We didn’t have loads of money growing up. But we had stories.

We had whole other worlds to escape to.

The perfect medicine for any kind of affliction of the soul.

And this is what stories do.

This is what good narrative has the power to do. They are medicine. A literary apothecary.

You can transform someone's life, heartache, dreams.
You can help people change their mind about love, about pain, about money, about potential.

All with a well told story.

How does the world ever change?
How do you get people to pay attention?
How do you connect with the right people?

It starts with stories. It always starts with stories.

Storytelling has become such a huge part of my life and my work and my way of thinking. I've helped people & brands make millions of dollars telling stories.

No matter what your business is, if you can get better at one thing -- let it be telling stories. Let the most important conversations you were put here to lead be the thing that everyone loves about you.

If you need help, I can do that in 3 ways:

🔥 1:1 copy coaching
🔥 Hire me to write your web copy
🔥 Copy Club: like a private members lounge for creative founders & storytellers
🔥 Sweet Talk: a copywriting course that will teach you to write in a way that feels like art and sells like hot cakes

If you love stories as much as I do, drop me a DM and share one with me :)

Founder

We’re known for creating content that looks, feels and sounds like you. Content that builds authority, brings more eyes to your work and shines a light on your mission. Content that positions you as the expert that you are and gives you the platform you need to drive change.

In short: content that positions you as the obvious choice.
 
We're the secret ingredient to leveraging your expertise so that you can increase your impact, visibility and authority without needing to increase the time you spend online.
 
...and without your message losing its authenticity and integrity.

What we do: ghostwritten authority and thought leadership content, web copy, copywriting & strategy and LinkedIn VIP days.

Starling Bank

My job is to make our bank sound less like a bank. And to help colleagues across the business do the same.

Writer (Operations)

Joe Jeffries Ltd

End clients included American Express, Regus (the world's biggest flexible workspace provider), and a new venture by a former MD of Deliveroo. To name just a toddler-size fistful.

Senior copywriter

Net Natives

Co-led four full-time copywriters and oversaw all areas of team operations – from production and QA to training and recruitment.

Lead copywriter

Sandberg Translation Partners Ltd

Managed all the company's internal and external comms.

Content and communications manager

Managed large, complex, fast-turnaround projects for a demanding Fortune 500 client.

Localisation project manager

First Touch Translations

Wrote, translated and edited copy for leading sports brands.

End clients included FIFA.com, Renault Sport, Arsenal FC, WTA, PGA Catalunya Resort, HUUB and Abacus Sportswear.

Creative translator, copywriter, editor (self-employed)

World Series by Renault (now Renault Sport Series)

Lead translator (FR>EN) for the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons of the World Series by Renault – a major international motorsport championship and Formula One feeder series.

Agency: WHP International

Motorsport translator

Sports Translations Ltd

Translated matchday content, interviews, features, PR pieces and official statements for FIFA.com – the official website of world football's governing body.

Football translator

WTA GDF Suez Open 2011 (via ASEL Traduction)

Lead translator and editor at the WTA GDF Suez Open 2011. 

Translated and edited match reports, interviews and features for the English version of the tournament's official website.

Tennis translator and editor (FR > EN)

Vertical Leap

Wrote branded content and industry news articles for clients including Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, Randstad, and easyGroup companies.

Content writer

Arsenal Football Club, Emirates Cup 2010

Helped players and staff from Arsenal, AC Milan, Lyon and Celtic communicate with French sports journalists.

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Joe Jeffries

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