Photo-shopped teeth and a viral blog post were contributing elements to the genesis of Tanunda woman, Angela Pickett’s copywriting business.
After moving to the Barossa on an experimental whim following a 15 year career as a diplomat in Canberra, Angela wasn’t really sure what she wanted to do next.
“I think when a lot of people have a career change, it’s often because they have some passion, or some idea, or a hobby or something that they turn it into, and I didn’t have anything!” Angela told The Leader.
“I didn’t leave my government career because I knew I wanted to do something else, it was more about wanting to work in a different way.”
After completing a Masters in Arts and Cultural Management, she tapped into her previous experience and ran a trade consultancy, helping local businesses understand free trade agreements.
After a couple of years she moved on from that to working for a local winemaker.
Having a knack for writing, she also blogged on the side about a “mish-mash” of topics, mostly around her move to the Barossa and career change.
Enter her son’s teeth, and the post that would elevate her to international notoriety —at least for one crazy spin of the news cycle.
“I wrote a blog in 2017 when my son, Angus was in Year 3 and his teeth had been photo-shopped in the school photo,” Angela said.
“I wrote it from the perspective that it’s a shame that kids think that that’s the normal thing, living in a world where we can all stick an Instagram filter on.”
The blog was shared all around the world, and picked up by national and even international media.
It was at that point Angela seriously started to consider a career in writing. She dabbled in feature writing for a time, though her true breakthrough came from an unexpected angle.
“A friend of mine knew that I’d been doing that and said, I’m in this copywriting group, there’s a girl in there that needs a blog written, someone who’s got some international trade experience,” Angela recalled.
“So I wrote this blog, and she paid straight away. After pitching things to magazines and then not hearing anything or having them write my ideas in-house, I thought I need to look into this copywriting business!”
Angela Pickett Copywriter was established in 2019, and in Angela’s words, mainly helps founders, fun-sized and family-owned businesses with writing anything from content for websites, newsletters, emails, awards, or grant applications.
Over the past few years she’s worked with new and established retail, wine, tourism and consulting businesses in Australia and overseas, and just recently become a provider for the RDA’s B2B programme, supporting new and existing local businesses.
“It’s about connecting with your customers,” Angela says of what her work helps others achieve.
“We’ve all got really short attention spans now... You’ve got about five seconds when someone lands on your website to actually capture their attention.”
As for her and her husband, Simon’s “we’ll give it a couple of years” move to the Barossa, the region has proved to be the perfect fit for the family of four, which includes Angus, now 13, and younger son, Xavier, 11.
“I think the Barossa is a fantastic place to start a small business, especially as a woman,” said Angela.
“There’s great programmes like the B2B initiative, great co-working spaces like Workspace Barossa and a really supportive network of local businesses.
“I think when people start they sort of feel that great imposter syndrome, and, whether we like to admit it or not, as women we probably do suffer with it more.
“But I actually think most people want to be supportive.”
Angela now savours the flexibility in her career and life that she craved while working in diplomacy, and is enjoying allowing her business to grow—just enough to keep a healthy work life balance.
“I’ve often said, success isn’t seven figures and staff,” she said.
“It’s a business that works around me.
“I can sit on my laptop while the kids are at sport, or go and pick them up from school.
“I’m doing all the things I didn’t want to wait until I’m retired to do.”
To read more about the region’s women in business, click the following link to view our Celebrating Women in Business promotion.
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