Razwana Wahid: Killer content copywriter and founder of Relentless Movement – A copywriting hub for entrepreneurs who want to write bold and sell big. Her no nonsense, unmistakable teaching style helps you engineer words to not only sell, but deliver with originality (plus: there’s copious amounts of wine – what’s not to love?)
Carrie: Welcome to Artist Strong Razwana, when did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Thank you for having me. It’s an honour to be here.
When I was in my teens, I knew writing would be a big part of my life. My teenage years were mostly spent writing angsty poetry and short stories (the term emo wasn’t created yet, but totally fit my mindset …). I was consumed by them. It helped that the Bronte’s grew up and lived round the corner from my home!
I’ve always written creatively, both for leisure and as an emotional outlet. It wasn’t until I hit my late 20’s that I decided to infuse the creativity writing with business.
Carrie: How did you discover your interest in copywriting?
When I created my first business, I started following business and marketing blogs to learn how to build my business online. I soon realised I was far more intrigued by how certain blogs and businesses were hooking me into their message, than the business I’d originally started!
So I got to reading books from the copywriting greats, seeing how copywriters online were doing things differently .. and my interest (and business) sparked from there. My aim was to create a service where writing bold was a fearless task.
Carrie: Can you describe your creative process to readers?
Apart from writing new articles on my blog, the majority of my time’s spent writing sales copy for my clients (for websites, landing pages, emails and ads).
The process starts with doing a lot of research, both on the audience my client wants to appeal to, and the brand voice of the client. This involves a couple of hours on the phone, and then both online and in-person research that I conduct independently (in forums, Facebook groups, competitor sites, etc).
From this, I list the words and phrases I’ll be using in the copy to both appeal to the emotions of the audience and reflect the brand voice of my client.
I then write the full page of copy that I’m working on, take a break from it, and then move to editing the words, layout and flow of sentences. Editing is by far the most time consuming part.
Carrie: Many artists (in all disciplines) have fear around writing and talking about their artwork. Do you have any tips to help them get talking/writing about their work?
From the artists I’ve spoken to, this fear comes from either not wanting to ‘reveal all,’ or allowing their art to speak for itself.
Whenever we create art, we’re creating it for other human beings. These people have feelings, interests, lives and stories of their own. And the thing that human beings love to do? Is to connect with the stories of other human beings.
What I encourage artists to do is focus on what part of their story they want to share with their audience. Is it the creative process you went through to deliver a piece of your art? What experiences in your life influenced the art? Where does your inspiration come from?
Writing about this not only connects your audience to your art, but to you as a person. It brings your art to life.
Carrie: How did you discover your particular writing style/voice?
At a very basic level, I decided to be as uninhibited in my writing as I am when I speak. There’s definitely a fearlessness in how and what I write. I just hope the person reading it ‘gets’ it (<– my slight madness), y’know?
In practice, it took a lot of, well .. practice. When writing an article for my website, for example, I’d write the article and then edit until the piece ‘felt’ like me. I’d ensure anecdotes from my personal life and musings were in there to keep things original.
Carrie: What’s one piece of advice or practice on your website that you find indispensable for your own artist practice?
Definitely to not play it safe when writing, and give writing a lot of colour. I wrote an article on it which you can find here.
It talks about going out of your way to not use the same words as everyone else, and formatting your writing to stand out, is the only way to write online.
Carrie: What is the first thing you do when you feel stuck working on a writing project?
One of two things always works:
- Do something completely different. I love designing and making clothes,as well as photography. So when I’m stuck on a writing project, I’ll take my camera and go snap pictures of Paris (where I live), or I’ll take some fabric and start a small project. It keeps my creative mind flowing and takes the pressure off of writing.
- Tell myself to write for five minutes. And in that five minutes, I write whatever comes to my mind. This no-pressure writing releases the blocks and I find words just start to flow.
Creative Spirit Razwana Wahid on Artist Strong
Carrie: What has been one hurdle you’ve overcome as a creative and how did you navigate that problem?
The biggest hurdle was to be unapologetically myself.
There are lots of rules and trends that online business owners are told they must follow when it comes to both copywriting and running their businesses. I’ve decided to ignore those rules and try things my way.
For example, as a writer, I’m told that clients will only hire you based on your writing experience relevant to their market. So I aim to write for those clients whose projects are exciting to me and in a field I’ve never written about before. These clients hire me because they’re sold on me and what I can do for their business, not how much similar work I’ve done in the past.
Carrie: What is one creative resource you can’t live without?
That’s a great question! Definitely a thesaurus. There’s also a site that allows you to search for words that rhyme, end or start in a certain way, etc. It’s called Wordplays.com. Always my go-to!
Carrie: Who/what inspires you?
Other brilliant copywriters and online business owners: they’ve built businesses that I aspire to have.
On a day-to-day basis, I’m part of a mastermind group and the women in that group inspire me to no end. Our businesses are at the same stage and seeing them experiment with lots of different things to grow their own ideas is truly inspirational.
Carrie: How do you define Creativity?
Creativity is … where madness and ingenuity collide. It’s a vehicle where artists takes other people to places they can’t go by themselves.
BE COURAGEOUSLY CREATIVE: Do you have a fear about “revealing all” when you share your artwork? Practice getting out of your comfort zone and share a 3-5 sentence story about your art in the comments below.
Additional Contact Info:
Website: Relentless Movement
Twitter: @razwanawahid
Instagram: @razwanawahid
Recent Comments