Hello, hi, and welcome. If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re on the hunt for a professional writer and editor. Well, that’s me. I’m Callum. I’ve been a working ghostwriter, journalist, content marketer, and editor for the past 10 years, and a published writer for over 15.
I’ve written for a swathe of industries, brands, topics, in a huge variety of formats, across numerous high-profile organisations. But this year, I decided to strike out on my own and start my own freelancing business. It’s a small-scale, flexible one-man band that gives the freedom to take on whatever projects suit my fancy.
But how did I get to this place? What’s my background, and what sort of creative and professional experience do I boast? To answer those questions, I think it makes sense to start from the beginning with a bit of an overview of my career thus far. Sound good? Great. Time for a flashback sequence:
The Early Years: 2010-2016
We’ll ditch full autobiography and skip ahead to the year I graduated high school. Ever since primary school, my guiding star, my ultimate goal, my cherished dream, was to become a working author. Creative writing was my calling in my formative years, something I seemed to be able to do effortlessly and artfully.
I’ve been writing short stories and scripts all through high school. But the big breakthrough for me just before I left school, when I won the Scottish Book Trust’s coveted ‘Young Writer’s Award.’ Off the back of this national prize, I was mentored along with two other very talented teens by author and playwright Cathy Forde, and whisked off to London to learn about the ins-and-outs of the publishing industry, agents, querying, and much more.
Off the back of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it was only natural that I wanted more. Hungry for the chance to study the craft full-time, I was accepted into the University of Strathclyde’s highly-competitive Journalism and Creative Writing course — at the time one of the only undergraduate courses of its type in the country, with only 25 places available. Here, I honed my writing and editing skills, as well as learning about the history, politics, culture, and ethics of of journalism, while also studying literature and literary criticism.
After graduating in 2016, I imagined that (much like my peers) it might be a very long time before I found any kind of gainful employment in the media. Luckily for me, that assumption was quickly proven wrong
Jungle Creations: 2016-2021
Less than a month after graduating university, I was accepted into an internship at Jungle Creations: one of the web’s biggest digital media companies. After a mere 2 months learning the ropes of this fast-paced newsroom environment, I was offered a full-time role as a journalist and copywriter, writing and publishing a variety of content across the company’s various social channels, including VT, Four Nine, Twisted, Level Fitness, and Craft Factory.
In the five years I spent at Jungle Creations, my role entailed virtually every kind of digital journalism there is, running the gamut from short-form breaking news pieces, to reviews and opinion columns, as well as long-form investigative pieces and special features. I also worked closely with video editors and videographers to produce viral news and entertainment content, working with scripting and captioning as well as the editing process itself. Furthermore, I was also put in charge of managing our account with the Press Association: adapting articles from their ‘Real Life’ section to fit our house style, optimising content. and presentation, and and tracking article performance.
Finally, I was also engaged in writing commercial copy for our marketing team, which served me well in 2021 when I decided to leave Jungle and make the leap into digital marketing and advertising.
Red Havas: 2021-2023
Like many people in The Great Resignation, in the wake of COVID-19 I fancied a change of pace, and pivoted to marketing by joining Red Havas in late 2021. This job was an amazing opportunity for me, but also a highly-demanding, sink-or-swim challenge; where I learned about all about agency life on the fly, while juggling a demanding and intense workload.
As a copywriter for one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious marketing, advertising, and PR companies, I wrote copy of all types across a huge and varied number of clients, including brands in the medtech, fintech, investment banking, software, automobile, and insurance industries. As Red Havas was a LinkedIn content partner, the majority of our content was B2B and published on that social platform. However, I also wrote paid social content extensively across other platforms, including x.com, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
Although social content was my bread-and-butter, I also ideated, wrote, edited, and published email, message, and conversation ads, as well as video scripts, long-form white papers, and short blogs. During this time, I also collaborated extremely closely with a network of designers and videographers in crafting a number of paid ads across videos, reels, and carousel formats. Furthermore, in addition to proof-reading and editing duties for clients, I was also responsible for brainstorming and creative ideation for ongoing campaigns, as well as pitching work to clients and winning new business through painstaking research, brand auditing, and presentations.
After more than a year in this role, however, I was offered a fresh opportunity in a smaller, more writer-driven agency. This led to me leaving Havas to join-
CopyHouse: 2023-2026
Joining CopyHouse as a Senior Copywriter, I entered a very exciting working environment where content was focused on the written word, and where writers were considered the elite creatives. In this capacity, I worked for many varied clients in tech, insurtech, fintech, banking, cybersecurity, payment processing, travel and hospitality, gaming, financial services, and many more.
The vast majority of this content consisted of writing high-level, long-form thought leadership content for executives — while extensively interviewing c-suites and other client key stakeholders — and crafting engaging and unique content off the back of these sessions. This content often included in-depth white papers and ebooks of up to 45,000 words in the space of just 6 weeks. During this time, much of my work was also focused around other B2B and B2C content, including blogs, scripts, webinars, articles, short-form reels, social posts, and email drip campaigns.
But all this was only one aspect of my role. At CopyHouse, much of my work also focused around high-level marketing strategy and planning. As part of my role, I would often be responsible for running or overseeing strategy, branding, and TOV workshops with clients, where I would deep dive into their content, their goals and objectives, target audience personas, content likes and dislikes, and other preferences. Following these intensive workshops, I would then be responsible for crafting brand guideline and campaign roadmaps in tandem with our Head of Creative and Project Manager.
In addition, my time at CopyHouse also focused extensively on brand revamps and website content. During my time at the agency, I became highly skilled at content audits, keyword research, SEO and GEO, and competitor analysis. I would use these marketing research skills to help clients optimise and iterate their websites; writing landing page copy to help them reach new audiences and improve their website performance.
But, as wonderful as this position was, all good things must come to an end. That’s why, in January of 2026, I decided to make the biggest decision of my career thus far…
The Copy Foundry: Present Day
This year, I decided to go solo, and focus my writing talents in the freelancing space. And, now that my debut novel has found a publisher (coming to bookstores summer 2027) I’m confident that I can utilise my writing, editing, and marketing talents to truly throw myself into any and all creative projects:
- Maybe you have a memoir that you need help ghostwriting?
- Or a germinating novel in need of a developmental editor?
- Maybe you’re struggle to proofread a gigantic corporate document?
- Or perhaps you’re looking for a narrative designer for a video game developer?
Whatever your needs, The Copy Foundry is here to answer them. So, let’s rock and roll. Contact me now and let’s create something beautiful.
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