Meet Ali
Hi I’m Ali I’m 53 years old and this is my career re-awakening story.
I have a positive outlook on a life that in recent years has been very challenging. I try to spin life’s disappointments into the best opportunities that I can. I often achieve my best when under pressure. I would highlight my superpowers as: Intelligence, organisation, resourcefulness, resilience, creativity, honesty and integrity.
My greatest failing and constant battle is a lack of self-belief. I am not very ego driven and have repeatedly been slow to or failed to capitalize on achievements. When I do push myself out of that comfort zone (usually with the assistance of a mentor or cheer-leader), I prove myself to be capable and love the process. Too often though, I have lacked the ambition and confidence to sustain that self-belief.
Once upon a time, I had an exciting job in London. I ‘moved and shook’ my way through 10 years of being a literary agent to film, TV and theatre writers, enjoying late nights at the theatre and schmoozing in New York.
At 36 I left the UK to marry my partner and live in Australia. It was a wonderful adventure and within my first 18 months in Australia I replaced everything that I had been and became a wife and mother. I lost my career, (there are no literary agencies in Perth), my old friends...and my identity.
I turned to freelance writing and during 6 years in Australia, my history of working within the literary and theatre world became a mantel of authority. First I became a journalist for an online arts website, researching articles about various Arts events in the UK and Australia. Later I became the lead theatre reviewer for the West Australian newspaper. I wrote over a hundred reviews and several features and interviews. I started my own blog, expanding my reviewing into TV and opinion pieces.
This work was my sanity-saver because really it was just a side hustle from my day job of caring for my 2 young children.
I was a rubbish essay writer as an undergraduate - lastminute.com every time. As a freelance writer, faced with an editorial deadline and with a pay cheque to look forward to, I nailed over 200 well-written features and never had to ask for an extension. Motivation can be key.
Sadly, although this was the best and most rewarding work I have ever been paid for, I opted to return to the UK to deal with my disintegrating marriage. I took a part time admin job to see me through until both children were at school.
On a side note and to illustrate my claim to resilience and resourcefulness. I spent every penny of my divorce settlement on a house. Nothing spare for solicitor’s fees. So I picked up Joseph Bradshaw’s book HOUSE BUYING, SELLING AND CONVEYANCING and read it all. I figured that 10 years picking apart and drafting contracts with TV and theatre producers had surely equipped me with sufficient savvy to tackle my own legal work. Oh yeah! Go me!
Well, 9 years later the house is still standing, and every so often I catch a glimpse of Bradshaw’s book, still on my bookshelf, and have a little proud moment, (not to mention a sigh of relief that I’m not a conveyancing solicitor...yawn!)
So how did I wind up needing a re-starter course and a major kick in the pants from the force of nature we call Louize?
31st December 2015. Oxford. The heart-stopping diagnosis of my son’s leukaemia happened and naturally all career development stopped and stayed stopped for years.
The fact that I continued to work my humble admin job for 20 hours per week with very little interruption through 2016-2019 is something I am proud of. Friends and colleagues have repeatedly cited ‘resilience’ as one of my strengths. My response is usually ‘falling apart wasn’t an option’. Work was the best place to be when not at the hospital with my son.
Divorce, the grind of single parent living, the stress of making new friends in a new town, buying a house on my own, my son’s long term illness, my daughter’s death defying fall and 6-day coma, my dull but worthy job - it all gradually wore away my self-confidence and self-belief - I forgot my achievements and lost my will to believe that I was capable of anything less mundane.
September 2020 brought the exciting news that I was going to be made redundant from the Nursery School. To begin with I applied to schools and Reading University for admin roles that were similar to my existing job. This action demonstrates just how low my self-esteem had fallen. I actually convinced myself that continuing to be an admin assistant was the right move. Mercifully I was not offered any of the jobs I applied for.
I originally wanted to do the course because of the subject matter. I have long been interested in marketing, studied it years ago and it was part of my literary agency work. I’ve had David Meerman Scott’s brilliant book ‘THE NEW RULES OF MARKETING AND PR by my bed, unread for 3 years.
During the first week of the Restarter course we were bombarded with information about new online platforms, communications tools, terminology, the ‘dark arts’ of algorithms and the news that we would be working for real for a local charity. Talk about hold tight for a bumpy ride!
Within just a couple of weeks though I stopped feeling terrified and overwhelmed with the new information and dusted off my big girl pants. I started to feel a sense of belonging to this world. We were encouraged to read The Squiggly Career and to pinpoint our ‘superpowers’. I finally looked at Linked In, took the time to examine my CV and to think hard about my career back catalogue, where my superpowers had been best utilised and what gave me satisfaction.
By the time we had completed the Restarter course and presented our pitch to the client I was decided. Goodbye boring admin jobs and hello again freelance lifestyle. I plan to use some of the new skills I have been introduced to mashed up with some of the old ones - writing in particular. Since the course ended I have scoured and searched the internet daily for relevant training and happily there is lots of it.
I quickly signed up with Vicky Etherington, The Website Mentor and set about building my own website using Wordpress.
I also jumped right in and approached my old friend Camilla aka Millys Gin sole trader and producer of a delicious raspberry gin liqueur.
The gin sells well in the pub that she co-owns but online sales are slow. We are working on strategies to build her brand by traditional marketing and newer online methods. She is a self-confessed digital dinosaur and I have been gently introducing her to social media, Milly’s Gin now has an Instagram page and over 90 new followers. Camilla has commented on Facebook posts and is booked to exhibit at a Christmas fair. It’s early days but I know that I have energised Camilla and encouraged her in a new way of thinking for the future of her gorgeous product.
My other client is Camilla’s husband Damion - Prince of the haulage industry. Again I dived in with little invitation and did a website audit on his new company’s page, . I pinged him a short slide presentation with screen shots and notes on typos, broken links and tips on how to make some of the content more readable. He has now got me on board to work with his social media administrator on making a subscription section of the website more user friendly.
I recently joined a group of freelancers for a networking coffee meeting at the Reading Biscuit Factory and found myself shamelessly pitching ideas to the manager about a blog and cinema reviews.
I have networked and hustled for every job I’ve had since 1995, not ‘applied’ using a one-size-fits-all form, so why it took so long for that penny to drop, I’m not sure. Fortunately this is where Digital Gum came in.
The person I was in my 20s and 30s, and the person I was in my 40s, drifted apart like faithful but tired lovers. At 53 I have woken up from a long dream about someone else and I’m back on track to living the life that I choose.
Who inspires me
Almost anyone with a passion for their subject. People who do a job that they love – which used to be me! Chris Evans Virgin Radio DJ. My children, my son who has battled leukaemia for 5 years and is rarely seen without a smile. My daughter who is so smart and talented and so brave and doesn’t see any of that in herself.
Six people at a dinner party
David Attenborough – he would be the anchor of the party, the kindly patriarch with a cheeky twinkle in his eye and a saucy anecdote for every course.
Freddie Mercury – The best front man of a rock band bar none. Me and my children all love Queen and would love to meet him. We’d have a piano handy and my daughter would duet Find me Somebody to Love with him.
My mum – she died 20 years ago and I would like her to meet my children and vice versa. She had the unpleasant opinion that somehow Freddie deserved his fate because of his promiscuity, having to face him over the dinner table would be my little bit of rebellion.
{My son – A dinner party this exciting would have to include my children
{My daughter
Damon Albarn – my daughter’s obsession is Gorillaz, she would be unable to glower silently in a corner because she would want to talk Gorillaz with him all night.