Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Allie Ochs . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Allie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

It’s impossible for me to narrow down just one way my parents impacted my life. They modeled how to live a fulfilling life for me and my sisters. They loved and respected one another, were strong and consistent in their faith, and encouraged their daughters to be confident and courageous.

Growing up wasn’t always easy, but it was beautiful. At birth, my younger sister, Maddie, endured a series of life-threatening seizures that left her mentally disabled. But I watched as my parents loved and cared for her every day. They taught my older sister, Katie, and me to love and care for Maddie, deepening our understanding of what it meant to love someone unconditionally.

When I was seventeen, I was diagnosed with POTS or Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. This condition left me sick in bed with migraines and fatigue for most of my senior year, turning an outgoing, energetic teenage girl into a shell of a person. After graduation and taking a gap year to adjust to the new normal of my body, my parents and I decided it was time to go to college. I had applied and been accepted to exactly two schools – one that was 8 hours away in Virginia and one that was 30 minutes away in Indiana. I always talked about going to college out of state, but I figured the safe, practical choice would be to stay in Indiana and commute.

But my parents had a different idea.

It was one of those beautiful Indiana summer evenings. I was watching the sunset on the swing in our backyard. My mom and dad came out and sat on either side of me. They said they’d been praying about it and thought that the best move for me was to go to school in Virginia. It wasn’t the practical choice, but it was the right one.

The day my parents dropped me off, I sat in the backseat of our van, terrified to get out. Two years of being sick and stuck in my room had taken a toll on my social skills. I watched as cool-looking college kids walked and laughed and I thought that there was no way I was supposed to be doing this. My mom turned around and looked at me, and as if reading my mind she said,

“Hey. You belong here. You have the right to take up space.”

It was the first time I had ever heard that sentiment put into words. It gave me the courage to open the door and step out into what was ahead of me.

The faith that my parents modeled for me and the lessons they taught me has sustained me throughout the hills and valleys of this life. It was my faith that kept me going when I lost my dad to Covid-19 in 2021. And it was the faith my parents showed that summer evening that gave me the confidence to keep writing, no matter my circumstances. Everything they taught me has made me the person I am today.

My parents showed me that the most important thing in life is love. A loving relationship with God and with those around us. They also showed me that sometimes the safest and easiest path isn’t always the right one. We must have faith and courage to step out of our comfort zones and pursue the fullness and goodness life can bring.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

As a writer, I consider myself first and foremost a storyteller. But as a writer, I have learned that the storytelling that feeds my soul may not always feed my mouth.

My main passion out of college was screenwriting. I loved visual storytelling that brought people together, made people think, and maybe made someone feel a little less alone. But breaking into screenwriting is hard. Some might even argue impossible.
So, I needed to find a way to write, but also survive. And, unfortunately, that’s the line we creatives walk all our lives. Luckily, I found out that I’m pretty good at marketing copywriting.

I started with freelance writing visual promo campaigns for a small marketing company in my home state of Indiana. I found that even though the content was different from screenwriting, the method was still the same.

All writing, whether it’s advertising, marketing, or screenwriting is storytelling. Sometimes it’s more straightforward than other times, but whether you’re telling a story about a Hobbit’s journey to Mordor or the customer’s journey to finding the right product, all writing is laying out the details from point A to point B – why they got there, how they got there, and how they’re (hopefully) better off now that they’ve reached their destination.

Now, I write full-time for a marketing team in Atlanta, Georgia, using content and data to tell a story to our customers. And when I’m done with that, I work on my screenplays and poems and essays and whatever else I feel like writing.
I consider myself to be very lucky – I spend my days doing what I love, and I get paid to do it. Who knows what lies on the horizon for me and my career, but I know that as long as I get to tell stories, I’ll be just fine.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 2021 for the sole purpose of working in the film industry. I had it all mapped out – I was going to get a job in a production office, then get a job as a producer’s or director’s assistant, then work so hard for that producer or director that he or she would finally offer to bring me on full-time, eventually reading my scripts and producing them.

And by 2022, everything was going according to plan. I had moved from office assistant to producer’s assistant within the year. It was a lot of getting coffee and making sure my boss was on time for meetings, but it was also an amazing, hands-on learning experience. I thrived spending my days on set, learning from men and women who had spent years in the film industry and who were kind enough to give me advice. I even ended up meeting a producer who was willing to read a script of mine and give me notes.

But then the 2023 WGA and SAG strikes began. And the entire film industry shut down.

I babysat to keep money coming in, but it really wasn’t cutting it. I had a choice to make. I could make ends meet and wait for the film industry to start back up. But I knew that when the film industry came back, I still wouldn’t be writing. I would be back to getting coffee, sending emails, and making sure my boss made it to his meetings. My dream of screenwriting wasn’t dead, but I also knew that professionally, I was dying on the vine. I had skills and talents that I wasn’t using.
So, I pivoted.

I got to work updating my website and portfolio, tracking down promo videos I had written freelance, and applying to every writing job I was even remotely qualified for. And eventually, I found one.

I can’t say for certain that I’ll never go back to the film industry. But what I do know is that my current copywriting job affords me the freedom to earn money doing what I love and what I’m good at, while also giving me the flexibility to work on side creative writing projects. It wasn’t part of my plan way back in 2021 when I packed up my little car and started driving South. But I’m better and grateful for it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A well-told story doesn’t shy away from hardships. They’re what move the story forward, pushing characters to grow. Everyone experiences their fair share of hardships, and I’m no exception. In my life I’ve battled sickness, loss, grief, and the helplessness of feeling adrift and lost, unsure of my next steps.

When the 2023 WGA and subsequent SAG strike was announced, I, like many other film workers, was left wondering how I was going to survive. I worked babysitting jobs, whittled down my grocery list to only the necessities, and zhuzhed up my resume, applying for every job on the internet that had the word “writer” somewhere in the title.

As months went on, I started to worry. I was eating into my savings to pay my rent, I wasn’t hearing back from the jobs I was applying to, and it didn’t look like the strikes were ending anytime soon. It was during that time that I had to make a choice – I could either fall into depression or find joy and peace in my uncertain circumstances.

Luckily, there were some Bible verses that spoke to my situation:

“Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the fields and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.”

Those verses grounded me and sustained me. I couldn’t control the state of the industry in which I was working, or whether someone was going to hire me. I could do all that I could and leave the rest up to my heavenly Father.

In the meantime, I learned to stop and look at the birds and the lilies of the fields. In my moments of anxiety, when I was overwhelmed about my next move, I intentionally stopped and made myself count my blessings. This opened my eyes to the abundance around me. I had an apartment with working AC and heat. The sun felt warm on my skin. I could lay out on a blanket in the grass and read a book, listening to the wind rustling the trees.

I learned that resilience isn’t just putting your nose to the grindstone and #hustling to get where you want to go. Sometimes resilience looks like rest; like pausing, choosing peace in the face of uncertainty, and taking in the scenery while you chart your next course.

Contact Info:

• Website: allieochswrites.com
• Instagram: allie_ochs
• Facebook: Allie Ochs
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?trk=homepage-basic_sign-in-submit

Image Credits
Maiyasa Issa David Ochs Deb Salay Sam Hurley Crawford Norman