We were lucky to catch up with Caroline Kidd recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Caroline, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Before I officially started KC Creative, I was freelancing for a while. The goal was just to do some writing and expand my portfolio. I didn’t have a lot of vision for the season I was in so my game plan was to take writing jobs that piqued my interest. One of the writing gigs I took at the beginning of my career influenced what I wanted my company to become in the long run. I signed on as a blog writer for Honeymoonalways.com and started writing travel guides for couples all across the world who were planning their honeymoons.

Although I wrote quite a few featured pieces about traveling within the U.S., I really enjoyed writing about international travel destinations. Whether it was writing travel guides for Bora Bora or Peru, getting to research the locations and plan trips for couples worldwide was so much.

Fast forward three years later and a dear friend of mine, Mallory Smith began telling me about her ethical accessories business “Interwoven Collective”. They sourced all of their leather and jewelry for local vendors in Ethiopia dedicated to paying their workers a living wage and improving the state of perpetual poverty in their city, Addis Ababa. I wrote some website copy for her and we crafted a blog post together with the aim of educating her audience about the mission of her business.

One year later, I was boarding a plane where our team would spend the next two weeks in the capital city of Africa meeting the businesses we’d been partnering with. Getting to interview businesses like Sabahar, Tibeb Leather Works and Lila Products was a thrill. These were people who lived across the world but shared common interests and goals of social entrepreneurship and benefitting our communities. You can read my interview with Tibeb Leather Works here https://kccreativeatx.com/my-work/tibeb-leather-works

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I come from an academic background and kind of stumbled into entrepreneurship along the way. My undergraduate degree was in communication and I’ve always loved writing, so overall it’s not super surprising to friends and family that know me that I ended up writing.

Once I finished my master’s degree in English Literature, I took a break from the hustle and was freelance writing. During that time, I ended up moving to Austin, Texas and got connected with the local community of entrepreneurs in our city. They were hungry for writing to support their businesses, so I started developing my copywriting skills. At first, I was taking on smaller projects like blog posts and shorter websites for anyone who was interested. As time passed, I started to realize how much I loved partnering with creative businesses.

Fast forward to 2022 and I decided to pivot my offerings toward more visually creative entrepreneurs. I started offering branding voice guides for photographers and videographers specifically. It’s really fun to write for creators who have such a well-developed aesthetic eye and create beautiful imagery and I think my writing compliments their artistic expression well.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott has been a helpful resource whenever I’m struggling with overwhelming feelings about writing. Often times, after I’ve onboarded a new client and am about to start a project, I struggle with feeling overwhelmed and intimidated. Typically, the more talented the creative, the easier it is for me to feel the pressure to produce writing that’s strong enough to complement their art well. Although I have a proven process and follow a pretty rigorous schedule when it comes to writing, uncovering a brand’s voice and writing a 10-page website can still feel daunting. Most of Anne’s advice on writing and life in her book stems from her personal experiences with writing along with what it was like being raised by her father who was also a famous author and the ways she watched him cope with similar pressures.

I’ll often go back and read her passage about how staring at a blank page is one of the most intimidating things for a writer. If I can follow her advice and get out a “shitty first draft”, it often gets me out of my head and onto the page. Writing a shitty first draft is one of the most helpful pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten because at least it’s a starting point. Then from there you can add, edit, brainstorm, and revise. I think the advice also translates well into entrepreneurship as a whole. You’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t start. And the chances of your starting point being shaky and unsure are probably high. But so much of what we do as business owners is inherently experimental and it’s easy to lose drive when we allow ourselves to fall into the trap of pursuing perfection.

But the reason we’re entrepreneurs is because we’re probably more comfortable with risk than most people. So creating something and sending it out into the world will always be scary, but the great part is that our ideas get to grow and change as we do. So in a lot of ways, we’re all putting out shitty first drafts. My business isn’t anywhere close to what it was like when I first started writing and through plenty of shitty first drafts, I’m slowly starting to get comfortable starting from a place I’m not proud of and watching my ideas and writing evolve into something I want to show off.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

When it comes to KC Creative, my mission is to help creatives be thoughtful about the words they write and how they position themselves in the market. The more time I’ve spent around the creative community in Austin, Texas, the more I’m so impressed by everyone’s skill sets and the incredible talents they possess. Usually, these businesses aren’t recognized like they should be because they don’t know how to position themselves in the market or they don’t have the time to devote to their website or a writing strategy.

My hope is to support creative businesses by providing them with a strong strategy and a really impressive digital writing presence. I want everyone in the business space to be as encouraged by creative entrepreneurs as I have- it’s a gift.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kccreativeatx.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kccreative.atx/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-kidd-5674b393/

Image Credits
Mackenzie Smith Photo