We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natalie Clare a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Natalie, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk about innovation. What’s the most innovative thing you’ve done in your career?

The most pleasant surprise I’ve experienced so far is successfully translating my creative ambitions into much-needed marketing services that support small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and companies of varying sizes. Content writing (blogs, articles, web pages, and print material for brands) began as a side hustle. It was a freelance endeavor that supplemented my full-time jobs and summer breaks in grad school. Now, it’s my full-time business that supports my life and my family.

It sounds like a cliche answer — “my side hustle became my career” — but the innovation for me lies in taking the mastery of my creative skills and training, and applying them to a professional career that doesn’t feel like a compromise. I was very stubborn when I was younger (in college and in my early twenties). I wanted an all-or-nothing artistic career, but I didn’t have the means to do it the way I had envisioned (a tiny-but-perfect studio apartment in a city, wowing industry strangers solely with my talent, with a big break just one social connection away). Unavoidable circumstances and challenges in reality overshadowed my dreamy goals, and that seemed heartbreaking for a while. But I took stock of everything that I had in my creative toolkit and went to work. Now, ironically, I’m more creatively charged, and I have the flexibility and means to produce independent artistic work.

Natalie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a full-time freelance writer who works with organizations and solopreneurs to meet their creative communication needs. That includes brand identity content, copywriting, content for digital and broadcast marketing, content consulting, marketing campaigns, and essentially anything else they need that’s related to content and communication. I also write arts and culture articles for regional publications in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Tristate. With these, I aim to amplify the work of independent artists and makers by telling their stories.

This moment in my career is preceded by a lifelong love for the arts and all things creative — specifically, writing and storytelling. I have a B.A. in Creative Writing/English and an M.F.A. in Film from Ohio University, and I’ve worked in theater marketing since 2016. I’m *obsessed* with stories and I’m passionate about hearing them, seeing them, experiencing them, and telling them. I want to know their every single component — from the idiosyncrasies of characters to the tone of voice within the language to the symbolism of an incredible cinematic shot. Turns out, these interests and my dedication to honing them have culminated in a profitable business that pairs the talents of the creative class with the various needs of a business.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I’m a writer, through and through. It touches every aspect of my personality, how I view the world, how I interact with people, etc. To be a strong writer with talent for narrative, you have to be impossibly curious. I’d say that describes me because it takes away the labor of writing and replaces it with a love for the craft. Writing is far more than a skill for me. It’s most certainly my purpose.

That, I believe, comes through when I work with my clients. Curiosity about how to leverage their expertise with what their audience is seeking fuels the strategic portion of my business. I’m also driven by a true “creative solution” approach, in which there are no dead ends. There is always something to create. Likewise, that energy aligns with the artists and makers I profile and interview. I’m completely obsessed with talking to people who create, reflect and document. I relate to their passion. I could talk to them for hours, and I certainly have.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I don’t necessarily infuse *all* of my work with the following insight, but it’s what fuels me as a purpose-driven, creative person.

The value of artists’ work goes far beyond a single project or creation. Artists think deeply about the concepts that affect all of us, and they invite us to do the same through their talent. Since 2016, I’ve consistently seen the same quote by Toni Morrison pop up with renewed salience: “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” We need creative thinkers and artistic makers to remind us of the complete human experience, to show us how to make sense of the world, to bring us back to our values, and, simultaneously, to help us think in new ways.

Creatives see a world in flux as a doorway through which to step. That feels urgent in the wake of recent/ongoing upheavals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nataliecwrites.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nataliecwrites_/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-clare-koking-6488624b/

Image Credits
CallMeRideout Photography Tony Arrasmith