who is carolyn mcmurray and what is word tonic and why should you care?
SIDENOTE; You can find out a lot about a person from their likes and dislikes and the reason they hate pickles. But also it’s fun. And a bit narcy to answer questions about yourself so there you go.
BUT NOW FOR THE ACTUALLY SERIOUS PART ABOUT ME AND WHY I DO WHAT I DO AND MY STORY AND ALL THAT BS
CHAPTER 1:
ALKIE PARENTS AND FINDING MYSELF
I’ve always loved writing. Writing was my knight in shining armour. I was THE KID who would write eight pages at school (and yes, teachers hated me for it).
But more than that; writing was an escape. Now I’m not gonna sit here and be all ‘woe is me’ but I grew up in a family of alcoholics and shit wasn’t easy. And so writing words became a sort of fantasy life away for me.
But I never actually thought I could get paid to write words. That seemed weird. Also because no one at school ever told me copywriting ever existed at school. It was always…become a TEACHER. PUBLISHER. JOURNALIST. Or my favourite…
“Get a real job!”
So having no clue whatsoever, I dragged my ass to uni. Because that’s what everyone does right? (and if I’m being really honest…I went to uni twice).
CHAPTER 1.5:
(not really a chapter but so fucked up it deserves it’s own segment)
The first time I went to uni, I studied business. Because a guy on a date told me to (and when I say date I really should specify that he was a gilf. A grandpa of about 60 years old. Don’t judge me. While my friends were finding themselves through travel and Cosmos, I was busy finding myself through much older men. Ew).
ANYWAY…
The second time I went to study English but...I hated it and I couldn’t afford it. My dad was a postman and my mum was a nanny and there was zero help from the government.
So after analysing why a door was blue for the 30th time (it was obviously a metaphor for depression, duh) and having the last square inch of money drain from my account, I realised I kinda had to quit uni. I was out of money and out of options.
CHAPTER 2:
it's not all shit
Luckily within the last few months of making that decision I found out about copywriting and it was like someone had just set fire to my chair.
I was alive. Feeling. Reeling. HAPPY. Excited.
(not dead)
And so I set out on a journey of making THIS my career.
I started building my portfolio. Networking. Learning about the craft.
But I came up against SO much in my journey; ageism, sexism (one of my ‘bosses’ once met me in a park for an interview and told me how much he disliked his girlfriend) and just a clear lack of help and resources for young people.
I was already on the fringe because I didn't have a degree and now I was up against entry-level jobs asking for shit like 3 years of experience.
ANYWAY I ended up landing my first job at a small agency in Dubai (yip yip yooray) and decided it was time to start connecting and leveling up my career so I turned to…
CHAPTER 3:
copywriting communities
At this stage, I wanted to connect with fellow copywriters.
But every single community I joined was either some hyper alpha-max bro blue-red pill (I don’t even know the difference) guy standing in front of lambo type thing:
Or it was just filled with seniors, which is totally cool. I just couldn’t relate as a 20-something year old.
And as more and more time went on, I realised that 1) there were no real spaces for young people like me to learn about copywriting and 2) none of those spaces were actually fun or in line with my personality.
I started to see people didn’t like the ‘real’ me. When I swore at work, people went quiet like it was this big bad thing. When I told a story on LinkedIn and just did it in my laid back weird way…just because… people got outraged. I felt like I had to be in this boring little corporate box to get on and get work.
But I was so sick of it that one day in 2022 I decided..fuck it. I'm gonna be totally me in my career; weird, sweary, colourful.
This was also the time I started thinking about creating MY OWN community of young writers. And that’s what led me to…
CHAPTER 4:
WORD TONIC
At the start, Word Tonic was just a little newsletter I created to share my experiences of being a gen-z copywriter with other young people.
And I loved it
I could be totally me in it- after all, it was MY BRAND.
I swore. I said cunt. I put up photos of me lying on the pavement after a night out because…real.
And it grew. And grew. And grew. Till one day, I had 3,000 subscribers. Then 13,000.
Now…20,000+
And so I thought…there’s something here.
But I want to build a real community- something where people can talk and learn and grow in their young copywriting careers.
AND SO I LAUNCHED A PAID COMMUNITY (Word Tonic 2.0)
It went from having a few paying subscribers to now having over 2.5k paying members all over the world.
Now it’s a phat hub where young people can come to learn and level up in their copywriting careers- even with no experience.
We do weekly copywriting workshops with brands like Pokemon and Mattel:
Briefs to help build portfolios.
Live challenges with BIG BRANDS. We even do AI workshops so they understand how the industry is changing and can keep up.
And the best part? The community; everyone chatting and being totally themselves.
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Turned out me being me was something other young people needed - and it inspired them to do the same. Being sweary and saying fuck and being weird didn’t make me lose control of my career; it just gave me a stronger one. And THIS is what I'm passionate about sharing in talks.
CHAPTER 5:
and now?
I’ve been running Word Tonic for nearly 3 years and that baby is GROWING YEAR ON YEAR.
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Training up the next gen of talent. Showing them how to work with, not against AI. How to be creative. And how to be themselves in their career.
Now I really want to get on stages and inspire people.
Whether that’s doing a talk on breaking into the creative industries.
Or being yourself.
Or the power of leaning into your ‘weird’ in a world that tries to push you down.
Or gen-z marketing.
I’m most interested in helping and talking to young people.
But I’ve also done workshops and talks for seniors (like LEGO!) who wanted a creative refresh or a gen-z opinion on something.
I’m here and ready xoxo
