Kammy Thurman

AWAI Member Since: 2002
Age: 44

What’s your current occupation?

Copywriter/Consultant, Marketing Director

What’s your former occupation?

Travel Agent

What was the first project you landed?

Copywriting/graphic design for a financial planner.

What are your current projects?

I’m ghostwriting a nonfiction book, working on web-based sales letters, product brochures, and DM postcards, and managing marketing and sales for our photography studio.

What has been your proudest copywriting moment?

When we closed on our new home/studio on February 26 of this year. We’re in the midst of building the indoor studio, then we’ll enhance the park-like acreage for an outdoor studio.

After 15 years in the mining industry, my husband, Ward, lost his job in December. Instead of panicking, we just adjusted goals we’d already made for the studio and jumped in full-time right away.

We’re able to go for it because of the business I’ve built in copywriting/graphic design.

What’s your favorite niche to write for?

Photography. I didn’t realize how gigantic this industry is and how many companies use direct marketing until we got involved on the studio level.

What’s your writing routine?

I start at 5 a.m., usually working on a graphic design piece first, because working with layout and colors gets my blood pumping. Then I’ll move onto copy projects. After lunch I switch to marketing for our studio.

Right now, we’re in a big push to advertise the studio, so when my boys get home from school, I spend time with them, then put in another hour or two of copywriting/design in the evening.

Please give us an example of how your life has changed since becoming a copywriter.

HUGELY! If not for my business, Ward would still be in the mining industry, and we’d have had to move to another mining town when he lost his job. Copywriting has not only let me follow my dreams, it’s allowed my husband to follow his as well.

What success tip would you like to share with your fellow writers?

Put yourself out there. Go to seminars, and not just copywriting seminars. Go to seminars in the industries you want to work, so you can start building a reputation and meeting potential clients.

When did you realize you were living the copywriter’s life?

When I started spending most of my time working from my back deck. Now my “off-site” office will be next to a waterfall and pond in my back yard.