Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #55 With Victoria MacDonald

Or listen on: iTunes| Stitcher| Spotify| Google Play| Download

Victoria MacDonald is a writer, public relations expert, and social media influencer. A rough start in life, and her partner, Scott, being seriously injured in a helicopter incident, left her battling severe depression and had both of them trying to figure out how to make ends meet, especially since they had just purchased their dream fixer-upper home on a cliff overlooking the northeast coast of Scotland. Fortunately, Scott had a knack for websites and design, and started a money tips brand—but he needed content. Victoria’s first article was about how to save money when buying bananas, but the real win was noticing how this silly creative outlet gave her a bit of a boost from the black dog she was fighting. She started her own blog, full of funny anecdotes about her daily life, named greatHerday. 

Coupled with her work to build a following on social media, greatHerday took off, and before long, she and Scott were being invited on media trips and promotions all over the UK and beyond. Eventually, they renamed the website The Aye Life (as Scott was not well-represented in the “Her” part of their previous brand). With their work promoting their own brand to a following of over 50,000, and the destinations they traveled to, local businesses started approaching them for help with design, social media, and public relations (PR)—and they opened The Aye Agency, a digital and PR firm specializing in grassroots campaigns and personality-rich content.

What You’ll Learn About Writing This Week:

• The importance of remembering where you came from but not letting it define or limit you
• How you can apply your own fun personality and voice to an otherwise proper brand
• The magic that happens when you don’t do what everyone else is doing 
• How writing can literally save some people’s lives
• How finding our purpose doesn’t always have to be a “big event,” and can be something you hadn’t realized 
• Going beyond the canned pitches and emails to find fun opportunities

Mentioned in This Episode (Links and Resources!):

• The Aye Life Facebook page
• Scottish highland dance
• Resources for people experiencing homelessness in Scotland
• Loch Ness Monster
• Victoria’s articles about Edinburgh (and reviews)
• The Aye Agency

You Can Find More of Victoria and Her Writing On: 

• The Aye Life
  • Twitter, @TheAyeLife
  • Facebook, @TheAyeLife
  • Instagram, @TheAyeLife
• The Aye Agency
  • Twitter, @TheAyeAgency
  • Facebook, @TheAyeAgency

• Instagram, @TheAyeAgency

Tweetable Quotes From This Episode:

• “These fingers of mine just spew out words sometimes, even when my head’s like, ‘I hate everything.’” – @VictoriayeMac on #WritersRoughDrafts
• How writing saved Victoria’s life: “[In Edinburgh] I was totally distracted by creating content, so I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself and … looking back, that purpose literally changed my life.” – @VictoriayeMac on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “If there are fun ways of asking somebody for something, or ways of doing something different, I will always, always go down that route … and they have 99% paid off.” – @VictoriayeMac on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “I never followed any guides, I never watched any videos … I just Googled ‘what do I not do?’ so I didn’t break any rules or piss anyone off.” – @VictoriayeMac on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “One thing is that, regardless of what I’m talking about … I still make it real and it’s still often funny, even if it’s dark humor.” – @VictoriayeMac on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “There’s a thing that creative people have, and I think I’ve always had it, but I didn’t know I had it … and I discourage people from doing things exactly the way everyone else is doing them.” – @VictoriayeMac on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “The best thing for anyone working with a business [as a writer] is that you need to get the story and the goals.” – @VictoriayeMac on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Always be yourself … By being yourself, you’re already being different, so don’t follow the crowd. And second, don’t be boring as shit!” – @VictoriayeMac on #WritersRoughDrafts