Why ‘Roots and Wings Copywriting’?
Just before the pandemic, and one month after losing our little boy, we moved into a house that needed slight renovations doing to it. We spent the first lockdown painting, sanding, cleaning and building furniture – not the most interesting of things to be doing. During this time, I listened to A LOT of podcasts.
One day, I was listening to Fearne Cotton’s ‘Happy Place’ podcast, and she was interviewing Jake Humphrey. During their conversation, he discussed his family motto of ‘roots and wings’. It was something that I had never heard of before and it piqued my interest. It is such a simple, yet powerful, concept. Basically, it means that, as parents, we should give our children ‘roots’ where they have somewhere safe to belong (home) while having a confidence instilled in them to try new things and to spread their ‘wings’.
For the next week, I spent a long time thinking about this motto. As well as being knee-deep in the home renovations, we were also right in the middle of grief for our little boy. Renovating a home that should have been our family home. During this time, we spent a lot of time thinking about what family meant to us. What is family? What is a home? What are our beliefs and hopes for our family in the future?
A home should be a safe place for you to be yourself, without judgement, and a place where making mistakes is ok. A safe sanctuary to return to. My husband and I feel that it is our responsibility to provide this for our children. When a child has secure roots, they naturally develop the confidence to push boundaries; to try new things; to make mistakes and to truly spread their wings.
Fast forward to a year later and I was out for a walk with a very good friend and my beautiful baby girl. My friend was telling me about a course that she was doing. She was also a teacher, but felt it was time to try something new. This was when she told me about copywriting. As soon as I got home, I researched the course, and I just knew it was something I wanted to do. Immediately, I signed up. I completed the course around working part-time and looking after my daughter. And suddenly, I was ready to start really thinking about becoming a copywriter. A freelance copywriter. What should I call my business? And out of nowhere, ‘Roots and Wings Copywriting’ came to me…
Roots: A place to return to and a place of sanctuary. Words are a place of safety and sanctuary for me. As a teacher, I helped children to find their voices; the words you use have a huge impact on the small humans you are helping to shape and the literal teaching of words as a passionate English teacher through story writing, poetry and a whole breadth of non-fiction writing.
Wings: The confidence to push boundaries and try new things. Using my passion for words to try a new career. To build a life around the family that means so much to me and to support businesses to find their voice and push their own boundaries.
Through Roots and Wings Copywriting, I hope to support businesses to find their true ‘roots’ – What is the ethos behind their business? What matters most to them and what message do they want to put out into the world? - while also pushing boundaries and spreading their own ‘wings’.