FAQ

I am one of those annoying people – like early morning people (I am one of those too, awful I know) who like to plan the shit out of everything in advance.

This might irritate you now, but trust me, you will love this later.

Because I don’t do panic-induced deadlines or blow up my workflow, I am often booked up in advance. 

The fastest way to get your show on the road is to book yourself in for a call with me.

We can see each other’s faces, you can hear my South African accent and you can listen to the birds I just fed 5 minutes before our call that I always forget not to do.

Get a head start and fill in this form beforehand so that I can provide you with a detailed proposal. 

Once you have signed off on the proposal and paid your deposit, we will be ready to rock ‘n roll.

Yep. You totally can.

You can also wear socks and jandals to a board meeting, eat ice cream while dripping it on your boss’s desk, or run naked through the underground parking at work. 

But should you?

If you have used ChatGPT or any other bot writing software, then you know what’s cooking in that kitchen.

If you don’t, then you will want to know that the ingredients are predominantly plagiarised and factually incorrect. 

I wouldn’t trust it to write anything I have given blood, sweat and tears to, like my business.

Need to bang out a rap song for a co-worker who is leaving, a list of puns, alliterations or Dad jokes in a flash?

ChatGPT could be justs the bot for the job.

Articulating the specific nuances of what you do in order to:

• Wow your customers
• Impress your suppliers
• Make your stakeholders so stoked that you get the fancy box at the rugby from now on.

Then you will need an experienced human writer to do it for you.

As a very proud parent of two daughters who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, that makes me a very proud ally to all.

Yes!

I work with all kinds of mad people (you might call them clients) all over the world.

Sometimes we have meetings in our pyjamas in the middle of the night with people from so many countries it could be a mini UN meeting. Some of us have wine, others have coffee and those with kids flinging butternut on the ceiling wish they had wine.

You don’t need fancy pjs or to press your slacks, hell you don’t even need a bra (we ALL know Susan)

We have fun and just do what needs to be done. Easy as. #bringyourdog<

This comes up a lot.

While I understand the tactile need for you to see the word wine in a sentence to see if I am capable of writing anything, there is a lot more that goes into strategy and copywriting than just stringing a few words together.

First off the bat, I am not going to tell you I am a technical medical copywriter when I am sure as shit am not. Although I can recommend you to a few ninjas, that are.

I can tell you that since the dark digital age of the early 2000s, when Google was still brand new in the box, I have written and created content for all kinds of government, corporate, entrepreneurial, weird, wonderful, wacky businesses living their best lives. 

A good copywriter doesn’t actually need to have used the word wine in a sentence where you can see it to see if they can write about wine.

Would you need to see every painting an artist has painted using the colour blue to see if they can paint?

If you are new at this, let’s start with a chat and see if a small one-off project would be a good way for us to jam.

If you have perused my portfolio and spied on my clients and still think you need to see how I use the word wine in a sentence to see if I can write, we might not be a good fit.

But the first time is always a bit nerve-wracking, right? Let’s start with a chat and see if a small one-off project would be a good way for us to jam.

Sawubona! Dumela! Groete! Molo! Kia ora!

I grew up in a country with 11 official languages. We were so privileged to be utterly immersed in a melting pot of diversity – a feast of different cultures and languages. So when I arrived in New Zealand from South Africa in 2017, I didn’t hesitate to embrace the Te Reo Māori language and culture.

At home, I speak two languages and have been steadily learning Te Reo Māori as my third. My knowledge and appreciation have increased with every Te Reo project I have been invited to work on.

If you would like me to work on yours, let’s jump on a zui (zoom hui) and let’s kōrero about the mahi.

What a question. I would laugh hysterically, except I have actually been asked this before.

Here is the short answer: EVERYBODY uses AI. 

Used spell check recently? You use it too.

This is what I use AI for:

• Spelling and grammar checks
• Ideation
• Checking work people send to me for plagiarism
• Keyword research 
• TOV (Tone of voice) research
• Live SEO page scoring.
  
  

and such.

AI is a brilliant research tool and as the technology develops, writers who take the time to upskill and learn how to drive it can take their strategic work to the next level.

Obvs, I am doing this.

I wrote a fun toolbox post about it here. Bonus tour of my Dad’s AMAZING workshop (slightly unrelated) included in the post.

Paying invoices on time is a big deal around here and I have strong expectations about being paid for the work I do at the time we agreed on before we started.

Payment and other boring, but totally important information can be found on the invoice I will send you. Payments can be made directly from a link in the invoice via debit or credit card or through a good old bank transfer.

International Payments

House of Jam uses also uses Wise to receive international payments. Details of payments, processing and fees can all be found in the Terms of Service agreement that will accompany your proposal. 

All the adulting has been taken care of, you just have to throw the money at it.