Today we’d like to introduce you to Brent Wiggins.
Hi Brent, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started my business Wiggins’ Words in 2018 on my birthday, November 20. I decided before I graduated in December that same year I was going to freelance and become a small business owner. As an English major, I knew I had an even hand in both creative and technical writing. The demand for written communication was there and still is. Writing led me to most of my opportunities. I started as a street poet, busking with a typewriter and writing people poems at farmers markets and festivals. It put a face to me, the writer, and made the act of writing more communal instead of solitary. I was a traditional teacher for a year, a private tutor for a few more years, then I transitioned into copywriting. I worked for in-house marketing departments, publishers, and continued freelancing. I’m lucky to have landed on my feet at different industries in a short amount of time. All in need of writing still.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My path wasn’t always a wide open road. Job security, I learned, was an oxymoron. Competition over collaboration, office politics, working too hard and not enough. Corporate America wasn’t for me. Freelancing has saved me more than once. My family, as difficult as it is to live with them sometimes (in what is slowly becoming a multi-generational home; that is, if my parents make it so in their will), made my work transitions bearable. Working by myself, doing specialized projects, was easier than navigating new faces and places.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a copywriting poet. I create meaningful content for businesses and people who enjoy the written word. My art is writing personalized poems on vintage typewriters. My commerce is copywriting for different industries. I have a spontaneous creative process where I can make abstract ideas concrete. I’m proud of my ingenuity when it comes to new projects and subjects, for myself and others. I published a thought leadership article for an aerospace company in a European magazine after just three months of working there. I copyedited over 100 story submissions for Ripley Entertainment’s annual book, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! I wrote almost 200 articles about the film industry. I’m able to surprise myself when things get stale or repetitive.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
My teachers and professors nurtured my exploration of fiction and nonfiction. My second grade teacher Mrs. Walters introduced me to the scrumdiddlyumptious storyteller Roald Dahl. In eighth grade, my love for reading was solidified with Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. My father encouraged my writing and gave me my work ethic. “Let’s get after it,” he would say. Whenever I thought I failed, he reminded me that I endured and can find my next opportunity or goal and achieve it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wigginswords.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wigginswords/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brentmwiggins/
- Other: https://genius.com/BrentWiggins
