Hi, I'm Mirna, I'm a Conscious Copywriter and Email Strategist for people who want to use their business for change.
I believe I know we can create a world where we…
- Resist the dated marketing rules and common persuasion tactics
- Refuse to track people simply as metrics, leads and conversions
- Market our businesses genuinely and with integrity
- Sell using communication, not manipulation
- See each other as human-to-human
Over the past 10 years…
I have completed dozens of training courses in various copywriting styles, including Conversion Copywriting through Copyhackers and its opposite, Feminist Copywriting by Kelly Diels.
During this decade I immersed myself in the world of content and communication. I selected the tools and techniques that feel in alignment with my values (leaving behind the ones that didn’t) and created my own approach to helping people communicate consciously online.
I speak up about persuasion marketing because I want people to know that (1) it’s more pervasive than they think, and (2) marketing can be done differently.
My clients strive to use their businesses for good, and I love helping them lead with impact, to do business better.
Because…
Respect belongs in online marketing
And change can happen when we decide to do things differently.
As a change maker, I bet you want to:
- Clarify your offer so you can communicate it with confidence
- Create a shift in your industry and in the way things ‘have always been done’
- Use your business for good in the world, selling in a way that puts people first
If this sounds like you, check out my copywriting service.
Here’s what has led me to being the copywriter I am today.
In an effort to keep improving my skills so I could best help my clients and their businesses, I kept buying course after course, only to be disappointed by the content.
How was it that something that sounded so promising on the sales page didn’t even come close to what I had expected to find in the course?
I knew the persuasion techniques that were used to sell these programs. I had trained in how to use them. Yet they still worked on me.
That’s how persuasive they can be.
But the thing is – the techniques themselves aren’t bad. The way they’re often used are.
Buyers are viewed as nothing more than metrics, and our businesses are reduced to sales machines, instead of being agents for change.
And so I got to the end of 2020, having spent a considerable amount of time and money learning various online marketing approaches, and realised I disagreed with so much of what I had been taught.
And, consequently (which was confronting), I realised I disagreed with so much of what I had been doing.
I didn’t want to show up that way in my business or be a part of creating that kind of world.
I started actively unlearning many of the techniques I’d learned. I knew I had to commit at least as much effort, time and money to learning ‘ethical’ marketing as I had spent learning traditional, manipulative marketing techniques.
And so my new journey began.
However...
I don’t call myself an ethical copywriter.
Because ethics are subjective.
Here's what I mean:
- Some people who call themselves ethical do things I don't agree with. That doesn’t make either of us right or wrong, but it shows we have different standards for what we deem to be ‘ethical’.
- Ethical has become a buzzword, the equivalent of natural or sustainable. Just because we claim it is, doesn't make it true.
- There’s no rulebook for what is and isn’t acceptable in order to be ‘ethical’. And I certainly don’t get to decide what is.
So instead I use conscious communication.
I am conscious about what I put out into the world.
I am continuously exploring and gaining knowledge about how to minimise harm in the content I put out (especially to vulnerable people and marginalised communities). But I know I won’t always get it right. This is an ongoing journey. I’m still learning (and unlearning).
And that’s where I am now. On a road with (thankfully!) no end point in sight, where I get to keep growing so I can bring that knowledge into the copy I create for you, so together we can work towards creating a kinder world.
Want to see how we can work together? View my copywriting service.
Oh! You want to know about ME me? Like some personal stuff?
OK ... here are some fun facts:
I was born in a country that no longer exists
I was born in Bosnia & Herzegovina, which was Yugoslavia when I was born. I grew up speaking Bosnian at home and didn’t learn English until I started primary school in Wellington, New Zealand, where I moved to when I was 3. Speaking Bosnian means I also speak Serbian, Croatian and Montenegrin… but that’s a (political) story for another day.
I left school at 15 and became a hairdresser
When I left NZ to move to Australia, I enrolled in hairdressing school, but only because I missed the intake date for enrolling in cooking school (I really wanted to be a chef).
Hairdressing was my first career and my introduction to manipulation and persuasion. I had to charge $95 for a ‘Director Stylist Cut’ when I was only 17 and not yet fully qualified, simply because I looked old enough to get away with it. It was also where I was first taught to recommend products based on what we had in stock, rather than what was best for my client, simply to get the sale.
I LOVE cooking and experimenting with food
If I have the time and space, I love love love to cook – hence the plan to be a chef (and my later dream to be a cake decorator). My first website was a healthy food and recipe blog, which I eventually gave up after realising it cost way too much to experiment with recipes, only to give them away for free online! I have also been involved in menu creation and raw cake recipe creation for a health food cafe. 
I studied kinesiology for one year
After leaving the toxic environment of hairdressing, where I was breathing in product fumes all day, I did what felt like the complete opposite and enrolled in kinesiology (also known as applied kinesiology). This is where I learned about connecting to intuition, self healing and holistic health. While I decided I didn’t want to be a practitioner, I still use the tools of kinesiology to this day, and my intuition guides my writing projects.
I started a travel blog that featured 40+ writers from around the world
I was lucky enough to spend over two years travelling with my husband through Europe, Southeast Asia, South Africa, Morocco and India. I had a beautiful travel blog with over 40 writers contributing to it. I forgot to maintain the website once I had my kids and accidentally let the domain lapse so someone else bought it. 
But this site helped me refine my writing skills, improve my editing skills and also led me to be featured on Virgin Australia’s online site, in The Huffington Post and win a 12-month contract writing for Destination Gold Coast.
I truly love what I do
In my early copywriting days, I wrote because I was able to bring words together that sounded pretty good. With every year that has passed, I feel like I’ve grown closer and closer to being the writer I’m on this planet to be. Which, to be honest, is really just a translator of my clients’ thoughts and knowledge into online speak, creating copy that they're proud to share.
And that’s why…
I’m on a mission to…
- Help business owners shine a light on their copy to confidently shake up their industry and make the change they were born to make
- Humanise sales rather than track people as metrics, leads and conversions
- Make the online world a kinder place
I love working with people who see their business as an extension of themselves, as their purpose, as their soul work. People who understand that the intention behind their communication is integral to creating marketing that aligns with their own values.
If you want to see more about how I work, visit my services.
Nereda Wills
OWNER, NATURAL NEDDY - HERBAL TONICS FOR ACUTE ILLNESSES
"I would not hesitate to recommend Mirna. Her work was exceptional.
The quality, accuracy and relevance was spot on. She was highly professional, delivered her work in excellent time and showed great care to me as her client. Mirna has great skill as a copywriter.”
Latest from my blog, A Breath of Fresh Marketing
I acknowledge that I live and work on Yuggera Land - home to the Turrbal People. I pay my respects to their Elders - past and present - and appreciate their ongoing physical and spiritual connection to the land and waters.
I acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. This always was and always will be Aboriginal Land.