Life & Work with NICOLE PAJER of Los Angeles, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to NICOLE PAJER.

Hi NICOLE, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have loved writing for as long as I can remember. Before I did it for a living, I used to do write every chance I got. I wrote my own children’s book when I was in elementary school. I used to write in a diary as a kid. I was always in advanced English classes all throughout school. And when social media came out, I was the girl who was filling out all those cheesy quizzes.

Growing up, it was always hammered into me that the only jobs in journalism were to work for a newspaper. And that seemed hard to imagine without living in a city like New York. So I pursued my second passion—music. I got a job working for a music distribution company in my hometown, then moved to Los Angeles to work for a record label. I eventually got head hunted by a fortune 500 company and took a very fancy job that involved being glued to a cubicle all day with no creative outlet. So I started writing on the side. I found job postings on Craigslist and took on some very low budget gigs. And I loved every minute of it! Then I took the plunge and went full freelance writer. I made less my first year than I did working at the mall when I was 16. But I gradually built up a writing portfolio and landed more and more prestigious gigs. Before I knew it, I had a very amazing full time career as a freelance writer.

Today, I freelance for a variety of publications, do corporate copywriting, red carpet interviews, teach writing classes, mentor writers 1:1, ghostwrite for all sorts of interesting people, and am basically as jack of all trades as it gets!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Breaking out of corporate life and taking the risk to take my career into my own hands wasn’t easy. I grew up in the midwest where everyone went to college, studied (and partied ;-p) hard, graduated, got a 9-to-5 job, went after the fancy promotion, bought the home…corporate security all the way. Freelancing was such a foreign concept to me. I started my career working on a laptop on the couch and it took discipline to manage my own career. I didn’t have meetings to attend, bosses with offices next to my cubicle watching over me, or any structure to my day. It felt crazy not having a corporate paycheck to rely on. But I had the motivation that my career was in my hands and it felt great to get a paycheck knowing exactly what I put into it. The harder I worked, the better I did. And that was a fantastic feeling.

I reached out to other writers and developed a great community of colleagues. I found mentors who inspired me along the way and took them out for lunches to pick their brains or hired them for private coaching sessions. I joined forums and groups, took writing workshops, and networked harder than I ever had in my life. All of that opened so many doors. It was a hustle but definitely paid off.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m an award-winning freelance writer published in The New York Times, Woman’s Day, Hemispheres, Glamour, Self, People, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Mental Floss, Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, Entrepreneur, AARP, Parade, The Hollywood Reporter, Emmy Magazine, Wired, and more. I also do copywriting and branded content work for clients like Amazon, Prenuvo, Honda, HBO, Lifetime, AAA, Hyland’s Naturals, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Universal Music Group, Brookdale Senior Living, and Gentherm.

I love turning even the most mundane topics into articles that I would want to read. I have broken trends before anyone else has even touched them. I have interviewed all sorts of interesting people. I’ve helped brands get in front of bigger audiences. I’ve won several awards for my work. And my inbox is constantly full of emails from readers who connected with a recent article that I wrote, which makes what I do even more rewarding.

One day you’ll find me writing a cover story about Rob Lowe. The next, I might be helping a new children’s apparel brand find its voice. And the day after that? Breaking down dead butt syndrome (yes, that’s a real thing—aka muscle issues from too much time on the couch) for a health publication. I might hop from that into writing a commercial script for a new teeth-straightening device and then heading to set to watch it come to life as the brand’s spokesperson—aka an Olympic track star—leaps over trash cans in a scene that I wrote (that was such a fun gig!). It’s never a dull moment!

What does success mean to you?
Success for me is getting to do what I love for a living. When I grew up, a lot of people around me talked about how “it’s a job. you’re not supposed to love it.” But I have worked hard to prove that you can do what you love and get paid for it.

I love the freedom of choosing my own clients and setting my own schedule. Every morning, I look forward to opening my emails to see what opportunities await. I thrive on helping people tell their stories, enabling experts to share their knowledge, and getting brands in front of the right audiences. Most of all, I love the challenge of taking an idea and turning it into a finished piece—whether it’s an article, blog post, social media content, website copy, a billboard, or museum panels—whatever my clients need, I’m excited to create it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nicolepajer.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicolepajer/?hl=en
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-pajer-418761a/
• Twitter: https://x.com/NicolePajer