Welcome, I’m Paul
The world is changing faster than ever—the rise of AI, increasing competition, demanding clients, and a constantly shifting creative landscape is forcing us all to adapt.
I hope that Ironclad Creative can help. I’ve written these guides to support new and experienced content creators and freelancers to become resilient and stay agile as we face new challenges. If you want to work effectively, create beautiful content, be successful, and build trust, then I hope you find inspiration here.
Please note that this newsletter is not affiliated with the UK Community Interest Company, Ironclad Creative CIC, which you can find here, and there is no intent to challenge any of their intellectual property or trademarks.
I’ve been running a freelance business since 2006—originally in the UK, and now in the US. I work full-time as a professional freelance writer focusing on business, finance, and technology. I know a little bit about being a successful content creator, and I want to share that knowledge with you.
I’ve based these guides on my own questions, research, and experiences. I’m a productivity geek, which means I’m always looking for ways to do things better. The stuff I write here is a combination of my curiosity, learning, and desire to help others.
Each guide contains my distilled knowledge about the subject, combined with independent research and learning from some of the best minds in the freelance world. I’ve also interspersed each guide with my personal take and examples of how I’ve applied that learning.
I certainly don’t know everything, and my way isn’t necessarily the right way! Although I’ve refined the freelance techniques you’ll read about here, there’s always room for improvement. I hope you’ll see these guides as a starting point and build upon them, based on your unique needs, insight, expertise, and experience.
My professional background
I’ve been a full-time freelance writer since 2016, originally writing across many different niches. Early on, I realized that my writing was best-suited to a business audience—I’ve been running a business since 2006, so I had a good understanding of the challenges that business owners have to face! That made it easy to specialize into B2B writing, and my personal interest in technology and finance allowed me to deepen my expertise and understanding even further.
I have more than 15 years of experience owning a business, doing everything from marketing and customer acquisition through to relationship management, operations, and bookkeeping. I started the business, Freelance Editorial Services, to support my wife becoming a freelance copy editor and proofreader, and now use it as the basis for my own freelance writing career.
I’m originally from the United Kingdom, and emigrated to the United States in 2013, where I now live.
Employment experience and content marketing
Prior to becoming a freelancer, I held several positions in IT services and communications management. I’ve included some of those areas below, and those experiences and skills have contributed to my writing expertise.
Organizational change and culture
My employer moved me into the HR department to help manage organizational change through IT. This involved dealing with very difficult communications and trying to maintain a positive culture while employees were dealing with major changes and layoffs.
Communications management
I was an interface between IT and the business helping them deliver major projects by communicating with end users. I was heavily involved in training, communications planning, managing stakeholders, strategy, and several other areas.
IT service and project management
I moved into a more senior management role. Part of my responsibilities were looking after IT services and dealing with incidents and problems that stopped those services functioning. I dealt with many other IT service areas including capacity, availability, change, and more. Project management was a growing interest, and I managed several small projects for IT service improvement.
Financial and business analysis
I was responsible for business analysis, working with business areas to understand the projects they needed and translating their needs into project requirements. I also carried out financial analysis to help manage IT and business costs.
I have professional training across several areas:
Six Sigma Process Improvement
IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
Problem Management Practitioner
Project Management from APM
Making Metrics Meaningful (internal training)
Writing for Business (internal training)
Writing for the Web (internal training)
Effective Project Communications (internal training)
Stakeholder analysis and management (internal training)
Excellence Through People (internal training)
My professional interests
I’m fascinated by most aspects of business—how someone takes the seed of an idea and develops it into a fully-fledged organization that’s creating something purposeful, powerful, and new in the world. I’m particularly interested in:
The stories that data tells us, and how we can use information and analysis to make better decisions in our lives and businesses.
The importance of other perspectives, and understanding the issues, challenges, and unique viewpoints of our customers, partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
The interconnectedness of business, and how complex, interdependent systems like supply chains or financial markets impact on people’s lives and work.
The rise of automation and artificial intelligence, and what algorithms and integrations mean to how we process and act on information.
The need for continual improvement, and the idea that we can always be tweaking and polishing our operations and activities.
The demand that we become better environmental stewards, putting Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the heart of good business.
The resilience of business to big risks and issues, like pandemics, supply chain disruptions, and other world-changing events.
Where you can find me online
If you want to find me or my content online, I’m active in a few different places:
My freelance writing portfolio features a selection of my ghostwritten and bylined work across many different niches and formats.
I contribute to, curate, and moderate a community of more than 120,000 freelance writers on the Freelance Writers subreddit. My username there is paul_caspian.
Here’s my LinkedIn profile, although I’m not a particularly active user of the platform!
I’ve been writing on business-related topics for Incfile, a leading business formation company, since 2017.
I regularly write for the leading technology publications TechRadar and IT Pro Portal.
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