I had my first panic attack when I was 13.
I was home alone, relaxing and watching a movie, and suddenly felt a headrush: I was dizzy, and my heart was pounding. Crawling up the stairs to my bathroom, I sat on the floor and convinced myself I was definitely dying. Yep, this was it.
(Spoiler – I wasn’t dying).
Around the same time as experiencing my first panic attack, I also experienced a change in my vision. I developed something called ‘visual snow’, where I have constant flickering television static in my eyes (it looks like this).
A visit to my doctor confirmed I was not going to die or go blind.
But throughout school and university, I continued to have these panic attacks, and I became depressed about my vision. As a child, I would read several books a week, but now, looking at the white page just hurt my head.
With a combination of near-daily panic attacks and my visual problems, I became a terrible student. I couldn’t focus in a bright lecture hall, where we expected to be silent and sit still for 50 minutes at a time. I felt my body going into panic mode the entire time, and I started to skip most classes. I even walked out of an exam (and got a D for my efforts).
There’s no treatment for visual snow, and it’s not well understood – so I had to learn to live with that.
But I knew I could take control of my mind and control my anxiety. Unfortunately, the waiting list for NHS therapy was upwards of 6 months, and I felt hopeless.
So, I did what most of us do on a daily basis: I turned to the internet to solve my problems.
Becoming a content writer
I googled everything I could about anxiety and the symptoms I was experiencing.
While there was plenty of poor information online, I was able to find some reliable information through quality blogs.
The anxiety never stopped: but I learned how to control it. I learned my triggers and developed coping mechanisms. I started to understand the importance of exposure. The more I would withdraw, the worse I would get. So, I forced myself to get out into the world.
A therapist would’ve been much more effective, but through the power of the internet, I was able to access high-quality information to help me at least understand my problem.
The fact that I could access this information in a few seconds was incredible to me.
So when it came time to leave education and my coffee shop job, becoming a content writer felt like a natural choice.
A friend I had worked with in the coffee shop had got me on a few freelance writing jobs. The work (and pay) wasn’t great, but I felt myself improving fast.
To get some stability, I took a position as a content writer in an office.
The memory of walking into my first office job is vivid. There were murmurs of hellos, and I sat down at my pale white desk.
There was an eerie silence: I could only hear typing and the odd whisper. It was also way too hot.
I soon realised that I have about 3-4 hours of quality writing in me per day, usually in one long session, before my brain shuts down. My job was pure writing, and I had no client interaction. I was in the office for 8.5 hours, most of which was unproductive, yet I still felt completely exhausted when I got home.
The entire office was painted white, with super bright overhead lights. This sends my eyes into overdrive and almost guarantees a headache by 1 pm. Staying still for so long was not good for my mental health, and I felt my anxiety worsening again.
From then on, I decided I would only work remotely. While I love meeting people in person, I can’t write when I’m uncomfortable.
A bit like this, but without the plants. No offence if your office looks like this…
Why I joined Mint
While freelancing, I reached out to a job ad for Mint Copywriting Studios. It looked like an interesting position, so I applied. From the first interview and writing test, it was clear that the Mint approach significantly differed from what I was used to.
They had produced great client results, and I was a little intimidated.
The first few months were challenging: I wasn’t used to writing such in-depth articles. The level of research and planning was new to me.
But thanks to some direct and specific feedback, I adapted, and I can honestly say this was the most I’ve grown professionally in any 6 month period.
Not only did my writing improve, but I also learned content strategy and how to design a content calendar that brings in leads.
Fast forward to today, and I’ve been with Mint for over a year now for two main reasons:
1. The content we create actually solves people’s problems
When I was searching Google for ways to manage my mental health, the few quality articles really stood out to me.
They addressed my problem directly – my pain points – and got into practical ways to help me understand what I was experiencing and find solutions. There was very little fluff.
The poor content was shallow, with generic explanations. There were no unique insights or expert advice.
I’m not judging, though. I’ve written a lot of poor content in my time. Before working for Mint, I’m willing to bet that not many people found the early content I wrote particularly helpful, either.
Uploading my blogs felt like tipping a tablespoon of water into a swimming pool. I was adding to the thousands of mediocre articles online about top-level, vague topics. And I was hardly an expert on them, either.
Working with Mint is so much more satisfying because we focus on bottom-of-the-funnel content.
Each article is incredibly in-depth and has quality information that answers the reader’s problems. To make sure we’re writing at an advanced level of knowledge, we’ll interview a product expert before each article. This lets us tell the reader we know what we’re talking about.
When you actually help a reader solve a problem with your product, they turn into leads.
Being able to turn a blog into a tool for growing a business is extremely exciting to me.
2. The Mint team are remote and work asynchronously
Creating a good piece of work is far more important to me than doing it quickly. I hate rushing.
When I applied to the Mint job ad, one of the main appeals was that they’re not a fast-paced agency. They believe in doing the job right: quality is the top priority.
Also, we work remotely and asynchronously. As someone who struggles to sit in one space for too long, I can organise my work in a way that suits me.
For me, this means getting my ‘deep work’ done first in the morning. This is where I get my most demanding tasks of the day complete. I then hit the gym, work some more, take a long walk, and schedule my client calls in the late afternoon.
As well as being a content strategist, I’ve been able to train as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist to help people who had the same problems as me. By having control of my work, I can stay energised so that both my Mint clients and my therapy clients get the best version of me.
Do less: but do it better
We spend nearly a third of our life working. It’s unrealistic to expect all of that time to be fun, but I’d argue you ought to feel like your work is having an impact.
Being satisfied with your work isn’t about clocking in unproductive hours at an uncomfortable desk. It’s about creating value for your clients, and their readers.
If you’ve made it to the end of this article, I’d invite you to take a second and think about your work life. Are you really putting your energy into things that matter and show results? Or are you getting caught up in busywork?
If it's the latter, maybe it's time to shake things up. Focus on what counts, even if it means doing less. Trust me, not only will your work improve, but you'll also start feeling more fulfilled in life.
