Content writer Karen McManus explains why she’s excited that her journey in writing and marketing has led her to Resonates.
I started my working life in IT support, which is where I discovered a talent for helping people to understand complex things. It turns out that not everyone can do that! After a few years I decided I wanted to have a bit more creativity in my daily life and made the move into technical and marketing copywriting.
Since then I’ve held all sorts of content and marketing roles, working for a wide range of businesses and marketing agencies in different sectors. For the last few years I’ve been a freelancer writer, and it’s great to be combining this with my role in the Resonates team.
Over the last few years, I’ve been working to better align my environmental and social values with my work life. So I’m excited to be working for an agency that focuses on clients with genuinely innovative green and cleantech solutions. I’m really enjoying getting a deeper understanding of these sectors. Whether it’s Net Zero and Scope emissions, solar or wind energy, EVs or green hydrogen, there’s so much to learn about.
On the high street I rate Marks & Spencer. They’re one of only a few clothing retailers to offer a meaningful, reasonably priced collection for tall people – and who doesn’t enjoy a visit to an M&S food hall? But also because they were so ahead of the crowd with Plan A. They were the first major retailer to become carbon neutral, in 2012, and a pioneer of surplus food redistribution when their scheme launched in 2015.
Although remote vs office working is now considered an old topic, there is still a need for the wider conversation around the value created by people-centric working practices. We’re in the most challenging business environment for many years, and how your people work – both in terms of the culture you create and the infrastructure that enables it – directly affects how your customers experience your business. With many organisations still in denial about this, it’s the businesses successfully addressing these challenges that will pull ahead.
I think the biggest challenge to Net Zero is misinformation. You don’t have to go very far into any media, ‘mainstream’ or social, before you hit a wall of information and opinion that is simply wrong. If I were being generous, I’d say people haven’t been sufficiently well educated about our environmental challenges – or what Net Zero actually means. But there’s increasing evidence of environmental disinformation being deliberately sown for profit.
I don’t think there’s an easy answer in today’s always-on world, but I’m pleased to be contributing to the solution, working with companies at the leading edge of green technology to get credible information out there.
I’ve recently reverted to paperback fiction. I found I was doomscrolling through social media and the constant barrage of news and negative commenting was getting me down. I’ve been collecting books for years to ‘read when I have time’ and I have decided now *is* the time. Also, no-one wants books any more, so they’re only 50p in the charity shop – my book habit is now officially supporting a good cause.
I’m currently reading the psychological thriller None of This Is True, by Lisa Jewell, but it’s quite stressful so I’ve already planned a more relaxing next read: Isabel Allende’s latest novel A Long Petal of The Sea. She tells beautiful stories about love and tragedy, often set in her home country of Chile.
I’m trying to reduce and reuse rather than buy, and when I do make purchases, I look for second hand options, if I can. I want to be a green consumer but it’s hard, as how you judge ‘green’ depends entirely on your own values and measures. An more substantial item might last twice as long but use three times more energy in its production, for example.
I usually buy washing liquids in bulk, refillable tanks, for example Miniml, or Faith in Nature, and I stopped buying liquid soap years ago – I use it as an excuse to buy amazing smelling soap bars from independent makers at craft fairs.
I’m a regular veg box purchaser from Riverford Organic – I can choose a totally seasonal set of items, there’s almost no plastic packaging, and it all tastes so much better than shop-bought.
My dream day would be to make the hike and spend a day in Machu Picchu, investigating the old city and marvelling at the mountainous scenery. I’m not sure I’ll ever be fit enough though!
