Wahi @ Work : Josh

1. Give us the 30-second elevator pitch about what you do at Wahi.

As a staff writer at Wahi, I’m responsible for creating lots of content for Wahi. The role is a combination of journalism, copywriting, and PR, so the content I write includes articles for the online magazine as well as press releases and reports for the media or landing-page copy for our website.

2. How and why did you get into your industry?

I went to college for journalism when I was 25 because I was tired of working at a grocery store. Journalism, I figured, was a way that I could make money writing, which alongside reading, is a huge passion of mine. Since graduating three years later, writing is basically all I’ve done professionally — with the exception of some DJ gigs here and there (I mostly play disco).

3. What do you love most about your job?

I’m social, so I’ve always loved interviewing people, and I’m glad that’s something I get to do with expert sources when I’m working on some of my articles for Wahi. I also love trying to create compelling stories from data, and that’s something else I get to do a lot of at Wahi.

4. What does your day look like?

It really depends on the day. Most days I’ll start off by scanning the real estate sections of the big Canadian news websites. From there, it’s really a matter of what projects we have on the go at the time. I could be working on copy for a PR campaign, brainstorming content ideas, writing, combing through data, interviewing an economist over the phone, building or fixing web posts on the content management system — it varies quite a bit.

5. What book are you currently reading?

I’m currently reading the novel New Millennium Boyz by Alex Kazemi. He got a book deal after a Tumblr post that he wrote went viral about a decade ago, but he only finished the novel this year. It has been promoted by Bret Easton Ellis, one of my favourite authors, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

6. Do you have any advice for people who want to be a writer?

Start out with a night course to see if it’s really something you want to do.

Try not to say no to new opportunities — you don’t know where they’ll lead.

Proofread your work. At a previous job, I edited reporters who had contributed to publications such as the New York Times and Maisonneuve, and the typos and other errors would surprise you. If you’re known as someone who files clean copy, on deadline, you’ll likely have no shortage of work. 

If you’re trying to sell an article or story (or any other content), keep pitching despite the rejections.