As well as wearing lovely floral tops while standing by a tree, Johanna Payton has written for a wide variety of publications including The Daily Express, Practical Parenting and The Guardian. She specialises in hard-hitting 'real life' stories for women's magazines.
Jo lives in Tooting, London, with husband Matthew and two-year-old old son Eliott. She's one of that much-envied breed - a freelancer who not only quit a steady nine-to-five job to pursue her dream - but who has also found huge success.
Please explain your route into freelance journalism:
I was always interested in a career in journalism, but, without any clear career advice and in the interests of paying the rent, I started out in publishing during 1995, writing in-house marketing copy and dabbling in advertising sales. I didn't enjoy the job and as I was massively into music I applied for an assistant's position with a small creative marketing company who compiled albums for Virgin/EMI records.
Although I loved working in the music industry, and got to write sleeve notes and press releases, something was missing. I wrote a novel but after a bad experience with an agent I put it to one side, unpublished. I decided to make more effort with journalism and in 1999 I started writing unpaid music reviews and features for websites and free music magazine The Fly.
By 2001 I was keen to expand my experience, and my portfolio, and applied for a freelance position contributing features and quizzes to BBCi's teenage pages.
Not long after that, I started working for BBCi I picked up further paid work for Slant magazine, Virgin Megastore's in-house music monthly.
At the end of 2002, I was almost earning an income from the BBC and had picked up a regular commission writing press releases for a music PR in Belfast; the freelance bug had bitten.
I left my nine to five job and made the break into full-time freelancing.
After a rocky start (the BBC lost their budget for freelancers two weeks after I had been offered a contract writing several features per week) I gained clients and confidence, seeing my first work published in national teen magazine, Sneak and being hired on a long-term freelance contract as editor of www.20six.co.uk.
What was your first 'big break' as a published journalist?
I regard my first big break to be my first commission for Practical Parenting, a piece on language delay in toddlers published in early 2006.
Outside my music mags and web-based work, I'd only ever done a couple of stories for Sneak magazine and had an "in" with the then commissioning editor.
The Practical Parenting piece was the first successful cold pitch I'd made and the boost it gave me encouraged me greatly, leading to many more successful pitches in the months that followed.
What's the biggest lesson you have learned about freelancing?
Not to take everything so personally.
In all my previous work I've taken things to heart and been offended deeply by rejection. I don't think you can survive in the freelance arena without a thick skin, and although I could still do with toughening-up, I'm much better at shrugging off problems, cock-ups and the endless stream of "no thanks" responses that every freelance must endure.
What's your advice for anyone considering giving up the 'day job' to become a freelance writer - whether or not they have experience as a journalist?
Many freelancers find that they can easily fit their job into a routine nine to five pattern. When I lost my BBCi work I went into a panic and worked around the clock to find new work. Not having the security of a monthly pay cheque may require long hours until you get established - and even then, journalism isn't always a regular proposition.
I interview lots of parents, who can't talk on the phone until their kids are tucked up in bed, so I need to be available in the evenings.
Other interviewees don't feel comfortable being interviewed at work and prefer weekends or evenings. You need to be flexible and when deadlines are pressing, you really need to put the extra time and effort in to make your work a success.
Next time: Five Minutes With: Ellie Levenson
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