Ned Riseley
Copywriter / Newsletter Wizard / Brand Voice Consultant
Brooklyn, NY
Q What do you do?
“I am a writer/wordsmith/voice and style specialist who loves to find the most compelling, dynamic, and playful way of saying what needs to be said.”
In my work, I am organically motivated to make language work for clients, to make it sparkle, to help collaborators better articulate their mission and goals, and to inject projects with a li'l personality and perspective. I was most recently the Senior Copywriter at Thrillist under Munchies founder, Helen Hollyman, who hired me in June 2020 to write articles and revitalize the daily newsletter for a food and travel brand at the height of a pandemic (duh!). I brought a playful, self-aware, and direct sense of voice and language to the job that readers really responded to, and which walked a sensitive line between acknowledging the difficulties of the times and distracting readers to enjoy their imagination during a digitally overwhelming summer. After freelancing with them, I was brought on as Senior Copywriter to oversee the voice of the brand and help to ""jeuje up"" the written identity of Thrillist and find more sophisticated and entertaining angles for their content. I worked closely with Creative Director Audra Pace, Managing Editor Tony Merevick and EIC Helen Hollyman to help realize a variety of projects for the brand, from editorial initiatives to dedicated emails to comedic videos to style guides for companies we were mentoring. After Helen and Audra moved on from the company, I began to focus more on freelancing and am building my own brand as a copywriter beyond the up-and-down demands of digital media.
My articles for Thrillist can be found here:
And here you can find my portfolio, with some samples of my work.
I come from a comedic writing and entertainment background, having worked as half of a successful comedy duo, Friends Who Folk (New Yorker, NPR, and elsewhere), and also as an actor and playwright on various projects. I bring my creative spirit to all my professional work to ensure that the writing I do has a human and honest approach, no matter the context. If I can make someone smile, all the better. Words are powerful, in all different arenas, and I love finding ways to use them to improve people's understanding of their own lives, to learn something new, and to find the funny. If I have to exploit the little absurdities of my own life to do so, so much the better. I have a suspicion and some evidence to suggest that these absurdities are pretty shared.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
After graduating from Brown in 2012, I have worked as a writing and acting teacher at Abrons Art Center, as a professional actor on Broadway, as a freelance writer for an educational website, and in the comedy world. This diverse range of experience connected me to a singular mission, to find important and meaningful ways to tell stories and get people to connect with their own human experience in new ways. In the last ten years, I have made it a point to write everyday, to read as much and as widely as I can, and to immerse myself in the creative and literary world to understand trends and new dynamics in the world. I write quickly and efficiently, have a diverse range of connections, and am able to flexibly modulate my approach to meet the demands of each specific project. I work well with others, after years of playing Zip-Zap-Zop (lord help us...), performing at comedy clubs all over New York City for drink tickets (oh no...), and teaching kids how to access their respective creative sparks. I didn't expect that 2020 would be the year that I would put my skills to work in the media and branding world, but it was and I found it extremely rewarding to help a company find and express its personality. My background in the arts is what brings spirit and energy to my work as a writer for brands, and I am proud of how I am able to bring vitality and a fresh perspective to projects.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
I am able to invite people in and let them feel like the words they are reading are speaking directly to them. My sense of humor is unique and translates fluidly into my writing, and I have a unique ability to see the big picture and the wider, more human angle on any given story. This comes from my attention to the playful and also to my background as a creative writer, and it strengthens my work as a copywriter and brand brainstormer, because I'm able to cut through the jargon and nonsense to get to the heart of any story. I want to find meaning, and make that meaning clear, and I want my writing to pop out of the page and engage people, so that clients can see meaningful results. Making language work is just an organic interest of mine; I don't see it as a chore or a task. I see language as the whole point, the reason we do or make anything. I stand out because I'm passionate and authentically motivated to work hard. Also, I am able to do a lot of different things: I can write emails, I can write more straightforward copy, I am good at writing scripts (funny or no), I can do voiceover work for copy projects, and I know how to write social media copy.
Q What are you working on right now?
I am currently working as a freelance copywriter, helping to contribute copy to an experiential marketing company, Soho Experiential. I am also looking to do more consulting for newsletter copy. Additionally, I have scripts and creative writing projects in development.
Q What’s your style?
I am drawn to work that is direct and filled with personality. My voice in writing the daily newsletter for Thrillist for three years is pretty reflective of my taste and interest. In this work I was able to find a human, relatable, and energetic perspective that did not shy away from the absurd and the confessional, always in a way that could ignite some connection with a reader. We live in an era of digital overload, a post-modern soup of references, neuroses, market demands, media deluge, pop culture irreverence, you get the drill... and I want to acknowledge the multifarious and absurdist elements of digital sphere we are living in, while also anchoring the reader in something grounded and relatable.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
I am probably most interested in lending my talents in email and newsletters to potential collaborators. I love copywriting in general, and working on newsletters and finding ways to make emails really come alive in the era of email overload is what really gets me going, and is a challenge about which I am passionate. I love the work of making people want to read, engage, connect, and learn more, and I would love to get to help brands enliven their email content.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
It is difficult to make personal connections in a world that has moved increasingly online, but I'm also very happy to have the flexibility of the digital creative sphere. While I'm lucky that I get to do remote work at home without anyone knowing I'm wearing slippers that look like cats that a distant acquaintance contributed to a holiday grab bag (I guess the cat's out of the bag now), I would love to find ways to connect with other creatives, share tricks of the trade, learn from experts, and collaborate in personable and fulfilling ways. I'm excited about ILoveCreatives because it provides a more focused way for creatives to connect in a world that can isolate people in the digital sphere.
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
If I could hire someone, I would ask them to bring me an oat macchiato every two hours and call me "M'lord." Just kidding; I can't drink that much caffeine. ACTUALLY, I would have someone help me organize projects and reach out to clients; organizational and calendar tasks would be the most helpful to me.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
Well, first of all, I would tell myself not to wear a track jacket freshman year of college, even though it was the early 2000s and that was totally acceptable, because it will only make me look back at pictures from that time with deep regret and anguish. But really, I wish I could have told myself, when I first began working, that my skills as a writer could be so directly applied to writing email, so that I would have begun my copywriting career earlier. I also wish I could have told myself to keep up connections and relationships in active and in-person ways. I have a lot of great relationships and connections, but the pandemic admittedly made those more difficult to meaningfully uphold, and I would have made a more active effort to really nurture certain opportunities, knowing what I know now.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
I would want to learn more about consulting and freelancing, and how to run my business as an independent entity. I would love to speak to other freelancers who write and consult about newsletters, to pick up tricks of the trade from them and learn about resources that might benefit my business. I would also want to pick their brain about where they see the industry going in the future and how to best orient myself to go with that flow.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
I am looking for freelance and part-time opportunities as a newsletter writer, content creator, script writer, and copywriter. I love to meet new people, get to know them and their brands, and help make their visions a reality through language. I would also love to collaborate with art directors and creative directors to help bring their visual visions to life through copy. I am looking for creatively fulfilling, rigorous, and meaningful projects in which my talents can have the maximum impact.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
My ideal job would be in helping to build a brand voice and linguistic identity collaboratively with a company. I would love to be able to do what I did at Thrillist—perhaps with a smaller company that has more flexibility and is able to implement ideas with a greater impact—in which I can help to influence and articulate the identity of the brand. I would love to do that specifically with newsletters and also just more broadly, consulting about brand identity, creating style guides, and advising on ways to implement personality. I would love to work with an up and coming brand to help align their goals and mission with their copy identity, and to connect with consumers in meaningful ways through newsletter updates and regular company missives/correspondence.
Q What is your rate?
My typical hourly rate is 85-100. If I need to choose a rate for an individual project, I base it on this, in mind of what is possible in each given scenario/company.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
nriseley@gmail.com is a great way to get in touch, and I love funny pictures, memes about 'The Golden Bachelor,' or a song by an obscure folk artist.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
I would recommend Maitane Romagosa, a graphic designer at Thrillist, whose work I very much admire and with whom I really enjoyed working.
I would also recommend my former boss, Helen Hollyman, but she absolutely doesn't need my recommendation. She is an inspiring leader, thinker, and writer, and I really respect the ways she brings her singular vision to all her work.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
I meditate in the morning, go for walks in nature (and unfortunately, yes, the Gowanus Canal counts :/) and try and freewrite 1000 words for myself everyday. I also play the piano and come up with creative ways to distract my partner from whatever important thing he has to do (A Cockney, 'Love Island' style accent is usually most effective)
This member profile was originally published in November 2023