Rowan Waller

I have been hustling since I was around 7 years old, from washing cars around the estate to pimping skateboards for neighbourhood kids, a paper round as soon as I looked old enough (I even used to deliver Bobby Robson’s paper) and then, whilst I was at Sixth Form, flogging cartoon strips to the local newspaper. I was always looking for some scheme or other to make a bit of money.

I worked too, as soon as I could – canteens and traffic surveys at weekends and school holidays, and then when I did go off to university, I got a job at Costa Coffee in Newcastle Central Station – still perhaps my favourite ever job, I have to say. 36 hours a week whilst I did 8 or 9 hours at Uni – I often feel I really had a full-time job whilst studying part-time. In fact, it was a Spanish degree with a placement year in Madrid where, sure enough, I worked as an English teacher just to generate a bit more cash.

I fell into Estate Agency in my early 20s, and after 9 years, I set up on my own in 2014 and ran my own firm for a decade. That period taught me a lot, and it was successful; award-winning, in fact… until it wasn’t. But even so, that in itself taught me more than the success of it ever did.

It also taught me something about myself. I loved communicating, marketing and brand building. So many industry peers said they wished they had someone who could do for them what I was doing for myself in terms of content and comms, that I eventually thought: well, why don’t I? It’s what I enjoy, after all…

So in 2024 I set up The Property Pen to provide ghostwriting to estate agents. That pivoted, however, to become The Professional Pen in 2026; I realised that property was not my niche – storytelling and thought leadership was my niche and property was just a knowledge bank.

I now write for Founders, C-Suite Executives and Professionals who have a story to tell and a message they want to share – people who want to be lifted onto another level, onto a pedestal where they become the voice of authority in their sector or in their marketplace.

I do this through intelligent long-form content writing – articles, newsletters, LinkedIn posts and other things. It is copywriting… but it’s more than that. In fact, I prefer to call it content writing – these are slightly different things.

And if you want to know how they are different, let’s have an insight meeting and I will tell you all about it…