Meet Haley Dagan | Founder and CEO of The Written World

We had the good fortune of connecting with Haley Dagan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Haley, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Honestly, the most important factor behind the success of The Written World is passion. When you’re passionate about what you do, you wake up every day eager to do it. As a small business owner, that passion keeps you going through late nights, early mornings, and weekend hours to turn your dreams into realities. It fuels your sales calls with potential clients, bridges connections at networking events, encourages you to keep pushing forward through business or market challenges, and inspires others to join your company and believe in your mission. Passion and purpose are behind everything we do, and I genuinely feel that’s why we’ve been so successful.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
We are a purpose-driven copywriting and content creation agency specializing in website copywriting, SEO-optimized blog writing, social media caption writing, email sequence copywriting, and other digital content creation services. I always use the word purpose-driven because everything we write is engaging yet strategic and goal-oriented. I started The Written World in 2018 to fuel my passion for writing as a side hustle while working full-time as a Marketing Manager at W Fort Lauderdale (part of the Marriott family of hotels). After the pandemic sent the hospitality industry to a screeching halt, I was laid off. I spent much-needed time with my one-year-old and decided my next full-time venture would be one that allowed me to be present for my family while still pursuing my passions. I publicly launched The Written World full-time in 2020. The question, “Was it easy?” is a bit of a loaded one. On one hand, you don’t want to say yes for fear of sounding conceited, but at the same time, I have to say yes because when you love what you do, all those late nights, early mornings, and stressful scenarios are absolutely worth it. I launched The Written World, leading with the philosophy of building authentic connections. It’s how we approach not only the content we create but the clients that hire us. We focus on providing value and sharing our clients’ expertise, and I feel incredibly lucky to say that so far, the business has come to us based on our genuine approach as collaborative partners for all of our clients in a faceless, online world. If there is one piece of advice I can give, it’s to always be true to yourself. Once you start veering from the path YOU’RE passionate about and doing what others think you should do, you’ll no longer love the business you’ve built because it won’t feel like yours. I always say to our team that I am not afraid of client criticisms or critiques – how can you learn and grow if the fear of making mistakes paralyzes you? But what I am afraid of is us falling into digital marketing comparisonitis and just doing something because everyone else is doing it. If it doesn’t feel like The Written World, you won’t see us just hopping on the trend bandwagon, and we always recommend the same for our clients. If you’re so busy chasing perfection and every trend that hits your feed, you’ll never leave space to share the real you in your content. (And the REAL you is what sells!)

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Definitely The Design District – best restaurants, (window) shopping, and urban photo ops in Miami! We’d also have to visit the Perez Art Museum and Wynwood for our art fix, and grab dinner at one of my favorites KYU! I know it’s north, but I’d also include Fort Lauderdale on our itinerary (maybe I’m biased after doing marketing for the W there for so many years!). I’d make sure we spend some time on Las Olas and then grab sunset drinks at the W’s rooftop terrace.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I know there’s been a lot of controversy in the years since its publication, but Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In came out right around the time of my college graduation. My mom gave it to me as a gift as I began my first job, and though I wasn’t a mom at the time, a section of the book about working moms really inspired me and has stuck with me for all these years.

Sandberg highlighted a perspective about working moms that after working in corporate America for many years (pre-pandemic), I’ve found too many people in upper management believe to be true. This idea that you can’t be both a good mom and a good employee/businesswoman; you’re either one or the other. I think from the moment I read that, I’ve always felt really compelled to prove that notion wrong. Now, as a proud mompreneur, it’s something that I consciously work at every single day. Yes, there are tradeoffs and yes, there are compromises. But ultimately, I’ve built a business that allows me to be present for my kids while also chasing my own passions and building a career my kids (and myself!) will always be proud of.

Website: https://thewrittenworldagency.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewrittenworld/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-written-world

Twitter: https://twitter.com/writtenworldllc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewrittenworldagency