During this lengthy quarantine, many of us have been getting used to working remotely. But for Elisabeth (Elisa) Doucette (GHS ’98), this is old hat. For the past 10 years, she has been working from locations around the world as one of the early pioneers in location independent entrepreneurship.
A writer, editor and entrepreneur, Doucette is the owner and executive editor of her online business, Craft Your Content (CYC). She and her talented remote team offer online support in editing, writing coaching, and content management for professional writers and solopreneurs.
Being a digital nomad gives her the freedom to run her online business from pretty much anywhere in the world, which is fortunate because she loves to travel, looking for “great stories to live and interesting tales to share.” She has lived and worked from locations in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Northern Thailand, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Quebec, the island of Lesvos in Greece, and Scotland.
Doucette has an impressive list of publishing credits to her name including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Forbes, Yahoo! Small Business, and The Huffington Post among others. Her short stories have been published in numerous literary magazines and websites, and she has been a guest speaker on a variety of radio shows and podcasts, including her own popular podcast Writers’ Rough Drafts.
While Doucette’s career path has admittedly been unorthodox, she is in no way unfocused or laid back about her work. She is creative, independent and driven to succeed. Her unconventional way of thinking enabled her to become an innovator in the field of online writing and digital entrepreneurship.
Photo courtesy of Elisa DoucetteElisa Doucette is comfortable working from anywhere in the world as owner of Craft Your Content.
Doucette describes her early career path as meandering. She was an on-again off-again student at the University of Maine in Orono, first as a Music major, then as a dual Classics and Creative Writing major with a minor in Latin.
During her junior year, Doucette took a temporary position at Acadia Insurance and then spent several more years working her way up at State Farm Insurance. She advanced from licking envelopes to becoming responsible for helping more than 60 State Farm Agencies across Maine with their training, marketing, and sales goals. Doucette credits her mentor, Michelle Grondin Raber, owner of the State Farm agency in Scarborough with teaching her how to be a leader and business owner. “Her constant mantra when making decisions was: ‘Just do the right thing.’”
She entered the world of freelance writing and entrepreneurship while attending an insurance conference in 2009. The presenter of a session about online marketing suggested starting a blog to promote your personal brand. She thought, “Maybe I should do that. I haven’t written and published anything since I was in my early 20s.” While recovering from an illness, she started her blog. “Within a few months, I had amassed a little following, and my pieces were being carried on sites like Brazen Careerist and Yahoo’s Shine Network,” she said.
Doucette’s freelance journalism career moved forward in earnest when she pitched her idea for a now defunct weekly online column about dating and relationships called The Single Slice to Maine Today and Portland Press Herald. A month later, she was head-hunted by Forbes Magazine to be among the first writers for their new (at that time) online contributor format. Here she started writing her online syndicated column, Shattering Glass. Later that year, she accepted a position as the local Bar Guide reviewer at the Portland Press Herald.
In 2011, while writing a piece for her Forbes column about remote work, and how freelancing and contracting were the wave of the future, she interviewed a man who ran an online community for people who were building online businesses. She became one the first members to join. She eventually sent them a proposal about strategically building a content marketing brand and managing an online community. Doucette said, “Part of my compensation was room and board at their villa in Bali, Indonesia. I moved there in January of 2012, and have been traveling ever since.”
Doucette’s most recent work location was a little closer to home. She was the inaugural Writer in Residence at the Captain Nickels Inn, a historic bed and breakfast on Penobscot Bay in Searsport, Maine. The owners, Dawn and Cassidy Gintz, want the inn to serve as a haven for artists. Doucette used her time there to draft several articles and to work on a nonfiction book proposal. She also helped the owners with their content and marketing plans.
Doucette shared fond memories of two GHS teachers, Latin teacher, Michael Lawrenson and former Principal John Drisko, who taught a special senior seminar grounded in philosophy. She said it taught her about, “Debates and passion projects and an understanding for the collective sociology of people around you. It was a way to think of the world beyond the limited life of a suburban high school youth.”
Doucette keeps a hefty work schedule, but in her limited spare time she enjoys reading, practicing yoga infrequently, and cooking new meals when she’s not too exhausted from work. She has a lengthy Netflix and Amazon Prime watch list and has been a championship pub quiz team member on five continents.
Because she is abroad so much, Doucette does not have a real home base, but stays with friends or family in between trips. She is currently in Gorham with family, planning to stay for the arrival of a new nephew this summer, before hopefully traveling back to Aberdeen, Scotland for the Fall where she consults with the city and local businesses about improving their content and digital marketing.
Doucette is the daughter of Fran Thurston-Doucette (former Director of the Gorham Food Pantry) and Paul Doucette (GHS ’70), and the sister of Amy (Doucette) Gagnon (GHS ’04).
She can be reached via her website Craft Your Content or via email at elisa@craftyourcontent.com.