An English Major
See, I also love the written word, so I coded to pay my way through college – earning a BA in English and Master’s of Literature in Modern Scottish Writing. While life diverted from perhaps the path I expected, my love of websites, research, and critical thinking meant that digital marketing and especially digital marketing strategy was right up my alley.
My Professional History
After college, I switched my main focus from coding to Digital Marketing. I worked as a Reputation Manager, a ghost-writing blogger, a copywriter, social media manager, and a digital ads strategist, largely as an in-house professional.
In 2013, I moved to Scotland and started working for the Scottish Government’s official publisher. As a Digital Media Engineer (fancy speak for a full-stack developer), I got a new appreciation for digital accessibility and ensuring my websites were inclusive.
Life took me back to the States in 2014, where I worked as a WordPress developer for an agency that focused on marketing professional speakers, trainers, and coaches. I built website after website, learning how to make my websites easy for for my clients to update on their own – a practice I continue to this day.
Years of Entrepreneurship
In 2017, I left to form my first full-service marketing agency. While I had been freelancing on and off to supplement my income since I was 17, this was my first foray into actually growing a business for myself.
With my partner, we quickly grew to hiring our first two employees, moving into a downtown Wichita office, and feeling a bit like we “made it” within our first eighteen months.
Unfortunately, I picked the wrong partner. We were compatible as coworkers, but had different philosophies on how we wanted to grow our business, be bosses, and just generally move forward.
I also hated not getting to work on the things I loved (websites).
Captain Coder
In 2020, COVID gave this asthmatic a great reason to move on and create the business I really wanted to grow.
I left the successful agency I had helped to create and took a leap of faith on myself.
And it was scary.
And it took time to re-grow my client list. It took a lot of faith, persistence, and even some hustle to get back to a place where I felt safe and secure. (The joys of running your own business.)
Now, I have an excellent junior developer who helps me move projects forward, I work with clients that I love, and have a growing business.
But more than that, I’ve learned how I like to work, what I need to do my best work, and how to grow a business I actually love having.
How I Approach Websites
I love working with clients and watching their businesses grow. I also love working on the puzzle of the right website structure, following the path a consumer might take and helping to find the right message that connects with that audience.
Mostly, I love telling stories. Stories is why I got my degrees in literature and it’s why digital marketing is such a great fit. After all, I spend my days telling the stories of my clients’ businesses, their hard work and persistence.
The Personal Side
At the core of it all, I am a sarcastic nerd who loves comic books, can name the chronological order of each Marvel Cinematic Universe movie (not release order, but actual fictional dates), Star Trek and Star Wars, action movies, The Office, Parks & Rec, and curling up with a good book (when I can find the time).
If you watch my social media at all (especially my stories), you’ll often see me with my husky Mac. He’s a touch dramatic and a tad needy, but I love him all the same. We like to travel to new places to take fun walks.
