The story of a career

I've always been a little jealous of my brother. He always knew he wanted to be a doctor. He went to medical school, got that MD, and now he just does his doctor thing all day every day. My path has been less clear.

  • I love to tell stories
  • I love to learn
  • I love to ask questions
  • I love to create
  • I love to improve
  • I love to collaborate

There's no single career that incorporates all of those aspects, but here are the stories of my experiences across the media and content spectrum.
2020-Present

The challenge: This very young affiliate marketing site had a fair amount of traffic, but only two writers and limited long-term vision.

The solution: As Head of Content, I imagined the "end state" where I wanted our site to be: the go-to destination for anyone looking to stream a movie or TV show. To get there, I worked with the developer to build out some much-needed evergreen content sections. That meant mapping out a list of features I wanted, and collaborating with the developer to bring them to life.

Highlights:
  • I introduced the concept of movie "franchise" streaming guides. Our developer wisely used an API to auto-generate hundreds of them. Because the auto-generate movie descriptions aren't SEO-friendly (or particularly informative or interesting), I directed writers to improve them. The result is unique - an automatically refreshing page with up-to-the-minute streaming solutions for some of our favorite movie franchises. (Example)
  • In my research with SEMRush, I discovered that many streaming service users have two common types of queries: how to use various functions of a streaming service and what to watch on those streaming services. Again, working with the developer and the writing team, we built out those sections for lots of our popular streaming services. (Example)
  • Since we were already a destination for many, many readers looking to cut the cord, I was surprised to see we didn't have a Cord-Cutting 101 Guide for new users. I jumped in personally to create a straightforward, simple, comprehensive guide optimized for search. It has become one of our most popular sites. (Example)
  • We lost one of our two writers, so I vetted and interviewed candidates to add three more great contributors. I managed their onboarding as well.

There is still so much more content to create, and I'm excited to continue the plan.
2020

The challenge: This content marketing agency had great contracts, but it was going through some major growing pains because of revenue losses and an unclear strategy to pivot to a digital-first model.

The solution: I began my time with Imagination as a content director working on the Project Management Institute account. I had three direct reports, so I started by asking each one about their workload. It was clear that the process was broken, and each of the three was incredibly stressed.

I jumped in to absorb much of the client-facing communication while also advocating for my team with the account managers. We were able to set clear expectations all stakeholders. I also worked with the various internal teams to streamline communication, eliminate roadblocks, and improve quality.

For example, PMI doubled its order of podcasts, but we were unable to add staff to the podcast team. I sat down with the producer and we brainstormed dozens of episode ideas, then we each started reaching out to possible guests. I introduced the producer to a new project management system (Trello) so she could juggle the production of multiple episodes at once. Before long, we not only caught up to the doubled pace, we also built up a stockpile of episodes, allowing for more ambitious projects.

As the podcast editors were used to very simple productions, I used my background to show them something new - you can hear the montage of quotes I edited near the beginning of this episode about COVID-19.

My leadership resonated with the younger employees, who thrived under the structure and support I was able to provide.

Highlights: