Creative Work

Creativity takes a little science
and a lot of heart.

Content that works is specific. It sounds like you and your best friend having a conversation. It earns attention instead of buying it. That's true in a 30-second video and it's true in an email at 7am.

CALRegional · Short-Form Video

Built from zero.

I was the first person at CALRegional to build out a social media strategy across Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn. None of it existed in any real way before I got there. Started as social media specialist. Took TikTok from 0 to 8K, Instagram from 467 to 3,300, LinkedIn from ~30 to 800+. Went viral multiple times. Built the content systems that kept running after I moved into the director role.

0 → 8KTikTok
467 → 3.3KInstagram
~30 → 800+LinkedIn
TikTok · @calregional
0 → 8,000 followers
Built from scratch. No ads.
Instagram · @calregional
467 → 3,300+ followers
Organic growth. Went viral multiple times.

Most of these were scripted, shot, and edited by me. A few went viral without boosting. The cadence that worked wasn't "post more", it was being specific enough that the right person felt like it was made for them. That's the whole game, in video or email.

CALRegional · Meta Ads

Corrected creative fatigue with new design.

Took over Meta Ads management mid-tenure. Discovered ad creative that had been running untouched since 2024. Rebuilt the creative strategy, updated copy and visuals, and ran the new creative against what was live.

+40% enrollment conversions after creative refresh

CALRegional Meta ad — Start Today for $300, enroll now
Refreshed creative · enrollment campaign · +40% conversions

The previous creative had been running for over a year. Audiences had been seeing the same assets long enough that performance had silently eroded. Nobody had flagged it because nobody was watching it closely. Refreshed the creative strategy, updated copy to match current messaging, replaced the visuals, and watched conversions move 40% in the right direction.

Local Fitness Franchise · Multi-Location · Campaign Design

A gym went dark for a remodel. I built a campaign around the closure instead of apologizing for it.

The problem was churn and a revenue gap happening at the same time. The answer was a three-part offer sequence that kept signups flowing during the shutdown, kept existing members active at sister locations, and landed a reopening push with enough urgency to cut through.

Gym remodel coming soon offer — sign up for $23
1 · Coming-soon offer during closure
Free 2-week training at sister locations
2 · Free training routed to sister locations
Under new ownership reopening offer
3 · Grand reopening under new ownership

The coming-soon graphic kept acquisition moving at a discount while the club was offline. The free training piece gave existing members a reason to stay active and stay loyal instead of canceling. The reopening pushed on new ownership as a fresh start, not a rebrand. Three separate moments in a single campaign logic.

Local Fitness Franchise · Multi-Location · Newsletter Design

A recurring monthly newsletter running across three locations with location-specific content and a shared template.

Six recurring sections: what's new, member of the month, top members, employee spotlight, around the club, and blog promotion. Same structure each month, different content per location. Built to be repeatable without feeling like a form letter.

Monthly newsletter header
Header
What's new section
What's New
Member spotlight and top members
Member Spotlight + Top Members
Employee spotlight
Employee Spotlight
Around the club
Around the Club
Blog promotion
Blog Promo

The template stays consistent across all three locations because that's what makes it sustainable. What changes is the content. Each location had its own staff, its own members, its own things to announce. The newsletter gave them a structure to put that into every month without rebuilding from scratch.

GradTracker · LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn ads for a CALRegional SaaS product.

GradTracker is a graduate tracking software platform. The audience lives on LinkedIn. I built and ran the ad strategy to get in front of them.

GradTracker LinkedIn ad — Compliance Reporting Without the Stress
Ad 1 · Feature-led · Book a Demo CTA
GradTracker LinkedIn ad — All Your Student Outcomes in One Place
Ad 2 · Outcome-led · Book a Demo CTA

LinkedIn ads require a different posture than Meta. The audience has their professional identity on, which means they're evaluating whether this is worth their attention, not just whether it catches their eye. The creative had to do both, stop the scroll and demonstrate relevance to someone who doesn't have patience for noise.

Pawsicles · Founder

I founded Pawsicles.

My idea. My product. I made them, I packaged them, I marketed them. Built the brand, the Instagram presence, and the content strategy from scratch. This is where I stopped studying DTC and started actually running one.

Website
pawsiclesicecream.com
The brand, the products, the whole thing.
Instagram · @pawsiclesicecream
Content I made. Brand I built.
Product photos, reels, community.

Running a DTC brand changed how I think about lifecycle email. When you're the founder, you're not asking "what does the data say" in the abstract, you're asking it at 11pm because you need to know if you should reorder product. That proximity to consequence is different from managing someone else's account. I brought that back to client work and it shows up in how I diagnose problems.

@justastephaway · Personal Brand

Just me.

@justastephaway is my personal account. No strategy behind it. I'm documenting my stand-up comedy journey and whatever else is happening in my life. This is what I look like when nobody hired me to show up.

TikTok · @justastephaway
Comedy clips and real life.
Stand-up journey, documented.
Instagram · @justastephaway
Same person, different platform.
Reels, stories, whatever's happening.

Stand-up is the hardest creative thing I've ever done. You write something, you stand in front of people, and you find out immediately if it worked. No algorithm to blame. No budget to hide behind. Just the room.

You can learn a lot about how someone thinks by what they create.

If you like what you see, imagine what we could build.

Work With Me →