Writer, Marketing Strategist & Storyteller
I help people understand what they're building and how to tell their story.
I write stories for people who feel deeply, build strategies for businesses that need clarity, and coach people toward the work that's been waiting for them.
Pattern recognition is my creative superpower.
I see where things are misaligned, where meaning is getting lost, and where effort is being wasted. I translate between emotional truth and practical execution, shaped by years working in the roles I now suggest people hire for.
Finding The Missing Piece
Almost all marketing problems are clarity problems. When positioning is fuzzy, everything downstream suffers: the copy doesn't flow, decisions feel heavy, and momentum stalls.
My approach is to find The Missing Piece, what's likely already there but not yet articulated. I don't bring in tons of pitch deck frameworks or force-fit solutions. I help you find the core idea that will make the biggest difference business-wide, then develop a marketing strategy designed for your team’s bandwidth.
When positioning is tight and your unique value proposition is clear, the copy flows, the channels become obvious, and decisions stop being guesses.
From there, I can shape how it goes to market through positioning, storytelling, and strategy. The goal isn't more leads that you don't know what to do with. We create a conversion process, messaging that keeps bringing people back, and a brand you and your team are proud to build on for decades.
Everything Informs, Well, Everything
All creative work, whether marketing a business or writing a novel, is an alchemy of skills, experience, and circumstances.
I've built campaigns, produced films, written books, and coached founders. All of it comes back to the same thing: clarity, systems, and being able to pivot fast.
I've designed marketing campaigns for Dell and Visa, directed commercials for Verizon, and turned small startups into global thought leaders. Design systems I built for an aerospace client are literally on Mars. I also spent years as an actress and filmmaker, with work on HBO and ABC, managing crews of fifty people from fundraising through final cut. The film industry taught me how story functions under pressure and how a big team you just hired can collaborate in extraordinary ways.
Coaching is being a mirror for someone's greatness and helping them step into that vision. I've enjoyed doing this for several years through leadership programs, adventure travel, and guiding people in my orbit.
I designed The Legacy Project for people pursuing the work that's been waiting for them. I know firsthand that when we have a seed of an idea that scares us or that we procrastinate on, often we’re being called to become a leveled-up version of ourselves. The work is “the work,” and you don’t have to do it alone.
After working with global companies with big budgets and marketing teams galore, I finally found a way to level up small businesses and solopreneurs, the legends in the making. Marketing for Legends is a handbook for small businesses and solopreneurs who aren't ready for a marketing hire yet but could benefit from an insider’s take on how marketers think.
Each of these pursuits greatly informs what I can offer today, whether its a skillset or an expanded perspective.
Let's Talk About Magic
It’s in my tagline, so I’m sure you’re wondering. Here is my take on magic.
Everyone agrees it exists but calls it something different: alignment, flow, synchronicity, momentum, the zone.
Call it whatever makes you comfortable, but you know the feeling when some things in life stop being a grind and decisions start feeling like "of course."
Magic is practical. It's what happens when things finally line up, when intuition meets precision of goals, intention, and energy.
It's running a fundraising campaign with most of the goal still to go, then going to a coffee shop and meeting the person who wants to fund the rest. It's starting a conference based on a whim and a wonder, and three conferences later, you're a global sensation and have super celebrities as keynote speakers. It's when you dare declare intimidating goals, and two hours later, an email comes in that leads you directly to that goal.
When you're in it, it doesn't feel miraculous at all; it just looks like the next logical step and feels like things are finally moving through you instead of against you.
Magic is already knocking. Most people just can't hear it through the noise of doubt and second-guessing. My work is about clearing the path between you and the magic trying to reach you.
Is This For You?
The people who resonate with my work tend to be curious and persistent, building something real and willing to stay present when something challenges them, especially when it does.
Clarity does require courage. You have to be willing to see what you likely haven't wanted to see. Or be open to having the most lucrative way forward be a new way you hadn’t considered yet.
Everything I do is in service of clarity: strategy you can stand on, messaging that fits, ideas that support aligned decisions, and work designed to hold up under pressure.
If you're looking for just the numbers or someone to do the work for you without collaboration, my approach probably won't be a fit. If you're looking for work that reflects who you are now and supports where you're feeling led, welcome.
You can see how this work shows up in real client engagements on the Case Studies page, or explore my offers at Work With Me.
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“Ten Things About Jolyn”
Ten Things
About Jolyn
Triathlon medals I designed were reportedly stolen by pirates while shipping across the Indian Ocean. I imagine those three thousand medallions are now currency on an isolated island.
A series of logos I designed are “roving” around on Mars. So technically, I'm an intergalactic designer.
I hold Advanced Nitrox and Freediving certifications. If I could grow a mermaid tail, I totally would.
I was invited to audition for the lead in a James Cameron feature film. That’s the Titanic/Avatar/Terminator guy.
I swam competitively since I was five years old. In a big family, when one kid joins the swim team, we all join the swim team.
I photograph waves and am developing a series called “Wavespiration.” The ocean makes most of the creative decisions and I just show up with a camera.
I’m trained to Level 3 in Krav Maga hand-to-hand combat. Martial arts changes how you approach absolutely everything.
I taught myself how to draw for my book, “Poems for Breakfast.” I started sketching, kept going, and now it's a four-book series.
I've run Zoom calls with Neil deGrasse Tyson (Cosmos, StarTalk). Building community creates very interesting partnerships.
I used to lead adventure travel trips for teenagers – backpacking and river rafting. Nature extracts authenticity and the rest is too heavy to haul up a mountain anyway.