Word & Mouth Blog
Where food, hospitality, branding, and human behavior all crash into each other. I write about restaurants, wine, placemaking, customer experience, and the small details that make people talk about a business long after they leave.
For even more snarky takes on marketing, pop culture, branding, and the internet, visit my Substack, Burnt Popcorn & Branding: Substack
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A mix of hospitality, branding, customer psychology, hospitality culture, and internet behavior from someone who’s worked behind the scenes in marketing long enough to know what feels authentic and what feels painfully forced.
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Yes. Especially if your marketing currently sounds like ChatGPT wrote it.
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No LinkedIn thought leadership energy here. Just strategy, storytelling, and occasional side-eye toward trends, Chat-GPT written branding advice, and “disruptive” ideas that all look the same.
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People in marketing, hospitality, branding, retail, wine, or anyone who secretly judges restaurants by their menu design before reading the food list.
How You Can Learn How To Trust Your Gut As A Parent
Parents can question everything. There's a helpful parenting instinct that develops. When you feel overwhelmed, try to remember to follow your intuition.
That One Time When My Toddler's School Closed Down Indefinitely...
I know I’m going to trust my gut as a parent much more now when it comes to his health, safety, and education.
Recipe for Instagram Class - Santa Rosa Workshop
Yes, having gorgeous photos is important to Instagram - but trust me, it isn’t the ONLY thing that connects you with potential customers through social media. I will provide you with simple tricks that will grow your community on Instagram, get people engaged with YOUR BRAND and get them to purchase.
On The Subject Of Wine Influencers
Within this blog post, I feel the need to defend wine influencer marketing within the wine world. Many of the conversations I see taking place within Facebook groups definitely reminds me of when I started wine blogging – arguments about how it was hard to tell who was a real, dedicated wine blogger, and who was merely in it for the free stuff…. Who actually had a community they were talking to, and who else was just talking to other wine bloggers because they were friends with each other.
Now, it’s also about trying to figure out if someone who is emailing your winery asking for a free tasting in return for an “Instagram feature” is legit, and whether you should pay attention to, or ignore that person.
Why I Bring My Child to Political Marches
This debate was brought up this past week as I shared images of my husband, 3-year-old son, my friends, and me at the 3rd Annual Women's March on January 19th, 2019 in downtown Santa Rosa. I shared the same images to both my Instagram account and Facebook page (and the latter received comments from friends, likes, hearts, and one angry face from a cousin with whom I’m not actually Facebook friends)... Instagram was a completely different experience.
Don't Use LinkTree for Instagram Marketing (Use This Instead)
Linktree is a great tool for Instagram Marketing, but I have an EVEN better one... Your own website. Create your own Link In Bio Landing Page instead of Linktree so you can capture traffic from Instagram and retarget to your customers.
My Word of the Year: Intention
My word of the year for 2019 is INTENTIONAL. Now that I’m coming out of the fog of taking care of a small infant who became a very active toddler (which is a nice way of saying “crazy person”), I feel like I’m able to be a little bit more intentional with the things I do in my life.
Quick Update on Goals for 2019
2018 has truly been a pivotal year in my decade-long entrepreneurial career. I went from managing social media accounts for several brands to focusing on my own brand, writing for several publications, and working with a few marketing and PR agencies on projects. Now I look to Goals for 2019…
Roundup of My Favorite Sonoma County Articles of 2018
A roundup of my personal favorite articles I have written this past year about wine, food, social media, music and mom life in Sonoma County.
Instagram Stories Update - Adding Multiple Stories
The Stories feature just got one of the best updates I have seen so far: they allow you to upload a bunch of pictures and videos all at once. Previously, you had to upload content one story at a time, which would be fine for people who wanted to post over the course of their day, but not so great for people who wanted to post a longer “story” that had multiple images and videos – you know…something that actually tells a STORY through multiple pieces of content.
An Ode To The Instant Pot AKA How I Started Cooking at Home On A Regular Basis.
Once I finally bought the Instant Pot, my family started cooking at home more often, which helped us to make small changes for a healthy lifestyle and encouraged us to be more creative with our healthy home-cooked meals.
How to Create a Toddler-Friendly Christmas Tree {A How-To Fail Guide}
How to have a Toddler-Friendly Christmas.. aka how to childproof your Christmas Tree So your kid doesn't runin it.
Save Time by Batching Your Social Media Tasks
At the end of the day, batching your social media tasks helps save you time, and makes sure you are more intentional with what type of content you are sharing on social media. Win. Win.
Rainy Day or Smoke Day Activity Survival Kit for Kids and Parents
Now that wildfires are a regular part of the fall season in Northern California, a “Rainy Day and Smoke Day Survival Kit for Kids and Parents." is needed.
How to Manage Pregnancy Diabetes When You Love Food
Pregnancy Diabetes looks very different for every woman, but for me, it meant I had to manage balancing my food and focusing on a schedule
The One Gift for Everyone On Your List
A letterboard is the best gift to get any blogger. So much fun to customize for any holiday or event.
Overwhelmed with social media? This is how to beat the holiday stress
I am speaking at two different events in the next month, both all about how to avoid social media overwhelm during the holidays…
How to Survive: 4 Tips for Traveling with a Toddler
Road trips have given us insight into traveling with a toddler. These tips will work for everything from going on family vacation to just leaving the house.