Mary-Catherine for short. Southern born, NY, now Portland adopted.
Copy, content, and ideas keep me in nice enough overalls while dance classes and poetry foot the bills. As touching as it is irreverently amusing, it’s also a lie. Thankfully I work in branding and advertising. And I love it. I’m a multidisciplinary writer, digital content specialist, and poet. I've written, mentored, and tap-danced for lifestyle brands, hidden gem startups, and global teams. I've learned from some pretty great humans at social + digital agencies in New York, Boston, Austin, and now Portland. I write poetry when no one’s looking (or paying). Collaborator and sweater of the details.
Memoir?
Flashback to Austin. I was performing with a few dance companies (stages not poles) and freelancing for agencies with acronyms, like GSD&M. A couple years and many dear friends later, I relocated to New York to work in the digital space at Publicis Modem. We pitched, we built, we won stuff. To name a few: Snickers, Delta, Christie's, Enterprise, Heineken & others. Meanwhile, I'd help out friends with copy or creative. Then it became lucrative.
By day, I freelanced. R/GA, Huge BK, Razorfish, Digitas, MDC Partners, Publicis NY, as well as client-side, boutique shops, design firms, fashion houses, and inside the belly of the giant-lesson-learner-world of start-ups. I had the privilege of working closely with global brands like Skype, Target, Nike, Aveda, Unilever, and L'Oréal to name a few. I added "perma-lancer" to my vocabulary, and more acronyms like CD or ACD, depending on the agency structure. By night, I wrote things other than ads and designed our dream home on a New England river.
Cut to growing kids, chickens and a fishing documentary in the woods of New Hampshire. My director hubby and I were ready for our next chapter and keeping it weird in Portland. We packed up the Clampetts family F150 with grandma and two doodles, and I headed to work with the fine folks of Grady Britton. As a CD/writer for this B Corp. full-service shop, I learned how to juggle accounts, manage teams, develop agency processes—and win some shiny stuff. Ready to challenge myself in new ways and family tugging at my timesheet, I've found my way back to the land of freedomlancing.
Today, titles aside with four boozes, a modern museum, couple global sportswear brands, couple of risk-loving healthcare clients, a pickleball blog among others, and loads of quality relationships, later…I still love to swing a hammer—write, build brands, and make meaningful work.
Say hi if you’d like to talk shop.
shesaidsomething@gmail.com
IG @mcjoneshere