Taylor Shook writes about food, dining, business, health, real estate and LGBTQ+ life at North Carolina’s oldest newspaper. She curates the weekly Fayetteville Foodies newsletter and is a cohost of The Fayetteville Observer Radio Show on WIDU 99.7.

LaunchPad Creative is a full-service strategic marketing firm that partners with financial services firms to provide tailored integrated marketing, brand, social media, and business activation initiatives – launching them into their next phase of exponential growth. As the industry continues to evolve and we see more market entrants, it has become increasingly important for firms to develop strong brand awareness.LaunchPad was founded by professionals who have spent their careers in the financialservices industry in marketing, business development and operational capacities. Weunderstand the nuances of investment strategies and service offerings and use ourmarketing and business acumen to formulate effective, clear and differentiating marketingsolutions for our clients. Our offering is flexible. Our approach is consistent. We look to partner with alternative investment and professional services firms on a project basis or become an extension of their marketing team. From brand design to strategy formulation to CRM implementations, we are your marketing partner.We offer a full suite of services:• Brand Design• Strategic Marketing• Business Development Strategy• CRM Implementations• Integration MarketingFollow us on LinkedIn to stay abreast of what we see by way of trends in the industry. Connect with us to learn how we can partner to help you reach your goals – www.launchpadcreativellc.com

I was selected as a class of 2020 Orr Fellow out of over 1000 applicants and matched with Parker Technology. The Orr Fellowship recruits and develops business leaders and matches them with dynamic companies in Indianapolis for full-time salaried positions. The fellowship offers skill-building, continued learning, access to executives, civic engagement, and an unrivaled peer and alumni network.

As demand generation specialist, I collaborated with sales and operations teams to optimize the customer experience and maximize lifetime value with automated marketing flows, targeted email marketing and original content.I developed and refined email marketing content and automated campaigns to retain and engage existing customers, potential customers, and strategic partners.I analyzed email and social campaign, website traffic, and SEO ranking performance, and shared learnings and recommendations across teams on a monthly basis.I authored SEO blog and website content that grew organic traffic, and created daily social content that provided value to industry professionals, which increased LinkedIn audience, impressions and engagement.I further created new and overhauled such essential collateral as a pitch deck, proposal, brochure, FAQs, and more to enable sales.Parker Technology is a software and services company that helps parking facilities provide an excellent customer experience, by resolving issues for parking guests when they fail in the face of automated payment kiosks. Parker’s patient, well-informed specialists virtually answer and resolve intercom calls 24/7 and is the only company in the parking industry that can deliver this service with face-to-face, two-way video communication. Putting this personal, human touch back into an automated situation enhances the customer experience, provides metrics to improve operational efficiencies, increases successful payments, and ensures customer service calls are answered.

Use such computer programs as R and Stata to analyze political survey data and create beautiful, easy-to-read graphs and data visual representations dataWrite relevant, data-driven stories and content for the online blog

Chosen by the department to research far-right Christian lobbying group communicationAnalyzed quantitative data of thousands of press releases, emails and lobbying reportsProduced a 35-page paper and gave multiple concise presentations on my findings

Conduct research and interviews to write pieces on fashion, entertainment and healthHired as a freelancer at the conclusion of a summer internship Assisted with location scouting, fittings, and managing models for the Fall Fashion shoot

Write stories for Licking County News in Associated Press style on tight deadlines, and shoot videos and photos for print and the web.

Drafted briefs, stories, headlines and cutlines, developed detail-oriented proofreading and editing skills in Associated Press style, and utilized such social medias such as Facebook, Twitter and Tout to communicate news information.