I went to work for my dad when he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and needed the help getting a startup company off the ground. 

"If there was ever a time to come work for me, it would be now," I remember him saying. And I jumped at the opportunity to be closer to him, and to immerse myself in the world of sales.  

I was a young sales rep with zero training and little idea what I was doing, selling an engineered product to landscape architects and parks & rec agencies across Florida. 

I grinded through cold calls, trade shows, literally walking in on people in their office just to try to get 5 min of their time to share my product. 

Then I discovered inbound marketing. There was a small SaaS company called HubSpot that had coined the term and was teaching everyone about it via live webinar sessions. I soaked it in and taught myself how to generate my own leads = less dependent on trade shows and no need for cold calls. I was busy fielding the inbound inquiries. 

I then paired up with my wife who earned her Master's in Journalism from Medill, and had also launched a freelance career in communications. We co-founded of Craft Impact in 2014. 

For a while we had wild client mix, working on everything from e-commerce yoga products to Fortune 500 clients. But since 2020 we've been solely focused on applying our expertise to independent financial advisors. 

We now have 15 clients who partner with us as their outsourced CMO and digital marketing team, supporting big changes in their practice and helping fuel their organic net new AUM growth. We execute most of the work in house, and oversee the rest. 

Content Marketing Strategy - Messaging - Branding - Web Design & Web Development - Social Media - Collateral - SEO - Webinars - Reporting & Analytics 

My family and I run an annual "Hope..It's a Beach Thing 5K Walk/Run" to raise money for brain tumor research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After an inspiring and courageous battle with a GBM brain tumor, my father passed away from a brain tumor in 2012. He had just turned 53 a few days earlier. He was my mentor, my hero and my best friend. We run the fundraiser in honor of him, and to support the families and patients who are currently fighting their own brain tumors. We've raised $544,000 raised over 10 years, and I'm really proud to say 100% of the proceeds go to brain tumor research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 

My wife and I love traveling both in the US and internationally, and we've got some really fun kids ages 7, 5, and 3. Not a lot of dull moments around our house!

Stephen Beach

Program 11

Content Strategist / Writer / Producer

Away With Words

Freelance Copywriter, Content Strategist, & Producer

Smithsonian Channel

Produce videos for Smithsonian Channel’s social media channels featuring its diverse collection of documentary series.

Freelance Video Producer/Script Writer/Researcher

National Automatic Merchandising Association

Redesigned and launched new website - namanow.org - in summer 2018.

Director, Digital Media and Communications

Manage internal and external communications for national association representing the $25 billion convenience services industry and world’s most recognized brands.

Develop and oversee marketing and media outreach for the association’s largest priorities, helping to build industry visibility and impact and drive growth of events. Create content for more than 200 pieces of outbound communications per year including press releases, email campaigns and website. Produce videos for newly-launched NAMA TV. Serve as associate editor of NAMA’s quarterly magazine, InTouch. Write/edit executive communications. Manage all social media channels.

Senior Manager, Marketing and Communications

Kurtis Productions

Worked with head producer in all facets of production of hour-long episodes for CNBC's nationally acclaimed financial crime documentary series, American Greed, including: field producing and conducting on-camera interviews, directing b-roll and recreation shoots, story research and development, bookings and pre-interviews, script editing, fact-checking, web content, gathering archive and rights materials and negotiating costs, planning all aspects of shoots, preparing all deliverables, managing episode budgets and using LexisNexis, Pacer and various other databases, websites and news outlets for extensive research.

Associate Producer

Assisted producers and AP’s on hour-long documentary series, including: story research and development, bookings and pre-interviews, fact-checking, archive footage and stills, coordinating shoot logistics and travel, assisting on local shoots.

Production Assistant

Various companies abroad

Held temporary office admin roles at a variety of Sydney companies including a solar company, NSW Department of Health, an architecture firm and a financial planning group, while living and traveling in Australia.

Office Coordinator

Associated Press

Covered globally relevant news out of Australia and the South Pacific; daily news and spot stories; pitched and wrote enterprise stories on human interest, business and tourism topics; contributed to breaking stories on multiple natural disasters; articles featured on NYTimes.com, Time.com, WashingtonPost.com, TheGuardian.com,Yahoo.com and other international news outlets.

Global Reporting Resident

Medill News Service

Covered Capitol Hill and federal agencies, reporting on health, science, the military and national security; videos and articles were featured on national and regional outlets, including McClatchy News, KVRR (Fargo, ND), The Washington Post - WhoRunsGov and Military Times; shot, edited and produced daily and enterprise video stories; participated in a hostile environment and first aid training program for journalists embedding or traveling abroad.

Broadcast Reporter

Medill News Service/Northwestern News Network

Reported and produced daily video, audio and print stories, pitched original story ideas; shot and edited all videos; wrote scripts and performed voiceovers and stand-ups; anchored, wrote, and produced weekly newscasts for Evanston Cable (Northwestern News Network); studied on-air performance and live-shots; researched audience information; story topics included mental health, social issues and immigration; published in Northwest Indiana Times’ magazine, Get Healthy; served on web production team.

Multimedia Reporter

Newsweek Magazine

Supported teams in Chicago, Detroit and Dallas; collaborated on all elements of print 
and digital proposals; managed weekly reports, prepared estimates, tracked market share; performed competitive research and analysis using Nielsen, @plan, AdRelevance; utilized Salesforce and other databases to monitor revenue and contact info; processed insertion orders, coordinated and executed client and agency events; managed office finances.

Integrated Sales Planner

Writer, producer, and content strategist crafting compelling content for state agencies, startups, B2B brands, national organizations, and news and documentary outlets. Proven leader, problem solver, and relationship-builder who executes with excellence. Passionate storyteller, lifelong learner, and seeker of new experiences.

My work has been featured on CNBC, Smithsonian Channel's YouTube and social media, Yahoo.com, NYTimes.com, Time.com, Guardian.com, KVRR News (Fox affiliate for ND, SD and MN), McClatchyDC.com and affiliated McClatchy News sites, MilitaryTimes.com, The Washington Post’s WhoRunsGov.com, ImmigrantConnect.org, the Northwest Indiana Times’ Get Healthy magazine, MedillDC.net, MedillNewsService.com and others.

Contact me at AwayWithWordsContent@gmail.com to collaborate!

taplio

The Battle

Stephen Beach

Kelly C. Doherty

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?