Byram Hills High School

Vermont College of Fine Arts

The Evergreen State College

Beloit College

📸 Celebrity Copywriter)💥 incl. New York Times bestsellers Tony Robbins & Deepak Chopra 💎 Copywriting Mentor 💥

San Francisco, California, United States

Gio Marcus Copywriting, LLC

Chief Executive Officer & Founder

I had the unique experience of working with Designs For Health's new Consumer Marketing Division, privy to the thrills of new product development, evolving branding, and go-to-market strategies. I contributed to an existing brand of consumer-facing products and helped shaped the direction of a rebrand.

More about Designs For Health's mission:

- We are activists for health—rooted in and united by science. Transforming boundaries, breaking barriers, setting new standards, disrupting the status quo.

We believe in science-based nutrition and natural medicine, developing health products without compromise and advancing the way education and technology support wellness for all.

We will keep fearlessly advocating for the greater good. So that one-day, natural medicine and the science of nutrition stand at the forefront of the healthcare landscape."

Designs for Health

Marketing Consultant

Founded by JJ Virgin (yes, her real name), a 4x New York Times best-selling author, Fitness Hall of Famer, Triple-Board Certified Holistic Health Nutritionist, and a woman who has hair that, as my hairdresser sister says, “Would be really fun to blow-dry.” Also fun? Penning wildly creative (some say renegade) marketing campaigns and putting them in action… Then watching the crowd go wild. Pairing empathy and spread-sheets-don’t-lie research to make meaning… And then going on to make our Facebook and Instagram ads more relevant. RoAS to follow, natch. Collaborating with other Copywriters, Creative Directors, Graphic Designers, Content Writers, CRM Managers, Affiliate Managers, and anyone else who’d let me give them slightly unsolicited advice. Then there's the psychology of it all—how do our ideal customers think and feel? Call me data-driven. Call a content marketer. Call me an unnatural blonde in 2005. All true. But I’ve heard worse.

I helped build this team like it was my job. (Update: someone just told me it is.) Check out this glowing review from our Content Manager, Emily:

- Gio is incredibly talented with vast amounts of knowledge in sales and marketing and she understands how to truly reach customers. Her instincts are always spot-on and she knows how to build trust with our audience. Thanks to Gio's expertise, my writing and marketing skills have grown leaps and bounds. Gio has wonderful interpersonal skills and she has done an amazing job as a team leader. She clearly communicates goals and priorities so that we know what to focus on as a team. Gio also shares valuable feedback to help us grow as professionals. Gio is extremely reliable and she goes above and beyond to deliver exceptional work. It's been such an honor and a privilege to work with Gio.”

That’s what makes this marketing monkey crank her noisemaker and send Slack messages at 1 in the morning. Remind me to thank the genius who created Do-Not-Disturb Mode.

JJ Virgin & Associates

Marketing Director

Senior Copywriter

Mix Panel is where my love for data-driven marketing was born. I'd just moved to San Francisco and a friend brought me on board to write case studies for Mix Panel. It was then that I learned the concept of identifying the "metrics that matter."

Fast forward to today: I don't want to live in a world without meaningful metrics.

Mixpanel helps companies use data to grow their business. They create out-of-the-box reports that make it easy for teams to monitor KPIs and go deep in analyzing user behavior, so you can build better campaigns and products.

The result? Self-serve analytics that help companies innovate and pivot faster. The other result? Analyzing, measuring, and improving customer experience. Over and over again.

My role at Mix Panel: to creative compelling case studies based on customer successes that showcased the virtues of Mix Panel. But I also learned how to spin a spreadsheet into a story and a ven diagram into gold.

Mix Panel

Technical Writer

In partnership with Crunchbase, Startup Genome releases its Global Startup Ecosystem Report each year with a readership of around the world. The Goal: understand and share the best practices for startups to succeed.

Startup Genome analyses startup ecosystem development through data. They are the first of their kind to advise world leaders in policymaking, strategy, and actions to drive innovation and economic growth.

Startup Genome created its own ranking methodology based on 7 key criteria: Performance, Funding, Market Research, Connectedness, Talent, Experience, and Knowledge, ranking startup ecosystems and providing insights on sub-sector trends.

The annual Global Report on Startup Ecosystems has a global readership nearing one million.

Startup Genome

Consultant, Copywriter, and Editor

Here's where I went from childhood entrepreneur selling greeting cards and gift wrap... To the little engine that could at Thurston County's premier nonprofit Microbusiness Development Organization (MDO).

The mainstay of our services included in-dept Business Plan Training to low-income entrepreneurs. A subset of our offerings was a robust "Agri-preneur" training program" that gave low-income startups access to a shared commercial kitchen for value-added foods, as well a farm trust providing local agri-businesses access to land. We proudly offered USDA micro-loans up to $25,000 to graduates of our program.

Our nonprofit also provided free monthly Financial Education Classes -- with a $25 stipend for attendance at all classes. (Soon after being hired, I became the instructor for these classes.)

My key functions included supporting the CEO and Program Director with all manner of admin support, including database management, publishing, marketing comms, inventory support, and overall organizational bliss. I went deep into our marketing and promotional activities, including updates in printed collateral, as well as digital channels like Wordpress and Facebook. I worked on grants, while cheerfully doing the bookkeeping admin and loan management of our USDA Microloans Program. While I was at it, I assisted in collecting and analyzing data on program outcomes, client needs, program improvements, and compiling performance reports for funders.

Enterprise For Equity

Administrative Manager

It's my firmly-held belief that financial awareness is one of the best things a person can do for themselves and their family. I set out to educate myself, and when I learned about compound interest in my late 20s, I sobbed tears. Why had no one told me before? So rather than dwell on my lost opportunity, I set out to help as many people understand this as I could. Teaching for Enterprise for Equity gave me the outlet I needed to do just that.

I taught the basics like credit, debt, saving, loans, retirement, and more. I also did my best to instill in my student's mind that it was possible to escape generational poverty. It was possible to escape the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. I STILL offer help for my friends or even strangers every chance I get. I am so passionate about it, and I will always advocate for the financial well-being of anyone I meet.

Financial Education Instructor

The story of the Ruby Scribe started in a small town, in an even smaller coffee shop. Back then, it was just a girl and her dream to get paid to write and to smash her way out of a life of humdrumery. Fast forward a year or two, and the Ruby Scribe had all the clients she desired. (With a waitlist, no less!)

My clients were not no-name Nellies—they were featured on Oprah, The TODAY Show, Dr. Oz, Goop, Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, Elle, Marie Claire, USA Today, People, The American Heart Association, MindBodyGreen, ABC News, Dr. Oz. Fox News, Good Morning America, CBS News, Martha Stewart, NBC, Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, <a href="http://HSN.com">HSN.com</a>, and more. These high-performing clients are New York Times and <a href="http://Amazon.com">Amazon.com</a> bestsellers, they're Oscar-nominated, they're international, some of them are household names, and they all came to me by word-of-mouth.

All in a day's work... Tying together high-level messaging, using my storyteller’s background (MFA in Creative Nonfiction), a love for helping people, alternative health and wellness, and mission-driven copy. In short, I was a problem-solver extraordinaire and I made my clients millions.

I also offered private copywriting coaching and taught group classes. I was invited to speak at conventions, networking groups, podcasts, and more. It was a wild ride until I was courted to become a full-time team member at JJVA. (I said yes!)

Ruby Scribe Writing

CEO & Founder

Marcus, Mitchell & Schulz Lemonade

Proprietor

The finest reconstituted pink lemonade powder mixed with tap water you can buy. Marcus, Mitchell & Schulz Lemonade is not currently operational, although it never officially closed its doors. These legendary libations are semi-famous for veteran homeowners of Wago Avenue. As there is no website, social media presence, retail location, email address, or phone number, we can only hope that this is the year the proprietors decide to make a comeback. (Word has it that the IRS may be after them for tax evasion.)