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Rachel Hurn
Associate Editor at Maine Home+Design and Maine
Professional Background
Rachel Hurn is a dynamic and accomplished writer and editor with a keen expertise in narrative journalism and creative nonfiction. Currently serving as an Associate Editor at State 23 Media, Rachel brings her passion for storytelling and attention to detail into every project she undertakes. With a career that spans several prestigious publications and media companies, Rachel exhibits a unique blend of creativity and professionalism that captivates audiences and enriches editorial teams.
Prior to her role at State 23 Media, Rachel held significant editorial positions that highlight her impressive skill set in the publishing industry. She was the Associate Features Editor at Departures Magazine, where she played a pivotal role in shaping feature articles that engage and inform readers about travel, lifestyle, and culture. During her time at Time Inc., Rachel honed her editorial prowess, contributing to the esteemed reputation of Departures Magazine.
Rachel's diverse career also includes serving as a Senior Editor at A Women’s Thing, where she focused on content that empowers and uplifts women through storytelling. Her experience as a Freelance Writer for notable publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate demonstrates her broad writing capability and her ability to captivate various audience segments.
Furthermore, Rachel has showcased her ability to craft compelling narratives while working as a Copywriter and Content Curator at Oyster Inc., where she developed engaging content that resonated with clients and consumers alike. She has also contributed her writing skills to Interview Magazine, a testament to her versatility and expertise in the world of journalism.
Rachel's journey in the publishing realm began at McNally Jackson Books, where she worked as a Bookseller and Buyer. This experience allowed her to cultivate a deep appreciation for literature and further inspired her writing career. Early on, she also completed an internship with the prestigious New Yorker as a Page Turner Book Blog Intern, followed by an Editorial Internship at Poets & Writers, Inc., where she gained invaluable industry insights.
Education and Achievements
Rachel Hurn’s educational background strongly complements her professional journey. She studied Narrative Journalism at The Salt Institute of Documentary Study, which laid the foundation for her skill in crafting engaging and well-researched narratives. Furthermore, she furthered her expertise by earning an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The New School, where her critical thinking and imaginative writing flourished.
Rachel's academic credentials also include a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Point Loma Nazarene University, where her love for the written word began to blossom. Each of these educational milestones has enabled Rachel to develop a distinct voice as a writer and editor and contribute thoughtfully to the literary and journalism communities.
In addition to her impressive career trajectory and educational achievements, Rachel has committed herself to continuous personal and professional growth, always seeking out new challenges and opportunities within the writing and publishing fields.
Personal Interests and Work Philosophy
Beyond her professional achievements, Rachel leads an exuberant and fulfilling life. She draws immense joy from her role as a mother to her adorable toddler, who keeps her agile and infuses her days with laughter and playful moments. Rachel cherishes her family time and finds inspiration in the everyday joys of parenting, often weaving these experiences into her writing.
In addition to her family life, Rachel is passionate about rock climbing, a thrilling pursuit she previously engaged in before the pandemic. This activity not only offers her physical challenges but also a sense of adventure and mental clarity. Coupled with her commitment to reading at least 52 novels a year, Rachel continually seeks inspiration from literature, which shapes her writing style and influences her editorial work.
Rachel Hurn thrives in energetic and collaborative environments. Her working style is characterized by a positive attitude and a penchant for laughter, which creates a refreshing atmosphere for her teammates. She values detail and creative expression, always eager to share her passion for writing with fellow creators and audiences alike. Whether it's through a well-turned phrase or a beautifully composed article, Rachel's enthusiasm for storytelling is evident in every project she undertakes.
Achievements
- Associate Editor at State 23 Media
- Associate Features Editor at Departures Magazine
- Senior Editor at A Women’s Thing
- Freelance Writer for San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate
- Copywriter/Content Curator at Oyster Inc.
- Freelance Writer at Interview Magazine
- Rich background in bookselling and literary curation at McNally Jackson Books
- Internship experiences at The New Yorker and Poets & Writers, Inc.
Professional Skills
- Narrative Journalism
- Creative Nonfiction
- Team Collaboration
- Editorial Leadership
- Content Creation
- Copywriting
- Business Writing
- Book Curation
- Freelance Writing
- Media Production
Keywords
Rachel Hurn, Writer, Editor, Narrative Journalism, Creative Nonfiction, State 23 Media, Departures Magazine, A Women’s Thing, San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate, Copywriter, Oyster Inc., Literature, MFA, Salt Institute, The New School, Publishing, Media, Editorial Intern, Freelance Writer, Bookseller, Poets & Writers, McNally Jackson Books, Personal Interests, Rock Climbing, Parenting, Reading.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.
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