Editorial/Feature Writing

 With more than 20 years of editorial and feature writing experience, I have had the pleasure of interviewing everyone from Ralph Lauren and Kenneth Cole to Jon Bon Jovi and Les Paul. I have spoken with company CEOs, homeless people and everyone in between. They have all had a story to tell and it's my passion to dig in, find it, pull it out and do it justice with my writing. Below are a few examples of editorial and features I've done. 

entire site copy/design— The chrysalis method

We worked with physical therapist Lauren Simpson, DPT, to create a brand and subsequent website/marketing materials that carried out her mission and stayed on brand for her new recovery program. We built the site from the ground up and generated the company name and logo.

entire site copy/design— Mother to Mother

Mother to Mother is a non-profit that helps mothers in need get the items they need. The organization needed a website that was friendly, hopeful and easy to navigate. We worked with their team to use the photograhy and video assets they had to tell their story online.

Entire site copy generation — Wmg breast health center

Williamson Medical Group had recently formed its Breast Health Center and the web site needed to reflect all of the facets of this center. I researched, organized and wrote the entire collection of web pages for this service. It needed to present a lot of information in a concise way. We included video, testimonials, links and images to supplement the copy and further enhance the story. 

new website copy

South 40 is a beautiful farm in southern Williamson County that opened its gates to production teams and needed a web site, tagline and marketing plan to introduce the new business to location scouts. We worked with the owners and their web team to create this amazing tagline and website. We wrote all the copy and helped guide the design to ensure it stayed on brand.

entire site rewrite—Williamson medical Center

Williamson Medical Center's web site was outdated and lacked necessary bells and whistles. So our team worked with SnapShot Interactive to redesign and reorganize the entire site that features multiple business units. We did not move one single copy block from the old site to the new one. We rewrote every. single. word. We shot all new photography and video, interviewed key players, researched interesting statistics, worked in testimonials and social media integration. We worked with human resources to beef up the application process online. With the copy, our goal was to use minimal words to state facts and act as supplements to the graphic and video elements. 

Entire site rewrite — Ingram Express

Ingram Express, now known as IES, was in search of a bit of a brand overhaul. Their previous site was outdated and didn’t convey the energy this company brings to every job they do. I was hired to create and write the content for this new site that highlighted their team, their technology and their tenacity. I created the tagline “Imagine. Execute. Ship.” which is not only a play on the initials of the company name, but attempts to harness the wide range of things the company does. Check it out at www.ingramexpress.com

Copywriting

Choosing the perfect words to convey a message is so important. Sometimes an entire story has to be relayed in one sentence. In my opinion, effective writing with minimal words is an art form and something we strive to perfect everyday. 

Taglines

Our challenge was to lure potential hip replacement candidates to call us for more information. The joint replacement audience is getting younger as replacements become more effective. Now, people aren't getting hips replaced at 80 so they can walk, they are getting them at 60 so they can keep doing CrossFit or playing basketball. We needed a way to say that succinctly.

When COVID-19 forced the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, TN, to cancel all of its festivals, which were huge revenue-generators for the non-profit, we had to get creative in an appeal to the audience to continue to support the organization.

Level60 Consulting is a complicated company that does a lot of highly technical work for a broad assortment of clients. The company needed a tagline that summed up what they did without excluding any future opportunities. These three lines accurately represent the top line of what the company does and were added to the logo.

ad copy

This "Tell Us Your Story" campaign featured real people telling their real stories. These folks were not paid or told what to say. We just brought them in and let them talk. The challenge came in condensing their amazing stories into a concise, effective block of copy. The campaign spanned the web site, where we used video to tell the stories, billboards, where we used one quote, and print ads where we had a little more real estate, but still needed to get to the point. Click on the ad to the left to read the story.

We needed a succinct way to tell a story with a lot of background detail for Instagram. This piano was donated and put up for auction to benefit the Heritage Foundation. I came up with the “88 ways” as a way to illustrate and tease the reader that there was a lot more to the story.

campaigns

We have been involved in creating and executing multiple campaigns consisting of video, social, web, print and commercial reach with one unified message. One example is Williamson Medical Center's #StandWithUs campaign. Upon learning that the residents of our county might be asked to vote on the medical center's future, we realized the community needed to know the full story, so we created a hashtag and asked the residents of our area to #StandWithUs. And boy did they ever. Click HERE to see the #StandWithUs web page. 

When COVID-19 struck, we were tasked with helping the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, TN, come up with a campaign to let supporters of this non-profit know that the organization wasn’t going to stop doing its trademark historic preservation work. We created the #KeepItGoing hashtag/tagline and turned it into a series of weekly blog posts featuring projects the foundation was working on. We recruited supporters who sent in videos of support, spread it across all of their social channels and created a conversation that kept the community aware of the foundation’s continuing efforts.

Collateral

social campaign - This place matters

For the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, we wanted to celebrate National Historic Preservation Month by highlighting all the special areas around Williamson County. The goal was to tell a story about each one, while showing the variety of buildings and places. I decided to honor the county historian on his birthday by tweaking the “This Place Matters” tagline a bit. Click each image to read more.

social campaign - keep it going

When the pandemic hit in the Spring of 2020, we needed a way to keep the donors and fans of the Heritage Foundation and its divisions engaged and informed. We came up with the hashtag #KeepItGoing and built a social strategy, website and series of blog posts highlighting the people, places and purpose of Williamson County around that.

Press/Media Releases 

I've worked with multiple companies to help get their story out to the media in a timely and impactful way. Below are just a few examples. Click on each release to see it full size.

Musician/Band bios

I have interviewed and written about multiple people in music. It's one of my favorite things to do, because each musician's story is so integral to how they write songs, why they write songs, and what fuels them to share their music with the world. Below are just a few of the freakishly talented folks I've worked with.

logan mize

This dude is freakishly talented and has enough stories from his career to write a book, which I hope to help him do one of these days! Our interview lasted three hours. I took 12 pages of notes. 

JILL MARTIN

In 2009, singer/songwriter Jill Martin was on her way to making it big in the music industry. Following the advice of musician John Rich, who she met on the set of Nashville Star, Jill uprooted from her hometown in Kansas to move to Nashville.

BRTTANY TAYLOR

Brittany Taylor didn’t inherit her musical ability from anyone in her family. It comes straight from her roots. Brittany shares geography with Chris Stapleton, Dwight Yoakum, The Judds, Patty Loveless, and Loretta Lynn. She was born and raised in Eastern Kentucky just minutes from the legendary US 23, better known as the Country Music Highway. It’s a part of the country that has produced some of country music’s biggest stars.

luke pitney

Through a conversation with Luke, what became clear to me was the authenticity of his music. His appearance mirrors his life. He has a powerful voice and an even more powerful story. 

TYRUS MORGAN

It’s safe to say that songwriter Tyrus Morgan stumbled into a music career by turning obstacles into opportunities. He didn’t pick up an instrument until the death of his beloved grandfather, who left him a 1947 Gibson acoustic guitar.

vital empire

This group is a newly formed band that combines the experience of four extremely talented veteran rockers. Their individual musical pasts are woven into one powerhouse group that is poised to have a huge musical impact. Think 30 Seconds to Mars meets Imagine Dragons.

Billboards

billboards are tough

Billboards are also an art. Very few companies do them well. Aside from Chick-Fil-A, there aren't many who knock it out of the park. You have to be impactful in less than 5 words. You have to capture people zooming by at 70 mph who have a million other things to look at. At Williamson Medical Center, we hit a home run with this one. As the creative lead on this project, it took convincing a traditional company that we couldn't put service lines, phone numbers, web sites, QR codes and hours on a billboard.

So how do you tell all the stories a top-notch medical center has to tell and make everyone happy while being effective? You find a rock star legend who had a deadly aortic aneurysm but was saved and brought back to his former glory thanks to an amazing medical staff and is willing to share his story. Then you condense a 2-hour interview into four words. Add in a slammin' photograph, the finesse of a great designer and some elite real estate high above a major interstate right at the medical center's front door. It's that simple. 

Video Projects 

There are few ways to get your message across that are as effective as a well-done commercial spot and overall use of video everywhere from social media to the web to large-scale events. We have experience concepting, writing, and executing entire cohesive commercial campaigns, educational videos, event coverage and promotional videos. We've been involved in the scripting, production, editing, post-production finishing, ad buying and tracking of the final products. Click on the images below to see some of our favorites. 

Orthopaedics at williamson medical center

The creative brief for this commercial campaign was to bring the medical center's "Tell Us Your Story" campaign to life. We selected and interviewed multiple patients about their experience with WMC. This particular spot was aimed at the joint replacement community and was found to be very effective in its messaging. Spots were bought during football games and aimed at primarily a male audience. 

charlie sheen and tim montana

Nashville musician Tim Montana partnered with actor Charlie Sheen, who produced Tim’s music video for the song “Mostly Stoned.” EMPIRE, the company releasing the song, needed some of the backstory, so we conducted interviews and guided the conversation, which was captured on film.

long-form video 

Once we captured everyone's stories on video, we felt compelled to share their stories in a more complete format. These long form videos were placed on the web site and on YouTube for anyone who wanted, as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story." Click the image above to hear the Deeds amazing journey through an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which is nearly always fatal.

EXPLAINER VIDEO

Think of this as a digital elevator speech. With Chrysalis, we needed a visual way to get the client’s point across and explain what they do and why they do it. This video included the company owner, client testimonials, professional endorsements shot documentary style with B-roll shots added for effect. The end result was a condensed version of this company’s backstory that has been very effective in explaining the business.

promo videos 

Our team worked together to create a year-in-review for Williamson Medical Center. This was used on social media, web sites and was shown at chamber of commerce functions and other large-scale events to really drive home what was accomplished over the period of a year.

EXPLAINER VIDEO

With South-40, the beautiful farm south of Nashville available for production companies and photographers to use as a location for shoots, it was important to give location scouts and photographers an overview of the land and the highlights of the props, buildings and extras. This short video really conveys the excitement and potential for this property.

Logos/Branding

Below are some examples of logos and branding where we bridged the gap between top brass, stakeholders, the design team and creative thinkers to achieve the most optimal outcome for everyone involved.

CHRYSALIS

When the founder of a post-operative rehab program came to us for help with a company name and brand identity, we looked deeply into the roots of the program to realize it is a transitionary state where a lot of growth and change occurs. It seemed very much like a cocoon, or a Chrysalis, where patients emerge from this recovery period a beautiful butterfly.

dwell at mcewen

This high-end apartment complex was the first multifamily project for Southern Land Co., which was known for its single family developments. The apartments needed a slick, modern, high-end name and identity. We worked with the interior design team as well as apartment managers to come up with a concise name that would create brand identity for this development as well as be easy to find online. 

POWER CLEAN SOAP

The one complaint this company was getting from its Amazon customers was that the soap was too expensive. We worked with this company to rebrand itself as a higher-end product by cleaning up the logo, honing in the descriptions and playing up the natural ingredients.

SOUTH 40

When the owner of this beautiful 40-acre farm came to us for help naming and branding her property, which she intended to market as a location for television and movie shoots, we worked together to create an easily recognizable mark with a friendly and modern look.

Williamson medical group

Williamson Medical Center owned multiple physician practices that were operating under their original names with no ties back to the medical center. We embarked on rebranding all of these offices under one umbrella that had its own identity, which felt like a connected family of physicians. We wanted an eye-catching logo that only lent a nod to the medical world and didn't feel overly clinical.

ALTERNATIVE ANIMAL

This amazing company began as an idea by a horse owner who grew tired of stuffing her animals full of chemicals. She originally created a logo herself that was fine when she was getting started, but the business grew to a point that she needed a more professional brand. We walked her through modernizing her logo and making it high-end without changing the essence of the brand.

breast health center 

WMC needed to give its outpatient imaging center an identity that connected it to the medical center's breast health department. We loved the feminine color palette and the subtle nod to the pink ribbon.

tucker hill

Southern Land Company's second large-scale single family development in McKinney, Texas, needed a brand that spoke to the heritage of the land, yet also addressed the traditional architecture Southern Land is known for. We came up with the name and simple mark, with a nod to the front porch planter pot. 

hero hangout

This event needed a brand that wasn't too focused on princesses or superheroes, but communicated that this fun event would have both. We couldn't alienate the girls or the boys with anything too pink or too blue. We also needed to convey that this was an open house that was meant to be a "drop by" party.  

Technical Writing 

I love to tackle subjects that are detailed and highly technical. It's a fun learning experience for me to dig in and take high-level subject matter and work it into a story that is cohesive. Below are just a few examples of more technical writing I've done for multiple clients. Click on each thumbnail to read the entire story, blog post or e-book. 

E-Books

Case Studies

click each image to read full case studies

Technical writing

Antibiotic Stewardship Program

Disc arthroplasty

Healthcare vs. retail

Blogs

Travel Writing

The only thing more fun than getting to travel to fun and exciting places is to tell the stories about the people you meet and the places you go along the way. At Flack Rabbit, we love the challenge of experiencing a new destination and learning about its culture, food, vibe and mojo -- and being able to share it. A few examples of our work are below. 

Highland lakes region of texas

Walking up to the unassuming Blue Bonnet Café in the heart of Marble Falls, Texas, you might suspect it’s just another roadside cafeteria. Flanked with a bank of actual majestic blue bonnets blowing in the wind, you’ll quickly realize this isn’t your average lunch spot. For starters, we went in at 2 p.m. on a random Thursday, a time when many restaurants are closed. But not the Blue Bonnet. We had to wait in line for a table. The place, which can seat nearly 400 people, was packed.

Little gems like the Blue Bonnet are the crown jewels for Marble Falls and the entire Highland Lakes region of Texas, which is just about an hour northwest of Austin nestled in the Texas Hill Country’s Burnet County. We spent some time trekking up and down Highway 281 and have compiled a list of all the must-see stops in the area including places to stay, outdoor activities and, of course, places to eat.

HOT SPRINGS, ARKANSAS

Hot Springs, Arkansas, has quite a storied past. What once was on the fast track to becoming the Las Vegas of the South in the early 1900s, complete with gambling, casinos and brothels in plain sight on the town’s main drag, became a popular destination spot for its thermal mineral water that bubbled up naturally out of the ground and was thought to have healing power.

Local folklore says the water on one side of the street could cure you of everything you caught dabbling in the casinos and brothels on the other side. In the late 1800s, doctors would even write prescriptions for people to come to Hot Springs just to take a bath.

Western North Carolina

North Carolina has a lot to offer within its borders. There are the beautiful and scenic Outer Banks and beaches that dot the coastline. There are big cities with leading universities and industries.

But the Western side of the state, bordered by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Nantahala National Forest, is home to a handful of scenic little mountain towns chock full of sightseeing, hiking and waterfalls as well as fine dining, lodging and shopping; just with a bit of a scaled-down pace.

Just a two-hour drive from Atlanta, the town of Cashiers (which we learned while there is pronounced “Cash-urs,” not “Cash-eers”) is the perfect home base for a weekend of adventure in the North Carolina Mountains.

franklin, tn

Your girl squad contains a foodie, a shopaholic, a history buff, an athlete and a self-confirmed hotel snob. So how in the world do you find a weekend getaway that pleases your entire Breakfast Club? Look no further than Franklin, Tennessee.

Franklin is located about 15 miles from downtown Nashville, but a fun weekend with your girls, no matter how eclectic the group is, can be had without having to venture to downtown Music City.

the south's most luxe hotels

In the past, if you wanted to travel and stay in a truly unique hotel, you would have to seek out a smaller, locally owned boutique hotel to expect much of anything out of the ordinary, but that’s just not the case anymore. Many large luxury hotel chains have evolved into looking less like a franchise, where every single location needs to offer the exact same amenities and services, and operating more like a brand that is focused on delivering boutique services and, more importantly, experiences.

We did a little homework and have compiled a list of some of the South’s most premier luxury hotel chains that are excelling at crafting an experience that goes way beyond a clean room and a cup of coffee in the morning.

10 TOP SOUTHERN SPAS & WELLNESS CENTERS

We are knee-deep in the time of year where the cold winter weather and shorter days have us feeling the effects in a big way. It not only challenges the energy level and makes us fight wanting to do anything that doesn’t involve a fuzzy blanket, glass of Merlot and Netflix, but your body suffers during the winter months as well as your psyche.

Cold and wind wreak havoc on your cuticles, your skin turns to ash no matter how much lotion you apply, and your hair can’t decide if it wants to stand up from static or frizz out from damage.

But we are here to offer you a much-needed ray of light in the form of 10 of the South’s most stellar spa destinations that are amazing even in the dead of winter.

SCHLITTERBAHN WATER PARK

Somehow, spending two full days running around outside in the 98-degree sunshine in south Texas in the middle of June, my family and I managed to not die from heat exhaustion. I bet it had something to do with all the nice, cool 72-degree water compliments of Schlitterbahn Water Park.

TUPELO, Mississippi

Tupelo, Mississippi, will always be known as the birthplace of Elvis Presley, and that will likely never cease to be the town’s biggest tourism draw. But there’s a lot more to Tupelo that makes it a quite unique and well-rounded vacation stop with offerings for everyone in the family.

Tupelo is home to numerous festivals, car shows and hiking trails, and there is an abundance of live music. “A fan favorite of our Tupelo Elvis Festival held every June is the Elvis Pet Parade and Pageant, where people dress their pets up to look like Elvis,” shares Jennie Bradford Curlee, public relations and international sales director for the Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau.

NORTHEAST TENNESSEE

If you are one of the masses of Middle Tennesseans who thinks East Tennessee means Knoxville, then you need to do one thing: Keep going.

The northeastern part of the state, 100 more miles east of Knoxville, might surprise you with its blossoming restaurant and craft beer and distillery scene, its natural beauty and proximity to just about any outdoor activity.

With borders reaching into Virginia and stretching up toward the mountains of North Carolina, the trio of towns including Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol are a beautiful setting for an outdoor adventure trip for the whole family. The Tri-Cities area and its surrounding bodies of water and mountainous peaks and valleys are an outdoor lover’s paradise with everything from world-class fishing and kayaking to hiking, road cycling, mountain biking and even zip-lining.

Williamson medical center

Williamson Medical Center used all sorts of in-house generated content to get on-target messages to the medical center’s regional audience. I created concepts, generated topics, interviewed experts and wrote copy that was originally for the company’s blog “Healthy U” but was shared widely on social media and often in the local print and digital media as well. Below is a sampling of some of the content I created for Williamson Medical. A complete list of blog posts can be found HERE.

The Heritage Foundation

With the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, TN, during the pandemic, I created a series of blog posts under the “Keep It Going” campaign, where we highlighted various facets of the organization in an attempt to stay top of mind with donors and community members. I also wrote on newsy topics, preservation trends and other relevant messaging. Click on each image below to read the blog post.

Ingram Express Services - IES

While working with IES, we wanted to use their blog space to not only promote the highly technical skillset of the company, but also generate some thought-provoking, leadership insights that could be useful to the business community at large. Click each image below to read the blog post.

The Pargh Team / COMPASS Real Estate

The Pargh Team is a highly successful group of real estate professionals doing high-price and high-volume real estate in Nashville. Our goal with their blog was to use their immense expertise to showcase the depth and breadth of their knowledge with friendly, informative and professional short stories that could easily be shared.