Laura specializes in all forms of creative copywriting with a special fondness for blog posts, personal essays, and e-commerce product descriptions. While she has written for print magazines and newspapers, the majority of her work today is web-based content.
Laura is fascinated with dream work, symbols, patterns, astrology, tarot, and all things esoteric and metaphysical. She is a voracious reader and a self-taught pique assiette and mixed media mosaic artist. Her sanity and sense of balance absolutely require daily nature walks and quiet, contemplative time with her pets.
An undergraduate degree in Psychology was inevitable given Laura's "wiring" and the perfect springboard for her nosedive into the deep waters of spiritual exploration that followed.
Laura is the consummate armchair traveler. But she's lived in some of the most beautiful places in the United States and enjoys bragging about them. Because she is a creative writer who loves to research and weave facts and fantasy, Laura excels at travel writing projects.
Laura has obtained her Life and Health Insurance Agent's License three times since 1980. She sold group health insurance for Blue Cross of Southern California from 1980-1984, covering Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, and San Luis Obispo Countines. Laura was the youngest person to ever hold this position and was named to the Blue Cross President's Club for sales, service, and retention in her second year.
Laura designed and marketed IRS-qualified pension and profit-sharing plans for a private company in Fresno, CA, in the late 1980s. Her most recent license was obtained in Colorado in 2006 where she became an AFLAC representative.
A very good grasp of benefit policies and provisions coupled with the ability to explain them to others, verbally and in written form, are some of Laura's strengths in the Insurance industry.
Laura was a self-taught pique assiette mosaic artist until her hands couldn't take the stress any longer. From 1998-2014, she created all of her own self-promotional content and marketing materials, including four blogs, two websites, and numerous virtual store and selling presences on e-commerce sites.
As project manager and participating artist in a colony of Western North Carolina regional artisans, Laura developed all marketing and advertising materials to promote, train, and manage the retail development.
In an earlier position in Monterey, California, Laura was the Director of Marketing for a very popular, now deceased contemporary artist. She was responsible for overseeing the creation and implementation of all print and televised advertising programs; the development of sales support materials and systems; and the creation and publication of the quarterly Collector Newsletter, circulation 5,000.
Laura is very experienced in the writing of artist biographies, product and process descriptions, artist interviews, and provenance creation.
Laura's business experience spans many industries, including insurance, management, business consulting, retail management, project management, marketing, direct sales, artist representation, author representation, and legal research. If there is a way to incorporate her writing into the position, she's all for it.
Laura held the Director of Marketing position for a multiple location art gallery group in Carmel and Monterey, CA, representing one internationally known artist. Responsibilities included: the creation and implementation of all print and televised advertising programs, with an annual budget of $100,000; the composition and editing of the quarterly Collector Newsletter, circulation 5,000; the development of sales support materials and systems; event coordination for the semi-annual Artist Reception Weekends attended by 200 collectors; and the tracking and servicing of art acquisitions by the premier client base. She was later promoted to Executive Director of the newly opened (Artist) Public Archive. Laura functioned as Curator and Sales Director for the largest collection of this artists's original oils, sketches, and limited edition prints ever assembled. The Archive was viewed as the authoritative source for collectors nationwide seeking to acquire or consign art.
Most recently Laura served as Project Manager for a colony of retail artisan cottages. Her primary responsibility was to market, promote, and manage the newly built garden venue for select regional artists. In addition to managing the artisan shops, Laura performed a wide range of duties for the other retail entities that comprised the holdings of the commercial real estate development firm, including marketing, advertising, and public relations. She created and maintained a blog for the properties.
Laura is fascinated with dream work, shadow work, breath work, symbols, patterns, astrology, tarot, shamanism, and all things esoteric and metaphysical. Her sole outer spiritual teacher in this lifetime (and others), Brugh Joy, told her when she was 25 that she was a "seer." He also told her that with the sensitivities she brought into this life, of course she would also carry addictive patterning!
Laura's conscious spiritual deepening began at age 20 when a lifelong eating disorder drove her into the healing arms of the 12-step programs. Her insatiable appetite (pun intended) was now channeled (again!) into spiritual seeking, and while she spent many years as an avowed "intensity seminar junkie," age has mellowed her. And tired her!
Laura's most numinous spiritual moments are usually found when she is in deep communion with nature, animals, or like-minded, resonant Souls. There is little that she has not explored when it comes to teachers, books, and spiritual paths, but she truly believes "Many paths, One destination." The trick is to find what, if anything, works for a Soul at any one stage of their life cycle. "What wants to happen? Where does the energy want to go?"
Laura's most recent hospitality adventure was as Wine Steward for a destination, farm-to-table restaurant in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was her pleasure to guide diners through the comprehensive, international wine list, assist with their selections, pour for them while demonstrating correct tableside wine-service etiquette, and increase wine sales for the dining room. Laura was also responsible for updating the wine tasting notes binder to reflect vintage changes and new selections, ensuring that the service staff stayed abreast of new offerings. She designed and scored weekly beverage quizzes for the staff to support them in becoming more confident and capable wine servers.
Laura's past hospitality experience has included server and front desk/concierge positions at luxury resorts and dining venues in Carmel and Napa; waitstaff for several upscale catering companies; and front-of-the-house, opening manager of a French bistro. Laura spent two years in Napa working as a freelance wine and food server and as a marketing manager for the International Wine Academy. All of these positions included writing responsibilities in the form of employee manuals, advertising copy, marketing correspondence, and training materials.
Blog posts come naturally to Laura. She has a portfolio of over 300 online consumer reviews from the late 1990s that were, in retrospect, actually blog posts before blog posts became so cool. Product reviews, movie and book reviews, food and wine reviews, travel blogs, and pet blogs. It's all there, and it's all fun for Laura! Because a conversational, whimsical, personal tone is her favorite writing voice, Laura loves to blog!
As a self-taught mosaic artist, Laura created copy for her own websites and other e-commerce selling venues from 1998-2014.
Laura's zeal for creative writing and her vivid imagination make her well-suited for composing product descriptions. She brings an intuitive understanding of the flow required by the feature/benefit format, and derives great inspiration from the dynamic pace a good product description delivers. Tell the product's story, and tell it fast and sharp!
Articles are one of Laura's favorite pieces to write, especially if they involve a good dose of research. She also enjoys personal essays and has published pieces in the Wine Spectator and Western North Carolina Women Magazine.
Laura writes informative and crisp press releases for commercial property projects, retail establishments, artists, and authors.
Two most recent email campaigns for which Laura created copy were an artist recruitment campaign and promotion of a published author's soon-to-be-released second book. She also created email campaigns for her own mosaic art to announce holiday promotions.