Effective Media by Charmaine is a digital marketing studio based in Southwest Florida. From strategy to implementation, we’re here to help tell the story of your business.
A bit about the founder, Charmaine:
After a childhood characterized in part by a love of storytelling, I officially earned my chops in writing, editing and reporting through completing my degree in journalism at the University of Florida.
It was in these vine-covered halls that I learned the fundamentals of getting the story right. In the pits of the Independent Florida Alligator known as the copy desk, I learned the importance of maintaining accuracy and clarity in each word we ran. These lessons were interspersed with less-serious, though not less important learnings: Talking to people about their stories, striking through massive amounts of leads to get to just the right one, pitching article ideas to a round table of people working in all sorts of media. It’s where my writing in public all began.
Post-grad, I pursued another passion of mine: teaching children. I spent over five years in the classroom sharing my heart for reading and writing.
I credit the classroom as the training grounds for many of my business skills. I learned to essentially become the CEO of my classroom in order to be effective for my students. The job required a heaping amount of organization, systems creation, decision making and creativity to run these little units of 20+ young people each year. Turns out, the kids were teaching me as much as I was teaching them.
Then I entered my mom era, which included writing online and starting media work for a local organization.
This period of my life has been characterized by obsessive nap time charting, playful park outings, and paving my own way with words. My daughter was around seven months old when I bought a domain name and started writing a blog about being a mom and substitute teacher, my mom-friendly part-time gig. I used Chocolate for the Teach to educate and encourage others who may found themselves wrapped up in this fulfilling-yet-complicated web of life responsibilities. I learned how to boost the site through SEO (search engine optimization) and social media platforms.
About a year into working on my site, I got asked to handle the media needs of a local church. I used my newfound experience with writing for websites and social media to refine their content with strategic exactness, to reach more people both in and out of the church with their essential messages.
Enter: Effective Media by Charmaine, founded in the summer of 2024
After helping the church and a few other business owners refine and better expand their messages, I realized I could set up shop to help even more businesses, doing what I love. Effective Media by Charmaine officially began in 2024 but felt like a “coming home” culmination of a lifetime of learning. Welcome– stay a bit, if you like.
When I’m not writing and strategizing, I can usually be found either in the throes of parenting or indulging my compulsion for baking up new and delicious recipes.
