Elless Media

Content Strategy for Growing Businesses

Resume

Larry Swanson

PO Box 20704
Seattle, WA 98102
email
portfolio

Expertise

  • Content Strategy
  • Content Design
  • UX Writing
  • Research and Interviewing
  • Writing and Editing
  • Podcasting
  • Product Management
  • Editorial Management
  • Business Presentations
  • Workshop Facilitation
  • Public Speaking
  • Teaching and Curriculum Design

Experience

Elless Media, Principal

August 1998-present
Operate content strategy, web publishing, and digital marketing consultancy.

  • host and produce Content Strategy Insights podcast
  • consult with business and agency owners on content strategy and digital publishing
  • developed content-marketing and SEO programs (grew monthly engagement by as much as 75%)

Virtual CCO, Founder

September 2019-present
Creating subscription business to bring content-strategy expertise to startup founders.

  • conducted market-validation interviews with 60+ tech-startup founders and investors
  • built product prototype (subscription-based community and publication model)
  • conducted product-validation interviews with 10+ tech-startup founders

Well9to5, Founder and Publisher

August 2015-January 2017
Conceived, raised funding for, designed, and operated digital “active office” publication.

  • created company visual identity and designed website
  • researched and wrote Consumer Reports–style active-office product reviews
    • recruited community product testers
    • devised and implemented rigorous and consistent testing methods
  • designed, researched, and wrote “Standing Desk Buying Guide” and other guides
    • numerous interviews with industry experts
    • extensive competitive and industry research
  • designed, populated, and implemented database of active-office products
    • interviewed possible users to set scope and depth of product offerings
    • researched user preferences and product characteristics to create product taxonomies
    • created entity relationship diagram and database design
    • created robust faceted search web interface to access the database
  • produced personal-wellness podcast and blogged on active-office industry
  • spoke at ergonomics and wellness events

WorkWhileWalking, Editor-in-Chief (interim)

January-April 2015
Interim editorial lead for office-fitness furniture company publication.

  • published weekly email newsletter
  • collaborated with CMO on video production and digital asset management
  • supervised and mentored editorial staff

BodyworkU, Founder and Publisher

June 2006-October 2012
Founded, built, and operated continuing education class promotion website.

  • designed both user-facing and client-back-end website interfaces
  • designed website information architecture and MySQL database
  • hired and collaborated with Mason (Perl)/MySQL developer to build website back-end
  • hired and supervised editor to populate and maintain content database
  • low-budget, SEO-only strategy grew traffic to 10K monthly visitors in about a year

DigitalCandle, Director of Marketing

June 2001-January 2002
Managed marketing program for marketing-services startup serving shareware developers.

  • created automated marketing-services product for shareware developers
  • redesigned company website
  • collaborated with developer team on CMS overhaul
  • recruited and supervised marketing staff
  • spoke at shareware developer conferences

workz.com, Executive Producer

April 1998-December 2000
Jack-of-all-trades senior manager for dot-com startup.

  • assigned, wrote, and edited online-business how-to stories
  • launched and operated creative agency (BannerWorkz)
    • grew team from 1 to 15 in-house and freelance designers in about 4 months
    • grew monthly revenue to $40,000
  • developed comprehensive product launch plan for contextual advertising system
    • collaborated with executive team to align business, technical, and creative needs
    • consulted with attorneys and other outside advisors on project scope
    • overhauled CMS taxonomy to accommodate new advertising functionality
  • worked with development team to implement custom content management system
  • managed website redesign, both information architecture and front-end design
  • oversaw data migration from old CMS
  • wrote and edited documentation for new CMS system
  • administered staff training for new CMS system
  • evaluated companies for acquisition potential
  • spoke at internet marketing conferences

Big Tent Media Labs, Senior Producer

August 1996-August 1997
New-media producer for early dot-com publishing start-up.

  • conceived, developed, and produced prototype of consumer-oriented self-help website
  • wrote and edited self-help articles and other website content
  • consulted with founder to explore additional publishing and marketing opportunities

Public Speaking

Other Experience

Community Event Organizer, Volunteer, and Promoter

1998-present
Plan, produce, manage, and promote arts, educational, and charity events, from 10 to 10,000+ attendees.

  • Larry’s Events, publish weekly Seattle community events announcement list, 2017-present
  • Content Strategy Seattle meetup, Co-Organizer, 2018-present
  • WordPress Open-Source Community
  • Ignite Seattle, community quick-talk event
    • Editing and Content Strategy, 2018-2019
    • Organizer and Slide Wrangler, 2015-2018
  • Dent Conference, statement of values steering committee, 2017
  • TEDxRainier (now TEDxSeattle)
    • Stage Manager, 2012
    • Production Manager, 2011
  • Moisture Festival, Lighting, Stage Management, and Security Volunteer for world’s largest comedy/variety/vaudeville festival, 2008-present
  • Seeds of Compassion, “Compassion Ambassador” Concierge, event planning and customer support for high-level (>$10K) event sponsors, 2008
  • World Rhythm Festival (Seattle World Percussion Society), Board Member and Organizer for annual music, dance, and culture event that drew as many as 10,000 attendees, 2001-03
  • Fremont Noodle House Group, Founder, business networking lunch, 1998-2013

Massage Therapist and Educator

January 1999-present
Professional, independent massage practice focusing on injury treatment and wellness (very part-time to almost full-time, depending on level of content strategy and consulting activity).

  • created and evangelized the field of “office fitness”; wrote and spoke on sitting disease, inactivity physiology, habit formation, exercise, ergonomics, and posture, 2007-2016
  • wrote “Scared Sitless: The Office Fitness Book“, 2014
  • taught popular couples massage class, 2003-2018
  • assistant teacher for orthopedic-massage continuing-education classes, 2006-2010
  • teaching assistant for massage-school business classes, 2004-2006

Education

  • B.A., University of Oregon, summa cum laude. Magazine journalism major; English minor. Phi Beta Kappa.
  • Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course, Harvard University. The Radcliffe Publishing Course was an intensive six-week program on book and magazine publishing.

Skills

  • content strategy
    • content design
    • UX writing
    • writing
    • editing
    • discovery interviews
    • stakeholder alignment
    • strategy formulation
    • messaging architecture
    • success metrics
    • content inventory
    • content audit
    • workflow design
    • editorial planning
    • content ecosystem mapping
    • governance policies
    • editorial/brand style guides
    • voice and tone guides
    • content migration
  • UX design
    • user interviews
    • wireframing
    • user interface design
    • microcopy writing
    • usability testing
    • website navigation
    • design style guides
    • data visualization
    • typography
  • research
    • business research
    • marketing research
    • competitive research
    • field research
    • user-intent research
    • “customer carewords” research
    • keyword research
  • information architecture
    • domain modeling
    • website information architecture
    • taxonomy
    • content metadata
  • technical
    • relational database design
    • WordPress, Drupal, and other CMSs
    • SQL queries
    • HTML
    • CSS
    • database migration
  • marketing
    • content marketing
    • search engine optimization (SEO)
    • marketing copywriting
    • email marketing
    • social-media marketing
  • management
    • product management
    • program management
    • project management
    • editorial management
    • marketing management
    • design management
    • event management
    • P&L responsibility
  • business communications
    • business presentations
    • meeting facilitation
    • workshop facilitation
    • public speaking
    • curriculum design
    • teaching
    • documentation
    • training

Tools

  • Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google docs, and other business tools
  • Google Analytics and other web analytics tools
  • Asana, Trello, HelpScout, GitHub, and other team productivity tools
  • Slack and Meetup community administration tools
  • Things, Zapier, IFTTT, and other personal productivity tools
  • Canva, Gimp, Audacity, iMovie, and other media production tools
  • MailChimp and other CRM/email systems
  • Buffer, Hootsuite, and other social-media tools

Reader Interactions