Stop renting attention. Build an audience you own.
Algorithms, inboxes, and AI-generated answers now decide who sees your brand and what they learn about it. I help health, food, and lifestyle companies turn their expertise into an owned media strategy with publications people want to read.
Build category authority. Cultivate valuable relationships. Give your brand one clear voice that’s consistent wherever your audience checks you out.
You don’t have a content problem. You have a relevance, coherence, and trust problem.
Most marketing teams aren’t short on content. They’re short on a system that makes it matter. Four shifts have made that gap expensive.
Rented reach keeps getting less reliable.
Social algorithm changes. Zero-click searches. Sponsorships. Any of these can change the terms on you overnight. If your audience lives on someone else’s platform, you’re renting it. Ask yourself one question: If you stopped paying for reach tomorrow, what would you still own?
Your brand story is being told by someone else.
When people ask AI tools for answers, about 84% of the cited sources don’t come from the companies involved. They come from news coverage, forums, reviews, other companies’ content, and whatever your executives posted two years ago. A buyer can form an opinion of you without ever visiting your site. AI search often isn’t where you’re found. It’s where you’re checked, and you’re not in the room.
That isn’t an argument against owned media. It’s the case for it: the outlets, experts, and communities AI trusts repeat the companies with something clear and credible to say. That has to start with you.
Being sent isn’t the same as being read.
Inboxes now sort by relevance instead of recency, and platform newsletters don’t reliably reach the people who subscribed. A big list no longer guarantees readers. Being someone’s most valuable newsletter matters more than being their newest one.
More content won’t fix this.
AI made volume cheap. But nobody needs ten times more mediocre content. A newsletter full of product updates is still product updates, no matter where you publish it.
Every one of these comes back to the same answer: A clear point of view, delivered to people who chose to read it, through channels you control. That’s what owned media is for.
What is owned media?
Owned media is any channel your company controls: your newsletter, website, blog, podcast, and e-mail list. You set the terms. You keep the audience and the archive. No algorithm decides whether the people who signed up actually see you.
It’s different from paid media (ads, sponsorships), which you rent, and earned media (press coverage, reviews, shares), which you can influence but not control. Your LinkedIn page and social accounts feel like yours, but they’re rented. The platform owns the audience.
Where does your owned media stand?
18 questions, about 6 minutes, results on screen. See where you stand in six areas, including how visible you are to AI answer engines.
Owning a channel doesn’t mean you have something to say. That’s where I start.
Launching a newsletter or a podcast is the easy part. The hard part is having something worth watching or reading every week, and a system that keeps it that way. I build that system: what each channel is for, who each piece serves, what gets cut, and how it all fits together. It’s editorial leadership and judgment—not content production.
A point of view people would choose to hear.
Your company already knows things your audience wants to learn. It’s just trapped in people’s heads, sales calls, and customer conversations. I help you find the real perspective inside the company, choose the right voice, and turn that expertise into a platform people want.
The right home for it.
Depending on your audience and goals, your owned media might live on Substack, in your e-mail platform, on your website, or in a mix. I’ll help you decide where it belongs, how it works alongside your CRM, and how to keep your list and archive portable so no platform owns your audience but you.
One story, everywhere your audience meets you.
Your customers don’t meet your brand in one place anymore. They see fragments: an AI answer, a LinkedIn post, a search result, a podcast, a sales conversation, an e-mail. I turn those fragments into a coherent editorial presence. That clarity is also what helps AI systems describe you accurately. I help you put a clear, consistent, credible version of your expertise into the world.
A measurement story you can take to your CEO.
No black-box visibility scores. I track signals that show whether trust is building: engaged readers, replies, return readership, self-reported attribution, branded search, and the sales conversations your content starts. You’ll be able to answer “Why do we do content?” without inventing numbers.
Build assets that create value.
Every engagement starts with an audit, built around the job you need owned media to do: category authority, executive relationships, a credible reason for sales to follow up, or deeper customer loyalty. If you’re starting fresh, it’s the Launch Audit. If you already publish, it’s the Growth Audit. Either way, you get a strategic brief and practical tools you’ll actually use, not a slide deck that sits in a folder.
Launch Audit
For teams deciding whether to launch, or just getting started.
I define what job your publication should do, who it’s for, whose voice it carries, where it should live (Substack or elsewhere), how it works alongside your CRM and e-mail stack, and what it will realistically take to run.
A strategic brief covering your editorial mission, audience, voice, platform, and success measures; an honest workload estimate; and a 90-day launch plan your team can run with or without me.
Growth Audit
For teams already publishing who aren’t sure it’s working.
I review your subscriber, engagement, and growth data alongside the content itself to see what’s earning attention, what isn’t, and why, measured against the job the publication is supposed to do.
Interactive tools built from your own data, benchmarks for your category, a strategic brief on what to keep, cut, and change, and a 90-day plan to act on it.
Ready to keep going? If you sign on for a 90-Day Intensive within 60 days of receiving your brief, your full audit fee is credited toward it.
90-Day Intensive
For teams with a plan who need it working within one quarter.
I work alongside your team to put the audit into action. Together we build the content governance and editorial operating model: how ideas get sourced, how experts get interviewed, how drafts move through approvals (including legal and medical review), and how each piece gets repurposed. Your experts don’t have to become full-time writers. Your team or writers draft; I direct, edit, and train.
A launched or relaunched publication, a documented operating model and governance guide, contributors who know how the system works, a measurement setup, and a clear plan for what comes next.
Growth Partnership
For teams running a publication who want senior editorial judgment without a full-time hire.
Your team runs the publication. I’m the editor and strategist behind it.
An editorial planning session, editorial review before issues go out, coaching for your writers and experts, and strategic guidance as new channels or opportunities come up. Every quarter, I review the signals that show whether trust is building and adjust the plan.
Fractional Head of Owned Media
For companies ready to treat owned media as core infrastructure, not a side project.
I own the strategy and the results across your owned channels: newsletter, blog, podcast, and website content. I set priorities, direct the people who produce it, coordinate with sales, product, and communications so your brand tells one story everywhere, and report to leadership on what it’s earning.
One senior person accountable for owned media, monthly leadership reporting, quarterly strategy reviews, and an annual plan, without the cost of a full-time executive.
I’ve spent 30 years earning readers’ trust.
Before I became an owned media strategist, I was a development editor and a newscast producer for companies like Time Inc. Books, Serious Eats, ABC News, and Health magazine, with bylines in TIME, Real Simple, and Southern Living. That career taught me what makes a reader trust a source, and what makes them come back.
For the past five years, I’ve built content operations in highly regulated, compliance-heavy industries, where every word goes through legal review. I’ve trained subject-matter experts to become confident writers. I know how to get real expertise out of busy people without it sounding like a press release, and how to protect a brand’s voice when everyone has an opinion on the draft.
AI can summarize almost anything. It can’t replace the experience, judgment, and perspective that make people want to hear from you. That’s the part I help you build.
What clients say about working with me
Shaun is among the best marketers you’ll find in the consulting world. Sure she writes beautiful prose, but she also knows her way around AI. Sure she’s willing and able to produce the basics (e-mails, blogs, tag lines), but she also knows how to lay out a year-long plan in a way that fits your budget. She’s just a pro.
Shaun is absolutely tireless…always reaching for something new to inform and inspire her and those around her. She recently got me up to speed on Substack in her online seminar. She was so clear and patient as I navigated my way through some things that were, and are no longer, confusing. She is a gem!
Frequently asked questions
Isn’t a newsletter just one more channel my team has to feed?
Not the way I build it. The audit sets a realistic cadence and an editorial process up front, so the publication fits your team instead of becoming another orphaned channel. And one strong publication usually means cutting other things, not adding to them.
Do we have to use Substack?
Substack is one option. Your publication might belong in your e-mail platform, on your website, on Substack, or in a mix. Part of my job is recommending the right home, including telling you when you’re not ready to launch yet.
Do we need a separate AI search (GEO) budget?
Usually not. Most of what shapes how AI describes your company is the same work that builds trust with people: a clear point of view, original expertise, and a consistent story across every channel. I treat AI discovery as part of your owned media strategy, not a separate magic project.
Can you guarantee AI citations or pipeline?
No, and I’d be wary of anyone who does. I can identify the questions, sources, and gaps shaping discovery in your category. I can build expert-led editorial that others recognize and cite. And I can track the directional signals that matter: engaged readers, replies, and assisted pipeline.
Who should be the voice: the brand, the CEO, or an expert on our team?
It depends on who your readers trust and who can commit for the long haul. Choosing the voice is one of the first things I help you settle in the audit.
Does this replace our e-mail platform or CRM?
No. Your e-mail platform and CRM handle segmentation, automation, and promotions. A publication is the editorial layer, built to earn attention and trust over time. Part of the work is deciding what lives where and how the two connect.
What if we’re not ready for a retainer?
Start with an audit: the Launch Audit if you haven’t published yet, or the Growth Audit if you already do. Both are fixed-scope and give you a strategic brief you can act on, whether or not we keep working together. If you sign on for a 90-Day Intensive within 60 days, your audit fee is credited toward it.
The platforms will keep changing the rules. Your owned audience won’t.
Book a free 30-minute call to talk through where your brand stands, what an owned publication would need to do for your business, and where it should live.
Not ready for a call? Take the readiness scorecard.