Hello, nice to meet you! I’m Amy Winner – marketing professional, crazed home cook, strategic thinker, social media fanatic, challenge seeker, and dog lover – among many, many other things.

I moved to Seattle in 2008 after living the majority of my life in the Philadelphia area. I grew up on a dairy farm, and have since had a close connection to food, nature, hard work, animals, and getting my hands dirty.

In the 6^th grade I decided I wanted to be in marketing when I grew up, and am probably one of the few people who entered and exited college with the same degree, and actually ended up using it in the real world. I’ve worked for small and large companies, dreaming up all sorts of marketing shenanigans. I’ve had a front row seat to watch the evolution of the internet and how it’s changed (and continues to change) everyone’s game. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that great marketing starts with one thing: knowing your customer.

And not just on paper. Really, really knowing your customer and how a product or service improves their life. It’s an evolving two-way conversation, and the really successful companies are the ones having these dialogs and engaging their customers continuously.

Social Media is still solidly in its ‘shiny and new’ phase, but when it comes down to it, it’s the same thing: talking with your customers. Being connected, and being an authority – and contributing something valuable to the conversation. People are out there talking about your product whether you’re part the dialog or not. Thanks to technology, it’s getting easier and easier to join in. But at the same time, there’s a lot more clutter for your customers to sift through.

That’s where comprehensive, holistic marketing plans come into play. It’s about building campaigns that drill down to a product’s key benefits, and articulate them in the “what’s in it for me?” customer language. Then continuously monitoring progress, engaging in conversation, and staying abreast of trends. In a nutshell, that’s my philosophy, and my M.O.

If you’d like to hear more, there’s plenty of content on this site to keep you busy, and it’s a work in progress so please do check back. To see some of the projects that I’ve worked on, visit the Experience page. See what people have said about working with me on the Recommendations page. And if you’re looking for a great recipe for tonight’s dinner, surf over to my food blog, Seattle Palate. Everyone’s gotta eat, right?

Thanks for your time, and I hope to talk with you soon!
- amy

EDUCATION
Loyola University Maryland — Baltimore, MD

BA in Communications (Specialization in Advertising), Minor in Business, 1998
Member, Women’s Rowing Team 1994 – 1998. Women’s Team Captain 1996 – 1998. Winner, Dad Vail National Championship 1998.

ACTIVITIES & INTERESTS
www.SeattlePalate.com: Founder, food blogger 6/09 – present.

Net Impact Seattle Professional Chapter: Executive Board Member, Director – Marketing & Communications, 11/08 – 09/11; Special Advisor to the Board, Technology 9/11 – present.

Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center: social media consultant; events committee member; class volunteer

Team in Training: Fundraiser & Mentor, (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society). 1/09 – present

American Marketing Association Seattle Chapter: Board Member, Marketing Committee. Oversaw website redesign project. 12/08 – 7/09

Rowing Coach for 10 years: coached all levels from high school to collegiate D1 to masters in the Philadelphia area.

Avid home cook, running, hiking, and yoga enthusiast.

COMPUTER PROFICIENCIES
Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Dreamweaver)
Wordpress, HTML, CSS
QuarkXPress
MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook); Salesforce.com
Windows & Mac OSX operating system