Katie Hale

I started my journey in digital marketing 25 years ago in 2000 when I built my first website for my own small business. I learned a lot and failed a lot during that time. After that, I worked in several different fields including radio, the medical field, pharmacy, and chiropractic, and I gradually included the marketing skills I learned throughout each of my roles. About 15 years ago, I decided to go off on a freelance journey and start working for myself. That started primarily as doing copywriting and gradually turned into a more dedicated SEO environment, which I've continued ever since. One of my proudest achievements is that I have 4 traditionally published cookbooks. The publisher approached me and would not have known to approach me had it not been for the organic work I did with my websites. In 2019, I sold my website that I had built for six figures and moved into a website management role instead, which I did for a few years. What really feels good is that my website has been sold 3 times since 2019, and it still gets consistent organic traffic from the work I did. They've not touched it, not put anything new on it, so what I did 10 plus years ago is still standing strong. In more recent years, I've worked in higher education in SEO, and now I work with StrataBeat, which is a marketing agency that does primarily B2B SaaS SEO. Previously, at a previous role, I was the community lead for an employee resource group that was focused on women empowerment, and I saw a lot of disparity between the sections. That's something that's really important for me, and as I left that role, I want to continue pursuing that in ways. I think building networks with other women in marketing is something that will be important, that I can help support other people in their journeys.