Seth Styles

The original tag I came up with for this was “Light Up Your Nights” which I preferred. This email blast was designed to promote Focus V’s line of Laser CARTAs: portable vaporizers with built-in LEDs for illumination. October 2021.

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Rosin Tech Labs was a fairly new brand that I was tasked with promoting through email blasts advertising the various strains of cannabis extracts they were manufacturing. Garlic Juice was one of the more popular strains. September 2021.

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Master-Minded was one of the few B2B brands for whom I wrote and required a less colorful, more straightforward approach in keeping with their brand’s voice. With this email blast, I was instructed to simply state the facts of an upcoming trade show including the company’s top brands. August 2021.

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This email blast promoting Rosin Tech Labs’ Tallyman strain plays off of the dreaded “tolerance break” (commonly referred to simply as a “T-break”) in which an avid cannabis user will stop using cannabis cold turkey in an effort to weaken their tolerance. In this situation, the only alternative is to try to find a higher potency cannabis strain. Rosin Tech Labs email blasts were designed to appeal to connoisseurs who didn’t want to “just get high” but also experience exotic flavors. August 2021.

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Rosin Tech (a B2C company distributed by Master-Minded) was running a sale I’d titled “Croptober’s Revenge” that tied into the little-known term Croptober; the most popular harvest time for sun-grown cannabis. With Master-Mind’s general tone and B2B perspective, the more colorful “Croptober” copy wasn’t appropriate so this was a more straightforward take on a similar theme. October 2021.

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Another example of straightforward copy for a B2C brand, this one was meant to motivate people in the Santa Rosa area to swing by Master-Minded’s booth at the Hall of Flowers trade show with an understated sense of urgency. September 2021.

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I’m actually not a fan of really long emails, but our creative director wanted to experiment with sending entire blogs I’d written as email copy. This is an example of one of my blogs being included to test out a “nurture” style email blast. September 2021.

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When I needed to build up the SEO of a real estate firm, I needed to find topics that would be interesting to people even beyond the confines of real estate while focusing on keywords relevant to the real estate industry. My greatest success, at least in terms of clicks, ended up being this blog about a true crime story that took place in a mansion in one of the areas we serve. I considered that highlighting a regional murder suicide, even one that occurred decades ago, might not be the right move for a company trying to sell houses. But I gambled on local eccentricities prevailing, and it paid off.

Read the full blog here.

Honestly, some content takes off that just leaves me scratching my head. Case in point: this spotlight I wrote on Wayne Newton’s former Las Vegas estate. I had started the home spotlight series to focus on unusual homes in the community that my employer, JohnHart Real Estate, serviced. Casa de Shenandoah was the second most interesting Las Vegas home I found, a good distance behind a suburban subterranean home (it was literally built underground). The underground house blog did okay, but Wayne Newton’s home spotlight remains one of JohnHart Real Estate’s most popular blogs of all time.

Read the full blog here.

Written under my pseudonym Bertram Joyner (part of company policy), this blog explores the urban legend of stoners dosing Halloween candy. Written for MarijuanaPackaging.com and published Oct. 30, 2018.

“What’s the Halloween season without a good scare? So asks the media hype machine who have a new spin on the old poisoned candy urban legend. This year, trick-or-treaters are told they won’t just be dodging candy apples imbedded with razor blades and cyanide-soaked sweets but also inconspicuous marijuana edibles. While 2018 doesn’t hold the distinction of being the only year to carry the ghastly warnings of unassuming marijuana edibles finding their way into the bags of innocent trick-or-treaters, more marijuana legalization means more threat. Or does it?” Read full blog here.

Despite previous experience in the health, wellness and spiritual communities, I didn’t often write for the Wellness For Sale brand, though I was specifically requested to personally handle this blog about the closing of a location. You can see a tonal shift from my usual work to accommodate a gentler, more peaceful voice though some of my usual voice inevitably shines through. Published by Wellness For Sale on July 22, 2021 (and credited to Wellness For Sale in general).

“It’s easy to think of wellness as an effort to maintain what we already have, but it’s often actually about healing and therefore growth. Our spiritual pursuits and commitment to healthy lifestyles help us to realize our full potential. But it takes a lot of work to grow; a lot of determination and perseverance. And it’s an emotional experience too. Looking back on the miles that you travelled to be this better version of you while maintaining compassion for who you were before… it can give you some feels. And that’s our mood as we close the door on our years at our Beverlywood location to become an even better version of ourselves at our new downtown location.” Read full blog here.

This B2B piece demonstrates a balance of reporting real world events through frontline accounts with rapidly changing current events in a way that would be directly relevant to the cannabis businesses that make up the blog’s audience. Published by Master-Minded on Sept. 20, 2021.

“You’ve heard it a million times before but here comes a million and one: the pandemic changed life as we know it and it may never be the same. This became the most obvious for us when we returned to trade shows earlier in the year. Our 2021 tour has brought us all across the U.S., from CHAMPS Las Vegas, Orlando and Atlantic City to our second to last stop at Hall of Flowers at the end of September, so we got to witness several facets of this strange mid-pandemic/post-pandemic twilight zone. Our Brand Manager Tony was on the front line at every show, so we sat down with him to get his account of what’s changed, what’s the same and what’s getting even better.” Read full blog here.

I was specifically requested to work on this blog with an objective to ease any potential apprehensions about mail order cannabis since the hiring company was launching their own delivery service. This blog also served as a soft announcement of these services. The title is not my own; I had a more action-oriented title but it was not used for reasons unknown to me. Published by Rosin Tech on March 16, 2021.

“If you’re still on the fence about using a cannabis delivery service, you’re not alone. Many people approach the idea of fresh live rosin delivered to their door with skepticism. Who can blame them after living for decades under oppressive conditions in a country that actively demonized cannabis? And even though we’re a long way away from where we were in the ‘90s, we’re still holding our breath waiting for federal cannabis legalization. But if you live in California or any of the other states that have legalized cannabis delivery, it’s time to believe the hype. You can now have live rosin, just as fresh as any you’d purchase from a high-end dispensary, delivered to your front door. Now, Rosin Tech Labs is making it easier than ever for you to enjoy a pristine product without ever leaving your home.” Read full blog here.

A lot of my work for Dab Nation involved keyword research using Google Analytics and SEMRush (along with my own strategies I’d picked up over the years) to promote specific products in their inventory as exemplified by this blog. Published by Dab Nation on August 17, 2021.

“Dab Nation has primarily built a reputation for “wax-centricity” but we consider ourselves a come-as-you-are sovereign mecca, no matter your medium of elevation. When you walk in our doors, the first question we like to ask you is: “What’s your favorite way to smoke?” This isn’t some kind of elitist gatekeeping interrogation but rather a way for us to help you better find the gear that suits your already established style. So, while we do get excited over a particularly heady rig or the latest in state-of-the-art portable dabbing devices, we also reserve a good chunk of our inventory for those in our community who still firmly believe in the power of flower. Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the hand pipes, water pipes and, yes, even a few rigs that capture that classic old school vibe for when that mood hits.”

Read full blog here.

Disclaimer: I did not work on the graphic design for this ad (it was often in those days handled by interns or brand managers who typically only had rudimentary graphic design experience). The Banger Saver was an original product of Dab Nation; a platinum-cured silicone container designed to allow cannabis enthusiasts to quickly grab hot quartz bangers (paraphernalia used in the consumption of concentrated cannabis wax) when they had to run without making a mess or risking damage to the sensitive (and often expensive) quartz. This ad would have been used in email blasts, banners and possibly social media sometime in 2020.

My copy was used in the branding and promotion of this limited edition portable vaporizer model at the end of 2021. While I contributed all copy used to promote this product, I did not work on the visual direction.

Disclaimer: I did not work on the graphic design for this ad (it was often in those days handled by interns or brand managers who typically only had rudimentary graphic design experience). My copy was used in the branding and promotion of this limited edition portable vaporizer model in 2020. While I contributed all copy used to promote this product, I did not work on the visual direction.

I’ve written thousands of product descriptions over my career, exemplified by this limited edition portable vaporizer model for Focus V. Read full product description here.

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Every brand for which I’ve worked has requested me to write an “About Us” for them at least once… sometimes even multiple times for fledgling brands still determining their identity. This example from Rosin Tech wasn’t my favorite of the drafts, but ultimately the company wanted something less emotional and more straightforward, which I was happy to accommodate. Read the full Rosin Tech “About Us” here.

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Writing copy for specific site pages, in this case product collections, has been an important part of building SEO for several companies for whom I’ve worked. This is rarely a very creative process but more of a means of establishing some important keywords in a natural way. See the full example here.

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While working for a real estate company, I was tasked with helping an agent write comprehensive marketing materials to raise the profile of her probate real estate services to local attorneys. The CEO of the company saw an opportunity in that marketing material, and within a month I was writing copy for a new division: JohnHart Probate. Since it was mostly geared toward attorneys, it required a very focused tone that emphasized quickness and convenience to a skilled audience.

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As the in-house copywriter for the company that owned Golden Coast Finance, I worked directly with the CEO who remained very involved throughout the process, explaining in great detail the sections he envisioned and the messages and specifics he wanted to communicate. Since Golden Coast Finance is a mortgage loan broker, it was important to keep copy straightforward, confident, informative, and welcoming.

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I’ve written probably close to 50 press releases over the last decade… not an astounding number, but it’s also never been my primary responsibility at any point in my career. The subject matter’s run the gamut from company acquisitions and shifts in management to album releases and video launches, as this early example from December 2014 illustrates.

Some of my favorite projects were the ones too lofty and ambitious to be used. Weed World is the perfect example. Inspired by theme park maps, Weed World was originally conceived as an interactive map that, when navigated, would take customers to different sections of our shops. However, interest in the Weed World project grew to include other members of the Creative Department with its final incarnation being an interactive video game that customers could play on their phones. Developers were being consulted but inevitably the budget just wasn’t there, more pressing matters arose and Weed World was shelved indefinitely. Above is the map that I sketched for Weed World to give to the graphic design department. They were also given a folder of comprehensive notes I’d drafted explaining the “rides” and how they would tie into sections of our website and specific product promotions.

These 3 images give the best glimpse of how Weed World would have eventually looked. One of the graphic designers gave these to me as a gift on his last day on the job with his wishes that Weed World would someday be realized.

Written on a whim one afternoon, this suggested commercial for MarijuanaPackaging.com was actually greenlit for production using employees from our warehouse and offices as actors. Again, the budget just wasn’t there in the end and graphic design instead created a video showing custom packaging examples set to stock music with no dialogue.