Facing Dragons at Castle Media

Castles and Dragons and Design (Oh My!)

Wowzers... so much has happened in the last three weeks of being here in Austin. Right about now, I will give you guys a bit of a recap:

1.Working at Castle Media has been a dream. I've met so many awesome people who love what they do, love Jesus, and love each other.

2. My first day on the job I got lost for 2 hours trying to find a Freebirds burrito joint. I had only been in Austin for 2 days at this point.

3. I got to go see Ingrid Michaelson and Active Child live in concert, both in the same week! And then we found out we all are musical in some way, so... *Sneak Peek*

We discussed forming a band, which will soon be a reality. Name of band is tentative.

4. I've learned how to do dishes. Being the intern, I have many chances to learn and re-learn how to do this well. Learning to be faithful in the little.

5. I've connected with Hope Group, which is like Lifegroup (for all you Antioch people reading this) but I have yet to go to Hope in the City.

6. I have decided to stay committed to this internship for the whole summer, and therefore will trust in Jesus all the more as I do not have a job. I do not fear for the future, I know He takes care of me (I mean, have you guys read Matthew 6 lately?)

7. Austin gets easier to drive around in (Total lie). Actually, I've just figured out to use my blinker copiously because traffic moves so fast and people don't always give you the courtesy of passing. I at least know how to navigate to work, HEB, and now San Marcos. The essentials.

Now that I've let you in on a bit of what's been going on in a systematic way, I get to tell you all about my job (internship) and how I've come to realize its almost as scary as facing a real, live dragon, but the benefits of plunging forward always outweigh the effort it takes to get there. Who knows? I may be able to tame the dragon and ride it aaaaallllll across the world... Well, figuratively speaking. Ahem.

Here's the Scoop

 I've been assigned to read a book called "Inbound Marketing" and I have also been listening to Author Media tips from Thomas Umstattd (who happens to be my boss and incidentally my friend Cynthia's brother). He is the founder of Castle Media Group, which  contains four amazing services:

1. Author Media, which is a site dedicated to help authors thrive in the business world by giving tips on how to blog and increase your fan base and blog traffic

2. Umstattd Media, which assists in businesses and website building using WordPress

3. Webroots Media, a really cool political site that coaches you on how to start and manage your campaign should you run for office and the like

4. Bluedove, a super amazing project that teaches on search engine optimization and increases blog traffic as well as a myriad of other things

You can find all these things here; the main one's I've been focusing on are Author Media and a new collaborative site called the Bestsellers Society.

What I'm Up To Now


I am learning so much about designing and Photoshop and working under deadlines. The projects I am currently working on always change, but I mainly get to practice doing ads and making quotes that will appear as PNG posts on the blogs in the future. Keep an eye out!

Well, folks, my time for this post is up. So!

Until the butter flies,
Diana