I build brands that help people understand themselves.
Hey there,
I'm Makayla
I'm a brand builder and content strategist. My degree in Psychology from San Diego State, and now my Master's in Communication Management at USC has helped me align with one thing I'm a little obsessed with: why people connect to the things they connect to.
I love understanding what's going on underneath, and then actually building something people feel. That shows up in a few different places: my own brands, my clients', and the ones I manage.
From podcasting to social media management, content strategy, web, and now creating physical product, I work across all of it. To Be Known is the heart, but it's not the only place I put this to work. Here's a look at what I've built.
To Be Known
The podcast brand
I built from scratch.
What I built:
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Brand identity: the palette, typography, illustration style, and voice, all designed to feel warm and intimate instead of polished-and-distant
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Content system: every episode runs through a repeatable production process: 8–10 title options, 3 thumbnail concepts, long-form SEO YouTube descriptions, platform-specific copy, timestamps, and social repurposing
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Multi-platform growth: consistent presence across YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok
I've grown To Be Known into a full brand (podcast, YouTube channel, and social presence) built around self-discovery, relationships, and what it means to actually know yourself.
between becoming (in development)
The bigger vision it all lives under.
between becoming is the parent brand: a product company I'm building for the unnamed seasons of life. The moments after one chapter has closed but before the next has fully begun. The in-between most brands overlook while they're busy celebrating arrivals.
It has a few layers: self-published books, a line of leather tri-fold journals, a novella-workbook hybrid that teaches through story instead of instruction, and a podcast (To Be Known) that supports the whole thing. Where To Be Known explores connection, between becoming expands that idea into something you can hold, keep, and return to for years.
I built the foundation myself: the philosophy, the positioning, the voice, the product strategy. Every piece is designed to feel less like self-help and more like someone gently holding up a mirror.
Most of life is not spent arriving. It is spent becoming.
This is the brand I'm building around that idea.
Here's something most people don't know:
To Be Known is part of something larger.
Root Financial Partners
Social Media Manager
Root's whole philosophy is "financial advisors with heart" where we are taking something most people keep at arm's length and making it human, honest, and easy to actually understand.
That's the same instinct behind everything I build.
Different subject, same mission: meeting people where they are and earning their trust through clarity instead of jargon.
What I manage:
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Multiple YouTube channels: the company channel plus personal channels for Ari Taublieb and James Conole, members of Root's C-suite (totaling over 300,000 combined subscribers)
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Content series and campaign development: building repeatable formats and campaigns
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Full brand management across platforms: Instagram, LinkedIn, and in-person events, keeping the brand consistent everywhere it shows up
This is where I do this work at scale, professionally, for an established brand and it's not
a random fit.
Compa Coffee Roasters
Website refresh + content strategy
