Grace the Marketing Professional…

Grace Woods has a knack for getting messages out. For most of her life, this talent manifested in an array of activities and industries. It is through her diverse adventures in the promotion of education, music and small businesses that her career in marketing took shape.

Decades of singing lessons and a BA in English from UCLA molded Grace into a powerhouse of articulation. In addition, a year at the University of Seville in Spain solidified her Spanish fluency. Grace put her Spanish to good use by developing and implementing foreign language curriculum at the Middle School level. Eager to understand the business behind her language skills, Grace then took on a supportive role at Artisan Partners asset management company while pursuing an MBA at USF and also working as a research assistant. With a solid background in language, finance and marketing, Grace’s attitude of lifelong learning was about to pay off.

Spurred by family gatherings centered on home brews and dueling songwriters, a period of entrepreneurship in music and craft beer ensued. Grace developed a brand around her own pop rock music group, produced 4 CDs and toured the West Coast. Her band traversed the stages of countless wine festivals and such stunning venues as the Great American Music Hall. To live off of her music, Grace took a do-it-yourself approach to website, podcast, video, social media campaign, press kit, and event construction.

While Grace fortified her media contacts and grew her fanbase, her brother Jim Woods launched his own naturally caffeinated, organic beer. Mateveza, a craft brew made with yerba mate tea from South America, sparked Grace’s interest. She decided to learn the beverage industry from the ground up by shadowing her brother as the business expanded. Having fallen in love with one family-run, organic product, Grace then decided to strike out on her own with products of similar integrity. After helping with marketing and hiring transitions at a local non-profit, Grace became an independent contractor and used her marketing skills to aid small businesses all over the Bay Area. Her clients include non-profits, major wineries and media companies as well as local bars and restaurants. See writing samples and a resume on this website’s homepage.

Armed with a solid education and proof that good marketing can increase sales even in small niche brands such as indie music and craft beer, Grace hit the ground running at Para Los Niños in Los Angeles where she manages media strategy and communications, thereby helping people and continuing to use her message crafting abilities. Grace looks forward to learning and growing more in the future as a marketing and communications professional for socially driven organizations.

Grace’s Music….

Grace Woods is a self-titled band that plays original wistful piano pop rock. If you like Sarah Bareilles, Ben Folds Five, Fiona Apple, Regina Spektor, My Brightest Diamond, St. Vincent, Imogen Heap or Feist, you will love this music! Members are as follows:

Grace Woods: Piano, Vocals
Whitney Jacobson: Drums, Percussion
And a cast of rotating geniuses on a variety of other instruments.

Grace grew up in the West Portal area of San Francisco until age 8 when her family moved to the East Bay. She wrote her first songs in 1st grade and sang some of them over the loud speaker at school. She continued to compose and directed the rest of her attention to poetry, school plays and musicals. She took these talents to UCLA as a water polo playing English major. A year in Spain and Dublin improved her writing skills and she became a more prolific songwriter upon her return to San Francisco. After her return home she met her soon-to-be husband and drummer Whitney Jacobson, a Berkeley native on his way to becoming a music educator. As a middle school teacher, investment researcher, MBA student and then marketing consultant, Grace has since taken a more interdisciplinary approach to her creative endeavors in recent years. Together, she and Whitney have released 4 CDs now and are still creating.

For more on Grace’s view of business and art as beautiful partners, here’s a recent blog interview.