Meet Jules
Jules Falk, Founder
It's been 12 years since Jules graduated with her Master's Degree in Social Work —zero years of which have involved doing actual Social Work. A career in Marketing was actually a happy accident. Both cursed and blessed by entering the workforce at the start of the social media bubble, Jules jumped at the opportunity to help a non-profit organization enter the digital age.
Quickly discovering her knack for writing catchy blog posts and sophisticated 140 character Tweets, Jules eventually took her witty and somewhat risque style in a different direction - to the craft beer world. A wannabe grant writer turned Instagram enthusiast… her English professors would be proud. And as they say, the rest is history and she’s officially built a career working with all kinds of companies.
Suffering from mild ADD and an overactive imagination, Jules said “Bye, forever” to the corporate world to create Rolling Hills Media. When she’s not brainstorming fun ways to make a brand pop, you can usually find her running up mountains, playing with her goats, or drinking her 4th cup of coffee (that will inevitably do her in). A gypsy child who grew up across the US, Jules lives in Santa Cruz, California with her wife, their dogs Lotus and Nellie, their goats Ruth and Harvy, and their chickens Billie (King), Mia (Hamm), Serena (Williams), and Sue (Bird)!
1. What Did You Study in College/What Did You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
I studied English at the University of Virginia and I have my Master’s in Social Work Policy from Virginia Commonwealth University. Growing up I thought for sure I’d be the next Mia Hamm or Brandi Chastain. When my professional soccer career hopes faded, I transitioned to wanting to save the world.
I wanted to be a teacher, a writer, an editor, a foster care social worker, a lawyer, a grant-writer, a mailwoman. Turns out saving the world is a really really hard gig and marketing booze is a tad more fun. I’m still holding out on becoming a mail lady one day though...
2. What's Your Favorite Thing About Your Role at RHM? Least Favorite Thing?
The variety! No two days look the same and that is a beautiful thing. I love that one hour I’m copy-editing a blog on boat towing and the next I’m launching a social media campaign that highlights female winemakers and professionals in the industry.
Plus, with the variety of clients comes the variety of people who run them. I generally like to be the dumbest person in the room and so getting to work alongside some truly special humans has kept me sharp (and very humble).
Least favorite? Anything involving numbers and/or math including but not limited to accounting, all things excel, and figuring out the west to east coast time difference for meetings…
3. Tell Us About Your Most Hilarious Fail.
Three words: Merge. Tag. Fail.
A very long story short: I incorrectly coded an email so that the Mailchimp *|FName|* merge tag did not populate correctly with the First Name. About 150K people got an email that said Hi FNAME. A total amateur mistake but one that could happen to anyone!
The problem was this happened twice, in the span of less than a year. The internet was not kind, let me tell you. The first time was mortifying, the second time was life-changing.
Sounds a tad dramatic, right?
The second time it happened broke me. I quit my “dream” job, moved across the country, and made a vow to never run myself into the ground for an employer ever again.
And Rolling Hills Media was born...
4. What's Something You're Really Proud Of?
I put together a rockstar team at Harpoon who helped me bring to life two really cool video projects: “We Are Beer Drinkers” and a series to help launch a brand refresh for the iconic Harpoon IPA.
Here’s one from the “We Are Beer Drinkers” campaign starting yours truly:
The Harpoon Tiger Series
Unfortunately, the packaging of the bottle ran into some small copyright infringement issues which ultimately benched these videos from seeing the light of day for well over a year. Timing man… it’s never been my thing.
5. What's One Thing You've Picked Up or Learned During Quarantine?
I picked up doodling and made some pretty fun greeting cards featuring boobs and wieners. ENTER:
Friends Do This, mildly inappropriate greeting cards for seriously rad humans.
6. What’s Your Advice for Any Up and Coming, Wannabe Marketers?
It’s super easy to be intimidated or feel like you're not experienced enough, or creative enough, or “whatever adjective you think you aren’t” enough. The reality is we are all just pounding the pavement doing the best we can.
The best advice I can give is to fake it till make you and if you’re a woman, stop apologizing all the time. Apologize for nothing in your journey to greatness (just try not to be a total dick about it).
7. What’s Something I Would Never Guess About You?
For 6 months during 7th grade, I thought I grew a pair of testicles and was turning into a boy. It turns out I had a double protruding hernia and clearly who have benefited from some sex-education.