Meet Samantha Lamph, a brand strategist and copywriter in California

Sep 17

Give me the 3-5 sentence skinny on who you are and what you’re all about as a person.

Hey! I’m Sam, a lifelong writer and storyteller and the creator of the candi.dates and Memoir Mixtapes projects. I wrote my first book (Wendy the Witch) when I was in second grade, and my obsession with the written word has only grown since then. I am also a mom of two amazing little girls.

Tell me the story of your career thus far.

After getting my MFA in creative writing in 2012, I spent the first few years of my career as an adjunct English professor, teaching at a handful of colleges across southern California. In 2016, inspired by a bad case of burnout and a second rewatch of Mad Men, I decided to leave academia and landed my dream role as a copywriter and brand strategist at a boutique branding agency. Since then, I’ve worked in-house at a variety of healthcare companies and as a freelancer for clients in a multitude of industries, leading all things branding, content strategy, editorial, and more.

What kinds of roles/companies are you targeting in your current search?

In my career, I’ve found the most fulfillment working at mission-driven startups, where I’ve been trusted to take ownership of content, editorial, and creative functions, ideating exciting new projects and campaigns, and then seeing them through from inception to completion in collaboration with the other brilliant minds on my team. Healthcare has been my home for the better part of a decade, but I’m absolutely open to expanding my horizons to other worthy industries and causes.

What is the single most important thing you want potential employers to know about you?

One of my former bosses once gave me the biggest compliment when he called me “entrepreneurial,” and I embrace that label wholeheartedly. Once I have a goal, I will delight in finding a creative way to make it happen, even (especially!) with limited resources. (See Memoir Mixtapes for a living and breathing example of this.)

What song would you like to add to our CandiDates playlist, and why do you love it?

“Kerosene!” by Yves Tumor. Because it counteracts some of the anxiety I have around aging by briefly transporting me to memories of my youth. I actually wrote a whole recommendation about it over here.