I am Deagan, a Marketing Strategist and Brand Storyteller who builds the systems behind the story. From campaign strategy to web infrastructure, I do not just market products. I help them find the people who need them.
I am an 18-year-old Marketing Strategist and Brand Storyteller currently leading the marketing for a UK-based digital wellness startup, Gifview, and its first major campaign, GIF YOU, an inclusive GIF reaction library built for everyone who has ever felt invisible in a search bar.
My path was not traditional. I did not have a classroom pointing the way or a degree to lean on. What I had was time, one goal, and a decision to stop doubting myself and just do the work. I taught myself web development, SEO, analytics, content strategy, and product thinking in the middle of actually doing it for a real company.
Every skill I have was earned in the field. Every system I built solved a real problem. And I am just getting started.
Read my full storySeeds are the skills I have grown. Bricks are the experiences that shaped me. Both working together is the only way this works.
My personal framework for growth. Two forces that, when working together, turn potential into something real.
Every skill you learn, every idea you explore, every perspective you build. These are seeds. They grow quietly. They do not look like progress at first. But over time, they compound into capability, confidence, and opportunity.
Every challenge you face, every project that pushes you, every failure that teaches you something. These are bricks. Heavy sometimes. Messy sometimes. But every one of them strengthens the structure you are building.
Seeds without bricks create dreamers.
Bricks without seeds create exhaustion.
Together, they create builders.The DR in the logo is not just initials. It is the whole idea.
Not just projects. Solutions to real problems I ran into while doing the actual work.
Most GIF libraries were built for some people. GIF YOU was built for everyone. I developed the entire marketing campaign, website infrastructure, analytics setup, and content production system for a library of 5,000+ diverse GIFs covering 36 cultural events, 6 skin tones, and 3 age groups. Because representation should not stop at a reaction GIF. Launching May 2026.
Migrated and rebuilt Gifview's entire website from a basic drag-and-drop builder to a fully custom platform. Rewrote all copy around digital wellness and user engagement. Built from scratch.
Built a full-stack internal web app to replace a slow manual workflow. The team now reviews, approves, and tracks every GIF through one clean system. Zero cost. Big productivity gain. Nobody asked for it. I just built it.
Built because manually watermarking hundreds of GIFs one by one was eating time better spent elsewhere. Handles batch watermarking, file renaming, and file conversion in one place.
A content analyzer that optimizes for both traditional search and AI discovery. Built because the way people find things is changing fast, and I wanted to stay ahead of that shift.
Custom web app powered by the Sora API for generating large volumes of AI video content without third-party watermarks. First time working with an external API. Hardest project I had done to that point. Shipped it anyway.
On marketing, building in public, growth, and what it actually feels like to figure things out as you go.
Why I stopped thinking about success as a destination and started thinking about it as something you construct, one skill and one experience at a time.
The SEO strategy, the niche discovery, and the thinking behind GIF YOU. How a small team found its blue ocean in a market dominated by giants.
From a watermarking tool nobody asked for to a full stack content approval system with authentication. What self-teaching actually looks like when the stakes are real.
Open to meaningful work in marketing strategy, brand storytelling, campaign development, or anything that sits at the intersection of creativity and systems thinking.
deaganalijahrola@gmail.com