Hey, I'm KarlI'm obsessed with digital communication.Over a decade of experience in video production, social media, digital marketing, design, management, and communication. All to help drive initiatives in the online world.
About me
Karl Greif
Creative Professional from Pittsburgh, PA
Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your time.
Hey, what’s up? I’m Karl! A creative professional from South-Western Pennsylvania. I’ve been involved in some form of digital communications work since 2010. I lead with video because I think it’s the most powerful communication tool available. It’s also where a lot of my skills and experience lie. I spent years behind a camera, but I work more from behind a desk these days. I’m 37 years old and I have a wife and 3-year-old identical twin girls at home. I race bicycles on gravel roads for fun and have a cabin in the woods of Northern Pennsylvania that I frequent. I go hard in the online world, then turn it off and get back to real life as much as I can. I love working with people, but I also love my solitude. My life is all about balance, and I feel like I’m always chasing it. I hope you can relate. Thanks for visiting my little space on the web. If you think we might be a good fit together, I’d really love to hear from you.
My Skill Set
I’ve gathered a lot of skills and experience throughout my 14-year career in digital communications. And I currently wear many hats in the work that I do. Below is a list skills that I use in my current roles.
Video Production
This is my bread and butter. It all started with making skateboarding videos as a kid. Then I turned it into a career.
Project & Team Management
Over the years I transitioned from working in the trenches to leading teams of creatives. These days I enjoy doing both.
Digital Marketing
Landing pages, copy writing, funnels, and analytics. I'm obsessed with packaging up my my "digital skills" to drive results online.
Graphic Design
A good eye for design goes a long way in all areas of the web. I consider this a cornerstone of digital communication.
Photography
I've always had a camera in my hand from an early age. I still love taking photos professionally and as a hobby.
Web Design
Another essential skill in the online world. I've been building website for passion projects and clients for as long as I can remember. WordPress is my go-to but I have experience elsewhere as well.
Content Creation
I've been creating content since I was a kid. And now I do it for a career. I'm obsessed with personal branding and social media.
Social Strategy
I learn from growing my own personal brand and share those skills with the clients I help.
Email Marketing
Email is far from dead, and I'm a strong believer of that. I have my own email list and help clients with theirs.
My current situation
Here’s a list of my current roles. I’m really fortunate to work for some amazing companies.
- This is my current full-time job at 36 hours a week (we get half day Fridays😉)
- I’ve been with this company a loooong time. And they’ve treated me great. I started as a Video Producer in 2015 and was promoted to Direction of Productions in early 2022.
- I currently manage their Creative Productions team. Our job is to create video content for our fitness clubs partners, helping them market their products and services and communicate with their in-club members. As a company, we provide branded entertainment networks for our fitness club partners that display on TVs inside their gyms. On these entertainment networks, we provide the in-club music (accompanied by music videos), and display a variety of content on the screens. We then sell 3-party advertising on the screens and share the revenue with our gym partners.
- My role is to work closely with our fitness club partner’s marketing teams to help them produce content for their in-club screens. We have clients big and small. Some have massive marketing teams and some are independent mom and pop gyms. So the complexity of each project, and each client, varies greatly. Some of our clients include LA Fitness, Gold’s Gym, 24 Hour Fitness, Eos Fitness, Retro Fitness, and many more. We’re currently in over 9,700 gyms and three countries (US, Canada, and The UK).
- You could call this my side hustle. I work about 10 hours a week for MMG.
- I started with them in 2021 when I was just looking for side work as a Video Editor. Over the last year I’ve transitioned into helping them on a larger scale by training and managing their team of Video Editors.
- Millennial Media Group specializes in producing social media content for local businesses in the Orange County, CA area. We have monthly clients that we manage the entire social media process for. Content strategy, filming content, editing content, posting content, social media management, the whole deal. Most of my time goes into keeping our Video Editors pumping out high quality content for our clients. I also handle some of the video editing projects my self.
- This is a monthly client left over from when I was running my own agency. I currently work about 5-10 hours a week for them.
- I started helping them with their marketing in April of 2021 and haven’t stopped.
- I currently manage their website, social media, email marketing, content creation, lead generation, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, event promotions, SEO, and more. I’ve really been able to hone in a lot of my digital marketing skills while helping The Hormone Center bring in more clients to their business.
- You can call this my passion project. In September of 2023 I finally came out of my shell and stated my personal brand on Instagram. I’ve always loved creating content for myself, but never took it series enough.
- In less than a year I was able to grow to nearly 4K followers. I created and sold a bunch of digital products for Video Editors. And I even started a paid Skool community where I teach and mentor Video Editors on how to find more work.
- It’s been a really rewarding experience so far, and it’s something I plan to do to some extent for the rest of my working days. I really love creating and posting content, meeting people from all around the word, and genuinely helping people walking in similar shoes as me.
- There is another area where I’m able to experiment and learn around all kinds of topics related to social media, content creation, and digital marketing. I’m able to see what’s working and what isn’t. And get hands on experience doing a lot of things I might not get to do with my professional jobs. It’s been one of the best investments in my career, I do wish I had more time to put into it though.
A timeline of my career
You’ll notice a theme throughout my career…I’ve always strived for more. To learn more, to be more, and to earn more. Partially to keep building my skill set, and partial to provide for my family (life is expensive and I didn’t go to school to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer!). This theme still holds true today. Inflation is crazy (as I’m sure you know) and I also have 3-year-old twins at home (with a large child care bill) that I need to provide for. Some might say I work too much, and they’re probably right. But I’m just doing what I need to for my family. I don’t plan for it to always be this way. Ideally I’d be able to pour all my time and effort into one role, that I do very well, and that provides what I need to take care of my family. That’ll be the next notch on the timeline below.
Graduated from Pittsburgh Technical College
I studied Multimedia Communications with a specialization in Video Production. It was a great foundation for a lot of the skills that I have today.
Began Freelancing in Video Production
This would be the start of a long journey that would turn into a consistent side-hustle. I've help full time jobs for most of my career and always did freelance work on the side. I still do today.
Landed First Full-Time Job as In-House Video Producer for ECS Tuning
You could call this a dream job. I got to create videos and take photos of German cars for 3 years of my life. BMWs, Audis, Porsches, Mercedes...I got to drive them and create content about them daily. I worked in the marketing department and developed a lot of my marketing skills here. My Dad owned a German car shop growing up, so this role fit me well. The only downside...the entry-level salary. It was a great start to my career but I could hardly pay the bills. I also had to move to Ohio for this opportunity. After 3 years I was ready to come home.
Continued Freelancing on Nights and Weekends
During my 3 years in Ohio working for ECS Tuning, I had to pick up as much side work as I could. I was single and didn't have a family yet, so I had time. And I was hungry to advance in my career. I developed a lot of my skills as a freelancer during this time. I got into the wedding scene and shot about 15 weddings over that 3 year time period. I also worked with local business and did a lot of freelance video edintg work online. I wasn't getting paid enough from my full time job, so this was a necessity.
Started Cleaning Office at Night to Make More Money
I had student loans to pay off, and I was struggling financially. Maxed out credit cards and a hefty car payment. I even used payday loans a few times during this time period. I was still living on my own in Ohio, away from my support system. And the full-time job at ECS Tuning wasn't paying enough. And while I did have some success freelancing on the side, I didn't know how to sell my service yet. So I usually undersold myself. And struggled to find consistent freelance work. So I started cleaning offices at night. I was so embarrassed that I didn't even tell my friends and family. You could call it a low point in my life. But looking back, it was hugely beneficial in building my caracter.
Started Second Full-Time Job as an Audio Visual Specialist at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh
Landing this job and coming back home to Pittsburgh was a huge turning point in my life. It ended a chapter of my life that pushed me to the brink, and resulted in massive personal growth. It was bittersweet leaving what I built in Ohio, but I was coming home to bigger and better things. I spent 18 months working for UPMC in the Audio Visual department. Managing large in-person events in their conference center and supporting the entire hospital system with audio-visual equipment. I developed a lot of my customer service, management, and interpersonal skills during this period.
Continued Freelancing on Nights and Weekends
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Started Third Full-Time Job as a Video Producer for Clubcom/Gym TV
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Started Working with The Hormone Center part time as a Marketing Specialist
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Got Promoted to Director of Productions at ClubCom/Gym TV
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Started work with Millennial Media Group part time as a Video Editor
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Got Promoted to Lead Video Editor/Head of Content at Millennial Media Group
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Education
Yea I get it, I don’t have a bachelor’s degree. But my time in the field, the online courses I’ve taken, my self-study, my side projects, and the mentors I’ve learned from, more than make up for it.
Pittsburgh Technical College
Full Stack Web Development
03/2012 – 07/2016
info@karlgreif.com
(412) 952-2431