Hi, I’m Curtis Weyant!
I create engaging narratives for brands, products, and high-profile individuals.
With 25 years of experience in marketing, SEO, and communications, I’ve written nearly every type of content that can be written, in a multitude formats.
I also write on literature, film, and pop culture topics. My portfolio and scholarship pages offer more insight into a fraction of the things I’ve written.
Early Writing
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. One of my first stories was about a pumpkin that becomes a Jack-o-Lantern. Around the same time, I tapped out a short Indiana Jones “fan fic” (a term I wasn’t familiar with until many years later) story on my mother’s typewriter.
I continued writing throughout my school years, penning stories, skits, poems, and even video game scripts. I moved around a lot, attending eight different school systems across Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York before I graduated. Stories became a solace to me, safe places for me to escape to when my world was upheaved again and before I made new friends in my new hometown.
As an undergrad at Roberts Wesleyan College, I doubled down on my love of story by pursuing a B.A. in English Literature. In addition to the papers I had to write for classes, I continued with my personal writing projects. As a sophomore, my short story “Sitting” won the “Best Prose” award in the inaugural edition of the college’s Journal for the Arts, which earned me a place on the journal’s editorial board my junior year. I became the journal’s editor my senior year. Several other of my stories and poems published in the RWC Journal for the Arts are available online here on my website.
After a long hiatus from academia, I went back to school to pursue an M.A. in Language & Literature from Signum University. I graduated the program in 2017 with a thesis on Praxeology and Literature.
Signum University
Exploding Topics
Penn Dental Medicine
Financial Communications Career
In 2000, I was hired as a Writer on the Banking Center Communications team at Bank of America. When I started, we published a weekly paper newsletter that had to be shipped to branches on a weekly basis. For a time, I was also in charge of “flash” fax communications containing timely, and often critical, information.
At the bank I learned to work in a fast-paced production environment with exacting quality standards. My first manager was an old-school editor who marked my drafts with an unforgiving, though not unkind, red pen. I learned a lot about developing clear, concise, accurate communications and “chunking” information for quick and easy comprehension by the audience.
Eventually, we moved our newsletter online to an intranet site. In addition to my regular communications “beat,” I began to administer an intranet site that provided details about the bank’s marketing promotions across the country. Although I was not involved in managing marketing efforts directly, I worked closely with marketing managers to ensure accurate and timely updates to the site. That experience greatly expanded my knowledge of marketing strategies and tactics.
After the birth of my first child, my then-wife and I moved to Upstate New York to be closer to our extended families. “Remote” work was still relatively rare at that time, and still referred to as “telecommuting” by many. Thankfully, the executive who had hired me allowed me to keep my job and work initially from a call center office, and later from home.
I eventually took on a Sr. Communications Relationship Manager role in support of the Associate Banking Executive and his direct reports. It was a hybrid communications and marketing role focused on educating 250k+ bank employees about the financial benefits they could receive by using the bank’s products. I left that role in 2012 as part of a substantial reduction in workforce, aftershocks of the 2007-8 financial crisis.
Freelance and Work Study
I started working on my Master’s degree about six months before being laid off from Bank of America. It had taken me long enough to go back to school; I did not want to put my education on hold again. Thankfully, an opportunity arose for me to undertake some work for Signum University in exchange for tuition remission.
For the next several years, on top of other work, I worked for Signum variously as a digital recorder, website developer, content creator, and social media manager. I eventually became the Outreach Director, overseeing marketing and outreach efforts and helping to set strategic direction as part of the university’s five-member Strategy Council.
For about a year after I left the bank, I also worked as a freelance writer and editor. I created ebooks, blog posts, press releases, and a variety of other written communications and marketing materials.
SEO Content
In May 2013, I dipped my toe into search engine optimization (SEO) as an l copywriter for a client that sold sports and outdoor equipment, apparel, and related merchandise. Starting over in an entry-level role was a humbling experience, but it gave me a chance to learn a new area of writing where I had little knowledge.
In June 2014, I moved to Terakeet, a Syracuse-based SEO company, as a Content Strategist. For about a year I worked with a small content team to plan, create, and execute content for the company’s client base.
I spent the next three years overseeing content on the company’s owned website properties, including ConsumerSafety.org. In addition to strategizing and developing plenty of content myself, I worked with freelance writers and subject matter experts, including lab technicians, doctors, medical writers, and a former inspector for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
In 2019, I began to learn the reputation and brand side of search optimization. I worked on a variety of client accounts, including an international telecom and media giant, a private equity firm, an AI-driven B2B SaaS platform, and a foreign diplomatic mission, among others.
In October 2020, I took on a newly crated role as a hybrid content manager and trainer. My primary responsibilities were onboarding, training, and developing content personnel—I worked with more than 200 content managers, strategists, writers, and editors in that capacity over four years. I also worked with cross-functional partners to refine content processes and streamline workflows, while continuing to oversee client work as needed. One significant achievement in this time was coordinating the creation of a Content Growth Strategy Playbook, which provided a blueprint for content campaigns with detailed procedures, templates, and training materials.
Unfortunately, in August 2024, I experienced my second role elimination after working at a company for over a decade.
New Words Ahead
Over my 25-year career, I’ve strategized, written, and edited content for a wide variety of companies with even bigger audiences and a broad range of goals.
Now, I’m available to help you.
Want to know more?