Meet Heather Bohn, Senior Project Manager

As we continue to help more businesses to grow, we’re also growing our own. We happily introduce Heather Bohn, our new Senior Project Manager!

As you can see from the picture, Heather brings an air of positivity with her in addition to her extensive project management experience. Whether it’s during a friendly chat at the lunch table or a down-to-business discussion in the conference room, you can’t help but be in a good mood when she’s around.

Before she started here, Heather spent ten years filling various roles within patient recruitment marketing. After taking a three and a half year break from the office to focus on being a stay-at-home mother, she made her return to the workforce at a local marketing company. In her time there, she was a Project Manager and Director. This impressive history is exactly why we know she’ll be right at home here. Able to wear many hats, she has a soft spot (and a magic touch) for Project Managing.

But enough about the professional. What about the person? Heather has three daughters and a fiancé whom she spends as much time with as she can. That time usually involves exploring the outdoors. Mountains, woods, rivers… the list goes on. If it’s in nature, she belongs there. What’s even more intriguing is that she’s an ordained minister, so if you’re looking for someone to officiate your wedding, we know a gal.

Oh, and she’s a dog person, so she definitely belongs at AW. Welcome to the team, Heather!

AW Welcomes Digital Marketing Associate Samantha Mooney & Social Media Coordinator Brigid Ayer!

sam mooney & brigid ayer

AW is thrilled to add a pair of great marketers to our team!

Samantha Mooney is a 2017 graduate of Centenary University, earning a degree in Business Administration. She is in her element when she has the opportunity to drive clients towards (and eventually reach) their marketing goals in the digital space. To keep in touch with her love of horses, she minored in Equine Studies. When she finds the time to relax, she arms herself with a paintbrush or a video game controller and loses herself in other worlds.

On the social media side of things, please welcome Brigid Ayer. She graduated from Hood College in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Photography, as well as minors in both Business and Web Development. She earned her Masters in Business Administration in 2018. In short, she has the artistic eye, the social savvy, and business sense that will make her an invaluable addition to the team. There aren’t many things she loves more than finding a voice and establishing a social identity for each client. In her off hours, she can probably be found hanging out with her rescue dogs, exploring our beautiful city of Frederick, or both!

ArachnidWorks President and CEO Monica Kolbay is looking forward to the business bolster these two bring to the team as a whole. “The move to our new Downtown Frederick location last year was just the first step in our push to grow ArachnidWorks,” she explains. “Welcoming Samantha and Brigid is an exciting milestone that not only will make our team even better, but allow us to help more businesses reach their digital marketing perspective.”

Yoga Wednesdays at AW

There are plenty of ways we could celebrate Hump Day at ArachnidWorks, but we’ve found one that’s alcohol-free, sugar-free, and 100% relaxing… yoga!

Every Wednesday afternoon at 4:00 PM, the team gathers in the big, open area on the third floor of our new downtown office for a group yoga session. Led by our client Kimberlyn Cahill of Life’s Work Yoga, we spend the hour focusing on breathing, stretching, and learning the basics of yoga practice. Kimberlyn’s approach is “Come as you are,” which makes us all feel relaxed and welcome to participate at whatever level feels comfortable.

Fortunately, our new space allows plenty of room to observe the recommended physical distancing while still enjoying a group activity. And while each of us participates individually at a different level, these once-weekly sessions are interactive, collaborative experiences that build teams and lift spirits.

Working as a team is an everyday occurrence at AW, but our Wednesday yoga meet-ups are a different type of team work. It’s been interesting to observe how helpful the process of relaxing the mind and body in an intentional way can be.

Kimberlyn advocates an “intentional self-care” approach to living a more balanced life. With her guidance, even those who are brand new to yoga—like many of us—can explore the powerful connection between the breath and the body. Kimberlyn integrates breath work with a series of intelligently sequenced postures that builds strength and endurance in a way that is challenging but gentle, with adaptations for those who are less mobile.

There’s a saying “You can’t pour from an empty cup.” Kimberly teaches “restorative yoga” that settles the nervous system and returns the body to a state of ease. After several months of practicing yoga individually and as a group, we are learning how taking as little as an hour a week to relax and unwind together revitalizes us and gives us even deeper creative reserves…and it feels great physically, too!

ArachnidWorks Welcomes New Project Manager, Joel Layman

project manager joel laymanWhen COVID-19 descended on the U.S. earlier this year, we had no idea how it would affect our business. Fortunately, we’ve been able to stay very busy during the pandemic helping our clients update their messaging, improve their website visibility, and position their brand more effectively in light of the COVID-19 challenges.

Another pleasant surprise over the past six months has been an influx of new clients. Having new people is always exciting, but it was obvious that we were not only going to need a bigger boat, we were going to need to bring on more talent– and not just any talent…we needed a person with the right combination of style and experience to be able to get onboard fast.

How lucky were we to find Joel Layman, a skilled project manager with great marketing chops and a real desire to add value to our customers’ brands! For more than 15 years, Joel’s been coordinating collateral and managing creative teams for organizations like the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and STX Lacrosse. We love that he’s a utility guy with cross-over skills in web development, video production, social media, copywriting, public relations, retail initiatives, event planning, and grassroots marketing. He’s primarily a project manager, but we love that he’s got the big picture knowledge to understand how all the pieces need to work together to turn a complex vision into reality on behalf of our clients.

“I am beyond thrilled to join ArachnidWorks and help take the team and their clients to the next level,” says Joel. “It’s clear that Monica and everyone at AW are passionate about delivering top quality results to create true partnerships with each and every client. I have always loved building brands through meaningful stories and I am excited to bring my skills and experience to the group on both the agency and brand side.”

Coming Soon… A New Home for AW!

arachnidworks office building in frederick
When our founder and CEO Monica Kolbay realized that ArachnidWorks was fast outgrowing its current home, she set her sites on finding us a new one. She approached her search in the same way we approach every client— with fresh eyes and a view toward new possibilities.

At the top of her wish list was a historic building in Downtown Frederick that she could purchase and adapt for use by our modern, creative business. She envisioned a building near the epicenter of our community that was easily accessible to our clients from Baltimore, Washington, and Virginia…with space for our staff of a dozen employees and growing with plenty of room to spread out…and a place where we could comfortably welcome clients and host the occasional AW happy hour on a Friday afternoon.

aw office interior

When she toured 47 South Carroll Street late last year, she knew she had found everything she wanted in a new home for ArachnidWorks before she had even reached the top floor.

Today we are proud to officially announce our new headquarters in downtown Frederick, MD.

Just steps away from Frederick’s Carroll Creek Linear Park and across the street from the Delaplaine Center for the Arts, the circa 19th century brick building was ideally located and extremely well-constructed. A former owner, a talented architect, had designed the interior space with a view toward historic preservation and future sustainability. From the weathered brick facade to the original cross-grained wooden floors, the building is functional, practical, and beautiful!

Monica and Brian Kolbay purchased the building earlier this year, paving the way for moving day later this spring. We look forward to sharing our new space with you and the rest of our clients and friends very soon.

We’ll keep you posted!

arachnidworks rooftop view

ArachnidWorks Welcomes Director of Client Engagement & Strategy, Jean Radish

client strategist
We are very excited to welcome a new team member to ArachnidWorks! Meet Jean, our newest Director of Client Engagement & Strategy.

Not only has she already taught us what a “Schnauzerpalooza” is (hint: it’s when her two adorable Schnauzers come into the office), but she also brings a multidisciplinary approach to many facets of marketing and project management. We can’t wait to see what new level of benefit Jean will bring to our clients and their marketing strategies!

ArachnidWorks Celebrates The Season With Its Annual Holiday Party

ArachnidWorks at Stumpy's

Our 2019 holiday party was a huge success! We had a really fun time throwing hatchets at Stumpys Frederick – as all of us got the hatchet on the board at least once! We also had a wonderful time at The Wine Kitchen, where we hosted our 2nd annual ADUB Awards and had a delicious four-course meal.

We can’t wait to see what 2020 brings AW, so feel free to stay up to date on our Facebook/Instagram pages or right here on our blog!

entryway with tree

ArachnidWorks Welcomes New Digital Marketing Analyst, Brent Harwood

brent hardwood
Meet Brent! He is our newest Digital Marketing Analyst and we are very happy to welcome him to the ArachnidWorks team.

We’re looking forward to seeing what new level of benefit Brent will bring to our clients and their marketing strategies. As we continue to expand our web service offerings, Brent will be a key part of our team moving forward.

Welcome, Brent!

ArachnidWorks Welcomes Graphic Designer & Copywriter Brett Thompson To The Team

copywriter and graphic designer

We are very excited to welcome a new team member to ArachnidWorks! Meet Brett, our newest Graphic Designer & Copywriter. Not only does he love dogs just as much as we do, but he’s also an advocate for the Oxford Comma.

“Brett has a great attitude and is eager to help out with a variety of graphic design and content-related projects. That’s going to make a great addition to our team,” noted our President of ArachnidWorks, Monica Kolbay.

As we continue to expand our marketing capabilities, Brett will be a key part of our team. We’re looking forward to the amazing work he’ll provide our clients!

Jennifer Alexander Obtains CAPM Certification

project manager jen alexander
We would like to say congratulations to our very own Junior Project Manager/Inbound Marketing Specialist, Jennifer Alexander, for obtaining her Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification!

Because the CAPM recognizes knowledge of the profession’s preeminent global standard, we could not be more proud of her hard work. We are very excited to have her begin working more closely with a number of our great clients!