Meet Zac Hug | Writer & Owner, Group Hug Inc.
We had the good fortune of connecting with Zac Hug and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Zac, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I left my cushy job at the Walt Disney Company and went freelance so I could become a TV writer in 2013. And I did a lot of strange gigs. For a while I was the digital media voice of Madame the puppet, I wrote newsletter copy for startups, just rando stuff. And then I was really lucky that it all went better than I hoped it would and I got staffed on a TV show. I stopped being able to keep up with the various digital media writing assignments I had gotten and kept having to farm out work to other writers. At some point, I realized that all my corporate years had been spent hiring companies for services like this one. So I incorporated and became insured for E&O and Worker’s Comp and built something that both big corporations and tiny lil startups could deal with.
What should our readers know about your business?
We’re a cheerful group of writers and most of us have always done digital work and know how to help companies drive an audience toward whatever they’re trying to sell or advertise or market or swindle you out of. Pretty much everyone who works here has a background in writing TV or short film or novels or some kind character-driven work. And “beginning, middle, end” is sort of a flawless structure for copywriting, too.
So, we’re primarily a copywriting company but we also do a fair amount of consulting on strategy. Social media, digital media, wedding toasts. We say a lot that if your marketing or social copy has the words “content” or “products” in it – you have already lost your audience. Those words really don’t mean anything except you don’t know how to talk about what you make or do. Plus, it’s always easier to rewrite something than to think it up, so our best work is the stuff we get wrong; the the rough drafts with a ton of creative options to choose from that save businesses the brain effort. We try to let them focus on polishing and perfecting what we’ve crafted for them into exactly the thing they need.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Whenever people come to visit, it does feel weird to suggest we see a movie, but LA has these incredible movie-theater palaces that are more interesting on the inside. I’m not an obnoxious stickler about this, but it really is true that some movies a lot of us saw on TV first are way better on a big screen (My Neighbor Totoro! Lawrence of Arabia!) and so the Egyptian theater is one of my favorite places. I like gay bars in DTLA because it strangely feels like New York in the 90’s down there. Also our Korean BBQ is unbelievably good and who doesn’t want to smell like meat for a while? And finally, I like Lake Hollywood a lot. It’s such a weird little perfect 3 mile circle tour around a lake; where the Hollywood sign looks much bigger than somehow it actually is, and there’s a gigantic dam you get to walk over. What’s not to love?
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe most of my success to a list of women, but in particular Beth Johnson. She was the Editorial Director who originally hired me at Bravo and taught me most everything I know about how the art of copywriting made the commerce part work. She then hired me again when she was a VP of Digital at the Walt Disney Company. Then, years later, when I’d reached a place where I just didn’t want to do the corporate part as much, she helped me find my way to where I am now. Mainly though, Beth is one of those brilliant humans who navigates people and places with a really sharp sense of self that has real compassion underneath. She remains the person I reach out to most for questions about…honestly, everything.
Website: www.grouphuginc.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharyhug
Twitter: @zachug
Image Credits
Devon Wycoff
Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
