MICHAEL CHARYGROWTH & LIFECYCLE

LIFECYCLE & GROWTH LEADER · DENVER, COLORADO

Growth starts with
the next connection.

I build the journeys, teams, and marketing systems that turn audience intent into lasting subscriber relationships.

Leading lifecycle and organic growth at Gaia, a global streaming platform serving nearly a million members with a 10M+ CRM audience.

Explore my work Download resume DOCX
Michael Chary, lifecycle and growth marketing leader
Michael CharyHead of Email & Organic Growth · Gaia
+18% YoY

Growth in email-attributed member acquisition

+110% YoY

Growth in annual subscription conversion

5% → 20%MoM

Winback conversion rate

01 / SELECTED WORK

Strategy that makes
a measurable difference.

A selection of projects I’ve led at Gaia, connecting customer behavior, marketing infrastructure, and business growth outcomes.

CRM TRANSFORMATION01

Building the infrastructure for a better customer journey.

Spearheaded the enterprise migration from Emarsys to Braze, redesigning identity, segmentation, personalization, and measurement for retention-focused orchestration.

38%Lift in engagement
across redesigned journeys
Enterprise CRM Integration

Led the migration across data, APIs, SDKs, transactional messaging, push, in-app messaging, Shopify, reporting, and deliverability. Partnered with Product, Engineering, BI, and Creative to connect lifecycle strategy with implementation.

Standardized templates, preference management, multilingual transactional communications, and reporting. Led IP and subdomain recovery work to protect inbox placement and support reliable lifecycle delivery.

WINBACK & RETENTION02

Turning former subscribers into returning members.

Built segmented winback offers, annual-churn interventions, and lapsed-member journeys to reconnect former subscribers with Gaia.

5% → 20%Winback conversion rate
~2,000 incremental reactivations per month
Organic Growth & Acquisition

Redesigned the winback lifecycle program, increasing conversion fourfold and generating approximately 2,000 incremental reactivated subscribers each month.

Completed all nine linked workstreams in the core Q3 winback initiative, with IP-warming programs supporting delivery. The conversion results above reflect the broader winback program.

AI & MARKETING OPERATIONS03

Giving creative teams more time to make work that performs.

Built an AI-powered video scripting workflow that shortened production cycles and expanded creative output across paid and organic channels.

40%Increase in organic video output
40% organic output · 25% paid output
Workflow Optimization & Efficiency

Built a custom AI video-scripting tool that saved six hours per video, helping the team produce more creative for testing.

The workflow produced the company’s highest-converting paid ad, which ran for more than 30 days before creative fatigue.

EARLY-TENURE RETENTION04

Making the first 90 days count.

Built the 0–90-day member lifecycle to improve content discovery and address early churn signals, including a Braze AI agent that synthesizes 50+ behavioral signals to route members into retention-focused communication paths.

28%Lift in early-tenured member engagement
through behavioral triggers
Lifecycle & Customer Journey

Designed an early-tenure framework connecting onboarding, content discovery, and re-engagement. Built an AI agent in Braze to synthesize 50+ data points across engagement, dormancy, and other behaviors, then route members into communication paths optimized for retention.

Used behavioral triggers to improve early-tenured member engagement by 28%.

BEHAVIORAL PERSONALIZATION05

Connecting viewing behavior to the next relevant message.

Integrated Recombee’s AI recommendation engine into Braze, using Cursor to customize code and minimize engineering dependencies. The integration transformed behavioral data into actionable lifecycle execution.

95%Personalized CRM message share
improved from ~15%
Personalization & Data-Driven Retention Strategy

Developed AI-assisted recommendation templates and engagement loops informed by viewing behavior, member tenure, and churn risk.

Moved lifecycle marketing beyond broad audience sends toward messages shaped by how members engage with content.

COMMERCE & LAUNCHES06

Connecting audience interest to the full purchase journey.

Delivered lifecycle support for major launches, events, products, courses, and tours—from lead capture and reminders to conversion and follow-up.

$300KNet sales in a two-week launch
Email-driven Shopify funnel · No paid media
eCommerce Integration & Product Sales

Supported Black Friday, Gene Keys, Gaiasphere, Channeling, and Transcendence with lead capture, reminders, live-event messaging, sales conversion, and post-event follow-up.

For Gaia’s subsidiary supplement brand launch in Q3 2025, built an organic conversion funnel with my team that generated $300K in net sales through Shopify in two weeks, driven entirely by email without paid media support.

Expanded commerce support through Shopify integration, cart-abandon programs, transactional journeys, and large promotional launches.

Adapted acquisition and automation programs for international audiences, including localized campaigns, Spanish-market launches, and international prospect optimization.

02 / EXPERIENCE

A storyteller’s foundation.
A growth leader’s focus.

My career has grown from editorial and content marketing into leadership across the customer lifecycle journey. I lead a marketing team and direct work across the creative studio and two external agencies, partnering with Product, Engineering, Content Development, and BI.

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SEPTEMBER 2019 — PRESENT

Head of Email & Organic Growth

Gaia Inc. · Louisville, CO

Own lifecycle marketing, CRM, retention, organic acquisition, SEO, and organic social strategy for a global subscription platform.

2017 — 2019

Marketing Content Specialist

Gaia Inc. · Louisville, CO

Led editorial strategy and a contracted writing team, managing content strategy, editing, writer budgets, and production to support SEO and lead generation.

EARLIER EXPERIENCE & EDUCATION

Editorial roots

Content Marketing Writer, The Marquee Magazine and The Rooster Magazine.

University of Colorado Boulder
Journalism & Mass Communication; Political Science

03 / EXPERTISE

Across the journey.
From strategy to execution.

01

Lifecycle & retention

Leading an enterprise migration to Braze reinforced my belief that great lifecycle marketing starts with connected systems. When CRM, product behavior, and billing data work together, every message can reflect where a customer is in their journey. I bring marketing and technical teams together to turn that complexity into timely, relevant experiences that give members a reason to stay.

BrazeEmarsysIterableKlaviyoAtData
02

Acquisition & Data-Driven Growth

Sustainable acquisition means understanding what brings people in—and what makes them stay. I use behavioral data and experimentation to connect the first expression of intent with a clear path to value. My focus is on repeatable programs that improve conversion while building relationships that last beyond the first transaction.

A/B testingCohort analysisGoogle AnalyticsBigQueryDomo
03

Organic & Content Marketing

Useful content earns attention; a thoughtful next step turns that attention into a relationship. I connect search visibility, social discovery, and lead magnet automation so people can move naturally from finding something valuable to engaging on an owned channel. The goal is a consistent experience from the first question to the decision to join.

SEOOrganic socialSEMrushAhrefsSprout SocialManyChat
04

AI Scaling & Integration

AI gives marketers more room to build: dynamic tools, personalized experiences, and automated workflows with fewer engineering dependencies. I use that freedom to bring ideas into testing faster, remove repetitive work, and give teams more time for creative problem-solving. The value comes from integrating AI into how the team works, with clear goals and human judgment guiding the outcome.

CursorGoogle AI StudioChatGPT CodexClaude

LET’S CONNECT

Build the next chapter
of growth, together.

Let’s talk about lifecycle, CRM, and growth leadership.

michael.chary@gmail.com