Hey, I'm Lisa Occhino

Me, if you’d like to crack open the nutshell

I’m a lifelong musician. I took my first piano lesson at age 6, developed a passion for songwriting by age 12, and figured I better get over my fear of singing in public if I ever wanted anyone to hear those songs.

I had fun (and learned a ton) doing the whole independent singer-songwriter thing throughout my teen years and into my early 20s. Those were also the years that I eagerly took every opportunity to expand my musical horizons — which meant that playing an afternoon festival slot with a metal band and rushing to an evening jazz gig in another city was just a typical Saturday.

As much as I live and breathe music, the truth is that I’ve never had a desire to be in the spotlight. I find it much more rewarding to use my skills and strengths to help other creatives succeed.

I graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music with a bachelor’s degree in music business/management, a concentration in entrepreneurship, and a minor in psychology. The BMI Foundation awarded me first place and $10,000 in a national songwriting competition, which I was extraordinarily grateful to put toward my tuition. Berklee also awarded me three merit scholarships for songwriting, entrepreneurship, and my internships.

I served as editor-in-chief of The Berklee Groove for the majority of my college career. I recruited over 100 contributing writers — the most in the publication’s history — and achieved record-breaking numbers for both readership and event turnouts.

Somewhere in between running The Berklee Groove, taking a full course load, leading the Berklee A&R Group and the marketing club, teaching piano lessons, interning for a boutique booking agency in Manhattan, and interning for two world-renowned music publishing companies (BMG Chrysalis and Shapiro Bernstein), I decided that it was a perfectly reasonable goal to launch my own music startup by the time I graduated.

In my final year of college, I released the public beta version of SongwriterLink, a collaboration website that used an algorithm to match up composers, lyricists, producers, and topline writers. I single-handedly built and managed all aspects of the startup, from product to marketing to customer support. Respected publications such as Hypebot, Songwriting magazine, and Boston magazine gave early praise. After running the website for 11 years, I decided to sell the domain name to a similar startup so that I could focus my attention on new projects.

Halfway through my last semester at Berklee, I was recruited by Sonicbids, the leading gig-booking platform for musicians, to be the company’s first managing editor. After overhauling the content strategy and bringing on dozens of expert contributors, I increased the blog’s monthly unique page views from 10,000 to over half a million. I also created branded content plans for all of Sonicbids’ biggest festival and conference partners, including SXSW, Bonnaroo, CMJ, NXNE, and A3C.

Shortly after moving from Boston to New York City in 2014, I joined the Berklee Alumni Association as a committee member. I helped plan, promote, and host events throughout the city for alumni, including educational panels, live music showcases, and networking events.

In 2017, I accepted an offer to lead marketing and communications at Soundfly, an online music education startup. I implemented a marketing strategy that contributed to the company’s all-time highest revenue. I also led communications and cross-promotional efforts in a major partnership with ASCAP, formed strategic partnerships with companies like Bandzoogle and EastWest, and co-hosted a successful live event series in New York City with Berklee.

Three years later, I was recruited by Linkfire, a global music tech company. As content marketing manager, I implemented an SEO strategy that resulted in 16 targeted keywords ranking #1 in search results and appearing as featured snippets. Within my first year alone, I grew the company’s Instagram following by 52% and unique page views on the blog by 173%. I executed successful content marketing strategies for all of Linkfire’s product launches, as well as its partnerships with Apple Music, YouTube Music, Qobuz, Community, and others. I created content that consistently generated high-quality leads and established Linkfire as a thought leader in the music tech industry.

Over the course of my career, I’ve had the honor of speaking at top music industry conferences such as SXSW and Mondo.NYC, as well as at Berklee and Brandeis University. I’ve been interviewed by HuffPost, The Women’s International Music Network, FOX News CT, and In Tune Monthly. As a freelance writer, my work has been published in print and online by publications including Business Insider, Berklee Today magazine, Songwriting magazine, Hypebot, ReverbNation, Bandzoogle, and AWAL.

Throughout my 20s, I considered myself a part-time digital nomad. I was based in New York City, but every year I picked at least one new country to immerse myself in for up to three months at a time. 30 countries and six continents deep, I found myself dreaming about what my life could look like if I permanently lived abroad. Just before my 30th birthday, I started a new chapter and moved solo to Lisbon, Portugal, where I’m still very happily living today.

These days, I freelance for a wide range of value-aligned clients, from music tech companies to environmental nonprofits. I’m also devoting more creative energy to new passion projects, learning Portuguese, building community, and soaking up everything Lisbon has to offer.

If you’re curious about what specifically I’m spending my time on right now, I always keep this page updated.