National Dye League - social Strategy & founder coaching

Overview

National Dye League is an early-stage venture with a bold mission: make Beer Dye a legitimate professional sport and bring it to a mainstream audience. The founder comes from the world of sports broadcast production. He knows how to put a show together behind the scenes, but building a brand presence on social media was a new frontier.

I was brought on in the earliest stages to lead all things social. My role quickly evolved into something closer to Director of Social: building the strategy from the ground up, editing tournament footage, and coaching the founder on how to show up on camera as a brand, not just a producer.

My role

  • Full social media strategy development from scratch

  • Content ideation and creative direction

  • Short-form video editing and content creation across all formats

  • Founder coaching: on-camera presence, brand voice, and content creation habits

  • Helping the founder get comfortable being the face of the brand on social

Strategy

NDL is starting from zero, which means every decision carries weight. The strategy has to work on two levels at once: legitimizing Beer Dye as a real competitive sport while making it feel accessible and inviting to anyone, the way pickleball or spikeball did when they broke through. Content needs to speak to hardcore players and total newcomers at the same time, without alienating either.

I focused on two priorities running in parallel: building a content foundation with consistent formats, a clear brand voice, and a repeatable rhythm that can scale as the league grows, and coaching the founder to translate his deep production experience into authentic, platform-native content and get comfortable being the face of the brand.

The goal is to make Beer Dye feel like a real sport to people who've never heard of it, and to make NDL the undeniable home of that world online

Results

Game Recap: Tournament Opener

The first video we made together, and we hit the ground running. The goal was simple: make Beer Dye look like a real sport. Fast-paced editing, professional presentation, and gameplay that could hold anyone's attention.

  • 362.5K views

  • 15K likes

  • 7.1K shares

  • 137 comments

  • 309 saves

  • 511 followers gained

  • 24 second average watch time

The numbers speak for themselves. For a brand new account, this was a statement first post.

Founder On-Camera Debut

Stats don't always tell the full story. This was the founder's first time ever appearing on camera, and the focus was on coaching him through how to present himself, speak to an audience, and come across as a credible face for the brand. I directed the shoot and edited the final video.

For an account sitting at around 500 followers at the time, getting 2K views, meaningful engagement, and a 14 second average watch time on a talking-head style video is a solid foundation. More importantly, it marked the beginning of the founder developing real on-camera confidence, which is what the whole brand is built on.

Key Takeaways

  • Building a brand from zero requires strategy before content; the foundation matters

  • Coaching a founder is as important as editing the videos; the person behind the brand is the brand

  • Sports content has a natural hook. The job is packaging it in a way that reaches beyond the existing fan base

  • Consistency and identity built early pay off as production scales

Why this matters

This case study reflects what it looks like to step into a project at the very beginning and shape everything. Not just the edits, but the thinking. NDL is still early, the work happening now is building the infrastructure for something much bigger. It's a direct reflection of what I do best: strategy, coaching, and execution at the same time.