Chris McGaughey
00 / ABOUTChris McGaughey

Builder. Listener. Connector.

I help people and businesses communicate clearly and organize the workflows behind that communication, from Shopify storefronts to simple brand guides to conversations that move work forward. I’m a digital strategist, web developer, and consultant based in Central Florida.

Let's ConnectSee My Work
Digital StrategyWeb DevelopmentE-CommerceBrand DevelopmentAI & Automation
Chris McGaughey by the water

Seek to listen. Seek to learn. Seek to serve.

01 / APPROACHHow I think + what I do

Listen first. Build from there.

I don’t believe in imposing a system on a situation. I believe in listening first, finding what’s actually true, and then making that truth impossible to miss.

  • 01

    Invite, don’t instruct.

    The best communication makes people feel capable, not corrected.

  • 02

    Hold the big picture and the details.

    I’m explicit about trade-offs and what we’re choosing to focus on.

  • 03

    Connect the dots.

    I’m not a specialist. I’m a connector, most useful when there’s a gap between people, disciplines, or ideas that needs bridging.

  • 04

    Customer discovery first, always.

    Decisions made without talking to real users rarely hold up.

02 / PILLARSCore pillars

What I keep coming back to.

These aren’t values written to sound good on a page. They’re the things I’ve actually operated by long enough to trust.

01

Curiosity

Driven by questions and a love of learning. I’d rather understand why I think what I think than win an argument.

02

Collaboration

Built for dialogue and co-creation. The best outcomes happen when people work together, not when one person has all the answers.

03

Growth

Discomfort is information. I want to evolve: personally, professionally, and in how I show up for others.

04

Intentionality

Anchored in values and meaning. Every decision worth making should trace back to something that actually matters.

05

Empathy

Listening well is a skill. Understanding where someone actually is, not where you want them to be. That changes everything.

06

Adaptability

Plans change. The question is always: what’s the next right step from here? Flexibility isn’t weakness. It’s how good work actually gets done.

07

Authenticity

Say what you mean. Show up as who you are. The clearest communicators are always the most honest ones.

01

Curiosity

Driven by questions and a love of learning. I’d rather understand why I think what I think than win an argument.

02

Collaboration

Built for dialogue and co-creation. The best outcomes happen when people work together, not when one person has all the answers.

03

Growth

Discomfort is information. I want to evolve: personally, professionally, and in how I show up for others.

04

Intentionality

Anchored in values and meaning. Every decision worth making should trace back to something that actually matters.

05

Empathy

Listening well is a skill. Understanding where someone actually is, not where you want them to be. That changes everything.

06

Adaptability

Plans change. The question is always: what’s the next right step from here? Flexibility isn’t weakness. It’s how good work actually gets done.

07

Authenticity

Say what you mean. Show up as who you are. The clearest communicators are always the most honest ones.

03 / STORYMy story

The longer version, in my own words.

I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, the youngest of three kids in a family that owned a Harley-Davidson dealership. My earliest sense of what "work" meant came from watching my parents show up every day with flexibility, ownership, and care. Not because of a title, but because it mattered to them personally. That stayed with me.

I moved from a conservative Christian elementary school to a private college-prep school in middle school, which was a noticeable shift socially and economically, but overall a good one. I found my people, leaned into good conversation and learning, and by high school was doing independent theological study, announcing basketball games, and asking the kinds of questions I never got tired of asking. That led me to Georgetown College, where I studied philosophy and theology not to find easy answers but to understand why I stood where I stood.

After college, I spent several years at Disney World. I worked roles across resorts, from lifeguard to bell service to front desk runner and finally auditing data. I learned a lot about how I work best: high autonomy, end-to-end problem solving, and relationships built on genuine trust, not job titles. That became my benchmark.

From there I joined TuneGO during COVID. What started in QA quickly turned into de facto project management, bridging leadership in Las Vegas with an engineering team in Poland, growing into a product advisory role, and ultimately identifying product management as the first role category where my full range of skills actually fit together. When the company contracted, I carried that clarity with me.

Since then I have been building a freelance practice around brand strategy, Shopify development, analytics, digital systems, and content, mostly for clients who are somewhere between "I have something real here" and "I just don't know how to communicate it yet." That gap is where I do my best work.

I live in Central Florida with my wife Rose and our daughter Raechel. When I am not working, I am raiding in World of Warcraft, reading fantasy or sci-fi, cooking something new, or writing down parts of the story I want to remember.

04 / BEYONDBeyond the work

The rest of who I am.

Gaming

FEELING A PART OF THE STORY

RPGs, mostly. Anything that lets me enter a new world. But if I'm honest, it's always been about the people. My brother got me into games, and every game since has been better because of who I'm playing with. The social thread is the anchor. 

Reading

Fantasy and sci-fi with real ideas underneath

Fantasy and sci-fi, usually via audiobook during chores. It turns routine tasks into something that feels worthwhile. What I'm actually after are the ideas underneath the story.  Ender's Game, The Giver, the Rhapsody series. Anything that makes you think while it pulls you in.

Sports

Competitive, social, and fast to learn

Basketball growing up. Quick hands, strong dribble, knew every player's stats. Soccer too. I've always learned sports fast, but the honest reason I kept coming back is the same reason I do most things: they're better with people around.

Travel

Road trips and memorable moments

Road trips are the sweet spot, ideally around 6 hours. I grew up doing cross-country drives with my family. There's a memory from a desert storm in New Mexico, watching lightning fill an entire open sky with nothing in the way, and Disney World trips that felt like a second home. Some things just don't leave you.

Photography

Technical interest, still aspirational

More interest than active practice, and that tension is real. Stopping to capture a moment means missing the moment itself. But the technical side pulls me in anyway: light, composition, how a lens sees versus how an eye does. Something to keep building toward.

Family

The foundation underneath everything else

Husband and dad. My parents and siblings are also a core part of who I am. They show up in almost every story I tell. They're not background. They're the reason most of it happened.

05 / CONNECTLet’s talk

YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE 
IT ALL FIGURED OUT.

The best work often starts with someone who has something real but isn’t sure how to say it yet. That’s where I do my best work.

Let's Connect