About Starburst Media, Founded by Laura Oldham

I started Starburst Media in 2010 to use the array of skills I gained through working in various web and design firms in Chicago. Now I live in Columbus with my husband Doug, my daughter Violet, my pup Eleanor, and my kitten Rosie. Over the past decade Starburst Media has helped hundreds of clients.

Starburst Media’s goal is to help clients take advantage of customers they can gain simply by having a solid website. My websites are primarily built in WordPress, Squarespace and Shopify so that my clients can make changes and updates without depending upon outside help. But I’m happy to offer ongoing updates and changes for clients who need it.

Shoot me an email if you’d like to chat.

Meet Laura Oldham

I got my journalism degree at Ohio University in 2004, just as I realized that I probably wasn’t cut out for a (sadly) shrinking field, so I moved to Chicago with the hopes of picking up some new skills that could eventually turn into a career. I worked as a copywriter and social media strategist for a small ad agency, in sales for a tech company, and in marketing for a tech startup while bartending in Irish pubs and comedy clubs at night. I took writing classes at Second City for a few years, started a satirical website, wrote and performed sketch comedy throughout the city, and volunteered as a tour guide at the Chicago History Museum. After a few years of dabbling in just about everything, I decided it was time to cut back from four jobs to one and head out on my own.

During my time at the ad agency, social media was just beginning, so I was tasked with trying to figure out how it could make my employers money. It seemed natural that I would start a social media consulting firm at a time when everyone began branding themselves as “gurus.” (I still shudder at the term.) But what I found immediately was that every small business I talked to also needed help with a website. Both of my parents are small business owners, and I saw that developers tended to talk down to small business owners and take weeks or even months to make small changes for them. So I decided to teach myself HTML, CSS and WordPress to try to help people like my parents.

Now I focus mainly on building websites in WordPress, Shopify and Squarespace and giving my clients the tools to make their own changes so they don’t necessarily need to depend upon Starburst Media (or another firm) to keep their websites up to date. I’m fortunate to get to use the skills that I’ve gained over the last decade of working in words and the internet.

Outside of work, I’m a proud mom to a spunky (and so, so stubborn) soon-to-be first grader, Violet. Eleanor Roosevelt Oldham, our Beagle/Dachshund mix, spends her days cavorting with our newly adopted kitten Rosie The Riveter Oldham. My spare time outside of work and parenthood is dedicated to admiring the bees, butterflies and birds in our yard while I prune back my mini wildflower pollinator meadows.

I’m very fortunate to love what I do, and I love to work with people who are just as passionate about their businesses. Shoot me an email if you want to talk about how we might be able to work together.