About US

Your Adventure Business is Our Business

At Liquid Spark, we craft practical marketing solutions that inspire adventure, action, and stewardship of our planet.

OUR APPROACH
Every day, we deliver our best work, acting as business owners for each client. We prioritize planning, simplify relentlessly, and strive for clean design and usability without compromise. We empower clients with practical training and tools, tailored to their business model. Accountability is key—we measure results, iterate, and maintain alignment with our mission.

WHAT TO EXPECT
Working closely with a dedicated team of strategic marketing professionals, you’ll experience a personalized approach. We set deadlines and scope deliverables rigorously but invest extra time to understand your story, business, and customers deeply. Our goal is to enhance your client acquisition, improve your customer satisfaction, and deliver exceptional ROI. We are committed to your success, empathizing as fellow business owners.

COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY & REGENERATION
We invest in sustainability & regeneration as a 1% for the Planet business member. We prioritize minimizing our planet impact in our work, travel, and personal lives. We actively seek to learn, share, and inspire stewardship best practices & accountability through our work, with partnerships, and with clients. We believe sustainability is not enough, and that regeneration is imperative; to create or support a net positive impact. We believe in upstream and downstream transparency and action. Join us.

WE’RE SO GLAD YOU’RE HERE!

HISTORY

We’ve come a long way…

Founded unintentionally in 2007 during a career transition, Liquid Spark (then called WillowWorks) served as a strategic marketing consultancy to support my young family. With a background spanning Wall Street to Main Street and an MBA in tow, my passion for the outdoor industry (nurtured on the ski slopes and expanded through paddlesports and bicycle tours) shaped my business into a trusted partner for top outfitters in the US and abroad. Since then, we’ve evolved to a full service agency with a specialized team in outdoor adventure & destination marketing.

Our name reflects our deep connection to water—a spark that fuels our year-round outdoor recreation pursuits and symbolizes life, vitality and stewardship.

MEET THE TEAM

What do you get when you mix exceptional abilities with a deep love of the outdoors?

Julie Thorner
Founder & President

Julie founded Liquid Spark to bring expert marketing help to the adventure travel, tourism, and outdoor recreation industry. She and her agency’s team know our industry—in the past 25 years, Julie’s been a raft guide, whitewater kayaking instructor, bike tour guide, operations manager, VP of marketing, and GM of outdoor retail.

Julie gives back as an expert educator with the Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) and volunteer business and marketing consultant to Tibetan responsible tourism entrepreneurs. She started Liquid Spark Foundation to help change lives through education, and raised her two sons to understand the importance of a people, place and planet lens and walking your talk.

Taylor Barnard
Strategist & Account Manager

Taylor is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a degree in Communications and a focus in Mass Media. She discovered her love of the outdoor adventure industry while working on the University’s high ropes course and kayak rental shop. Throughout her studies and professional career, corporate social responsibility has been a rooted interest; she loves driving this unique type of corporate thinking forward with the Liquid Spark team. She enjoys using her marketing experience, combined with her affinity for the outdoors, to show clients that their business goals are achievable while staying environmentally and socially responsible.

When she isn’t working, you’ll find her hiking and camping around her home in Western North Carolina.

Rylee Roquemore
Project Manager

Rylee is no stranger to strategic account planning and project management. She began working at a full-service ad agency a year and a half before ever even graduating college and now brings over a decade of experience working on award-winning advertising campaigns and content marketing initiatives to the Liquid Spark team as our project manager. She is a Second Wind certified account manager and is well-versed at keeping projects on track and on budget. Giving back is important to Rylee. For 8 years and counting, she has planned two-sport legend Bo Jackson’s charity bike ride which supports disaster relief efforts and the construction of storm shelters in her home state of Alabama.

When she’s not working, you can find her attending many live music events, hiking, biking, surfing, or playing tennis. Rylee is now living in Asheville, NC, and is a graduate of UAB with a degree in marketing.

Robyn Lee
Director of Operations

With a Bachelor in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Robyn is a natural-born storyteller. She couples her award-winning writing with 13 years of digital marketing experience. Her focus surrounds utilizing analytical insights to perfect the customer journey, which leads to increased conversion rates. With certifications in Google Ads, Hubspot, Meta, and Google Analytics, to name a few, she takes pride in utilizing every digital channel necessary to propel Liquid Spark’s clients toward month-over-month growth.

When Robyn is not inspecting website code, designing email drip campaigns, or doing keyword research, she is planning her next adventure. Currently, she has visited 8% of the world and has her eyes set on voyaging to Southeast Asia next.

Dan Isbister
PPC and SEO Specialist

Dan spent 30+ years in the IT industry as a successful salesman for top Silicon Valley Companies after an early career as a river guide and slalom kayak racer. An early retirement gave him the chance to team up with Liquid Spark and combine his passion for river experiences and deep knowledge of the Outdoor Recreation Industry with technical sales. He manages the winning PPC Campaigns that help drive profitable business to Liquid Spark customers.

Dan has a bachelor of science from the University of Maryland and a master of business administration from George Washington University and has been Google PPC & Analytics and Bing Ad Certified.

Amanda Rouse
Marketing Specialist

Amanda is a graduate of the University of Montana with a degree in Business and Marketing. Her professional career has been largely dedicated to working with marketing agencies in the tour operator industry, and she now brings her specialization in data and SEO-driven to the Liquid Spark team as a contracted marketing specialist.

Spending time in the mountains of Montana and along the California coast, Amanda loves all things outdoors. Her weekends spent surfing, camping, biking and trail running are what fuel her weekdays developing content strategies for companies that love adventure as much as she does.

Ohia Thompson
Creative Marketing Specialist

Ohia has been a part of the Liquid Spark team in both part-time and contracted capacities for well over a decade. She has been designing since 1998 and developing websites since 2009. She is a graduate of The Creative Center in Omaha, NE and believes that life experience is just as important as career and education. She loves that her profession allows her to work while exploring the world.

Her design and marketing style match her traveling attitude: “Accomplish your task in the most efficient way, yet do it while seeking the world’s beauty and knowledge.”

Trevor Holewinski
Developer

Trevor was employed as Director of Software Development & Technology for IGV Limited, a UK based global e-commerce company, supporting a $25M a year marketing, technology, and customer support budget. Concurrently, Trevor is also the founder and CEO of The Holewinski Group, a full-cycle website development company, which integrates content management systems for business owners.

Through his years in marketing, finance, and sales departments, he has acquired extensive knowledge of the Microsoft Suite, Crystal Reports, WordPress, PHP, CSS, HTML, and Google Analytics/AdWords/E-commerce Tracking.

Michelle Montgomery
Creative Director

The product of parents who owned a dive shop in the Florida Keys, Michelle decided at an early age that she wanted to marry her love of adventure with her talent for strategic design.

Today, she infuses minimalism, clarity, and the joy of tangible experiences into every project she leads. With over a decade of experience as a designer and strategist, and as a member of the LS team since 2017, Michelle knows how to inspire people to get outdoors.

In addition to her work at LS, Michelle is the founder of The Transplant Doula and Rumble with Mortality. When she’s not behind the computer, you’ll find her both on—and under!—the water. She resides in Boynton Beach, Florida with her husband.

Theresa Ayotte
Designer

Theresa has been a professional graphic designer for over 25 years. In 1996, she launched Terelar Design & Photography, a graphic design and commercial photography firm. Prior to starting her own business, she was the Art Director at an advertising agency in the Bangor, Maine area.

Theresa has a Master of Arts in Graphic Design and Visual Experience from Savannah College of Art and Design and is an adjunct graphic design instructor at Husson University.

We’re A Growing Team
Join Us.

If you love marketing, design, PR, or just have a zealous creative spirit, and are passionate about spending time in the outdoors, we might be on to something. See current opportunities.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Our Commitment To Our Clients

Liquid Spark Rated in Top 20 Digital Marketing Agencies in North Carolina

Adventure in Black with Courtney Simone

COMMITMENT

People, Place, Planet

1% for the Planet Member

Liquid Spark is proud to be a business member of 1% For The Planet, recognizing our responsibility to support a healthy planet for the environment, all human communities, wildlife, and nature. Since 2014, we have donated at least 1% of our total annual profit to environmental organizations worldwide, aligning with their missions.

We encourage other businesses to join 1% for the Planet to help fund local, national, and international initiatives that make a meaningful impact on our planet. As members, we select which projects and organizations to support each year, fostering collaboration and positive change.

Additionally, we operate the Liquid Spark Foundation, a separate USA-based 501(C)3 non-profit organization funded directly by Liquid Spark to further our commitment to environmental stewardship and community support.

It’s up to each one of us to be the change we wish to see!

STRATEGIC GUIDANCE

Actionable Audits

Marketing Roadmap

Consulting

GROWTH & SUPPORT

Email & SMS Marketing

Paid Advertising

Print & Asset Design

Social Media Marketing

PR & Media Production

Website Development & SEO

LEADERSHIP PARTNER

Integrated Marketing