Having a wealth of experience in public relations, marketing and business, Christina Cush launched Cush Communications in September 2025.
Tell us about Cush Communications. What inspired you to start your business?
First off, thank you for asking about Cush Communications, as I am very grateful to share my story. I launched this boutique public relations and marketing consultancy in September 2025, inspired by a trip my family took to coastal Maine in July 2025. I took several long walks and hikes that trip, some by myself, listening to nostalgic music from bands like Simple Minds and Tears for Fears.
On these walks, underneath breezy pine tree canopies, I was sorting out whether I wanted to continue my four-year journey in corporate marketing and communications and keep climbing up that ladder to a VP level or higher, or if it was time to invest in myself again.
Also on that trip, I got a surprising call from a woman I’d met about 14 years ago in a professional networking group in Connecticut, whom I hadn’t kept in touch with. She wanted to see what I was up to professionally, because the company she worked for could use my help. The timing of that out-of-the blue call was unbelievable. During the long road trip home to Ponte Vedra from the Northeast, I used my very logical husband, Michael, as my sounding board and the outcome was launching Cush Communications as a sole proprietor a few weeks later.
Step one was to get my website (www.cushcommunications.com) and social media handles sorted out, while reaching out to some friends and business contacts to start spreading the word. And thanks for my Connecticut connection, I was eventually introduced to Lee-Anne Gilchrist, the CEO of The Golf Performance Academy, which became my first client.
Tell us about your background, especially as it applies to your career.
This isn’t the first time I’ve run my own PR and marketing consultancy. I opened one, Sea Glass Communications, in 2013 when my family was still living in Darien, Connecticut. Back then, I was still new to social media, but I was not new to media relations. I excelled at local, regional and national media relations for my clients in Darien and beyond (including New York City and Boston) because of my background as a national magazine writer and editor and as a published book author (who was sponsored by Proctor and Gamble to do a national media book tour).
I’d maintained my connections in the media, and I knew how to write a good press release and follow up. So, my clients were happy with the press coverage and opportunities I earned for them.
Before launching Sea Glass Communications, I worked on staff at some of the most iconic American publications for about 10 years in New York City, including Rolling Stone, Redbook and Good Housekeeping. More recently, I’ve kept my writing skills sharp, which makes me a better publicist, by writing for Architectural Digest, The Washington Post and Yahoo! My career path is not a straight line, and I’d get lured back into working for magazines after running Sea Glass Communications for a few years, such as serving as the editor in chief of the luxury lifestyle magazine Naples Illustrated back in 2020.
As much as I enjoy running a magazine and writing and assigning feature stories, I wanted a new challenge. That came in the form of getting my master’s degree in mass communications and public relations at the University of Florida, while working full-time and raising my three teenagers. Halfway through my coursework, I pivoted from being an editor in chief in Naples to becoming a marketing manager in Jacksonville for a large global shipping and logistics company.
I graduated from UF in May 2023 and worked in corporate marketing for three years, then moved on to a director-level role in corporate communications at a small Jacksonville-based fiberoptic company where I planned and managed all internal and external events and ran all internal and external communications.
Now, I very much enjoy being my own boss and relying on my education and experiences to guide me to follow best practices and to be the best professional resource for my clients.
What do you like best about what you do?
I truly like helping founders and business owners of small and medium companies and organizations to articulate what their organizational goals are, what their biggest hurdles to achieving those are and how we can align a strategic communications and marketing plan to reach those goals. In short, I help them pinpoint their target audience and create a plan that speaks to that audience in words that resonate with them.
Business leaders are often so bogged down by the day-to-day operations that they don’t have the bandwidth to communicate with their target audiences about new product and service announcements. Helping to solve that problem for business leaders is a joy for me.
During my recent time in corporate marketing and communications, I discovered that I also like working with business executives and leaders in creating thought leadership content on LinkedIn or securing them speaking opportunities at industry conferences.
My time in grad school and in corporate also revealed that I am a fierce brand reputation advocate when it comes times of crisis, and I really dig speaking directly to employees through thoughtful internal communications methods.
What is a typical day like for you?
My youngest two kids, a set of boy/girl twins, are seniors in college, and my oldest daughter is fully launched and working in Boston, so my husband and I are empty nesters. My dog, Tilley, gets most of that nurturing attention now, so I let her out first thing in the morning, and must give her a treat or she will stare me down all day. I’ll throw some exercise clothes on and will make my morning Nespresso and sit down and read a bunch of news-related newsletters so I’m aware of what’s happening in my community, my state, my country and our world.
My reward for doing that is playing The New York Times Spelling Bee Game and trying to reach Genius level. Once my brain is fired up, I catch up on emails, check my social media accounts and my clients’ accounts and then get to work. I’ll squeeze in some sort of exercise like a long walk, a Peloton ride or a functional strength workout at home. I am an expert multi-tasker and have spent several years working in legacy media from home while raising three kids, so I know how to get a lot accomplished each day.
When my husband, a financial adviser at Morgan Stanley, comes home from work now, I’ll close my laptop, and we figure out what to do with the meat I’ve defrosted or the produce and seafood I picked up at the market. We both like to cook, so sometimes it’s a battle of the egos to see who is going to prepare the healthiest and tastiest dinner. After we prep dinner, we feed the dog dinner, and take her for a walk together, sharing stories from the day. Whenever possible, we sit outside and dine on our lanai and watch the sunset. It’s a beautiful way to end the day by marveling at nature and feeling gratitude. Once dinner clean-up is done, and I watch a little TV, I do not stay up late. I need my beauty sleep.
What brought you to this community?
I grew up on Long Island in New York, went to college in Massachusetts, lived at worked for 10 years in New York City, then lived and worked for 12 years in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and have lived and worked in Ponte Vedra for 12 years. I’m definitely an East Coast kind of gal!
About 13 years ago, my husband had an opportunity to explore getting away from the long commute he had every day into lower Manhattan from our town in Connecticut. Some days, it took him about four hours round trip. I liked the idea of having him around much more after school to help with our growing kids, so when he mentioned an opportunity that could pan out in Jacksonville, I did the research.
The public schools in Ponte Vedra Beach checked out with my criteria, which was most important as we had two fifth graders and an eighth grader when we moved here. In addition, having direct flights to New York every day was important, just in case I needed to visit my parents. And having access to top-tier hospitals and health care. Making the move was hard at first, because we were 1,000 miles or more away from our extended family and longtime friends. But we gained a much better quality of life for our family of five.
What do you like best about living here?
On our very first visit to check out the area, just my husband and I came down from Connecticut and stayed at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club. That was it. I was done. I couldn’t believe that people actually got to live in such a beautiful resort town. He and I both grew up going to the beaches of Long Island, which are also beautiful. They just don’t have the palm trees. I like the slower pace, the Southern charm, the mild winters and the access to playing tennis year-round outside. In Connecticut, I used to play tennis inside a big bubble on carpet in the winter. I like that we get a little more daylight than where we used to live in the Northeast, even though we are in the same time zone.
How do you like to spend your free time?
I picked up pickleball last year, which is fun, and I used to play a lot of competitive tennis doubles when we first moved here. But once I started working more, I didn’t have the time to play as much as I’d like to stay competitive.
So now, I whack a tennis ball around with my husband once a week, or when our kids are home, we play with them and it’s very silly. I will play nine holes of golf with my husband and friends a few times a year and hope to make more time for that in the years ahead.
I really like to travel. We visit our daughter in Boston a couple times a year as well as our extended families in New York. My sister-in-law lives in Crescent Beach, and we road trip to her beach often as well as her home in the Keys to fish for mahi.
My husband is a DIY guy, and it’s not a weekend unless we are in a Home Depot or Ace Hardware store together. I am the publicity chair for the Sawgrass Players Cub Women’s Association, and I design a monthly newsletter for our 280 members. I also like playing Bunco with this group, and I adore my monthly book club, which has me reading all sorts of genres I would never try on my own. Additionally, I’m on the benefit committee of the Ponte Vedra Women’s Civic Alliance and am helping with the party vibes and decor for our event this April.
What's next for you and Cush Communications?
I am very lucky to have started out with three great clients, but I am ready to scale up big time. In addition to The Golf Performance Academy, which has a campus in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and another in Port St. Lucie, Florida, I have signed Witt Tennis and work with local tennis instructor Danny Witt and have signed a brand-new nonprofit called Hearts For Educators with local founder Lyn Gabrielsen.
I’d like a few other clients with a multi-state footprint, as I’d like to put my national marketing and media relations savvy to work. I have a professional passion for working with clients in the home improvement and maintenance space, including interior design, architecture and luxury real estate. It’s a goal to pick up a client or two in those niches.
I’ve worked in the past with clients in health care, fitness, restaurants, hospitality, high-net worth insurance and know I’d do a great job with those industries today.
Lastly, I want to keep the smile on my face and hold my head high knowing that my clients appreciate me and the effort I put in to create and execute thoughtful and strategic communications and marketing plans and campaigns on their behalf. When my clients win, Cush Communications wins.
