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Myriah Castillo
Director of Social Strategy
Weirdo
At the heart of every thriving indie is a curious, unapologetic risk taker. Myriah Castillo, who heads up social strategy for Joybyte, the No. 1 influencer-led social marketing agency that is part of EVOQ Group, is that very person. Myriah is extremely savvy and not afraid to take risks when it comes to utilizing social media and influencer marketing to help her clients connect with consumers.
Under her leadership, Joybyte has significantly increased the size and scope of its new business wins and clients. In fact, the agency grew its revenue by 40% in 2024, and is on track to grow an additional 60% this year.
At a time when many agencies and marketers either pulled back or were hesitant to advertise on it, pending TikTok’s impending sale, Myriah and her team leaned into the platform’s creative, storytelling and word-of-mouth upsides. The campaign her team launched and ran for Bakeful, which has already outperformed standard new TikTok metrics to date, speaks to the overarching lesson and power of creatively and fearlessly embracing new media channels. In this case, the challenges included being a new product with zero former TikTok affiliate presence and where the primary platform being used, TikTok, is undergoing industry ownership uncertainty.
Myriah says that another winning advantage is not to underestimate the power of today’s social media platforms or the opportunities it may offer. In the case of TikTok, “a lot of brands see it as being a young person’s place. The reality is, that’s where all brands should be because of the platform’s scale and reach. It’s not the TikTok that you think you know.”
She leads the team that crafted a highly successful campaign for Bakeful, a brand of premium, better-for-you, baked mini doughnuts that has been trending in social buzz and moving the needle on sales. The campaign positioned Donutful as a leader in the better-for-you snacking sector by building strong relationships with TikTok Shop Affiliates.
In just one month, the campaign generated over 30M impressions and $40,000+ in sales, despite this being a new product on TikTok, with no prior established TikTok Shop Affiliate Program. This was instrumental for Donutful to secure shelf space in major retailers like Walmart leading up to the launch of another Bakeful product, Muffinful.
In 2024, Myriah and her team’s prowess helped Joybyte expand its new business wins beyond start-ups and local businesses to include household names like Eggland’s Best, Jackson’s Chips, Chefman, and the VeSync family of brands.
Myriah's LinkedIn might tell you about her marketing expertise, but it doesn't capture the full story of someone whose career has hopscotched from professional show jumping to criminal defense paralegal to contemporary poetry graduate to guacamole e-commerce entrepreneur.
That unconventional path is the secret sauce of her indie mindset. Whether she was navigating split-second decisions in the show jumping ring, dissecting complex legal cases, crafting precise verse, or building a business around an unlikely product, Myriah learned to find opportunity in the spaces others overlook.
"Don't be afraid to test and adopt new strategies even if you don't really know how they're going to turn out," she says. "Be able to test, learn, adapt and make changes really fast." It's advice born from someone who's never been afraid to leap into uncharted territory and who brings that same fearless curiosity to every client challenge.
For Myriah, the moment came when PANK Magazine published her experimental piece about living in Pittsburgh—specifically her unflinching examination of LGBT community perceptions in the early 90s and the ongoing adversity both locally and nationwide.
Her willingness to explore uncomfortable truths about fringe culture resonated with readers. The piece required her to look beyond surface narratives and mainstream perspectives, diving into stories that others might overlook or avoid entirely. Seeing people appreciate this unique perspective showed her there was real value in not following the expected path. The experience crystallized something crucial: authentic insight often lives in the margins, in the stories mainstream voices don't tell. The publication proved that independent thinking isn't just contrarian for its own sake; it's about finding truth and opportunity in places others won't look.
That experimental piece became a blueprint for her career: investigate the overlooked, amplify the authentic, and trust that genuine perspective will find its audience.
While most agencies chase yesterday's trends, Myriah has built a team committed to being culturally relevant and just-ahead of the pulse, helping clients resonate authentically with audiences instead of relying on tired playbooks.
The results speak volumes: campaigns like "The Perfect Pour" generated over 6 million views by embracing absurdity (drinking beer out of footballs, dropping it from 50 feet up), while strategic partnerships with emerging influencers like Olivia Kaiser and 6lair have delivered massive reach for clients willing to trust the process.
But Myriah's real influence lies in proving that data-backed risk-taking works, showing other independents that "unhinged marketing" isn't reckless when it's rooted in cultural intelligence and genuine audience understanding. This approach has shifted conversations throughout the indie community. Agencies are increasingly asking not "Will this work?" but "Are we brave enough to try?" Myriah has shown that staying ahead of the cultural curve is both good strategy and survival in an industry where the boldest moves often yield the biggest rewards.
