About the Author

Oh hey, that’s me! I’m Cynthia Ruff, the writer behind Darling Down South. I started blogging in 2014 as a way to exercise my love of writing and photography in *hopes* of being able to write for a major magazine. At the time when I started blogging, I was working in HR consulting living my 9-5 behind spreadsheets and conference calls. 

Fast forward to today, I am proudly a content creator full-time, a job my 20-year-old self would have been thrilled to be able to acknowledge as a career. I’m fortunate enough to have had many magazine features and opportunities to work with small and national brands. It’s been a dream to create content for so long and still love to do so. 

After a stint at retail (paused but not gone forever), having a digital marketing agency, and now co-owning Haus of South, a fine art print company with my friend Muriel, it’s safe to say that through content creation and my amazing audience that I’m able to continue to pursue creative endeavors. 

I now own an influencer marketing consulting firm where we help brands navigate the art and science of working with influencers by implementing time-saving solutions, pay frameworks, and helping you develop a strategy that is finely tuned for your burgeoning brand. I love working with tech startups and I currently teach young companies how to work with brands through my contribution to Create-X, a Georgia Tech (Go Jackets!) entrepreneurial incubator.