Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Martin-Howell.
Hi Jessica, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Cabana Club Haus started after I found myself in a new community and wanted to genuinely get to know the women building businesses, creating brands, and shaping the community around me.
I’ve spent my career in marketing, storytelling, and community building, and I kept coming back to the same thought: there are so many incredible women here doing really interesting things, but unless you already know them, how do you find them? How do you hear their stories, support what they’re building, or even know they’re right down the road?
That idea became Cabana Club Haus, a media and community platform centered around the female founders, creatives, entrepreneurs, and women-owned businesses of 30A and the Emerald Coast.
What started as a way to tell those stories has quickly grown into something much bigger. Through our magazine, founder and business features, events, partnerships, and digital content, we’re creating more opportunities for women to be seen, but just as importantly, to find and support one another.
Because at the heart of Cabana Club Haus is a really simple belief: cool women support women.
The best communities aren’t built by everyone staying in their own lane. They’re built through collaboration—by knowing the woman who owns the shop down the street, discovering the founder behind a brand you love, showing up to someone else’s event, making an introduction, sharing someone’s work, or choosing to spend your money with a woman-owned business because now you know the person and the story behind it.
That’s what I want Cabana Club Haus to create here. I want women to know the female founders in their community. I want someone to discover a business through a feature and become a customer, or meet another founder at one of our events and end up collaborating six months later. I want the women doing cool things on the Emerald Coast to know each other, root for each other, and build alongside each other.
Because when women know one another, they can support one another—and that’s how really strong communities are built.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I wouldn’t say it’s been a completely smooth road, but I also think that’s part of building something from the ground up.
One of the biggest challenges has been launching Cabana Club Haus while I’m still relatively new to the Emerald Coast myself. I didn’t come into this with years of connections or an established network here. In a lot of ways, I’ve been building the community while also becoming part of it—meeting women, learning about their businesses, understanding what already exists here, and figuring out where Cabana can add something meaningful rather than simply adding more noise.
There’s also the challenge that comes with any new concept: getting people to understand the vision before they can fully see it. Cabana Club Haus isn’t just a magazine, an Instagram account, or an events company. We’re building a media platform and community where those pieces work together to help women discover, connect with, and support one another.
But that challenge has also been one of my favorite parts. Every introduction seems to lead to another incredible woman, another business I didn’t know existed, or another opportunity to collaborate. It has reinforced exactly why I wanted to create Cabana in the first place.
We’re building it intentionally and allowing it to grow alongside the women it was created for. I’d rather build something rooted in genuine relationships and collaboration than rush to make it look bigger than it is. The goal has never been to simply grow an audience, it’s to build a community that actually knows and supports each other.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Cabana Club Haus is a media and community platform created to spotlight the female founders, creatives, entrepreneurs, and women-owned businesses shaping 30A and the Emerald Coast. At its core, we’re about storytelling and connection—helping people discover the women behind the businesses they already love and introducing them to ones they haven’t found yet.
A big part of what makes Cabana different is my background. Before launching Cabana Club Haus, I built ELEVATE x Marketing, an award-winning creative and marketing firm specializing in branding, websites, digital marketing, and creative strategy. I’ve spent years helping businesses figure out not only how they should look, but how they should position themselves, tell their story, reach the right people, and build a brand that people actually want to be part of.
That experience is woven into everything we do at Cabana. We don’t approach our magazine, social content, partnerships, or events as separate pieces. We think about the entire brand experience—how a founder’s story is told, how a business is visually represented, how people discover it, and ultimately how we can turn that visibility into real connection.
Through Cabana, we’re building an editorial magazine, founder and business features, a growing local business directory, digital content, brand partnerships, and intimate community experiences that bring women together in person. We want to create opportunities for local businesses to get in front of the right audience while still keeping everything highly curated, personal, and true to the Cabana brand.
Brand-wise, that’s probably what I’m most proud of. Cabana has a very distinct point of view. It’s coastal without feeling overly beachy, feminine without being overly girly, and elevated while still feeling approachable and fun. I wanted it to feel like something women genuinely wanted to read, attend, share, and be associated with—not another traditional networking organization or local publication.
Ultimately, I think my marketing background and love of community are what set Cabana apart. I know the power that visibility, positioning, and storytelling can have for a business, but I also know that some of the best opportunities happen because someone simply knows your name, understands what you do, and thinks of you when an opportunity comes up.
That’s what we’re building: a brand that makes it easier to know the women behind the Emerald Coast—and gives those women more ways to know, support, collaborate with, and champion one another. Because cool women support women, and strong communities are built when we actually know who we’re building alongside.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that nothing takes the place of community.
You can have the best branding, the strongest marketing strategy, a beautiful website, and a great product, but relationships are what create longevity. The people who mention your name when you’re not in the room, make the introduction, show up to your event, share your work, become your customer, or simply encourage you to keep going are invaluable.
I’ve seen that throughout every stage of my career. The biggest opportunities haven’t always come from the perfectly planned campaign; so many have come from genuine relationships and people choosing to support one another.
Moving to a new community made that lesson even more apparent. It’s easy to focus on followers, reach, and numbers, especially when you work in marketing, but those things will never replace actually knowing people. That realization is a huge part of why I created Cabana Club Haus.
Community isn’t something you build around a business after the fact. It can be the foundation of the business. When women know each other, they can recommend each other, hire each other, collaborate, open doors, and celebrate each other’s wins. There really is no marketing strategy that can replicate the power of genuine connection.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cabanaclubhaus.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cabanaclubhaus
