Okay, this one is just a funny story.

But if you’ve made it this far you should check it out. As part of a freelance gig I wound up as the interim social media manager for DiMillo’s on the Water, a seafood restaurant located on a permanently-docked boat in Portland, Maine. It wasn’t anything complicated. They wanted me to post about their specials and any important updates. Keep it simple, don’t rock the literal boat. Nothing wrong with that.

On April Fool’s Day 2025 I was talking with the account manager for DiMillo’s and we started riffing on what an April Fool’s Day post would look like for them. Again, it was already April Fool’s Day when we had this conversation. Anything we actually wanted to post would have to have been approved months ago. Still, the passion shines through in our old slack DMs.

“What if we made a post about how now they’re DiMillo’s on the LAND? Like, we got tired of the water, now DiMillo’s is moving to the LAND.”

“hahahahaha”

“Shit that’s actually really funny. We should do that”

I wrote post copy in ten minutes. Our designer whipped up an image of their boat shipwrecked in the desert in twenty. We sent the client a copy of the post at noon and it was live on instagram by one—they loved it. Even though we didn’t plan anything, it wound up as their best-performing post that year.

So why am I devoting crucial portfolio space to this? An April Fool’s instagram post for a restaurant in a state I’ve never been to? Because it represents everything I like about work. I goofed around with my team, put a little work into an idea I was passionate about, and went to market with someone nobody expected.

DiMillo’s on the Land! It still makes me laugh!