
Summers McKay
Entrepreneur, Author and Educator
Summers McKay is the CEO of The Optimist Daily, a news publisher that uses a multimedia approach to offer formulas for success to its audiences, which spans over 250,000 active, engaged, Optimists every week. The Optimist Daily aims to create an optimistic, mobilized, and solutions focused global society, making the world a healthier place for all.
Summers has been building successful, DO GOOD DO WELL, businesses for over twenty years. A U.C. Berkeley grad with an MBA from UCLA Anderson, Summers brings a unique set of skills from both her robust education and intense practical experience creating brands, running companies, and leading innovative teams.
As the CEO of The Optimist Daily, Summers is responsible for overseeing audience growth and expansion. Summers led the relaunch of OptimistDaily.com, which has successfully garnered over 150,000 visits per month, over 80,000 users on Facebook, and a highly engaged daily mailing list of over 32,000 subscribers with industry busting Open and Click Through Rates on over 160,000 emails sent weekly. Summers has managed to increase site traffic by over 500%.
Summers has run successful crowdfunding campaigns, launched global brands, and continues to lead personal development groups, and create strategic plans for nonprofit and for profit organizations. She is a contributing writer, podcast host and the author Running With Kenyans. She is determined to apply lucrative and scalable business rigor to the world of doing good.
In addition to offering her expertise to her fellow entrepreneurs at Noospheric, Summers ran her own company, Love Summers Company, LLC. Love Summers Company was a sexual health and intimate wellness company focused on creating natural intimate care products and sex life enhancing apps. Her company won the 2015 Audience Choice Award at the Silicon Beach Fest Startup Pitch for their app concept, the Make Love More App. The company’s product line was led by an organic allover body lubricant called Coconut Allover Lube, and the podcast series LOVEGASM.
Prior to joining The Optimist Daily, Summers served as Chairman of Santa Barbara Entrepreneur, where she led strategic masterminds and executive development groups including Santa Barbara Entrepreneur Advantage, and served as Executive in Residence at Noospheric. She founded UCLA Anderson EDGE, offering rigorous business education to graduate and undergraduate students. A lecturer for UCLA Anderson, and instructor for UCLA Extension, Summers offers her clients and students a rigorous and tactical path to growth.
Summers business, motherhood, and life mantra is simple – Help good things grow.