Every town needs a hip city guide run by a cool local.
Should that local be YOU?
YOUR CITY, YOUR FAVES, YOUR PUBLICATION.
City Living Network is a boutique white glove service that helps you build and launch your city guide with custom branding, launch content, and ongoing coaching.
You know the type.
They know about the new bakery before the bakery has a sign.
They settle the group chat's "Where should we eat?" debate like a supreme court.
They walk into the farmers market like it’s their actual birthday party.
They’re basically the unofficial town mayor.
SO WHY NOT TURN ALL THAT TALENT INTO AN ACTUAL, LEGIT, CITY GUIDE?
In 25+ towns across the US, that journey started with us.
But first,
what even IS a city guide?
A city guide is a local platform YOU own — a media publication, a social presence, a seat at the best tables in town. We build the foundation: the website, the branding, the content engine, and the playbook we've refined across 25+ launches.
Then YOU do the part we can't: you live there, you love there, and (most importantly) you show up All. Over. The. Place.
Your role is community. Ours is infrastructure.
And because there’s only ONE of your city. There’s also only ONE publisher per city. So… once your town's taken, it's like, taken taken.
(AND YES, we know this creates urgency. And NO, we didn't invent it for marketing. There's literally ONE Laguna Beach… unfortunately.)
P.S. This is NOT a job posting. OR a franchise. OR an influencer SIDE hustle... And nobody's asking you to dance on Reels. This is something YOU own. We JUST help you start it — and make it rad.
WE’VE BEEN AROUND THE BLOCK… literally.
city guides
launched
Laguna Beach, Maui, Boulder, Naples, Las Vegas, Destin, Dana Point, Denver, Prescott, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, La Mesa, etc.
25+
local businesses
featured
Real ones, with doors and owners and stories — like Surf and Sand in Laguna and Crepe Therapy Café in Boulder. (Keep browsin’ our guides. You’ll def find your new faves.)
400+
locals following our city guides
Actual humans who support small business, not bots from space and Brazil.
85,000+
WE MAKE IT EASY.
We hand you the website, branding, and playbook.
You make it your own.
Week one, you launch to your city.
Week two, you're at the farmers market, the gallery opening, the new restaurant. You’re making friends, getting content, creating buzz.
Week three, businesses notice and start reaching out.
By month three, you've got partnership offers, press trip invites, and a waiting list of people who want to be featured.
SO, WHO'S BEHIND THIS NIFTY LIL IDEA?Hi, I’m Lindsay & I accidentally invented this.
In 2019, I started Laguna Beach Living — a journalist with a laptop, a deep love for my tiny town of 23,000 peeps, and no grand plan beyond "someone should really be showcasing this stuff."
(Other than MTV and Lauren Conrad.)
Soon, my little blog started gaining traction.
The restaurants started saving me seats. The gallery openings sent invites.
During the pandemic, local kitchens like Summer's Table and Grazing Kitchen stayed in front of customers partly because my little-guide-who-could kept showing up for them.
Somewhere in there I stopped being "just a blogger" and became the person Laguna checks for WTF to do.
And then something unexpected happened.
Women in other towns started asking how I did it.
After explaining it enough times, I did the next most logical thing: turned it into a playbook, built the infrastructure, and started handing other women the (digital) keys to their cities.
That's City Living Network in a nutshell — founded in 2022, now 25+ towns strong.
And guess what? I still run Laguna Beach Living myself, and it’s still my absolute DREAM job. (If you can call it a job.)
Now, let’s talk about the actual city guides & the women behind them.
BECAUSE WHOA.
JAMIE FROM DESTIN, FLORIDA
Destin Snapshots
Photographer, military wife, mom of littles — Jamie sees Destin through a lens the tourism board can't fake.
Destin Snapshots is her visual love letter to the coast: the small businesses, the beach mornings, and the spots locals actually go when the visitors head home.
Est. 2024, and already the account Destin checks.
KAMA FROM MAUI, HAWAII
Maui Makai
When Kama features a local shop, Maui listens. Her love letters to Tutu's Pantry — the family-run local goods store — became some of Maui Makai's most-read stories.
When storms hit South Kīhei's small businesses, she rallied the island to go show up for them.
And her community markets? Local vendors line up for a table and they sell out.
Proof it works: local businesses she features report tourists at the door from all over the country who saw her features online and wanted to check it out firsthand.
AMY & GEMMA FROM NAPLES, FLORIDA
Naples Days
Two publishing-world friends turned Naples' most stylish mini media empire.
Naples Days spotted Books on Third before the ribbon was cut, told the founding story of The Azalea Golf Club (women's golf, revolutionized), and hosts its own holiday cocktail workshops with local businesses.
Polished? Extremely. Boring? Never.
And yes, they DO cruise around town in their branded Naples Days VW bus.
KIM FROM BOULDER, COLORADO
Locally Boulder
Kim introduced Boulder to Crepe Therapy Café — the new spot from James Beard-nominated chef Mawa McQueen — before it became the neighborhood obsession.
From telling Wabi-Sabi Pilates' one-year story to mapping every farmers market in the county, Locally Boulder is the love letter Boulder didn't know it needed.
FUN FACT: She had her launch party at a local farm and over 200+ people showed up, complete with alpacas and loads of other farm animals.
GETTIN’ CURIOUS?
Explore the steps from "I love my town" to "I am THEE account."
1. Raise your hand. Apply for your city. Only one publisher per town, so let’s get this rollin’, stat!
2. We hand over the digital keys. Aka: a fully built guide — website, branding, content, foundation. You skip two years of trial-and-error and trying to figure-it-all-out, blindly.
3. Show up majorly all around town. Coffee shops, grand openings, farmers markets. The fun part. Also the important part.
4. Create trust. Say yes to event invites. Business partnerships. Press trips. Become the recognizable name in town.
5. Monetize. Turn this into something that pays through sponsored features, partnerships, collaborations. Build trust first, revenue second. We’ll show you how, when you're ready.
NOT SURE WHERE TO START?Snoop around first.
(We would too.)
Our free playbook answers what you're actually wondering:
Is my town a fit? Am I? Do I have to be a legit journalist? What would this involve, week to week? Who are the other cities (and ladies!) in the Network?
And finally, how do city guides actually make money?
WANT MORE?
Browse even more of our cities.
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![A woman in a pink dress and black knee-high boots standing next to a white limousine, holding the door handle and smiling, with tall palm trees in the background.]()
Angela Christine from Las Vegas Parents Club
Vegas for people with car seats. Angela connects thousands of families to kid-friendly everything — and puts local parent-owned businesses like The Salted Sage and Kids Dream Land in front of the exact families looking for them.
Her anniversary parties draw vendors, creators, and half the moms in Summerlin.
In her words: "I've built something in my city that people actually trust."
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![Two women smiling on a boat, one wearing a straw hat and sunglasses, the other holding a glass of wine, with a cityscape and water in the background.]()
Kristin Augustine from Dana Point Days
Graphic designer Kristin gave Dana Point the guide it deserved — 50-item bucket lists, coverage of the Festival of the Whales' 55th year, and love letters to spots like Craft House and HŌM boutique.
Her anniversary giveaways pull in seven local businesses at a time, because in DP, everyone wants in on what Kristin's doing.
Highlighting the best of DP — one business at a time.
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![Smiling woman on the beach wearing a light blue cap and a grey t-shirt with 'DESTIN Florida' written on it.]()
Marissa McLaughlin of Carlsbad Days
Classy, coastal, Carlsbad — Marissa's guide went from launch to local fixture fast.
She threw the buzziest Mahjong night at Khara Collective, told the story of the Carlsbad Theatre's revival before anyone else, and ran an Endless Summer Giveaway that pulled some of Carlsbad’s favorite businesses into one beach day.
Est. 2025, and already the tab Carlsbad keeps open.
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![A woman with red hair wearing sunglasses, a coordinated patterned crop top and skirt, standing barefoot on a small platform near the ocean, smiling at the camera.]()
Lindsay DeLong from Laguna Beach Living
The original. Since 2019: restaurant openings, festival coverage, press trips, and a pandemic spent keeping local kitchens in front of their customers.
Every guide in the network is built on what this one figured out first.
Seven years in, still the account Laguna checks.
Someone’s Going to Become Your Town’s
GO-TO GUIDE
LET’S MAKE IT YOU!
FUTURE PUBLISHER resources
FEELIN’ LIKE A FIT? We’re a network of ladies all doing the same thing in our own towns. So there’s no competition, just collaboration!
If you’re curious what it looks like to build a city guide within the network, browse the links and book a free call with Lindsay.
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