Hi, I’m Malena, an entrepreneur, writer, strategist, speaker and connector. I grow brands and community through my companies, Yay Dude Media and Marketing, and Chicks in Charge, a leadership and social club for women business managers and entrepreneurs and Yay on Broadway, a co-work and event space located in Downtown Edmond.

I’m a proud mother of three and have an amazing squad of like-minded girlfriends and a fun and supportive husband who makes life an even bigger adventure. Loves – coffee, wine, college football, nature, hiking, lake weekends and travel. Official bio below, but first, meet our fabulous Yay Dude Team! 

 

Bio highlights:

Malena Putnam is a multi-passionate CEO, brand strategist, marketer, podcaster, speaker, and author. A married mother of three, Malena hails from Western Oklahoma, where she learned to live with tornadoes and love football, and received a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Comm at the University of Oklahoma where she was an Alpha Chi Omega and McMahon Scholar. She has won numerous writing and advertising awards and was named 40 under 40 in OKC Biz.

In 2022, Malena was named Alpha Chi Omega Woman of the Year in Oklahoma City and a Woman of the Year nominee for the Journal Record’s 50 Women Making a Difference. She was also selected to speak at TedxUCO in the spring of 2023. You can watch her talk here.

Malena dreamed of writing books since she was a little girl, and she made that dream come true at 32. She’s written a dozen novellas and novellas including The Stork Reality, Fixer Upper, Dating da Vinci, Something New, Family Charms, and the novellas The Last Resort and Life’s a Beach. She also co-wrote Dance Mom Survival Guide with Jill Martin and wrote her first young adult novel, Twin Falls, under the pen name Lena Brown. She currently mostly writes captions for Instagram, and lots and lots of newsletter copy for Yay Dude and clients. Her podcast, The Coop Chicks in Charge Podcast can be found on your favorite podcast stream.