Story Above All Else
In a nutshell, I'm a weird artsy, outdoorsy, band nerd, that really digs impacting how humans think and feel when interacting with brands. It is the philosophical juice that I live on. And crafting meaningful stories that please and persuade is my game. The produced work varies wildly. Sometimes the outcome is a brand, a customer journey map, a UI design system, or video content direction. Since college I have written fiction as a hobby, another excuse to study story telling. I live my life in stories, and seek to in work them as well. In fact I didn’t study marketing or design in school, instead I gravitated towards psychology, pr, and social communication (In between lots of hours of playing in a folk band, sketching, painting murals, wilderness classes, and failing Latin). But that decision has made me darn good at helping brands connect to their customers in a meaningful, human way. The design training came later studying color theory, typography and HTML in order to create psychologically backed aesthetics.
One Central Truth: Betray Convention
The industry “norms” aren’t your friend.
I've spent about half my career in-house, and the other half in agencies across dozens of industries and verticals. I've learned this central truth. Big marketing usually misses the mark by simply forgetting how to be human themselves. I strive to cut out the fat of bloated campaigns, or half-baked branding strategies by seeing through the noise that every vertical struggles with from national brands, to small businesses. Extracting fresh and solid authenticity from the brand (and harnessing its' power of persuasion) is always the answer. Not the same old, same old in a different jacket.
To all the agencies I've loved before...
I’ve had the great honor to rebrand/reposition the last, and only two agencies I’ve worked for. Both were struggling to find their core purpose and meaning. I am extremely grateful to have influenced their brand impact by being a "mirror" with which to see themselves in. However after 6+ years it's time for a shift. Chock full of multi-vertical agency insights and trade secrets, I’m excited for the next chapter.
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