I set out to teach history. I ended up telling brands' stories instead.

It started with history.

I went to school to become a history teacher. I'd always been told I was a good storyteller, and I loved the idea of teaching kids history the way it deserves to be told, as a story worth caring about. When the realities of that career path set in, someone pointed out that an imaginative person who could tell a story might belong in marketing. I found one of the only Master's programs in digital marketing in the country at the time and finished it as one of the first hundred people in the U.S. to hold the degree.

My first job out of school was at an agency, and it was the best thing that could have happened to me. Juggling clients across wildly different industries taught me early that there is no universal marketing playbook: every brand, every product, every audience carries its own problem to solve. That became the through-line of my entire career: finding the creative, specific solution that sets a brand apart from everyone else.

That old marketing truth still holds. My job is knowing what hole your customer is actually trying to make, and telling that story better than anyone else in the room.

Building things to last is an act of rebellion.

My grandfather and great-grandfather built the house I grew up in with their own hands, a wedding gift that went on to shelter three generations of my family. I was the third to live there and the second to be raised there. As a kid I didn't grasp what that meant. I do now: kept up with care, a thing built well can endure long enough to hold a lifetime of memories.

In a world that's grown so disposable, building something meant to last is a quiet act of rebellion, and that's exactly how I approach brands. The norm today is to chase the quick gain and deal with the consequences later. I'd rather build a brand that endures through the good years and the bad ones. Call it rebel marketing.

My job isn't to manage people. It's to make them better.

Leading a team of twelve at Alien Gear, I landed on a management style that came naturally: teach, and give people room to grow. If I could teach someone to be better at their job, I did. If I couldn't, I got them the tools and the opportunities to learn it themselves. And I gave them the freedom to try their own ideas, because no one grows if they're never trusted to shape a strategy, run with it, and learn from how it lands.

I also learned to pay attention to the whole person, not just the work. People carry things from outside the office, and a manager who notices, and steps in when someone is struggling, earns a team's trust in a way no perk ever will.

One hire stays with me. A young man applied for a social media role with no formal experience and no marketing background, but I could see he was desperate for a shot to prove what he could do. I hired him against others' advice. He absorbed everything, outworked everyone, and made himself invaluable within a year. Today he's a managing partner at a respected agency, and now he teaches me things.

Different brands, different problems, same job.

The road runs from that first agency to building Alien Gear Holsters into the #1 brand in its category and a $100M exit; through growth leadership at Lights Lacquer and a global contract for Blume; to running performance marketing, and two separate brands, as VP at Francesca's and Richer-Poorer; and most recently, rebuilding it in-house as Director of Performance Marketing at Kirkland's. The industries changed. The job never did: the right message, to the right audience, for a brand worth building.

See the work →

Everyone is more than their career.

Beyond the work, I'm a husband, a writer, a podcaster, a lifelong (and long-suffering) hockey fan, and a forever student of history, the thing that started all of this in the first place.

I'm looking for my next problem to solve.

After sixteen years, what still gets me out of bed is the same thing that did at that first agency: a brand with a real problem and no obvious answer. I'm looking for a senior role where I can build something durable: the right message, the right audience, and a team worth leading. If that's what you're building, let's talk.