I prefer to describe myself as a "weird hybrid of things," bent on putting a dent in the marketing universe. It's probably easier to just say that I'm a strategist and creative problem solver with broad experience in digital, design, advertising, and retail/shopper marketing.
Previously, I served as the head of strategy at Colle+McVoy, and before that, space150. At both places, I led agency teams and clients to re-imagine the way they think about defining brands and connecting with people through a strategic process that blends product design methodologies, agile software development techniques, and classic brand strategy tools.
In between those jobs, I co-founded Thinkers & Makers—an innovation and growth consultancy that harnessed anthropology, strategy and design to inspire and inform various projects for 3M, General Mills, MillerCoors, The Lunch Box Project and a few top agencies who would rather I didn't say their names or their clients names here.
Currently, I'm working independently with talented individuals (anthropologists, designers, writers, producers, developers, etc.) and organizations (agencies, clients and start-ups) who want to define and implement a new approach to how they build brands, and/or do things that have never been done before.
When it comes to marketing, I believe that we need to be doing things with and for people instead of to them. To make this a reality, I'm constantly exploring the intersection of business, creativity, culture and technology to find and execute new and inventive ways of helping brands matter more to people.
My core talents in this area stem from my ability to see connections between things that nobody else does and then use this vision to imagine and architect new possibilities. These talents include:
+ Finding new ways to package existing resources to drive incremental revenue and/or re-position a brand
+ Envisioning and designing experiences in both the analog and digital worlds that inspire people to tell stories about a brand
+ Helping organizations define their aspiration, purpose, values and beliefs, along with a strategic roadmap for key brand actions, so they can begin doing things that matter to people, instead of simply saying things to them
If you want to know more about my background and some of the nice things that other people have said about me, take a look at my bio or my LinkedIn profile.
Lastly, I always enjoy meeting new people. Especially if we're connected digitally but haven't met in person yet. If you ever visit Minneapolis, or see that I'm coming to your city, drop me a note to see about meeting-up. I won't think it's weird and if I can make it happen, I will.
