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My business website is under construction. And like most construction projects, it is taking longer than everyone would have guessed.

Until then, see the below about me and what I do.


Considering
hiring me?

Let’s make sure I’m a good fit.
I may not be.

To find out, let’s walk through
some common criteria…


THE BASICS:

  • I’ve been doing this for 13 years now.

    I’ve won awards, raised VC funding, launched products, built CRM systems, made content hubs, TV commercials and 360 campaigns.

    I published a book about strategy and write a newsletter read on every continent but one.

    I’ve taught at Miami Ad School, been a speaker at conferences, bootcamps, podcasts, and universities.

    There’s a lot I’m not good at, but strategy work is what I’ve spent the majority of my adult life practicing.

  • L.L.Bean | Upwork | Pacifico | Poppi | VICE | Day One Agency | DEPT. | eharmony | SID LEE | Dos Equis | STINK | Smirnoff Vodka | Cazadores Tequila | Showtime | Dole | Aleve | Bushmills Whiskey | asics | Indeed | Park MGM | ANA | Suave | YouTube | Google | Unilever | Walmart | T-Mobile.

    For Bushmills, I was part of the three person team (account, strategy, creative) that won a pitch for a single TVC, and turned it into an AOR relationship. We did so by challenging the client and showing that we cared about the brand more than retaining the business.

    From there, we not only made a TV spot, but created a music tour across the US, repositioned the brand and built a portfolio strategy to manage their product range. Oh and we re-did their packaging.

    For Indeed, I led strategy for what would become Virtue’s biggest piece of business to date by far. We won the pitch through stellar creative – all based off the strategy that reframed Recruiters from “sales people” to the “antidote to nepotism.” The casting directors that make the world around us.

    For Cazadores, I found a way to reconcile their two audiences; the second generation Mexican American who wanted to feel more “American” and the gringo wanting to find something “Authentically Mexican”

    Through the lens of “small town tequila, Cazadores was able to be both things at once without bifurcating its message.

    For Smirnoff, I helped launch their new flavor profiles in the UK, as well as created a global digital strategy where our KPI was Merch prices on eBay.

    ~

    Want to see some full decks? Contact me and I can share something relevant to what you’re looking for.

  • I typically operate on a day rate, which is $1,800, or an hourly of $300.

    Why publish this? I’m an advocate for transparency and I’ve never been great at negotiating. Feels like an adversarial way to start a working relationship.

    If you’d prefer a project fee, or are launching a business and can’t afford this, I’d still love to talk.

Re; BRAND STRATEGY

  • There is more to success than advertising. Like, a lot more.

    And there are lots of ways to go about it. Everyone has a framework. Trust me, I collect them.

    But through a combination of theory and practice (praxis!) I have found some mix of the below philosophies are most influential over my approach.

    I tend to mix three philosophies;

    • Roger Martin’s POV on selecting where you play.

    • Rumelt’s framework around diagnosis and a guiding policy

    • Bob deWit’s Strategic Synthesis.

    Happy to talk at length about any of the above. I love that shit.

  • I have a work-flow for this that can make the initial stage of getting groups on the same page quickly.

  • Helping guide/inform business decisions based on the market, the category and by diving deeper into root causes vs the easier to identify symptoms

  • Especially relevant if you have multiple SKUs or product lines. There are a lot of snake oil salespeople who deal in this currency – This will not be a “brand purpose” exercise.

  • No one situation is exactly like another. Let’s just start with the diagnosis.

SELECT PAST EXPERIENCE