HELLO THERE, NICE TO MEET YOU.
I’M a right-brained creative director sharing headspace
with a left-brained strategy nerd.
A STRANGEly successful co-op between a messy, carefree artist and a blue-print demanding engineer.
(I KNOW, IT’S WEIRD.)
FREUD MIGHT SAY IT STEMS FROM MY UPBRINGING AS…
“A MIDDLE-CLASS, ONLY CHILD WHO MADE UP FOR HIS LACK OF SIBLINGS AND DISPOSABLE INCOME WITH A SURPLUS OF IMAGINATION AND CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS.”
IT DOESN’T HURT THAT
I’ve always been CURIOUS AF.
SO, WHAT’S ALL THIS TAUGHT ME?
THE SOLUTION ISN’T ALWAYS AN AD
AS ECD OF OGILVY SYDNEY, I WAS TOLD NOT TO MESS WITH COKE’S PACKAGING, BUT WHEN KIDS IN AUSTRALIA CONFESSED TO GIVING UP ON THE PRODUCT, I ASKED OUR CLIENT, “WHAT IF WE TOOK YOUR NAME OFF AND PUT THEIR NAMES ON?”
And thus was born the iconic Share a Coke campaign that has expanded to over 80 countries and thousands and thousands of names. Impossibly, there are still some people who complain about not being able to find their names. If you are one of them, you have my sincere apology.
WE’RE FREE TO WRITE OUR OWN GROWTH PLAN
WHEN I WANTED TO
LEARN MORE ABOUT FILMMAKING, I USED
MY SUMMER VACATION
TO WRITE, DIRECT AND PRODUCE AN INDIE
FEATURE FILM.
Made for less than the cost of a :30 second commercial, it was
picked up by Viacom and is still available for streaming.
WHEN YOU FUCK AROUND, YOU FIND OUT
CURIOUS ABOUT THE BLOCKCHAIN, I CO-CREATED A STORY-BASED WEB3 PROJECT THAT GENERATED $2.4M IN REVENUE AND RELEASED A SERIES OF 12 COMIC BOOKS.
Beyond web3, I learned a lot about managing a community, along with an international team of artists — a lead character artist in Florida, a comic book artist in Brazil, a colorist in Italy, and a letterer in God knows where.
MENTORSHIP CAN TAKE MANY FORMS
IN-BETWEEN GIGS, MY CREATIVE PARTNER AND I DECIDED TO GIVE BACK (AND LEARN MORE ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA) BY SHARING WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT CREATIVITY ON INSTAGRAM.
We grew the account organically to 40K+ followers before turning in our wannabe influencer badges and getting off that IG grind.
THINGS I BELIEVE
EVERYTHING TALKS
There are no unimportant communications: everything you do as a brand says something.
EMBRACE CONSTRAINTS
Every assignment has constraints. Embrace them and learn to use them to your advantage.
HIRE DUAL-THREATS
Today’s competitive environment means finding people with multiple high-value skillsets.
THE MAGIC OF COMMUNITY
Ask how can my product or service help build a new/better/stronger community of fans?
UNDER PROMISE
Then over deliver. Approaching work any other way makes it nearly impossible to succeed.
LEVERAGE SURPRISE
When you surprise someone, you subvert expectations and help the message stick.
MANAGE LIKE A COACH
This simple shift in framing did more to improve my leadership skills than any book.
F*CK JARGON
It makes you sound like a cross-functional marketing dork. We can circle-back if you disagree.