Hello

How did your journey lead you to where you are today?

Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my artistic mother, learning to draw and embracing the creative process. I often helped her with tasks like cleaning paint brushes and learning the basics of how to draw and paint. I eventually turned this passion into a career in advertising, starting as a graphic designer at a small agency in Atlanta, where I found that I had a knack for pitching concept ideas and shaping brands. I thrived in this environment and as a result, I was promoted to Art Director, and I eventually found myself working on bigger accounts and national brands with several major advertising agencies in and around Atlanta.

 

My big break came when I was offered the position of Creative Director at the Pentland Group, a global sporting goods and apparel company. In this role, I oversaw the development of their brands for international advertising campaigns and leading the product design department. This opportunity allowed me to acquire valuable skills, such as understanding the manufacturing process, managing profit and loss, conducting negotiations, and analyzing financial statements. My work took me across Europe and Asia, collaborating with manufacturing partners and establishing new sales operations. Although I enjoyed my time at Pentland, the need to devote more time to my growing family ultimately prompted me to establish my own consulting business in Nashville, where I collaborated with local companies on developing their branding and advertising strategies.

 

After enjoying some much-needed time with my family, I joined Johnston & Murphy as Brand Manager. The company faced challenges in appealing to a younger demographic, as their product line primarily consisted of formal attire, which didn't cater to the rising trend of dress casual and casual workplace environments. My objective was to attract a younger audience and adapt the brand identity accordingly.

 

Eager to address this challenge, I initiated several comprehensive market research projects to develop consumer profiles, segmented by fashion preferences ranging from dress to casual. We used these insights to revitalize the brand identity, store design, product offerings, and catalog operations. This approach led to a significant turnaround in same-store sales and overall growth for the company.

 

While at Johnston & Murphy, the Vice President of Marketing moved on to the Schwan Food Company and invited me to join his team as Creative Director for the Home Service Division. Excited by the prospect of tackling new challenges in a different industry (food), I embraced the opportunity. My family and I relocated to Minnesota, where I started working on enhancing their catalog operations. I quickly identified numerous areas for improvement in the creative and production aspects of the catalogs, ultimately saving the company millions in marketing expenses. My accomplishments in this role led to a promotion to Category Director for their Ice Cream and Dessert operations, where I took on full P&L responsibility for multiple manufacturing plants and a wide range of products.

 

The obstacles in this role stemmed from a five-year sales decline in the category for Schwan’s, necessitating a fresh approach to stimulate growth. My team and I thoroughly examined all aspects of the category, focusing on optimizing underperforming products. Simultaneously, we introduced innovative, high-quality ice cream pints and "Dessert for One" products to capitalize on the trend towards individual unit sales in ice cream and desserts, as opposed to bulk sales. These strategic changes revitalized the category and increased EBITDA, resulting in a turnaround for the category.

 

This success drew the attention of senior management, who then invited me to join the consumer brands division and establish a new department as the Director of New Ventures. My mission was to develop a strategic plan for opening new distribution channels and ventures beyond our core grocery retail business. As this was a newly formed department, I assembled and led a team of eight highly skilled consumer marketers, working closely with external agencies to generate incremental sales and growth outside our primary business.

 

Together, we introduced innovative products, redesigned packaging, and secured a licensing agreement with Wolfgang Puck for All-Natural pizza and appetizers. These initiatives fueled first-year sales growth in new distribution channels such as Club Stores, All-Natural, and Dollar stores, exceeding our sales plan across all newly established trade channels.

 

My time at Schwan's was rewarding, but I decided to return to Nashville to be closer to my ailing father and joined VF Imagewear. My role was to develop a brand and market strategy for Red Kap, aimed at entering the retail channel and competing with established brands like Carhartt and Dickies. Despite 10 million daily wearers, Red Kap struggled with consumer identity and awareness.

 

Our goal was to create a brand identity that would drive consumer interest. We conducted thorough research, including ethnographies, surveys, and focus groups across several states. This brand positioning effort yielded high likability and purchase intent scores, surpassing our competitors.

 

To tackle Red Kap's low consumer awareness, we devised a comprehensive launch plan for the revitalized brand, including retail merchandising, packaging, digital, traditional, and social media advertising, all built around our "Done Right" campaign. This strategy generated substantial new sales in both industrial and reseller markets.

 

During the mortgage crisis, I felt like it was time for a change and joined Bath Fitter's leadership team to create a 5-year strategic growth plan and offer marketing guidance for their franchisees and company-owned stores. Bath Fitter specializes in one-day bathroom remodels, serving consumers directly.

 

I directed advertising, creative, and lead generation efforts. To better understand our prospects we conducted a thorough, data-driven analysis of new and existing trends and who were our competitors were in the space so we could expand our brand presence in the US and Canadian markets. Our key to success was consolidating ad budgets across all markets into a co-op advertising strategy, benefiting both company-owned and franchise locations. We focused on targeted direct response mail, digital, social and TV advertising campaigns tailored to segmented prospects that brought together all locations under one brand. Our efforts led to the successful sale of the company to an equity investment company in Montreal.

 

Following my time at Bathfitter, a former executive with The Schwan Food Company asked me to join Nitta Casings as their Director of Product Management. Nitta is a international food ingredient manufacturer that specializes in collagen and collagen casing products. I oversaw the P&L for the plant and product line, but the company wasn't making much profit. I quickly spotted four areas that needed attention:

1. Streamlining the product portfolio to boost efficiency and profitability at the plant.

2. Consolidating sales distributors based on volume and price discounts.

3. Introduced a new product category for the large European hot dog market.

4. Established a joint venture in China to produce and sell collagen casing in the Chinese market.

I decided to keep my home in Nashville while working with Nitta, as most of my time would be spent traveling abroad. We achieved all our goals and built a profitable, successful operation. Eventually, my friend retired from Nitta, and I decided that I wanted a new challenge and decided to pivot my career from consumer products to the healthcare sector and joined Onlife Health as their Director of Marketing here in Nashville.

 

In the healthcare sector, there has been a longstanding interest in incorporating consumer models to enhance patient satisfaction. Working with Onlife Health presented an opportunity for me to apply my skills and experience to help grow their business and better serve their 11 million members. My objective was to drive growth by revamping communications, boosting member engagement, and devising strategic and operational plans that would significantly improve lead acquisition.

 

We focused on refining our content strategy, strategic planning, member activation, advertising, and public relations for health plan, employer, and broker/consultant segments. We were able to create a substantial increase in revenue opportunities. 

 

After Onlife Health was acquired by a large insurance company, I sought a new opportunity and found it with HCA Healthcare, one of the nation's leading hospital systems. They brought me on as a consultant to bolster their brand planning initiatives and facilitate local expansion. I worked with a team to develop strategies to improve brand communication, utilizing marketing insights to collaborate with various teams throughout the organization. We refined communications, brand development, tone, and messaging guidance. We used this work to shape brand strategies for local markets within HCA's system architecture, tailoring positioning approaches for physicians and payors to broaden HCA's brand reach and influence. 

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Accolade hired me to capitalize on cross-selling and upselling opportunities within their existing B2B segments and channels. Accolade provides personalized healthcare services, such as virtual primary care, navigation solutions, and second opinions to large employers and health plans. I conducted market analysis and created communication campaigns, collaborating with sales and customer success teams to integrate Salesforce CRM and Pardot into a robust marketing automation platform. I developed omni-channel communications for health plans and employer markets, leveraging data, events, webinars, social media, and digital advertising to create engaging experiences.

 

Accolade was a thriving company with great potential, but an intriguing opportunity arose with a new joint venture startup, Hydrogen Health and they offered me an exciting role as their Head of Growth Marketing. Hydrogen Health is an innovative virtual primary clinic utilizing AI technology in new clinical care models. We want to focus on driving growth in the B2B employer business segment, broker/consultant relationships, and health plans. We are in the process of developing omni-channel communication campaigns that leveraging events, webinars, social media, and digital advertising that is guiding our brand to new heights.

 

I am incredibly grateful for the rich tapestry of experiences in my life and the privilege of knowing and working alongside so many talented and gifted individuals. Reflecting on my journey that began as a nine-year-old child, nurtured by my mother's love and her passion to share a piece of herself with me, I feel a deep sense of responsibility to continue that legacy. I enjoy meeting new people and collaborating together so we can learn from each others experience. It is in these moments of mutual growth and understanding that I find the greatest satisfaction and reward.

 

When did you realize you had a natural talent for this line of work? 

I have always been drawn to creative ideas and creative work. I have had the benefit of working with talented people who taught me a great deal about business and financial operations. Once I was able to combine the creative talent (I naturally had) with great mentoring in business operations, I developed good instincts in business to be see and dissect problems and develop solutions. More importantly I have the experience to execute on those solutions. This was fully realized when I ran New Ventures for Schwan’s

 

Why are you passionate about what you do? 

I love to work at something meaningful. What I mean by that, is at this stage of my career I am not necessarily chasing title or money (however those are very important) I want to work at something that will create value in my life and the live of those we serve. What really gets my attention is when you ask me that we want to go in a new direction or open a new market. I want to grow something. Whether it be dollars or market size and I am most fulfilled and passionate when I am in position to take on a market challenge, overcome the obstacles and achieve the goal.

What would your colleagues/customers say is your greatest strength or most noteworthy personal trait? 

That I am a good listener. I believe (and been taught) that to be good at marketing you have to be good a hearing what consumers and clients are telling you. Not everything they say is what you want to hear, but if you’re willing to put yourself out amongst them and ask questions that are meaningful you will be rewarded. Consumers/clients will tell you what is important to them and what is not. It is then our job to apply that to our business and serve the customer well. We cannot be afraid to see what is behind the curtain, it may be an insight that your competitor is unwilling to see or admit, and then we can take advantage.

 

What have you consistently excelled at? 

Any kind of creative work is something I am drawn to and have always excelled at doing. This could include the actual creation/design of brand identity elements or working within a team to creatively come up with solutions. I am always asking myself “what else can I do”. People like to work with me because I am always actively working towards a solution and have fun doing it. This goes back to my days as an Art Director. I worked in an environment that was always packed with pressure whether it be a deadline or a creative block. We worked together bouncing ideas around and nothing got stymied. It was like grinding iron to a razors edge. I loved the process, the frustration and the triumph because at the end you could look back and say, “we did that!”

 

How do others at work introduce you, and what gap would your company face if you suddenly left? 

I am usually introduced as the idea guy. I love to kick around ideas and look for new ways of doing things. I manage a lot of conflict at times between departments because marketing intersects with so many areas of the business (i.e sales, operations, finance). I want people to get along but that is not the most important thing, keeping everyone focused on our OGST’s (i.e. Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Tactics)  is what will deliver results and results are the only thing is business that will get rewarded.