I’m extremely excited to announce the news of my acquisition of ARPR and what it can mean, not only for me, but also, for founder Anna Ruth and for the incredible team – many of whom have been at the agency for 5+ years. ARPR is built on two tenets: 1) thinking about its people first and... Continue Reading →
Grit & Vision
The last year+ has been somewhat of a blur for me and I'm sure for a number of you as the pandemic continued to shift our work styles and lifestyle norms. For me, it was also a year of hard work, reflection, and ultimately change (I left my last company to take a sabbatical). I'm... Continue Reading →
COVID-19 – Impact on Corporate/Office Culture
My wonderful mother-in-law recently shared an article with me from The Atlantic called "Never Go Back to the Office:- The coronavirus killed corporate culture. Get used to working from home". The article talks about significant changes to corporate culture as a result of COVID-19 and focuses on the reality that most businesses that don't "have to" won't want to re-open offices anytime soon and probably shouldn't. I agree with the article in general, but it got me thinking about the actual impact an office has in developing cultures, habits, and tools/mechanisms for ideation and collaboration and how that influences how work is done. Office culture and the way we collaborate is often the reason why a company operates in specific ways and are often the tools/process and unsaid rules of how work is produced and how talent is nurtured. So when this environment is stripped away quickly, can the people, culture, and work output adapt quickly enough and compensate? Every company is different and some will adapt better than others. But beyond the company is always the people and how they interact, communicate, generate solutions and ideas. We are largely a social society and we often best convey ideas and stories best face to face. This is how we are taught by our parents, how we interact with our friends, training by our schools and universities, and how most companies (not all) conduct work pre-covid-19. Are we recognizing how different this is for some, but more importantly, as companies are we helping folks adapt quickly enough so we can get the same level of thinking and output from our people before the environment moved from the office to work from home (WFH)?
Three Year Journey
It's been a while since I last posted a blog, and for good reason; I've had my head down helping build an agency that's sought after! On 4/2/2019, we announced the acquisition of BrightWave to Ansira. I joined the BrightWave family 3 years ago (4/18/2016), and it's been a surprisingly thrilling ride with an unbelievable... Continue Reading →
Podcast on what works and doesn’t in Digital Marketing
My good friend Adam Walker (Co-founder of 48in48 and Sideways8) recently asked me to talk about what works and doesn't in Digital marketing on his latest Podcast series "Good People, Good Marketing". You can check out the Podcast and transcript here. Episode 57 – Don’t follow the digital marketing crowd. In this Podcast, I talk about what... Continue Reading →
Podcast on How Technology Enables the Art of Marketing
I was honored to contribute to a new podcast series by Emarsys. Lindsay Tjepkema (Head of Content @ Emarsys) and I talked about the fundamentals of marketing and how technology can enable but not replace the skills and knowledge of marketers. We also talked about where I think email is going in the future and... Continue Reading →
Office Buildout – It never gets old for me
I just completed the buildout of BrightWave's new office in the heart of Buckhead (Tower Place 100, Suite 400, Atlanta, GA). It's a phenomenal space that I'm extremely proud of, and I hope the team, our clients, vendors, and BW friends & family will enjoy using for many years to come. This is technically my... Continue Reading →
Bucket List Interview question
I recently heard the tail-end of an interview on Sirius Radio (no idea who it was) about candidate application questionnaires when interviewing for jobs. One of the questions asked was so telling on what really motivates a potential employee. That question was simply, "what's on your bucket list?". If you are unfamiliar with bucket lists,... Continue Reading →
Staying focused and organized in leadership positions
Over the past several years I've developed, borrowed, learnt from others, and adapted techniques I use to keep myself focused and organized in leadership positions. There is nothing earth shattering about these techniques, but I've found that when I give this advice to friends and colleagues they find it very valuable. So I figured I'd share... Continue Reading →
BrightWave @ 48in48
What brought 17 rockstar BrightWave employees to donate their weekend (48 hours) in-order to build over 57 email templates for 48 local Atlanta non-profits? Several weeks ago I rebooted a program at BrightWave called "Day of Awesomeness", which was originally created by Simms Jenkins (Founder of BrightWave) to encourage employees to spend time on non-billable projects that would... Continue Reading →
BrightWave, A New Journey Begins
Last week I started a new and exciting chapter in my career by joining BrightWave as President. I've known Simms Jenkins (Founder) for many years and have watched his agency grow over the years. BrightWave has one of the best reputations in the industry, specifically known for ground breaking work within Email and CRM marketing, which... Continue Reading →
Innovate for the Inevitability
I don't consider myself a futurist, however I do enjoy thinking, learning, and discovering about new possibilities that will fundamentally change the fabric of society and our day to day lives. Elon Musk famously talked about "Accelerating the Inevitable" as a reason he set-out to create Tesla and SpaceX. For Musk, he believed Electric Vehicles (EV)... Continue Reading →
How my Executive MBA recharged my career
The past 28 months have been the most stressful and exhilarating period of my professional and personal life. In that time, we sold Enguage to Publicis Group, I embarked on an Executive MBA (at Georgia State University), while also merging Engauge and Moxie, and then became the CEO of BLiNQ Media (formally part of Gannett Ventures),... Continue Reading →
Take a Sabbatical – It will change your life
I just returned home after a 17 week family RV trip across Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest with my wife, Tovah, our two kids, Nina and London, and our two dogs, Stella and Chai. Read about the trip on Tovah's Blog. It's odd to be back and tough to get back into a "normal" routine. But, I'm... Continue Reading →
Over our half way point and leaving Canada
I've been MIA on this blog for some time, mainly because I've been exhausted from the days' events and the last thing I wanted to do was open the laptop and write. Don't get me wrong, we've had downtime and some nice quiet evenings, but the way I've preferred to spend that time is in front... Continue Reading →
One month on the road and a new Jeep!
I'm in Missoula, MT as I write this post; it's been a month since we left Atlanta on our adventure with our two kids (Nina & London) and our two dogs (Stella & Chai). My wife, Tovah, has been doing an amazing job writing about every segment of our trip on her blog (www.gypsyspirit.net) and... Continue Reading →
Yes, we bought a 38 foot RV for a epic trip across the NW and Canada
Eight weeks ago l parted ways from my corporate gig as CEO of BLiNQ Media and have been planning an epic summer trip with my family. My wife (Tovah) and I decided we wanted to see some of the great National Parks in the Northwest US as well as Western Canada (Alberta and British Columbia).... Continue Reading →
Goodbye Promenade Building
Yesterday was my last day as CEO of BLiNQ as we moved forward with the merger of PointRoll, Shoplocal, and BLiNQ Media. I fully support this move as I believe it will make all three companies much stronger in the market place as a combined company and properly leveraging the strong content and data assets owned by... Continue Reading →
The Idea and a great product before anything else.
A colleague of mine at BLiNQ Media, Zack Adams shared a series of lectures by Sam Altman called "How to Start a Startup". The first lecture (video below) provides some great insights for anyone considering starting up a company or part of a company that operates like a start-up (Like BLiNQ). Sam's lecture on the... Continue Reading →
If you want to change the world
Some friends shared a post on Facebook about a commencement speech by Naval Admiral William H. McRaven at University of Texas (Austin 2014). I just watched the video on Youtube and it's inspirational and humbling. The video is a little over 19 minutes, but worth taking the time to watch. Great speech, hope you enjoy.... Continue Reading →