I have often been described with the following words: Contrarian, Enigma, Change Agent, Non-Traditional, Thought Leader and Entrepreneur to list a few of the polite ones. Honestly I just think of myself as an ADHD, GenXer with a ravenous thirst for information and a healthy addiction to the Internet. This comes in handy with my role at Waggener Edstrom in the Studio D group as their Digital Consulting Director.
I’ve been focused professionally on social media technologies and communications for the last 5 years. However I’ve been an active student and participant since college.
I received my BA in Communications from Boise State University in ’97 where I studied, what was then called, Computer Mediated Communications. I later received my MBA from Boise State in ’08. (Go Broncos!)
From 2007-2009 I worked at Hewlett-Packard where I was fortunate enough to managed both internal and external social media initiatives. This was a huge opportunity for me to put things into practice that most people only talked about.
Staying true to my enigmatic label, while I have “a job” I still consider myself an entrepreneur. I have been a serial entrepreneur in the most diverse definition of the term. Among other things, I was a mountain bike tour guide, owned a skateboard shop in Las Vegas, was a partner at a, now dead-pooled, small marketing agency in Boise, started a DOA Web business and have been a marketing consultant.
I founded the TechBoise blog in 2007 and built one heck of a tech community in Boise over the next several years. I was also a founding member of both Boise’s downtown incubator, The WaterCooler, and IgniteBoise.
All of this involvement in Boise’s startup tech scene lead me to have the opportunity to serve as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence, focused on social media, for Highway 12 Ventures form 2008-2009.
I currently live in the Seattle area and have managed to stay happily married to my eternally patient wife Jen who does most of the heavy lifting with our 3 children.
All I really want to do is make good stuff; stuff that leads, stuff that births “new” stuff, stuff that resonates. I have worked my tail off to stay on this path and I assist my fellow passionate travelers who seek to do the same. Creating and identifying opportunities are my tasks. My process is simple; I read between the lines, stay open to all ideas, and listen very deeply.
After working at a handful of start-ups (and before that, 6 years of art school) I helped launch Wise Elephant, a marketing strategy and tactics firm, where I am a Director. I have an MFA in drawing, have played in 4 bands, given presentations to IT auditors and organic farmers, and am in constant awe of the amazing people I learn about, meet, and sometimes get to work with.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to contact me with any questions:
[email protected]