I grew up in Texas, jumping BMX bikes and launching homemade model rockets, only burning off my eyebrows twice.
I won a scholarship to NASA's Space Academy, beating out three thousand other aspiring nerds. At 14, a doctor told me I was too small to play football. So I went out and played football. I sucked but I stuck with it.
I studied Philosophy and Art in college, where I was nominated for the Rhodes Scholarship (I didn't get it). I moved to Boston to do my graduate work in Philosophy because my addiction to learning and wearing tweed jackets was clearly greater than my desire to be employable. But shortly after graduate school, I found my way into Advertising, a move that surprised me but apparently made perfect sense to my classmates.
I began my career as a Copywriter at Deutsch and in a few years moved on to become Creative Director of Omelet LA, spearheading an immersive, content-rich approach to advertising through story-driven ad campaigns. At Omelet, we won our first six of seven new business pitches, from Amstel Light and Coffee Bean to Infor Software and XBOX Live. Our only strikeout was for the HD-DVD account, where Goodby, Silverstein & Partners literally brought Francis Ford Coppola to the pitch. I would like to point out that the HD-DVD abruptly failed.
I like getting down into the guts of things and wanted to experience the process of brand creation first-hand. So in 2009, I started my own bicycle manufacturing company. You can read more about that here. I called it Ritte, and tapped into everything I'd learned as an artist and creative to make the brand unique and effective. I designed and sometimes hand-sculpted the prototype bikes, wrote the content, made every video and ad, managed fan-clubs, and forged partnerships with other brands. I faced a steep learning curve when it came to financing, product development, sales and distribution, PR and employee management. I sold Ritte in 2018 but will be forever happy seeing my own creation ride by on the street.
Building my own business from the ground up gave me a unique insight into the relationship between companies and the brands that define them. I understand and sympathize with the concerns of business owners because I've been one of them and I know what it's like to have my butt on the line.