About Me

I’m passionate about figuring out the science behind marketing, especially in the age of data and automation. As a constant tinkerer, figuring out how to accomplish attribution through the entire marketing and sales funnel is more a passion than a job for me.

I leverage over a decade of experience in marketing, having worked at agencies, on the client side and at various startups. My industry experience ranges from consumer-packaged goods to destination experiences, publishing, software and more. Most notably, I co-founded what became the largest code school in the world, building an extremely sophisticated marketing practice in the process.

Today, I work with a select group of experts at Yield to help established, growth-hungry companies quantify their marketing/sales funnels and demystify ROI.

The Iron Yard

Co-founder and CMO
Oct 2012 – Present (5 yrs 4 mos)
HQ in Greenville, SC / campuses nationwide

Role Overview

I helped start The Iron Yard in 2012, when it was still an early-stage software accelerator program in the TechStars network. In the first year, I cut my teeth on the world of startups and venture capital as I recruited companies, hosted mentors and helped make investments in early-stage companies around the country. As our portfolio grew in the southeast, we noticed that the number one request from founders was help on finding more engineering talent. Seeking to solve our own problem and provide more support for our companies, we started a training program inside the accelerator that taught people to build software. After several classes ran, we began to get inquiries from other cities and states asking us to launch additional locations. We followed the demand and an immersive code school was born as a new startup.

In the beginning, I worked in both marketing and operations, but as the company scaled, I focused on building a world-class marketing practice. Our team developed scalable channels for lead gen across the digital and traditional spectrums with a keen focus on attribution and gathering granular data on touchpoints in order to understand the customer journeys of various segments. Over the course of 5+ years, I had the privilege of diving back into my original love of data-driven marketing. 

Beyond being a marketer, though, I was a founder, leader and a board member at a high-growth startup. I did a huge amount of work in developing our company culture, hiring, building (and re-buildling) company-wide processes, choosing (and re-choosing) software and tooling solutions, all in addition to helping take on a significant outside investment and helping to manage the board of directors.

What I Learned

Co-founding and scaling The Iron Yard was the type of experience that is hard to distill and provides lessons for years to come, but here are a few things I’ve reflected on as of early 2018:

• I learned to deal with an incredible amount of chaos and maintain vision, especially throughout the early days
• I learned that I absolutely love leading teams and challenging people to grow and get better at what they do
• I learned to rely on my co-founders through the highs and lows of growth
• I learned that I love tooling and systems and building processes that make things more efficient, especially when it frees people’s time to focus on what they are good at
• I now understand, in my bones, the roller-coaster ride of taking on investment, sprinting to meet aggressive goals while maintaining a strong culture, being accountable to a board of directors and, ultimately, dealing with the impact of significant changes beyond my control
• I learned how to move quickly and innovate in a highly regulated industry
• I became really good at marketing (specifically, I learned how to build an extremely sophisticated, data-driven marketing practice that achieved attribution through the entire sales and marketing funnel—an effort that took literally years)
• I learned that I truly love data-driven marketing
• I learned that I love running companies because the freedom to create incredible places for people to work is deeply satisfying

Responsibilities and Skills

Here are the highlights:

• Operations
  • Built processes for enrollment, student experience in class and job placement
  • Hired and trained and managed a national team of Campus Directors
  • Assisted in hiring of instructors
  • Built a comprehensive playbook for running all operational aspects of a campus
  • Built processes and implemented software for internal operations processes and knowledge sharing across campuses
  • Helped launch an international campus in London, UK
  • Ensured our systems complied with regulatory standards on a state-by-state and country-by-country basis
• Consumer marketing / sales
  • Began on the ground, recruiting students myself at local events
  • Worked with local campuses to run marketing tests on a shoestring budget
  • Built a playbook for local campus marketing that I worked with Campus Directors to execute
  • Transitioned marketing efforts from a local level to a corporate team of 10
  • Managed brand building and awareness on a national level
  • Built a marketing playbook for launching new campuses, including phases for awareness, product launch and ongoing customer acquisition
  • Built an attribution model and connected multiple software tools to achieve attribution reporting through the entire funnel
  • Built and managed a PR team
  • Built and managed a 20-person sales team
  • Built processes for the sales team with an emphasis on delivering customer insights to them from the marketing department
  • Developed expertise in running and optimizing campaigns across digital and traditional channels
  • Developed expertise in SEO strategy and optimization
  • Developed expertise in international marketing through the launch of a campus in London
  • Developed expertise in data-driven product development for the purpose of diversifying revenue sources and capturing additional market share
  • Ensured our marketing practices and materials complied with regulatory standards on a state-by-state and country-by-country basis
• Corporate training (B2B)
  • Helped launch a corporate training practice providing software development training for established companies
  • Built a sales and marketing strategy to target high-value clients
  • Helped drive new business and closed several major deals (including a Fortune 100 company)
  • Managed delivery of multiple corporate training projects
• Executive
  • Served on the board of directors pre- and post-investment
  • Helped secure outside investment from Apollo Education Group
  • Helped make critical, company wide policy decisions
  • Led the charge on development and maintenance of company culture

Results

• The Iron Yard’s consumer code school was, at its peak, the largest code school in the world
• The Iron Yard’s corporate training program became one of the top providers of on-site, custom software development training in the country
• Our team helped change literally thousands of lives

Liquid Wrench

Strategist and Account Manager (Agency Side)
Oct 2011 – Oct 2012 (1 year)
Greenville, SC / Southeast US

Role Overview

In partnership with another team member, I was tasked with managing the Liquid Wrench brand’s 2012 marketing plan and budget. The company’s goal included increasing brand relevance in the DIY market and developing programs to educate consumers on the benefits and additional uses of their products. Our strategy utilized a wide spectrum of marketing tactics, including content marketing, digital advertising, creation of educational video materials and design/execution of offline events at major retailers.

What I Learned

This project provided me the incredible opportunity to run a full-scale, multi-channel marketing plan. Perhaps the most valuable lesson I learned was how complex large, national-scale marketing practices are to manage. I also learned that I truly love the complexity of large-scale marketing plans, especially the challenge of defining success then figuring out how to track it. Even though it can be brutal, the retail consumer-packaged goods space is a great battlefield on which to learn those lessons.

Responsibilities and Skills

• I was responsible for executing all elements of Liquid Wrench’s 2012 marketing plan. The strategy focused on creating content as a foundation to give the brand more relevance in the DIY (do it yourself) market, coupled with direct product education at offline events.
• Website development and launch
• Management and optimization of online ad campaign ($100K+ budget)
• Content strategy, creation, editing, and publishing, including social media activity
• Production of humorous, educational product videos
• Offline events, including planning, coordination, and on-site execution
• Hired and trained the first community manager / social media specialist for Liquid Wrench; training consisted of both remote learning, introductory projects, and on-site training on the brand’s tone and voice, response to customer complaints, and management of contact from competitive brands

Results

• Doubled site traffic in the first month
• Doubled traffic from online ads through optimization
• Achieved a rate of 2 story submissions per week from readers
• Significant increase in brand mentions on social media

Brains on Fire

Business Development, Speaking and Operations
2009 – 2012 (3 years)
Greenville, SC

Role Overview

In addition to other responsibilities, I served on the business development and speaking team at Brains on Fire. Specifically, I answered inbound calls from companies interested in working with us, helping follow and improve on a screening process and nurture qualified leads to the point of closing. I also spoke at events around the country and was a consistent contributor to the top-100 blog we ran.

What I Learned

I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work on business development somewhat early on in my career. “Always Be Closing” becomes a whole lot more real when you have a potential client—and their budget—on the other end of the line. The best lesson I learned doing business development, though, was the best service companies have a high level of integrity as far as whether or not they can truly help. Saying no to potential work is hard, but can often be the right decision.

Responsibilities and Skills

• I served as the initial point of contact for all new business phone calls, vetted clients for both project and budget fit, and played a role in securing business from several national brands
• I led a team that developed a formal internship program. Personally, I wrote job descriptions and determined skill criteria, managed announcement and promotion of the positions, and interviewed and hired applicants.
• The Brains on Fire blog is a new business tool, converting avid readers into clients over time. I wrote over 160 articles for the blog over a 3 year period (1 per week)
• I spoke around the country about community management, digital shifts in marketing, word of mouth and brand advocacy at places like the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, American Advertising Federation, MIMA and WordPress WordCamp conferences

Results

• Helped secure large, national-level clients (Anytime Fitness, Liquid Wrench)
• Contributed to a 3000% increase in subscribers through consistent writing

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Strategist and Community Manager (Agency Side)
2010 – 2011 (1 year)
Greenville, SC / Williamsburg, VA

Role Overview

I had the chance to work with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to accomplish several goals, including increased engagement with customers and potential customers, improving the customer experience for both those planning visits and those on site and building a content strategy designed to collect user-generated content.

What I Learned

One of the most valuable lessons I learned working with Colonial Williamsburg’s marketing team was the power of building bridges across departments. Their digital communications team and customer service team operated almost completely independently, which caused problems and inconsistencies for potential customers and actual visitors. I also learned the power of high-engagement with your top customers—small, noticeable acts can turn someone into a lifelong advocate.

Responsibilities and Skills

• Conducted primary research offline at Colonial Williamsburg to gain a firsthand understanding of the customer experience and incorporated those learnings into our strategy
• Worked with the Colonial Williamsburg digital marketing team to develop a comprehensive Facebook strategy
• Worked with Facebook software/CMS partner (Involver) to deploy and test content
• Worked with client customer service department to build new systems for managing important guest notifications in real time on Facebook and Twitter (trip planning questions, on-site visitor complaints, weather emergencies, event cancellations)
• Helped plan product testing by using social media to identify customers who could help pilot new programs
• I worked with Colonial Williamsburg’s content team to build an editorial calendar and increase engagement online through content
• Developed a successful holiday Facebook contest designed to capture user generated stories for use in advertising and print collateral

Results

• Grew total fan base by 170% investing only in content and customer service
• Grew active/engaged percentage of fan base from 15% to 70% in the same period
• Opened lines of communication between digital communications team and customer service team (who were siloed in different departments)
• Developed process for identifying advocates through Facebook and rewarding them with surprise and delights during visits

Double Day Publishing

Marketing Lead (Agency Side)
Jan 2010 – Aug 2010 (8 months)
Greenville, SC / New York, NY

Role Overview

In 2010 I had the privilege of working directly with John Grisham’s publisher on the launch of The Confession. Double Day was interested in a book launch that focused heavily on both social media and offline, word-of-mouth efforts by John Grisham fans. I ran the project end-to-end, helping develop the strategy, execute the social media content/contest plan and run offline events in cities across the country.

What I Learned

Along with learning about the publishing industry, working with a long-time, successful author’s publisher taught me other valuable lessons:

• Successful sales strategies don’t last forever. Said another way, even though John Grisham was producing the same, high-quality work, the landscape of book purchasing and sales had changed significantly and required a different strategy.
• I also learned the power of working with a passionate customer base developed over years of time. Word of mouth is hard to harness and track, but can be very powerful.
• I cut my teeth on developing custom tools for social media.

Responsibilities and Skills

• I developed and executed a strategy designed to identify top John Grisham fans/influencers and work with them to lead events designed to generate word of mouth and awareness about the book.
• Worked with a third party developer to design and implement a custom contest application on Facebook, including the writing of the scope and brief, coordination with designer and file delivery, and bug testing
• Managed the development, production, and delivery of all print collateral used by advocates. Wrote creative briefs, proofed, and worked with the vendors who printed the final pieces
• Planned content and structure of various offline events, including partial release of book excerpts through the John Grisham advocates
• Built viral conversation through a content strategy that included staged release of content prior to the book going on sale

Results

• Received over 500 applications for 25 advocate positions
• Increased pre-release online conversation about the book
• Facilitated advocate-led offline events across key John Grisham sales markets

Best Buy Musical Instruments

Community Manager (Agency Side)
May 2009 – 2010 (1 year)
Greenville, SC / Minneapolis, MN

Role Overview

In 2008, Best Buy piloted a handful of musical instruments stores inside of their existing retail locations. The program was successful and the leaders of the pilot began to scale from 5 to 100 stores starting in 2009. I had performed market and consumer research for Best Buy in the early days of the pilot and was brought back to support the growth to additional locations. Specifically, I was tasked with 1) creating an internal community among employees for knowledge transfer since no formal employee training program existed and 2) working with employees to create content that established credibility for Best Buy as a place to buy high-end musical instruments from knowledgeable staff.

What I Learned

This project taught me a handful of incredibly important lessons.

• First, I learned first-hand the monumental challenge of scaling brick-and-mortar operations in a highly competitive market. Everyone says it’s hard, but you don’t truly know how hard until you are involved yourself. (This proved to be very valuable experience in my work at The Iron Yard.)
• Second, I learned about the challenge of overcoming established brand perceptions. Best Buy had invested years into establishing themselves as a consumer electronics retailer, so musical instruments didn’t fit the mold. Brute-force advertising and awareness can work well, but we had a limited budget. I am still thankful for the experience of having to get scrappy and work hard to change potential customers’ minds one at a time at the ground level.
• Third, I cut my teeth on implementing large software projects. Vendor selection, vendor management, scope, specs, timelines, testing and launch consumed me for months as I helped launch what was, at the time, the largest private community implementation of WordPress’ BuddyPress framework.

Responsibilities and Skills

• Managed production and launch of the largest website (to date at the time) built on the BuddyPress community software platform (a WordPress tool). Worked with digital partner (Voce Communications) on wire framing, structure, functionality, and bug testing
• Managed Mi11 online community of both Best Buy employees and customers, including content collection and publishing, forum moderation and contests
• Managed and produced / curated content across all social media properties
• Managed production, packaging, and delivery of all offline collateral (print material, t-shirts, guitar pics, etc.)
• Panned, organized, and documented a national tour of concerts, gatherings, and guitar giveaways, including an active partnership Gibson/Epiphone for sponsorship and product giveaways
• Learned that I never want to be a traveling musician

Results

• 35% of the employee base joined the community in the first 6 months
• Online and offline efforts achieved 22% increase in conversations about Best Buy Musical Instruments
• Increased amount of positive sentiment in the conversation to 75% (with 2% negative and the balance neutral)

Brains on Fire

Research Specialist
May 2008 – Jan 2009 (9 months)
Greenville, South Carolina Area

Role Overview

When I studied marketing in college, I had a particular interest in consumer behavior, which I followed to the doorstep of marketing research. I joined Brains on Fire as a Research Specialist, working directly for a PhD of neuroscience. My role included building programs to collect qualitative research, including surveys and focus groups, and combining that data with quantitative research reports from clients.

What I Learned

I will be forever grateful for this role because I saw first-hand the power of data-driven marketing. Technology has changed significantly since 2008, but the principles of using data to make smart decisions and run tests is are timeless and, as I’ve learned over my career, should be the basis of most business activities.

Responsibilities and Skills

• I performed research projects for several national and local companies, including:
  • Fiskars
  • Best Buy
  • Jason’s Deli
  • Bon Secours Hospital System
• For qualitative research collection I wrote questionnaires, detailed criteria for participants, conducted group sessions, and processed the resulting data
• On the nerdier side of things, I analyzed quantitative data from clients and online mining partners to identify market trends, determine their relation to local trends, and find data that helped build surveys and discussion guides
• I actually used the math I said I never would

Results

• My work was used to build strategies for several of Brains on Fire’s highest-profile clients.