I learned marketing from monks, clients and a lot of coffee.

I spent four years at a very remote Benedictine monastery in Southern Indiana, studying English and communications at Saint Meinrad. The view from my dorm (they call it a cell, which is not great branding) was corn and soybeans. It turns out that's a pretty great place to learn how words actually move people.

In 2005 I took that into the real world and started On Target Digital Marketing. I ran it for 15 years, built a team of 11, guided hundreds of B2B and B2C brands across the country, and sold it at its peak. I also leased an office that was way too big, so I turned the extra space into Coffee and Content: a place where people came to learn, present and make real business connections over coffee I roasted myself. That coffee eventually grew up and became Pure Grind.

Since the agency, I've led marketing from the inside. Head of Marketing at Steamroller Animation Studios. Chief Marketing Officer at Camp Boggy Creek. Launch marketing for Step Up For Students. And now, growing an EdTech startup through partnerships. Different industries, same obsession: how marketing actually lands on a human being.

Along the way I've racked up 400+ TV appearances as a digital marketing and tech expert, which mostly taught me that live television does not have an undo button.

I write about all of it in my field notes: what works, what's hype, and the occasional absurdity that keeps this industry entertaining.