The following is a narrative like record of my career, emphasizing what I consider the most important experience gained in each role. If you are looking for my consulting work or more traditionally formatted work experience check the buttons immediately following.
Always Learning, Always Looking for New Opportunity to Execute On
I am an experienced marketing and business operations manager with ten years of increasing responsibility and a history of exceeding client expectations and leading teams to success. I enjoy the entrepreneurial approach; I excel in self-guided roles, have founded a company and engaged in private consulting in addition to full time employment for the last seven years. I am also a strong team player and am excellent at understanding and achieving client goals. I am always evaluating new opportunities.
QuinStreet
Senior Manager of Business Development
QuinStreet (NASDAQ: QNST) is a national leader in performance marketing for financial and home service providers. I am responsible for acquiring and managing media partnerships with all insurance companies from fortune 100 companies to regional agencies.
Developing a Business
In the process of building an under attended and under achieving line of business, insurance carrier media, into a key source of high quality insurance media for QuinStreet. Leader in all business strategy tactics and adaptation of best in class media products for specific carrier needs.
Business Oversight
Work closely with a wide range stake holders from junior analysts to SVPs primarily within our technology group and insurance groups. Responsible for team and project coordination to ensure timely delivery of media products and services. Also ensure that acquired media meets the high quality standards required by QuinStreet’s insurance clientele. Primary business strategy planner responsible for all aspects of taking the business from where it is now to where QuinStreet needs it to be.
FOcused On Margin Generation
In first full year of management our insurance carrier media program is on pace to exceed all targets and grow gross profitability 50% year-over-year. Possible primarily through acquisition of new business, also optimization and expansion of existing business.
Relationships and Sales
Business development is a commissions based business growth focused role. Created first ever insurance carrier media pipeline from the ground up, and am at work prospecting, selling and closing new media business at aggressive margin targets. Devised sales approach and materials directly. Also work diligently as the senior account manager on all insurance carrier media accounts to achieve partner satisfaction and to grow those relationships.
QuinStreet is a couple important firsts for me. It is the first big, publicly traded company that I have worked for and it is also my first sales first role. Ultimately I am responsible that my line of business meets or exceeds its targets but my primary approach to doing that is acquisition of new business and upsale of existing partners. After so many positions where sales has been an auxiliary function it has been really fun to utilize and improve my selling skills. It is not a new industry to me but cements my expertise in insurance performance marketing.
Platonic Connections
Co-Founder & Former CEO
Platonic Connections builds social matchmaking networks (think online dating, for other things, with no romantic elements) using our own proprietary platform to bring networks to market simultaneously on iOS, Android, and the web. In the future wewill provide this platform to others so they can create their own SMNs. As the leader of a small startup I wore many hats, but most of my time was spent on:
Product Lead
Responsible for conception of core platform capable of building cross platform social matchmaking applications from one code base.
Operations Oversight
Led all business operations, directing lean internal and contract teams in the ongoing development of social matchmaking networks and the platform to build them.
Prototyping and Planning
Prototyping, final scoping and executive oversight of first social matchmaking network, Find Your Round Golf, soft launched in November 2018 with ongoing feature development.
Business Creation
Board formation, c-corporation and equity sharing, business plan, press, and courting investors, partners and technology clients.
My career has driven me to be a learn by doing kind of person and PC is the culmination of all that. We took a little funding, a whole lot of confidence and gave producing a new kind of app and technology a shot with little training and not much expert help. I did not quite get the company to a point where there narrowing runway could continue to support my direct involvement, but I can still see a path for PC to be successful without me. As a partial owner and board member I sincerely hope it does and continue to help any way I can.
Katch
Senior Vertical Manager
Katch was a performance marketing central and decentralized marketplace focused on connecting insurance consumers with carriers. The Katch platform was also a SaaS product offering brand of all kinds the opportunity to monetize even non-transactional visitors to their web sites by allowing other advertisers to target and bid on these visitors. At various times I lead auto, home, renters, life, health, and Medicare insurances business, though my focus and the bulk of my time went to auto insurance.
Vertical Management
As described by my manager, a “mini-ceo” role where I was responsible for all parts and process of my business unit and I was judged and compensated based on its overall success. Everything form peforming QA on lead funnels, to supporting sales teams, to reporting progress up to C-suite then interpreting and driving their strategy directives throughout the business unit.
Performance Marketing
Generating engagements, truly understanding what they are worth and maximizing value. I spent a ton of time of building and analyzing reports looking for trends both places to generate or buy more volume and to squeeze as much value out of each engagement as possible. As an aside, this role cemented already strong Excel and business analytics skills to near mastery.
Business REJUVENATION
In roughly my first eighteen months auto insurance (my main responsibility) bottomed out due to technical issues then rose to the point it broke quarterly profit records in the last quarter under my management. Targets exceeded by 17% in my first full year under management, despite aggressive targets in a do or die business.
Product Management for Business People
Not an industry or a role with much respect for silos, to keep project moving along quickly I frequently got involved with product and design work. Especially true when it came to understanding, scoping, and facilitating client instructions and I was central to tuning Katch’s matching algorithm in the auto insurance space.
Vertical Management was a big step forward in my career, the role provided experience and exposure to the full range of performance marketing and SaaS business functions. Katch also employed a range of really talented people so getting to work with so many diverse business groups proved an excellent opportunity to learn from others.
Vidi Emi
Account Manger & Director
When I joined the team Vidi Emi was a digital marketing company focused almost entirely on sending email and email marketing. They first diversified their digital marketing services (something I played a part in) and since have expanded into a broad based suite of business tools and services under MindShare Design, including web design, DIY sending platform, work order and productivity software and of course various digital marketing channels with an emphasis on email.
Emotional Intelligence and Business Empathy
Established role as SEM manager through superior customer service effort. Was allowed the time to bring accounts under my control and begin to make headway through simply being thoughtful and responsive to client needs.
Analysis and Opportunity Recognition
Deep and constant analysis to continually optimized marketing campaigns and keep accounts growing through success. Much of our book of business were non-traditional marketers (lab-tech) rendering most the best practices and business rules most B2C and B2B companies followed inoperable. All strategy built from the ground up.
Search Engine Marketing
Developed VE’s in-house offering from the ground up, including oversight of all strategy and tactical processes. Approach generated our clients over $100,000,000 in attributed revenue in my final year leading the program.
Building a New Offering
Through dilligence, determination, and many hours I went from acting as a junior point of contact and putting out fires caused by an expert SEM contractor to managing a team of 4, overseeing 18 SEM accounts. That process was five years in the making but the culmination was a fully functional, profitable, business unit and service offering where none had been before.
Vidi Emi and now MindShare have always operated with a lean team of smart professionals that like to help each other and their clients. This is where I learned that success at a small company is about always being willing to pitch in and do what needs to be done, whether it was even remotely related to the initial job description or not. I was hired as an email ops manager, quickly transitioned to SEM and went on to run that whole side of the business. I also redesigned the company website, organized our intranet and was brought in on all client accounts across the company where high touch client service was necessary.
CCAH
Account Representative
CCAH is an omni-channel marketing agency for NPOs. Historically, their main service is direct mail marketing which was the channel that I participated in as an account rep. They are THE BEST in the business, working with the biggest NPOs (trending liberal), and turning out award winning campaign after award winning campaign..
Account Representation
Supported day to day operation of two well known environmental NPOs including proofing, copy-writing, design and analysis. Worked with diverse client personalities and learned how high touch agency service is done by folks with decades of experience.
Training
Underwent CCAH’s industry renowned training program and received additional training by several of our vendors. This is the only time in my career I was lucky enough to be required to undergo specific training.
The Mail Library
Direct mail was really unique in that we kept a physical library of our competitors mail pieces. I reorganized and managed the west coast “branch” of this library, and expanded it to over 500,000 competitor mail pieces.
CCAH was a great place to start my career, guidance and training were first and foremost from all levels of the staff. Also, helping reputable NPOs generate donors and donations make it pretty easy to feel good about your job going to bed each night.
Tutorpedia & Private Tutoring
Lead Tutor & Senior Tutor
Tutoring was my career before finding the corporate world, going all the way back to my sophomore year of high school. Tutorpedia places highly qualified tutors with degrees from top tier universities with student clients. From the tutors perspective it is a great place to work because you bring your own curriculum and are given control over what and how to teach your students; tutors are regarded as true professionals responsible for determining what method of education is best for each student. Tutorpedia as actually my last stop as a tutor, having worked through several other agencies and independently for 8 years when I joined on as a lead tutor.
Educational Consulting
Responsible for creating, administering and improving individualize curricula for students of all levels, working with students aged five to forty-five, across most subjects. The reason most students need a private tutor is because the traditional process is failing them, so all students were different.
Customer Service
Success as a tutor comes down as much to your ability to satisfy parental goals and expectations as it does to the actual business of education students. Tutoring was a great training ground for navigating customer service concerns as well as generating proposal and long term plans.
Measurable Results
High success rate of meeting student and parents goals, given appropriate time and opportunity grade point average in subjects tutored improved an average of roughly one and half grade points. SAT scores improved on average 200 points under the 1600 point system and 350 points under the 2400 point system.
Tutoring was incredibly rewarding work because the desired out comes were confident, educated students and happy parents. This was my “career before my career,” and I took it very seriously. Tutoring is consulting; you are brought in by very demanding clients (the parents) to solve specific problems (whatever subject/s the student needs help with). Creative problem solving is key, customer service is key, and the carry over the corporate world is tremendous. After teaching a 9th grader geometry and convincing them it’s important, informing an executive of a new opportunity and convincing them your projects are necessary does not seem so tricky.