— Backcountry | Outervention
Be much more muchier.
Content Direction & Creative Strategy
My creative approach is rooted in specificity. I choose words that distill. I craft stories that sharpen. The content I create adds salt, depth, and weight.
Creative philosophy: if it sounds like any brand in your industry could say it, you’re not saying anything at all.
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Backcountry | Olympic Games Ad
“Dawn patrol tours, sending it 9-5, first chair to last cheers.”
“Put a goat on it. Not that goat, the actual GOAT.”
At Backcountry, we spoke to the core outdoor enthusiast that has clocked a lot of nights in the bed of their truck. Now, they have a bit more coin but still resonate with the dirtbag mindset. They want gear that goes as hard as they do (or used to).
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WHITESPACE | Shaun White x Backcountry
“Premium snowboarding kits and après-ready-apparel meet the hard charging chops of the most decorated snowboarder in the game — Shaun White.”
Copy should be a joy to read, whether you plug in an Easter egg, have a fun twist of phrase, or use words that surprise and delight. From the specific words I choose to the way I crack a brief, my goal is the same: make it a pleasure to experience the work.
I don’t try to fit round pegs into square holes. Instead, I make channel-first content, which means better performance and comments like this:
Creative philosophy: Respect your customers enough to sell to them in a way that adds value to their lives.
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Thumbtack | Gerry the Ghoul
I pitched content creator Clayton Farris as a way to avoid the cost of shooting in house and because if people aren’t being entertained or informed on social, they’ll keep scrolling. And if they don’t see themselves or their friends in your content? They won’t engage.
The payoff? Making the top performing video in Thumbtack history and KPIs that were bonkers compared to our business-as-usual social content.
KPIs like: TikTok paid media saw a +121% video completion rate and +80% average watch time compared to business as usual ads.
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Thumbtack | Standoff Audio Ads
"I was surrounded, the aisle and the options were closing in. There were paint rollers, satin and matte finish, angle brushes and natural bristles.
There were too many choices, what if I never got my living room painted, what if I couldn't figure out what type of paint to use, what if... I just used Thumbtack?”
You know what sucks? When an ad interrupts your music or podcast. You know what doesn’t suck? Being dropped into the middle of a tense scene, just like a intro of a good book.
That’s exactly the approach I used for these audio ads, capturing the tension and suspense of a classic Western movie standoff scene (minus the quivering hand over a pistol and a tumbleweed rolling by).
Listen at the link below.
Creative philosophy: show, don’t tell.
I’m a storyteller first, which means I know how to side-eye a narrative and let the customer see themselves in the journey. This creates brand relatability and measurable results: like a 31x increase in views for long-form YouTube videos compared to business-as-usual videos for Outervention.
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Backcountry | Outervention
We had 3 epic trips planned around the globe, and I knew bringing the humanity of our cast into the story was necessary to connect with the audience.
I wanted to capture the feeling of burnout, the hustle and grind, and the moment you realize you’ve been surviving but not thriving.
The work resulted in a series of seven long-form YouTube videos that 31x our business-as-usual video content.
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Thumbtack | Summer Curb Appeal
What’s more nostalgic than a disposable camera and a summer yard party?
For the summer curb appeal campaign at Thumbtack, I wanted to capture the joy of playing in the yard. It’s one thing to tell people it’s time to do yard work, it’s another to remind them of summers past and the core memories of their youth through grainy film photography. -
Thumbtack | Groundhog Day
You know the feeling of cleaning the kitchen just to have to… clean it again?
Have you ever bought frames for a gallery wall or new shelves for the living room just to… leave them leaning against the wall for weeks?
Procrastination is the siren song of many home projects, and in this campaign I wanted to speak to the never-ending feeling of perpetual home project procrastination.
My leadership approach
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Build resilience
From a biological perspective, the environments that have more diversity and nuance tend to be more resilient in the face of hardship.
The same is true for creative teams. I believe in building teams and collaborative environments that:
1. Allow people to show their true selves,
2. Bring their unique POV,
3. And to honor the rhythms and processes that works for them.
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Be empathetic
You build resilience by creating safe spaces through communication. As a trained volunteer crisis text line counselor, I know what language builds and what language constricts.
Asking someone WHY they did something tends to elicit defensiveness and distrust, whereas asking WHAT brought them to their decision or HOW they were thinking about something creates energetic and emotional spaciousness. This creates conversation rather than clap-backs.
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Use specific & generative feedback
I refuse to give vague feedback that isn’t actionable. Instead I’m specific, explain my POV, and allow for open conversation about my decision.
I’m a yes, and leader. Which means that I take what someone did right and build or iterate from there, rather than shutting down an idea with a no, but approach.
If you’ve ever left a creative session feeling stifled, like you don’t measure up, or emotionally drained or frustrated, you might have experienced the no, but approach, which shuts down the creative flow and where good ideas (that could have been great) go to die.
Want more?
Want more?
Check out the rest of my portfolio and case studies, along with side projects like photography and long form clips.