Born in St. Petersburg, FL, raised in Atlanta, GA and based in Portland, OR, I am a servant leader, entrepreneur, writer, optimist, learner, outdoor enthusiast., and most importantly, a Christian (Catholic).
My work is driven by my fundamental belief that business is one of the most powerful forces for good in the world. Everyday I try to spread that philosophy to my family, my teammates, my friends, and anyone else I can influence through my body of work. But in the end, I care most about building meaningful relationships and creating memorable experiences with the people I care about.
I’m currently COO at Convertkit, where we’re on a mission to help creators — authors, musicians, chefs, filmmakers, comedians, YouTubers, and every creator in between — earn a living doing work they love. We do that by making email marketing software to help creators connect to their fans, educating those creators on how make a living from their craft, telling their stories to help accelerate their growth, and generally fueling the creator community. It’s my responsibility to build strategy and work with our leadership team to bring that strategy to life across engineering, marketing, customer success, and operations.
In the past, I led customer success and then growth and marketing at Fizzle, where we were on a mission build the best place on the web for aspiring entrepreneurs to find the training and community they need to build a sustainable small business.
Previously, I founded a company called Living for Monday where we were on a mission to change the way the world thinks about work by helping Millennials build the skills necessary to grow in their careers. We worked with individuals and organizations through consulting, coaching, and training to help build strong cultures and high performing individual contributors. While leading Living for Monday, I gave more than 10 keynote presentations, wrote a blog that generated over 350,000 unique visitors to LivingforMonday.com in our final year, and had my work featured around the web. I also built a career search curriculum entitled Career Kickstarter to help college students and young professionals find their first or next purpose-driven job. I coached more than 40 college students through the career search curriculum, as well as coaching many entrepreneurs to help them achieve breakthrough business results.
I interned for Seth Godin in the summer of 2013. Seth has gone on to be one of the most influential mentors and teachers in my life. Our team of 16 interns built and launched Krypton Community College, a project designed to transform the way communities learn and grow together after our formal education has come to an end.
Finally, I started my career at EY (formerly Ernst & Young), where I served as a staff consultant in the finance sub-service line of the Performance Improvement practice. I served multiple Fortune 500 clients and led an implementation team of three to transform the tax documentation processes at a Fortune 5 corporation. I was one of less than five staffers in the Atlanta office at the time.
I graduated from the University of Georgia with a BBA in Accounting, a BBA in Banking & Finance, and a Certificate in Personal & Organizational Leadership. There I served in various student leadership positions, including as a Leonard Leadership Scholar, President of Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society, Orientation Leader, Dawg Camp Director of Recruitment, President of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, and Executive Board Member for Order of Omega Honor Society. Additionally, I studied abroad at University of Oxford, where I received a first-rate education that ignited my intellectual curiosity and continues to fuel my efforts today.
I have served as the curator for the Atlanta Global Shapers , an initiative of the World Economic Forum, founded to bring together the brightest young professional minds in cities around the world to create projects to address community opportunities and challenges. After moving to the Pacific Northwest, I joined the Portland, Oregon hub of Global Shapers.
I previously served as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors for Camp Horizon, a nonprofit on a mission to restore dignity and hope to children in foster care who have been abused and neglected through summer camp and year-round programming.
In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my wife, community of friends, and our two dogs, Hank and Zoe. I love being outdoors skiing, hiking, fishing, and camping. I value time spent reading, writing, cooking, hosting dinner parties, working out, and traveling.
More than anything, I define myself by my values and beliefs. I try to use those beliefs to filter my words, decisions, and actions. They currently include:
- Serve God’s purpose, not mine
- Put family first
- Have the courage to lead through service
- Use business as a force for good
- Demand creative excellence
- Build a body of work
- Be authentically vulnerable
- Advocate for equality
- Take care of your mind, body, and soul
- Be a steward of the natural world
- Have hope for the future
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for being interested in my story and background. If it makes sense for you, consider subscribing to receive my daily writing on taking courageous leadership to create a positive impact in your community.