As CEO & Owner of Bearing Straight, LLC, I help credit unions and regional banks realize the gaps they have in their digital strategy and learn how to connect their high-touch offline experiences to the seamless online banking experiences younger generations demand. • Expert in CX, DX, and UX research and strategy, providing strategic and tactical recommendations for customer, prospect, and employee experiences, as well as providing comparative/competitive, market & industry research which has served as the foundation for marketing, sales, product, employee, and customer experience strategies for several Fortune 500 companies.·      Lead all business development and marketing which includes website development, email campaigns, social media campaigns, and more. Average open rates of 70% and CTRs of 50%+, using GoHighLevel as CRM.·      Self-funded & attended 6-month AI bootcamp provided by Ohio State University, learning Python programming, creating reports and data visualization from publicly-accessible information, and creation of LLMs, using accessible training data.·      Partner to Axsys.AI where I provide product, marketing, sales and company strategy recommendations. Serve in senior leader capacity to Axsys and its clients and partners.

Initially hired to lead all research into client and associate experience for BU’s most significant client-facing technology investment which was delivered in multiple phases over 4 years. Project included sunsetting Salesforce Classic, standing up Salesforce Lightning Platform and building a new, streamlined, digital sales experience as well as a first-in-industry prospect-facing portal which shaved ~20 days off sales cycle. Used research to surface sales triggers which were used in machine learning to predict best prospects and resulted in prospects who were 6x more likely to close.• Expert in qualitative and quantitative research, including: surveys, user interviews, focus groups, rapid prototyping and testing, data analytics (everything from user interactions and site visits to rich sales, customer, and employee data). ·       Led the research and strategy for customer support portal (desktop and mobile experiences) and agent experience (service associate CRM), a self-enrollment mobile app experience, and the end user experience for a new HCM product offering. ·       Provided on-going research for client growth and retention strategies, including industry, market, and economic research, as well as understanding changes in sales, revenue, product utilization and more. Evaluated data from Salesforce, Medallia, Qualtrics, Pendo, Google Analytics, and more.·       Researched and built new 360-degree customer model built on Salesforce Lightning, leveraging Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Community Cloud products. Entered 360-degree product business proposal into Hackathon and placed in top 100 of 1500+ ideas submitted.

Freelance writer and sole proprieter for CWR Consulting and formerly sole proprietor of Candidatesforfree.com. Served as Sales & Marketing Director for Business Intelligence startup.Additional details of multiple contracts from 7/2009-7/2014:o Freelance for several companies producing human resources outsourcing whitepaper, SBO marketing whitepaper and web content, social media/marketing strategies, whitepaper creation, PR, and presentation delivery. Also provided technology recruiting services for software companies.o Conducted research on topic and wrote to spec, including specific branded voice for high-level security-minded audience.o Published 2 articles for _Strategy Magazine_, including topics on FDI and political and economic overviews of Latin America and the Caribbean.o Consulted with client for creation of small-to-midsize B2B website template creation. Purpose of templates was to allow client to offer turnkey website creation solutions to sole proprietors in need of marketing materials for their B2C companies.o Branded all templates in prescribed voice for targeted audience including: Creating all tag lines, web content, and a marketing strategy whitepaper to help the customers better understand how to drive sales within their businesses.o Consulted with owners of business intelligence firm, including creation of go-to-market strategy for its business intelligence company and consulting firm.o Served as Senior Management Team in position of Sales and Marketing Director where I was responsible for branding strategy and communication across all company materials including: website, brochures, e-brochures, sales presentations, demonstrations, sales pitches, inside sales communication and more. Branding required a voice appropriate to C-level audience.o Hired, trained, motivated and worked closely with an inside sales representative.o Project-managed go-to-market/launch strategies for multiple B2B software and consulting companies.

Promoted to strategy director to provide external digital and content strategies which includes industry, market, and user research, analysis, and recommendations to clients ranging from startup SaaS companies and Fortune 500. Provided marketing, sales, and service recommendations and created tools for internal and external use. Served in executive leadership role, managing research, strategy, & content team members. Contributed to agency growth from 4 employees to 30 employees and 4x growth since I began and started the research & strategy function within agency.o Provided market, industry, and user research & digital strategy for Salesforce’s small business offering, Essentials.o Provided research, content strategy, storymapping, and copywriting for Salesforce’s Citizen Development experience used for G2M strategy for Lightning Platform.

o Served as account manager and UX researcher to Autodesk.o Provided industry, market, internal and external partner and user research which I used for Autodesk’s new B2B product strategy and G2M strategy for their Services Marketplace (released in October 2017 and winner of AMY award for “Innovation in Market Research”).o As part of Service Marketplace research, I discovered that Autodesk (a B2B company in transition to a B2C company) was spending $800k annually for customer service agents to answer the same request 80% of the time—customers receiving an activation code. I recommended they implement a chatbot for that function and reassign their agents to perform technical support in preparation for transition to B2C shift.o Resulting from that research, I led the user research and internationalization strategy for implementation of IBM Watson chat across 140 countries. Regularly reviewed Qualtrics data for UX recommendations. o Performed content audits, made information architecture recommendations, and provided content structure to support buyer journey and create conversion opportunities.o Provided entire digital strategy to GE Power specific to fuel conversion. Conducted first-person research at PowerGen International and used findings to guide strategy which resulted in 3rd and 4th search rankings for GE’s flex fuel offerings (a significant improvement from their previous ranking on the 2nd page—and within 90 days from site launch).

Provided research and content strategy (online and offline) to support business and marketing efforts for Global Payments, Arke Systems, Goodwill, Shaw Industries, Home Depot and others. o Provided research, content strategy and copywriting for Home Depot merchants, including Ralph Lauren, 3M, Loctite, Mohawk, and others.o Researched, created, and presented initial marketing and content strategy to Autodesk for their Services Marketplace, as part of Autodesk’s corporate strategy to sell direct-to-consumer. o Provided internal sales and marketing strategy leadership and execution, including creating pitch strategies and serving as billable resource.o Served as agency (and often client) editor-in-chief for blog and social media posts.

As a member of the Forbes Communications Council, I'll publish articles on how companies can better understand their buyers, how to reach those buyers, and how to craft stories which engage and ultimately convert prospects into buyers and buyers into advocates.

Received teaching assistantship to fund graduate school. Taught freshman research, composition, and writing.

Served as salesperson to technology (business intelligence, broadband networks and co-location providers) and staffing companies. Built reputation as trusted advisor to technology leaders. Served on multiple technology boards, including the Atlanta Telecom Professionals (rebranded Atlanta Technology Professionals), the Atlanta Society for Business Intelligence, and served in volunteer leadership roles with Women in Technology and TechBridge's Digital Ball. Founded and ran ASBI which grew from 0 to 1500 members in 12 months. Put on bi-monthly meetings with an average attendance of 60+ technology practitioners and executives.