I was elevated into a newly created position driving both strategy and execution, overseeing Blain's branding, promotional planning, media buying, print/radio/TV/video production, PR, events, communications, charitable giving and recruiting strategies, product marketing, creative services, project management, agency partners and more. A few quick wins include:* Leading the development and deployment of Blain's new overarching brand strategy, with the goal of delivering breakthrough messaging.• Creating operational efficiency, capacity planning and transparency through evergreen and ad hoc process, workflow and SLA development, intake and progress meetings, and by leveraging our project/resource management tool for optimization.

I was brought to Blain’s Farm and Fleet (and the Midwest) to help bring outside perspective to the nearly 70-year-old, family-run company. As Director of Broadcast Marketing, I was charged with owning brand strategy while optimizing the company’s highest reach/impression marketing tactics to effectively drive store and site traffic. I did this by:• Optimizing local radio and TV buys aimed at our core customer segments while testing and adding various campaigns on CTV/OTT, streaming audio, Hispanic radio, national TV and paid search/YouTube to reach other segments • Developing a video content strategy and producing content that includes pre-roll, digital/social video, product/PDP videos, blog content and an award-winning podcast• Creating broadcast brand guidelines to build consistency and familiarity with the Blain’s brand

I have been sought out by businesses, brands and agencies to lead and execute diverse marketing activities, including:• A complete marketing department rebuild including current state assessment, gap analysis, tactic/channel prioritization, workflow and SLAs, supporting org chart, job descriptions, recruiting and hiring for CA's largest General Agency in the health insurance industry• A comprehensive marketing strategy as part of a sales decline turnaround that included adding a B2C component to a historically B2B-only distributor, a website overhaul, digital marketing, CRM/email and social strategies, re-positioning and re-branding for two private branded product lines and a revised product launch strategy for a leading motocross/motor sports helmet and apparel distributor• A competitive analysis leading to a brand refresh (logo update, revised color pallet/typeface and brand pillar development) for a medical delivery device company in the pharmaceutical industry• A strategy to drive more qualified B2B leads to a webinar (where there is a high conversion rate) via targeted list rentals for email/call campaigns, a LinkedIn campaign and aggregating testimonials for a leading industrial laundry, uniform rental and branded apparel company• The development of cross-promotional opportunities to provide unique content for product manufacturers in exchange for marketing reach/impressions to drive ticket sales for the LA & SF kickoff shows for a major artist's US tour Select clients:• Mustang Marketing• Kretek International• BluMac Music• Alliance Advisory and Securities, Inc.

I was asked to expand the capabilities of the in-house ad agency and deepen its operational role within the organization. Through heavier emphasis on an account management motif (which utilized both my unique vantage point as head of a shared service across a matrixed organization and a deep understanding of key business initiatives) as well as leveraging the department’s already-strong workflow fundamentals, the desired results were achieved, including:• Developing a 50-week monthly promotional planning process that incorporated inputs from Marketing, Merchandising, Finance, Sales for proactive and aligned omni-channel marketing strategies, efficient campaign production/execution and positive financial results • Creating a Product Launch process to deliver on the company's "first-to-market" merchandising strategy and maximize sales from early-adopters (over 200 unique launches in 2017) • Optimizing creative output, including a 12% increase in jobs produced 2017 vs. 2016 with no new staff, a reduction in SLAs/production lead-times for several marketing tactics and major cost savings (incl. $500K+ saved in direct mail costs alone in 2017)

As vice president of creative services, I created an in-house advertising agency that serviced all the businesses under the Guitar Center, Inc. umbrella. I not only managed a team of 80 – ensuring on-time and on-budget execution and delivery of all creative assets for all Guitar Center Inc. businesses – I oversaw many of the internal machinations that come with running a “company” of this size. This included: • Designing staff structure, hiring, people development (promoted 7 internal staff to directors and many more to managers) • Supervising the development of schedules, creative elements, production processes and execution of an average of 6000 catalog pages and 5500 ad hoc jobs (digital/web suites, email assets, print ads, etc.) per year • Partnering with brand leadership to help create marketing strategies (which then ran through the “agency” for execution/delivery), including acting as interim vice president of marketing for the Musician's Friend brand and driving a 13.3% increase in traffic and 3.8% increase in sales for the period of January - June 2015 – a departure from the negative double-digit sales trend that business experienced since 2010

While I was appointed to the position of director of advertising and media, I supervised Guitar Center’s media and marketing plans, which delivered up to 1.7B impressions per year. Managing a $45M marketing budget, I was responsible for leading promotional strategy, creative direction, scheduling, production and distribution of all marketing collateral, including: • Holistic direct mail, radio, digital, print, television, email, web and in-store campaigns• Media and marketing plans that produced over 1B broadcast and 77M direct mail impressions annually

As director of partnership marketing, I was charged with creating a new area within Guitar Center’s marketing department that focused on continual optimization of the marketing database and the effective utilization of customer data. My success in accomplishing this was demonstrated by:• Turning new and existing marketing programs into areas of measurable success with positive ROI, incremental sales and vendor subsidies • Expansion of the private label credit card cardholder base and subsequent financed transactions, generating up to 10% of annual sales• Developing and launching a cooperative marketing program with manufacturers that generated $9M in incremental revenue annually

Once promoted to director of direct marketing and promotions, I refined Guitar Center’s direct mail strategy to increase ROI by:• Initiating a marketing database agency review, executing an RFP process and implementing the transfer and rebuild of a marketing database, resulting in a cost savings of approximately 12% per year and a 12% reduction in undeliverable mail within four months• Implementing a predictive model to drive our direct mail targeting, producing an average of $5.5M in incremental sales per monthI also developed contests of skill and contests of chance to add sizzle to monthly sales events, drive store traffic and create brand differentiation. These efforts led to promotional partnerships with major brands including Ford and Bud Light that provided over a half million dollars-worth of prizing per year for customer contests and sweepstakes. Additionally, I oversaw the execution of local store advertising support that included up to 650 in-store clinics/workshops, 300 unique print ads and marketing for 12-20 grand openings each year.