It all started at age 13, when I began building hobbyist gaming websites and complementary forums for fun (and trying to convince users from larger gaming websites to join our tribe). It was then that I discovered my passion for digital marketing: there was something strangely exciting about setting up these resources and communities, getting involved in them, and watching them grow. This evolved into doing freelance digital marketing work for dozens of local companies, studying the topic extensively on my own, and then eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in management information systems (MIS) from Texas Tech University. But as satisfying as it was to help small business owners become more successful with their marketing efforts, I also wanted to experience the challenge of working on larger-scale projects. Since then, I've been engaged in full-time digital marketing work at various companies (mostly B2B medtech) with progressively increasing responsibilities. My experience consists of managing company websites (including an e-commerce system), agency relationships, paid media campaigns, content marketing strategy, email and SMS marketing, the marketing tech stack, ROAS / ROI reporting, and representing the brand at trade shows.The 3 key differentiators for myself compared to a large portion of digital marketers are:[1] I bring entrepreneurial energy to my projects. I proactively look for opportunities that we can capitalize on together (and that I will also help to manage and/or execute). Many others will just do what they’re told to do, so if their manager fails to identify said opportunities themselves (due to a lack of specialized knowledge, bandwidth, or motivation), then the company will simply miss out on those growth possibilities. Not with me.[2] I study the field of digital marketing on my own. I have and continue to build what Naval Ravikant calls “specific knowledge” (i.e., knowledge unique to your self-education - not just knowledge taught in a mass-produced curriculum). I make it a priority to understand the state of the art. I don’t just depend on what formal education taught me [x] years ago, or the limited use cases I’ve been exposed to at [x, y, z] jobs.[3] I’m a very quantitative thinker and personally place a high value on measuring the ROI of my work. Whether it’s growing a company’s professional services revenue by 1200%, a company’s e-commerce product sales by 100%, or another company’s MQL pipeline by 80% - I’ve done it, and I've quantified it.