Head of brand and creative strategy and sole member of the East Coast office. Job title includes: - Dropping bangers in the zoom chat- Supporting my creatives worst (best) instincts- Figuring shit out.

They say “Those who can’t do, teach.”Kinda passive aggressive, but go off, I guess. I teach because there’s nothing better than watching someone “get it” before you ever could. Passing it on is cool, because nothing teaches you like teaching others. Years in an industry can make you forget how you operate, and it’s not until you have to explain it to others that you begin to understand how you do it yourself. And watching those students do it well, well, that’s kinda cool! I teach students how to creatively solve problems, business or otherwise. And yeah, whatever, they teach me too. Indirectly or otherwise. Talent is talent. Age notwithstanding. Cliches are boring until they’re true. Besides. I always dreamed of being the smartest person in the class. Somehow still working on that though.

I know what you're thinking. And I swear it was an accident that my first full-time gig after a freelance stint was with a place called Butchershop. It's a Red herring. Butchershop specializes in creative and development for anyone from Startups to Fortune 500s looking to make big shifts during their growth cycles. I no longer work on meat brands. Unless one's brewing in the Start-up Tech community and even then we might put another person on it because I'm on a new path and all. Sort of.

Got to jump into all sorts of cool clients and projects. A few highlights:- Boost Mobile: reframing perceptions about prepaid contracts being an affordable alternative when you don't want to be bogged down into realizing that at their essence, mobile phones aren't lifelines anymore. They're quality-of-life lines. And pre-paid is the best way to maintain that essence. - Chrysler and Jeep: With perseverance, success happens in cycles, and sometimes 10 years after a (then once in a century) economic collapse and rising from the ashes, you need to celebrate. And sometimes that big, beautiful, inspirational strategic manifesto you wrote on the cyclicality of success creatively manifests itself as Bill Murray reliving Groundhogs Day with a Jeep Gladiator during the Super Bowl.- Rocket Mortgage: The biggest benefit of dreaming is never hearing "no". And so the one thing missing from making your "Dream Home" "Your Home" is the certainty of not hearing that tiny word. And that sounds nice, but Tracy Morgan said it better.

Ate my weight in BBQ (Seriously, what’s my problem?) during a short stint in Kansas City as strategic lead for Gatorade and other PepsiCo brands’ digital work. Had to get inside the head of Gen Z. Generational torch passing can be messy, but I feel that they will both save and destroy us all.

I don't want to come off as a victim of typecast, but I had the meats. Again. As a senior strategist on Arby's. Thankfully, there was one a few blocks from my office so research was a breeze. And trust me, a breeze is good after eating 3lbs of meat for *research*. I also head strategy for the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ), which works to end systemic and generational poverty in Minneapolis’ Northside through the empowerment and education of the area's youth. It's a project very near and dear to my heart. Seriously, check them out. They're leading an incredible movement. http://northsideachievement.org/Watched a guy spray paint himself in the eye *twice* doing research for a pitch. Ask me for the video. It’s glorious.

After McKinney, I found out I have high blood pressure. Soon after, I decided to take a job that involved hours and hours of primary research in order to advertise CPG meat brands. That's dedication. In a planning department of two, I was strategic lead across 10 different Hormel brands, and right-hand-man across the rest. These brands included (but were not limited to) Skippy, SPAM, Chili, Black Label Bacon, Natural Choice, Pepperoni.I'm convinced that on my Judgement Day, the Pigs will take their revenge. They'd be justified. Somehow, the animatronic groundhog I convinced the client to include in an ad for Dinty Moore might save me though. On top of Hormel, I headed up strategy on projects for 3M, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Jennie-O Turkey, and Andersen Windows.

Found the silver lining in losing my cool with Richard from my credit card company by considering it "insight generation" for Nationwide, allowing me to help Nationwide show people that they treat their customers differently than most. Richard was not as pleased with my insight generation as Nationwide was. Betrayed my ACC Loyalty writing a brief for the launch of Football Season on the SEC Network for ESPN. Because to die-hard college football fans, the season isn't just a return of a game, it's a return home. There I go. I'm crying again. Shopped and cooked dinner for a family of 7 as qualitative research for a grocery store chain pitch. It was terrifying. Compared hardcore sports fans to the monotheistic deity of a popular western religion in a pitch for a network's digital offerings. Yep. You know the one. That happened.

I once got a high five from an Art Director over a strategy. I've been chasing that thrill ever since through marginally increasing acts of desperation.Also almost got sucked into an alien cult for a documentary project. I wanted to believe. I did. Then I ran. Nice people though...

Worked desperately to avoid making food puns when people asked what I did. Because I'm better than that. But here, this might give you a TASTE of what my summer was like. http://www.martinagencykitchen.com/Worked on:Wal MartCool WhipMoenDonate LifeEverybodyOn.comRVA Maker Festand even made a Music VideoAlso worked with some amazing people and had a blast.

Sold digital marketing packages to small local businesses. Broke a chair in a Monday morning meeting simply by sitting in it too aggressively. Those are the highlights. Buy better chairs for your workers. They might save lives (or my pride).

I called you during dinner to sell you insurance. To the parking garage owner in Baltimore refusing to share information for a clients’ damaged car. I won’t forget. (I forgot)