In 2021, I helped launch and lead the Barkley Creative Accelerator, an experimental apprenticeship / portfolio school designed to rethink how the industry recruits talent. The program won the AAF’s Mosaic Award in 2022, and Kim Chungong, a graduate of our inaugural class, has already won a Clio. Copywriter Ryan Wilson, Class of 2025, was poached by competitor VML before she even graduated.

Storytelling is in my blood. In 2014, I joined the Screen Actors Guild to become the voice of the Dairy Queen brand. Since then, I’ve done voiceover work for Marmot, H&R Block and narrated a 60-minute ESPN documentary.

In 2014, I co-founded a video production company called Rockbox. I learned how to produce, direct, manage a P&L, you name it. We grew it from a team of 2 people to a team of 8, and took annual revenue from $0 to $1.3MM. A highlight was writing and co-directing a brand film for the Minnesota Vikings on permanent display in US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

As a copywriter, I helped rebrand Discovery Channel and American Airlines, earning a Gold Effie and a Cannes Lion for the same global American campaign. I wrote a Nielsen-ranked Top 3 Super Bowl spot for Nationwide Insurance, also named TBS’ Funniest Commercial of the Year, and one of The Wall Street Journal’s Best Ads of the Year. 

I will always write for a living.
Words matter now more than ever.
And the world always
needs a new story.