This campaign is fine but let’s talk about something else.

From my first day at the front desk of EVB as a temp receptionist, I thought “it’s incredible this line of work exists. I want in.” Now all these years later, I’m exceedingly grateful to all the people I’ve worked with along the way, especially to those people who opened doors for me either by direct action or by example.

So rather than restating the brief for this semi-recent Okta work and telling you how we solved for it, I’ll just embed the assets (directed by Plummer/Strauss; stills shot by Cody Pickens; design and art direction by Joy Scull, all for GDP), I’ll further assume you can tell what we were going for and some choices we made, and instead use this space for other purposes.

I owe Michelle Spear and Jason Zada for my start. They hired me off the front desk as a creative assistant, even though I’m not sure I was the type of organizational wizard usually staffed in such a role. They knew I wanted to be a writer and let me be in every meeting. To listen and learn. The rest of that EVB staff wowed me, and they still do in memories of that time. I got advice in the copy room from Jaime Robinson and Lauren Harwell Godfrey, got to peer into the mind of Amber Justis, and get pulled under the wing of (at the time) upstarts like Sean O’Brien, Ryan Carver, and Bob Goeldner. Eventually Jason Zada left to go conquer the world as a constant innovator of everything, and Stephen Goldblatt stepped into his place, or rather drove his awesome old orange BMW into his spot. Stephen let me start writing and presenting, he also never once asked me to go get him a bagel, although I would happily have done so. Still would tbh.

Okay time-jump! Here’s another Okta ad.

I got my first job as an actual copywriter based off the few projects I’d jumped onto as an assistant at EVB. Lauren Harwell recommended me to her husband, Patrick Godfrey, one of the greats, and he gave me a shot at Godfrey Q and Partners. There, Lauren Tyrrell showed me what it means to be a true professional at wordsmithing. Mike Gallagher brought the chaos and ideas. And the man called only “Q” gave me a reading list, at my request. One of those books was The Art of Client Service, because he said it was important to understand what other people in the office are doing every day. This look into the fastidious life of account managers gave me an early appreciation for cross-departmental empathy and partnership.

Then someone told me I needed to go do more interesting work to build a better book, and I won’t name that person. But I took the advice when Goldy Bardin called and asked me to join her team at Organic, writing lead on the Intel account. That’s a brand I’d heard of. And I knew what “lead” meant, and wanted to be leading copy. So I did. For a while. And started to worry after a few months if this creative life might accidentally become all about using giant brand guides to copy/paste.

Josh Lowman is the guy who took me on as a mentor. I worked for him, in his actual house, just the two of us. He had me cranking out weird ideas and diving into briefs from some esteemed agencies I would not have sniffed otherwise. And from there, things took off.

Goldblatt called and trusted me enough to handle a Nike project. Which grew and grew. And one day I was interviewing all-star baseball players in Las Vegas, going to a Russian-themed nightclub with the clients, eating $60 burgers and literally wearing fur coats. And armwrestling. Micah Gendron was there, as he would later be when I got the call to go to Autofuss.

Oh shit, wait, here’s another Okta ad.

Where were we? Right! Listing people who got me here to where I’m updating a portfolio full of strong work I’m proud of, all these years (though not too many years!) later, in 2023.

The amazing folks at Eleven brought me in straight from the Nike shoot and sent me to Sun Valley, Idaho, for two weeks. We shot something like 8 short films for a rebrand. It was six of us in a house, following our instincts and our talents.

Surrounded by awesome people like Rob Price, Michael Borosky, Paul Curtain, Jay Rendon, Joanne Torres, Babak Khoushnoud, the best account person of all time Molly Warner (no longer an account person, she’s running things now), Joel Kaplan, Amani King, the list goes on…and I was suddenly making tv commercials, viral hits, billboards I could see with my eyes for real ass companies.

Then West! I got poached by West and all the junk you’ve heard about that place was true, but what a staff. Jeremy Lind, Sid Bosley, Matthew Scott, Emily Vernon, Megha Narayan, Ben Hughes, Frank Lionetti, Jes is Rad, Andrio Abero…the work was weird but the people absolutely tippy-top notch.

I’m realizing this page will never end if I continue going beat-by-beat, year-by-year, name-by-name. Suffice it to say that some of my best work and bestest training happened at Mekanism, where I learned to crank out scripts and fight for the best ideas, to never present something you wouldn’t be happy selling (no “safe version” ideas, ok?). Working with Tommy Means, Tom Lyons, Brian Perkins, Joe Beutel, and everyone else…that’s not to mention the stretches working out of the New York office.

Ok one last Okta ad. The people want to see them!

If you’ve somehow made it this far, you get what I’m after. This is a team sport. And it’s one I love. And I’m grateful as hell to all the people I’ve gotten to make these things with. And I’m excited as hell for all the people I’ve yet to meet and work that’s yet to be done. This is, on most days, the best job I could imagine existing, for a hopeless word-nerd like me. I can’t wait to see the updates I get to make to this site in the next few years. I don’t want to say I’m only getting started but…I’m certainly not done.

Psych! I can’t end on that note without mentioning the GDP team I loved working with so much. Allie Fisher’s taste, decision-making, leadership—north stars. Erik Welch with his hand on the steering wheel and the most enviable combination of patience and persistence. PG showing everyone that intellect and opinions won’t go out of style as long as they’re good. Joy Scull, tireless and talented. Ok I really should stop.

If you made it this far you get 10% off your first smoothie. I don’t have a coupon code, we have to meet up to make it happen. Which makes me think I should just buy it for you. I will, you know.