I grew up in the heart of the Midwest; Kansas City, where I learned the value of hard work, empathy and a strong sense of community. As many Kansans do, I studied at the University of Kansas. While studying marketing and advertising, I had visions of life in the big city. With diploma in hand, I packed my bags and headed to NYC where I landed the first of two jobs in advertising learning the hard and invaluable lessons of agency life.

Feeling homesick for the Midwest, I headed back to KC with a new set of skills and set up shop in a non-profit where I learned to make every dollar count and be accountable to your customer. After years of international travel, I decided to try corporate life. For the next two years I built loyalty programs using emotion marketing. I learned that business does have a heart and consumers appreciate the human side of brands.

My odyssey continued into telecom where I was introduced to the most competitive marketplace I could imagine. I learned that consumers are smart and understand what they want. In order to respect and honor consumer decisions, the best brands use data and customer feedback to give customers what they want, when they want it. Even better, anticipate what they’ll want next.