The tl;dr:
I’m a coach, trainer, and speaker who works with leaders of small to medium sized teams (typically 5-25 people). Before that, I was a marketer, journalist, and worked in startups/tech. More info below and at: www.TheEarlyManager.com
The slightly longer story:
I started as a support rep handling emails, calls, and live chats. That turned into a career in marketing & communications, along with a few extra assignments building out support and operations teams.
Over the last several years, I've worked primarily in startups from the seed to mid-stage. I have also worked in the corporate sector, higher education marketing, and a short but fascinating tour as a business journalist. I've excelled as an individual contributor and marketing leader scaling high-performing teams, which led me to training and coaching.
People I work with regularly describe me as someone dedicated to moving quickly, collaborating, and practicing inclusivity. I believe that a good "internal OS" isn't just nice to have; it is a powerful lever for growth and scale that reveals tradeoffs and keeps the organization & people mindful of what matters.
You’ll also hear me talk a lot about how power & decision-making operate, and the importance of investing in people early and often. By listening, learning, and returning consistently to each person's needs and values, I make sure they person feel seen and heard, and can grow their careers while also being true to their core.
My side projects include reinforcing creatives & creative business owners as a co-founder of Coffee + Creatives and serving as a community lead for the Albert's List Careers & Professional Development community, as well as co-lead for job search boot camps that we run a few times per year.
The Timeline
CEO & Founder, The Early Manager
Serve as an executive coach for new/early managers as they build high-performing and inclusive teams, and learn to use their voice for good.
Senior Growth Marketing Strategist — Foundation Marketing
Led a team of 5 working with the agency’s flagship client, a $100M Series B funded Silicon Valley tech company. Led strategy and execution across content creation, distribution, SEO/SEM, PR & outreach, etc., and worked closely with VP of Marketing on product positioning, UX, and a successful go-to-market strategy for their first SaaS product, including capturing the #1 Product Hunt of the week position.
Content Marketing Manager — Ureeka
Led content strategy & execution for a fast-growing startup focused on serving Black & Latinx/Hispanic entrepreneurs with coaching, education, and capital. Developed SEO/SEM strategy, researched & wrote blog posts, launched a founder stories podcast, and collaborated with email and social media channel leads.
Content & Marketing Lead — RedDoor
First marketing hire, responsible for building out content marketing, lead generation, and communications for beta of B2B and v2 of B2C product alongside a talented team of engineers, designers, loan officers, and experts on the home finance process.
Independent Marketing & Communications Strategist
Product Marketing Strategy, Go-To-Market, and Sales Enablement materials for enterprise SaaS workforce management platform
For a NM-based natural foods company: built editorial calendar, content distribution and scaled email subscription rates from 0 to 15K. Increased annual run rate for digital side of the business from $60,000 annually to $1.44M annually by tapping into e-commerce market on 2:1 ROI through Search, Social, Paid Ads, Email, and PR. Also developed customer support strategy
Director of Digital Strategy, Marketing — Central New Mexico Community College
Managed a team of 6, leading the program from beginning to end, defining goals and building plans and executing for measurable results. Put in place first college-wide content strategy for analytics, and audience segmentation. Fully restructured concept, creative, and distribution workflow.
Leveraged analytics and marketing automation tools including Google Analytics, Ads, Optimize, Salesforce, Pardot etc. to grow audience for the college. Optimized user experience and reduced year-over-year churn while increasing revenue retention. Led Salesforce implementation with "right time, right place, right content" editorial strategy.
Independent Growth & Content Marketer
A successful track record building, selling, and activating high-profile integrated digital content and marketing programs for early-stage companies and organizations. Created marketing, messaging, and audience growth via partnerships, paid advertisements and organic content, email, social media, and PR/outreach.
Selected projects:
Programs and marketing for creative economy nonprofit, $110K & $30K micro grant program, built 3,000-member online group/meetup and drove 62,000 views to an interactive map. Placed 13 stories across print/web/TV
Content strategy, creation, distribution, and analytics for Creative Startups accelerator. 92 startups, 5 global sites, and $49M capital raised.
Executed on paid and organic content, investor materials, and editorial strategy for a handful of B2B and B2C startups. $40M+ in capital raised.
Business Reporter — Albuquerque Business First / BizJournals.com
Learned a ton during a brief tour as a journalist where I researched, wrote, edited and published 12-15 stories/week in AP Style across finance, energy, and tech industries.
Operations Manager — Visual.ly
Worked with co-founders on strategy and marketing growth hacking, managed special projects for key clients and partners incl. Deloitte, Crunchbase, NBC News, LinkedIn, United Nations.
Product manager for enterprise platform beta for marketing/product design, project managed build, matched clients with design, journalism, video, script talent. Grew interactive and video lines of business from $150K/month to $500K/month.
Project Manager, Online Services — MultiVu/PR Newswire
Key contact for clients and internal teams, responsible for executing on strategy for web builds, media outreach, content, production, distribution, full cycle of reporting, billing.
Worked with key clients domestically (incl. J.M. Smucker, Bacardi, HGTV, Bayer, Johnson Controls) as well as primary liaison for Asia Pacific division. Managed contracts and projects at $750K/year, grew digital content/platforms revenue by 30%.
Customer Advocate — PR Newswire
Internal and external customer support champion for global communication company. Worked with variety of software/hardware as required in a role supporting news distribution, billing, content strategy, media outreach. Nominated for company-wide employee of the quarter twice.