Every for-impact social venture deserves to thrive. Leveraging my 20 years of leadership experience, I lead organizations to unlock their full potential in today’s rapidly evolving context.
On Assignment in the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan in 2017
Philosophy → Honesty
As a veteran leader of for-impact ventures, my experience lies in navigating the complexities of today’s rapidly evolving landscape. I find that too often change making groups innovate last and I seek to change that with the groups I partner with.
Honesty is at the core of my leadership philosophy both in internal management fostering trust-filled relationships, but also as an organizational voice generating loyalty instead of hype.
My holistic leadership style values people and is designed for real impact, not optimizing for vanity metrics. It is the impact I design for – the breadth and the depth, the quantitive and the qualitative.
I believe in an approach to impact that involves not only the heart, but also the head and the hands. We know for-impact groups (non profits, churches, transformative businesses) have heart, but it is often the head and the hands, the strategy and the excellence that are lagging. I incorporate strategic planning, agile implementation, bold messaging, relational solutions and data-driven evaluation as key pillars. This multi-faceted approach not only addresses immediate needs but ensures long-term sustainability and growth.
Devils Cauldron, Oregon Coast
Whether as a 1. coach, 2. leader, 3. speaker or 3. through my agency Honest Studios. I am eager to connect and see how I can help you embrace your honesty to become maximally fruitful on your journey to fulfilling your for-impact vision.
Recent Work
Working directly with the Marketing Director of The Bible Project I designed a full day in person retreat for their Marketing Team. Together we explored the history of Bible inspired art and biblical cultural foundations in the west. We workshopped critical path growth areas with low cost and high impact to drive reach and engagement across their channels with millions of followers in many geographies. We explored team roles and spent time reviewing movements throughout history distilling the power of trust-based relationships being at the core of successful daring endeavors.
We spearheaded the launch of 1MillionHome, an innovative non-profit targeting global orphan care reform. Our contributions spanned from strategic planning, core messaging, brand identity design, website creation, ongoing brand strategy, video production, securing promotional partnerships, creating fundraising structure, technology and material, and curriculum build-out, culminating in the successful launch of this new non-profit with remarkable growth over the last 5 years, including garnering industry buy-in, as well as the Kenyan Government choosing 1MILLIONHOME as their implementing partner for their new orphan care policies. Our work has been crucial to the securing of millions of dollars of fundraising over the course of the last 5 years.
In collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Through my agency, Honest Studios we embarked on an ambitious journey to rebrand and rename the iconic Dawna Tenasserim Rainforest, one of the most bio diverse landscapes on the planet that touches the borders of Myanmar, Cambodia, and Thailand. But our mission was more than just a name change; it was an effort to reignite regional passion for a rainforest teetering on the precipice of ecological challenges. This campaign included a multilingual experiential event that took place in bangkok to educate locals of the importance of the rainforest in their backyard. This project had many key stakeholders including multiple nation states that needed to be brought together in support.
Recently we played a critical role in conceiving, messaging, and designing the visual brand for ‘The Send’, an activating stadium campaign that has attracted hundreds of thousands of participants to historic venues like Camping World Stadium in Orlando and GEHA Field in Kansas City. The Send has garnered millions of online views, mobilized thousands into various impact-focused outcomes, and successfully raised the funding necessary to perform at this level scale.
Our strategic planning, branding, and messaging expertise fueled the inception and production of Merge Twin Cities. A celebration of the nations at the Minnesota state capitol. The event united 8,000 people and sparked the formation of a powerful network of over 800 churches and civic leaders. Our holistic approach included managing communications, creating fundraising material, refining the vision, and executing the event journey through visual design, messaging, and video/photo capture of the event itself.
Through my agency Honest Studios we gave leadership to a rebrand for Engage Your Destiny, a non-profit dedicated to veterans, we wrote their core messaging, designed their new identity, and designed a pitch deck for a large-scale initiative and event brand that laid the foundation for what became “Heroes Honor Festival” at Daytona Motor Speedway. The impactful pitch deck we strategically formed, messaged, and designed secured $425,000 in fundraising in less than two months.
I was hired by Alabaster Bible to map out strategic growth paths including most notably a strategy and connection to partners to facilitate publishing Alabaster Bibles in new languages, navigating Bible Societies internationally, and sequencing which language groups to start with. These efforts combined with their already significant momentum successfully landed them on Forbes 500 list of America’s fastest-growing companies.
Recently, our comprehensive brand strategy, messaging, and identity design, brought Gratūs Funds to market. A purpose-driven alternative investment group creating access for the masses to participate in the investments typically only available to the top 1%. With crucial contributions from Honest Studios Gratūs Funds has grown from a budding real estate fund to a flourishing business with over 40 million in real estate assets and a growing team of 8 employees. As a testament to our partnership, I had the privilege to dedicate their business at their launch event which we also designed and executed.
In an era defined by polarized perspectives on women’s reproductive rights, I through my agency Honest Studios, in collaboration with Save The Storks—an innovative leader in women’s reproductive health services—and Magid, a renowned research firm in NYC, sought to provide clarity, unity, and a fresh perspective on the decades-long pro-life vs. pro-choice debate. We undertook the first national study in over a decade on the state of pro-life vs. pro-choice sentiments, aiming to identify common grounds and pivot towards a unified new narrative. Our ultimate goal was to craft a campaign that would resonate with diverse demographics, reducing the number of abortions in America. This initiative which I named is called For Every Woman and is effectively growing and is seen as a dynamic player in leading the future of the conversation in women’s reproductive health.
Whisper Movement believes that “connection is an essential human need.” With the Surgeon General of the United States recently coming out with a ground breaking report on its detrimental effects, the importance of addressing the loneliness epidemic has taken greater prominence in the change-making community. I came along side their leadership by writing their Organizational Messaging Framework to drive cohesion across their rapidly growing/evolving organization. From there we tackled reforming their core offering of high school groups into 40 day seasons of concentrated impact. I developed several direct to consumer products that supports their mission and ads earned revenue to their primarily philanthropic economic engine. From card decks that support teen connection/conversation to a group experience called the “Whisper Pizza Box” which guides young people with interactive tools and suggestions into a night of deepening social connection.
Focus Areas
Testimonials
Services
Personal Coaching
Through Zoom or in-person meetings we will build relationship and chart a course together for your unique situation. Working with you, I will help you embrace honesty, the way of the well-lived life.
Leadership
Bringing my experience, resources, strategic direction, management and connections to bear I lead your group to elevate its impact.
Speaking
Through Zoom or in-person events I share in settings ranging from large-scale to intimate retreats on the topics of: Embracing The Way of Honesty, Effective Change-Making, Honest Leadership, Honest Media, cultural and market trends, discovering purpose, and more.
Honest Studios
With select groups my team and I partner to produce global campaigns and launch or rebrand change-making organizations. We consider both full-service accounts and targeted projects. (For both nonprofit and for-profit entities)