Boring fundamentals that actually move the needle.
I started in sales at Future Shop in the ’90s, learning that the real job wasn’t features and benefits — it was building stories and metaphors that moved people. That instinct has stayed with me through two decades of marketing.
I’ve been in affiliate SEO when Google killed it overnight in 2012. I’ve scaled an HVAC company to $3M+ in 18 months, and run financial services paid ads across Canada, the US, and the UK — first on Facebook, then on YouTube when Facebook shut us down.
Every time a platform changed, I reinvented. Right now, the biggest asymmetric opportunity I’ve ever seen is Connected TV — and most advertisers are completely ignoring it.
“Talent is fine. But without the groundwork — without putting in the hours, the reps, the blood sweat and tears — you can’t get to a point where you’re successful.”
The lesson I took from distance running in high school: outwork the field on the boring stuff, and the results take care of themselves. That’s the through-line in everything I teach and build.
Repeatable systems. Boring fundamentals. Always looking for the placement nobody else has figured out yet.