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Contrarians Agree, Empathy and Creativity Should Fit Into Your Content Solutions
Develop Creative Strategies
Inspire Colleagues
Laugh Together
Bring Me Into the Fold
My background as a generalist in tech, arts, and education with hobbies in psychology, sociology, design, and sports guides my process to understand and connect.
Content Development
From brief to delivery, I’m a one-stop shop experienced producer and creator
User Engagement
Walking a mile in someone’s shoes is where my perspective begins to find actionable solutions
Collaborative Leadership
Starting with alignment of org goals via open honest dialog, I collaborate cross-functionally to determine optimal strategy
User Engagement & Interactive Learning
Opal users were struggling to learn how to get started with basic functionality, so we needed a solution that would empower each user to define their own learning experience.
To help increase user confidence, I conceived of and deployed a simple and effective in-app like experience within the Learning Center where users could learn by doing. This solution removed concern about impacting a live workspace, set users up for success by learning what a capability was and how they could use it.
Content Strategy & Community Development
Independent film making teams typically face two challenges: money and fans.
Working with a handful of friends in Hartford, CT, I developed the online strategy, collaborated with content creators, and built a community to fund and support the film via Kickstarter.
The online support was so significant that the film sold out its World Premiere screening on the other side of the country in Seattle, WA, and helped us sign with a distributor to release the film on Amazon.
Developing Scalable Sales & Support
Selecting a new piece of software can be complicated. Prospects often want a chance to explore capabilities and support before signing up.
Working with Sales, Customer Success, and Product teams I developed learning and support materials that handed the keys to prospects and users. Instead of waiting for a live webinar, they could explore the product at their convenience.
Additionally, the Sales, Customer Success, and Support team used the materials to close deals more quickly, expand seat count, improve the user experience.
Establishing Brands
Members of the Sarah Lawrence College community expressed confusion about multiple aspects of the school’s tech stack. To improve awareness and engagement, I worked with students to develop branding for the Help Desk, Gryphon Mail, and Library Facebook Page.
At Opal and while working on independent projects I led projects to establish missions, language, logos, content guides, and more. Using these materials, I created and supervised materials to connect with the community and expand reach via SEO.
Social Issue Film Making
Telling the stories about those who have little or no representation is important to me because I believe everyone should be felt seen and heard.
The short film “quiet de luxe” was created to reach across the aisle to support others who may be different from you. At festivals, viewers spoke with me about how the piece resonated with them and how much they saw themselves in the lead character and wanted to share it with their friends and family. Not only did the film play in thirteen festivals across the world, it also was used as an educational piece in classrooms in Mumbai, India.
Future Tech Stack Planning
Students and faculty benefit from increased access to tools that will help their daily activities, e.g. easy access, new features, and a consistent experience.
In the early days of Google Edu, I saw an opportunity to reduce infrastructure and staff costs by switching from an in-house server to a cloud based option. I worked with the teams responsible for on-campus hardware, support, and alumni relations to develop a plan to rollout the new service – Gryphon Mail. The switchover to Google Edu saved the school ~$100k in the first year and has been in use since early 2007
Content Sizzle Reel
Let’s Make Something Together!
I’m a slash kind of guy – actor/director/editor/producer/dp/audio, etc. I love learning new ways to tell stories to inspire dialog and engagement, and better understand what other talented individuals experience and know. This helps me to have more empathy, and establish better schedules and budgets.
Actor
Hand me a script and I’ll give you options. Let’s see where we can take it!
Director
I’ve been described as an actor’s director, and thrive in collaborative spaces.
Need Help?
I want to give back to the community that has supported me to become who I am.
Schedule a free 30 minute call with me today.
Hi
I’m Gary,a generalist, player/coach, fan of cookies in Portland, OR
Supporting and empowering people to be their authentic self, so that we can influence the world in positive ways inspires me to wake up every day.
I care deeply and fully, about individual, team, and organizational successes and failures. Every new insight is an opportunity to learn something and make a change, and I find it thrilling to work with others who share a similar perspective.
In 2022, I decided that it was time to step back into an official role of leadership. Shortly afterward, I read Steve Jobs’ quote about team leaders, and felt seen like never before – “They’re the great individual contributors, who never ever want to be a manager, but decide they have to be manager because no one else is going to be able to do as good a job as them.”
My Approach
Empower & Trust Through Clear Communication
Clear goals and strategy set a individuals, teams, and an organization up for success. I’m going to ask questions until the puzzle pieces fit into place. After that, frequent and repeated communication is needed to remind everyone where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.
Find & Support Talented People
Everyone is amazing at something. It is with that knowledge that I love finding and working with people who are smarter and more talented than me. After that, I do everything that I can to clear the runway for liftoff!
Rinse, Repeat, Review
Every project is successful – even if it was a failure. Coupling iterative experimentation from data and learned lessons, we’ll find a paths that leads us closer to our goals.
From the Blog
Off the Cuff – A Mini-Series of Reaction Videos at the FIFA 2023 World Cup
While in New Zealand, I was inspired me to create videos about all of the amazing soccer I was seeing. Check out “Off the Cuff”.
Creating and Engaging on LinkedIn to Help Others, Meet New People and Find Work
Using my backgrounds and skills, I created a series of LinkedIn videos to help others during the 2023 downturn.
Am I Going Bald or is it the Zoom Effect?
Prior to the pandemic, I spent, give or take less than 10 minutes looking at myself in the mirror on an average day. How much time did spend looking at yourself in the mirror? Be honest. Unless you were getting ready to go out, it probably wasn't a large percentage of...