About Me

I’m an Okie, through and through. I was born in the relatively small oil town of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where I grew up alongside my sister. My mother was a choir teacher and musician who eventually became a pharmaceutical sales rep and my father was, and still is, the conductor of the Bartlesville Symphony Orchestra as well as a professional cellist. He was also the music director of our church during a large part of my childhood.

So as one might easily assume, much of my upbringing was centered around music and church.

After graduating high school in 2005, I moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to pursue a music business degree at Oklahoma City University. During my time at OCU I studied string bass performance under John Schimek as well as guitar performance under Michael Fresonke. While my time at OCU was one of immense progress for me musically, I eventually realized the life I wanted could not be built around the degree I was seeking. So in 2009 I transferred to the University of Central Oklahoma to study Graphic Design while continuing my study of guitar performance via the Academy of Contemporary Music at UCO.

Throughout all of those years, I would regularly play guitar or bass at my church, People’s Church. What I didn’t know is that my connections with friends and staff members at the church would change the trajectory of my professional career and send me down an unexpected path.

Between classes, I’d often find myself sitting in the church office with my friend Andy, the church’s sole creative producer at the time. One day in his office he looked at me and asked, “Do you want to learn how to make videos?”

I had no experience outside of being primarily self-taught in Graphic Design with one semester of actual studies under my belt, but I figured, “why not?” So Andy began teaching me how to edit videos in Final Cut Pro and the basics of motion graphics in After Effects.

In 2009 I accepted a summer internship offer at People’s Church, creating videos, designing marketing materials, and playing guitar on the weekends. And in the spring of 2010 I was offered a full-time position as a Graphic Designer & Video Editor at the church, where I worked for the next two years. I gratefully attribute these two years as the most foundational years in my professional development as a designer and editor.

In 2012, having gotten married to my amazing wife, Bekah, one year prior and looking ahead to the future, I transitioned out of my role at the church and into a new role as a Video Photographer & Editor with the Oklahoma City Thunder, where I worked for the next four years.

This time period was exciting, exhausting, and extremely valuable. While my work up to this point had been focused around internal marketing and content creation within a church setting, my work with the Thunder branched me out into live television, sports broadcasting, social media content creation, 3D animation, and one-on-one interviews with well-respected individuals and big name athletes.

After leaving the Thunder in 2016, I took a step out of my comfort zone and walked into “Corporate America.” I began working as a Video Production Specialist for Paycom, one of the largest payroll and human resource software companies in the United States.

My primary role at Paycom was to create internal training content. I worked directly with C-Suite employees to ideate and produce training materials for the organization, focusing primarily on video content for our LMS. I quickly branched out beyond software and company training into company culture and personal development, launching an internal, weekly podcast featuring employees and directors.

My time at Paycom was short-lived, however, and I left their parking lot for the last time in the fall of 2017. The reason? Simply put, “Corporate America” was not and likely still is not for me, and I was actually fired during my resignation meeting before I was actually able to say, “I’m resigning.”

This left me jobless in an increasingly tough market for the next year, but I still believe it was one of the best decisions I (they?) made.

Between the fall of 2017 and the summer of 2018, while looking for the “perfect” job, I leaned into a favorite hobby of mine – Woodworking. I officially formed Green Builds and began building and selling small home furnishings, branching out into the occasional large pieces of furniture, many of which can still be found across Oklahoma today.

In 2018, I stumbled upon a job listing to be an Ads Manager for Tier 11 – A company I’d never heard of in an industry I was completely unfamiliar with. Logically, I applied and was offered an interview with the COO who quickly informed me I would not be getting the job… But he did have questions about my video and design portfolio.

This conversation led to him asking, “What if we could create a position here for you creating videos?” And, not to be cliche, the rest is history.

I’m still working for Tier 11 today.

Over the past six years, I’ve managed a portfolio of up to 10 client accounts as a Creative Strategist, driving the production of ad creatives and marketing strategy for our partners. I worked as the Creative Ops Manager, building and developing a team of video editors, motion graphics designers, and graphic designers to better service the agency’s clients, many of whom are still with Tier 11 today. And, most recently, I’ve been given the wheels as the agency’s Marketing Creative Lead, working with a small team of marketers and designers to build the agency’s brand and develop effective, lead-generating marketing campaigns and creatives.

During my time with Tier 11, Bekah and I were blessed with two children, Noah and Shiloh, who continue to keep us on our toes (and sometimes heels) to this day.

And through it all, I’m still playing guitar for my church. We now attend New Song Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. I’d love for you to join me and my family at church this weekend. And if you’re lucky, I’ll be on stage so you can heckle me from the front row.