If only I had been better at Trig, perhaps I would have been an engineer. Fortunately, my artistic talents far outweighed my math skills, so off to art school I went. As an alumni of the Art Instutite of Philadelphia, I hit the ground running landing my first job at a small design firm in Allentown. Two years later, I found myself back in my hometown of Fleetwood, PA (of all places) working for an up and coming agency. It was there that I had the opportunity to grow creatively, manage an art department, acquire account executive skills and work with companies like Sodexo, Crayola, Surgical Specialties, Palmer Candies and Preferred Warranties.

Then in 2003, fate said, “time to launch your own firm.”

Over time, my creativity shifted from designing the deliverables to designing the strategy behind the deliverables. And best of all, I have been able to merge my love of “how things get built” with my passion for great design and strong positioning. Now I focus primarily on working with the manufacturing, construction and related industries as their “CMO for hire. ” We work together to clearly define their audience, find their market advantage and build  a marketing plan – the blueprint – for building their brand and growing their business in a very noisy and social world.

I was a daddy’s girl and my dad never sat still. In fact, he built all 3 homes I grew up in himself. So if I wanted time with Dad, it was spent running for tools, mixing mortar, helping him mow our 3 arces or riding shotgun while he plowed snow. I LOVED our trips to 84 Lumber. I was fascinated by the doors, windows, bins of nails, stacks of wood and the smell…oh, the smell of lumber. My summer jobs always seemed to revolve around manual labor. No lifegaurding or working fast food. Nope. I have worked on a farm driving BIG tractors and have stacked a few loads of hay. I have worked in an orchard, learning how to prune and train fruit trees…and I learned that I am not good at picking strawberries. All this laid the foundation for my work ethic and deep respect for people who work with their hands, building things and building companies. It is my quest to help them build a great brand, too.

In addition to being a serial creative and business owner, I’m an HGTV and DIY junkie (of course), foodie, dog lover, a 10-year Vistage Trusted Advisor member and an insatiable learner. Check out my blog for my creativity ramblings, rants and insights and what book I’m on for the year – the goal is 24 per year. Yes twenty-four. Suggestions for new reads always welcomed.

We scale our team to what you need…today…tomorrow. No more. No less. If I do not have the expertise, then I go to my bullpen of experienced partners and vendors for the solution. Some firms frown on outsourcing. We are not one of them. Instead, I believe that clients should only pay for the services that they need, not the overhead of staff they may never utilize. My go-to network is a team of seasoned professionals that have an established history of working together– some nearly 20 years. The network provides clients with seamless, targeted support when they need it.