Marketing as if your life depended on it.

I’m just a storyteller, adjusting to the mediums of the day, in various situations and opportunity sets. I like describing the zeitgeist of the day (and sometimes performing these stories, solo or in concert with others).

But I’ve spearheaded and developed multi-tens-of-million-dollar revenue-generating campaigns that were successfully implemented.

At my father’s pioneering national sales and marketing firm, I became the scribe, the persuasive voice. But I was first commissioned in 1989, while at grad school, to write a white paper in the U.K. about the market prospects there, a demand analysis. Then, I joined the firm in 1992 as marketing communications and special projects. My written expressions were often ground zero for most important communications that hit the outside world. I was then plugged into all manner of marketing and communications work – newsletters, PR and marketing campaigns, large seminars, workshops and events, early corporate videos, etc. The efforts folded into product development, and the occasional pitch to investors, DC lobbying junkets, or board members.

All for a complicated novel product that was expensive -- but important to protect assets and health. There was also a knowledge component—research and policy analysis, as it touched financial services and health care.

This morphed into thought leadership work, a base of knowledge was applied in different contexts that became an integral part of marketing and communications that sold products and services.

Today, thought leadership comes in many forms and is expressed in many venues. But one thing is imperative, your story better be good. It’s the genesis block. Getting that right can take effort, creativity and a good guide.

Entrepreneurs and businesses come to me when:

• It’s nascent, hard, and unscripted, unwritten. A market, challenge or product needs to have specialized and rapt attention, maybe a lot of education.

• Disruption is afoot.

• A value proposition needs to be identified, explained and marketed.

• An integrated, holistic intervention is needed to shift a paradigm, whether internally or externally.

Institutions—academic, government, and nonprofits—request services:

• Expert interviewer that highlights thought leadership (in profiles, podcasts, videos);

• White papers, that explain concepts, products or new ideas;

• Speaking about energy, resources and next-gen infrastructure expertise.

• An “event” or opportunity is a game-changer, such that bespoke attention and all manner of creative resources need to be harnessed to leverage an opportunity.

The common denominator is marketing and communications but managing resources and interacting with key talent, sometimes very high-level leaders, is involved. Often, projects are strategic, outside the normal day-to-day parameters, but commonly, the results become an integral part of an organization’s future. A new path, market or approach emerges…All the world is a stage.