Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
I help retail brands and manufacturers turn digital strategy into revenue. The work sits at the intersection of technology, marketing, and commercial execution - and I've spent my career learning how to connect all three. Over the last eight years, I led marketing and eCom at Sweetwater Sound - the largest online music retailer in the US ($1.8B+ revenue). I didn't do it alone. I connected cross-functional teams across engineering, merchandising, and marketing pulling in the same direction, and built the systems that made our growth scalable. A few highlights: I architected a Retail Media Network that gave 100+ manufacturing partners real visibility into their spend. I built and optimized an 8-figure Google Ads program, established a usability practice, and pioneered GEO/LLMO frameworks when AI started reshaping how customers find products. Today, I bring that playbook to companies through Oakleaf Digital. For manufacturers, that means navigating channel complexity and how to work with large retailers. For MarTech platforms, it means getting the retailer's perspective on what actually works at enterprise scale. For brands, it means fractional digital leadership that connects strategy to execution without the full-time hire. If any of that sounds like a puzzle you're working on, I'd love to talk. My Clifton Strengths help paint a picture of what it's like to work with me: Strategic — Spots patterns fast and cuts through noise to find the path forward. Achiever — Relentless about finishing what gets started. Momentum matters. Arranger — Best when orchestrating a lot of moving pieces at once. Learner — Always pulling apart something new. It's how the work stays sharp. Futuristic — Wired to think about what's next and get people excited about getting there.
I provide executive-level e-commerce leadership and revenue architecture for brands, manufacturers, and retail technology companies. I bridge the gap between technical execution and commercial strategy to drive measurable business outcomes. (oakleafdigital.net) Fractional Executive Leadership & P&L Optimization: Act as a strategic advisor and fractional VP for manufacturer, D2C, and retail brands. I align cross-functional teams across engineering, marketing, and merchandising to scale top and bottom-line revenue. This includes rebuilding promotional architectures, establishing CRO practices, channel strategy, and driving sustainable growth. AI & Search Strategy (GEO/LLMO): Guide manufacturers, brands, and retailers through the transition to AI-driven search. I modernize channel marketing frameworks, adapt content strategies, and ensure product visibility so brands don't lose ground to algorithmic changes. MarTech Orchestration & Tech Stack Alignment: Partner with retail technology platforms to refine product strategy. I provide the "voice of the retailer" to ensure enterprise solutions eliminate friction, bridge the gap between technical and business teams, and drive clear ROI. Retail Media & Vendor Strategy: Help brands and retailers build or optimize Retail Media Networks. I create the frameworks that allow manufacturers to confidently invest co-op dollars, driving massive scale, visibility, and mutual profitability.
Financial Leadership: P&L owner for E-commerce at a $1.8B+ retailer, hitting targets year after year and most recently exceeding goal by 5%. Promotional Architecture & CRO: Transitioned the promotional framework to industry best-practice, powering the largest Black Friday on record and significantly improving conversion rates. Retail Media & Vendor Relations: Modernized Retail Media and Partner Success programs for the age of AI at massive scale. Hosted top-to-top consortiums educating global vendors on AI search and e-commerce best practices. Customer Experience & Usability: Integrated FullStory, SiteSpect, and GA360 to view the experience through the customer's lens. Launched a formal usability practice with direct customer input guiding UX optimization. Cross-Functional Orchestration: Led teams across SEO, Site Nav, Site Search, Campaigns, and UX. Created a unified campaign flow that brought channel owners together, increasing speed to market. AI & Search Pioneer: Key strategist for GEO/LLMO response. Pioneered LLM visibility tracking to understand generative query volume and shifting customer search behaviors. Tech Stack Modernization: Championed a "Separation of Concerns" model that decoupled the stack — engineering owns the back end, UX rapidly tests front-end frameworks, business users get the levers to drive revenue. Site Experience & Architecture: Led modernization of the digital storefront — URL restructuring, unified design system, and major homepage upgrades. Drove cross-functional coordination and testing for conversion-positive deployments. Content Marketing & SEO: Built a research process for winning in SEO, GEO & ads, producing briefs that drove organic traffic, email click-throughs, and ad performance.
* RFP’d marketing automation CDP vendors; onboarded Blueshift * Transitioned the legacy email program to one powered by best practices in machine learning and AI; Featured in Digital Commerce Case Study * Built-out personas, user journeys, email triggers, and more * Partnered with Merkle as a test case for transitioning from GA3 to GA4; used Big Query to understand how the tracking changes would impact reporting * Extended campaign management tooling built in Airtable to power the content, social, promotional, email, and affiliate calendars * Ideated the Rig Builders series to show customers the unique advantages of shopping at Sweetwater. * Helped bring Gearfest Online during the pandemic and built it into a large influencer gathering with massive reach * Brought a classic direct response advertiser up the funnel using YouTube ads with positive ROAS - featured in Martech Outlook Case Study * Created new products for the Digital Ads co-op program, driving growth of 208% since starting as Director of Partner Marketing * Conducted large scale geo holdout test for SEM, which resulted in 7% reduction in spend while growing top-line by 4%.
* Brought process and structure to how products were launched and created multiple paths for merchandising to deploy strategic buys into digital activations. * Contributed to technology that allowed ease of deal creation to improve the scale of promo pricing and enable reporting capability. Created the structured data necessary to activate in digital channels. * Built an SEO program to optimize front-end content and technical SEO. Pages worked out consistently outperformed their counterparts in AB tests focused on traffic and ranking. * Built on-site interlinking tools to bring deep pages closer to home(page). * Worked with the development team to deep dive into bots and ad fraud, proving we did not need to onboard another vendor, creating 1.5m in annual savings. Featured in Case study with Human. * Created and grew an affiliate and influencer program to several million dollars a month in revenue; adjusted digital programs to offset non-incremental costs of the net new channel * Oversaw a project that drove 81% reduction in Amazon Ads ACOS by implementing bidding technology via Channel Advisor (now Rithum); featured in Case Study by Rithum * Built up the display and video ads program with Data-Driven Attribution and Campaign Manager 360 * Used Business Data in SA360 to power campaign status and bidding for manufacturers with extended lead teams not reflected in the feed, preserving the ability to drive traffic during a strained supply-chained time period. Featured in Merkle Case Study. * Reduced CAC by 25% * Grew an 8 figure ad spend program by 46% in spend with improved efficiency each year.
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Manufacturer representative & sales manager for international pro-audio manufacturer. - Responsible for negotiating & closing major sales with national retailers. - Prospected & researched new retail relationships using email, phone, & social media. - Managed relationships with national accounts via phone, email, trade shows & in-person visits. - Created sales & marketing collateral including videos, audio, blog content, & more.
Technical outbound sales of pro-audio, live sound, recording gear, and musical instruments. - Cold called & prospected new B2B and institutional clients totaling over $500k in annual new business. - Worked with marketing team to implement & test new CRM/automated sales & follow up processes. - Created training videos, product tutorials, sales & marketing collateral, and online content to support online sales, customer service, and marketing.