My Story

I consider myself a storyteller. But how do we really define the term?

Ancient cultures had tribal elders who shared tales with the young. Well, I’m not yet old or wise enough to do that, and what stories would I even tell? I don’t think anyone wants to hear the legend of me getting sick in the back seat on the way home from Chuck E. Cheese in 1984.

Vh1 used to give artists like Bruce Springsteen or Snoop Dogg a soundstage and let them tell a small audience the stories behind their songs. I suppose I could sit on a wooden stool and tell people about the emotional depth and creative inspiration it took to put the evil sensei from Karate Kid in a NAPA Auto Parts commercial. (My partner and I liked the movie, so we said, “it would be so cool to use that guy,” and we did. Hmm…maybe not as deep as I thought).

When I say I’m a storyteller, I mean that I share the truth with people while engaging them emotionally. When I let people in on something they never knew before, I love making them laugh, cry, think, or dream. I want them to feel something.

This love led me to advertising when I was about 16, and I’ve been hooked ever since. When my friends were idolizing Michael Jordan, I was fawning over Jerry Della Femina. He created ads for the New York Mets and Marvel Comics…he was my spirit animal! In college, I took an internship as a print production gopher just so I could get in the door at Albany’s best ad agency. Sure, that’s kind of like getting a piece of West Virginia’s best pizza, but it was a start.

Once I was “in the business,” I tried to perfect the art of storytelling but learning from the best. I started at an agency run by Ed McCabe. I took classes under Sal DeVito. I eventually got to work for Tony Granger and Gary Goldsmith and Joyce King-Thomas and Linda Kaplan Thaler. Just being in the room with minds like these made me better.

And while I was soaking up the creative knowledge, I was also finding new ways to share my ideas. I told stories everywhere—on Facebook and Instagram and trade show booths and key chains. Even on a (fake) eviction notice.

A love of storytelling also inspired me to try my hand at stand-up comedy. It was challenging and exhilarating to try a whole new way of expressing myself. Not to mention doing it on stage in front of 70 or so strangers, many of whom ignore the two-drink minimum in favor of drinking the maximum. Plus, there were hecklers, but they were just telling their own story, so I didn’t let it bother me. Except the one time it was my sister doing it, but that’s a story for another time.

And then in 2017 I found new stories to tell in pharma and healthcare advertising. People said, “you’re gonna go do the work with sixty seconds of side effects?” I said, “no, I’m going to be part of the revolution that completely redefines pharma (while still probably having to include sixty seconds of side effects.)” And redefine it we have. Sharing new truths. Breaking things and putting them back together in new ways. Helping sick people feel better.

I love that I’ve been able to tell so many different stories in so many different ways, and I can’t wait to tell more. Having done all this, now I know that there is no story I can’t tell. Funny or serious. Healthcare or consumer. Experiential stunt or TV spot. Whatever the challenge, I’m up for it. At one interview I was asked, “You’ll be working on a treatment to relieve constipation, are you okay with that?” I answered, “I spent 3 years selling Baconators. I couldn’t be more qualified.”

See what I just did there?
Told you a truth.  
Made you laugh.  

Storytelling.

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