Freelance: I love it. Currently working with Ryan Holland, my bad ass partner who art directs and motion designs a lot of the work we do. He’s kind of a genius. And out of my league. Shhhhhh. But we make a pretty formidable team. Here’s our team site: https://www.ronnyandryan.com/
Specialty: Ryan and I have helped win 7 of the last 8 pitches we've worked on. Each for a different organization. True story. Want to win some business? We can help.
Agencies: I’ve worked for many of the best ones. And I enjoy collaborating with the small and scrappy ones.
Tech companies: Spent lots of time with a full range, inside and out. This has truly been interesting.
Titles: ACD, CD, GCD, ECD, CCO. Yep, all those. Also, DAD, which I’ve decided to stick with.
Awards: Won a bunch. And I've been part of "Agency of the Decade" once and "Agency of the Year" eight times. My work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, CNN, the Yahoo Future Awards and spoofed on Chappelle’s Show. Lots of talented and legendary folks helped me get there. Forever grateful.
Management: Yep. Many years. Ran accounts. Co-ran agencies. Built departments. Been a mentor to many. And an ad school teacher.
Skills: I’m a writer. But I started as an art director. Long story.
PR: Learned the value of PR at Crispin. Later I helped launch the first PR department at Goodby.
Followed by their first innovation lab.
AI: Cautiously excited. I love tinkering with it.
Work I like: When advertising functions to help the world in some way. I’ve created work I’m proud of for a range of good causes, like helping give people with autism a voice, climate change, teen smoking, normalizing HIV testing, second-hand smoke and the obesity epidemic. I’d do this full-time if only that were realistic.
Superpower: Persistence. I never give up. And that’s often how great work gets made.
Presenting: I prefer to present our work and this typically goes very well. So I'm down in case that helps.
What else? I’ve been a drummer forever. Right now, I’m in a jazz quartet with guys who sort of let me play with them since there aren’t many drummers where we live. They’re all pros.
I’m not bad. But I’m no pro.
What happens when you put all this together and shake it up: You get me. An experienced creative who loves great work. Who, you know, gets it. Who still loves the business. Who’s a nice guy and insists on having fun while we do this thing. ‘Cause that’s why we got into doing this thing in the first place.