
Owner, Ecra Creative Group
Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Owner, Ecra Creative Group
Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
I help businesses and organizations build brands, launch new products and services, create memorable messages, and enhance stakeholder value. I have helped over 85 entrepreneurs, new ventures, and established organizations bring their concepts to market. My clients include organizations of all sizes – from national healthcare providers, to major manufacturers, to top-tier retail, to agribusiness.
Recent project expertise includes revolutionary online community development in the consumer-driven healthcare sector and the application of non-linear mathematics principles to the collection, analysis, and management of communication data.
In each case, I bring fresh and non-conventional thinking to old-line problems.
Public and private organizations rely on me to use some of the latest research in real-time, non-linear systems analysis to better collect relevant data from their environment, interpret that data quickly, formulate action plans, and return the resulting data back into an effective feedback loop. I am no stranger to detailed reports and thorny questions – that is the prime reason clients tap my expertise – but my true skill is the distillation of that data into meaningful, understandable, and actionable intelligence.
I am an instructor, business case writer, advisor, and academic collaborator with the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire Entrepreneurship Program. My research and writing have appeared in the scholarly journals for the Speech Communication Association (SCA), North American Management Society (NAMS), the Business Journal for Entrepreneurs, and business publications UpSize Minnesota Magazine and Twin Cities Business (where I am a regular contributor).
Most regularly, I am the author of The State of the Brand, a syndicated weekly column reviewing and analyzing current branding topics.
Corporate Branding & Identity
Business Intelligence / Analysis
Systems Architecture and Implementation
Speaking and Training
Promotional Design
Product Launch
User Experience
Social Media / Web 2.0
Reputation Management
Copywriting
(Higher Education industry)
January 2007 — Present (2 years 7 months)
Develop written business cases with faculty members to help transfer entrepreneurial expertise. I work in conjunction with the students and faculty as a "coach" of sorts, helping students move through real business situations with the goal of developing a fast-paced, pattern-matching mindset, well suited to the demands they will face in the business community. Co-author with several faculty members on a number of academic studies and conference papers relating to entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education.
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
March 1999 — Present (10 years 5 months)
Experienced brand management, reputation management, marketing operations and systems, interactive media development, social media/marketing consulting and implementation, design, and writing. Also, author of the State of the Brand.
B.S. , Communications , 1993 — 1997
UW-Eau Claire was where I learned to be a writer - and to really love doing it. Work in class, the student newspaper, and (my very early attempts at) freelancing honed me as a quick study on complex issues and a fast writer.