My grandparents were the first to encourage my creative exploration. I remember my grandmother helping as I collected rocks from their garden, cleaned them with soap and water, and rearranged them back in intricate patterns. From an early age, the world was my canvas.

As I got older I would “help” my dad in his video store, making change for customers, restocking videos, and dribbling my basketball through the aisles, never realizing I was soaking up the entrepreneurial work/play environment that he created out of his passion for movies.

Playing competitive basketball, I got my first taste for creative expression trying to entertain my basketball teammates on long road trips with epic short stories, poems, jokes, and mixed-media collages constructed from the SkyMall catalog. Bball got me a scholarship to Cal-Berkeley, where I took that creative writing to a new level with screenplays, stories, and more.

When I “grew up” I went down many paths, including screenwriting in LA. PR in NYC, e-commerce in Denver, and a few more along the way.

My first brand-building experience was for Good Ol’-Fashioned Party, my mom’s event-planning business.

My last stop before Kind & Funny was the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, where for six years I honed my design, marketing, and strategy skills, working with an incredible team to create a human-centric brand complete with humor, gravitas, and CREATIVITY that changed what museums could be to the people of their city.