My modeling career never took off.

So in sixth grade, I decided I was going to work in advertising.

We were given an assignment to create ad campaign for company called “Tropical Sun.” It being 1999, I went with a surf shop and wrote my first tagline:

Stay cool. Look cool.

I’ve been chasing that high ever since.

Through an advertising degree at the University of Oklahoma. (Boomer.) Then a front-desk job at a small agency that offered a foot in the door and an excuse to move to Boston. Then a stint at a Groupon knockoff during that year we were all buying half-priced sushi deals.

And from there, a coveted agency gig followed by an in-house opportunity where I still manage to get psyched about a few pithy words.

I did not, in fact, stay cool. Nor do I look cool very often. But how many people can say they made their (kind of weird, oddly specific) childhood career dreams come true?

Oh… you just wanted to see my resume?