I began my career at a modeling agency designing models’ cards. I didn’t know how to turn on my computer and had to ”casually ask”. Things went uphill from there, and soon I was doing all their in-house work. From there I moved to a nightlife marketing agency (KBA, now defunct), where I learned how to build consumer relationships and how to talk with people, not at them.

Working at Upshot!, I met not only some of my to-this-day besties, but was floored by how wonderful working in a big agency really could be. With a gaggle of super talented people who always had a moment for a quick idea or comment on how to improve my work, I grew literal leaps and bounds. All the way to the New York office, where I worked on portfolio brands like Diagio and Coca-Cola.

Going back to sweet home Chicago, I freelanced for a bit, then landed at Leo Burnett, where I learned how to actually back up my ideas with insights. I discovered that clients weren’t scary monsters judging ideas, but real people who also wanted to do cool things. I found bosses who had my back and wanted me to lead. When they sent me off to Kyiv I became a creative director of a whole office for the first time, learning even more from the creatives I led. Then I went on to Frankfurt, where I took over as Brand Activation lead for Philip Morris.

I left Burnett to make some art, freelancing a bit here and there until I realised I missed agency life. So I went to work at Geometry Global (now VMLY&R) to get more digital experience and play more of a conceptual role. I learned that ideas sometimes don’t want to be just digital or just print or even just an experience. And learned how to mix touchpoints – and even find new ones – that make people want to talk about the brand, and give it a life of its own.

After that, I took on a CD role for the hybrid FMCG / Healthcare agency Pink Carrots in Frankfurt. There, I learned the ins and outs of Healthcare advertising, and came away with a better understanding of the needs of this category and the complicated target groups of consumer, HCP and beyond. We also went from a 25 person agency to almost 60 talented people, winning awards and making a pretty big name for ourselves.

I was excited to move to a boutique digital agency called cyperfection. We sent our teams to a literal desert island in Fall/Winter 2019-20, in the course learning how to work together remotely. Just in time for the pandemic! I came back from the second trip and went straight into home office quarantine, where I learned how to work even better and more collaboratively with both clients and internal teams, no matter if they are on the other side of the room, or the other side of the world.