Hi, I'm Erika.

I've spent 27 years on both sides of this industry — agency-side in strategy and client-side leading marketing teams.

I've built strategy practices. Led brands. Managed teams. Written briefs. Built marketing functions. Partnered with creatives. Worked with agencies. Been the client. Been the agency. Sat in executive meetings. Sat in brainstorms.

That combination matters.

I understand what business and marketing leaders need. I understand what agencies do best. And I understand the gaps that can develop between the business problem, the strategy and the work that eventually reaches the customer.

I like working in those gaps.

They're usually where the interesting problems are.

Ad-nerd energy + commercial rigor.

I'm still an ad nerd at heart.

I care about the craft, the thinking, the ideas and the briefs — all the stuff that made this industry great long before holding companies turned everything into “synergies” and process maps.

But great ideas also have to do something.

They have to solve a business problem. Change a perception. Create demand. Build preference. Improve an experience. Help a team perform better. Make a company easier to understand or easier to choose.

I believe the best work happens at the intersection of creativity, clarity and commercial impact.

A career spent figuring things out.

My career has taken me from agencies including J. Walter Thompson, 22squared, Moxie, Resource/Ammirati and IBM iX to the client side with brands including P&G's Clairol and FlightSafety International.

Along the way, I've built and integrated strategy practices, evolved established brands, led marketing organizations, developed teams and helped solve a lot of problems that didn't come with an obvious answer.

Today, I bring that experience to companies and agencies that need senior strategic thinking without necessarily needing another full-time executive.

And because I'm also a business owner myself, I care a lot less about strategy that looks impressive in a deck and a lot more about strategy people can actually use.

How I work.

Curious before certain.
I ask a lot of questions. The first explanation of the problem isn't always the real problem.

Simple, not simplistic.
Complex thinking is sometimes necessary. Complex outputs usually aren't.

Collaborative, without requiring consensus on everything.
Good strategy gets better when smart people contribute. Eventually, though, somebody has to make a decision.

Strategy in service of the work.
The point isn't the strategy deck. The point is making everything that comes after it better.

No jargon. No ego.
There are already enough of both in this industry.

Bring me the messy marketing problem.

We'll figure out what it needs.