About me
I love the pursuit and discovery of the profound.
I’m a highly adaptable marketer and entrepreneur seeking profound states of being. I’ve worked in TV journalism, film, overseas ventures, art projects, technology and startups. I tend to work on interesting things! I’m into consciousness, altered states, robotics, deep space and music.
I’m presently a part-time marketing director for Nirvanic Consciousness Technologies, a Vancouver startup undertaking novel-in-the-world science into the physics of consciousness, using quantum computers and robotics.
Together with my partner, I also run, Make It Profound, a founder agency that provides business coaching and creative services to profound enterprises.
Marketing know-how
My consultancy, Make It Profound, brings together my years of marketing experience to help inspired enterprises stand out.
I take the lead on creative services, including the production of websites, marketing films, and brand designs for clients.
My portfolio is diverse! I’ve led marketing projects in many industries promoting wine and spirits, technology, cultural institutions, education and a world-class violinist.
At Sanctuary AI, a globally influential humanoid robotics company in Vancouver, I crafted commercial pitch films for contract opportunities worth millions. A short product launch video I made for the company won a major US marketing award.* The robot kind of looks like K-2SO —the ironic quipping Star Wars droid.
For 20 years, I have also supported the marketing and communications of virtuosso violinist, Yi-Jia Susanne Hou, with a documentary shot in Shanghai, marketing films, UK publicity campaigns and a website. We’re about to publish a cinematic film series about her performance of Paganini - the most difficult violin music ever written.
And early in my career, I drove innovation at Coca-Cola as a national business analyst in Toronto. I analysed sales data for tens of thousands of stores to create profit opportunities. I pioneered a sales information system for a tablet computer that helped hundreds of Ontario sales agents sell better. I tend to spot opportunity and love to innovate.
* Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals (AMCP)
Brand designs
Recently, I’ve been getting more involved in designing brands. It’s a very personal and creative alchemy of intuition, strategy, and iteration.
I’m proud of the work I’ve done creating the brand of Nirvanic — a tech startup tackling a profound scientific mystery: what creates conscious experience? The vision is to create consciousness technologies that help humanity expand their minds, and enable conscious robotics.
I designed Nirvanic’s brand, including logo, fonts, colours and the company’s name, which is an adjective for nirvana or profound enlightenment.
Nirvanic’s logo began with a drawing. With iterations, it became a “floral reveal” of a sacred geometry — a suggestion that consciousness emerges from an underlying physics. The pink on black is bold punch of Nirvanic’s feminine distinctiveness in at AI industry dominated by tech bro’s.
Nirvanic’s brand has grown quickly globally, with our Substack a big hit. I ghostwrite newsletters that describe our founder’s journey exploring the frontiers of physics to develop consciousness technologies, including conscious AI and human-wellness devices.
Journalism + Filmmaking
From TV news, to movies, to marketing films, I’ve produced literally thousands of video projects.
Okay, so some ask — why so many?
Well, my foundational experience was with CBC News where I was a TV video journalist, shooting, writing and editing daily TV stories. After a decade there, I moved to the West Coast where I worked periodically with the Globe and Mail , CTV Vancouver and The Tyee, writing and shooting video stories on everything from pipelines to politicians.
I then shifted into the BC film industry, working on movies as a Lamp Operator and a Digital Imaging Technician. I also helped many friends create their own independent film projects, from adventure hero stories, to good cop/bad cop comedy.
Business development
A quirky and exhilarating experience was helping my best friend develop a new coconut-nectar alcohol beverage company in the Philippines. It gave me a test for new ventures!
Lambanog is the country’s national drink. It tastes like vodka but with a sweet floral taste. Our aim was to be both profitable and a great employer for rural Filipino families.
For months, I developed a comprehensive retail market analysis for working out how our product’s brand and pricing would fit in a diverse alcohol landscape of local and foreign competitors. Significantly, I worked out how to distribute the product through a national network of 7-11 stores.
Incidentally, the Philippines is like a second home to me. I worked there as a young man, and in recent times, caught up with my old boss, a Canadian museum consultant who lives there, who gave me the opportunity to make a marketing film about the country’s new national museum. Using drone videography, I tried to capture the magnificence of this revitalised building, which features roman columns and a dazzling $500million “Tree of Life” domed roof.
