I have some very specific memories of when my youth basketball team would receive direction from our coach while in our timeout huddles. Even more-so, I remember our coach always yelling over the ambient noises of the other games taking place at the Boys and Girls Club in my home town of Las Vegas. It was loud, and he would communicate with us as though we were one of the remaining teams in the final minutes of a championship game, every game. His scratchy voice and bad breath would smack us in the face during these huddles, but it didn’t matter because his words would always get us fired up.

Imagine a similar situation a few years later, but this time it’s with the most talented coach and basketball players in the NCAA under the roof of the Thomas & Mack center in Las Vegas. It was magic, it was exciting, and it was about the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels! I was young, I was impressionable, and this energy became a starting point of something that eventually contributed to my foundation and core of who I have become today professionally. That seems a bit ambitious to say, but it’s true.

After UNLV had some strong success in the NCAA, some of the players would eventually get drafted into the NBA and become quite influential in many different ways over time. These guys were hero status for me, and I quickly found myself regularly finding my way to the local card shop with my friends to find and collect all of their rookie cards (often times without the money to do it, but still going because it’s where I wanted to be). It also lead to me becoming aware of the many other players that came up during the same time and collected their cards as well. Before I knew it I had assembled complete collections of every player on every team from all the different basketball card mfg’s.

This was my first real experience with being passionate about something, to the point of actually figuring out a way to do something about what I was feeling. I felt a sense of pride and loyalty to the team and the players that I had not felt before towards anything else, and at the time there was no other way to get that feeling out of my system than to simply collect their cards. Their photos, stats, and details all lived on these cards. It was a quick overview of their story, all documented on a card. It was a crazy thing looking back, but it drove me to find odd jobs and earn money however I could to keep collecting them.

Fast forward 20+ years and it all makes sense to me as I naturally fell into a career that allowed me to document and tell the stories of athletes, which then eventually led to me learning how to develop and tell the stories of the brands that helped support and celebrate those athletes, which has now led to me learning how to tell brand stories in general through creative direction and product development…At the core, telling stories has been a re-occurring theme during my career. Storytelling is my jam!

Professionally: As I look back, I realize more and more that I have had some really great opportunities and experiences working with some amazing brands, people and teams…and all in the name of storytelling in one way or another…Some environments have been more challenging than others, but I am grateful for them all. They have all been “wins”.

Personally: My wife and I have 4 amazing boys who are infused with personality and talents beyond anything I could have ever imagined. As they quickly grow up, they have started to discover what makes them tick similar to my own experiences early on. I can see it, and as a husband and a father, it’s more exciting than anything that I can put into words.

Big picture: Challenging yourself to constantly learn and accomplish great things in this world can be difficult and exhausting, but we all have to start somewhere right? As crazy as it seems, for me, I have finally started to really understand what makes me tick, and it’s been right under my nose for more than 20 years…Time flies when you love what you do, and it’s time to get back to work ☺