I build the content and partnerships that earn the trust of expert audiences.

An interview with the critic, then a second one

When I came aboard to reboot Guitar Center's affiliate program, my first move was to seek out the reviewers with the most credibility — including the ones who'd been hardest on us. Phillip McKnight had spent years publicly critiquing Guitar Center on assortment, quality control, and in-store expertise: precisely the things our new CEO had come in to fix. So we put the CEO in front of him with no conditions on questions. It went well enough that Phil wanted a second conversation a year later — and well enough that competitors started angling for the same treatment on his channel.

• Guitar Center CEO Responds To My CriticismYouTube · Part 2

A store full of customers, and two creators making a record in it

I started working with Andrew when I was at Universal Audio. When I reached out from my new role at Guitar Center, he introduced me to Rob Scallon and told me their annual First of October session was on the horizon. GC needed a viral Q4 campaign to show people how much store assortment had improved, so of course the answer was to turn one of our stores into Andrew and Rob's personal studio for a day while people shopped around them.

• Guitar World on the sessionPress

Letting three creators break the launch before we did

Universal Audio was experimenting with freemium plugins that carried an easy upgrade path to the full version. For the Verve release, Reid Stefan, Andrew Huang, and Sanjay C each announced the launch a day ahead of Universal Audio's own channels. We poured gas on the fire with the download incentive: the first 6,176 downloads also got Galaxy Tape Echo, one of our most popular plugins. It created friction with some channel partners that I had to go manage — worth it for the spike in reach, downloads, and the upgrade conversions underneath them.

Andrew Huang836K views Sanjay C864K views Reid Stefan734K views

Keeping a studio running at volume without the quality slipping

Everything shot in UA's studio came through me, alongside ten to twenty original SEO and social-first videos a month. The job moved depending on the week — concept, casting, scheduling, creative direction, and holding the line on what shipped — with a team of four producers writing, shooting, editing, and getting better on camera as they went.

The range ran from product films and studio education to artist sessions like Mateus Asato and Nahre Sol, and down to vertical cutdowns for social.

I introduced consumer research so we could tell baseline growth apart from campaigns that actually moved something, tie brand sentiment and share of voice back to individual campaigns, and find cultural moments worth attaching our content to. That last one is why the Mateus Asato and Nahre Sol piece exists: we bet Billie Eilish would win for the Barbie song and had our cover ready to publish the morning after the ceremony.

• Crafting the Perfect Cover SongArtist session
• Galaxy '74 Tape Echo & ReverbProduct
• Get Better Drum Sounds With Simple MikingEducation

Ways to dampen a snare19K likes What's in your producer bagSocial-first 3 ways to mic a kitSD-series launch

Turning a handful of influencer relationships into a program

UA already had a few influencers on board to help with product launches when I arrived — good relationships, well run, but one piece of a much larger job rather than a channel with a team and a budget of its own. I built the program that let it scale: a CRM-tracked roster, standardized deal structures, revenue attribution, and a standing place in the NPI calendar. The harder part was that the org hadn't defined the boundaries between artists, creators, and reviewers — which turns out to matter enormously once you're deciding who to pay and what to ask them for. Writing the briefs and the stakeholder model was partly so campaigns could clear VP review and coordinate across teams, which is an unglamorous reason for rigor but a durable one.

In those years I was also making a good share of the posts myself.

Justin BernardezApollo campaign KarraUAD Spark Gating live room micsShot and cut by me

On the road with Scott Kirkland, alone with a camera

Scott was touring The Trip Home, a record built deliberately on the vintage synths and gear that shaped The Crystal Method's sound. We'd worked together on Plugin Alliance demos and crossed paths again at a show I filmed in San Francisco, so when the tour came up I went along as the whole crew and cut it into a series rather than a recap: the throwback gear, how today's scene compares to the warehouse era, and a remix of the album in Dolby Atmos for a Chicago club system.

Vimeo · The Trip Home01:13 The Trip Home — tour promo

• Mixing for Dolby Atmos02:28
• Post Rave Culture02:27
• Classic Methods01:23

Leading with the surgeons, not the building

In 2021 people were putting off surgery because they didn't trust any medical building to be safe. A hospital-ad voice was the fastest way to lose them, so the campaign let each surgeon explain their work in their own words — cut for broadcast, alongside a two-minute awareness film. It held for four years and became a retained relationship.

Vimeo · Broadcast01:59 We're Here

• Surgeon spotlight — Dr. Douglas Hetzler00:48
• GI spotlight01:07
• Surgeon spotlight — Dr. Eric Hohn00:58

The competition that taught me what people actually show up for

An electronic music competitive docu-series about the people making records in their bedrooms — not the ones on the megafestival throne. I designed the format, built the submission site, and cast the pilot from an open call that drew entries from at least eleven countries with no ad spend. The contestants didn't come for the prize. They came to be judged by people qualified to judge them. I've been working from that ever since.

Vimeo · Pilot07:04 BEAT — cinematic overview

• Phase 1 prototype — abridged first episode09:59
• The Prize Nobody WantedEssay

Longer stories for brands with something to say

Terroir in a Jar is a thirteen-minute documentary about independent farmers working year-round on thin margins to get food to market, and one kitchen turning their crop gluts into jams and shrubs, so that someone in Maine in February can experience exactly what a Pajaro Valley strawberry tastes like. I spent a year filming farms in the valley. It earned an Award of Merit Special Mention at the Impact DOCS Awards in both Documentary Short and Contemporary Issues / Awareness Raising, and was submitted to the James Beard Awards.

Vimeo · Documentary13:04 Terroir in a Jar

• Miniware — lifestyle film02:05
• GrowBento from Miniware01:00
• Nanda Journeys — We Are One Global Family01:16

Why the night mattered to the people who threw it

Event recaps tend to blur together — crowd, lasers, drop. These go after the story behind the party: a Burning Man camp's fundraiser with Infected Mushroom, Carl Cox and Joseph Capriati for Playground, and The Crystal Method across a multi-room anniversary night.

Vimeo · Event03:21 Infected Mushroom at The Midway

• Carl Cox & Joseph Capriati at The Midway02:07
• The Crystal Method & DJ Dan at The Great Northern02:21