I’ve spent my career helping brands figure out what they mean, why people should care, and how to turn that answer into something useful.

I started in music, where you learn quickly that relevance can’t be manufactured. Artists become meaningful when what they create connects with something happening in people’s lives and in the culture around them. Brands aren’t really that different.

I believe brands are participants in culture. The strongest understand the people they serve, what those people care about, and the role the brand can authentically play in their lives. That’s where relevance comes from — and relevance is what turns a product someone might buy into a brand they choose, remember and come back to.

That idea has followed me through a career spanning brand strategy, consumer insight, creative direction and organizational leadership. I’ve worked with brands including Nike, Bell, Igloo, Cannondale and PEARL iZUMi; co-founded a consultancy; helped build and grow an agency; and most recently served as VP, Creative at Purple Innovation.

At Purple, my remit extended well beyond creative into brand positioning, consumer strategy, product storytelling, integrated marketing, retail and ecommerce. Much of the work was about connecting what made the product different to a larger human truth: not simply what better sleep does, but what better sleep makes possible.

That’s generally where I do my best work: finding the human and cultural truth underneath a business or product problem and turning it into something people can understand, care about and act on.

I’m deeply strategic, but I’m not interested in strategy that lives in a deck. I like seeing the work get made, watching how people respond, learning from the data and making it better. I’m equally comfortable in a leadership meeting, a creative review, consumer research or sitting with a writer trying to make one sentence actually work.

As a leader, I believe in high standards without high drama. My job is to create clarity around where we’re going and why, give talented people room to surprise me, and build the conditions where excellent work can happen.

Ultimately, I don’t think people need more brands talking at them. They respond to brands that understand the culture they’re part of and find a meaningful way to participate in it.