Creative director with scrappy technical roots
Fifteen years making the things companies and causes use to explain themselves. Human-made stories, enhanced by technology.
The two-minute version.
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Comms on the inside. Brand on the outside.
I'm Phil. For about fifteen years I've made the media and platforms companies use to explain themselves, whether that's telling your brand story online or crafting the internal announcement giving your org heartburn.
I've been storytelling since my days as a journalist, a non-profit marketer, a creative agency owner, a tech startup culture builder, and a brand and comms lead in open-source software. And the entire time I was tinkering, building teams, building tools, going where the help was needed and using the power of story or just straight up grit to build a vision of the future that everyone could buy into.
Somewhere in there I started building my own systems. I see the whole thing, then build the one piece that fixes it. Automate the dumb stuff. Keep the human stuff human.
I genuinely love doing new things. If you need someone who'll still be curious about your work a year from now, that's the whole pitch.
He is a legend at taking an idea and finding a way to take it to an 11.
He has a remarkable ability to take complex or dry subjects and make them fun and engaging.
His ability to make others feel at ease, understood, and important is really something.
Book me.
Bring me on full-time to run brand, comms, or whatever else needs running. I'm a deep generalist who is at my best leading cross-functional teams even when the work keeps changing shape.
Find me on LinkedIn →Stuck on a story or project and need some help? Send it to me. I've run comms and brand teams through product launches, acquisitions, restructures, leadership changes, and legal drama.
Bring it →If you've got a story to tell and you want it to have some heart and personality, tell me about it. Big or small. Polished interviews, fun interstitials, remote capture, and even multi-camera documentaries.
Start a project →I can be the one on stage, or write for whoever is. Or both. Keynotes on the future of work and culture, emcee for your conference or all-hands, and the exec speech that needs a bit more humanity and wit.
Book me →Greatest hits
Recent work, internal and external, where we tell a complex story in a fun and interesting way.
01 · Campaign · Commercials
WordPress Peace of Mind
Seven spots, an invented sage, under $8k. Digiday finalist.
02 · Event · Production
DE{CODE} 2025
The biggest virtual developer conference in WordPress. Tens of thousands watching. I ran it.
03 · Program · Documentary
Agency Partner Awards 2025
Five mini-documentaries and a real awards program. Budget: zero.
04 · Internal comms · Broadcast
The Company Broadcast
The weekly all-hands for 1,200 people, rebuilt as a broadcast.
05 · Brand · Creative direction
The WP Engine Rebrand
Shaping the voice a whole company gets judged by.
06 · Event · Production
Company Retreat Production
The one day a year everybody is paying attention, built like a keynote.
Got a story that's hard to tell? That's my specialty.
I read everything. I answer the interesting ones fast.