How I Got Here

I didn't set out to become a CMO

I started as a Chief Financial Officer at a $150M Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) business, which meant I spent my early DTC days running the finance side while building financial models for marketing campaigns I didn't control yet. I learned DTC backward, starting with the breakeven analysis, the margin allowables, the continuity math, before I ever touched visual and messaging creative or media buying. That sequence turned out to matter. When I eventually moved into running marketing departments and campaigns, I already understood the full system: how an offer flows through operations, what fulfillment costs can do to unit economics, and why a campaign that looks good in a deck might collapse in month three. I've spent 25 years in DTC now, but I still approach campaigns with the finance lens built in, not because numbers matter more than creative, but because success requires that they work together, as one system. It's made me a different kind of marketer.

Over those 25 years, I've worked with some pretty cool brands like Breville, Omaha Steaks, Tracy Anderson, Vonage, and Sheex. Some in-house as a CMO, some as an agency lead, and some fractionally. I've launched campaigns that scaled from zero to nine figures, rebuilt marketing departments that were stuck, and helped private equity teams figure out what's actually broken. The pattern's always the same: diagnose the system, fix what's not working, optimize and scale it over the long haul, drive growth, and leave it running better than I found it.

"Kent is an exceptional strategist and skilled business planner. He has the rare combination of creative, strategy, and financial expertise that makes him a great partner."
— Steve Harrison | President CDR Fundraising Group

That's the professional story. Here's a bit more about who I am outside the spreadsheets and campaign decks: