SENIOR MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS AND BRAND EXECUTIVE
The business needs more from your team. Let's help them
rise to it.
I help senior leaders move important marketing, communications and brand priorities when their team, systems or partners aren't yet set up to deliver what the business needs.
Your business is moving. The way you work has to move with it.
Maybe the company is growing, entering a new market or facing greater scrutiny. A leadership change is coming. Or an important priority has landed on your desk, and the people, systems and partners behind your marketing, communications and brand aren't quite ready for what it demands.
Busy, but reactive.
Your team is doing good work, but the next urgent request keeps pushing the important work aside. There’s plenty of effort. There isn’t enough room to step back and work on what will make a lasting difference.
Clear in the boardroom.
Inconsistent in the market.
You have a brand direction or strategy you believe in, but customers, employees and stakeholders hear something different, and sales teams and leaders aren't using it.
Good agencies. Disconnected work.
Your agency partners are capable, but the work is tactical, fragmented or not tied to what the business needs most.
You're still the integrator.
You're the one connecting strategy, team and partners, resolving the friction and carrying the risk when a priority stalls.
These are rarely problems one more presentation, campaign or agency brief will solve.
Often, capable people are trying to make things work without clear priorities, enough support or agreement on who makes the call. I believe in helping people become the best versions of themselves. That starts with understanding their skills, their passions and what’s getting in their way. Then I work with you and your team to create the conditions for them to do their best work.
I'll tell you when we're solving the wrong problem.
I know what it’s like to be the person everyone looks to for an answer, even when the answer isn’t clear yet. I’ve been there as a business owner, an agency leader and inside a large enterprise. I bring that experience to the work with you: asking honest questions, making the calls that need to be made and helping your team move forward.
01
Look closely.
What does the business need now? What is the team already doing well? Where are decisions getting stuck? What is being asked of people that the current setup makes unnecessarily hard?
02
Then get to work.
Depending on the need, I may help you make a difficult strategic choice, lead a priority alongside your team, bring structure to how the work gets done, or help internal and external partners work better together.
03
Stay while it takes hold.
I'll be there when a good idea has to survive a crowded calendar, competing opinions and the realities of the organization. That's where much of this work is won or lost.
"Scott was in the trenches with me, helping us find the human connection that gives customers a reason to choose us."
CEO | B2B Technology Startup
The plan isn't the progress.
I help shape the strategy, narrative, plan or operating model the moment calls for. Then I stay involved as leaders make decisions, teams change how they work and partners bring it to life. That is where the value becomes real.
We start with what you’re facing, what your team needs and where I can be most useful. Together, we agree on what I’ll take responsibility for and what progress should look like. I want the work to move forward and your team to be better equipped for what comes next.
Accelerate the priority.
I work alongside you and your team to lead an important brand, communications or marketing priority, helping make the decisions and keep the work moving at the pace the business needs.
When it works: decisions get made, stakeholders line up, and you're no longer the only one holding it together.
Strengthen the function.
Clarify priorities, roles, planning and decision rights across marketing, communications and brand.
When it works: your team works from a plan rather than the latest request, and the function carries more weight in the business.
Make strategy real.
Help a brand direction, narrative or market plan show up in the actions of leaders, teams and partners.
When it works: the message stops living in a deck and starts showing up in customer conversations and leadership behavior.
Get more from your partners.
Choose the right agency support, set the relationship up well and connect it to your priorities.
When it works: agency investment becomes work that moves the business instead of activity.
Built. Led. Owned.
3X sales
At Pfau Feeds, the manufacturing business I acquired and ran for eight years, sales tripled, distribution grew fivefold and we expanded into Japan.
~$12M
Agriculture practice built at VML over 18 months, working with the team to grow the business and serve clients.
More than US$2B
Nutrien's brand surpassed this value in the final independent Brand Finance reporting cycle during my tenure leading global brand strategy.
At Nutrien, I led global brand strategy and worked across the platforms and teams that bring a brand to life inside a large organization. In agency leadership, I built businesses and teams, and I understand what strong partners can contribute and what clients need to do to get the best from them. As owner of Pfau Feeds, I carried responsibility for people, customers, operations and financial performance. That keeps my advice grounded in what it takes to run a business.
Across my career, I’ve managed marketing budgets totaling more than $50 million, from substantial investments to very little to spend. Whatever the budget, I make choices that fit the business and get the most from every dollar.
Today, through Alchemy, I work directly with leaders on the marketing, communications and brand priorities their organizations need to get right. I'm glad to talk through relevant examples and the role I played in them when we meet.
"Scott saw what our team was capable of and helped us bring more of it forward."
Leah | President & Founder
Ten Acre Marketing
"Scott took the time to understand what the client really needed, then set up a process that let both sides be candid - and kicked off the relationship in the most productive way possible."
President | Independent Agency
A closer look at the work.
ACCOUNT LEADERSHIP
Helping account teams lead.
An independent marketing agency with a capable account team - strong relationships, responsive service - but growth depended on a few senior people. Over our time together, account leaders were proposing strategy and leading client conversations of their own. See how the shift happened.
FUNCTION SCALE READINESS
When the business asks more of communications.
A North American energy company needed its corporate relations function to shape the agenda, not just answer requests. The operating foundation, agency partnership and newsroom approach are now in place - and the real test is underway.
B2B POSITIONING
A reason to choose.
A building technology company was struggling to stand apart in its category. The answer was not more features - it was understanding the uncertainty customers carry every day, and building a position on it.
OWNER EXPERIENCE
Growing a business I owned.
For eight years I owned a specialty feed manufacturer, and every growth choice came with people, resources and a community attached. Sales tripled and distribution grew fivefold. Here is what owning the responsibility taught me.
A team often has more potential than its performance shows.
I'm Scott. I've led global brand strategy inside a large enterprise, helped build agency businesses and teams, and spent eight years owning and growing a manufacturing company. I've been the one giving advice, and the one living with the decision. Both shape how I work today.
I care deeply about good work. I care just as much about the people asked to deliver it.
One of the things I enjoy most is seeing what people can do when they have clearer direction, better support and room to use their judgment. That belief doesn't mean avoiding hard choices. It means making the right ones, with respect for the people who will carry them forward.
Alchemy is my executive practice. When we work together, you work with me directly.
Carried the consequences
Business owner
Pfau Feeds
Built teams and businesses
Agency builder
AdFarm | VML | Red Clay
Led at scale
Enterprise leader
Nutrien | Yanmar
In the work with you
Today
Alchemy
What's on your desk right now?
You don't need to have the assignment neatly defined before we talk. Often, figuring out what really needs to happen is the most valuable place to begin. Tell me what the business is asking of you and where the work feels harder than it should. We'll start there.