Hi, I'm Erin. WELCOME!
I’m a marketing and communications strategist & manager. I focus on brand building, growth marketing, content and social media marketing for transformative tech, lifestyle, e-commerce and media brands.
I love my work, but before I dive into that, let me tell you a little bit about how I got here.
I’ve always been passionate about …
research writing & systems change
I’m a pretty cerebral person with insatiable curiosity. I’ve always been driven to look deeply at persistent and pervasive challenges, identify patterns, and write about what’s going on in the world. So, growing up I wanted to become a journalist. I imagined reporting from humanitarian crises and publishing articles that would shape public opinion and change the world…
“The desire to write is like an affliction, which you’re either born with or you’re not.”
However, when I started college in 2005, traditional media was in turmoil. Web 2.0 was taking off and enabling more people to communicate at scale than ever before. It transformed the Internet from a “dark and anonymous place” to an interactive virtual reality and threatened mass media channels.
The effects of web 2.0 on traditional media were so profound that the CU Boulder School of Journalism in which I intended to enroll temporarily closed, so I decided to study political science and the subject matters with which I was concerned instead. My poli sci coursework exposed me to myriad social, environmental and economic problems and mechanisms for solving them, which is what I wanted to write about, anyways.
By the time I got my degree in 2014, web 2.0 had opened up profound new ways for brands and organizations to communicate directly with their target audience. The idea of writing on behalf of brands and organizations with missions I supported really excited me and is how I found my way to brand storytelling, content marketing– a form of new media– and my segue into all things comms, media and marketing.
"One of the exciting things about the Internet is that anyone can publish whatever content they can create."
My career in marketing has progressed, but I’ve never been able to pull myself away from studying complex systems and challenges we face in the world.
And recently I realized that, ironically, one of the most effective interventions for solving societal problems was the very technology that upended the traditional media landscape: the Internet.
In poli sci we studied taxation, subsidies, incentives, constraints, feedback loops, and policy frameworks, all useful leverage points, but all mostly dealt with the existing paradigm. We never discussed the paradigm-shifting potential of breakthrough technology such as web 2.0, and now, web 3.0.
“...To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Web 2.0 brought us social media, mobile apps, cloud storage and was the genesis of an unprecedented digital age. But these services have been almost entirely owned by just a few incomprehensibly powerful telecom and tech giants that, along with institutional actors, have compromised the free and open internet.
Centralized online service providers like Google, Apple, Amazon Web Services, and Facebook provide us invaluable internet utilities for search, storage, connectivity and communication. They act as an intermediary and provide a trust layer so that we can more securely transact and interact with one another. However, this gives them unprecedented access to our data from which they profit tremendously.
But a new web is emerging. Web 3.0 “aims to wrestle ownership away from these monopolies that rule the internet as it exists today.” The decentralizing force of web 3.0 attempts to de-throne this corporate web nobility, shift power from the center to the edges, and drive “open, trust-less and permission-less” networks.
"Web 3 is essentially a new way for individuals to use the Internet without giving up their privacy and valuable data."
Web 3.0 has the paradigm-shifting potential I was seeking in my poli sci classes. Web 3.0 is facilitating peer-to-peer trust and transactions without using costly or opaque intermediaries, attempting to flip organizational structures from community input to community led, and is starting to force governments and legacy institutions to adapt to these changes.
Web 3.0 has implications across all industries, advantages for all members of society and the planet. It could radically change government structure, reduce bureaucracy, and even eliminate our current concept of corporations. Web 3.0 also stands to change the relationship between brands, organizations and consumers.
I feel deeply engaged when considering complex systems that govern our world, so I spend a lot of free time studying. I believe that preserving native habitat, protecting oceans, practicing indigenous, regenerative approaches to agriculture, and eating food from nearby are some of the most overlooked aspects of reducing the rate and intensity of human caused climate change, an area of study in which I take deep interest. I’m also interested in scaling the circular economy and leveraging blockchain technology to radically decentralize institutions where power has been traditionally concentrated. My curiosity is boundless and I enjoy seeking out primary sources.
In addition, I love to be in the kitchen and outside. In 2013, I took a NOLS course, where I spent 30 life-changing days immersed in the Alaskan wilderness. This intimate experience with living deliberately in nature stirred something deep inside me that continues to guide me. My experience in Alaska then inspired me to start rock climbing. By way of climbing, I’ve explored some of the most inspiring places in North America and pushed past my perceived physical and mental limits.
Above all, I seek to challenge myself and challenge norms, pursue adventure and rigorous thinking, cultivate mindfulness in ordinary activities, and use my marketing and communications skills for the betterment of the planet and society. As I continue on this journey, I fall more humbly and deeply in love with all that nature provides.