​                 1967. SUMMER OF LOVE, California 

                                     ONE HIT WONDER. If you were there (and conscious) you'd remember...

                                     Insence and Peppermints by the Strawberry Alarm Clock. Went Gold in '67.                                              Google it. That's me singing. OK, not exactly a full blown rock star, and not
                                     really relevant. But it will help you remember me.

 

 

1971. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 

B.A. MUSIC COMPOSITION AND THEORY. Who knew writing symphonies was good training for
writing copy? But it's all about capturing - and holding - the reader/listener: Begin with an 
arresting idea...drive the listener forward by elaborating that idea, (and be suprising, yet
inevitable as you do it)...repeat a lot to stay focused...and drive to a satisfying finale that
leaves you wanting more. Just think of the direct mail career Mozart might have had had
be been born couple of centuries later!  

       

           1974. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

                           M.A. PROGRAM IN MUSICOLOGY.  Headed for an academic career in music history and                                        theory which, though abandoned somewere around the 14th century, did leave me with the
                        handy ability to transcribe a rollicking Ars Nova chanson into modern notiation in a pinch.     

 

1976. SECRET WEAPON, Chicago 

WOULDN'T BE MUCH OF A SECRET IF I BLABBED IT TO EVERYONE, WOULD IT? But it's real. And  
it's kept me sane(ish) and provided four decades of amazing insights, understandings
and keys into the mysteries of why people do what they do. Which is very helpful when you've
spent your entire professional life trying to get people to respond the way you want!  (Ask me
about it when we talk - I'll tell you only you all about it!) 

 

           1977. MARSTELLER ADVERTISING, Chicago    

                        COPYWRITER.  Trained in the Young and Rubicam discpline of research->positioning->idea->
                        concept->creative. Wrote sell copy for cars, washing machines, freight train slack adjusters                         copiers, banks, lawn sprinklers, industrial adhesives, eyeglasses, radio stations,                                         savings and loans, banks, bicycles, potato chips...and more. 

 

 

1980. MAXWELL SROGE DIRECT  

MARKETING, Chicago

 COPY CHIEF. My introduction into the world of direct response with perhaps the leading
 catalog consultant at the time. From high end jewelry to steel shelving to B-2-B
 newsletters to collector's plates to Wedgwood tea services to Donald Duck drinking mugs
 to Vietnamese ant farms.   

 

 

           1982. STEPHEN WINCHELL & ASSOCIATES
              / THE VIGURIE COMPANY, Washington, DC

                       ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE / COPYWRITER. My indoctrination into the world of non-profit direct                            marketing - where I learned that the heart and the head are indeed connected. And that                          understanding that connection is what drives results.  

 

 

1984. ON MY OWN AND NEVER LOOKED BACK 

Apple launches the Mac...Michael Jackson unleashes "Thriller"...the Space Shuttle "Discovery"
makes its maiden voyage...and I venture forth, creating countless direct mail packages
and programs for Time Life Books and Music, The Republican National Committee, The Epilepsy
Foundation, U.S. News and World Report, Writer's Digest and so many more. Over the next 30
years I build monthly giving programs for the American Red Cross...help elect a couple of U.S.
Presidents...start a direct marketing agency called BMD that runs 25 years has 19 employees and
a small, deeply loyal roster of clients, including (for twelve years) the 1.6 million-member National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare...raise over half-billion bucks...and still out there, happy to sell books, magazines, insurance leads, financial services, memberships...and almost anything else that can be sold through the mail.