From Corporate Media to Culinary Arts to Creating an Agency
When people ask how I started Event Vendor Marketing, I usually smile—because the truth is, the path here wasn’t straight. It was a winding, full-circle journey that began in corporate advertising, detoured through fine dining kitchens, returned to digital marketing, and eventually led me to start my own agency out of necessity and conviction. My journey has been one of risk, reinvention, hardship, and ultimately, freedom. It started with an Amtrak ticket, a backpack, and $800 to my name.
Landing in Los Angeles
I came to California on an Amtrak with no car, no job, and barely enough to scrape by. Just a backpack and $800. I hustled with whatever work I could find—pedicab driving, temp jobs, and even craigslist gigs. And stayed wherever I could. I managed to save up enough to buy a 1990 Acura Legend for $1,000 and rented a space on someone’s floor in Hollywood for $400 a month.
Quickly after that I landed my first job in advertising at Initiative in 2008. The pay was low. We scavenged agency kitchens for free food, went to industry events just to eat, and stretched every dollar. Less than a year in, I walked into the lobby one morning to see the financial markets collapsing on TV. Not long after, I was laid off.
I was devastated—but I wasn’t done.
Climbing in Agencies, Falling Out of Love
A couple of months later, I got a job at a direct-response agency, the kind of place that thrived on 30-minute infomercials. I was told by former co-workers it was career suicide. But they were hiring, and I needed a paycheck. A year later, I landed back at a national media agency, working on accounts like Disney and Universal. It felt like I was “back.”
But the reality was the same: long nights, low pay, and a culture where politics often mattered more than results. For five years, I grinded, waiting for a way out.
When I finally landed what I thought was my dream job working on Adidas, I thought I had escaped. Within months, I realized it was no different—egos, arbitrary policies, and endless bureaucracy. One Tuesday night at 10 p.m., I placed my key card on the desk and walked out for good.
Rumors spread in the agency world that I had a breakdown, that I snapped. The truth? I had never felt freer.
Culinary School and the World of Fine Dining
Within months, I had sold my luxury sedan, cashed out retirement funds, and enrolled in culinary school at Los Angeles Trade Tech. For the first time in years, I felt alive again. Cooking let me be creative, tangible, and present.
I worked under chefs like Wolfgang Puck, Daniel Humm, Antonia Lofaso, and Timothy Hollingsworth. I cooked alongside Ludo Lefebvre and José Andrés at events. The kitchens were intense—unforgiving, exhausting, but deeply fulfilling.
But the reality of hospitality soon caught up. At 32 years old, running up and down the service stairs of the NoMad Hotel with hotel pans of braised vegetables, my body told me what my heart didn’t want to admit: this path wouldn’t be sustainable. The hours were endless, the pay poverty-level, and I was sore and broke. I couldn’t build a life this way.
Returning to Marketing, but Different
I freelanced, picked up projects, and eventually landed an in-house role at a watch company. Then COVID hit. When management refused to let me work from home and I was forced to commute through the chaos of downtown LA, I quit.
Soon after, I found a role with an e-commerce-focused agency out of Austin, working remotely and later in their Los Angeles office. It gave me stability, but I wasn’t done chasing purpose. Eventually, I moved to an agency role where I helped sell tickets to Broadway shows across the country. It wasn’t the role selling concert tickets for a national promoter I had applied for, but it was close—and I loved the clients.
The problem? The agency culture felt the same as before. My clients valued me, but I often struggled with management politics. Shortly after returning from a generous paternity, I was terminated.
This time, though, I wasn’t broken. I was determined.
The Breaking Point and the Leap
I had a wife and a newborn depending on me. I sent out hundreds of résumés, and after finally landing a job offer, it was revoked before I even started. That was my breaking point.
I realized I could no longer depend on corporate jobs—or anyone else—to provide for my family. The only way forward was to bet on myself.
And that’s exactly what I did.
Full Circle: The Birth of Event Vendor Marketing
Looking back, everything makes sense now.
- The agencies taught me strategy, discipline, and how to drive results with marketing.
- Culinary school and fine dining taught me service, resilience, and what it means to create memorable experiences.
- The personal hardships—the layoffs, the long hours, the setbacks—taught me that independence isn’t optional. It’s survival.
Event vendors—photographers, DJs, caterers, florists—are the perfect reflection of this journey. They do what they love. They hustle to make people happy. They throw parties, create memories, and pour themselves into their craft. But too often, they’re forced to rely on pay-to-play platforms like The Knot, WeddingWire, or Thumbtack just to get noticed.
I built Event Vendor Marketing to change that. My mission is to help event professionals grow independent, thriving businesses—so they can work for themselves, keep money in their communities, and never have to depend on corporate gatekeepers.
Why It Matters
From the Amtrak train to Los Angeles with $800 in my pocket, to kitchens led by Michelin-starred chefs, to agency boardrooms filled with politics, my story has always been about resilience and reinvention.
And today, it’s about empowerment.
Event Vendor Marketing is my way of giving back—helping scrappy small business owners achieve freedom, independence, and success doing what they love. Because when event vendors succeed, small business succeeds. And when small business succeeds, America does too.
Event Vendor Marketing is here to give you and your small business the best chance of succeeding. Schedule a lead flow acceleration session today to learn how to fine tune your online marketing and stabilize your revenue and your freedom.