About
Hi, I’m Devin.
I'm a writer, entrepreneur, and brand strategist.
For the last several years, I've worked across two very different worlds.
One has been technology. The other has been hospitality.
At first glance, they couldn't be more different. One ships software online. The other serves people food and drinks, in the most physical way possible..
Ultimately, I’ve boiled it down to the same lesson: people rarely remember products, but they do remember experiences.
Whether I was writing UX copy, launching marketing campaigns, developing a brand voice, or opening the doors to my own café every morning, my job has always been the same.
To put myself in the customer’s shoes, and to provide experiences and products worth coming back for.
My Career Started as a Copywriter
Like most writers, I started my career thinking that being good at writing words was the job. Over time I realized they were just a part of it.
The interesting work happened much earlier. Why does this company exist? What should it stand for? How should it make people feel? How do hundreds of small decisions create one recognizable experience?
Those became the questions I cared about most.
What began as an idea for a neighborhood coffee shop became the most demanding creative project of my life. Every little decision mattered, and there were a lot of them — every single day. From the architecture and design, to the music and the menu. What coffee should we serve, what should our newsletter sound like? How should we greet people at the register, and who should we hire? I could go on for days…
For the first time, I wasn't creating campaigns around a brand. I was responsible for creating the brand itself. That experience fundamentally changed how I think about storytelling. It also made me understand the importance of execution.
Today I believe brands aren't built through campaigns. They're built through consistency. Through hundreds of intentional decisions that all reinforce the same idea.
If I’m not at the coffee shop, you’ll usually find me outside. I surf, play basketball, and try to put my phone down as much as possible. When I’m in a bar or restaurant or coffee shop (mine or someone else’s) I’m probably thinking about why some brands work, and others don’t. Why some places make people want to stay, while others make them want to leave.
In an increasingly digitized world, I think human connection is more important than ever. That's probably why I ended up building a business around it.
I believe great brands don't chase attention — they earn it. Similarly, I don’t think people necessarily fall in love with products. They fall in love with what those products allow them to become.
I believe advertising shouldn't feel like an interruption. Instead, it should feel like invitation from a charismatic person. You don’t always accept the invitation, but you always appreciate the thought. And if you do happen to accept that invitation, you’re introduced into a community built through a system of shared beliefs.
In general, my goal is to solve problems, improve peoples lives, and ultimately, build positive communities.
That's the work I'm interested in.