Who Am I?

I’m many things. The important stuff first: I’m a son and a friend. But beyond that, I’m a traveler, writer, and marketer, too.

What I am not is an expert. As NBA legend Charles Barkley always says, “Only God’s an expert.” I’m just curious about the world and how it works. I created this site is to show my commitment to being a lifelong learner and to test business and marketing ideas.

An Eventful Life…so Far

Right out of college, I worked at KFBK, a radio station in Sacramento, Calif. owned by iHeartMedia. I mostly handled technical production for the daily afternoon news program. But sometimes, I jumped on the microphone, too. I grew up listening to  sports-talk radio with my dad during our rides home from school. That was when working in media became something I wanted to do.

For almost a decade, I fulfilled a dream to work in sports and in my favorite league of all places – the NBA. I spent most of that time around the Sacramento Kings. As a journalist, I reported on one of the most improbable comebacks in sports history: the Kings relocation saga. The story of the Kings failed attempts to move to Anaheim and Seattle consumed my life for three years. Luckily, there was a happy ending.

From professional sports, my life took a 180-degree turn into a world of opulent excess. I accepted a job in Las Vegas where I received a crash course in digital marketing with Hakkasan Group. If you’ve ever been to Vegas, you might know them. They operate some of the Strip’s most popular nightclubs, including OMNIA at Caesars Palace and Hakkasan at MGM Grand. Some highlights from my time there include Justin Bieber’s 21st birthday and ringing in the New Year with Scott Disick. I told you my life took a 180.

I left Las Vegas after a year. I didn’t envision a future climbing the ladder of the nightlife industry. I also had this nagging itch for international travel. So in 2016, I scratched it. I threw my stuff into a bag and flew to Europe, where I visited 20-plus different countries over the course of 7 1/2 months.

I returned back to the US in the fall of 2016 and landed back in professional sports. I was fortunate to rejoin the Sacramento Kings as a digital managing editor for their inaugural season at Golden 1 Center. I spent 1 season helping create content around the team and their new arena.

But the road came calling again and in late 2017, I went back to venturing abroad. This time, though, I did so while working remotely. From 2017 to 2019, I traveled to a variety of countries, including South Africa, Japan, Indonesia, and Colombia, while working online with US-based companies as a digital marketer and writer.

In February 2020, I began the next chapter of my career. I accepted a marketing role with Video Husky, a done-for-you video editing company for content creators and small businesses. With Video Husky, I launched a podcast where I interviewed creators about their stories, strategies, and experiences of building an online audience through video.

Fast forward to today and I am still a marketer but I’ve become a creator once again. In October 2022, I launched my own YouTube channel, focused on people, places, and cultures. I also currently serve as an ad copywriter for The Publish Press newsletter that’s spearheaded by creators Colin and Samir.

A Few Career Highlights…

Here are some links to some of my favorite work I’ve done throughout my career.

*Note: I worked with a handful of freelance writers to produce the majority of these articles.

**Note: I conducted the interviews for these videos. We worked with the talented team at ThemToo Productions to create these promos.

What People Have Said About Working With Me

Jon’s writing portfolio speaks for itself but what makes Jon stand out from other content writers we’ve had on our team is his interest and knowledge in the marketing behind writing. Jon thinks bigger picture: What is the larger marketing strategy? What other content could we produce to achieve that goal? etc. This is backed up by his knowledge and experience of SEO, podcast marketing and more that he’s now acquired. He’d be an absolute asset to many marketing teams and companies.

Devesh Khanal, Co-Founder of Grow and Convert

Working with Jon at Video Husky was a real pleasure – starting from rewriting all of our email sequences, to improving our website copy before interviewing and collecting dozens of testimonials from our clients in his first role at Video Husky.

After moving on his second role with increased responsibility he applied himself with impressive dedication, moving into a marketing and sales role where he spoke and closed more prospects than anybody at the company while simultaneously producing a podcast consistently on a weekly basis, balancing both at the same time with no drop in quality or complaints – if anything the challenge seemed to push him further and harder which was admirable.

Over the 2 years that we worked together, Jon has always gone and beyond in every task that we worked on together and it was a real pleasure to get to know him. His effort and knowledge the ability to use content to attract prospects and close customers are a real asset that any company would appreciate.

Justin Tan, Founder of Video Husky

If you’d like a detailed summary of my professional experience, you can visit my LinkedIn profile. Contact me here if you’re interested in working together.