More than anything, I am a student.
My life has always been focused on learning, and using what I learn to achieve my goals.
I am focused on realizing my potential. I connect with people with a “growth mindset” – that strive to grow, learn and leave a positive impact on the community around them. (On the reverse, I don’t get along with people who are complacent, want success without effort and/or do no self-reflection.)
I am a work in progress. I subscribe to the “permanent beta” approach to self-development – a lifelong commitment to continuous personal growth, like software in “beta” receiving updates. Progress is better than perfect.
I have many professional interests. I’ve worked in email marketing, web development, product management (B2B and consumer-facing), web design, corporate video production, studio photography, brand negotiations, apparel merchandising and apparel production. Jack of many trades, master of a few.
I believe creativity is a process, and that anyone can learn to “be creative.” In fact, I’d argue the more analytical you are, the greater propensity you have to break down the process of creativity into individual parts and arrive at a workflow that’s right for you. The “true artist” that relies solely on ephemeral spurts of inspiration without a focus on process may produce beauty in the short-term, but process and incremental iteration wins in the long-term.
I believe success is a matter of applied repetition, high quality instruction, being kind to yourself when you make mistakes and being kind to others in the process. One of my favorite examples of learning and succeeding is in nurturing children to speak for the first time. We do not scold a newborn baby for saying “goo” or “gah” instead of “hello” or “mommy.” Yet when we, as adults, find ourselves in similar learning situations approaching subjects for the first time, criticism comes quickly and harshly. If we can treat our learning selves as we do newborns, we’d live much more fulfilled lives.
I believe kindness is a choice, and I enjoy connecting with others. Personal attitude is a sole determinant of why there are many talented individuals that see little success. Business, and life as a whole, is inherently social. It is extremely difficult to accomplish anything substantial without a team. I lead and connect with positivity and love.
- 1990 – Born in San Francisco.
- 2006 – Youngest Black Belt in Uechi Ryu Karate history.
- 2008 – Graduated Hercules Middle High School, accepted to UC Merced.
- 2010 – Transferred from UC Merced to UC Davis.
- 2010 – Joined business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi.
- 2011 – Hired at Intel Corp. as Biz Ops Intern.
- 2012 – Graduated UC Davis with a degree in Economics.
- 2013 – Hired at LinkedIn as part of the Online Marketing team.
- 2014 – Moved to the Tenderloin in San Francisco.
- 2014 – Learned front-end development in spare time, transferred to LinkedIn Web Development team.
- 2015 – Moved to Los Angeles to chase a girl (who is now my wife).
- 2015 – Left LinkedIn, became a Product Manager at an LA start-up.
- 2016 – Quit PM job, did some soul searching, freelanced web design/dev.
- 2016 – Joined my wife to grow her dream of being a social media influencer. Taught myself photography and brand negotiations.
- 2017 – Independently negotiated $100K+ in campaign spend while also executing on the creative social media campaigns.
- 2017 – Co-founded UMO Style brand with my wife. Worked with Mike Cherman of Chinatown Market on first release. Press in Hypebae and Nylon Japan.
- 2018 – My wife signs with A3 talent agency. My responsibilities completely shift to creative production.
- 2019 – Co-founded brand Dobu Supply Inc. with artist and close-friend Dobu Haishen.
- 2020 – Purchased our first home, our daughter Dove Orion Thom is born.
- 2021 – Moved to Hong Kong.