Hello, Luke!
What’s up?

This is the CV section of your site, so I’m going to interview you now.
Hang on, am I interviewing myself?

Yeah you are. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
No that’s great, let’s give it a shot.

Oh okay, awesome! Tell me about your employment history.
I broke in at Demi & Cooper in Elgin, Illinois around 2009. Lots of digital marketing for healthcare. Social media, blogging, emails. So many emails. I have nightmares of using Dreamweaver to alter the code to suit the new content. The trick was not breaking the template in the process, which I did all the time.

Got hired by Simple Truth in Chicago in 2012 or so. Allstate was about 80% of their revenue at the time, so that’s who I wrote for. Direct mail, emails, point of sale, print pieces, website copy, mostly done on the customer retention side of things. I was the young and inexperienced writer on a writing team of about 10 people, so I learned a huge amount very quickly. Alongside the Allstate work, they had me tackle some internal content and social media efforts, which is how I found Medium as a blogging platform. I loved this place and was sad to leave. I’m still good friends with them today.

My oldest son was born in September 2014, and I eventually realized that my 150-minute round trip commute was not gonna cut it. I was missing too much of his life, and I needed to be a better partner to my wife. So in January 2016, I found Ivor Andrew in Wheaton, Illinois. 150 minutes become 15, and life was prioritized correctly. At Ivor Andrew, I work on every possible tactic across digital, video, point of sale and print. There have been periods where I’ve managed a team of writers, and there have been times where it’s just been a one-man writing team.

Do you prefer to be on a team or to lone wolf?
Oh, on a team for sure. The work is better if it’s not just your brain working on it.

What’s your bread and butter?
I love a good discovery and the big ideas that come from it. Campaigns, taglines and headlines come naturally to me, as does creating a brand voice from scratch that fits perfectly.

If the brand already exists and is plenty healthy, I love to maintain and improve it over time, and to empower my team to do the same. I’m comfortable developing messaging for any deliverable of any length.

What’s the best work you’ve ever done?
The Doosan work, probably. Ivor Andrew was a relatively unknown agency at the time, so that was the client that legitimized the agency and took them from local to national and global. Doosan’s Machine Greatness tagline has some nice depth to it. On the surface it just looks like a boast, but because the word “machine” is a verb in that industry, it’s also a call to action for their customers. They’re urged to make great things to make the world safer and more efficient.

What’s the best line you wrote that a client rejected?
Oooooo, I remember an Allstate project where they were rolling out a service that would compete with Angie’s List. Plug in what you need and find a contractor, basically. So we presented a line I wrote, GO FROM DIY TO “I KNOW A GUY.” Rejected on the spot.

What do you like to do when you’re not working?
Hanging with the family first and foremost. I’ve got three boys who are the absolute best, and they do a good job keeping me busy. I’ve been with my wife, Jess, since 2004. Life has thrown us some impressive curveballs over the years, but we’ve always been in it together.

Ideal workout?
30 minutes on the stairs. I like cardio that lets me escape on my phone.

Favorite hobbies?
Reading (mostly fiction). Basketball (mostly shooting 3s). Gaming (great way to stay close to faraway friends). Guitar (rhythm only, you’re gonna be disappointed if you ask me to play lead).

Hobby you want to get into?
Golf. So fun, and takes up way too much time to be realistic.

Favorite novels?
Lonesome Dove, Catch-22, 100 Years of Solitude.

What copywriting hill would you die on?
I have many hills.

• Conversational, self-aware and witty copy is best, especially in industries that don’t use it.

• If you don’t enjoy yourself when you write it, they’re not gonna enjoy themselves when they read it.

• My favorite ads are the ones I didn’t write.

• I don’t use the Oxford comma, but if you do, that’s fine. Just be consistent with it.

• IF YOU DOUBLE SPACE AFTER A PERIOD, I WILL FIND YOU.

• You should probably use fewer exclamation points. Just shout in all caps sometimes.

• The only grammar rule I follow (apart from the ones my cherished and perfect copy editors demand): if it’s how the audience talks, it’s how it should be written. So go ahead and live dangerously by starting that sentence with a conjunction and wrapping it with a preposition.

• The designer is waiting on your copy.