What if?
I ask the question, “What if?” a lot. The question has led to some of my biggest personal leaps and career successes as a storyteller and content strategy leader.
Asking “what if” is at the heart of bold storytelling, which I define as human-centered stories told in inventive ways, driving consumer love and action. I’m in the zone when I can help businesses and brands figure out what purpose-driven stories they have yet to uncover.
How it started
I was a young print journalist at U.S. News & World Report when I asked, What if we repurposed reporters’ unused audio and notes for stories on the website? I had this early instinct to tell stories in whatever medium spoke to me.
My former boss at U.S. News invited me to join him when he went to Discovery.com. I absolutely loved the interactive storytelling we were doing there, and I asked, What if we create an addictive game tracking real sharks for Discovery’s 20th anniversary of Shark Week? This “what if” got me featured on an industry magazine cover. Then I asked, What if we develop a reality-TV-style web series about dog owners and a dog park in New York City for Animal Planet? That one earned a People’s Choice Webby Award.
The pivot
I’d been laid off from Discovery when I decided to follow my passion for travel. I asked, What if I start a travel blog? I told myself, Why not? I called it Robins Have Wings to remind me—and anyone reading—to take flight and embark upon unexpected journeys near or far. I think this sentiment applies to my strategic storytelling too: always carry a sense of wonder and respect for your collaborators’ points of view before taking bold creative leaps.
After chronicling my travels for my blog and for the Travel Channel, I landed at Marriott, where I led editorial content and asked the biggest “what if” yet: What if we could create a digital travel magazine on par with Afar, Condé Nast Traveler, and Travel + Leisure? At the helm of Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, I did it—with multimedia content that drove 200 percent page-view growth and $20 million in revenue; six Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers; an NAACP Image Award nomination; and a Women in Content Marketing Leader of the Year award.
For fun
I’m still a boundless traveler, most recently traveling solo in countries like Italy, Ghana, Jordan, Bali, and Portugal. I live for serendipitous moments—enjoying markets, museums, making new friends on walking tours, and eating absolutely everything. When I’m not traveling, I’m in a Club Pilates class, doing weekend hikes in D.C., Maryland, or Virginia with a group called Outdoor Afro, or just being a proud auntie to my niece and nephew. If I invite you out for coffee, it’s tea for me—I am a devoted tea drinker.