About Clay

I sort of fell into marketing after college.

In undergrad, I majored in English after unsuccessfully applying for the University of Texas business school. I’d hoped to double major in Aeronautical Engineering and Business—wanting to follow in the footsteps of Burt Rutan, who I’d watched win the X Prize for private space flight—but gave up on that goal too quickly after being swiftly rejected by the program. Looking back, maybe I should have persisted or explored other paths, but at the time, it felt like a dead end.

My “fallback plan” was to go to law school (hence the liberal arts degree with a business minor and Chinese language focus) because, well, I wasn’t honestly sure what else to do. That plan also fell apart (by the grace of God) when I met a Houston-area corporate attorney on a fishing trip, who strongly encouraged me to follow my heart and seek an entrepreneurial life over law.

Fresh out of school with an impractical but thought-provoking degree (plus the 2008-era fallout still underway), I found employment slinging tacos at Austin’s favorite food truck while also beginning work on my first website—a music promotion site for local bands. One day, a customer came by whom I recognized—a freshman-year floor-mate who, probably in pitty, invited me to apply at the marketing agency he was working at. I did that, scored the job, and thrived there.

Swiftly moving from intern to account manager to head of SEO and Content Marketing services at this small (~60 person) agency, I began a career in marketing, wearing all of the “hats” that come with it.

With that agency as my starting point, I moved forward in my career—joining SF tech startups, taking on DC-area and NYC-based gigs, launching my own Austin-area web-dev/ads management agency, and eventually grabbing back onto the career ladder—shifting into Product Marketing for enterprise technology services.

Today, years later, I’m still in large-scale enterprise IT services—recently taking my second role as Head of Offerings, now at Wizeline. I love it here. This blog isn’t a corporate pitch, but do check us out. We’re doing something special in the services space, and our clients and people reflect it.

I’m a dad (Tom + 1 coming soon) and husband above all else.

Based out of Austin, Texas, I’m also passionate about coding and tech tinkering, engaging actively with the local tech and entrepreneurial community. I built an app (Self Sport—see the nav bar) to grapple with my own mental wellness journey and frequently spin up similar initiatives to scratch other itches. I hope to share more of that here.

Thanks for visiting.