Being from Detroit imbues you with a special kind of grit that never leaves you. And in this business, in these times it – grit – comes in handy.
When I say Detroit grit, I mean it literally, as in under my fingernails, from hours spent in the garage handing my dad, a Ford engineer, tools while he worked on our cars. I also helped him restore cars, including a ’66 Ford Mustang. Automatic. 289. Pony interior.
I am a product of the rigorous, pioneering (and sadly, now defunct) art, music and English humanities curriculum offered by Edsel Ford High School. As a result of that experience, I pursued the study of design, at two big state schools and one demanding exclusive private art school in the shadow of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The tangible result of what ended up to be 10 years of study, was a degree in art (1990). But more importantly, I learned and mastered a design thinking approach to solving complex problems, an approach I use constantly to help clients overcome the increasingly difficult challenges of differentiating a professional services firm in the marketing industry.
In 1992, I moved to Chicago and stayed for 16 years. There I managed a small architectural firm (1992-1998) and worked for advertising agency DDB Chicago (1998-2004). I went out on my own the first time in 2005, as a technical writer. Though successful, I found the work unrewarding. After just eight months out of the creative fish tank, I took a freelance gig at a boutique communications firm, where I found my true calling.
Based on my ability to identify and close new business and my reputation for consistently delivering outstanding account service and creative work to clients, I was quickly promoted from account executive to vice president. (2006-2008). It was my desire to focus on advising marketing and technology professional services firms exclusively that led me to start Helena B Communications in June of 2008.
Today, I provide communications consulting and coaching exclusively to small professional services firms that offer up expertise ranging from branding, marketing research, marketing, design, advertising, interactive, and strategic planning, sales, new business development, website and application development (and myriad combinations thereof).
My main role is to help clients close the gap between the abstract idea of “having a higher industry profile and more profitable relationships” and the “push up your sleeves and do it” part necessary to make it actually happen. And because my entire professional career has been spent in the creative professional services industry, I not only understand all the facets of the marketing discipline but also the personas of the buyers and influencers and what will intrigue them and spur them to action.
Today I live and work near Princeton, New Jersey. That means I can be in New York in just over an hour and in old Philadelphia in 45 minutes. My clients, however, are located all over North America, in cities such as NYC, Kansas City, Nashville, Chicago, West Michigan, Minneapolis and Vancouver, BC.
In addition to being a marketer, writer and artist, I’m also a gigging bass player. My interviews of high-profile bass players have appeared in Bass Musician Magazine and Guitar Noise. I also have been known do the occasional music industry-related marketing project, just for fun. I’m a passionate patron of the arts and ardent supporter and producer of the indie film project “Lemonade Detroit.”
When not working or playing bass, I make pictures of plants and people and knit things from impossible patterns.
