Meet your new Marketing, Copywriting, and Journalism Professional
Intro
After spending years across the military, construction, and craft brewing sectors, I knew I needed to pivot to something that allowed me to use my knowledge and internal skills over my external outputs.
Holding an undergraduate degree in history means I am well equipped for fact-based research, writing, and using others’ words and ideas to develop my own thesis, story, or other creative work.
I have spent the last few years in the journalism (as a sports editor) and marketing sectors (as a marketing and communications manager), honing my skills in storytelling (digital and print), social media management, copywriting, editing, and communications.
I also became well-rounded in the field of sports photography during my time at various print publications, often sticking around for one more second to grab the perfect shot. I learned how to set up cameras for different lighting, speeds, and focal points, and ultimately, photography became my passion.
I am lucky enough to have worked for three different publications, namely The Sampson Independent for a bulk of my sports journalism career, but also The Sanford Herald and a couple of guest columns for The Shelby Independent.
Current Position
Some recent work is not included due to confidentiality and organizational policies. I’m happy to walk through these projects, including strategy and results, in an interview setting.
Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
2025 Soccer Preview
After the success of our yearly Pigskin Preview, and the growing popularity of the sport of soccer, it was time for a soccer preview for all of the teams in the county. This was a project that I pitched, led, and completed, entirely by myself, while also juggling the day-to-day operations of a sports editor.
Against a tight deadline, I captured all of the images, interviewed the coaches, and planned and helped design this special section as an advertising supplement that both increased our revenue and shone a spotlight on more student-athletes.
2025 Pigskin Preview
A yearly tradition established before my time with the newspaper, the Pigskin Preview is something that people from all over the county very much look forward to every year in preparation for the high school football season.
A unique set of circumstances leads this magazine to be a short order, but with it being the most popular of any advertising supplement, it must be flawless. Student-athletes are only able to practice starting a specific day in the summer, and this magazine is available at the county scrimmage the week before the season starts. Add in a long lead time, and there is about a 2-3 week window to ensure all of the pictures, copy, and formatting are correct before it’s due.
As the sports editor, I was in charge of overseeing the entirety of this project in addition to my regular desk duties. For this edition, I completed every interview, statistic compilation, and coordination while my reporter contributed pictures for one of the stories.
Home Grown Magazine
Stepping outside of my comfort zone as a sports editor, I was tasked with interviewing a turkey farmer and telling his story. Ever the one to be creative, I asked if I could write it instead of the typical biographical story, and instead as my point of view as “the sports guy,” who just so happened to be interviewing a turkey farmer.
I took this chance to show my personality and explore his, letting people in the community know that the man they see on the tractor is just as human as everyone else.
The second story I did in this edition was a biographical piece on the leader of the cooperative agriculture extension, telling his story and what the community means to him.
The final piece of my writing here was a collaborative story between another reporter and me, interviewing FFA students across area high schools. This took a lot of coordination of schedules, especially around the school schedule and events. In total, I interviewed students from three different high schools for this piece.
2-High Safety Column
Project 5
Project 4
My weekly sports column, Brandt’s Corner, found its way to the front page of Google thanks to a well-timed piece from my desk.
Realising that it was a hot topic at the time due to Mel Kiper Jr. discussing it on ESPN, I took it into my own hands to discuss what a 2-high safety defense looks like in football. It eventually became the #1 search result for the term, even without extensive SEO best practices being used, and still to this day it ranks towards the top.
Decade Recap
What started with not knowing how to fill the Thanksgiving weekend — one usually devoid of goings-on in the high school sports sector — far in advance became my Magnum Opus of sports analysis.
During the football season, I would do a weekly Pigskin Pick ‘em with a fairly in-depth breakdown, picking at about a 75% accuracy in my first year after never seeing the teams play before.
As an avid planner, my schedule would be planned out weeks ahead of time, so I knew how my content would flow. Seeing the gap around the Thanksgiving holiday, I knew those pages still had to be filled. That’s when the idea of doing an analysis of the previous years’ football teams came to me.
I originally sought to cover the entire history of each program, but with limited resources, I opted for just the previous 10 years instead. This involved thorough research of not only our own records, but also using other resources available to me as well.
I compiled each team’s overall record, conference record, and record against each other county school before deciding the best wins and worst losses for each squad, with a picture of each of those games.
This began a multipart series that eventually covered boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball, and softball.
2025 Soccer Preview
Project 1
After the success of our yearly Pigskin Preview, and the growing popularity of the sport of soccer, it was time for a soccer preview for all of the teams in the county. This was a project that I pitched, led, and completed, entirely by myself, while also juggling the day-to-day operations of a sports editor.
Against a tight deadline, I captured all of the images, interviewed the coaches, and planned and helped design this special section as an advertising supplement that both increased our revenue and shone a spotlight on more student-athletes.
2025 Pigskin Preview
Project 2
A yearly tradition established before my time with the newspaper, the Pigskin Preview is something that people from all over the county very much look forward to every year in preparation for the high school football season.
A unique set of circumstances leads this magazine to be a short order, but with it being the most popular of any advertising supplement, it must be flawless. Student-athletes are only able to practice starting a specific day in the summer, and this magazine is available at the county scrimmage the week before the season starts. Add in a long lead time, and there is about a 2-3 week window to ensure all of the pictures, copy, and formatting are correct before it’s due.
As the sports editor, I was in charge of overseeing the entirety of this project in addition to my regular desk duties. For this edition, I completed every interview, statistic compilation, and coordination while my reporter contributed pictures for one of the stories.
Home Grown Magazine
Project 3
Stepping outside of my comfort zone as a sports editor, I was tasked with interviewing a turkey farmer and telling his story. Ever the one to be creative, I asked if I could write it instead of the typical biographical story, and instead as my point of view as “the sports guy,” who just so happened to be interviewing a turkey farmer.
I took this chance to show my personality and explore his, letting people in the community know that the man they see on the tractor is just as human as everyone else.
The second story I did in this edition was a biographical piece on the leader of the cooperative agriculture extension, telling his story and what the community means to him.
The final piece of my writing here was a collaborative story between another reporter and me, interviewing FFA students across area high schools. This took a lot of coordination of schedules, especially around the school schedule and events. In total, I interviewed students from three different high schools for this piece.
2-High Safety Column
Project 4
My weekly sports column, Brandt’s Corner, found its way to the front page of Google thanks to a well-timed piece from my desk.
Realising that it was a hot topic at the time due to Mel Kiper Jr. discussing it on ESPN, I took it into my own hands to discuss what a 2-high safety defense looks like in football. It eventually became the #1 search result for the term, even without extensive SEO best practices being used, and still to this day it ranks towards the top.
Decade Recap
Project 5
What started with not knowing how to fill the Thanksgiving weekend — one usually devoid of goings-on in the high school sports sector — far in advance became my Magnum Opus of sports analysis.
During the football season, I would do a weekly Pigskin Pick ‘em with a fairly in-depth breakdown, picking at about a 75% accuracy in my first year after never seeing the teams play before.
As an avid planner, my schedule would be planned out weeks ahead of time, so I knew how my content would flow. Seeing the gap around the Thanksgiving holiday, I knew those pages still had to be filled. That’s when the idea of doing an analysis of the previous years’ football teams came to me.
I originally sought to cover the entire history of each program, but with limited resources, I opted for just the previous 10 years instead. This involved thorough research of not only our own records, but also using other resources available to me as well.
I compiled each team’s overall record, conference record, and record against each other county school before deciding the best wins and worst losses for each squad, with a picture of each of those games.
This began a multipart series that eventually covered boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball, and softball.