Marketing consultant, Fractional CMO, brand strategy, energetic speaker, foodie, soccer player, and proud Dad

I’m passionate about marketing and building brands, and that energy is evident from the first moment of interaction. My approach combines curiosity with strategic thinking and creative solutions to help businesses stand out and grow through effective marketing.

With over 20 years of experience, I’ve led transformative projects across diverse industries, including technology, medtech, consumer goods, and professional services—serving both B2C and B2B clients. In 2012, I founded Common Giant, where I helped companies harness branding as a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace.

Throughout my career, I’ve worked client-side managing retail stores up to $52MM in revenue, served as VP of Brand Strategy on the agency side, launched an agency with global clients, and acted as a fractional CMO for multiple businesses. My experience spans branding, marketing strategy, and creative execution across a variety of business models.

"The guy you want in the room." - Former coworker.

I believe in these four core principles:

1 - Marketing is a business practice. 
It’s not just about promotion. Marketing is a series of levers to pull for higher profits.

2 - Know the customer as much as you know yourself.
Understand what, how, and where your customers buy to serve them best.

3 - Grow the orchard while you sell the fruit.
Focus on long-term brand growth while capitalizing on immediate sales.

4 - Boring is expensive.
Mediocre marketing is forgettable, less effective, and costs more in the long run.

Beyond my work with brands, I'm an enthusiastic keynote speaker, delivering engaging talks on branding, marketing, creative problem-solving in business, and effective marketing strategies to audiences of all sizes.

Phillip Oakley

Workshop Experience Designer + Facilitator 🥳

Hi, I’m Rachel, think of me as your Collaboration Co-Pilot. I’m a Workshop Experience Designer and Facilitator who helps teams ditch default meetings and design collaborative sessions built to challenge assumptions, pull people out of their own heads, and push past the first answer traps.

With over 20 years of experience across design thinking, brand and creative strategy, workshop creation, and facilitation, I’m a firm believer that wonder is the doorway to our wildest ideas. Coming from an environment where being curious and creative felt like pulling teeth, I’ve learned that moving ideas, decisions, and change forward all comes down to how we work together. Not just hoping people speak up or that something useful will come out of a meeting, but actually shaping the way we collaborate — facilitating it.

Rachel Davis

Alright friends, this is what you've been waiting for since we heard Butter was going away. We navigate a world without Butter 🧈 (Acquired by Miro) together and explore how to keep energizing, engaging, and delighting people in collaborative sessions. Join the *A World Beyond Butter: Fresh Ideas Fishbowl* on March 17. 

We have two very special guests (so far!) for inside our fishbowl

Jakob Knutzen 🧈
I have been honored to collaborate so closely with Jakob both with Butter and now his efforts at Miro, he has a bit up his sleeve to share about Miro Engage as we throw around new ideas in the fishbowl! 

Cheska Teresa
One of the brilliant minds behind the Community over at Butter and now at Miro! I absolutely loved working with Cheska on the ButterMixers and in the community. And can't wait for her to bring her delightful ideas to our fishbowl. 

🐠 🐠 If you've never been to a fishbowl event, here's how it works (and we have a slight twist on it!) 🐠 🐠 
→ Jakob and Cheska will stay in our 'fishbowl' and I'll be there too facilitator, and then YOU as the audience can pop in and out of the fishbowl, sharing a challenge or tackling someone else's challenge. 
→ Open mic rules: share what's pulling people in (or could pull them in!), what you're experimenting with, what's working, ideas you want to try, or questions you have. We're all figuring out this world beyond Butter together.

​What to expect 🤔
​→ Candid talk about what's landing with participants (or not)
​→ A mix of tech and no-tech approaches

​You'll walk away with 💪
​→ Techniques you can test in your next workshop
​→ Fresh energy for what's possible beyond Butter
​→ Connection to other facilitators also figuring out their next steps

​Consider this an invitation to come join us and renew your excitement for what's possible in virtual spaces. 🔥💜

We hope to see you there, don't miss your chance to learn some new things to try out. Sign up here: https://luma.com/wvkmiex6

Collaboration Co-Pilot | Workshop Designer | Brand Strategist | LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Certified Facilitator | Miro Hero

Magic and mischief. That was the theme for week 5 of my Year of Unicorns project. I made an infusible ink t-shirt with the phrase ‘Default mode: magic and mischief.’

While making this t-shirt, a few things were swirling around in my neurospicy brain:

Use what you have. New things can emerge from it. 🎉
↳ I've been revisiting my doom piles. You know, the stuff I bought with big plans and then... didn't. Instead of reaching for something shiny and new (oh, the temptation!) I paused and thought, ‘I need to work with what I’ve got!’
↳ And guess what? Lot’s of time working within limits forces you to get inventive.

Magic and mischief is part of how I show up.🪄
↳ Coming from a rigid corporate environment early in my career, I had to make the case that wonder, play, and mischief aren't just nice-to-haves. They help us think more creatively and work better together.
↳ This is what drives how I design collaborative sessions: creating space where people can think differently, play with ideas, and discover things they didn't know they knew.
↳ It's also why I got my LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® certification. LEGO absolutely belongs at work, and I'll keep saying it. 

Give mischief some love. 💛
↳ Mischief is that impulse to be a bit cheeky, try something unconventional, bend the rules just to see what's possible. New thinking needs that.
↳ It's the difference between ‘we've always done it this way’ and ‘what if we didn't?’

 When I lead with magic and mischief, I meet people who think the same way. The ones who know that serious work doesn't have to be soul-crushingly serious, and that serious topics benefit from creative thinking too.

So what's your default mode? ⬇️

Share in the comments. Let's get a little magical and mischievous. 🦄

SaaS content marketing & ops • Simplifying complex tech for everyone • Words in Buffer, Glide, Usercentrics, Commsor, Hire a Helper

Freelancers: this one’s for you.

No Free Work is a random reply generator for freelancers who are unsure how to say “yeah I’m not doing that for free” politely but firmly.

There are 25 professional, respectful responses you can use when declining unpaid work (and I’ll be adding more over time). Copy, customize, and hit send.

I built this because saying "no" to free work shouldn't feel awkward. But it often does, at any stage in your career, and you'd like to respond without burning bridges.

The responses here acknowledge the request without apologizing for valuing your time.

If you're a freelancer, please use it and let me know how I can make it better: https://lnkd.in/ddhYD-Bp

I have had another taste of brand naming recently for a side project with my hubby and it reminds me how much I absolutely adore brand and product naming. I have a series of workshops I run as part of brand strategy which focus on naming, and am always enhancing them!

🐝 🌸The true cross-pollinator I am I get inspo from so many places, and incorporate them into collaborative sessions and overall experience. 🌸 🐝 

→ Rob Meyerson's 'Brand Naming' book (love this and he has a new workbook that's on my list to get!)

→ The 'Go Name Yourself' Deck from No Picnic Press (This is one of my absolute favs, it's cheeky and has great ways to approach naming, and oh yessss do I love me a good card deck) 

→ Alexandra Watkins's 'Hello My Name is Awesome' book (This one has a permanent place on my desk and I reference it often!)

🚁 So here's my process from a 3,000 ft view over here. 🚁

→ Brand strategy first (this is the foundation for naming, even if it's scrappy and gritty, you need some sort of agreed upon central brand focus) 

→ Right into an initial naming workshop - no picking of names happens in this, instead we look at what's out there (competitor names), explore criteria and themes, and clarify what the name should communicate, all tied back to that brand focus (I LOVE facilitating this workshop it helps set those creative bumpers)

→ Some ideating - using the naming brief that was the outcome of the first workshop, its time to ideate, I facilitate myself through some ideation activities (oh I have SO MUCH fun with these)

→ Live Naming Evaluation session - through years of doing this, I discovered that just sending over a list of names, while not wrong, is not an energetic experience... What I mean is a live naming evaluation session keeps the team excited about the options, and helps them weigh them beyond just 'I like this' or 'I don't like this' - we use specific weighting to figure out how it aligns to strategy, audience, and other criteria. It all culminates in a matchup activity (sports bracket style) where the names face off against each other.   

- - - - - - 

What naming resources do you use? I'd be so curious to hear!

If you're team is stuck naming something, a product, a brand, anything at all, would love to have a chat with you! Drop me a DM on LinkedIn 💛

I use CNVS all the time and it’s one of my absolute favorite tools to use for crafting Miro boards! We even showcase it sometimes on Miro Board improv 🙌

Check it out if you haven’t already!! 💛💛💛 

Lucie Agolini hasn’t just built another illustration library she understands the flow that boards need to have for a collaborative session to be delightful and effective and she’s designed for that. I don’t think I’ve ever needed something for my session flow I couldn’t find in her library!

Your Miro, Mural & Collaboard boards deserve better.

The moment to level up? 👀

NOW! ⏱️

A purposeful visual speaks more than 1,000 words.

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬.

Great indicators don't just show status.
They create rhythm.
They build anticipation.
They turn information into experience.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞?

   👁️ Visual cues guide focus before words do.
   ✨ Well-designed elements create clarity.
   🎯 Purposeful design makes your board feel intentional.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭:

Progress and agendas visualized directly on your board.
Hand-drawn. Eye-catching.
Customizable in color to match your brand and vibe.

A space so clear, teams stay synced naturally.
Focused. Energized. Moving together.

With thoughtful design, CNVS gives you these and 12,500+ more visuals to create that clarity - on purpose, right inside your whiteboard. 

💜 https://getcnvs.design

𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞?

Join the next Miro Magic Event and discover how to build boards with clarity, purpose, and those "wow" moments that make people lean in.

💜 https://luma.com/xsm41pef

Ever used visual progress indicators in your workshops?

This week I stepped way outside my comfort zone for my Year of Unicorns I am absolutely not a baker 🧑‍🍳 🤣. The hubby makes much better baked goods than me so I usually leave it to him. His sourdough is freakin' amazing.

🦄 If you're new here every week this year I'm creating a new unicorn-related thing! To challenge myself, experiment, and learn new things with a bit of magical wonder. 🦄

Anywho, this week I made unicorn jam and Nutella filled cookies.

Last week we went to Linzer cookie baking class (my fav kind of cookie) and we made some really yummy cookies there. I thought ok great I'll just replicate what I learned at home… well that was a big buttery and gritty nope.

Environment matters, the shop for the class was chilly, our house is not. The surfaces were different, the variables were different. And it got me thinking about how much the environment matters, not just in baking, but in workshopping, because well we know I have to relate all my unicorns back to my other love of collaborative sessions.

Even virtual environment matters, that is why I loved Butter 🧈 (Acquired by Miro) as a platform so much, it pulled people out of their day to day environment. And now I have to find new ways to do that now that Butter is going away of course :) Fun fact, these cookies have a lot of Butter in them ... but I digress 🧈

Think about it though, you have to think in different ways in different environments, and that helps you come up with different and creative solutions in a session. Sometimes you realize it's the environment driving it, and sometimes it's so subtle it just works (that's great too!)

In the case of my cookies, I couldn't change my environment (which you sometimes can't) so I had to adjust to it. I changed the recipe, found one that worked with what I had.

💡Sometimes you can change the environment. Maybe that's moving to a different room, switching up the platform you're using, or adjusting the temperature (literally or figuratively). When the space itself can shift, that might be your easiest path.

🚨But sometimes you can't change the environment. So you change what you're doing within it. You adjust your approach, pick a different method, pick different materials, work with what you have. 

And there's my sweet sweet creation for the week along with my cookie-induced realization about environments - sometimes you change them, sometimes you just roll with them. 🙌

What about you? When's the last time you noticed the environment was helping (or fighting) you for a collaborative session? And what did you do about it?

taplio

The Battle

Phillip Oakley

Rachel Davis

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taplio

The Battle

Phillip Oakley

Rachel Davis

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Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Rachel Davis's LinkedIn Performance

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