STRATEGIES

It all started with bees. When my backyard honey didn't sell, I redesigned the label, rewrote the story, and unknowingly ran my first brand refresh. That spark led me to an MBA and a career in marketing.

I started my post-MBA career at Clorox, where I learned how real brands scale and succeed in retail. I managed P&Ls, led cross-functional teams, and ran national campaigns—Clorox Wipes during COVID, Clorox's first compostable wipe, Kingsford's challenger strategy on Reddit. I saw what disciplined brand-building looks like when decisions are expensive to reverse.

Then I moved to The Washington Post during an election cycle and overhauled the subscription go-to-market strategy where acquisition, engagement, retention, and messaging all had to work together.

Today, I run Darling Strategies. I work with brands like Brita, Burt's Bees, Fresh Step, and emerging brands like Lata Shop and Luji's Chocolate—helping them navigate the stage where momentum is real but the playbook that got them here stops working.

MY JOURNEY

You've never been here before. Your team hasn't either. I have.

Most growth strategists come from one world: big CPG, performance marketing, or subscriptions. I've operated across all three, sitting where brand strategy, channel decisions, P&L pressure and growth plans all converge. P&L ownership at Clorox. DTC and performance marketing inside scaling consumer brands. Subscription GTM at The Washington Post. Across 12 brands from $2M to $700M. I've operated inside the startup constraints with small budgets, tight timelines, real trade-offs, not advising from the outside. I've got some reps on this stuff.

I work as a coach-player. My role is strategic but I'm not afraid to get in the weeds. I know what CAC, ROAS and LTV questions to ask because I've been inside the digital platforms myself.

Founders bring me in when:

• Growth is real but nobody can explain what's actually driving it

• Channels are moving, agencies are executing — but nobody owns the full picture or is connecting the dots

• They're sitting on more opportunity than they're capturing but can't see exactly where

• A big decision is on the table — a retail expansion, a senior hire, a fundraise, a new channel — and they want to back the right thing before committing budget

• They've hit the ceiling of what they can figure out on their own — and they've done everything they know how to do

After working together:

• You stop being the only one connecting the dots. You know exactly what's driving growth and what isn't and you have a clear plan for what comes next with the reasoning behind it.

• Decisions stop resetting every time something new comes up. Your team and agencies stop optimizing in silos and start pulling in the same direction.

• Growth stops depending on you having all the answers. You have someone who's been here before telling you exactly what to do next and in what order. That's what founders tell me they felt most immediately: relief that there's finally a plan.