Lights Out
A genuinely sad book about how a legendary company convinced itself its own hype was real. I found myself wanting to shout warnings at people making decisions decades before I was born — the slow-motion car crash is that well told.
About
Hi, I’m Ben. You’ve found my little corner of the internet — where I read and write about marketing, product, leadership, learning, books, fatherhood, and anything else that happens to inspire me on a given Thursday.
In my work life, I love sitting at the intersection of go-to-market and product: everything from the first pixel in Figma to the story and messaging we carry into the market. But at the end of the day, I follow the great University of Michigan mantra, “the team, the team, the team.” I love building a team, working hard together to accomplish something special, and helping the humans around me do better work and live better lives.
Outside the office, I’m a dad to four stellar kids, a relentless reader (see some of my faves and find your next book rec here), and an adopted Hoosier. Most days you’ll find me walking the streets of Indy with my fam, rewatching The West Wing for the hundredth time, or attempting to win Star Baker. Always happy to connect or help however I can.
Experience
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VP, Product Marketing Docebo 2025–Present I serve the product marketing, competitive intelligence, customer marketing, and customer education teams at Docebo, a global learning platform.
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SVP, Product & Marketing Your Money Line 2022–2025 I joined this post-Series A financial wellness startup as VP of Marketing in late 2022, and two years later stepped up to SVP, Product & Marketing — leading marketing, product, and engineering.
Other roles- VP of Marketing
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Founder Hoosiers Read 2019–2023 I founded a nonprofit with a simple mission: bring books to every child in Indiana ages 0–5, in partnership with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. After a $1M beta across five counties, we successfully lobbied the state to take the program statewide with $6M in funding.
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Senior Director, Brand & Creative Seismic 2021–2022 I led the brand, design, video, PR, copy, and social teams at Seismic. Two favorite moments: the 2022 global rebrand — new brand strategy, logo, visual identity, voice and tone, and website — and launching the Seismic Enablement Cloud with activation across PR, social, web, and even Times Square.
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Chief of Staff Lessonly 2017–2022 Four roles over five years at Indianapolis’ beloved training-software startup. I started as Content Marketing Lead, then as Marketing Manager partnered with CEO Max Yoder to edit, produce, and launch his book Do Better Work. As Director of Marketing I led inbound marketing and sales development — demand gen (owning a revenue number), content, SEO, product marketing, marketing operations, email, paid, social, PR, and web.
I returned as Chief of Staff, working closely with the CEO and President on the rhythm of the business: company objectives, pricing & packaging, weekly all-hands, and our biannual all-company gatherings. After we were acquired, I led the Lessonly side of the integration with Seismic.
Other roles- Director of Marketing
- Marketing Manager, Communications & Content
- Content Marketing Lead
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VP of Marketing Pillar 2020–2021 An early exec-team member at Luma (now Pillar), a High Alpha studio company on a mission to make job interviews more equitable and effective through ML/AI. When the founders moved on, I briefly led the business until a new CEO was hired.
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Leadership Fellow Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation 2019–2020 A yearlong fellowship that gathers a small cohort of Indiana leaders to study and practice civic leadership, in the spirit of Governor Mitch Daniels.
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MBA, Operations & Corporate Strategy University of Michigan — Ross School of Business 2017–2019 Earned my MBA with High Distinction (summa cum laude), and had the honor of speaking at the 2019 Ross commencement — a speech called “It Depends,” an idea that later became a post here in the blog.
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Area Director II Young Life 2012–2017 Five years on staff with the youth ministry nonprofit, growing from Staff Associate to Area Director II — leading volunteer teams, fundraising, and programs for teenagers.
Other roles- Area Director I
- Staff Associate
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BA, Political Science & International Studies Northwestern University 2009–2012 Studied political science and international studies, alongside integrated marketing & communications.
Writing
- The abnormally unselfish basketball playerIt's great to work with stars, hit the personal or team metrics, and get celebrated. But as for me, I want to show up at work more like Shane Battier.
- Three minutes with José AndrésThe value of friendship and kindness. A posture of gratitude and vulnerability. Leaders who bring out our best angels.
- The human experience is the extraordinary partScience, competence, achievement—Artemis II showed it. But what made it special was something more human.
- Great managers protect joyOne recurring signal of a great manager I’ve seen play out again and again: their people feel joy at work. And joy isn’t just a perk—it’s a performance engine.
- The bottleneck isn’t creation anymoreThe oncoming issue with AI isn’t about how much it can do. It’s about how much humans can verify.
- Plumbing and poetryPlumbing is about effectiveness. Poetry is about meaning. Great leaders do both.
- What brand love looks likeThe true ROI of brand building? When your customers—even 10-year-olds—show up excited and proud to be part of your story.
- Strengths and shadowsEvery leader has strengths and shadows, on a continuum that ebbs and flows. A framework that changed how I connect with the people I work with.
- On tasteSarah Guo’s essay on taste is one of my favorite business reads in a while. Taste begins as loneliness and ends as leadership.
- Some spring readingA handful of fiction and nonfiction favorites lately—and I’m building my summer list now.
- Pope Francis’ 15 diseases of leadershipA list from a 2014 homily that hit home: fifteen ways leaders quietly lose their way.
- A Duolingo streak and a product principles handbookMy 9-year-old’s Duolingo streak got our whole family learning—and Duolingo’s public product principles are a gold mine for builders.
- Why Stripe’s operating principles workNot vanilla “integrity” and “teamwork.” A case study in operating principles that are specific, unique, and actually inform behavior.
- The 11 paradoxes of leadershipLeaders live in tension. Lego trains its managers on eleven of them—and I think about them constantly.
- Accountability and empathy aren’t oppositesEvery manager I know has struggled with the tension between accountability and empathy. The trap is thinking you have to choose.
- The Heart of BusinessThis was a refreshing and encouraging read from a big company CEO, advocating for a more purposeful & noble role for work.
- 14 lessons from sunsetting a marketing siteWe took down the Lessonly.com marketing site after five years. Here's what building and rebuilding it taught me about brand, demand, and copy.
- 10 things I read, watched, and listened to in 2020At the start of every year, I reflect on the content I’ve consumed that’s had the greatest impact on me.
- Clear your calendarSometimes our biggest problems feel insurmountable.
- Dear first time manager…Or, 7 ways to be a new kind of leader
- The X factor of great teammatesI’m becoming convinced that there’s a X factor in being a great teammate or becoming a better leader.
- Spine PoetryLast night my wife introduced me to spine poetry, and I am captivated. Here’s my first go at it!
- Marketing savantsMarketers —I am not a savant, and I bet you aren’t either.
- Two kinds of “what if”We all have imperfect information about the future.
- 4 books to think bigger and think differentTwo kinds of books I love:
- “It Depends” LeadershipTwo years ago, I sat down to tackle my first business school case. It was about a popcorn company.
- The More Perfect LeaderI was recently chatting with a small group of fellow managers about the biggest challenge on our minds right now—how should we lead our teams while working remote during a…
- What I read and learned in 2019A friend of mine recently asked me what books, shows, people, practices, or ideas shaped my 2019. Here’s what I said back…
- Leadership is GardeningOur schema for leaders is heroes. They’re cape-wearers and chessmasters who command and wield power, winning by being smarter, better, faster, stronger (all the “-ers”).
- Call Sign Chaos: leadership takeawaysOne of the best leadership books I’ve read in a while. A few of Mattis’s lines on coaching, trust, and reading widely that stuck with me.
- The Heartbeat of Great TeamsMy life is a conglomeration of teams. During every day at Lessonly, every project at Michigan Ross, and every moment in-between with my family, I’m part of a team.
- Why nonprofit leaders need agileSince graduating from college, I have worked at two companies. The first was one of the largest nonprofits in the world. The second is a thriving SaaS startup.
- Give Away the KeysA few years ago, my friend Jack and I sat down to lunch with an experienced restaurateur.
- Are you a sponge or mirror?Two phenomena of leadership are at play when a team succeeds — the sponge, and the mirror.
Library
Nothing on this shelf yet.