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Born in Chicago; Raised in Euclid, Ohio

I’ve played forward for a lot of teams at different levels:

• Euclid Youth Hockey 
  
• Cleveland Junior Lumberjacks Midget “AAA”
  
• Cleveland Junior “A” Barons
  
• Colgate University (Hamilton, NY) 
  
• Team Navy — Cleveland Men’s League at Gilmour Academy

My brother and I own a full-service creative ad agency in downtown Cleveland — helping a range of regional and national clients rise above the blah blah. We do this by tapping into our in-house capabilities of creative development, brand research & strategy, analytics, interactive development/UX, shopper marketing, influencer marketing, and brand identity. I oversee all business development and client relations for the agency. We also have a sister company, Favorite Brother, which provides in-house video production, motion design, and a full recording studio.

As a service industry, one of our biggest challenges is attracting and retaining great strategic, creative talent. We believe people are the only true differentiator between one agency and the next. At Brokaw, we’ve been very fortunate to have a great group of “brilliant misfits” (as we affectionately call them), who’ve been with us for a long time.

Besides teaching me the true definition of resilience and work ethic, hockey has taught me the importance of positive thinking. One of the best coaches I ever had was the late, great Barons coach Timmy Alexander, who would always say to us: “Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.” As cheesy as that quote might’ve sounded to me back when I was a teenager, today I try to live my life by it. The puck is not always going to bounce your way. There will always be things out of your control. But your attitude is not one of them.

When I’m not working, I enjoy helping coach my three boys’ hockey teams, as well as continuing to chase the dream playing men’s league every Tuesday night at 9:45 p.m. Followed by regretting it every Wednesday morning at 6 a.m.