I recognized I was AuDHD in my 40s. I didn't have the name for it for a LONG time... most of my life, actually.
The pattern recognition comes from the autistic side. I see data visually. Aberrations stick out. That's the part of the job that feels like a superpower.
Communication, sales, why a person does the next thing... none of that showed up on its own. So I studied it on purpose.
One thing I know. None of us are the labels assigned to us. You can call the work whatever you want. In the end, you'll know me as BG.
Where the work came from
I started at Lycos as an account executive, as Lycos was dying and Google was rising. Heavy.com was a client. I found a use for a product the company hadn't planned on, and inside a year my book was the largest in the company.
After that I ran paid search at Choice Hotels, partnered at an agency, wrote for Search Engine Journal, and spoke at SMX. Jay Leishman and I co-hosted Stack the Odds.
I was Purple's original Director of Marketing and helped grow it from the early days to $300M+ in yearly sales and a public company. I was also Director of YouTube, Search & Display there, and went back from May to September 2026 as VP Marketing & Demand Gen.
Groove Life went from $3M to $50M+ while I was there, first as a consultant and then as CMO from October 2019 to August 2021. At Ozlo I was Head of Marketing & Growth from March 2023 to 2026. I've been Operator in Residence at Triple Whale since July 2025, where I led the Unified Measurement team and helped build Clicks & Views. Earlier, I was Head of Advertising at Pattern.
The numbers are on the results page.
What my father told me
Your Honor, is the only thing you have to choose to freely give away. Nobody can take your honor from you!
I'll tell you what's best for the business even if you won't like hearing it. I'm a nice guy. I'm also willing to hurt a feeling to stop a wasted dollar.
Outside the work
I'm a dad. I grew up in a trailer park. I'm a redneck from Arizona.
Every one of those numbers is a human on the other side of the device. The moment you forget that, you lose the core of what marketing is.
