I am a collaborative team player offering an outside perspective; I’m as comfortable flying solo as I am standing in front of your team leading ideation sessions, as I am sweating it out in the war room, shoulder-to-shoulder, deconstructing and reconstructing opportunities.
I’ve never walked a mile in another person’s shoes – but I’ve shined hundreds. My first job was as a shoe shiner in a small-town barbershop. I didn’t see the scratches and scrapes as blemishes, I saw them as opportunities to learn. I saw the holes in their soles as windows into their souls.
I asked a lot of questions. I wanted to know where they had walked in life and why. What they were hoping to find and if they had found it. I learned a lot from those shoes and the people wearing them. I learned everyone had a story, but most had never been asked to share it.
I learned the importance of staying curious and asking questions.
I left that small town in search of me. Art school, theatre and improv. Drum sets, hotels, soundchecks and signing autographs. I almost got famous. But I didn’t. I loaned my drums to a guy named Bill to start a band named REM. He did get famous.
I learned the importance of perseverance and marching to your own drummer.
One night along my journey, somewhere on highway 78, beyond shoeshines to the left of theatre and rock ‘n’ roll, before graduate school and advertising, a guy put a gun to my head over a misunderstanding. The steel barrel was smooth and cold, like the handle of a coffee mug left in the car overnight. I talked the guy into letting me live.
I learned good storytelling can be a life saver.
I’m still learning. Staying curious. Asking questions.
Together, we can help each other help a client find their inner drummer and tell their story. After all, every client is someone with a story to tell – a WHY to share. They may just need our help.
Education:
BA in Communication / University of Georgia
MA in Communication / Virginia Commonwealth University Brandcenter
If JB Hopkins is the answer, then you can count yourself lucky that someone asked the question. This is the guy you bring in when failure is not an option. He is that rare genius that arms and disarms teams in the same deft maneuver. More than this, he is a seemingly endless Swiss Army knife of hidden talents that add value in ways you could never have predicted, but which will leave you forever better off and grateful for his involvement. If you’re not satisfied, well, all I can say is that’s on you. JB always delivers!
Shane Dolgin / Global Client Relationship Manager, PayPal
Finding JB, both the facilitator and the person, at Edelman was a revelation that ultimately illuminated the pathways to solve some of the most difficult challenges my teams have ever faced. He is revelatory not just for his capacity to deftly orchestrate, guide and read a room but equally for his emotional intelligence and his ability to move teams past the barriers of their own limiting beliefs. Often over the course of just 48 hours, JB would turn the dread of a seemingly insurmountable challenge in to the rocket-fuel of a galvanizing moment for a team and a breakthrough approach or idea for a client. I could not recommend his intelligence, humanity and skill any more categorically. It will change your business. It might even change you.
Tristan Roy: Global Chief Operation Officer, Digital