MARISA GORDON
Founder, TellHaus Communications

I noticed a pattern before I knew the name for it. First as a young consumer, in the gap between the brands I loved and the ones I overlooked. It wasn't budget or category or aesthetic (okay, sometimes it was the aesthetic). It was whether the brand ... moved. The ones I loved seemed to have a center of gravity. The ones I overlooked were untethered.

Then I noticed it inside the work. I spent fifteen years at large creative agencies including Grey, DDB, JWT, and BBDO, running global brands and strategy for L'Oréal, DeBeers, Johnson & Johnson, and GSK. The work always landed when the chemistry was right. The brand moved us, and by us I mean all of us. The work fell flat when we were robots taking orders and checking boxes. The variable wasn't talent. It was purpose.

And then I became the brand.

I spent a decade building a yoga studio I took over, grew, and eventually sold. When I looked out across my evolving competitive landscape, I could clearly see what made my studio different. My own history gave me the tools I needed to communicate that difference and I had an advantage other studios didn't. Fifteen years of practice on giant brands so I could know my own.

TELLHAUS EXISTS BECAUSE THAT ADVANTAGE SHOULDN'T BE AN ACCIDENT OF RESUME. THE FOUNDERS WHO NEED THIS WORK ARE THE ONES BUILDING REAL THINGS WITHOUT THE RIGHT LANGUAGE TO HOLD THEM. THAT'S THE ROOM I'M BUILT TO BE IN.

I read widely and notice for a living. I can talk but I really like to listen. I have an M.S. in Mass Communication from Boston University and a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Syracuse. I believe in energy. I trust my gut. I watch nonverbal signals. When I'm working right, the brief is the bible. If the brief is off, we revise.