Meet the Author

The first Super Bowl I ever watched was the 2nd Super Bowl rematch of the Cowboys versus Steelers. The Cowboys lost. My toddler heart was broken, and I thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen.

I loved the Dallas Cowboys. Each year, I’d circle Cowboys and Steelers figures in the JCPenney catalog before Christmas, hoping Santa would put them under the tree (along with other potential Cowboys presents). 

Every day, my toy Cowboys defeated the toy Steelers on my bedroom floor.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008. “Low” by Flo Rida and T-Pain was number one on the charts and dominated the speakers of the old Nebo office. MySpace was defending its turf from a new website called Facebook, and we were all logging out of AIM and signing up for GChat. 

Businesses hadn’t made it to Facebook yet. But if Nebo had a status, it would have been this: “Nebo is about to be changed forever.” Because that day, a brand new intern walked into the office for her first day of work. 

Enter Jenn Vickery.

The past few years have been… a lot. 

They’ve been exhausting. This is true for everyone, regardless of where you come from or what you believe. And while most of us have lived through trying times before, the present moment feels especially unstable. Not only do we have the uncertainty that we’ve all collectively experienced in the last several years, but now we have political anxiety, unpredictable economic changes, and the uncertainty of AI. 

In too many organizations, UX and Paid Media are distant departments. Sure, they bump into each other in the kitchen, and maybe they work together on a landing page now and then. But for the most part, these two teams are seen as separate entities - and major opportunities are missed. 

When UX and Paid Media come together, magical things happen. In fact, the combination of razor-sharp targeting strategy and human-centered user experience just might be what keeps advertisers steady through the ever-evolving, rapidly changing landscape of marketing that’s unfolding today. 

Businesses compete. It’s a basic assumption most of us make. And the idea of businesses cooperating usually stems from a direct self-interest of the cooperating organizations.

However, always being in a competitive, me-versus-them mindset is riddled with short-term thinking and inherent flaws. The reality is that even in the best of times taking a competition-and-cooperation mindset is usually better and healthier.