DT Pennington

Endlessly Curious

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The Press Kit

This is for the “other” side of things. This is for those who want to connect and create. Let’s collab, let’s write, shoot, strategize, let’s get something done.

This page is intended for clients, contractors, and those who are looking to hire the bit of talent that will undo the lynchpin holding your entire organization back.

The Current Philosophy:

Wonder. The world is broken with machines that are paid to deliver specific information and details to you at a cadence no one asked for. I believe the key to get us through this is re-establishing a connection to ourselves where we can discover without algorithms and learn to ask the kind of questions that lead to more questions.

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The Resume

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2014-Present – Freelance Writer. Owner – OutWord.

Creating the kind of company I wish existed that did the things I wanted a company to do for the world. The world of marketing is broken and getting worse by the day. The dominance of algorithm-driven tools are actively working against just about anything marketers do to get the attention of their audiences.

At the highest level, this means the biggest brands in the world are seeing ever-reducing returns on their advertising budgets. Down in the trenches, where I prefer to work, this is manifesting as small business owners and solopreneurs feeling lost and ultimately losing the story and voice that made them unique. More than ever, people are forgetting the very thing that made them want to set out on their own in the first place.

Through OutWord, I take a chaos-driven approach to helping individuals and companies unearth their voice and rectify their stories through unconventional approaches, the breaking old habits, and rediscovering what it means to be a creative person.

Some Recent Clients and Their Wins

All The Stuff I Like To Work On

  • Reading. I’ll read everything. I will always find a reason to sneak a book in. Sure, it makes me feel smart. I also believe in my reading habits and their ability to inform just about everything I do, personally and professionally.
  • Writing, in any capacity. This is how your brain can directly engage and make sense of the world – why would you not want to do it forever and infinitely? Do you need to borrow a pen? I’m sure I have an extra one around here somewhere.
  • Things With Lenses. Cameras, mostly. Working with old and messy formats. Still frame, video, whatever your cell phone can do – I’m here for all of it. How can you not look at a camera and not see the pure mastery of storytelling that it is?
  • Editing video and images. Because it’s never done when it’s “in the can.” Think of a photo or film shoot as the harvest. Now, with all of this raw material, what will you do with it? What CAN you do with it? The potential is infinite.
  • Strategy consulting and cerebral exploration. Take of that what you will. Let’s make it weird.

2010-2014 – Servant and Lacky for the Advertising Technology industry

Numerous roles across three sequential companies, all of which have since been bought, sold, or acquired at least four times over. It’s a mess, but that’s startup culture for ya!

I largely worked on the ad sales and operations side of the industry. Depending on the company, I was:

  • Connecting and consulting with online publishers and advertisers to secure inventory and ad budgets.
  • Heading up Sales Operations efforts, connecting publisher inventory with advertising demand, forecasting company revenue, assisting in the management of sales staff, and endlessly updating and building stuff within Salesforce.
  • Providing customer and staff support for everything from maintaining sales pipelines, closing deals, reconciling invoicing, fixing broken code, and designing sales and revenue reports.

Please don’t ask me to do anything with advertising tech again. As far as this goes, I’m retired. This includes anything to do with Facebook Advertising, AdWords, etc. Partly because it is always a headache, partly because I think your money is better spent elsewhere.

2007-2014 – The Gig Economy Before It Was Cool

Oh, where to begin.

  • Scriptwriter for an online video advertising agency, producing copy for thousands of videos that ran on newspaper classified website for markets across the country.
  • Record Producer. Emphasis on the singular. Pushed a few buttons and threw out an idea or two. I’ll take the credit. This led to the management of two bands in Denver.
  • Website network manager. Creating content, managing templates, organizing writing staff, pulling out my hair.
  • Content developer for Gannett Media in the race to create online listings for every single restaurant in the major metro areas before Yelp got another round of funding that would ultimately kill the project.
  • Retail. Far too much retail. Mostly luxury goods that no one ever needed. This was all right when Bear Stearns tripped up and toppled the housing market. Nothing fancy – stocking inventory, ringing up purchases, polishing glass.