Meet Matt
I’m a bonafide Northwest native. I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington (nope, I did not move here later). I grew up watching terrible baseball and football (go Mariners, go Seahawks!) and appreciating the frequent rain and windstorms. I was the kid who went door-to-door to organize everyone into games and tried to find solutions to the grievances of childhood. I’m a generational oddity in that I’m Generation X, but raised by my grandparents who went through the Depression. My work ethic began at age 4, the first time I can recall my grandfather telling me how his family had lost their home almost overnight following the stock market crash of 1929. I have been known to slip in nowadays odd words like “swell”.
On my education, I was fortunate enough to attend a stellar group of schools for my primary and secondary education, including Blanchet High School. Later, I attended the University of Washington for undergraduate work, finishing at the top of both of my majors (go Huskies!). I continued on at UW for graduate school, earning two Masters degrees. While at university I was already working in online marketing. This was in the mid and late 1990s and back then it was about message board development and moderation (the predecessor of social media) and designing website using comparatively ancient HTML.
Love Seattle as I do, it was time for change and after college I moved across the country to Washington, DC. There I worked as a consultant and analyst in various federal policies. My primary client was the U.S. Congress, where I seemed to specialize in work for failed presidential candidates (McCain, Kerry, and Clinton all requested jobs that I worked on). Much of this work had a technology and telecommunications bent. That included work on emergency communications following Hurricane Katrina (or how NOT to use technology in responding to a catastrophic disaster), as well as competition in the online video industry. At the same time I was consulting more and more on online topics and professionally designing more websites and early social media profiles. That last work included a brand new site called “The Facebook”.
While in DC I was lucky enough to meet the most amazing woman ever, and even luckier to have her marry a PAC-12 guy like me. Married and happy, but tired of DC’s climate (both the humidity and the politics), I relocated back to the Puget Sound area in 2007. My family was growing and soon there were 3 children running around our household. My business was growing too. The online work and consulting just kept on increasing, despite the start of the Great Recession. It was time to make things more official, for a new organization solely for my online work. In 2010 Super Charge Marketing officially incorporated. The company has been growing every year since.
Since then I have been regularly speaking, consulting, training and marketing for an ever expanding group of clients in the private, public and nonprofit sectors. The journey so far has included highlights, such as becoming a TEDx speaker and completing the Leadership Snohomish County program. One of the things I enjoy most is learning. If you ever meet with an expert or consultant that acts like they know everything from the start, run for the hills (or the caves if they find you in the hills). Every organization and project is different and I love learning about people, goals and techniques. It also keeps things fresh and exciting!
When I’m not working I enjoy several hobbies. That includes most topics under modern European history, as well as creating art through oil painting. I love the Seahawks (but have been known to work with fans of other teams!). I make my home with my wife, children, and an unbalanced cat just south of Mukilteo.