Marzex
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Marzex

Resume

Since ’94 I’ve made high-security keys, remote-control robots, a couple hundred rock shows, and the systems that run small businesses. Mostly working for myself. Here’s how it stacked up.

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  • 2005the year I started Marz Innovations
  • 20+small businesses on one flat monthly fee, year after year
  • 200+concerts and events I ran at the arena in Boise
  • 243%online giving went up, year one at The Idaho Foodbank
01

Today

  • Founder, Marz Innovations

    Oregon

    A private digital firm I started in 2005, built on referrals. I run the marketing communications for small businesses for one flat monthly fee and I handle all of it: the website, the content, the email, the print, the reputation, the tech support. That service runs today as Virtucom, and the lab side of the firm builds the ventures listed on the home page. The firm tells its own story at marzinnovations.com.

    Since 2005

What I do

  • Brand and identity
  • Websites, WordPress and custom builds
  • Managed marketing communications
  • Search engines and getting found
  • Social media, content and reputation
  • Hosting, servers and email
  • Web security and hardening
  • Graphic design, print and signage
  • Video and audio production
  • Live events and venue operations
  • Budgets, P&L and vendors
  • Tech support and training
02

The Eras

Every story on this site files under one of these.

  • The Workshop Years

    Out of Boise High in ’94 and straight into making things. High-security keys on Schlage’s Primus line, milled, inspected and shipped to some of the biggest companies in the country. A brief moment, but kinda cool. Then the Robot Factory: promotional and educational robots that drove Power Wheels and ran by remote, mic and controller, mostly a puppet teaching kids fire safety. Then seven years at the Bank of America Centre in Boise, house tech to production manager to the person booking the building, two hundred some concerts and events. Honestly, I haven’t worked for other people much. Mostly I’ve worked for myself.

    1994 to 2005

  • The Envelope Years

    I started Marz Innovations in 2005 with ads in the weekly coupon envelopes, the ones that hit every kitchen counter in the valley. That’s how the first clients found me. Nights and weekends that first year I was still running shows for Bravo Entertainment, settling with touring acts and scheduling a crew of twenty. Then search engines started deciding who got found, I got early to SEO, and the phone started ringing on its own.

    2005 to 2008

  • The Transitional Years

    When the recession hit I took the marketing and communications seat at The Idaho Foodbank. One person, the whole department, in the worst economy any of us remember. The proudest line on the resume and the origin of everything the firm became. Read the story

    2008 to 2012

  • The Firm Years

    I came back to Marz Innovations and rebuilt it around the model the Foodbank proved: managed services for marketing communications, one subscription, the whole job handled. That’s Virtucom today. The rest of my time goes to the bench, the builds further down, and the music, because some nights aren’t about work.

    2012 to now
03

The Transitional Years

The Idaho Foodbank · Marketing and Communications · November 2008 to April 2012

When the recession hit I took the marketing and communications seat at The Idaho Foodbank. Statewide nonprofit, right at the moment more people needed food and fewer dollars were coming in to buy it. An organization like that, in a moment like that, doesn’t get a marketing department. It gets one person and whatever that person can build.

So I built.

The website came first and it had to do real work. Custom CMS, custom online donation system, donor and data management with reporting you could actually use, and a blog that doubled as our newsroom for press releases and social. Online donations went up 243% the first year.

Then the brand. We rebranded The Idaho Foodbank itself and every program under it, Beef Counts, Picnic in the Park, Mobile Pantry, Backpack, School Pantry, and after two years of media, social, and getting out into the community, people knew who we were. Recognition was up 400%.

Then the ideas that outlived my time there. The Idaho Food Bank Fund, the state tax check-off, needed a name, a look, and a marketing plan from day one. I built all three. First year out, it took in more check-off dollars than any other option on the form, more than double the runner-up. Beef Counts, ranchers putting beef on the tables of people who needed it, got its Idaho brand from that seat too. It’s in Washington now.

And under all of it, the stuff nobody sees. An extranet so a statewide staff could actually talk to each other and keep their numbers somewhere findable. A custom volunteer module, check-in, check-out, scheduling, hours, wired into the same CMS and database as everything else. Ya know, the stuff you don’t really wanna mess with. I did.

What moved

The pieceWhat I builtWhat moved
The websiteCustom CMS, online donation system, donor data with real reporting, a blog that doubled as the newsroom.Online donations up 243% in year one.
The brandThe Foodbank rebranded, plus every program under it: Beef Counts, Picnic in the Park, Mobile Pantry, Backpack, School Pantry. A style guide so it held.Recognition up 400% over two years.
Idaho Food Bank FundName, identity and the launch marketing plan for the state income tax check-off.Largest recipient on the form in its first year, 108% ahead of the runner-up.
Beef CountsAn Idaho brand for ranchers putting beef on the tables of families who needed it.Outgrew Idaho. Now in Washington.
The plumbingAn extranet for a statewide staff. A volunteer module for check-in, scheduling and hours, on the same CMS and database as everything else.One system, one database, one person running it.

Look at that list again. Website, brand, donations, data, volunteers, media. One person carrying all of it on a nonprofit budget in the worst economy any of us remember.

Nobody called that managed services for marketing communications. It didn’t have a name yet. But that’s what it was, and I watched it work when it mattered most. When I came out the other side, I rebuilt my company around it. That’s the firm’s story.

04

Career

Marz Innovations

  • Founder and President

    Meridian and Boise, Idaho, then Oregon

    Subscription marketing communications for more than twenty clients: brand and asset management; logos, ads, collateral, stationery and signage; web design and development in HTML5, PHP, JavaScript and CSS; social media content, reputation and campaigns; search engine optimization with top-ten results; tech support for email, Office, Windows and peripherals; hosting and mail on LEMP and cPanel.

    2005 to now

The Idaho Foodbank

  • Marketing and Communications

    Boise, Idaho

    Budget; website and app development and management; donor marketing strategy; internal and external communications; social media; brand management, program rebrands and the style guide; campaign development and advertising; design for brand, collateral, web and signage. The full story is above.

    2008 to 2012

Live events

  • Production Manager and Promoter Representative, Bravo Entertainment

    Boise, Idaho

    Financial settlement with touring acts; artist cash accounts of $10,000 to $20,000 a week; shows at the Idaho Center, the Big Easy, Tamarack Resort and the Shrine Theatre; production systems, purchasing and maintenance; box office supervision; a crew of twenty-plus, scheduling and payroll. Ran the first X-Fest at the Idaho Center in 2005 and the first full-scale outdoor concert at Tamarack Resort, Lyle Lovett, in 2006.

    2005 to 2006

  • Event and Booking Manager, Bank of America Centre

    Boise, Idaho

    Booked national touring acts and sporting events; contract negotiation; the calendar; department P&L and budgets; event scaling and manifests; advertising budgets, placement and tracking. Designed the venue’s first website in 2003.

    2003 to 2005

  • Production Manager, Bank of America Centre

    Boise, Idaho

    Event logistics and technical coordination; produced the Idaho Steelheads hockey AV operations; more than a hundred events drawn in CAD; advanced shows with promoters and agencies; programmed the Grove Hotel and arena Mitel PBX phone system.

    2000 to 2003

  • Technical Director, Bank of America Centre

    Boise, Idaho

    Crew supervisor and house technician; event setup; video editing and operation for Idaho Steelheads game productions.

    1998 to 2003

Earlier

  • Milling and Machinery Technician, Schlage Lock

    Security, Colorado

    Side-bit milling on the Primus high-security line; key and lock quality inspection; shipping and receiving.

    1996 to 1998

Education and training

  • Boise High School, Boise, Idaho. Sports, student council, art and special events.
  • Dale Carnegie, communication and management training
  • Sales and marketing training
  • AutoCAD and QuickCAD, event layouts and seating manifests
  • Mitel SX2000 PBX programming

Tools I’ve lived in

  • Code: HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript
  • Design: Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, After Effects
  • Servers: LEMP stacks, cPanel, DNS and mail
  • Social: fifteen-plus years running accounts for other people’s brands
  • Live: front-of-house and monitor consoles, lighting, video, telecom
 

And the rest

  • The resume as a PDF

    Two pages, same facts, for the people who want a file.

    PDF

  • Builds

    What’s out the door and what’s on the bench.

    Home

  • Get in touch

    A form that comes straight to me.

    Home