John Terry: Credentials, Background, and Such

The "we" in Nash Creek Industries is "me" – John Michael Terry. “JT” to friends. “Johnny” to my cousin Sue and Uncle Dick.

I grew up in a time and a place where "shops" and small factories made things that matter. So I've always liked the idea of owning a little shop. It's fun for me.

Things I've Done

• First media job – delivering The Sparta Reminder when I was 9 years old. It was a weekly newspaper in a Michigan farm town. Lots of hand washing with Lava to clean off that ink.
• Studied radio/TV broadcasting at Wabash Valley College
• Worked in radio for a few years, then went back to my newspaper roots with a job at The Orlando Sentinel
• Editor, writer, misser of deadlines
• Learned how to meet deadlines
• Worked on a couple of scrappy little startup divisions inside Tribune Company
• Helped bring the Sentinel and Tribune Company online in the '90s
• Worked on the Digital Cities joint venture with AOL (Oh, that modem sound!)
• Producer of online content – engagingly engaging words, video, and audio
• Here's the one most people care about – Employee No. 10 at a startup that sold to Google for $125 million; handled marketing, PR, corporate communications, sales collateral, ghostwriting for the CEO, yadda, yadda, yadda
• Nope – I didn't get rich from that sale to Google
• Helped develop a social enterprise startup that recycles discarded items from the hospitality industry
• After swearing I’d never do another startup – you can guess what happened next. Employee No. 2 with a SaaS startup serving the commercial real estate world. Landed a $3M seed round and a $12M series A. I moved on after we grew north of 50 people. It’s not as fun at that point.
• Sole proprietor of Nash Creek Industries

Copywriting Process

I had a hard time keeping my big yap closed when I was a kid. Mom and Dad had to deal with my motormouth around the house. And my teachers didn't have it any better at school. Plenty of report cards came home with a "23" in the "Citizenship Comments" column.

23. Talks too much to others

Yup. Little JT loved talking to people. I always wanted to know what was going on, who was doing what, and why they were doing it.

Not much has changed since middle school. I still love hearing about what people do and what motivates them. That's the secret to what I do at Nash Creek Industries.

The clients and I talk. I ask a lot of questions and get to know them. It's a journalistic approach that helps me get to the heart of their “why.” From there we can tell the story, and dial in the right tagline, messaging, and brand voice.