Okay, break’s over. Start scrolling, bub.

Hello Jared, it’s me, you. I’m writing to you from the year 2023. Um, yeah, there’s a lot to cover. First, take a deep breath. You’re a success. Ahh.

Dear 2001 Jared Cobb,

Over the next two decades, you build a substantive career — and a substantive life — through tenacious hard work and an unshakable sense of humor. It ain’t all hot tubs and hopscotch (buckle up for 2020) but you do prevail. Look at you, big shot.

Sitting there at your DRUM! Magazine editorial desk in the Bay Area at the turn of the century, perplexed by the inexplicably round mouse on your Bondi Blue iMac, you’re unaware that you’re about to pivot your career from magazine editor to ad copywriter, eventually progressing to executive creative leadership.

At Edible, you oversee every stage of all creative output across a complex suite of franchise and e-commerce brands. In your first year, you manage to transform the Edible brand, driving a 40% increase in preference among Gen Z and Millennial consumers. All while cutting monthly costs by $100,000. Damn, son.

Here in 2023, your most recent success is constructing and managing a high-voltage creative department for Edible Arrangements, the iconic international gifting brand.

Much of your achievements at Edible center around the success of an $18MM brand campaign and anthem spot you help concept, launch, and optimize. Congrats on that second Gold Telly award, btw.

Prior to Edible, you spend five years as Creative Director at Look Listen — a full-service, independent digital agency in Atlanta — where you deftly manage a team of visual designers, UX designers, and copywriters across three offices in three time zones.

You run workshops on brand positioning, product naming, message platforms, consumer journeys, and more for enterprise organizations. You write and produce a(nother) Gold Telly award winner, and even occasionally step in front of the camera. Yeah, you’re a busy guy.

But you love the work and the work loves you.

You become an exceptional creative leader and communicator; a rare crossbreed between artful thinker and strategic leader. You can birddog the big, out-there idea but also sit among the suits at the grownups table.

Your humor is infectious.
Even through a mask.

But, as is true even there in 2001, it’s the writing that carries you. Your already sharp writing skills become laser focused. Brand messaging, campaign strategy, and video production become your bread, butter, and Nutella.

While your creativity feeds you, your life experiences define you.

You win awards as an independent filmmaker. You travel the world. You drum in sold-out rock venues across the country. You change kids’ lives on the baseball diamond. You remarry and find happiness you previously only wrote about.

But also…

You're a single dad for five years, your three kids still in diapers when it hits. You lose loved ones too early. The housing crash buries you (dude, maybe just rent). And you face a three-year battle with your fearless son against pediatric cancer.

And through it all, you not only endure but flourish. Single parenting teaches you more about leadership than any amount of education or corporate experience ever could. Your losses eventually lead to gains. And your son’s triumph over cancer galvanizes your belief in the profound — though often veiled — goodness of humankind. You become resilient and patient, flexible yet steadfast.

So when adversity hits (and oh boy does it), know that you’re ready. Trust your instincts. They are strong. Cannonball into your deep reservoir of personal and professional experience. Go big… Oh, and buy stock in Purell. Like, right now.

Truly Yours,
2023 Jared Cobb