His first job was videoing weddings and duping home VHSs at a local video production house. After earning a degree in Creative Writing and Music from the University of Michigan (recession-proof, obviously), he worked in Chicago for 14 years as a creative lead, content strategist, and brand storyteller. In 2024, he returned to his home state to give his newborn son the sort of soul-fortifying Midwestern childhood only Michigan can provide.
As a brand strategist at Focus Lab, Jordan digs ’til he hits bedrock and unearths why a brand uniquely matters. He follows curiosity wherever it leads, revealing the hidden details that make even the most mundane-seeming subject fascinating. For Jordan, no question is too embarrassing if it clarifies how the world works. (Just ask his father-in-law about the time a twenty-something Jordan walked by a department store on a family outing and asked "Why do mannequins have nipples?")
Jordan approaches his craft with equal parts rigor and humor. His work is also informed by a lyricism and an eye for detail honed through other creative pursuits: storytelling, songwriting, and filmmaking. A multi-instrumentalist and music producer, he released his first album, Redshift, under the name The Okay Lakes in 2023 (“a road-trip album for Michigan backroads”).
Every October since 2017, he and a crew of filmmaker pals across the country write and shoot horror-comedy shorts and throw a watch party — sometimes even renting out a movie theater — for an (almost) annual anthology called Homemade Horror Show. This may actually be the greatest creative achievement of his life so far: some contributors' children have even asked if they can dress up for Halloween as Too Ghoul for School, the party's host (played by Jordan, caked in makeup, of course).
