JEFF SWARTZ

Hi!  I have a deep rooted desire to be humble and have very little appetite for the limelight, so writing a bio about myself is a task I stumble over.  I'll mention some of my accolades and history later on because I know it's important to share that information, but the most important bit about myself that I want to convey is that my success in the advertising world and life is not my own.  Yes, I work extremely hard with efficiency and kind boldness at my core, but as a leader of Ethic Advertising Agency, my ultimate responsibility is to ensure my teammates, clients, and vendors are positioned to succeed at their fullest. My life and career has not been, is not, and will not be about my ego because my greatest enjoyment is being a catalyst for others' pursuit of happiness.

My professional history is slightly different than most simply for the fact that I knew that I wanted to run my own advertising agency when I was young.  About 19 or 20.  I fell in love with the dynamic, ever changing landscape of the ad world.  I also knew that I didn't have the skill set nor capital to put myself into that position right out of college, so I worked towards it. Prior to Ethic Advertising Agency, I spent almost a decade tuning my talents with CBS Television in Dallas and Pittsburgh and in the media department of the award winning advertising agency, The Levenson Group (since closed). I'm a proud graduate of the University of Dayton where I majored in Electronic Media Communication, minored in Sociology and Market, and achieved an academic focus in the Visual Arts.  In addition to my advertising endeavors, I entered into the real estate investment world as well through house flipping and renting duplexes.  The combination of my advertising career and real estate investments gave me the skills and capital to launch Ethic Advertising Agency as a one person shop run out of my 800 square foot 1/2 of a duplex on September 22nd, 2014.

Since launching Ethic Advertising Agency, my role has evolved and continues to evolve from being the one person at the company doing everything to a leadership role that provides me the amazing opportunity to create structure, opportunities, and a culture for a stellar team of talented individuals.   I've also uncovered a passion of educating and helping others through keynotes, consulting, guest lectures, interviews, and content development including writing a short e-book on the 9 Reasons Advertising Doesn't Work  (download for free).  I've had the pleasure of be recognized as an individual or with my company by the Telly Awards, Top 100 Magazine: U.S. Business Leaders, Hermes Creative Awards, Pittsburgh Business Times, Marcom Awards, and more.

The majority of my free time is spent with my wonderful wife (Elizabeth), daughter (Quinn), son (Jameson), and dog (Kip). I enjoy travel, home improvement projects, learning, reading, pursuing his MBA in Entrepreneurship, giving back, and being active. I volunteer at DePaul School for Hearing and Speech and sit on the communication committee for Animal Friends.  Don't get me wrong though...I also greatly value some good couch sitting time as well to recharge. 🙂