An Uncommon Focus, Built on Experience
I’ve led brands, built strategies, trained teams... and now I help marketers cut through the noise.
My career started at P&G, continued through E&J Gallo and McCormick, and along the way I became the person people called when things got messy. First it was friends and colleagues looking for brand help. Then it was clients trying to hire me as a fractional CMO—not because they needed a senior leader, but because they needed someone to train the marketers they already had.
That was my a-ha moment: great marketing careers shouldn't depend on luck. Too often, marketers are left to figure it out on their own, and if they don’t happen to land under a strong manager they may never learn the fundamentals.
I built An Uncommon Focus to change that.
My Expertise:
I’ve managed billions of dollars in brand P&Ls. But what I really do is turn consumer need into business results.
I come from the world of total brand ownership: pricing decisions, promo calendars, innovation roadmaps, retailer objections, and still needing to land the story in a deck your CEO will approve. I’ve renovated sleepy billion-dollar brands and sharpened smaller ones no one believed in yet. I’m a strategist with tactical chops, because those two things are not mutually exclusive. In fact, done right, strategy makes every tactical decision faster, easier, and more effective.
"One of the most effective marketers and leaders I've encountered"
-Â Kevin G.
"Incredibly generous in sharing her vast marketing expertise."
-Â Elizabeth T.
"Virginia excels at developing true brand equity based on deep knowledge of human need and desire. "
-Â Jodi S.
It's not that complicated:
Marketing isn’t sorcery. Identify (or create) a human need. Satisfy it profitably. That’s the job.
But marketers get distracted. By internal drama. By performance theater. By the next big thing. My work brings them back to what matters: the consumer, the brand, and the business. I listen hard—to teams, to retailers, to management, to agency partners, and most of all, to consumers. I say the thing no one else will say (usually because I’m the one who notices it). And I make marketing fun again. Because it’s supposed to be fun. We’re not saving lives. We're building something that should make people feel a little more seen.
Sharper thinking starts here.
Whether you lead a brand or are the brand, I can help you move forward with less drama and more clarity.
Let's Get to Work!