Aaron is a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, serial entrepreneur, and digital marketing strategist with more than 25 years of experience helping small businesses grow. His career has been shaped by launches that took off, ventures that failed, and a long track record of turning lessons learned into practical playbooks for other founders.

He is the Founder and Chief Strategist of Lift Digital Marketing, a veteran-owned, award-winning agency focused on helping local and service-based businesses generate measurable revenue through data-driven marketing, smart positioning, and consistent execution. Through that work, Aaron has partnered with business owners across industries who are trying to do what veterans do best: solve real problems, serve their communities, and build something that lasts.

Aaron’s entrepreneurial journey spans four different companies in digital advertising, HVAC, digital marketing, and mortgage origination. Not all of them survived—and that’s exactly where much of his value comes from. He brings a candid, no-gurus-allowed perspective on what it actually takes to launch, sustain, and grow a business when you’re responsible for payroll, customers, and your own resilience.

Beyond his work as a founder, Aaron is an educator and mentor. Drawing on his academic background (BA and MBA) and deep practical experience, he has taught and trained business owners, marketers, and veterans on topics like digital marketing strategy, customer acquisition, and using platforms like LinkedIn to build trust and visibility. Whether in workshops, webinars, or one-on-one coaching, his teaching style is grounded, tactical, and immediately usable for people who are building in the real world.

A native Texan now based in Oak Park, Illinois, Aaron is also the founder of Chicagoland Veteran Business Owners, a nonprofit dedicated to helping veterans launch and sustain businesses through connection, practical education, and peer support. His leadership emphasizes equality, diversity, and inclusion in the veteran community, with a deep belief that veterans of all backgrounds deserve a real shot at economic independence through ownership.

Aaron’s work is rooted in servant leadership. He shows up as a builder, coach, and collaborator—whether he’s advising a first-time founder on their marketing funnel, helping a seasoned operator reposition their brand, or connecting veteran entrepreneurs so they don’t have to build alone.