Shannon co-founded one of the first web agencies in Austin, Texas. He’s led IT, marketing, sales, product and strategy teams for global brands and startups. He holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Texas, and a CMBA from the McCombs School of Business at UT. Having developed formal training in US Army and Air Force ROTC, Shannon advises leaders in technology, aviation, automotive, publishing, financial services, medical, retail, and CPG. Embedded within the IBM Design flagship studio, he oversaw two commercial offering teams. At Charles Schwab, he led divisional rebrand ideation from Talk to Chuck to Own Your Tomorrow. At GSD&M Omnicom, Sanders\Wingo, WordPress VIP, Fueled + 10up, and his own agency, he’s worked for Technicolor, Disney, Warner Bros, Dreamworks, Universal Studios, Dell, Southwest Airlines, BMW, IDG, AT&T, REI, Calm, Chevrolet, John Deere, Peterbilt, State Farm, American Eagle, Eventbrite, Hearst, Orca Security, and Boeing. He advised M&A activity at Automattic during their explosive growth following Series C and D rounds. Shannon is an expert on digital transformation, notably enterprise SaaS integration and content management systems. In 2012, Cardinal O’Brien knighted Shannon and his wife April into the world’s oldest military order on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. With the formal Vatican honorifics, Sir and Dame, their work involves material and spiritual support for Christians, Jews and Muslims living together in the Holy Land. They focus on building schools, maintaining world heritage sites and encouraging visits to the region. Shannon thinks open source delivery by distributed teams is the most powerful business innovation in a generation. He is a strong proponent of WordPress as a digital strategist and key voice to analysts at Gartner, Forrester and IDC.
He believes Rareview is well poised to help enterprise teams converge during the commercial adoption of intelligent technologies. Shannon and April live in Austin with their children, Mary and Simon. They love to travel and are volunteers for the homeless and working poor in their community.
A 2023 report from ProfitWell found that customer acquisition costs (CAC) has increased by 60% over the last five years. Paid media—once a reliable growth lever—is now oversaturated and expensive, forcing brands to rethink how they engage audiences. This is where owned media comes in. Unlike paid media, where brands rent attention, owned media (e.g. blogs, newsletters, podcasts, and branded content hubs) builds long-term equity. McKinsey’s research shows that companies investing in owned media see a 20-30% higher return on marketing spend over time due to lower churn and increased customer lifetime value (LTV). Take HubSpot as a case study—their content-driven inbound marketing model generates millions of organic visitors monthly, reducing their reliance on paid ads. Brands like Nike and Apple have also built ecosystems where customers engage directly without needing third-party platforms. The result? Lower acquisition costs and stronger brand loyalty.
Great brand and product videos go beyond visuals—they create experiences. With the right strategy, creative direction, and execution, videos become powerful touchpoints that engage audiences and strengthen brand identity. It starts with clear objectives, strong storytelling, and attention to detail in planning, lighting, pacing, and sound. Every element should work together to evoke emotion and drive action. When done right, these videos don’t just live on one platform—they seamlessly integrate across channels, reinforcing messaging and amplifying impact.
“A good foundation is to start by discussing the concept of cognitive load. This refers to the amount of mental effort someone uses to process information. Most often used in psychology and instructional design (e.g. corporate training and education), cognitive load affects how well people learn, solve problems, and make decisions. There are three types of cognitive load patterns, but for purposes of this writing—particularly in the context of web design—the focus will be on reducing extraneous load.”
Read the full essay from our CEO.
The future of content isn’t just about creating more—it’s about creating smarter. With content demand set to increase 5x to 20x in the next two years, brands must adopt a precision-driven approach. That means delivering the right content, on the right platform, at the right time. AI tools are your secret weapon, enabling companies to analyze customer behavior, predict trends, and optimize content performance in real-time. To truly maximize impact, companies need to see, coordinate, and control every aspect of the content lifecycle. AI can help streamline ideation, production, distribution, and measurement—ensuring brand content works harder and smarter.
Key insights:
Content demand will explode 20x in the next two years
Precision is the key to optimizing content performance in real-time
Leverage data and AI tools to master the content lifecycle
We’ve all experienced the frustration of seeing website traffic that doesn’t translate into results. Imagine watching a video of a potential customer navigating your site: they hover over a call to action, hesitate, and then abandon the page. Or they scroll past your key message without engaging.
Heatmaps and session recordings offer a powerful solution by providing a direct view of user behavior. Heatmaps visually represent where users click, scroll, and focus their attention, highlighting “hot” and “cold” zones on your pages. Session recordings take this a step further, allowing you to watch actual user interactions, revealing both pain points and areas of success. This granular insight allows us to pinpoint friction points, understand what content resonates, and optimize the user experience.
By identifying where users struggle, we can refine navigation, improve calls to action, and strategically position key content. Tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg make it simple to implement this user-centric approach, transforming guesswork into data-driven decisions and ultimately creating a website that effectively drives conversions.
Our collaboration with the Kellogg Foundation on their website redesign was all about crafting an immersive experience. After launch, we tested it in a VR headset—and it was exceptional. Some websites naturally lend themselves to elevated experiences in AR/VR, and this is one of them. We’re proud of this work and thrilled to see it come to life in such an engaging way.
Last year, we co-hosted an exclusive celebrity-chef dinner at RedBird in Downtown LA to celebrate the collaboration, creativity, and excellence we’ve shared with our partners at WordPress VIP over the last 5 years. It brought together industry leaders and innovators from companies like Techcrunch, NASA, Nexstar, Realtor.com, Necessaire, and more for an evening of decadent dining and engaging conversation.
“Just as content and platforms bring people together in the digital realm, a well-crafted dining experience can do the same in the physical world.”