The Personal Stuff

The Trouble With Normal... Smiling pulled back headshot

Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and raised in small town Alberta [on a farm] [with cows], I am the least likely city girl you will ever meet. Yet, the bigger, the smellier, the more crowded the city, the happier I am. I prefer city scapes to mountain views and I think the most beautiful thing in the world is old, slightly broken down city architecture.

I currently live in San Francisco, California. The past year and a half has been incredibly exciting for me. I was in Toronto, minding my own business (literally, with Rogue Strategies - now forwarding here) and writing on this blog, when I was 'drafted' to come to SF to join an exciting stealth startup called Ojos, which became Riya, who has just launched a great new product called, Like. I left Riya in May of 2006 to pursue my own business alongside my Partner in Crime, Chris Messina. We formed Citizen Agency in June of 2006 and moved into our new offices (also a coworking space) in November 2006.

Although I spend a good deal of time railing against marketing and consumerism, I am by profession an Online Marketing professional and, well, a consumer to the nth degree. You can ask anyone who knows me. I think these three personalities can meet in the middle, though, and I think that makes me more effective. I think about the consumer...the person, the living, breathing, thinking, feeling being that is out there looking for good ways to spend her hard-earned money. I have never believed in mass anything, because people are individuals and not 'targets'. People don't buy brands, they buy hope, stories, memories, necessities, etc.

Take off your marketing hat and put on your regular every-day person who has some money in your pocket (i.e. consumer) hat and you'll see what I mean, but remember that we all have different experiences, memories, desires and needs.

I specialize in community marketing, which isn't 'building communities', but rather, delighting and enchanting those people already part of your community - through product, communication and experience. We only take on clients and products I believe in, although I am the first to admit being a total marketing whore in the past.

So...what does HorsePigCow mean?

Tara and Tad on the Farm

My mom, Marianne (in the photo with me), is the queen of wise "mom-isms" (I quote her quite a bit here on the blog).

HorsePigCow is a phrase she used to use to avoid embarassment when she called someone by the wrong name (I inherited my mom's scatter-brained goofiness, too...although it's endearing to most). Something like, "Hi James, Jake *HorsePigCow* Jason. How are you?"

It's a way of saying, "Hell, I'm human and I screw up, but let's move on"...at least that's my interpretation. Plus, it's nonsense. I like nonsense.

Quick Facts:

Tara is:

My Speaker Bio:

'Miss Rogue' defines herself as a customer first, marketer second. In 2005, Tara became the marketing director at Riya, where her community marketing theories resulted in huge gains, such as national news mentions before launch and over one million photos uploaded within 24 hours of launch. She doesn't believe in PR, only in the power of building relationships with a community. She co-founded Citizen Agency in 2006 with the mission of teaching her clients how to work more effectively with the communities they serve. Tara has over seven years experience in non-traditional marketing planning. She maintains a successful blog over at HorsePigCow.

Speaking of community, Tara is a community-based movement evangelist, spending all of her free time on Barcamp, Coworking and Winecamp. She is also a supporter of the Open Source movement, the EFF, Creative Commons and the Intelligrid.

Favourite Books:

I'm inspired by many things (including Mom), but information and the internet are two of those things that inspire me a great deal. Here are my top 10 reads:

Favourite Quote:

I've read many great things over the years and I've heard some brilliant other things, but probably one of the most brilliant thing I've ever heard is a line from a song by Bruce Cockburn:

"The trouble with normal is it always gets worse"

That's what horsepigcow.com is all about for me. Making certain that normal doesn't get worse.