Making your
brand impossible
to ignore.
20+ years of strategic counsel, brand development, and digital leadership — helping organizations cut through the noise and own their market position.
Start a ConversationBuilt from the ground up — literally.
Hey! I'm Allen — founder of Makin' Hey! Communications and a serial entrepreneur who has been building, launching, and growing brands since before the internet had a rulebook.
I started my first company at 18 — a screen printing operation that grew to one of the Midwest's largest licensed collegiate apparel printers before I sold it a decade later. Since then, I've worked at the executive level across outdoor consumer goods, textile manufacturing, and digital communications.
I founded Makin' Hey! in 2005. Today we work as strategic partners — not vendors — to clients who need clear thinking, honest counsel, and work that actually moves the needle.
- SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year — State of Iowa
- Founded & sold a Midwest collegiate apparel firm with 30 employees
- Native Origins — organic sportswear in LL Bean & national specialty catalogs
- VP Marketing & Merchandising — K2 Outdoor Product Group
- Sales & Marketing Leadership — Monterey Mills (clients: Woolrich, Eddie Bauer, Nautica, Donna Karan)
- Founded Makin' Hey! Communications, 2005
End-to-end brand counsel.
Market positioning, competitive analysis, communications strategy, and long-range brand roadmaps — grounded in real-world business experience, not theory.
Identity systems that hold up across every touchpoint — from naming and visual identity to brand voice and messaging architecture.
WordPress-based digital presence built to perform and convert — strategy first, design second, code to match. No fluff, no bloat.
Social media strategy, content planning, and digital outreach that connects with the right audiences — and actually gets remembered.
No bull. Hard work. Then maybe a beer.
"Quality service. Proven results. Not rocket science."
I work with a small, senior team — not a big agency with layers of account managers between you and the people doing the work. When you hire Makin' Hey!, you get direct access to experienced professionals who treat your brand like their own.
We're backed by an exclusive partnership with Hostwinds for cloud hosting — which means the infrastructure behind your digital presence is handled by specialists, not afterthoughts.
Senior-level access
You talk to the people doing the work — always.
Proven process
20+ years refining what works across categories.
Full-service capability
Strategy through execution under one roof.
Honest counsel
We tell you what you need to hear, not what sounds good.
What clients say.
"Allen brought clarity to a brand strategy we'd been struggling with for two years. Within weeks, we had a positioning framework that our entire team could rally around — and our customers actually responded to."
"Working with Makin' Hey! was a completely different experience than working with a big agency. We had direct access to Allen from day one. No layers, no handoffs — just smart, honest counsel that moved fast."
"Our website had been an embarrassment for years. Allen and his team rebuilt it from the ground up — strategy, design, copy, everything. It now actually reflects what we do and who we are. Night and day."
"I've worked with a lot of consultants over the years. Allen is the rare one who tells you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. That honesty, combined with his experience, is what sets him apart."
Ready to make some noise?
Serious about your brand? Let's have a straight conversation about where you are and where you want to be.