Zac makes a living by seeing what others miss. It's what allows him to find truth inside a brand, meaning inside a message, and clarity inside complexity. But he didn't learn that in an agency or a classroom—he learned it from a childhood where observation was his only survival skill.
His parents divorced when he was two. He and his father moved nearly every year until he was twelve, chasing stability that never quite arrived. In each new town, he was the outsider. The kids had their histories; he had his first day. He learned quickly that people don't just listen to what you say they see what you imply. A first lesson in brand.
Humor became his bridge. Observational humor, especially, noticing the absurdities everyone silently agrees on. He listened to masters of observation: George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams. They were comedians and anthropologists of human experience. They understood something profound: people respond to implications, not arguments.
Eventually, he grew tired of being the "funny one." Making people laugh without being seen or understood was exhausting. So he stopped being the performer and started being the listener. Observation became less about entertainment and more about understanding.
Then he met his wife Katherine. Through her eyes, he saw himself clearly for the first time, not as the boy trying to be liked, but as someone capable of insight and empathy. She helped him realize that his lifelong practice of observation wasn't a quirk, it was a craft. Something that could help people and businesses discover who they really are.
That realization led him to brand strategy and to a fundamental truth: you can't make customers buy, but you can design the conditions that make buying feel inevitable.
After 18+ years, he's developed what he calls Conditions Design, the discipline of configuring what you control (product, pricing, operations, people, processes, marketing) to influence what you don't (customer decisions, market perception, competitive position).
Customer decided about a brand in 150 milliseconds, before reading a word of your value proposition. Their automatic, emotional, pattern-based mind has already made a judgment based on implications you may not realize you're sending. Your pricing implies quality. Your design implies values. Your operations express priorities. These aren't just business activities—they're signals creating attraction or friction.
By the time the analytical mind engages, the decision is largely made. Logic's job isn't to decide, it's to rationalize what the gut already chose. This is why logical arguments fail. And why Conditions Design works.
He explores this philosophy actively with his business partner Corrina Reff at What We Imply, writing about how brands work through implications, not arguments, and why that distinction changes everything.
Zac has built this approach through deep study across three complementary disciplines:
Brand Strategy & Architecture - Certified through Marty Neumeier's complete LEVEL C program: Brand Specialist (Level 1), Brand Strategist (Level 2), and Brand Architect (Level 3). This taught him to bridge business strategy and brand strategy, from defining essence to architecting complex systems. Neumeier's insight: brand is the gap between what you say and what you are. His work closes that gap.
Strategic Choice-Making - Through IDEO U's Designing Strategy course (Roger L. Martin and Jennifer Riel), he mastered the Strategy Choice Cascade: where to play, how to win, what capabilities to build. This ensures his work isn't just creative—it's rooted in strategic logic that drives business results.
Behavioral Decision-Making - Harvard Professional Development's intensive with J. Peter Scoblic revealed how psychology, cognitive science, and economics shape decisions. Understanding bounded rationality, heuristics and biases, and choice architecture gives him insight into why people decide—and how to design conditions that help them choose wisely.
As a Vistage member, he tests these frameworks with fellow CEOs and business owners, which keeps his work grounded in the real pressures of running a business—not just theorizing about it. He doesn't just advise on strategy; he practices it daily in his own business.
As Co-Owner of State of Assembly (founded 2014), he's applied Conditions Design across industries:
Education: Crystal Springs Uplands School, Millennium School (SF), Athena Academy
Healthcare & Housing: OHSU, ClearFlow, Cornerstone Community Housing
Hospitality & Tourism: Magic Castle Hotel, Cascadia Glamping, Columbia County Tourism
Corporate & Tech: Microsoft Mechanics, Schwab, Liquid Space
Community & Culture: Ninkasi Brewing, City of Vernonia, Grief Warrior
When you stop trying to change minds and start changing conditions, something shifts. Your brand stops being something you wear and becomes something you are. Marketing costs decrease because you're creating atmosphere that draws people in. Sales cycles shorten because choice feels obvious. Competition becomes less relevant because you're not fighting for the same ground—you're creating conditions where you naturally win.
The power of observation is this: when you see people—or brands—for who they truly are, they finally have permission to become what they're meant to.
