Marketing leader

I find the gap, build the system, and run it until it runs without me.

Most marketing problems are communication problems. I find what we're actually trying to say, then build the system and the team that says it consistently, in every market, on every channel. 18+ years across financial services, franchise, and agency work.

4 promotions in 7 years · 30 markets run across 23 states · Systems still live 5+ years after handoff

By the numbers

30
Markets run inside an 80-location, 23-state network
6-person
Cross-functional team across email, video, web, social, paid
4.8★
Across 9,400+ reviews, every single one answered
5+ yrs
Systems still running after handoff

Selected work

Case studies

Programs I built from scratch and ran end to end. More get added here as new work wraps.

EmailAutomation

Email marketing programs

A segmented lifecycle system for a 130K-member credit union and a 3.2M-email engine for a national franchise, with automated unsold-lead recovery across 18 markets. Both built to run without me.

Read the case study →

VideoPaid media

Generator Supercenter video program

Built from nothing to 100+ assets localized across 40+ markets. 2.5M YouTube views over three years of paid campaigns.

Read the case study →

WebCMS

FCCU website, three generations

Carried one credit union's website through three platform generations over seven years, each from a more senior seat. Still live and still personalizing today.

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Paid mediaCrisis response

Storm response & rapid mobilization

Replaced a multi-week launch cycle with a same-day playbook. Proven under a live storm event, scaling daily spend 120% inside the demand window.

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LeadershipOperating Systems

Leadership, systems and people

Built a marketing function from near-zero, rebuilt its operating system, and developed five specialists across two organizations into people who could run the work without me.

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Portfolio

Visual proof of the work

Finished videos, web and design samples, email and print pieces. The receipts behind the case studies above.

VIDEO PRODUCTION

EMAIL CAMPAIGN

PRINT COLLATERAL

See the full portfolio →

The pattern, every time

Eighteen years, one repeatable playbook.

Scout

Every team has a gap nobody's covering: leads going cold, channels sitting empty. Most people work around it. I go stand in it.

Build

I don't pitch an idea and wait for a budget. I build the first version myself, run it small, and let the results make the case.

Scale

Once it works, I make it work everywhere: approvals, brand standards, local customization, at whatever scale the network needs.

Run

Then I engineer myself out of the daily work. Clear process, automated logic, a team that owns it. Built to run, not to babysit.

About

Oscar Lara

Oscar Lara

I'm a Houston-based marketing leader with 18+ years across financial services, franchise, and agency work. Seven years and four promotions at a 150,000-member credit union, then three years leading a six-person team running end-to-end marketing for a national franchise across 30 markets. I've been the strategist in the boardroom and the one holding the camera, and I'm equally comfortable in either seat. What I care about is the machine: finding the gap, building the system that fills it, and engineering it so well it doesn't need me.

Eagle Scout. University of Houston-Downtown, B.B.A. in Marketing.

Where it started: seven years freelancing before FCCU →

Contact

Have a gap that needs a system?

I'm looking for my next full-time marketing leadership role: director level, in-house, with a function to build and own. If that sounds like the seat you're hiring for, I'd like to hear about it. I also take on a limited number of consulting engagements.