Ryan Holiday is the bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying, an expose of our media system which the Financial Times called a “disturbing, astonishing book,” Growth Hacker Marketing, and The Obstacle Is The Way (all published by Penguin). His books have been translated in 20 languages and his writing has appeared everywhere from the Columbia Journalism Review to Entrepreneur and Fast Company.

He is formerly the Director of Marketing for American Apparel, where his controversial and groundbreaking campaigns generated international attention and recognition. In his career, he has ghostwritten, marketed, or advised on dozens of bestselling books including projects with Robert Greene, Tim Ferriss, Tucker Max and many others. His media clients include the New York Observer, Complex and Thought Catalog. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Jimmy Soni is an operating partner at Brass Check. He serves as a contributing editor for the Washington Examiner and The New York Observer Media Group. He served most recently as the Managing Editor of The Huffington Post, a position he was appointed to at age 26. During his tenure, The Huffington Post grew its audience from 40M to 90M UVs (comScore) and expanded to 11 overseas markets. He oversaw an editorial team of and managed editorial operations for all sites within The Huffington Post Media Group. He served as editorial product and design lead and managed HPMG’s product/engineering roadmap along with the CTO and VP of Product.

Named one of AdWeek’s “Young Influentials,” Forbes 30 under 30, and Crain’s New York 40 under 40, Jimmy is a recognized media leader and has been featured in Politico, Vogue Magazine, and Lifehacker, among others. He is the co-author of the first-ever modern biography of the ancient Roman Senator Cato (St. Martin’s-MacMillan, 2012) and is currently at work on a biography of the mathematician and “founder of digital information” Claude Shannon (Simon and Schuster, 2016).

Nils Parker is an editor, ghostwriter and story consultant for creatives of all stripes. His focus is in helping writers, personalities and companies tell their story to audiences across multiple platforms.

As an editor, Nils has been behind multiple New York Times & Wall Street Journal bestsellers. All told, the books he has edited have more than 4 million copies in print. As a ghostwriter, Nils has conceptualized, written or punched-up books in the humor, self-help, advice/how-to, business, and memoir categories for prominent business figures, famous actors, touring comedians, and internet celebrities. The proposals for many of those books–which he and his team drafted–all sold for 6- or 7-figures. As a story consultant, Nils works closely with Hollywood producers, New York publishing companies and multinationals in the energy, travel, technology and healthcare sectors.

Nils received his BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley in 2001 and went to law school at Seton Hall University for one year before having some sense knocked into him. He currently splits time between Milwaukee and Los Angeles with his wife and their dog, Buckley the Beagle.

Brent Underwood is a partner and marketing expert at Brass Check, where he has created and executed online marketing campaigns for over 30 New York Times bestselling books. Outside of authors he works with multi-talented and Grammy winning musicians including Young & Sick, Zeds Dead, Illangelo, among others, to build and maintain their media narratives. His marketing campaigns have been featured by The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, VICE, Adweek, Wired, and many others.

Brent is also the founder of “HK Austin,” a co-living and co-working space in the heart of Austin, which is a place of collaboration for creative thinkers, innovators, and travelers.

Brent is a graduate of Florida State University and Columbia University. He currently lives in Austin, Texas.