About Sean

Strategist by trade. Builder by habit. Teacher by choice.

I’m Sean Hyde. I’ve been helping businesses grow since 2011, first through digital marketing and now through the systems, automation and practical AI that let a business run without everything depending on one person, tool or vendor.

I’m the founder of Ideation Digital in Charleston. Over my career I’ve worked with more than 500 businesses and organizations. These days I split my time between advising leaders, building systems with my team, teaching workshops, and researching what it actually takes to make AI useful.

Understand first. Recommend second.

Sean Hyde with two fellow attendees at the Digital Agency Growth Summit

What I do

Six hats, one job: find the leverage and use it.

Strategist

I find the constraint before I recommend anything. Most of the value is in asking better questions before anyone buys a tool, makes a hire or launches a campaign.

Systems thinker

I look at how marketing, operations, technology and people connect, and design so the business doesn’t fall over when one piece changes.

Implementer

I build things, not just slide decks: a restaurant pricing app, a connector between a 30-year-old agency system and a modern CRM, a procurement intelligence system. When a project needs a team, Ideation Digital builds it.

Educator

I lead workshops at the University of Charleston Downtown Innovation Hub on practical AI and growth for founders and small-business owners.

Researcher

I’m co-authoring research with the University of Charleston on the gap between using AI and actually implementing it.

Speaker

I speak to conferences, associations and leadership teams, from the WVSAE Annual Meeting to Bridging Innovation Week and the Big I WV Annual Convention.

How I got here

From marketing to systems to practical AI.

I started in digital marketing. The more businesses I worked with, the clearer it got: the campaign was rarely the problem. The constraint was usually somewhere else: a process, a handoff, a tool nobody trusted, or one person everything depended on.

That’s where my work moved, and it’s why I built LIFT, the framework I use today.

2011

Started working with businesses

Digital marketing first; the beginning of 15+ years and 500+ businesses and organizations.

2021

WVSAE Annual Meeting, The Greenbrier

Association annual meeting session.

2026

Teaching, speaking and judging

UC Downtown Innovation Hub workshops (Jan, Mar, Sep, Oct); Bridging Innovation Week; Big I WV Annual Convention; judge at the i3 Innovation Showcase and the Kanawha County Schools Gifted Program Shark Tank.

Now

LIFT and research

Using LIFT with clients and audiences, and co-authoring University of Charleston research on AI use vs. real implementation.

Outside the work

Boardroom. Backyard. Both matter.

I’m a dad, and that shapes how I think about work. The point of building a better business isn’t more hours in it. It’s leverage, and the freedom to spend time where it counts. When I’m not working, I’m in Dad Mode.

Off the clock