Essays on creative leadership,
culture, and the human side of work.
Becoming
These are personal essays about growing up as a fostered, then adopted child — and about what that does to a person over the course of a life and career. The passivity you develop to survive. The shame that shows up uninvited in elevators and conference rooms decades later. The moment you finally recognize the bully pattern, in a boss, in a father, in yourself.
The most-read piece opens with a meat cleaver. My wife, coming down the hall. Me, curled under the covers at thirty years old, having just been fired and not yet told her. It’s not a comfortable essay. But by the end, it explains — more directly than anything else I’ve written — why I understand what happens to people when they’re made to feel small at work, and why that understanding is the foundation of everything I do professionally.
These essays aren’t separate from my advisory work. They are the source of it.
Advisory Notes
These are essays about the emotional realities of creative professional life — the anxiety of leadership, the psychology of negotiation, the particular ways creative people get in their own way, and the particular ways organizations let them down.
One of the most-read pieces, “Why Creative Firms Break Differently,” argues that creative firms don’t fail from bad strategy — they unravel from the inside, through fatigue, misalignment, and a gradual loss of trust no one can quite name. That piece captures what all of these essays are reaching toward.
I write from four decades of experience inside creative firms, but I write the way I talk: directly, without jargon, with stories. Each piece includes one of my own illustrations. If you work in a creative firm and ever feel like the game is rigged against you, this series is for you.
I think of negotiation as investigation. When I investigate, I enter a learning mode, reducing my anxiety. By considering negotiation the first creative activity in a project, I create the opportunity to shape the project to meet my needs and those of the client. For me, replacing negotiation with investigation eliminates the potential for conflict…
Hubris ruins negotiations. Unrestrained pride can cost you friends, employees, clients, deals and even your life. Yep, hubris is dangerous and life-threatening. And, like the common cold, we can all catch it. Yes, I’m intimately familiar with hubris. Here’s how it rolls out for me. First, I find myself striving to achieve something; then I…
Naysayers suggest the merger may reduce client options and perhaps encourage growth among independent agencies. As thousands of small creative service providers react to the consolidation, the change could increase creativity across the industry. According to Omnicom’s John Wren, the purpose of the deal to acquire IPG is to scale capabilities in media buying, data,…
A follow-up to my earlier piece: Creatives, AI will take your job I do understand people being afraid AI will take their jobs. I’ve had times in my life where my income vanished unexpectedly. Scary times, those. So, I get that. I’ve seen technology changes take people’s jobs. CAD software replaced draftsmen at Boeing just…
We feel before we know. The car bounced a little when I hit the post. “Shit.” A quick glance and it looked like no one was around to notice. It was mid-morning, so the underground garage was full of cars but empty of people. I’d backed right into a concrete support. I didn’t want to,…
How do you get work and, more importantly, gain a continuous supply of work with acceptable fees? Better yet, at greater than acceptable fees? Suppose you’ve done a few similar projects, the work makes you happy, and you’re making decent money. With that, you have the beginnings of a niche and the possibility of a…
Yes, AI will replace designers, writers, illustrators, filmmakers, and all the functional roles we consider professional in the creative services realm. It could happen quickly. It may take a while. But in any case, don’t buy the bull about AI not having feelings, so it can’t do deep-feeling work. And don’t buy the “work by…
New essays, every week.
With an illustration.
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Also available on Substack.
You never cease to amaze me with your willingness to make your life an open book — especially the more hurtful parts. And I'm amazed by the lessons you draw from all of it.
— Larry Coffman, PublisherYour writing has revealed some very intimate, powerful lessons. You are a source of inspiration both professionally and, increasingly, on a personal level.
— Rick GoreWe can discuss the ugly, uncomfortable truths while always circling back to what matters: the people, the underdogs, the work we get to do, and the magical existence we get to share as creatives.
— Sarah EskandarpourI loved your article about how clients' emotions affect briefs. It's a huge part of the creative industry and it's always good to see somebody so knowledgeable write about it.
— Vuk Bojovic, JKR Account Director, Singapore