Essays on creative leadership,
culture, and the human side of work.
Published weekly, with an original illustration. Two series: Becoming and Advisory Notes.
I work as a consultant to creatives. Most of my clients provide creative services to corporate clients as small firms or as individuals. Some work in house. Others are employed by agencies owned by the giant ad/design holding companies. Last week one of my clients asked me what kinds of issues people ask me for…
A hoodie, a mask and a cardboard sign. A tired look that goes with spending the day begging. “Will work for food” is the way it is in Seattle these days. My parents came of age in the ’30s. The Great Depression was their world. They came to Seattle in the late ’30s and rented…
Back to work the bosses proclaim. Our economy suffers under the impact of the virus. Far too many are forced to work in spite of the danger. All in the interest of making money for people who are already rich. It’s sad, it’s sickening to the soul and the body. What do you think?
Most the creatives I know and work with have little property but plenty of debt, and are only able to survive by servicing the needs of the high earners. Our world has been in a massive state of change for a while, with a seemingly unimaginable damaging impact on our lives. And it just got…
The entrepreneurial experience… My feet touch the ground with a light tap-tap-tapping sound. I love that feeling I get when I run. It’s a lightness. I’m alive, moving myself through the air, passing walkers and some runners. I’m running for the joy of it. The balls of my feet tap-tap-tapping my body along. Breathing deep,…
“Anna? Anna Foley?” The rain pounded. The city was a mess. Wet garbage everywhere. Tent cities filled the parks, and anyplace else the homeless could get away with. “Yes, who’s calling please?” Late for her appointment, Anna was madly trying to get a note off to let the prospect know when the call came in.…
Yes, I’m creative. But I have to make a living, too. How? When I was running The Leonhardt Group and waxing fancifully about some new opportunity, our CFO Tracy Wald used to say, “show me the money.” That always jerked me back into the reality that we were a cash flow business. If the cash…