Essays on creative leadership,
culture, and the human side of work.
Published weekly, with an original illustration. Two series: Becoming and Advisory Notes.
I interview Kevin Veatch, who has led a multifaceted creative life. Kevin Veatch is a creative who started his professional life as a fourth-grade teacher. An excellent beginning for a creative career that includes being a teacher, graphic designer, photographer, retailer, environmental designer, home and interior designer, electrician, songwriter, musician, and sound engineer. You can…
In order to negotiate better, freelancers need to learn to love the fear of asking for more. (It’s not bravery or some magical power that helped me become a better negotiator; it was raw fear.) Fear can make us unable to think, unable to move. I’ve been so gripped by fear that my feet felt…
This evening a grade school classmate of mine arranged a Zoom reunion call. Thirteen of the eighty-five of us who graduated from Maple School have signed up for the call. A good turnout considering our graduation was in 1958. We’re all in our seventies, and seventeen of us are dead. My first memory of those…
News flash. Fast Company asked me to write for them again. Thanks to Arianna O’Dell, who introduced me to a new editor there, I’ve been asked to write a piece on how to get a raise if you’re freelancing. Well over 30% of Americans are now considered freelancers, so it’s a near and dear subject…
Branding ins the Age of Cat Videos, the power of leveraging intimate connections, was presented to the Marketing Executive Roundtable on October 27, 2021. Let’s start with branding Branding is the process of building an emotional relationship between the consumer and a product, a service or an organization. Branding derives from recognizing needs and expectations.…
Awake. Suddenly awake. I remembered the noise I’d heard in the dream. I’d been running, running hard, and he’d been gaining. Awake now, soaked in sweat, I heard the noise again. Someone was in the apartment. I sat up and focused solely on listening. I heard it again. The moon was full, and I looked…
The city had changed. “We’ve only been gone a few weeks,” thought Brie as she watched the smoke rise from the homes burning above Shilshole. They’d heard about the rise of violence from others anchored around them in Gig Harbor. But it really didn’t sink in until they’d rounded West Point on their way to…