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’m very happy – actually, “thrilled” is more appropriate – that Joe Biden is our new president. I wanted Bernie Sanders, but I understood he might not be acceptable to enough U.S. voters. It was Bernie who nudged me into thinking about these larger issues that affect us all. Bernie who gave me the courage…
It was bad enough naming my fee in person. Now I’m desperately trying to read them through the screen. Looking for the cues. Trying to not freak. The sweat running down my back. Glad for that bit of privacy anyway. Sound familiar? Join our workshop Negotiations for Creatives in the Age of Covid. Let us…
Yes our is strength in struggle. Why? Because we creatives invest emotionally in the work we do. It’s that emotion that makes our work a powerful tool for ourselves, our clients and our community. But when it comes to asking for money we struggle with the emotions that go with the ask. Often giving in…
Things that helped me escape once seemed the answer, when cars grew fins and possibility seemed everywhere. I remember in pictures. I see it first, and the words follow. With the words, meaning grows from the pictures and the feelings that lie under it all. Now I know my creativity is trying to fill the…
The Seattle Creative Directory Three things that always pique my interest in something: It’s new. It’s cool. And it helps us connect as creatives. Check out Jonny McConnell’s Seattle Creative Directory. Within the directory, Jonny hopes to list all the professional creative businesses operating in our area. Links to more than 200 firms are currently…
Struggling with asking for what you need? Jessica Knapp and I created this seminar to answer the burning need… Negotiations for Creatives – January 11-15, 10-noon, and only $200 per attendee – has been structured to help creatives understand how to turn our natural discomfort asking for the money into a strength. A discomfort increased during Covid.…
If I lose the compulsion, the effort will go nowhere. Feeling anxious. Is it too much coffee? Or just the prewriting jitters? I can’t tell, although I did just finish my third cup. The doubts begin. Doubts seem to drive my writing. Doubts about the world, myself and why things are the way they are.…
New essays, every week.
With an illustration.
No noise. Just the writing — delivered to your inbox when it's ready.
"*" indicates required fields
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