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.
Although I’ve been in the communication game for quite a while, actually focusing on writing is new to me. Writing well is important. I knew this, of course, but for years felt very insecure about my writing. So I had others write for me, or I had others heavily edit my writing. I was always…
I write about what gets in the way of success, methods of negotiation, and the difficulty we creatives have asking for money. I also write about airplanes being attacked, high school students beaten by army troops, CEOs being shot at, the struggle we have with fairness, and what’s best for people and planet. Why would…
Sometimes, we are so scared of failure that we inevitably invite it into our lives. Here’s how to stop that from happening. The time was tight, the date near. I had an upcoming meeting for a much-needed new business for my design firm, and I knew that I needed to prepare. The thing is, we…
Marketing, advertising, design and public relations employment are going through dramatic, wrenching changes. Yet we are creatives, after all; we can reach down deep – when forced to – and become what we need to be to thrive. Walking down the hall, checking the numbers of the small conference rooms. E-223. E-223. Jane hadn’t spent…
Self-created failure: when failure is so fearsome that you invite it in, and then fail as expected. The time was tight, the date near. I hid from my fear. I hid from the fear and the opportunity by doing nothing to prepare. By not thinking about it. Why would I do this? I needed the…
I spent a weekend at a writing retreat, something I’ve never done before. There were five of us students and two Dark Angels instructors, Jamie Jauncey and Richard Pelletier. The Dark Angels, through their courses, provide a safe space for business writers and communications professionals to go deep. To bring their true selves to the…
He was in the air over the car’s hood when I first saw him. The driver, looking the other way. Not seeing him. Entering the intersection from a stop. Car… no, it was one of those new Jeeps. High hood. Thick windshield posts. Still, he should have seen the guy. The Jeep still moving forward.…
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