Many years ago, I was having one of those “state of the union” conversations with someone who would soon become my ex. Life was busy. I was overcommitted, overworked, and if I’m being honest, not giving enough to the relationship. At some point I said, “I just don’t have enough

In my mid-20s, I lived in Fort Lauderdale for about two years. To say I stuck out would be generous. I was a pale, sweaty Midwesterner with a full head of curly hair, driving around South Florida like somebody dropped the wrong extra onto the set of Miami Vice. I

There’s a phrase that used to bother me more than I’d ever admit out loud. “I could do that.” A decade ago, I heard it as an insult. – To the late nights.– – To the revisions.– – – To the false starts.– – – – To the hundred invisible

A few years ago I was mowing the lawn.Kansas summer. Sweating through a t-shirt. Grass clippings stuck to my shoes. Listening to an episode of Creative Pep Talk through a pair of headphones that probably should’ve been retired two years earlier. The conversation that day was about the Muppets. Specifically, the idea

Adulthood has a sneaky habit of turning joy into productivity. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Remember being a kid on a bike? Not riding for fitness. Not tracking miles. Not optimizing anything. Just absolutely hauling down the sidewalk looking for the perfect crack in the pavement you

We spend so much of our early careers measuring progress by milestones. – Launches.– – Promotions.– – – – Titles.– – – – – Big presentations.– The visible stuff. The moments that fit neatly into slides and resumes. The things you can point to afterward and say:There. That mattered. And

There’s a moment in almost every organization where someone says: “We just need better process.” Then comes the new software.– The workflow diagrams.– – The templates.– – – The dashboards.– – – – The rollout meeting. For a little while, everybody feels optimistic. Then slowly, quietly, the work begins bending

I ate the exact same lunch almost every day in high school. – Two mini pizzas. A Capri Sun. Every single day.– – I didn’t eat an apple until college.– – – I still special-order almost everything. Travel has never really been my thing either. I didn’t step onto an

Every once in a while someone says,“Oh, you’re the brand cop.” Usually followed by:“We had one of those at my last company. He was kind of a jerk.” I always laugh a little because I’ve never wanted that job. Not even close. If your company has a “brand cop,” something

There’s a strange comfort in unfinished work. An unfinished photograph can still become brilliant someday. An unfinished design still carries potential. An unfinished idea still lives in a protected space where nobody can reject it. The moment you finish something, though, the relationship changes. Now it can be judged. That’s

There’s a phrase I come back to often:Process. Standards. Tools. Not because it sounds particularly profound. Honestly, it’s a little utilitarian. But over the years, I’ve realized most creative friction inside organizations eventually traces back to one of those three things. Or more accurately: the misunderstanding of them.People tend to