I've built a decades-long career in advertising, branding and marketing on the foundation of fabulous side quests.

Yes: I’ve created campaigns and built brands for retailers, health care systems, financial institutions, museums, and colleges and universities huge and tiny. Radio writing and production. Outdoor, social media, and television. Point of sale, print of all kinds, annual reports, brand guidelines, thought leadership, mentorship. I’ve done it.    

And: I’ve toured as a musician; served as a city commissioner; owned and operated a coffeehouse; dabbled in local politics and community organizing; designed, photo-edited and laid out 100 issues of a local weekly newspaper; engineered, manufactured and marketed bottle cap bicycle mirrors; and it should be said loudly, helped raise two brilliant kids with an extraordinarily patient wife. 

It's a good story populated by amazing people who have seen my hunger to create, and made excellent use of it. 

I’ve seen life from all sides of our industry. I’ve been a restless client, a driven entrepreneur, and a person deeply engaged in his community. 

It’s been a humbling, exhilarating, and enlightening journey, and it’s taught me how to help brands and institutions see and share their story. 

And though it all, I’ve learned a million things. Here are five of them:

1. Stories are the original information technology. Make people care, and they'll never forget. 

2. Ideas thrive on sharing. And they wither in secrecy. No idea I’ve had has been so good a designer or a producer or an account person or a client couldn’t make it better.   

3. Spectacles are made to be made. The most wonderful creation is a platform where wonderful things can spring to life and to run wild. 

4. Empathy is everything. Slow down and listen. Put in the work to learn. Never stop trying to feel how people live. It’s the superpower that makes us human. 

5. Spread the smart. Being smart is good. Making others look and feel smart is way, way better. 

That’s my story. 

Now how about yours.