I spent a decade at a Fortune 500 company, but I always knew I wanted more from my life.
So I went looking for it. I ran a marathon, learned to scuba dive, hiked with gorillas in Rwanda, skydived in New Zealand, and swam with whale sharks in Mexico. I’ve been overweight. I’ve been depressed. I got sober in 2019 and spent years doing the kind of inner work that changes you. I kept searching for my thing. The thing that made me feel the most like myself.
Eventually, I realized I wasn’t going to find it on another trip, at another job, or by becoming some better version of myself. I found it in creating: taking something that exists only as an idea and giving it a name, a shape, a voice, an audience.
Making something tangible that didn’t exist before, and making it in a way no one else could. That changed the way I think about creativity entirely.
I think the things we create are one of the ways we make sense of ourselves, connect with each other, and leave something behind.
Beliefs
- you will be more creative without a TV
- you can talk about feelings without making it weird
- you can take your work seriously without taking yourself seriously
- your calendar should occasionally contain a commitment that scares you
- the conversations people avoid are usually the ones worth having
- creativity is supposed to make you feel a little insane sometimes
- you should have something in your life you’re embarrassingly excited about
- a blank page can do more than a 47-slide PowerPoint
Currently
- reading everything by Emily Henry
- listening Wild Rivers, one of my favorite bands of all time
- eating Cuban food made by my friend Tio Pepe
- drinking hot water with lemon + salt
- wishing for all of the animals to live in my backyard
- dreaming of a sun-filled art studio
we’ll get along great if:
- you go outside
- you’ve done inner work but didn’t make it your whole personality
- you’ve closed down a sushi restaurant more than once
- you want your life to be meaningful, not just talk about it
- you can laugh at things that suck
- you take spiders outside instead of killing them
- you can handle honesty, even when it stings
- you’re ok with an f-bomb before 11am
- you randomly break out in a british accent for absolutely no reason