Welcome to the Workshop

Tinkerers unite.

Growing up, my dad had a workshop in our house. At first it was in the basement, then grew up alongside him to a spacious room off of the garage.  

My dad, an engineer and inventor, came from a long line of tinkerers. He would spend hours in his workshop—repairing, improving, perfecting. He worked with plastics and semiconductors, on new industrial and consumer products and his beloved collection of motorcycles. If he couldn’t find a tool to make what he needed, he just made the tool himself. 

His workshop was the only room in the house where I had to wear shoes, protection against invisible shards of metal hiding on the floor. There were machines that looked like metal animals, large and small, which I most definitely was not supposed to touch. 

Though my childhood smelled like burnt wood and welded metal mixed with a tinge of motor oil, I never thought any of it was for me. 

I was interested in people, communities, and the way we communicate with one another. My work would take me far outside that familiar space in the suburban Midwest, to new people in new places who would give me the gifts of new perspectives and an understanding of what brings us together.

I’ve spent years in what I can only describe as a nonlinear career. I’ve led marketing efforts at major film studios, ran an agency that created strategies for the biggest media and lifestyle brands in the world, consulted for global tech companies, and, over the past 10 years, worked to apply all the lessons I’ve learned across my career to businesses and nonprofits that are attempting to do things that could make a safer, healthier, more beautiful place possible. I’ve worked with clients and partners to answer complicated, nuanced questions. How do we get people in a bottom-line driven industry to care about a climate solution? How do we reach communities that aren’t paying attention to - or don’t trust -  national media? How can an organization built on live events thrive during a global pandemic? And how do we do these things pragmatically, understanding real-world time and resource constraints?

For twenty years, I didn’t think that my career and my dad’s had anything in common. Until someone recently asked me what I love about my job. 

“I love to take something down to its component pieces to understand how it works, and how we assemble those pieces to make something stronger,” I heard myself say. “I like to fix things that are broken.”

Though the raw materials in my work are the talents, ideas, creativity, and rigor of incredible leaders and their teams…I realized that I had built myself a workshop.

To me, the essence of a workshop signifies commitment to productivity and craftsmanship, built on the foundation of hard work, creativity, and a desire to solve problems. It’s easy to think big thoughts; it’s a lot harder to make sure that those thoughts can become real, transformative action that moves us towards our goals.

Workshop can also mean a space where people come together to learn and grow. In every project that I take on, I have the opportunity to learn from my partners. I believe striving for new knowledge is a cornerstone of personal progress. It’s how we gain the skill and empathy required to think with flexibility, accuracy, and honesty.  The more we learn, the better we can be to partner with our colleagues, clients, families, and communities.

And of course, when workshop is used as an active verb, it embodies a spirit of ideation, generation, and innovation. To workshop something means to brainstorm, to experiment, to push boundaries, to challenge assumptions, or to even confront our gaps in knowledge. In this form, workshop is a reminder that we are always evolving, always creating, and always looking for new solutions.

With all of this in mind, workshop is a mindset at the heart of my professional life and direction in which I hope to grow.  It is a commitment to hard work, a dedication to continuous learning, and an unwavering belief in the power of people. It is a place where ideas come to life, where education fuels growth, and where the future is built – one project at a time.

I’ve recently started a project that will give me the incredible opportunity to interview leaders who are seeking to solve challenges large and small. We’ll be exploring how they think about strategy, build partnerships, and stay focused in a world built for distraction. I couldn’t be more honored to be able to share their wisdom with all of you – my friends, family, and community – through this newsletter. 

When it came time to name it, there was only one natural choice.

Welcome to the Workshop. I can’t wait to build something together.

[Photo: My dad and my daughter, circa 2020, building a better birdhouse.]