Approaching our work as art can change our worlds Designer Debbie Millman once wisely shared this life advice: “If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve.” Inverting Debbie’s insight into a more positive frame, I arrive at this: “Imagine ourselves as artists and it’s amazing what can come of it.” When I […]

A small shift in beliefs that can have a big impact You might well know the old, cynical restaurant anecdote in which a customer flags down a server who’s passing his table and politely asks for another glass of water. “I’m sorry, sir,” the server replies, “but you’re not in my section.” This story is […]

Defining the service we give to our guests in the same way we do our cheese, bread, and coffee Sometimes things come together for me in strange times and unexpected ways. Some of those ideas melt away over time and lead to very little. Others play out very positively. What follows is new, and I […]

Healthy cultural soil, counter-rhythms, and the power of Silver Branch Perception I’ve written about humility many times since the pamphlet “Humility: A Humble, Anarchistic Inquiry” first came out in the fall of 2020. As I’ve been preparing to go speak about humility again later this week out west in Portland, I’m reminded how much this […]

Befriending the occasional dark reality that can open creative doors Intellectually, I knew it was likely to happen. And still, I was emotionally caught off guard. My morning had gone great—teaching about ecosystems at ZingTrain’s ZingPosium. Then, later that afternoon I looked at the news. My stomach sank. My spirits went into the tank. If you’re […]

Doing marketing with dignity makes a big difference In the back of Seth Godin’s book The Icarus Deception, he includes what he calls, “An Artist’s Abecedary.” I didn’t know what the word meant, but as per what I wrote last week, Seth’s work led me effectively towards some good learning. “Abecedary,” I now know, is Middle English […]