After 25 years working from the trenches and mountain tops of the ad industry,

I've discovered the cure for boring, ineffective advertising is fun &...

A reasonably jaded industry type might quip "but not everything can be fun!" to which I would reply "ah yes! but everything is better with fun! and that's just where I come in... As a LinkedIn Official fun haverupper™ I get to help brands inspire their customers by having more fun.

Here again a performance bible thumping born-again fun hater might be tempted to say. "yeah fine, but performance is more important than silly old fun".

But please remember:

what gives birth to performance isn't performance.. it's fun &…

”Fun & Utility”

“Fun & Value”

Heck, maybe even “Fun & Valor” or “Fun & Purpose”

(Notice that ”Fun & Deceit” didn’t make the list?)

You see, no customer worth having ever wakes up craving a fresh Tiktok feed stuffed full of “performance.”

But ask yourself, have you ever woken up absolutely with the unshakable thought: "golly I sure hope nothing fun or joyous happens today."

if you are a truly crusty adtech industry sea-dog and the answer is gruff and grinchy “YES!” I have bad & good news for you. Bad news: you are likely amongst the dead and wont be adding anything to your afterlife cart anytime soon, regardless of how slick the funnel is. Good news: as long as you draw breath, it's not too late to ad some fun to whatever performance marketing slave ship you happen to be steering at the moment.

So my imaginary internet friend, the next time you find yourself staring into the cold lifeless and dilated pupils of a digital performance campaign, go ahead, set the customer free from the shackles of your funless-funnel, see if they won’t reward you with love, adoration and heaps of fun that in turn inspires the performance of your next campaign.

I suffered a stroke one year ago today that wiped out the right hemisphere of my brain and left me partially paralyzed.

Here's what I learned as a Creative Director after losing and then regaining my ability to create: 

I remember hearing my stroke happen. It was like the sound of an incoming artillery round followed by a big boom in my inner ear and then a high-pitched ringing / buzzing sound. I had no idea what it was, but I remember having an ominous feeling moments before I collapsed to the floor of the campground shower and began my final approach to a living hell. 45 days later I woke to a hellish new reality. Mine.

Globally 16,000,000 people are affected by stroke every year (1.5 million of whom will perish). There have been many days when I wished I was in the latter group.

In honor of my joining this prestigious community of survivors. I’ve compiled a list of some of the insights having a stroke taught me for my creative community (I know this is TLDR, but so is life and I assure you that your tik tok videos will all be exactly where you left them when you finish this). Besides, If you read this list, and learn something new without having a stroke, it was totally worth it. 

1. Having a stroke is an early reminder that life is 100% fatal.

2. Little things can add up, but they can also subtract. As a species, we’re most likely to take the little things for granted. Get into the habit of noticing and verbally cherishing the little things in your life. Even if it makes you look and sound like an idiot, you’ll be the smartest idiot alive because verbalizing those good things will help you internalize and then actualize them. 

3. Think about all the things you love doing and are good at. Now imagine losing absolutely every one of them and tell me who you are and why you exist? Having something like this occur will probably trigger an identity crisis, so it might be a good idea to define yourself on the basis of your ultimate purpose instead of your modalities, do your level best not to conflate your talents, vocation or passions with your identity & ultimate purpose.  

4. Even if you recover 100% of who you once were, you will still only be repeating what you already were. Repetition isn’t creativity. Invention and reinvention is. Get used to the idea that you are inventing a completely new version of yourself. 

5. A stroke will force you to revisit your enmity with time and become BFF. Time is your greatest ally in healing and recovery. You absolutely cannot rush the recovery process. 

6. I used to think walking was pretty boring until I lost the ability to walk. Same goes for talking or being able to smile using my whole face. Now that I’ve regained those abilities, this shit is positively thrilling and last week I soloed the trans Catalina trail to celebrate being able to walk again. 

7. Clapping with one hand is possible. But it probably will involve your forehead and not be super flattering (unless you don't take yourself seriously, then you will realize how flattering it is to be secure enough to laugh at yourself). 

8. No two injuries are the same. A hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke isn’t like recovering from a broken arm or a torn ligament. So please don’t correlate a dentist visit from hell with a stroke victim. It’s profoundly insulting and demeaning.

9. Being a “victim” sucks but sometimes it’s just what you are and it’s unproductive to pretend otherwise. That said, it’s only a temporary modality that should not be internalized to define you or your ultimate purpose. 

10. Work can be very good for you in micro doses. At the time of my stroke I was leading a major enterprise rebrand effort for an incredible brand in the immersive therapeutics & virtual reality space. I started working again as soon as I woke from my coma and got out of the ICU and my girlfriend brought me my laptop. My doctors were not super thrilled with the optics of seeing me take zoom meetings from my hospital bed… but I knew it would be good for me to use my brain again rather than stare at a hospital ceiling for 20 unbroken hours a day. I was a cognitive hot mess, but my client was incredibly supportive and gracious to me despite my limitations and I know it helped accelerate my recovery. 

11. Before my stroke being creative was about as hard as breathing helium at a birthday party. After my stroke, being creative was as hard as breathing sawdust on the dark side of the moon. Losing that ability forced me to become far more empathetic to my account side friends who never did their fair share of helium in the first place. I am so sorry I never understood or appreciated what bein creative is like for you. You are officially invited to my next birthday party if I make it that long. 

12. I lost the ability to create until I relearned the ability to observe and sift the facts for poignant human truth. As a result I'm now far more creative and efficient than ever before because I don’t have the luxury of time or patience to work on dumb ideas or mess with shaky creative processes. 

13. Like the moon, we borrow our light. The world is absolutely full of light. Just borrow some when you need to create and you will be just fine. 

14. One staff aides a traveler. But a bundle of staves is a heavy burden. Having a stroke forced me to radically simplify my creative process and make a bonfire of my bad creative processes and habits. 

15. Process without truth is propaganda. Always always always find the truth and go from there.

16. The whole world is designed for able-bodied people with two hands and ten fingers. Losing the ability to quickly type an angry email or text taught me the value of not trying to argue in the first place. Especially in slow motion. Bonus: You will win 100% of the arguments you don’t have. 

17. Lying broken and paralyzed in a hospital bed with truly brutal life circumstances plunged me into deep despair and the trite “you got this bro!” messages while well-intended were off putting in the extreme… a bit like putting icing and candles on a cake made out of elephant seal shit. thankfully those people are only going to send one or two text messages before they lose interest. 

18. Sometimes authentic empathy involves waiting and watching silently for an appropriate moment in time to offer objective and specific encouragement as it unfolds. I think this is especially true lesson for mission-driven brands that want to do good but only if it serves their interests and budget.  

19. If you approach empathy with a specific, self-affirming outcome in mind, chances are you genuinely suck at it. 

20. Being vaguely optimistic for the sake of optimism is like sending a glittery “get well soon” card to someone in hell. It’s cute but intellectually shallow and of no value to anyone but the sentimental ego of the sender. I’ll take positive realism any day of the week in hell, thank you very much. 

21. Despair is an absolutely terrible investment. You can pour absolutely everything you have into it and it will never offer you even a single penny of value in return. 

22. The anvil breaks a host of hammers by quietly bearing their blows. Sometimes you are the hammer and sometimes you’re the anvil. Either way, patience is power.

23. Self is the beginning of sorrow. The more you fixate on your own situation and circumstances the more likely you are to miss all of the beauty unfolding around you in the midst of a fractured world that desperately needs you.  

24. Feelings are significant but they are often not trustworthy. Especially after a traumatic brain injury. Anger, fear, anxiety and despair are the least trustworthy feelings you’ll ever feel. 

25. Despair reaps all its joy in the speculative destruction of hope. You don’t know the future. Do not trust despair.

26. Even the darkest of nights are broken by the dawn of a new day. Some of my days have been pretty awful, but some of them have been so wonderful I don’t want to diminish them with adjectives.

27. Even a weak, trembling step forward is a unstoppable tool for progress if repeated at scale. 

28. Having a sense of humor is like always having a cheat code for life’s worst moments. 

29. Entitlement and gratitude cannot coexist. My stroke has made me far more grateful for the 50% I’ve recovered than the 100% I had before. 

30. One of the best days of my life was figuring out how to turn off my hospital bed alarm and boost a wheelchair which allowed me to escape the hospital for a night on the town in a gown. Sometimes crime against superficial bureaucracy pays off handsomely. 

31. Responsibility without authority is slavery. Anyone who desires to relive you of authority or your personal agency probably wants to enslave you. 

32. A stroke is an invisibly gruesome wound. The vast majority of people in your life simply won’t understand, and are genuinely not equipped to go through it with you. However, if you happen to have a sense of humor, a family and a working relationship with God, you may be lonely but you’ll never be alone. 

33. Suffering is transcendent, and will teach you to think and see in new colors. Start every day with your eyes and mind wide open lest you suffer for nothing and miss out on all the pretty new colors.

34. Its as if each year of our lives is a story of a building, and after adolescence we jump from the top floor without a thought that our mortality is rushing at us. Having a stroke is simply hearing the elevator door to eternity chime a little bit earlier than most people, and can set you up to enjoy the ride to the top more.

35. Deferring enjoyment today for a future that might not ever happen is the very definition of stumbling on something behind you. Do life now. do it well. And do it like you stole it because you are definitely living on borrowed time. 

some #insights for my #creative peers from a career in the creative trenches of #adagencies #startups and #globalbrands

Happy to share a few early pictures of my latest creation, an African cape buffalo sculpture I call “Xerxes”.

Xerxes is a follow up to my first piece, Achilles and is comprised of over 30k individual dog tags (go ahead, count’ em!), requiring over 18 months of intense, often painstaking labor to create his impeccable coat of armor. He’ll soon be on display at Compass Real Estate’s Bellingham office gallery (reach out to them for visiting hours). Xerxes’ dog tags were donated by adventure travel gear manufacturer Red Oxx, based in Billings, MT. The initial structure of the mount was supplied by Fidalgo Taxidermy in Anacortes, WA. and is made of entirely synthetic materials.

The cape buffalo is not to be confused with the docile, domesticated Asian water buffalo. Measuring up to 6’ at the shoulder and weighing up to 2,200 pounds, they are possessed of a grouchy temperament suitable for dealing with the neighborhood Hyenas, Lions, Leopards and Crocodiles. Sometimes referred to as “The Black Death”, they are feared for their awesome power, deceptive agility and deft ability to charge at speeds up to 40mph, often without any warning.

The adult African cape buffalo's horns are its defining, iconic physical feature: they have fused bases, forming a continuous bone shield across the top of the head referred to as a "boss". It is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous animals on the African continent, and according to some estimates it gores, tramples, and kills over 200 people every year.

Want to bring something special to your space? Xerxes is NOT available for sale but I may consider placing future creations in a appropriate locations.

A little over a month ago I started to create concept art for racing kayaks, surfskis and the occasional SUP. What I began as a fun personal creative outlet for Instagram has instead connected me to a global community of athletes and enthusiasts in a deeply gratifying way.

It's interacting and collaborating with athletes in headline grabbing places like Israel, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Russia that I've enjoyed the most. Some are kids. Many are young athletes pursuing Olympic dreams and many others are in their later years remembering better years. All of them are living life to the best of their ability. Just like me. Just like you. Just like us. I've learned we are more alike then we are different. You can check out some of the art here: https://www.instagram.com/fasterfarther/

The idea for an armor plated elk occurred to me about ten years before I found an opportunity to bring it to life, or in this case; back to life.

While working on interior concepts and fixtures for Lazarus Brewing, I brought up the idea to my brother Christian, the CEO. We decided to "borrow" one of our dad's old elk racks that he had hunted in the Beartooth Mountains of Montana, and was now hanging above the garage entry way at his cabin in said mountains. 

With an enthusiastic "YES!", we set about trying to pull something off in time for the brewery opening just four weeks away. It just so happens that another client, Red Oxx, uses dog tags for luggage hang tags. They had an enormous stash of dog tags that had been discarded due to small errors or price changes over the years. We partnered with a True Life Taxidermy in Laurel, Montana to prep the antlers and the foam mount, and then ship them us. From there the project took over my production studio, and consumed just under 20,000 tags and over 250 hours of manual labor between myself, and Christi Naler who had flown in from the bay area to help me execute the behemoth task (pun of the day, hurray!). 

20,000 Dog Tags. 250 Hours of Work. 5 All Nighters. 

An undisclosed amount of Coffee and Whiskey.