For more than 10 years I’ve been helping professional creatives better leverage their talent and skillsets, understand the creative process, expand into director and managerial roles and generally grow as human animals. I find a lot of meaning in helping creatives navigate through the professional dynamics of industry. I see my path into mentoring and coaching as a natural extension from my own professional and personal development. My path to becoming one of the best advertising creatives in the world gave me ample understanding of all the challenges we face in our careers. My journey from copywriter to creative director to agency VP/executive at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (2002-2009), then CCO/co-founder of an Ad Age top shop (2010), formalized into a return role at CP+B in 2012 as Executive Director of Creative Development. With room to play in the innovative role as needed, I acted as one part talent development, one part talent acquisition, and one part writer/ECD/VP to support pitches and big campaign pushes. It was during my time in this unique title that I began to coach, team-build, and hold “office hours,” giving creatives the space to talk about whatever might be on their minds. It was pretty much a dream job.

Upon leaving CP+B the second time, I focused on building my freelance business, racing bicycles, and (most importantly) “getting my proverbial shit together.” I cut out a lot of distractions and placed more intention on Mindfulness-based practice and Jungian “depth work” (no drugs), This new dedication built on more than two decades of past therapeutic and academic work on my own human (inner) development, and helped me feel a lot more clear about what I’m “here to do.”

At the beginning of 2020, I began offering free creative mentorship through an entity called “Flying Nautilus.” By simply using LinkedIn, I booked “Office Hours” with pretty much any creative curious enough to give it a shot. During that time, I amassed more than 100 original meetings, with a lot of repeat clients. And it gave me the confidence to start this.

what’s the super-basic approach?

Through all this experience, I’ve come to learn what it really means to “meet people where they are.” Coaching starts by getting to know a client’s goals, desires, where they wish to improve and what they want to learn. Then we get to it. Though I use a mindfulness term (stillness) to describe my overarching coaching method, it’s really about applying it to the “brass tacks” of the commercial creative process. I love tucking into the practical nitty gritty of creativity. We can talk about super basic stuff like how to generate ideas, describe ideas to colleagues, the power of having options, taking notes, listening and reflecting, letting go, learning how to repair if we go a little batshit, and so on. I also love to coach creative directors, executives and entire creative departments. I like to talk about how to best look at ideas, give feedback, support unique creative people, be efficient with the bigger team, build trust over time, present to clients, embrace “small boxes,” and so much more. Whatever we work on together, I always encourage tending to and leveraging the power of awareness - for this is where answers tend to come naturally. And I find this kind of intention positively affects how we show up everywhere. This is why I call my coaching “Stillness Creativity.”

Curious to learn more or start some sessions? Let’s connect,