SIDE NOTES
Welcome to Side Notes, a collection of essays, excerpts, and reflections shaped by two decades of building things from the ground up. These entries pull from the margins of business, creativity, reinvention, and everyday life. The parts we often overlook but always learn from.
Side Notes has been a great way for me to keep my mind active and grounded in writing while I work on my first book, Unfinished Business: The Art of Reinvention. A collection of humor-tinged lessons from life, twenty years in business, and what reinvention in my forties has actually looked like in real time.
You’ll find moments of humor, clarity, nostalgia, and insight. The hope is that somewhere in the pages, you find a moment of recognition, a shift in perspective, or simply a reminder that you’re not alone in the humor and complexity of it all.
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“Twenty Minutes.”
Someone asked me recently, “How long did you last at the bar for your first time without alcohol?” I blurted out in lightning speed: Twenty minutes. Gaaagh! Twenty minutes?! That’s not even an entire episode of Seinfeld. How did I spend five hours there in one sitting? How did I make it feel fun and effortless? How much money had I spent on playing Ocean Front Property on TouchTunes over the years? Okay, that one was worth it, one hundred percent. I knew I had memories and good times, but suddenly, standing in the bar for the first time with my plastic glass of Diet Coke, everything felt almost impossible without alcohol...
Why Do I Cover Up Food in the Garbage Like I’m Hiding a Crime?
Why do I flip uneaten food upside down in the garbage like I’m covering a crime scene? Childhood trauma? Oscar the Grouch? Maybe.
Welcome to the weird guilt of the Clean Plate Club era, where leftovers come with shame, and the trash can is judging you like some green monster with a lid hat. We’re diving into food guilt, parental programming, business burnout, and the ridiculous things we still carry as adults—from napkin-smuggling bites to rebellion in the form of garbage rituals. Trust me, it’s funny. It’s honest. And it might just make you feel normal for once.
Hi, I’m Business Bleu Cheese
You know what goes great with cold, lumpy mashed potatoes and overcooked peas you’ve been avoiding for an hour?A big ol’ glass of milk.At least, that’s what my grandpa thought when he tried to induct me into the Clean Plate Club. It did not end well. I decorated the family dinner table in a way no one appreciated, and to this day, I still can’t do cooked peas.
Reinvention: Bangs, Business & Perms, OH MY!
Reinvention isn’t always glamorous—sometimes it’s a self-cut mullet in fifth grade, sometimes it’s a business pivot that saves you years of struggle. Either way, we’re diving into the wild, weird, and why didn’t anyone warn me? lessons of business and life.
So, if you’re ready for some hard-earned insight, a few laughs at my expense, let’s talk reinvention—bad hair decisions optional.