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...
“JOHNSONVILLE BRATS, JOHNSONVILLE BRATS!”
I recently found myself standing over a bubbling tray of Cheddar-wurst Johnsonville brats, cheddar oozing out like molten lava, edges crisped just shy of burnt, and I couldn’t help but time travel straight back to the old-school Johnsonville commercial from the '80s.
You know it. Charlie Murphy, manning his grill by the lake. Probably just trying to enjoy his one peaceful afternoon off from analyzing taxes at his crummy 9 to 5. He’s got the brats going, they’re sizzling, life is good.
But because Uncle Charlie clearly didn’t want to share his stash with his bratty niece and was trying to save them for his friends, she outed him. Loudly. To the entire neighborhood.
She belts it across the lake:
“Charlie Murphy’s cooking Johnsonville Brats… Johnsonville Brats!”
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.
Work Ethic: The Skill That Builds Everything (And Why It Matters)
The universe told me to take a break. My work ethic? She laughed, crossed her arms, and said, ‘That’s adorable, now get to work.’ This is what happens when you try to slow down after two decades of hustle, and why learning to balance ambition with rest is crucial.