I just want to make cool stuff and meet interesting people.

It's true. That's my personal motto and the deep-seated desire in my life: To make cool stuff and meet interesting people. I want to make a positive impact on the world by connecting with people. 

I'm a writer. I'm a strategist. I'm a lover of pugs (yep, pug dogs). I do not like writing my own About page, though. I do not like it. It's weird—I love to write about what makes others special, but when it comes to writing about myself I start to get stuck. It’s not because I don’t know what I do well, that’s not it at all, it’s just—it’s like a first date. You’re awkward, all over the place and struggling to sum yourself up by stringing all the relevant information together into something that sounds cool.

And I'm not cool. I'm fun. I've been told I'm hilarious. I know that I'm a really good listener and tell great stories, but I am not good at being "cool." I have, however, done a LOT of cool things in my life by virtue of showing the hell up, diving right in and working hard to make an impact. 

This is why we should work together: 

• I want to understand: I dive deep into the people and organizations I write about because they first need to be understood for their stories to be told.  

• I can always find the most compelling story: I’ve been told I have a “nose for news.” It might be because I’ve worked as a journalist, trained to hear things as ledes and soundbites. I approach everything in that way, letting all the gears in my brain grind toward the best way to talk about something, someone or someplace.

• I care about the work I do: I talk fast, think fast and write fast, but I carefully consider my work before it moves on to the next step. I want it to be as perfect as it can be before it reaches someone else because they deserve something good—whether they’re the CEO who wants to review a blog post before it goes live or the designer who’s going to make it pretty. Like having good manners, I treat my work as a sign of respect for others.