Okay… Let’s get a little personal

The rest of this site focuses on the work — outcomes, systems, and things that shipped.

This page focuses on something else: a real constraint I’ve worked within throughout a long and successful career in advertising, and how I’ve learned to work through it. It’s here because understanding how I work matters just as much as seeing what I’ve made

How to AI Friends and Influence Models

The Work Was Never the Hard Part

For most of my career, ideas, execution, and creative problem-solving came naturally.

I could see systems early, move comfortably between disciplines, and design experiences that balanced technology with human need. The difficulty often appeared after the work was underway — in meetings, alignment, and the fast, social exchange of ideas.

The ideas were clear in my head. Translating them cleanly and consistently under pressure was not.

Two people sitting at a table with a laptop, two glasses of water, a notebook, a small table lamp, and a decorative vase with white calla lilies, in a modern room with wood and curtain background.

Learning the Rules Didn’t Make It Easier

Two people working at a desk with a laptop, notebook, pen, glasses of water, and minimalistic decor and a vase with white calla lilies.

Before I Had Language for It

I’m neurodivergent, though I wasn’t diagnosed until later in my career.

Before I had that context, I compensated. I over-prepared. I rehearsed conversations. I relied on the work to carry alignment forward. These strategies worked — but they were expensive. The mental and emotional cost accumulated quietly over time.

What I experienced wasn’t a lack of ability. It was friction without a name.

Getting diagnosed didn’t change my past, but it clarified it.

It allowed me to separate capability from difficulty and to treat communication as a design problem rather than a personal failing. Mental wellness became less about endurance and more about building the right supports — the same way I would approach any complex system.

For a long time, I tried to solve this by studying communication itself.

I read How to Win Friends and Influence People more times than I can count. I highlighted it. I took notes. I tried to internalize the patterns it promised. It never quite worked — not because the advice was wrong, but because it assumed a fluency I didn’t have.

I could learn the rules. The conversation still felt unnatural.

A wooden desk with a metallic vase containing a wilted orange flower, a glass of water, a closed notebook, eyeglasses on top of the notebook, a pen, and a beige paper.

Diagnosis and Mental Wellness

AI as a Practical Communication Tool

AI entered my process because it solved a real problem.

Used thoughtfully, it became a place to externalize ideas, shape language, test tone, and reduce ambiguity before communication ever reached another person. What once felt like a high-wire act became iterative and controlled.

This wasn’t about outsourcing thinking. It was about removing unnecessary translation loss.

I don’t use AI to replace craft or judgment — and I don’t particularly enjoy using it to write code. But as a communication tool, it has been genuinely transformative.

Where This Leaves Me Now

Today, I do high-level creative and technical work with far less friction.

Not because the challenge disappeared, but because I designed around it. Mental wellness, self-awareness, and the smart use of modern tools have allowed me to communicate with confidence and precision — and to show up fully in the work.

A book about influencing people never quite worked for me.
A set of tools designed to influence machines did.

And in the process, I found a way to be understood — consistently, clearly, and on my own terms.