I’ve always been wired to move.
Not in a way that looks restless from the outside, more like a quiet internal pressure that wants to understand what’s broken, figure out what actually fixes it, and get there before anyone else has finished describing the problem.
For most of my career that worked in my favor. For some of it, it didn’t. Moving fast without the right structure underneath you is how you end up solving the wrong problem very efficiently. I learned that the hard way, more than once.
What changed wasn’t the drive. It’s that I learned how to use it differently. Slow down just enough to find the real constraint. Then move.
That’s the basis of everything I do now.
Where This Comes From
I’ve spent more than 20 years working inside agencies, product teams, and founder-led businesses where decisions carry real weight. I’ve led cross-functional teams, managed budgets and payroll, and lived inside the pressure that comes when growth outpaces structure.
But the experiences that shaped how I actually work weren’t client engagements. They were the businesses I built myself.
Reverie Brewing Company
I co-founded Reverie Brewing from the ground up. Brand development, brewing processes, operational structure, built it piece by piece. What I didn’t build well enough was the partner alignment underneath it.
We had a fundamental disagreement about what the business was supposed to be after year 7. I wanted to build something with real growth trajectory. My partners were comfortable with a lifestyle business. Neither is wrong. But they’re incompatible, and we didn’t name that clearly enough early enough.
The exit was clean. No legal conflict, no burned relationships. Clean because I had built enough operational structure into the business that the separation didn’t require a fight. But I learned something I now bring into every founder conversation, misalignment between partners about what you’re actually building is not a relationship problem. It’s a structural clarity problem. And it compounds quietly until it doesn’t.
Greenwood Features
I own and operate an independent cinema in Bethel, CT with my amazing wife. When the market shifted and traditional single-use theaters started closing across the state. Within 4 years of opening, over one third of the theaters that had more experience, more funding and processes in place closed.
My wife and I made a deliberate decision to transform it into something different, a multi-use venue and community space that could survive what a traditional theater couldn’t.
Most of our competitors didn’t make it. We did. Not because we worked harder. Because we read the conditions honestly, made a hard pivot before we had to, and built a model that the market could actually support.
That experience is in the room every time I talk to a founder about what it actually takes to make a strategic shift under pressure.
How I Think
I use paper planes everywhere in my work and my brand. Not because they’re a clever visual. Because they’re honest.
A paper plane has steps. There’s a process that gives it the best possible chance of taking flight. It doesn’t guarantee a perfect flight, it means there’s a plan, a direction, and a willingness to refold what isn’t working before you launch.
That’s how I approach every engagement. There’s always a process. The process is always honest about what it can and can’t guarantee. And if the fold is wrong, we say so and correct it.
What I Do Now
I own and operate an independent cinema in Bethel, CT with my wife. When the market shifted and traditional single-use theaters started closing across the state, the pressure was immediate and real. Within four years of opening, over one third of the theaters around us, businesses with more experience, more funding, and more established processes had closed.
My wife and I made a deliberate decision to transform it into something different. A multi-use venue and community space that could survive what a traditional theater couldn’t.
Most of our competitors didn’t make it. We did. Not because we worked harder. Because we read the conditions honestly, made a hard pivot before we had to, and built a model that the market could actually support.
That experience is in the room every time I talk to a founder about what it actually takes to make a strategic shift under pressure.