Tag: Career Stories

Honestly, Losing Momentum Sucks… But That’s Not the End of Your Story

Written on February 17, 2026. Posted in Career, Hands In The Soil Marketing Leadership, Personal Thoughts.

When life derails your carefully laid plans it’s not always about descending into total chaos or facing outright failure – often, it’s an opportunity for something much deeper to emerge. Most of us build our careers around...

Authentic Growth, Career Stories, Hands in The Soil, Personal story

The Human Cost of “Correct” Answers

Written on February 16, 2026. Posted in Brand Marketing, Career, Future Marketing, Hands In The Soil Marketing Leadership, Personal Thoughts.

Early in my career, I became obsessed with unlocking the secrets of our industry’s pioneers — not because I wanted the tactics or the shortcuts or the tidy frameworks you can laminate and sell back to management teams that secretly hopes...

Career Stories, Hands in The Soil, Marketing Truth, Thought Leadership

#OpenToWork: AI Has Reshaped White-Collar Careers

Written on February 16, 2026. Posted in Business Leadership, Future Marketing, Personal Thoughts.

Why Non-Linear Builders Are Both Losing and Winning If you are in the job market in 2026, you already know something has shifted — even if no one is saying it out loud. AI is steadily reshaping traditional white-collar work, and the hiring...

Authentic Growth, Career Stories, Hands in The Soil, Personal story

AI: Some Kind of Wonderful… or Just Static on a Monitor.

Written on February 16, 2026. Posted in Business Leadership, Career, Operational Leadership, Personal Thoughts.

There’s a quiet question a lot of us Gen Xers are asking right now. We built the digital world. Wired it together when nothing worked right, survived the crashes, rebuilt again, and again and again. We weren’t born into tech—we were excitedly...

Authentic Growth, Career Stories, Marketing Truth, Thought Leadership

Social Loafing and the “CYA” Tax: How to Reclaim Your Team’s Momentum

Written on January 30, 2026. Posted in Business Leadership, Hands In The Soil Marketing Leadership.

Why the real work is building a culture that doesn’t need the meeting Most conversations about meetings focus on time management. How many meetings are too many?Which invites should you decline?How do you protect your calendar? Those are...

Career Stories, Thought Leadership

The Most Dangerous Leadership Trap I Ever Fell Into

Written on January 26, 2026. Posted in Business Leadership, Hands In The Soil Marketing Leadership, Personal Thoughts.

From one leader who’s been there to another Hey, I want to be really honest with you. I’ve struggled. I’ve failed spectacularly at times. And looking back, a lot of those failures came from the same place: pride and...

Authentic Growth, Career Stories, Hands in The Soil, Marketing Leadership, Personal story, Thought Leadership

The Best Worst Job I Ever Had — And That’s Saying a Lot

Written on October 22, 2025. Posted in Business Leadership, Personal Thoughts.

Norman Building & Design. A job I took after a divorce and the closing of Cascade Hop Farm. When the phone rang, it was the new CEO, a man I genuinely liked from an earlier interview and considered a professional friend. I didn’t know it...

Authentic Growth, Career Stories, Marketing Truth, Personal story, Thought Leadership