MANY A FALSE STEP IS MADE BY STANDING STILL — Fortune Cookie A friend had moved into a condo about 10 years ago. She rarely had anyone over because she was embarrassed that she hadn’t “fixed it up.” Finally she worked up […]

On an unseasonable rainy morning last month in San Simeon, my friend Mindy and I boarded a bus that would take us up the very long and windy road to the Hearst Castle. As the bus chugged its way up the hill, hanging perilously […]

“I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.” — Mark Twain So many of us live in the kingdom of “WHATIF.” In this kingdom brilliant things happen. But there are also a […]

I had a completely different blog planned as my first for the New Year. It was all about the ways we can reignite our passion, creativity, and ambition for new and old goals no matter where we are in our lives. You […]

I’ve been renovating a house now for more than a decade. In doing so, I’ve discovered certain truths, five lessons from renovation, that I’ve been able to apply to my business and life. For one thing, 10 years ago I had never considered the fact that I would one day be crawling under a house with a welding torch. But, as I’ve learned, just because we can’t picture ourselves doing something is never reason not to do it!

All good writing begins here … staring off into space and thinking random thoughts. The next step is to put those thoughts in some sort of format that makes sense to the reader. Yeah, you say, but when I try it’s just […]

If I were to tell you that there are three words that could change your life, would you want to know what they are? What if I told you that you already know them? In his book High Performance Habits, Brendon Burchard […]

WRITE, FIGHT OR FLIGHT? Everybody writes. It could be for personal or professional reasons. It could be a magnum opus or it could just be a social media post (sometimes just as challenging). Whatever it may be, when you start to write, [...]

When I saw this photo of Irma Hardjakusumah and her fierce design squad posed all fierce and fabulous in front of this beautiful dome of color and shapes, I knew it was a story I wanted to tell you. (See credits at [...]

A couple days ago the LA Lakers won their 17th NBA Championship. It got me thinking about what it takes to be a champion, and what people at the pinnacle of their sport or field can teach us. Here, I focused on [...]

My years of keeping a journal began as a teenager and was called a diary. My first one was covered in bright floral fabric and had a tiny golden lock with a tiny golden key. I lost the key almost immediately, but [...]

On Sunday We Cook was a series from my 30 Daily (for now) Brand Therapy Newsletters.   The generosity of the kitchen. I say that because no one goes into that room alone. There is always the memory of shared meals, or [...]

The internet has made everything accessible to everyone. This can make it very difficult to set oneself apart in a crowded field such as linen rentals. Bringing out new collections, creating new products is tricky when suppliers are virtually the same mills. [...]

Its January. Is your inbox like mine this month? Is it bursting with ways to ... Unlock you power! Take control! Get 2020 vision!  Conquer your year! Make more money! We are just starting the year yet seems like everyone is shouting [...]

The world had become a locked car and I’d lost my keys. How could I have misplaced something so important? I didn’t quite know where my keys to success were, but I knew when it happened. It was when I began to […]

My first designer profile in a long while! I love to explore the passions that drive us in business and in life, and Irma Hardjakusumah is nothing if not driven by her passion for great design in both. I mean, look at […]

The other day, my yoga instructor asked us to “demand more.” At first I found the request merely ironic – that we should be demanding something from a disciple that is calls for surrender (child’s pose). But in yoga, there are always […]

I’m a big fan of journals. It’s not just the creative life they document, but our goals, inspirations, and dreams they keep safe. Writing things down is a way to organize thoughts, and they say that those who write down goals are […]

I came across these cakes on the web site This is Colossal. Just the look of them alone enchanted me and seemed perfect for my weekend fuel column — inspiration that refuels us for the week ahead, like the weekend itself. But […]

How often do we truly see ourselves? I mean, truly see ourselves in a way that moves our soul? It might be difficult and scary, but always, it’s illuminating. And, if we know what to then do with that information, it’s a […]

The other day I went running in the hills. It was early morning and still overcast, yet by the time I made it to the top there were already several people there – meditating, playing guitar, stretching and chatting. There was no […]

One thing that we all have in common as creative entrepreneurs is that we crave inspiration. We can find it many places, but the best source we have is each other which is why meetings are so important as a place to […]

Whether life grinds you or polishes you depends on the material you are made of. Growing up, my brothers and I always were drawn to the beauty of rocks we’d seen in the gift stores at national parks – shiny, impossibly smooth […]

Life lessons come from places we least expect. For instance, “the road” has provided many life lessons for artists, wanderers, and writers attracted to its romance — the travel, freedom, personal journeys. To be sure, that is one part it, yet there […]

Perhaps mushrooms are not the most fanciful of topics amid the light and sparkle of the holidays, yet as we begin to enter the New Year, there is a lot about them that can inspire our own growth. Natural recyclers of the […]

In Southern California, we have officially entered fire season. Growing up here, I have witnessed many brush fires, some that came so close to my home or office that ashes have darkened the sky and covered lawns and cars. When the smoke […]

“This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not […]

In many ways, the improvisational style of jazz is at the heart and soul of the business of event design and production. Certainly King Dahl, executive director of event design at MGM Resorts Events, would say so. In fact, both King and […]

This imaginative and truly gorgeous Willy Wonka themed event pictured here inspired me to revisit the classic book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wonka was a great marketer, but he had something bigger in mind when he ran the contest that would […]

Hope and stillness. Quiet and light. These are the themes that run throughout the art and life of David Arms. That story — what David believes, who he is and what he creates — is contained (for the moment) in a 900-square-foot […]

What would you start today if you knew you could not fail? It’s still spring and yet in Los Angeles the unseasonably hot air is already thick with the scent of jasmine. The leaves on the trees have filled in and the […]

Can we be successful by simply just being there? In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says showing up (over 10,000+ hours) is a big part of who is successful and who is not. Woody Allen has said that 80 percent of life […]