I grew up in the desert (Tucson, Arizona, to be specific) surrounded by the magical shapes of cacti that turned into characters in silhouette at sunset. It was a landscape filled with potential stories waiting to be told—which I did in handmade books and puppet shows. This story-telling habit continued in college at Columbia University, where cacti were replaced by skyscrapers, and then again in Paris—yet another magical world.

Along the way, I got to work with internet companies and on television shows, and somewhere in the middle, spent a year as a recipient of a James Michener Fellow in Screenwriting. Since words and images always go together in my mind, it was a natural fit when I eventually co-founded a boutique creative firm, Beyondform, with a designer partner in Los Angeles. For over ten years, we got to work with some pretty amazing clients, large and small, product- and service-oriented. And working across industries kept things interesting and gave our clients a fresh perspective.

Now I get to do the same thing, but with an expandable team. I help define brands, develop content, often write, and mostly, direct a talented group of creative professionals—which is pretty amazing.