Create a brand people love from someone who does it for a living. — I will say this until undertakers shovel gravel and dirt over my face — data is directional, but definitive. Data is your tour guide, your backstage pass, and the operator’s manual you instantly bin when you unpack IKEA furniture or complex appliances. …

Hey there! Welcome to my virtual home. — Vitals Born & raised in New York. I’ve lived in Los Angeles for the past six years. Started career at an investment bank: A time I’d like to forget. Ditched the suit to build a profitable dot.com in 1999. Built a boutique digital agency from $1MM to $20MM in 4 years. …

How to get unstuck when you’re violently stuck — How do you stay in the game when you’ve played every card, folded every hand, and it’s last call and the mop hits the floor and ammonia hangs heavy and your eyes are bleary from lack of sleep, too much drink. You exist in the space between another game lost…

People will drop-kick you for financial gain. — Years ago, I took a personality test. I was an equity partner at an agency in New York, and my boss believed if you could identify what mattered to people you can get them to fork over their money. While we were all about “relationship cultivation” and caring for our…

Why I’m no longer obsessed with being young — Oh, how we love the young. The faces flush and filled with moxie. The body that moves easily, swiftly, without acknowledgement or abandon because there is a feeling of limitlessness, of not being yet reminded of your mortality. I loved being young. I was loud, aggressive, ambitious and famished. …

A comeback story in stages — Today, I hold a smattering of seashells in my hands. They’re minute, iridescent pink and ivory, smooth to the skin and coarse along the edges. You could bleed if you aren’t careful. But I’m not by the ocean — not yet. It’s a shirt I’m holding — a crisp, cotton…

I’ve been down this path before and it shouldn’t surprise me, but it always does. — I never had a problem holding my drink, I just couldn’t let it go. I pack a bag and ride the railroad to the subway to another subway to walk down Fordham Road to meet a perky freshman with bleached hair who folds me into her tiny frame, and the…

I’m sick of this. — This isn’t going to be an essay, an argument or anything cogent because our attention should be devoted to activists and politicians in a country where the rights of anyone who is not a straight white Christian are systematically being taken away. …

Build a life on your own terms. — Skirt suits. Gabardine wool, cotton and linen. Hose and smart heels. Nothing flash. Subways rivaling cattle cars shuttling us from one musty station to the next. We throttle, push, and shove while clutching our bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches close to our chests. Lotus Notes and PowerPoint presentations. Office showers…