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. …

The difference between journaling and craft — Growing up, I read the journals of famous writers. Often their letters, too. It felt naughty, illicit, here I was peering into the secret lives of dead strangers. From Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf to Edmund Wilson and Vladimir Nabokov, it was thrilling to know the people behind the prose…

When writing, start small and simple. — Early morning is my favorite time. It’s quiet and still. The air cools. The sun has yet to begin its assault, blinding me, burning my skin. People stir under the covers or hear the familiar gurgle of the coffee machine calling them into the kitchen. There’s the brushing of the…

And then mankind ruined everything — We’re in Mexico. My skin is streaked red with burn and I’m feasting on club sandwiches. We’re seniors in college and drunk in Acapulco. We sport our Señor Frogs t-shirts without irony. I yell solamente cheese to no one in particular and everyone laughs. At night, we climb into VW…

PSST: Failure isn’t necessarily bad; it gives you insight — I’m preparing for yet another move — this time to an overpriced mistake of an apartment that will buy me time to get my life in order before I leave for Bakersfield come May. The apartment is one of those joints where you’re met with a “chore list” and are…

Why I go on when I can’t go on. — For many years I made the claim that my career as a marketing executive supported this little habit I had on the side. I made writing seem illicit, as if it was heroin and here I was taking jobs, making money, all in an effort to feed my habit. A…

A deep-dive into my process with examples — For me, everything is about that first line and where it takes you. Some writers are driven by plot, the delicate arrangement of chess pieces, while others are drawn in by a character and the ability to go on a meandering journey where there are no guides or roadmaps, just…

Hopping on a “quick call” is my Dante’s Seventh Circle of Hell. — Watch me stifle a yawn as Jack Torrence, Michael Meyers, and Jason Voorhies wield sharp objects with the intent of filleting me. Witness me fall into a blissful slumber in the Amityville House while blood rains down the walls. I’ve no problem falling prey to a videotape that kills me…