Essays
Taste Is Not the Moat You Think It Is
Taste can win work without keeping competitors out. Why I think of it as alpha: today's distinctive design can become tomorrow's template.
Essays
Personal stories, ideas, and lessons learned from building on the internet.
Essays
Value Creation vs Value Extraction
Honor the outcome a client paid for, not just the deliverables. I use a bakery's email newsletter to show when fixing delivery belongs in the service.
Essays
My Microconf Experience
I arrived at MicroConf in New Orleans worried an agency owner wouldn't fit in. Small-group excursions and pricing conversations changed my mind about going without a sales agenda.
Essays
Opinionated Software Design: When Flexibility Becomes the Problem
Opinionated software design should reduce setup work. My argument: a consultant network that exists to simplify your product may be a warning about its UX.
Essays
Idea, Suggestion, Directive - How to Help Your Team Stay Focused
Label a thought as an idea, suggestion, or directive before your team acts on it. A CEO's casual Slack message can otherwise derail the week's priorities.
Agency Confidential
B2B Partnership Models: Become the Unofficial Standard Like McDonald's Coke
B2B partnership models for agencies: what McDonald's and Coca-Cola suggest about platform specialization, better delivery, and earning reciprocal referrals.
Essays
Is Dropshipping Worth It? Why Gurus Make Money and You Don't
A Shopify revenue screenshot doesn't show profit. My take on dropshipping's thin margins, course commissions, and why building a brand is a different business.
Agency Confidential
Same Service DNA: Why Running an Agency is Like Running a Restaurant
Prepare repeatable work before the client asks. Restaurant mise en place helped me think about agency templates, team capacity, and a menu of services.
Agency Confidential
Start Here
Use hospitality as a model for a service business that can run beyond its founder. This introduction explains who Agency Confidential is for and the operating questions I'll explore.
Agency Confidential
How to Start a Creative Agency: Read This Before You Launch
Plan for the operating costs behind a creative agency. I write about the gap between polished client work and the founder juggling delivery, staff, and cash flow.
Essays
Touching Grass at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field 2024
A trip through Niigata made me notice the landscape behind the art. Isobe Yukihisa's river installation and Ilya Kabakov's fragments stayed with me after I left.
Essays
How to Organize Gmail: My Fresh Inbox Setup, Step by Step
Separate action items from the rest of your email. My Gmail setup combines keyboard shortcuts, filters, labels, and Multiple Inboxes instead of another paid inbox app.
Essays
Business Lessons from Childhood
Price the delivery work, not just the product. Selling customized Pokémon at school left me spending lunch trading them one at a time for a few cents.