Insights and Inspiration
This is where I think out loud. About leadership, theatre, creativity, grief, power, ego, and the occasional sacred cow that deserves a firm shove. Some posts are sharp, some are personal, all of them are honest—and none of them are written to keep everyone comfortable. If you’re looking for polish, this might not be it. If you’re looking for truth with a pulse, welcome.
From Threatened to Thankful: What Margaret Atwood Taught Me About Being a Man
How fear, feminism, and fatherhood finally taught me to listen The first time I read Margaret Atwood — sometime in the 80s, when hair was big and good men were reliably oblivious — I was scared. Not scared like Stephen King scared. Scared like existentially...
Layoffs: Because Nothing Screams “Leadership” Like Firing Everyone Who Works for You
On the heels of layoff announcements from mammoths like Amazon, Starbucks, Oracle, Nike, Carter's, and others, there’s a disturbing reflex in corporate life that makes me want to slam my head against a whiteboard. Quarterly numbers dip, shareholders twitch, and some...
He Told Me I Was the Problem — And He Was Right
How Gary Pica turned tough love into a lifelong friendship — and made me a better leader in the process This post marks a pretty special milestone — the 50th TruMethods/Winners Circle Peer Group meeting. Fifty. That’s half a century of meetings if you count them in...
Three Things I Learned from Betrayal
Betrayal is one of those things you think you understand — until it happens to you. It’s not just pain. Pain has an endpoint. Betrayal lingers. It seeps into your trust, your judgment, your sleep. It makes you question your instincts — the very ones you’ve spent your...
“Don’t Take It Personally — It’s Just Business”
The Sociopath’s National Anthem Every time someone says “Don’t take it personally — it’s just business,” an HR department gets its wings. Let’s stop pretending this phrase is some kind of stoic wisdom. It’s not. It’s a moral escape hatch for people who want to screw...
President Bartlet: The Leader Every REAL Leader Wishes They Were
When The West Wing first aired, Sharon and I were obsessed right from the pilot. I mean don’t call, don’t visit, don’t even breathe near the TV hooked. This was before streaming, before “skip intro,” before binge culture — so every episode was a damn event. To this...
Your Trauma Is Your Toolkit (Sorry, But It’s True)
There’s this unspoken truth among actors that nobody really likes to say out loud: the best performances often come from the most broken parts of us. We don’t talk about it because it sounds unhealthy — like we’re romanticizing pain. But the reality is, if you’ve...
The Difference Between a Good Leader and a Great One? Vulnerability.
“Vulnerability” has become the latest corporate virtue signal.Everyone claims they “lead with it” — right up until it means actually saying something real. Because here’s the thing: most people love the idea of vulnerability… just not the practice of it. They’ll...
Full Circle: I Built a Business So I Could Afford to Be an Artist Again
Two years ago, I sold my shares in the business I helped build. After years of leading teams, growing culture, and sitting through meetings that could’ve been solved in a half- decent email, I suddenly had something I hadn’t truly had in decades: time. And not the...
From Stage to Strategy: How Acting Made Me a Better CEO (and a Slightly More Dramatic One)
People sometimes ask how I went from actor to CEO, as if those two things exist in entirely different universes.Honestly? They’re not that different. Both require stamina, improvisation, and the ability to keep a straight face when something goes completely...