Field Notes: Exploring Growth & Grit
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
First Person Articles & Observations
Over time, certain observations continue to surface — about leadership, innovation, communication, and the realities of bringing complex ideas to market. Sometimes those insights emerge in business, and sometimes in the unexpected challenges of everyday life. These articles capture lessons learned, patterns observed, and questions worth exploring further. I publish regularly and highlight my most recent articles here.
“Values aren’t tested when they’re c
onvenient. They’re tested when they cost something.” — John C. Maxwell
Early in my marketing career, someone told me something that stuck with me. They said, “You value trust too much. Tech business might not be the place for you. Stay in your healthcare lane.” At the time, I dismissed it. Honestly, I assumed a career in Med device and healthcare as a whole would be more grounded in accountability simply because the stakes were higher, so I stayed in that field. Over time, however, I’ve learned the lanes blur. View article on Linkedin
The question is no longer how to update a résumé but how to position for long-term durability in a market that is being reorgan
ized in real-time.
In “If I Were Starting My Career Over Today, with GenAI,” tech industry veteran Jim Walsh reflects on more than forty years in software development and introduces a lens that feels increasingly important. AI has increased speed, but it has not reduced uncertainty. If anything, the landscape we are operating in has become more volatile. Recently, in a conversation with a marketing colleague, I said something that has stayed with me: bad decisions at scale compound just as fast as good ones. View article on Linkedin
I didn’t set out looking for clarity. That was never the goal. However, I’ve learned that clarity has a cost, and so does its absence.
Over the past few years, clarity showed up for me slowly and uncomfortably. Often delayed. Often arriving only after long reflection, information gathering, and more processing than I would have liked — including many long conversations with a thinking partner I jokingly call Sharon (my nickname for ChatGPT). Here’s what that clarity taught me, particularly in the context of marketing and leadership:
1. Being useful doesn’t always translate to being valued.
2. Experience is often outweighed by convenience, availability, or hierarchy, and that realization can quietly break something in you. View article on Linkedin
It always starts the same way: a quiet inbox, a hopeful heart, and then the short note: “Let’s connect.”
In a world where "connects" are currency, he offers a hand—weathered, spiny, moldy, yet familiar. Coated in words like grit and resilience. For me, it started like any other normal Tuesday. Or maybe it was Sunday. It’s hard to tell anymore as the days blur together.
I’m fortunate — clients call at odd hours asking me to run triage on their next XYZ, or I’d be in real trouble. Because time doesn’t behave on LinkedIn in 2025— but then again, neither does truth.
There it was — a message. Timestamp: 2:04 a.m. PT. Odd hour. Odd name. I clicked.
Then I thought: Is the devil really networking on LinkedIn? If he is....... why does he want to talk to me?View article on Linkedin
A Passion to Write
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest stories featured Mickey Mouse, who — for reasons lost to time — spent most of the narrative eating salad. Not long after, I moved on to writing about fashion and eventually joined the daily news desk of my high school newspaper. Writing later became part of my career in communications and strategic marketing, but it has always remained grounded in my experience of the world. The pieces here are field notes of sorts, observations gathered and shared over time. Visit often; you never know what I might be exploring next.
Additional Adventures in Writing
Death by Gerund
I worked all week on a new ad program that would get us through the next three months. The old assets and approaches weren’t cutting it. The response was trending down a cliff. The sales team complained about the funnel daily. My team knew we had to reinvent our approach quickly.
Co-development is very hard without effective leadership. I’m placing the failure rate at 99%. Partners must trust in each other’s ability to lead effectively and honestly. At Omnicell, I led many co-development and co-marketing projects with big and small companies alike and learned there is no such thing as "planning to innovate." Read more.
I believe “Grit” is important for achieving success (in life or in a career). However, it's one element. What f you reassess a situation where things seem to be falling apart? Do you stay or go? There could be an option ... an exit that preserves your mental health..... and, in the end, could spare you unnecessary pain. Read more.
Stories influence, teach and inspire
Invest in creating content that excites your customers and prospects.
When I worked in usability and content design at Intuit I learned at a deep level how users interact online. Clicking and discovering. Fast forward, today’s digital audience scan and this won’t be ending anytime soon.
A Z-pattern design traces the route the human eye travels when they scan the page— left to right, top to bottom:
- First, people scan from the top left to the top right, forming a horizontal line (traditional to how someone would read a book)
- Next, down and to the left side of the page, creating a diagonal line
- Last, back across to the right again, forming a second horizontal line
Z-Pattern scanning occurs on pages that aren’t centered on the text (for text-heavy pages such as articles or search results, it’s better to use F-Pattern, described here in detail: F-Pattern).
This makes z-pattern good solution for simple designs with a minimal copy and a few key elements that need to be seen. Get started today.
