Blog Posts

“Tyler, Texas” was born on the outdoor patio of Pinewood Social, a trendy cocktails and bowling hangout overlooking the Cumberland River, just southeast of downtown Nashville.  It was August, hot, muggy. Maybe 9pm or so. My friend, country music journalist, Annie Reuter, and I were just sitting down after catching a few songs at the…

Real transformation – the kind of shift that inextricably alters the very DNA of a person, organization, or culture – takes years. This is a lesson hard fought and well-learned by the Associated Press’ Global Business Editor, Noreen Gillespie. When Noreen walked through the Media Transformation Challenge at Poynter Institute‘s front door as AP’s Deputy…

At some point during Chris Bullard’s first stay in the psych ward, the musician and entrepreneur picked up a guitar and began strumming. Soon, patients emerged from their rooms and began to sing along. “A homeless guy off the street as well as an executive type,” he remembers. “And I was just like, ‘Wow! This music thing…

There was a stencil on the sidewalk outside of my old Hell’s Kitchen apartment that read, “Being impatient won’t get you the secret song.” We all have secrets, truths that gnaw at us, crush our spirit, and kill us from the inside out. Here’s mine. Like millions of Americans, adverse childhood experiences (divorce, assault) left me hypervigilant. Chronic…

Alberto Mendoza is a master class in turning challenges into opportunities. As a Mexican-American teenager growing up in San Diego, California, Alberto was flummoxed by the lack of representation at Montgomery High School. “The high school was about 65% Mexican kids,” he explains. “But the Filipino kids ran all the activities: they ran the newspaper,…

When I’m really lucky, a whole verse or chorus will unfold in front of me. And I’ll grab my iPhone and press that big red record button. Such was the case on October 4, 2020, when the following fell from my lips onto my phone: “And I don’t know what you think that you heard,…