Passions and linchpins.

What are my passions? Well ... that’s a moving target these days as I’m discovering so many new creative worlds in my MFA studies. Art, design, and communication has been a huge passion in my life for more than 30 years and remains at the top of my list even today. And that passion culminated into a small, creative design group for the past 18 years. But it wasn’t just my passion for creative and distinctive design and communication that led me to the successes I’ve had in the business world. I was able to pick the right talent ... energetic young designers ... to work with me to collaborate on client projects. Most of the design staff at my business were young, either straight out of art school or within the first five years of their careers. They brought their passion to the group and became instrumental in helping me achieve my goals. And as the question has been put to me as to whether or not I am a linchpin, I don’t want to come off as arrogant, but would have to say ... yes ... I am a linchpin.

As an owner and Creative Director of a small business, my responsibilities go well beyond daily design duties. The inner workings of a small design group include not only managing the staff, but also managing the clients and vendors. While I enjoy the interactive qualities of those tasks, I found that it can create a drain on creativity. The day-to-day task of managing the different agendas and personalities of people has the potential to divert attention and focus away from what a person really wants to accomplish when it comes to creative development. While I believe the management of client needs, creative direction, and vendor management would qualify me as a linchpin, I feel my biggest success as a linchpin was recruiting the right creative talent to enable our group to produce distinctive, engaging, and successful communication materials for our clients.

But linchpins can break. The biggest obstacle I faced, and what got in my way, was a dysfunctional relationship with my former business partner. I won’t go into details on that subject as it’s very complicated, but after reading Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, my partner and I exhibited many of the negative traits outlined in that story.

As I’ve gotten older and have expanded my life beyond the studio walls, I’ve discovered a second passion. Through a 4 1/2 year position as an Adjunct Professor at Kansas City Art Institute, developing young designers at my design group, coaching youth sports for 10 years, and now mentoring undergraduates in the Champlain College design program, I’ve discovered that I have a passion for working with young people.

So, putting my passions for design and communication together with my love of working with young people, I’ve come up with the following positioning statement based on Kawasaki’s ten word limit:

Helping businesses ... and our youth ... create a beautiful world.

I look forward to continuing the mission.