Somewhere along the way I realized I wasn’t just passionate about making creative work, I was equally passionate about building the environment that makes great creative work possible. I genuinely enjoy untangling messy workflows, connecting teams, and building systems that quietly remove friction. Not because I love process (I don’t), but because every unnecessary obstacle steals time and energy from the people doing the creative work.

That’s also shaped the way I lead.

I don’t believe creative leadership is about sitting above the work and just managing bodies, for me it’s about staying close enough to understand it while giving the space necessary for the creatives working on the project to find the best outcome through trial and error. I’ve been the designer staring at a blank artboard, the cinematographer chasing a vision no one else sees yet, the editor trying to make a story click at 2 a.m., and the producer trying to hold everything together when plans inevitably change. Those experiences taught me that the best leaders don’t just set expectations, they create trust, remove roadblocks, and give talented people room to surprise everyone.

The best part of my day is when someone approaches me saying, “I have this crazy idea…”

Those are almost always my favorite conversations. I want to build teams where people feel safe throwing out the ambitious, the unconventional, and the slightly ridiculous. Innovation doesn’t happen because people are waiting for permission, it happens because they’re excited enough to share an idea with someone who gets just as enthusiastic as they do. If a risk pays off, the team deserves the spotlight. If it doesn’t, It’s my job to help steer the ship back on course. As a creative producer my goal is to find the spark in places I wasn’t looking. It’s about knowing the guidelines, knowing the deadlines and rules, but protecting my team from thayt being their main motivation.

Outside of work, I’m fueled by the same curiosity. You’ll usually find me working on personal projects, nerding out on tech or design, while some kind of gross metal music broods in the background. I’m constantly falling into new rabbit holes just because I want to understand how something works. My idea of a good time is sitting at my desk with reddit and youtube up, trying to learn something new or solve some problem no one else would waste their time on.

When I first transitioned from retail and restauarant work into the corporate space, I was pretty dismissive of ideas I didnt grasp immediately. If you came to my desk telling me you found a cool AI-based tool to help us edit videos, I might have made some stink about how you need to “do the work yourself”. Growing up in a small town with the same friends for the first 25 years of my life, didn’t exactly make me a big adopter of change. Hell, for years I insisted In-N-Out was just hyped up McDonalds; turns out I just hadn’t ordered the right thing yet. These days I’m a little slower to dismiss an idea, whether it’s a burger, a new technology, or a wildly ambitious creative concept.

That being said, I still don’t think you can find great pizza in Las Vegas… I guarantee if we talk long enough you’ll hear all about that.

Friends would probably describe me as sarcastic first and dependable second, though hopefully they’d quickly add that the sarcasm comes with good intentions. I grew up on the East Coast, so I tend to communicate with a little more edge than polish, but I’m also the person who will happily drop what I’m doing to help someone solve a problem, brainstorm a new idea, or figure out why something isn’t working. If I am comfortable enough to rip you a new one, it means I would probably jump in front of a bullet for you.

Whats that saying about kind vs nice? East-coasters are type to pull over and help a stranger on the side of a freeway, while ragging on them for not knowing how to fix a flat… West-coasters might show empathy and wish you luck but not offer to take your wheel off for you.

At the end of the day, I really only care about a few things: Taking care of the people I love and respect, aggressively forcing innovation and expression, and building systems to ensure nothing gets in the way of the first two. Everything else, whether it’s a camera, a brand strategy, a production studio, or an AI workflow, is simply another tool to help make that happen.