NICE TO
MEET YOU
From a young age, I talked. A lot. It wasn’t until 2018 that I finally learned the value of shutting up and listening.
Around that time, I came across Simon Sinek’s “Friends Exercise,” where you ask people close to you why they value you. The answers often reveal something deeper — your “why,” or the thing that sits at the center of who you are.
When I went through that process, it confirmed a lot of what I already felt and helped clarify it even more.
Three ideas kept showing up: Create. Connect. Inspire.
These have been the common threads running through most things I’ve done in life. Not that I haven’t strayed from them plenty of times — but they’re the principles I keep returning to, and I’m still learning and growing along the way.
In case you're looking, here is my professional CV.
Singing for Time Flies in Seattle, 2001. Photo: Chrissie Good
I was fortunate to discover the hardcore and punk scene early in life. Music became the driving force behind my creativity, and that subculture shaped much of who I am today.
In 1991, I started a fanzine. It was messy, cut-and-paste, and completely DIY. I interviewed bands, took photos, and distributed it however I could. At the time I had no idea it would end up being the beginning of my creative career.
That eventually led to running a small distribution for records, t-shirts, and zines, booking shows, handling the business and marketing side of things, designing flyers, and promoting events. Later I started a band called Time Flies, designing our posters, shirts, and record covers while booking tours and managing the logistics around it all.
Looking back, it established something that still defines how I work today: a DIY mindset and an entrepreneurial spirit.
In 2003 I moved to New York City, drawn by the energy and opportunity it offered.
By 2009 I was working at my first major advertising agency, JWT. That path started through friendships I’d built along the way — including a brilliant strategist I met through Arsenal NYC, a supporters club for Arsenal Football Club that I co-founded.
JWT agency photo, 2009.
Representing Arsenal in New York City, 2010. Photo: Alan Gastelum
By 2014 I had worked across several of the biggest agencies in New York.
Around that time, while working at Sapient, a friend introduced me to radio. What started as a small show turned into something much bigger. I’ve hosted a show every Sunday since, which eventually led to launching The Face Radio in 2018 — a 24-hour station that now features more than 90 shows from DJs around the world.
Beyond the music, the station built a global community. It’s also taught me more about empathy, collaboration, and leadership than any traditional workplace ever could.
Through those connections and events, I also helped bring together friends and collaborators who ultimately created the first release on BQE Records, a label I founded. The first project was a collaboration with Dala Records releasing music from Bobby Harden & The Soulful Saints with Dala Records. Since then we’ve released several singles and a full-length LP. In December 2023 we released a U.S. single celebrating the 25-year anniversary of the UK band Stone Foundation.
"Why not now?"
Towards the middle of 2019, I enrolled in Seth Godin's altMBA, and became an alumnus of it's 32nd cohort. In that time period, I'm partnered with 2 great friends to form Analogy to begin doing some of the creative work we've always loved. We moved into an office that we share with The Face Radio. In the span of a few years, I launched almost all of the things that I'd always talked about. In the altMBA, the quote I came up with that drove much of this was, "Why not now?" I've since learned to balance my time, delegate responsibility, continue creating, and constantly looking for more great things on the horizon. It feels like this is only the beginning.
Partners: Kurtis Powers; Creative Director, Ben Pagel; Creative Director, and Robert Armin; Business Director. Photo: Toby Tenenbaum
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