This site is primarily a companion demonstration platform for my online portfolio training series as well as for my workshops and one-on-one instructional sessions. As such, it is subject to experimentation and change on a frequent unscheduled basis. This site is just one of many tools I use to help people reach their career goals and achieve their potential. At this stage in my own professional career, the biggest reward I get is helping others to succeed. I know this may sound slightly cliché, but I mean it sincerely. I’ve had some amazing experiences, successes and even failures along the way, but I owe a huge debt to all those who came before me. I’m completely invested in the success of creative professionals like you.
Training, Consulting and Career Coaching. I work with individuals and companies to help them succeed in several professional and career related areas. For individuals, this often includes personal branding, portfolio and presentation development, one-on-one coaching, strategies for career growth and development. I also teach a lot hard technical, software and creative skills. For organizations, I am usually hired for training in management/leadership balance, collaboration strategies for working with creative teams and motivational exercises. I frequently guest lecture at schools to help students understand and more effectively plan for transition out of academia into private industry.
Work With Me. After more than 16 years as an award-winning Creative Director and Trainer working with dozens of Fortune 500 and other smaller companies, I’ve learned a few things I’d love to share. I have worked in advertising and marketing as well as software design and development, so I have a fairly broad perspective on things. That range of experience gives me insight into a great many creative career paths that I use to help individuals and companies learn and grow. My goal is to super-charge your career and help you find that sweet spot where your passions, unique skills and revenue or job opportunities meet in perfect alignment.
How I Add Value to You. I can show you how to get promotions, pay raises and higher billing rates using simple techniques that business understands and appreciates, but that many creative and other professionals don’t know about or under-utilize. You provide real, measurable value to your clients and employers that is often overlooked and/or undervalued. In many ways, I serve as a kind of universal translator between business and creative professionals that promote better, more effective and healthier working relationships. As an individual, I can help you to strategically progress through increasingly senior roles in your chosen career trajectory.
The Crayon Ninja moniker is intended to reflect and represent some of those qualities. Somewhat akin to the Ninja of old, I have spent much of my career behind the scenes providing creative solutions for dozens of Fortune 500 companies, as well as other smaller organizations. You’ve undoubtedly seen some of my work somewhere, but you’d never know it. I have been one of those legions of designers, illustrators and artists who breathe life into well-known brands and products from companies such as Disney, Mattel, Lego, Paramount Pictures and many more. We do our work joyfully, receive payment and then recede back into the shadows waiting for the next project or client. Besides, contemporary associations with the term Ninja evoke fun and adventure rather than fear as they once did in feudal Japan. I like the cartoon image of someone running around in black jammies wielding an oversize crayon like a big sword of creativity.
