The Skills No One Teaches Us (And Why Killer Briefs Matter)
Hello, Friends.
The weather has finally turned, the light feels softer, and the first flowers are pushing through the soil—small, insistent reminders that it might be time to re-emerge and say hello again.
A recent photo of my dear friend Carly in the W+K nest did exactly that for me: a quiet nudge to reach out to the people who make me smile, and to be a little more deliberate about finding things worth smiling about.
So, consider this a wave from my corner of the world—a simple, sincere hello.
UPDATE
Many of you have been in my life for years, so it feels only right to pause here and share a few personal updates—those small-but-significant shifts that quietly reshape a season:
Lexi has officially graduated from PSU. She’ll walk in June, the diploma is en route, and—perhaps most momentously—the tuition payments have come to an elegant close. A beautiful milestone for both of us.
Her degree is in Criminology, but she’s now working alongside me (yes, the irony is not lost on either of us). I’m genuinely delighted. I trust her more than most, and having her in the work feels both grounding and energizing.
We’ve been advised to stay in West Virginia for one more winter, just to ensure the tax man doesn’t make off with everything. Fortunately, summer here is its own quiet luxury. If you find yourself near Lexington, VA, I’d truly love to hear from you.
I’m deep in the work of building out my courses—one of which I’ll share with you in a moment—and, for the first time in a long time, it feels like real, tangible progress. The kind that quietly pulls the corners of your mouth into a smile.
TRAVEL OR/PDX
I always try to add a bit of value in these missives, so I wanted to quickly recap the work Carly (and Eugene) and I did for Travel Portland/Travel Oregon.
While things have changed in the city over the past few years, I still think the insights and brief celebrate what’s uniquely magical about Oregon.
This project covered both the city of PDX and the state, which was an uncommon ask. The goal was to get people to spend a few days in the city, then venture out—and also to get people in places like Bend to visit Portland more often.
We dug into why people visited (and why they didn’t), which shaped what we said and where/when we said it. The usual.
But what really struck us was this: you could indulge in everything that feeds your soul in the city—beer, food, shopping…a bit of a hedonist’s paradise—while alsobeing able to “zero out” within an hour’s drive. And the farther you go, the more solitude you find.
The capture became:“the closest place you can get far, far away.”
Wieden submitted the work for an Effie, but what I love most is that it reflects what so many of us loved about living there. I was there for 30 years, so I’m taking honorary status—my heart is still there.
And thinking about that brief reminded me how many Killer Brief workshops I used to do—not just for Ad Fed PDX and MKE Adworkers, but for clients and agencies like adidas, Columbia, Beyond Meat, Califia, E&J Gallo, ServiceNow, and more.
Man, I loved it. And I loved hearing how much it helped people make great work thatworks.
I also love being at home with a massive pack of animals and a fab husband…so I’ve been finding a new way to get that same energy out.
THE REAL ISSUE
The trend I see is this: companies offer professional development, but very little of it actually gets used.
People attend the occasional conference, but there’s rarely urgency around building the skills that make someone truly indispensable. Outside of AI, most learning feels optional. Easy to defer. Easy to ignore.
At the same time, companies aren’t consistently training people. They don’t always have the time, the structure, or the clarity to give meaningful feedback, map career trajectories, or fully develop potential.
So most of us end up teaching ourselves.
I think back to my first day in agency life. I was handed a Mac and left to figure it out. No tutorials, no onboarding, no clear path. Just trial, error, and a lot of frustration.
In many ways, it feels like we’re right back there again. New tools. New systems. Searching for hidden doors. Asking AI better and better questions. Getting stuck. Trying again.
There are courses for these technical skills, of course. But even then, many of us don’t quite commit to learning them deeply.
And if we’re not investing in hard skills, it’s no surprise we’re not investing in the softer ones:
Leadership.
Communication.
Strategic thinking.
Facilitating conversations.
Getting people to actually want to work with you.
And one of the biggest gaps I see, across every company I’ve worked with, is this:
No one is teaching people how to write a clear, compelling brief.
Which is wild, because it’s one of the most leveraged skills you can have.
A strong brief aligns teams faster. Reduces wasted time and budget. Improves creative output. And makes collaboration feel significantly better.
In some ways, we are in a new game with new tools. But in the ways that matter most, it’s still about mastering the fundamentals. How we think. How we communicate. How we bring others along with us.
That’s why I built my Killer Briefs Course.
A space to learn a skill that can genuinely change the trajectory of your career in a weekend.
Because when you can clearly articulate what you want, in writing, in a structured and creative way, everything improves. You can write a brief for a campaign, a partnership, a product, even a house or a dog. And you’re far more likely to get what you actually want.
IN THIS COURSE, YOU’LL GET:
18 lessons covering the mindset, template, thinking exercises, examples, and best practices to bring others along
2 coaching sessions with me to help you apply the thinking in real life
I want people to succeed in this industry. And I still believe it comes down to nailing the basics: the thinking, the writing, the selling.
Here’s the added value, in my opinion: this is built to be shared. I encourage teams to go through it together to create a common language, set of expectations, and tools.
Agency owners—think of this as my full-day workshop, at a fraction of the price, with the added benefit that people can move at their own pace and you can onboard new folks easily.
I’d love your help sharing this with anyone who might benefit—from individuals to full teams. I truly believe it will help them.
And selfishly, it might keep me off airplanes…which will keep me smiling 😉
As a thank you for following along with me, a I have a special code to share with you that gives you 15% of the Killer Briefs Course for the next 10 days:KillerBriefs15
THANK YOU, FRIENDS. As always.
I’d love to catch up—feel free to grab a quick spot onmy calendar so we can see each other’s smiley faces.
