Jonathan being curious.

There’s a certain spirit that lives in hobbyists and life-hackers, and shows up in market innovations and civic projects that work. It’s alive in writers, painters, architects, weavers and DJs. A combination of curiosity and ingenuity. A dogged can-do. A desire to take ourselves to cool places we've never been.

This spirit is an urge to make good things.

And this is a journal about that spirit.

I’m a children’s lit writer with an MBA and an insatiable interest in how things are made and launched. The heart and the art of it. The brain and the business of it.

As the owner of a naming firm, 3.2.1, my worklife is centered on doing the next thing well. To that end, I’ve created a process to help groups make better decisions as they name their companies, products and initiatives. I’ve done work for companies you know, like Coke, Apple, Medtronic and Dairy Queen, as well as small firms and nonprofits just getting off the ground.

My focus on naming and launches sprouted from a lifelong love of words. As a freelance copywriter and creative director for 15 years, I loved putting words to work in interesting ways, and the teams I ran with received national recognition for our efforts. It’s in these trenches where I realized naming, as a discipline, could use an advocate. I raised my hand.

While working as a freelancer, I also wrote children’s fiction for my family and friends—a manuscript count that’s now up to two novels and several dozen picture books. Under the pen name Bing Puddlepot, I published a picture book that won the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award, the Foreword Magazine “Book of the Year” Finalist Award and garnered a reprint in The Baltimore Sun.

As a maker, there’s one more element of my identity that feels important. I’m an American born and raised in Japan—a place where we truly value making good things. It's where the commitment to one’s craft is one of the highest callings.

Creativity fosters creativity.

All this to say: you can see why I might be interested in conversations about the creative life.

I'm interested in people who are unafraid of countering common narratives and who can find solutions where the answers aren’t easy. I'm interested in people who can raise up the value of diverse thinking and champion change. I'm interested in people driven to make good things as a way to feed the soul—and the souls of those around us. If you’re still reading this, we probably need more of you.

To do this work takes effort, without a doubt, but it also takes courage. And effort and courage are easier in community.

So this is also a journal about that grit. And about making those connections.

And about Jonathan being curious.