Stories

I remember a middle school math teacher telling me she could always tell how well she was teaching by the look on my face.If I was tracking, she knew it. If I wasn’t, she knew she had to try a different way. I’ve always been a deep thinker and a deep question asker.

"Between 2003 and 2024, the amount of time that Americans spent attending or hosting a social event declined by 50 percent."

“Volunteers awarded every attendee a bingo card with entries like, ‘I introduced myself to 3 new people’ … But the warehouse also was booby-trapped with Instagrammable photo-ops. Those quickly became the main attraction.”

“If Americans are going to claw back genuine community from the digital age, they’re going to need more practice.”

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I responded to an RFP four years ago — spent hours and hours drafting the proposal and meeting with the team. Despite being the marketing director’s “favorite vendor,” the CEO ultimately chose someone else for the project. Fast forward to today: that same marketing director is at a new company and remembered my name. She reached out to book a series of employee headshots. I knew the company was planning a new website, so I shared Connection Catalyst with her. We’re now working together on what has become the biggest project — and one of the most rewarding — of my career.Simply because I made time to follow through, find the opportunities, and stay connected.

Someone I photographed a few years ago reached out after his new employer asked him to create an AI-generated headshot.

“I was a little disappointed when they sent me an instruction sheet for how to get my AI-generated headshot instead of a professionally taken one.”

I asked what bothered him about it.

He expected AI to be more convenient. Instead, he spent considerable time formatting and uploading photos, waited 36 hours, and received 150 options. Some distorted his face. Others were so “perfect” they didn't look real. And he had almost no control over things like what he was wearing.

What struck me most was how he compared it to having his headshot taken by a person:

“Both times I had headshots taken with you, you were able to take a couple and change things real quick to get a headshot that I liked. It might be a little more work for the company to set something up, but from an employee's point of view, it's way better than having almost zero control over the output.”

Convenience for the company isn't always convenience for the person.

I recently met with a LinkedIn copywriter whose previous title, at a well-known agency in town, was Head of Growth. I assumed that meant growth as in growing the team, growing capacity, growing in knowledge or capability. I learned that Head of Growth means growth in sales. Apparently, it's a big Silicon Valley thing. (I looked it up. It is.) Since when did we limit growth to sales? Yes, growth can mean sales. But it should mean so much more.