Throughline

For several years, much of my business was built during short windows of childcare — 2.5 hours at the local gym. I felt incapable of investing in more regular childcare to the tune of $1,600 a month for two kids, three days a week.It took a overwhelm -- and a therapist -- therapist and to help me realize I didn’t have to commit to it forever. I could try it for three months and see what happened. Would my revenue change?This month , I made the jump and added more part-time childcare. Within two weeks, I landed the largest retainer of my career: $1,850 a month.Take away taxes and expenses, and my childcare was covered. To the dollar.I get chills when I think about it.

When photographing a company picnic an employee shared that she hadn’t planned to stay with the company and had seriously considered leaving.

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Me: “What made you stay?”

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Employee: “They found a new role for me that I was able to thrive in.”

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Two sentences that said so much about the company. I never would have heard them without the access the camera gave me — showing up, paying attention, and asking one more question.

I was part of the high school swim team — never won a race but loved every minute of it. My mom told me once: “You’re not the fastest, but you sure are graceful when you swim.” I feel that tension in my business — the pressure to be fast. To grow quickly. But like swimming, I’ve been slow and intentional with each evolution of my ideas, work and relationships. Maybe graceful, too. I’ve also had fun every minute of it.

"Ours is a restless age, and rootlessness is one of its costs. Families move more often than they once did, while commerce and conversation increasingly take place through screens. We have grown accustomed to treating one town as interchangeable with the next, and one community as easily left behind for another....

Affection has a geography. It takes root in the soil closest to home and, only with time, extends outward to embrace a wider world."