Hi, I'm Mike. By day, I lead technical teams and navigate corporate life. By night (and weekends), I write, host a podcast, and work on projects that excite me creatively.

I love talking and writing about creativity, how we navigate our careers, and figuring out what meaningful work is for us and how we find sustainable ways to actually do it.

What is this newsletter about?

I used to be the kind of person who followed every rule of career success. I moved to Berlin for tech opportunities, worked my way up from 12-hour agency days to senior engineering management. I hit my “dream role” and thought… now what?

This newsletter, as well as my podcast, started as my attempt to answer that.

Here you'll find weekly updates on topics like:

• Practical systems for building creative work when you're already tired from your day job

• Living a creative life in a way that feels good to you

• The emotional reality of wanting something more while being grateful for what you have

Projects I'm working on:

• Imperfect Creatives podcast - conversations with people building meaningful creative work alongside or instead of traditional careers

• Coaching. I help people navigate two kinds of messy journeys:

  • professionals navigating career transitions and finding work that's meaningful to them.

  • new tech leaders or people transitioning into tech leadership

• Writing (you’re here!)

• Photography (sometimes shared over on Instagram)

• Figuring out how to lead technical teams while staying creatively fulfilled

You can also find me on LinkedIn, if that’s your thing.

Thanks for being here.

—Mike

This newsletter is about building meaningful creative work alongside or instead of traditional careers. New issues every Friday.