Stories

Humans connect through stories. This is the raw material bank: scan it before any story-led or take-led piece. Extracted from the foundation session; it grows as the story unfolds.

The origin story (the real version)

I was born in Belize, a small country. I moved around a lot as a kid - multiple schools - which forced me to be social, but I never had somewhere I could call home, and long-term friendships were hard to keep. I didn't know I had dyslexia, so reading was difficult, and nobody knew why.

At the end of school I discovered Photoshop - and it changed my life. For the first time I had a medium I could communicate with that didn't involve writing and wasn't as slow as painting or drawing. It became an obsession. I never stopped learning from that point: at college it was cameras, the darkroom, painting, printmaking. At uni it was animation and print design.

Then I found out I was dyslexic - and everything before it made sense. I worked my way up through the creative industries, into publishing and media, and realised: this was my fit. From there I built systems to make myself so valuable that even when the industry changed and redundancies came, I could scale businesses and stay essential. I was constantly being used because I worked hard - and I didn't mind, because I was learning so much.

But the money never matched the work. And now, as a founder, I have less time than I did in a nine-to-five.

I see more money, but I earn less. My time is taken up all the time. Even this is work.

The arc: displacement (Belize, moving, no home) → struggle (undiagnosed dyslexia) → breakthrough (Photoshop as a voice) → mastery (the skill stack) → the twist (founder life costs more than it pays, for now). The Photoshop moment is "the moment everything changed, part one." Tell this story early and often.

Failures + what each one taught me

Each failure is one episode of a "lessons that cost me" strand inside Building By Default.

1. The print mistakes. At a print company, I made spelling mistakes - and once something is printed, there's no going back. People highlight your mistakes, not the hundred things you got right, and you become known for the errors. It wrecked my confidence. Lesson → I moved to digital, where you can always iterate and improve. (The deeper layer: a dyslexic designer in the one medium that punishes spelling permanently. Choosing digital wasn't retreat - it was systems thinking born from pain: choose environments that allow iteration.)
2. Overworking as a strategy. I stayed late, came in early, upskilled relentlessly. The skills compounded - but so did the dependence. Lesson → when people get used to you working for free or in overtime, it becomes nearly impossible to get paid your worth.
3. Trusting the wrong people. People will take advantage of you when you're nice. I've trusted the wrong people in business and come out on the wrong end, earning less. Lesson → kindness needs boundaries.
4. Not asking for the money. Charging for value rather than time. Talking about money upfront should be easy - instead I over-explained why things cost what they cost. Lesson → this is still an active growth area: sales and pricing confidence.
5. Not prioritising sales. I can produce all the collateral and content for sales - but going out and actually doing the selling has been the hard part. Lesson → the work doesn't sell itself; an area I'm learning in public.

Failures 2-5 are one meta-story - "the hardest worker in the room kept getting used instead of getting paid" - and a story a huge number of senior creatives are silently living. It's empathy fuel, and the justification for everything about systems, value, and boundaries.

Wins (the credibility bank)

Never brag - mention these in passing while teaching. They answer the unspoken "why should I listen to you?"

• The skill stack. All those late nights compounded: I can code, design, animate, do basic 3D, shoot photography, and draw. A genuinely multi-disciplinary creative arsenal - increasingly rare.
• Hypebeast. Part of a team that grew from 10 to 50 people in roughly 1.5-2 years, with revenue growth to match - becoming the biggest contender to the major publishers in that window.
• The brand roster. Campaigns for Nike, Adidas, McDonald's, PepsiCo, Moncler, and many more.
• Systems that saved real money. Built systems and processes for major publishers and production departments - streamlining creative onboarding and saving serious revenue.
• New revenue creation. Created the processes and collateral that opened up new digital revenue streams.

The turning point

Time Inc. was big-corporate - I was riding a wave of accumulated experience, running a team, managing people. Then I went to Hypebeast and started everything from scratch. Still a credible name, but nothing like the machine I'd left. Building something from zero and watching it grow and succeed was the proof: I don't just maintain systems - I create them. From then on I repeated that pattern everywhere: consulting, in-house, and now my own agency.

And the next turning point is happening right now: building a Brand Operating System - something my company benefits from internally that I believe will become a sellable service. Corporate credibility → build from zero → repeat the pattern → now productising the pattern itself. That's not just a story, it's a business thesis.

The story still unfolding

Being a bootstrapped founder means being relied on for everything. Your time is consumed by everyone - employees, clients - and you never get the space to build the processes you know would make things smooth. So you solve problems for others to buy back time to solve your own. You wear every hat. The only way through is building systems around myself so I can get things done AND still do the things I love.

Other founders must find this just as hard. And other business owners would genuinely benefit from understanding how such a small company turns out such quality at such high standards - a curiosity gap you can open in a single sentence, and the answer (systems) is the entire brand.

Beliefs + hot takes

People follow for perspectives, not information. Every row and take below is one short-form video.

The flagship - Conversation Design

Most designers are optimising the wrong skill. The future isn't your hands or your tools - it's how well you can talk to AI. Conversation design is the new craft.

AI is going to be the number one design tool. If you can articulate exactly what you want, you will be winning. Your conversation with AI is your skill - not your hands, not your 3D tools, not your pencils. It's the way you talk, not your technical skills, that will make you stand out.

The persuasion device - the iPhone analogy

Everyone will be using AI at a level people can't yet comprehend. It's the iPhone all over again: people thought a camera + a touchscreen + a phone was stupid, that it would never work. Then it changed the entire industry, and now everyone carries one. People will end up using AI for all the things they currently swear they'd never use it for. Analogies beat arguments on camera - keep this one loaded.

What everyone says vs. what I believe

The hill I'd die on

Everyone is creative. Creativity is easy - you just need to practise it. A lot of people say they're not creative, and I can prove them wrong.

Warm where most expert positioning is gatekeeping. It widens the audience beyond designers, and pairs with the dyslexia thread: living proof that "disadvantages" become advantages with the right systems.

My prediction

We're heading into a dramatically more competitive landscape. AI lowers the effort needed to produce standard work - so "good" becomes table stakes. The only ways to stand out: own your platforms · own your taste · own your education · own the way you articulate your passion, your ideas, your perspective, your art direction.

Articulating your ideas is your superpower. If you can't do that - with your AI tools - you will fail. It's no longer about how technically gifted you are.

My unapologetic takes

• If you're not using AI daily to streamline your productivity and your job, you're going to get left behind.
• If you're creative and not using AI for everything, you're going to get left behind.
• Owning your IP, your data, your processes, and your platforms is the future.

Quotable lines bank

Camera-ready. Pin, repeat, reuse.

1. "Great design is invisible - it solves the problem so well the problem disappears in plain sight." ← flagship
2. "I'm tired of making other people successful with my experience. I want to use it for myself."
3. "I see more money, but I earn less. Even this is work."
4. "Ideas are easy. Execution is hard."
5. "Everyone is creative. You just need to practise it - and I can prove it."
6. "Most designers are optimising the wrong skill. The future isn't your hands or your tools - it's how well you can talk to AI. Conversation design is the new craft."
7. "Articulating your ideas is your superpower."
8. "Design the outcome, not the prompt."
9. "You're already using a system - you just haven't documented it."
10. "In the AI era, documentation is the price of consistency."
11. "'AI' is mostly a commercial way of marketing innovative software."
12. "If you're creative and not using AI for everything, you're going to get left behind."
13. "Owning your IP and your data is the future."
14. "You can do good business and be successful - without screwing people over."
15. "It's easy to highlight problems. It's harder to recognise the problems that have been solved."
16. "Use AI for everything you don't want to do, to make time for everything you do."
17. "I can see around corners - I've already lived the problem you're about to have."

Cross-references

• Who these stories are for: person.md.
• How to structure a story-led script: Story Arcs (02 Skills/Story-Structures.md).