Latest Posts

Starting to Love GCP

At TicketCity we’re heavily invested in Google’s advertising products, so I’ve been exploring Google Cloud Platform. The marketplace has been running on AWS, but with such simple integration between Google’s ad tools and Cloud, I wanted to take a more thorough look at GCP and see how it compares to AWS. I’ve always thought the...

“New Job, Who Dis?”

Happy to announce I’ve accepted a role as VP of Operations at TicketCity! After my first full week, I am really impressed with the team and systems that go into powering a 9-figure, 30%+ CAGR ecommerce marketplace. Technology, customer service, fraud– all done in-house. What is more impressive than the operation are the people...

The Thing about altMBA

The thing about the altMBA is that you are forever changed by the experience. The last four week have been exciting, eye-opening and difficult, all at the same time. It is difficult to articulate the difference, but I can tell that I think differently about things now. It is almost like rewiring your brain; process, assumptions, techniques...

Changes in Benefit Preference

A line graph showing the relative importance of flex time, vacations and 401k by age. Flex time peaks from 41-61 years old, vacation policy peaks from 18-31 years old and then again at 66+, 401k contribution peaks at 56 years old.
Comparably has an interesting set of survey results on which benefits (excluding healthcare) are most important. I was most interested in what I see as a change in work-life balance over time. Here’s what I saw, in general: Importance of retirement (401k contribution) increases as we get older Need for flexibility peaks during the middle of our careers Vacation...

Catalytic Coaching

Fictional character Corbin Dallas from the movie The Fifth Element looking at a microphone surrounded by Ruby Rhod's entourage
Super Green Feedback “Catalytic coaching is literally a system where you learn to say to somebody’s face the kind of thing you’d say about him more comfortably behind their back for the benefit of the organization as well as the benefit of that individual.” (via RapidLearning Institute) What is Catalytic Coaching? If you aren’t familiar with the Catalytic...

Change Moment

A sunrise over the mountains in east New Mexico viewed from Interstate 10.
That moment you start working on your personal computer after you quit your job and you keep trying to login with your old work password. That’s the moment I’m in right now: at the start of something new, still pulling myself away from the old. It is the little things you forget about, like your...

Fond Farewell

A bamboo sit-stand desk in a blue and grey painted office with two monitors, three office chairs and a Fight Club movie poster.
I’ve worked at Open Mortgage for 2,644 days. Today is my last. I started at Open Mortgage as a Senior Software Engineer in 2009. At the time there were 31 other Corporate employees. Open was primarily a broker shop, relying on others’ money to fund the loans we originated. I worked mostly from home, but...

Turning the Titanic

Artistic rendition of the Titanic headed towards an iceberg in icy water under a bright moonlit night.
Turning the Titanic: Implementing a New Operations System in Fewer Than 60 Days I originally posted this on LinkedIn back in 2016. The TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule implementation in 2015 had potential to be the iceberg to the Mortgage industry’s Titanic. TRID was the biggest regulation change in twenty years and those companies not ready for...