Why I'm Writing This

Years ago I started working on a leadership book based on my professional experience. Due to a lot of boring reasons like a global pandemic and moving continents, I shelved the work and honestly abandoned the project.

When I picked it back up in late 2025, I realized what felt more valuable in this moment was something with more immediacy. I wanted to write something people could actually use right now and not just aspirational theory for someday.

Here's what pushed me to finally finish it – I kept having the same conversation over and over again. A friend would text: "I got laid off." Another would DM: "I'm in the final round of interviews for the third time this year and nothing." Someone with a boutique agency: "The things I was doing before aren't working anymore."

And every time, my answer was the same.

You need to stop applying to jobs and working on pitches and you need to start calling your friends.

The pattern became impossible to ignore over the past year. Layoffs, AI disruption, career uncertainty — 2025 wasn't a blip, it was structural. I watched incredibly talented people leave the workforce, not because they wanted to, but because the systems they were taught to trust had failed them. Job boards were full of ghost postings. Hiring processes went nowhere. And meanwhile, every single job I got, every business I built, every opportunity that mattered — it all came to me through relationships.

So I decided to stop having the same conversation one person at a time and write down everything I know about how work actually works. Not how it's supposed to work or the fake version people share on LinkedIn. But the real system — the one that people with privilege access naturally, but the rest of us have to build intentionally.

As a friend once said, "Most business books could really be business essays." Think of it less like a philosophy and more like an operating system for growth — who you prioritize, how you build relationships, and how opportunity compounds. This is the system I've been running for 20 years. It got me from a DIY band to Fortune 500 partnerships. It's what I used to launch and scale new brands and businesses. And it's what I use today working with clients globally.

I don't know what the future will hold. But if you're navigating uncertainty, rebuilding after a layoff, or trying to grow a business without resorting to sales tactics that make you cringe, then this is for you.

This book could also be called, Everything I Know, I learned in a DIY band.

Introduction

Build relationships. Build business.

Most career and business advice starts with the same tired assumption that growth comes from pushing harder and working more. You know the drill — we need more leads! Send more emails! Buy more retargeting ads for anyone who visited our website in the past 30 days!

But if you've ever really built anything from scratch — it could be a company, a community, a creative project or a movement — you already know that's not how the best work actually happens.

The best work happens through people.

It happens when people work together through trust, proximity, shared experience, and timing. It happens because someone knows you, vouches for you, introduces you, or simply says, "They get it." Some people would call that luck. Others would call it privilege. But if you build that with purpose & intention then it turns into infrastructure for sustainable business growth.

This is the foundation of Work Friends.

Your relationships are not random or a side thought – they are your business strategy. And as such, they need to be cultivated and maintained not just when you need something from them but with an ongoing cadence that's meaningful.

Recognizing this shift changes everything. And the best part is, it's entirely within your control to build.

What a Time to Be Alive

2026 presents a very specific moment. AI is likely going to do to white-collar work what globalization did to blue-collar jobs and it will permanently reshape what work looks like, which roles exist, and how people earn a living. Many of these jobs aren't coming back and that means we're entering an era of mass first-time entrepreneurship, fractional careers, portfolio work, and people building their own lanes out of necessity, not aspiration. In moments like this, the most valuable asset isn't a resume, a funnel, or a job board — it's your personal relationships. Your community becomes your infrastructure and operating system. And your ability to build trust, reputation, and opportunity through people becomes the only real safety net.

It Takes a Village

I also want to name something that I see happening right now. I know so many incredibly talented and brilliant people who are out of work and who are embarrassed to say it or scared to ask for help. Why do we feel more comfortable asking strangers for jobs than asking our friends for support? Who is more likely to hire us — a stranger on the internet or someone who already knows you, trusts you, and values your work? Take a moment and think back at your own career. I bet you'll notice that every opportunity came through someone you know.

People Hire Their Friends

We all know this to be true. People hire people they trust, respect, and want to work with. Countless books, articles and podcasts have been dedicated to the topic. But no one ever operationalizes that insight.

In every leadership role I've held and every business I've built, the pattern was the same. If we didn't have a personal relationship with the decision-maker, we almost never won the work or got the job. The deals that closed fastest, lasted longest, and created the most value all came through relationships, not pitches.

And yet while everyone knows this, when it comes to business we do the opposite. Most organizations treat relationships like something that lives inside one person's individual network instead of inside the business itself.

Relationships are core infrastructure for the future of work. Community is not a tactic but your operating system.

How This Actually Works

Let me show you one example of what this looks like in practice.

I have predominantly been a freelancer for the past 20 years but I have also had a number of full-time roles within that time. The last full time role I had I got through a friend. I sent out a mass BCC email to a few hundred friends and former colleagues that I was looking for new projects. I got a call later that day from a friend of mine in Paris who was working on a project where they needed to hire someone in Madrid.

I met with the decision maker the next week and started the week after that. The project was working on an experiential marketing campaign for a well known travel brand and I was managing a team in Spain. Experiential is not really something I have expertise in by the way, but they needed someone and I was there.

Now this is where things get interesting. It could have easily just been that I worked on the one project and then I moved on at the end. Instead, I ended up becoming the Chief Growth Officer of the company.

See the way business works is people hire someone they know, then you demonstrate value and work on a small project together, then you deepen your working relationship and partnership over time. I didn't apply for a job as Chief Growth Officer and then get it. I started on a smaller project and worked up to that.

I can tell you probably 3 other stories I have like that from across my career. You start on what you think will be a 2 week project and if it's a good fit, it will turn into 2 years of work.

You Don't Get Handed an Opportunity, You Create One

In my 20s, I was in a DIY band in NYC. My brother and I started a duo called "This Frontier Needs Heroes". We had our own record label, booked our own international tours, and did all of our own press. We recorded and distributed 3 albums, played at festivals for thousands and were globally recognized by major music outlets.

This Frontier Needs Heroes in Brooklyn, NY, 2006.

None of the opportunities we got were through a record label but by building our own community. We got them by starting our own music series and inviting people to play shows, collaborating with other artists on music video projects, and supporting similar artists' work over time. We would literally drive across the country stopping at local record shops asking them to sell our record in their store. We built our reputation by doing good work, treating people well, and contributing to the ecosystem we were part of.

When we weren't allowed in to the established system, we built our own.

When I moved into my professional career, I realized all the same rules applied, but no one was naming them, teaching them, or building systems around them. In fact, most people were working in a parallel system. A system which is full of fake process that never materializes. One that is closed off and deeply competitive. One that is, dare I say, rigged. Learning how to operationalize this approach became the foundation of my career and the secret to my success.

This is what people who go to Ivy League Schools acquire by association. But for the rest of us, we have to build it ourselves. I didn't go to Harvard or get an MBA – I went to art school! Everything you'll find in here, I learned in these DIY music scenes and being a member of independent creative communities that I have applied to multiple businesses across size, scope and industry.

My Philosophy

I believe in abundance and collaboration. And that no one can go it alone. Everything in this framework is built on the belief that relationships are scalable infrastructure that compound over the course of your professional life. If you apply this system consistently, you'll spend less time pitching and more time collaborating with people you like, on work that matters to you. You will reverse engineer opportunity and instead of scrambling for it, you will start to attract it.

This system is designed as a marathon, not a sprint. This isn't going to change your life over night. Although, it could! It certainly has for me at certain points. You won't find growth hacking (although shout out that's an excellent book) but deep brand building and sustainable growth through relationships.

Work Friends is about building businesses the way people have always built meaningful things. Together.