6. What’s your weirdest fear?
That the Twins won’t win a World Series in my lifetime.
7. What business person / guru / entrepreneur do you soak up the most from?
Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia. I’ve always been drawn to how marketing can help your brand build connections with people, and Patagonia does it better than anyone else, despite minimal advertising.
8. Gun to your head – what meal would you cook to try to impress someone really important?
A breakfast feast – French toast, bacon, sausage, and eggs.
9. What’s the best business advice you’ve ever gotten?
When I was about 12 years old playing baseball, my shoelace loop got caught on my cleat while I as in leftfield catching a pop-up and I tripped and fell while the go-ahead run scored late in the game. I was pretty upset in the dugout, and one of my teammates dad’s came up to me and said, “If that’s the worst thing that happens to you today, then today has been a pretty good day.” Not so much advice, but as a business professional, you’re going to have good days and bad days. I think it’s a great reminder to keep things in perspective, have a positive attitude, and keep giving it your all!
1. What’s your favorite 90’s movie?
Good Will Hunting
2. Have you ever built a snow fort?
Of course! I wouldn’t have had a true Minnesotan childhood if I hadn’t.
3. If someone wrote a biography about you – what would it be called?
“Living in the Moment”
4. What position did you play in baseball?
Centerfield (queue John Fogerty)
5. What was the first thing you ever wrote – and started to consider yourself a writer?
Not until around my junior year in high school, when I wrote a paper about the evolution of movies for an A.P. Composition class. My teacher was so impressed he thought I had plagiarized it.