TBD INC.

The Tension Between Stability + Possibility

Last week, I updated LinkedIn to inform my “professional community” of a career update. I had recently been working with a boutique data strategy and analytics firm, but it suddenly ended. In a challenging business environment, I know I am not the first to go through this, and I won’t be the last. Still, it always intrigues me when people commend me on my “vulnerability” when communicating this type of thing. However, I don’t see it as vulnerability; instead, I view it as respecting the intelligence of the people I speak with. The people I am connected to are smart. They know that when someone says something like “I chose to leave to spend more time with my family” or something similar—that’s an effort to save face. I believe that when you respect the intelligence of your audience, it’s good business because you are displaying integrity and professionalism while honoring the intelligence of those you run with in similar circles.

Jobs come and go, but a worthwhile career and, more importantly, lifelong relationships are the things in life that endure.

TBD
I’ve been framing this time in my career as “TBD,” even asserting that I am the CEO of TBD, and it’s an honest assessment of the status. TBD or “To Be Determined” is a business lexicon term for a placeholder, a work in progress, or a deferred decision. Even in the earliest days of my career, I can remember using TBD in graphic design layouts to indicate where an undetermined asset would go. We use “TBD” in our business strategy decks or assets where work needs to be done or details will be fleshed out. TBD is essential for strategists, writers, planners, or anyone who has laid the foundation for a complex marketing program/campaign, as it allows the architect(s) of that plan to think through the foundation before getting lost in every detail of the activation.

TBD is a clarifier, a palette cleanser, and a way to reset and reboot. It’s the white space between what has been and what can be...

What Has Been vs. What Can Be

The Tension Point Between Stability and Possibility
In my years of helping companies plan communications and marketing initiatives that tap into a more profound truth, I have always pushed teams and clients to identify a critical “tension” that exists in the lives of their customers, consumers, or employees and is equally essential to the company. Brands or services wishing to deepen their connection to their audiences. As I do that for myself now, I realize that my tension point (and truth) is prioritizing stability. Still, in the same breath, this pulls away from the possibilities that sometimes become more available and obvious when stability is either deprioritized or kept in check. It’s a tension point that both entrepreneurs and employees alike are familiar with—each falling on different sides of the tension point.

But somewhere at the center of that tension point is where I will spend some time… in the bullseye of TBD deliberately: Historically, for me, this prioritization of stability manifested in steady employment with organizations vs. swing-for-the-fence risk-taking, building, or all-out inventing. I have never been a big risk-taker, but I have also never had the luxury of both time, a blank canvas and an open mind to deliberate upon the possibilities.

The Tension Point Between Stability and Possibility

This is what TBD INC. means to me. It is that moment when I can give myself time and space and create room for possibilities. It is acknowledging the tension as opposed to denying it, embracing the discomfort rather than avoiding it…

Help Wanted: TBD Co-Conspirators, No Agenda Necessary
This brings me to my conclusion about this TBD-themed newsletter… I have the rare opportunity to have a flexible calendar and available free time. In the short term, I will likely pick up some very selective project work, but it is the longer-term focus that I am really excited to have some unstructured, “no agenda” conversations around. In my first official week as “CEO of TBD,” I had well over a dozen conversations catching up with people I know and meeting some new people I had never met. It’s a pretty incredible place to be as it has my brain brimming with insight, perspective, ideas and yes—possibilities.

I’m in a TBD state of mind. If you are as well, shoot me an email here, and let’s have some unstructured, agenda-free FaceTime.

The possibilities are TBD.