My business partner Keenan and I both had careers in large consumer packaged goods companies after our time at West Point. After a decade in the business, we’d worked for countless brands and we were frustrated that the ideas other agencies were bringing to us were no longer relevant. We wanted to build the kind of agency we wanted to hire, but didn’t exist.

The reality is, brands are under-performing with our peers — the nation’s largest, most diverse and most progressive generation. And we wanted to do something about it. BLKBOX exists to be that change-agent. To make marketing relevant and effective again. Our work covers the full spectrum — research and insights, strategy and creative — and we get that what we do, and what we’ll invite brands into might make them a bit uncomfortable. But we’re okay with that. BLKBOX is all about helping people lean into discomfort, because that’s when real growth begins.

I’m a big picture person, so I’m always bringing it back to the big picture and that dictates how and when I do things. When you’re at West Point, they intentionally give you more than you can handle to see how you respond. How I responded then is very similar to how I juggle all of the things I’m responsible for now: I ask myself what’s most important—and I often delete things off my to-do list. You have to. I had a meeting on the books with an employee last week, and I kept canceling. It wasn’t because I didn’t value her time, it was precisely because I valued her time—I didn’t want to have that conversation until I could turn my full attention to her, and until I could do it properly. Disorganization costs money.

I’ve had a lot of mentors along the way—some may not even realize it. Recently, I received a great piece of advice from a financial advisor that really stuck with me. He said “all money is not good money.” And it’s so true. Just because someone wants to give you a job or an investment or their time or a relationship—doesn’t mean you should take it. The definition of freedom is being able to say no. That really stuck with me, mostly because it applies in so many aspects of life and business.

Sure, plenty. The biggest mistake that I made with starting my own business was assuming that other people would understand what we were doing right away. At the beginning, I knew we had a great idea for a new kind of agency, but I didn’t realize how much resistance there would be, or how hard it would be for others to understand. I quickly learned that an idea is only as good as your ability to articulate it. That takes time. It takes other people. For the first few years, our agency was called The Strategy Collective, which led people to assume that we were strategists or consultants. That’s part of the reason I’m so excited about our rebrand as BLKBOX. It’s not immediately definable. And that forces people to listen and lean in. It also forces us to be very clear about who we are, and ready to articulate it.

The most difficult obstacle for me [in general] is the transition from only being responsible for taking care of myself to taking care of lots of people. Two years ago, I had a corporate job; if I made a mistake, the only one that would pay for it was me. Today, I have ten employees all looking to me for their livelihood. That’s a big responsibility. I’m a natural care-taker, so it could be easy for me to let others’ needs come ahead of my own. But I’ve learned that to do my job well, I have to stay balanced, and not to let myself become unimportant as a result of my responsibility to others.

Market research has changed dramatically. Ten years ago, if you wanted to learn more about an industry or a consumer group, you had to order a study, hold a focus group, go to the library, or hire statisticians to collect data. Today, the most advanced studies in psychology, business, health, medicine—every field—are all available online; consumers are sharing intimate details about their lives on a minute-by-minute basis. You can find insight everywhere, all the time. It’s open source. Research has gone from being a privatized, very technical industry to an open source, democratized field. Researchers have to dig deeper to show that they are better than what a business can get from Google Analytics.

As for what is going to happen in the future, I believe the industry as it is today will die. The dinosaurs will become extinct. What doesn’t change is the need for smart thinkers that can sift through all this information at our fingertips and pull out the most important threads. I also think it will become more and more important for researchers to deliver their results in a beautiful and compelling way. No more boring powerpoints. Businesses want to be able to play with the data and manipulate it themselves.

I know I’ve been successful if:

(1) I change something for the better, or

(2) I helped make something that was going to happen, take place even faster.

And doing that with people still liking me! My greatest success is that people want to work for me, or that they recommend me. That’s the mark I want to leave in the end—the people mark.

My morning routine is pretty set in stone. I wake up at 8 and take a shower. I turn my music on — I’ve been rotating between Lianne La Havas, Janet Jackson and Johnny Burgos. Then I take my dog Lola on her walk down by the East River. When we get back, I feed Lola then head out to my favorite neighborhood coffee shop, One Girl Cookies. I get a large vanilla coffee, then I’m off to work.

I look for inspiration in people—and I’m lucky to live in New York City which is full of fascinating characters. Recently, I went to an artist’s birthday party, and very quickly I could see that she’s one of those people that talks in superlatives—the music she plays makes her cry, the movie she saw last night was the best she’s ever seen. I could see why some people would get annoyed with that, but I’m fascinated by that. Why is she like that? What was she like as a little kid? There’s story behind every personality.

It’s the same way we choose to hire people at BLKBOX. If you don’t have a story that drives you, you probably won’t make it. If you don’t have a story, then there’s no why that you can fall back on when things get hard.

Don’t assume that other people are going to give you what you deserve. If you think you deserve it, ask for it. Don’t assume someone is smarter than you. Don’t assume; know. And once you know, act on that knowledge. If that means asking for more money, then ask for more money. If that means launching that campaign, then launch that campaign. Don’t assume. Act.

Plan.

My perfect Saturday starts with a relaxed wake up, warm temperatures to walk Lola, and reading a diversity of stories—I love reading the first section of the New York Times because it’s always a mix of creative, business and world news. And whatever I do on that day, there’s no pressure. The only agenda is spending time with people I enjoy.

That’s a giant question. I wake up looking forward to a chance to be better. I hope that I can make a bigger impact on the world than I could have ever dreamed and do that in a way that I don’t lose myself or lose what grounds me.