What was your first job?
My first job in high school was at a local coffee shop chain in my hometown near Boston. Working at Coffee Break Cafe proved to be one of the most invaluable experiences in my life. It provided me with hands-on work experience and established a foundation in management, accountability, scheduling, customer service, bookkeeping, problem-solving, and teamwork.

How do you unwind from work mode?
As many entrepreneurs can attest, it’s really hard to shut off. We are engaged all waking hours because it comes with the territory. After over ten years, I’ve simply accepted it. It’s more about managing stress since, as an entrepreneur, you never truly “clock out.” However, the silver lining is that some of my best ideas come outside of office hours.

How do you stay up-to-date in your industry?
When I open Chrome, I have techinasia.com, campaignasia.com, adweek.com, and variety.com automatically open to efficiently stay on top of major headlines in the advertising and film industries.

What’s one thing you wish you knew when you first started your career?
When I started my company, I started with three rules: no investors, no partners, and no outsourcing. More than ten years later, I’ve realized I could not have been more wrong. Growing a business organically and without investors is perfectly fine if you don’t plan to scale. However, if you plan to scale beyond a boutique or lifestyle business, investment is needed in order to take greater risks for the benefit and growth of the business. Initially I thought the benefits of being the sole founder of a business outweighed the drawbacks, but it shouldn’t be viewed like that. A co-founder can and should be entirely beneficial and complimentary to your skillset. Lastly, outsourcing on a project basis is sometimes necessary, but should be done with transparency and put through a thorough QC process.

What is your evaluation process for projects this year?
I’m looking for unique, one of a kind projects that really reflect the author’s creativity. With the abundance of automation and next-gen tools available at our disposal, the bar is set much higher for original creativity.