I'm here for the edge cases.

"Best practices" don't work for businesses that reach for the edges. Are you up to something crazy? Walk with me.

If there’s one thing about me that comes up in any values assessment, self-searching, or other identity experiments, it’s that I always reach for the edges.

I was always a “thoughtful” kid who was fascinated by the inexplicable: space, black holes, sci fi and fantasy, witches and fairies, the wilderness, the paranormal, the impossible-to-know mysteries of the universe.

The first thing I wanted to be when I grew up was an astronaut, and I held onto that dream inappropriately long enough to learn about how hard it would be to actually do that, and say, nevermind, then!

When I got into music, I immediately gravitated toward the weirdest sounds and subcultures I could possibly find, from radio emo to 80s goth, and eventually all the way down the pipeline to black metal and accidentally befriending Nazis on Tumblr. As one does.

I was the same with food, art, movies, friends, whatever experience that could offer me some new piece of the world. This eventually led me to spiritual studies, and now to calling myself a psychic creative director in public. I will try anything that doesn’t directly endanger my wellbeing at least once.

This is different from being a thrill seeker, though I love a good roller coaster. I’ve never been drawn to danger. I would put it more along the lines of neurodivergence-related novelty-seeking.

From a young age, I deeply identified as a curious person.

This drive to understand the ineffable also made me a good artist, and then a good designer, and drew me to work independently, rather than take the established prestigious-art-school-degree career path of ladder-climbing through larger agencies.

Unlike many other designers out there, I revel in connecting deeply and directly with clients. I revel in understanding and drawing out the vision that you’ve previously never been able to translate into something other people can see.

I want to walk with you to the edge of your understanding of your business and your self, the edge of what other people think is possible for you to build, the edge of what’s next for culture and humanity as a whole.

In other words, I am fascinated by the edge cases.

Keep exploring the edges with me.

Defining the edge cases:

This year I started to notice that my former client and current business coach, Jessica Lackey, throws out a key phrase relatively often: “there will always be edge cases.”

It’s a helpful frame that says: here is a general rule that is probably true for you — and there will be exceptions — but for the purposes of this conversation/teaching/context, we are focusing on the most likely scenario.

From a teaching lens I find this extremely helpful, because it keeps the student (me) from ending up in the “but what what if this doesn’t apply to me?” thought loop that prevents the integration, action, and general FAFOing required to find out if it does apply to you.

On the other hand, those who have FAFO’d to the very limits, who have run through the generalized advice and clearly determined that, no, this doesn’t actually apply to them, are the edge cases.

It’s usually because they’re trying to create something significantly different from what has been done before…

And so they are wildly underserved by branding frameworks that are designed for everyone else doing something… normal.

My innate and often inappropriate level of curiosity draws me like a magnet to the edge cases. These are my people. Are you up to something insane? Are you afraid to tell anyone about your bonkers new idea? TELL ME MORE.

When you’re building on the edges, you quickly realize that “best practices” don’t apply, and you learn to how to filter what is for you and not for you very quickly. You have to understand new concepts backwards and forwards and pick apart what makes them work for others before you can pick out what pieces will work for you. You learn to take well-meaning advice with a full cellar of salt, especially when it comes from someone without your level of risk tolerance.

You learn to quilt together many different scraps of others’ frameworks, your experiences, plus your skills, talent, tenacity, and vision into a singular business that doesn’t quite fit into the frameworks everyone else is teaching from.

To reiterate, I’m not talking about the many smart and interesting people who are newer to business, branding and marketing, and who simply haven’t yet put in the time to know what is a universal business problem vs. what is a unique problem to them.

The true, proven edge cases have been around the block. They’ve studied the branding playbooks out there. They understand their brand archetypes, they’ve filled out the “brand story” templates, they’ve hired a consultant that made a great deck for someone else. They’ve gone from a Fiverr logo to to their first professional rebrand to hiring a team that allows them to never have to touch their own website again… and people still aren’t grasping their vision.

They are left to feel like no one gets it, settling for the not-quite-right brand and palatable public image, because it seems like that’s their only option if they want to succeed.

What they don’t know is that they need someone who has the curiosity to see them fully, the vision to get them, and the skill to translate it all into a cohesive brand without sanding down the edges that make them interesting.

I specialize and revel in the edge cases.

Or, as I like to call them, firebrands. Because these are the people who, by going where no one has gone before, and doing what absolutely no one recommended, are truly pushing the edges of what’s possible, and who will ultimately change their industry, culture at large, and the world. Full gravitas intended.

When no one has been where you’re going, the standard, user-tested, reliable map doesn’t work — because you’re off the edges of it. Fortunately, that’s where I already live, and where I work best. I am calling myself psychic on the internet, after all. Wacky!!!!

So, that’s who I want to meet and speak to on this platform: the edge cases.

Those of us who never tried to be “edgy,” but end up getting called that when we say or do what we really want to say or do. See also: “badass,” “brave,” “inspiring,” or just that look that we know means if she’s actually serious, I need to find the exit…

Those of us who went along with “safe” playbooks just so we could at least get a foothold in the real world and make something, because at least that’s better than nothing.

Those who sacrificed full expression in order to be “digestible,” and know that it’s time to welcome those cast-off, too-complicated, allegedly unrealistic parts back in if we want to get done what we are really here to do.

Those who have built enough traction to finally break the pattern of “going along to get along,” and now have the results, reputation, and capital that will allow you to create your most fantastical castle-in-the-sky vision…

And who need a partner with eyes to see the full scope of that vision, who won’t water it down or smooth it out, and will make sure it gets translated to the masses in its entirety, without compromise.

You are welcome here.

Originally published on my Substack, The Edge Cases.