Over the years, while writing magazine interviews and articles and mentoring junior colleagues, I discovered another obsession alongside fiction: people’s stories.

I became interested in helping people build their personal brands—not by inventing something new, but by finding what is already there.

I listen to the words they use. I notice which stories they keep coming back to. And I watch for the moment when their eyes sparkle with new-found energy.

Then I follow that sparkle and see where it takes us.