My career has been defined by every “first.” My first all-nighter was in the dank trenches of a burbank animation studio. My first creative pitch was for the Vogue editorial team. At my first celebrity shoot, Machine Gun Kelly admitted he was in love with Megan Fox, and the first commercial I directed featured talent that was just puppies.

My first staff Creative Director job came in the middle of a massive merger, and the first time I cried at work—I actually didn’t. I had read Kelly Cutrone’s If You Have to Cry, Go Outside, which is possibly why I’m still writing this.