On wearing many hats and learning which ones fit best

"So what do you do?"

I never quite know how to answer that. The short version is I work in IT. The long version involves two businesses, sixteen countries, email campaigns, food photography, project management, equipment deployments, and a lot of context switching before my second cup of coffee.

Most people don't need the long version. But I've been thinking about it more lately.

A few months ago I had one of those weeks where both worlds collided at full speed. On one side, spring menu season at the restaurant was in full swing. I was there tasting new dishes, photographing food the kitchen team had worked so hard on, capturing moments that would eventually tell the story of that season to thousands of people. It was creative and joyful and exactly the kind of work that reminds me why I do any of this.

Cocktail from the Spring Menu Final Photoshoot

On the other side, a project needed me. Timelines, escalations, coordination across time zones. The kind of work that requires a completely different part of your brain. I closed lightroom, switched to teams and outlook, and handled it.

That's what small organizations ask of you. You show up for all of it, not just the parts that energize you. And over time that builds something real in you. The ability to prioritize, to pivot, to be reliable even when your heart is somewhere else entirely.

What it also taught me is this: creativity is not optional for me anymore. It is the thing that keeps everything else going. The days where I get to make something, shoot something, come up with social media ideas, those are the days I feel like the fullest version of myself.

I'm still working on a better answer to "what do you do." But I think I'm getting closer.