About Me

Intro  •  Testimonials  •  Professional Background  •  Fast Facts

Hi, I’m Chris! I’m a multi-passionate entrepreneur, artist, designer, coach, and strategist, who adores video games (especially retro, whimsical, and toy-like sandbox games), and someday soon I plan to design games for a living.

I strongly believe in the value of humor, curiosity, and the positive healing power of play.

I *LOVE* helping people get unstuck and become excited about life.

I’m really good at identifying points of friction — in your game, web app, business, or life. I have the eyes to see what many people miss.

I enjoy being with people who are all about the enjoyment of playing the game, not just about winning or losing.

I’ve traveled to eleven countries, and have lived in four of them.

I like Earth, and I’m proud to call it my home :)

Here’s what some lovely people say about me

“Through his impeccable eye, clever tongue, and wise mind, Chris has always brought out the best in me, and rather made me feel, by example, that I’m not trying hard enough. I take pains to mention these features of Chris, because an external observer might miss them in the hurricane of jokes, references, squeaks, and laughter that usually surrounds us.”

—Dr. David G. Dick, PhD, Associate Professor of Business Ethics

“Chris is rare, sparkling treasure. I haven’t ever met anyone else who can engage in the in-between moments of life in the way Chris does. He is curious and playful. He has a graceful way of helping you view any situation, in a totally beautiful new light. And he’s always so subtle. What an extraordinarily kind way of helping someone become aware of these hidden, self-created assumptions that only ever hinder our greatest self. Chris talks to you the way you would expect your grandma who is a 112-year-old Buddhist monk would. So much good feeling with a simple, yet profound depth. I can’t help but think of how much credit I owe to Chris’ shared wisdom to my self growth the past 4 years. I’ll just quickly take the time to tell him right now. Thanks Chris! for your guidance.”

—Kimberly Goodson, Photographer

“Chris is a great human being and has been my go-to over the years for all kinds of specialized video, animation, web and tech projects. He has an artistic and critical eye, works quickly and usually saves the day. He’s become an invaluable asset to every person me and my company have sent his way.”

—Mr. Jesse Walker, Music Director of New City Movement,
Partner/Creative Director of GoMakeContact

“Chris is tremendously creative, intuitive and technically skilled and it is a pleasure to collaborate with him. He is an expert at finding ways of delivering a message in unique and innovative ways. Chris has a strong sense of musicality and timing as well as color composition and transitions – all of which were helpful to us as a dance and design company.”

—Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Co-Founder/Artistic Director,
NOW International Dance & Design Co.

Professional Background

I was an Addy and Telly award-winning creative director at a digital media agency for 7 years.

I helped produced two feature-length documentary films, including a forthcoming one about the nature of the mind, focus, and awareness in an age of distraction.

I was selected by Salt Lake City to plan, manage and develop the redesign of the city’s official web site and the Salt Lake International Airport’s web site for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Recently, I worked with researchers at the University of Utah for a study on the importance of play and the flow experience (i.e. states of deep absorption) for childhood and adult development, which was published in serveral journals including the International Journal of Play.

Now I help growth-minded clients learn how to have more fun in life and in business. I can help you and your business become more effective by solving your most painful and expensive problems. I offer coaching, consulting, design + media services, strategy + vision. Contact me if you’re ready for more clarity and enjoyment in what you do.

I'm also working towards building a game design company based on the principles of joy, love, playfulness, wonder, curiosity, personal growth and mentorship, with the goal of having that company be a model to inspire other entrepreneurs and business leaders. Does this interest you? Let's chat!

The roles and experience I’ve had in my career thus far include:
* commercial + live TV director, video editor, documentary film producer
* creative director, graphic designer, motion graphics artist
* information architect, software engineer, database designer
* almost two decades of web development and design
* serial entrepreneur, CTO, CEO, and freelancer
* marketing director, event organizer, fundraiser
* researcher, digital archivist, media alchemist
* project manager, consultant, strategist
* sound mixer and music editor
* writer and copywriter
* podcast producer
* life + business coach and creative mentor

My skills and strengths include:
–Digital media consulting (communications expert with 15+ years experience in all phases of design, communication, marketing, web development, and video & film production).

–Usability and user experience (immediately detecting ways to improve usability and reduce friction, and how to maximize the quality of the product or service).

–Editing (copy editing, video or film editing, music and sound editing).

–Creating clarity in any situation by asking powerful questions.

–Inspiring people to find their passions and ways they can begin taking action towards them.

–Getting down to what really matters (cutting out the fluff and going right to the most important thing); finding ways to tell compelling stories.

My Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 strengths are:
* Connectedness: we are all part of something larger. (“The force is strong with this one.” haha!)
* Maximizer: I focus on other people’s strengths as a way to nurture personal and group excellence. I love transforming something strong into something superb.
* Learner: I have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites me.
* Adaptability: I go with the flow and easily adapt to things as they come. I don’t resent unforeseen detours. I expect them as inevitable, and even look forward to them.
* Ideation: I love-love ideas. I am always looking for connections. I can easily find links between seemingly disparate phenomena. I revel in taking the familiar and turning it around so it can be viewed from a radically different and illuminating angle.

My superpowers are... (this is not my opinion, but what others have told me):
Authenticity, Kindness, Making It Fun, Wisdom, and Awareness. The ability to step back, synthesize what’s going on and provide exactly what’s needed, whether that’s information, a emotional lift or a push when a decision needs to be made. The ability to hold space for the smallest details and the highest bird’s-eye view. Playing very well with others (in groups I tend to act as the anchor and I make people feel at ease and generate an atmosphere of respect felt among all members).

My weaknesses are that I take on the responsibility of getting done what needs to get done (and sometimes to fault I do it too much). I’m learning how to better delegate, automate and outsource and not spread myself so thin. And I still can tend to be a bit of a dog with a bone when it comes to solving technical problems. I’m learning how to best recognize when it stops being fun and starts becoming frustrating, and then walk away, and go do something else and only come back to it when I’m feeling relaxed and refreshed. Also, eating *way* too much chocolate.

Fast Facts

  • As a kid I used to fill notebooks with sketches and designs for levels of imaginary sequels to my favorite Nintendo games.
  • If you don’t count the lemonade stand I started when I was seven, or the very brief experiment of “placing tiny classified ads” when I was 16 (see below), I dropped out of college (the first time) and started my first real company when I was 18.
  • I when to college twice, and dropped out twice. I’m a double-college dropout!
  • When I was a young teenager, I ordered Don Lapre’s “by placing tiny classified ads...” “system” off the television, and I did exactly what he said, and sure enough, several people sent me cash in the mail. Just like Don said they would!
  • Ru Paul once told me I had the most amazing eyelashes s/he had ever seen (my hand to the gods!). My best friend’s mom says they’re like a giraffe’s eyelashes.
  • I went car-free for over 11 years.
  • I like to rip the band-aid off.
  • I’m less Facebook, and more face-to-face.
  • Deep conversations with people energize me.
  • I generally coo when I’m happy.
  • When I was eight years old, a friend and I broke into a penthouse apartment in order to save an upside-down turtle. The turtle survived!
  • I’m really good at keyboard shortcuts.
  • I was only 3 degrees of separation away from Saddam Hussein. I had a friend whose dad was at one time Saddam’s personal physician. How’s that for proof of the Small-world Theory?
  • Favorite four letter word: “eels”
  • Favorite color: all of them
  • Favorite video game: There are way too many to list, but I would like to say that Katamari Damacy (and We Heart Katamari) are two of my favorite games of ALL TIME. Such grace! Such class! So many things! Plus, The King of All Cosmos is easily the most realistic depiction of a deity I have ever seen.
  • I’m a sucker for gigglers and people easily prone to laughter.
  • I’m really good at making up words or phrases that return zero results in Google.
  • I’m a Myers Briggs INFJ
  • I love technology, but I love humans, nature and life even more, which is why I consider myself a tech humanist.
  • I support Buckminster Fuller’s vision that it’s possible for human society to re-organize itself to be “comprehensively successful” for everyone on the planet.
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