University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address - Admiral William H. McRaven

The first step to changing the world is making your bed.

Change the World by Changing Your Sheets

The first step to changing the world is making your bed. 

You’d never think that changing the world starts out with something as mundane as tidying up the bed before you start your day. We don’t realize our lives can undergo a drastic change through things that aren’t grand and bold. The little things matter too, y’know.

Condensed

The Flying Busman - Mickey Mahan

How to Successfully “Fail” and Win at Life

What others consider failure, may be your biggest accomplishment.

We need to talk about an injustice | Bryan Stevenson

Talking About Injustice… and Other Topics

I recently revisited a book I received a long time ago called Talk Like Ted.

I recently revisited a book I received a long time ago called Talk Like Ted.

In it, they do case studies of some of the most successful Ted Talks. One of them was Bryan Stevenson’s “We Need To Talk About an Injustice.” It received the longest standing ovation for a Ted Talk at the time.

Moving Forward | Uber

Facebook Here Together (UK)

That’s a Lot of Money to Say You’re Sorry

Building A Team That’s Out of This World

Everyone has a podcast these days. So finding one to binge-listen in the midst of a road trip can be hard. Lucky for me, I stumbled upon The Habitat.

Why it's worth listening to people you disagree with | Zachary R. Wood

Understanding the “other side” through uncomfortable learning

Our country is torn.
Two sides, a great divide – with no solution in sight.
But what if the solution was easy?
What if we just talked to each other?

A Digital Podcast for a Better Human Experience

As Black Sheep’s Digital Strategist, I am constantly immersed in the digital landscape.

As Black Sheep’s Digital Strategist, I am constantly immersed in the digital landscape. While I don’t want to throw my phone across the room as soon as I get home, I do appreciate some perspective.

fallen in love

Keep the blue side up: A moment of glider plane Zen

What have you rocked out in life that started with the thought: if they can do it, why not me?

Voguing with Kia LaBeija | Iris

A True Movement: Kia LaBeija and Human Storytelling

In our office, we often talk about how to represent our clients through more than just their work.

In our office, we often talk about how to represent our clients through more than just their work. We do that by telling a human story. I think that human story comes from knowing the humans within their work and organization, which is a large part of our discovery process.

Creative Musings from a Confused Left-Brainer

My mom likes to tell this story about a pivotal moment in my life that occurred in a guidance counselor’s office.

My mom likes to tell this story about a pivotal moment in my life that occurred in a guidance counselor’s office. It was my junior year of high school and the counselor called me in to fix what she assumed was a mistake on my schedule for the upcoming semester. The egregious error?  5th period life drawing class.

As a kid growing up in rural Northern California, our house was a bit of an animal farm.

Fostering Impulse

As a kid growing up in rural Northern California, our house was a bit of an animal farm. We had sixteen acres of land and our pets included a cat, a dog, a rabbit, a snake, a hamster, guinea pig, pond of goldfish, a turtle and a rat named Clicker Starman. I grew up loving animals and they were the means to my allowance.

Guillermo del Toro Presents: The Shape of Dissonance

I love Guillermo del Toro. His Oscar acceptance speech only made me love him that much more.

“Because I think that the greatest thing our art does and our industry does is to erase the lines in the sand. We should continue doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper.”

Escape from 2017: Thoughts on Optimism and Despair

From what I can tell, the theme for the start of 2018 is “thankfully we made it through 2017.”

Baby, You’re a Firework: A Personalized Story About Austim

I remember being embarrassed asking my friends to watch this Katy Perry performance at Night of Too Many Stars, because typically celebrity-heavy primetime charity concerts are chock full of Grade-A cheese.

I remember being embarrassed asking my friends to watch this Katy Perry performance atNight of Too Many Stars, because typically celebrity-heavy primetime charity concerts are chock full of Grade-A cheese.

The happy secret to better work | Shawn Achor

Attitude of Gratitude: A Blueprint for Success + Happiness

I had a lot to be grateful for in 2017: Health, relationships, a beautiful baby boy, a comfortable home and a thriving business.

“The absence of disease is not health. Here’s how we get to health: We need to reverse the formula for happiness and success.”—Shawn Achor, TEDxBloomington

Kendrick Lamar, U2, Dave Chappelle - Performance (LIVE From The 60th GRAMMYs ®)

I’m not 100% sure who the intended audiences for award shows are, but I’m almost certain they aren’t males between 35 and 45.

DAMN Right.

Figuring your life out is difficult in your 20s.

Life advice? Yes, Please.

Figuring your life out is difficult in your 20s. Especially if the whole world is telling you that everything has to be decided and you need to be successful by the time you turn 30. It’s a lot of stress for one person to handle and that fear can keep you from making any decisions at all out of fear of getting it wrong. At this time in life, you don’t need judgment, you need advice.

2013 Conference Opening Video: It Starts With a Woman

One is not the loneliest #: Voluntarism + The Junior League

No man is an island, but it only takes one man or WO(man)to start a movement.

Regular

Make Stress Your Friend: It’s the Only Choice We’ve Got

It’s been a stressful year for people everywhere, to say the least. For Houstonians, when Hurricane Harvey hit, our lives didn’t stop.

It’s been a stressful year for people everywhere, to say the least. For Houstonians, when Hurricane Harvey hit, our lives didn’t stop. What are normally the mundane, everyday scenarios we find ourselves in are now just extra on top of whatever we’re dealing with in the aftermath.

The state of gun violence in the US, explained in 18 charts

If you’re a millennial like me, your first memory of a mass shooting in America is likely April 20, 1999.

Another Tragedy: What Do We Do Now?

There’s a particular kind of project that doesn’t feel like a project.

It feels like something else entirely. Over Black Sheep’s 16 years, we’ve learned to recognize these engagements — the ones where the stakes are real, where the mission is load-bearing, where getting the story right genuinely changes what’s possible for the people an organization serves. We’ve also learned that these are the projects we want to fill our days with.

Right now, our roster is full of them. I want to talk about that — not as a highlight reel, but as a reflection of what we believe this work is for. And if you’re leading one of these organizations right now and it feels heavy or uncertain or like your story isn’t keeping pace with your mission, this is for you too.


Some projects aren’t a single scope — they’re a relationship, built over time, through the kind of trust that only comes from doing hard things together.

Houston Arts Alliance is in one of the most pivotal moments in its history. A new CEO — the first woman and person of color to lead the organization — has stepped into a role that carries both enormous expectation and extraordinary possibility. We are building alongside them from the ground up: immediate messaging and leadership transition tools, a mission and vision refresh, a public education campaign, a community engagement process and a full brand foundation. Long, layered, listening-first work. Some of our favorite kind.

Houston Parks Board is marking its 50th anniversary at the start of an exciting new chapter — bold new leadership, a visionary strategic plan and a future that has been a century in the making. We’re evolving their brand to match the scale of that moment. Being trusted when the foundation is strong and the future is wide open is its own kind of honor.

Good Reason Houston is an organization we know well — we built their original brand in 2018, and they’ve called on us at several points of strategic inflection since. This is one of those moments. The world these leaders are navigating looks almost nothing like it did seven years ago, and our work together right now is about finding language that tells their story with clarity and confidence for where things are today.

Civic Builders finances and develops school facilities across the country, making excellent schools possible in communities where the need is greatest. We completed a full messaging and positioning strategy with them, and we’re now deep into their visual identity system — in genuine collaboration with their extraordinary internal team. This partnership is the kind we aspire to: the work belongs to all of us.

The Greater Houston Partnership is building an AI-powered tool to connect educators, employers and community partners in ways that expand workforce opportunity. We’re building the brand that makes it accessible and credible from day one.

Fervo Energy is redefining what clean energy looks like. We are their strategic design agency — giving visual and creative form to the complexity of what they’re building, because a breakthrough technology deserves a story told with equal craft.

The University of Nevada, Reno trusted us to direct a digital campaign for their Black Youth Mental Health Initiative — designed to reach young people at the right moment, in the right channels and keep them connected to support that can change the trajectory of their lives. This follows our branding and strategy work for their CDC-sponsored Safer Nights opioid overdose prevention campaign last year.

The Center for Civic and Tech Life is now publishing a magazine for local election officials — the people who make democracy function at the ground level. We named and developed the publication’s visual identity, because this community deserves tools that reflect the seriousness of their work.

In collaboration with January Advisors, we’re working with the League of Women Voters Houston on a set of core values and a strategic plan built for what comes next. The League has been doing this work longer than most organizations have existed. Helping them articulate where they’re headed is not something we take lightly.

Much of this work is happening in Houston — the city where Black Sheep was founded, where many of us live and where we feel the stakes of these institutions personally. When you’re a Houstonian working on Houston, it stops being a client list and starts being something else.

It takes something to make this call. The leaders we work with aren’t doing it because things are easy — they’re doing it because they’ve decided that a story that can’t carry the mission is a liability they can’t afford. That takes clarity about what’s actually at stake. It takes a willingness to look honestly at the gap between where you are and how you’re being perceived. And it takes the kind of courage that doesn’t always get named as courage — the quiet decision to invest in something foundational when there are a hundred urgent things competing for the same resources.

But the thread running through all of it — local and national — is the same: find the organizations doing the most necessary work, and make sure their story is strong enough to carry their mission forward.

If your organization is in a moment that demands more clarity, more confidence or a story that finally matches where you’re headed — we’d love to be in that room with you.

A reflection on 16 years of learning which projects are worth our days — and the mission-driven organizations we're building alongside right now.

The Work That Doesn't Feel Like Work | Black Sheep Agency

What it takes to build a story strong enough to carry a mission forward.

A reflection on the partnerships filling our roster right now — and what it takes for mission-driven organizations to build a story strong enough to carry their work forward.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

We like to type as much as we like to listen.

We're not shy.

The Work That Doesn’t Feel Like Work