10/05/2026
Apart from being exceptional behind the wheel, I’ve never been particularly good at staying in my lane.
Once, during a job interview, this was presented to me as a problem.
My career had too many chapters. Too many disciplines. Apparently I was supposed to pick one thing, stay there, and make the progression easy for everyone else to explain.
I remember thinking: What an extraordinarily outdated idea.
We celebrate being well-rounded when we’re young. I played soccer and baseball. I ran competitive hurdles (the one event where you absolutely have to stay in your lane) and became a skilled gymnast. Nobody suggested I choose one because the others somehow cancelled out the other. No. One always made me better at the other.
Then we enter professional life, and suddenly breadth looks suspicious.
I don’t buy it. Never have.
Today, I lead the UrbanCastle Team at Corcoran McEnearney, helping people buy and sell homes in Washington, DC, and helping others explore building a life outside the United States.
I lead Equipo Studio, advising leaders on strategy, communications and brand when the stakes are high.
I lead Rock Creek Global Holdings, the business infrastructure behind a small and growing portfolio of companies.
I write and produce independent media built around pattern recognition, accountability and cutting through the noise. And I have a sharp-witted humor project that occasionally says the things the rest of us probably shouldn’t.
And because apparently none of that was enough, over the years I’ve developed a pretty damn tasty line of liqueurs under a little brand I call Abeja Picante (Spicy Bee). I’m always looking for whatever inspires the next bottle.
This one has absolutely nothing to do with strategic communications or real estate.
That’s kind of the point.
These things live in very different corners of my brain. Sometimes one is a vacation from another. But curiosity has a funny way of travelling. Each makes me a sharper observer, writer, communicator and creator — and, I think, a more interesting (or at least more interested) human being.
Real estate taught me how to help people make enormous decisions when the stakes are personal. Communications taught me how to help institutions make decisions when the stakes are public. Media taught me to separate signal from noise. Humor taught me that sometimes laughter is the shortest route to the truth. And entrepreneurship taught me what happens when the strategy deck ends and somebody actually has to make the thing work.
And the role above them all: husband and dad.
So maybe the better question isn’t, “Why haven’t I stayed in one lane?”
Maybe it’s: Why would I throw away everything I learned in the others?
I’ve spent my life packing a suitcase of skills. I’m not about to unpack it so I fit neatly into somebody else’s idea of a career.
There’s too much left to build.
Here in Spain, I’m building a professional referral community of people with different expertise, perspectives and networks who understand that the interesting opportunities often happen where those things intersect.
If you’re building something here, I’d like to know you.
