I’ve spent more than 20 years working at the intersection of creativity, business, communications, and organizational strategy.
Early in my career, I produced events, films, and conferences that helped shape the platform of Rob Bell.
From there, I founded and helped lead several ventures, including the nonprofit Heart Support and web startup 599Work.
I also founded, operated, and later sold Michigan Awesome, an early DTC apparel company pioneering new ways for Michiganders to be Smitten With The Mitten.
I founded and ran Company Bell, an award winning creative agency, for 12 years. My teams developed brands, messaging, websites, fully integrated campaigns, and strategic tools for organizations, companies, and startups across a wide range of industries.
Today, I serve as Communications and Creative Director for AIA Colorado, where I work closely with a fantastic team to elevate the architecture profession to design a more equitable, sustainable, and beautiful Colorado.
But the work I keep returning to usually begins before the deliverable.
It begins when someone says:
I like hearing the whole story. More than just the immediate question, but how you arrived here, what you’re good at, what isn’t working, and what you’re hoping might be possible.
As I listen, I look for the thread. I seek the recurring strengths, tensions, and opportunities that can be difficult to recognize when you’re living inside them.
Sometimes the useful insight is immediately apparent. Sometimes it’s hiding beneath the question you thought you needed to answer. And sometimes the most promising possibility isn’t one of the options you brought into the conversation at all.
That’s the part I love: the moment something comes into focus.
Then we determine whether it can work in the real world and what you should do next.
A coach may help you discover what you believe. A consultant may analyze the problem and recommend a solution. My work moves between the two.
I’ll ask questions before offering an answer. I’ll listen for the emotional reality as well as the strategic one. I’ll help you see what you may be too close to recognize. And when I have a perspective, I’ll share it.
Sometimes you need to uncover what is true. Sometimes you need someone to say:
I’m interested in what could be created from the experience, abilities, relationships, and resources already present.
That might mean recognizing a business within someone’s experience. Helping an owner understand the leadership role their growing company now requires. Discovering that a perceived marketing problem is really a positioning problem. Helping a creative person take their work seriously enough to build something around it. Or enabling an organization to imagine a more influential expression of its purpose.
I’m optimistic about what people can build, but optimism alone isn’t a strategy.
A worthwhile possibility needs to hold up against reality: time, money, market, risk, capability, relationships, and the life you actually want to live.
The aim is to bring three things together:
Possibility + evidence + strategy.
Clarity isn’t only about seeing what could be. It’s about knowing what to do with it.
I live in Laguna Beach, California, with my wife Lyndi and our French bulldog, Kobe.
If there’s something you’re trying to figure out, I’d be glad to hear about it.
Strategic clarity for what’s next.
Clarity Sessions • Next Chapter Sessions • Strategic Work
Laguna Beach, California
hello@companybell.com
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Company Bell is the business home of Jon Bell’s advisory and strategic work.