Being Design is a branding consultancy that harnesses the power of positive psychology to help conscious business leaders and entrepreneurs build profitable brands that align with their core values.Our mission is to leverage the power of values-driven entrepreneurship to help people lead healthier, freer, and more fulfilling lives.With our unique blend of branding, creative coaching, and human-centered design, we empower ordinary people to do extraordinary things.I started the company from scratch in 2015, with no formal training or experience, and grew it to six figures in the first year. Since then we've grown to a team of six and helped 60+ clients improve their digital marketing by focusing on their brand first, their customers second, and their technology last.As the principal strategist, my job is to help my clients zoom out, lean in, and make meaningful change for themselves and their organizations. - I've helped startup founders design businesses that align their passion and expertise with an urgent need.- I've helped small-business owners build brands that accurately reflect the value the offer to the world.- I've helped non-profit leaders, reinvent their core offering for the 21st century. - I've helped executives of hundred person companies develop better ways of embodying their values as an organization.When not facilitating client work I focus on setting the company's long term strategy, developing my team, improving our core offering, and growing our robust network of like minded professionals.

Co-Founder of BrotherlySwag.com, Philly's first online marketplace for hyperlocal merch and swag from beloved local brands.

Be Well provides streamlined end-to-end marketing solutions to help health and wellness professionals attract, convert, and retain their ideal customers, so you can spend less time on marketing, and more time doing what you love.

As a community based artist, I worked directly with localized communities to co-create works of public art that gave voice to otherwise unspoken or unarticulated experiences held in the collective consciousness. Academically, this way of working is often called "Social Sculpture" or "Social Practice". Since the work was generally supported by grants or public funding, my primary responsibility was to facilitate dialogue and discovery among disparate groups (Public officials, community organizers, local residents) and later to facilitate the creative expression of individuals who consider themselves "non-creative."Projects were typically large-scale, and always involved the participation of the communities they concerned. By launching public projects that rely so heavily on collaboration of others, my work highlighted the essential dependence of an artists on their community, as well as the vital role of so-called "non-artists" in the co-creation of culture. In the end, each project created in own community of practice, revealing the power in all people to act as artists and to create the world in which they wish to live.

Wrote and instructed a cross-discipline course on urbanism and civic affairs for students in Syracuse University's Honors Program. The course, entitled "System City", used the city of Syracuse as a live model for the examination of the vital systems and basic anatomy of a city in the twenty-first century. The course included 12 panel discussions each pairing public and private sector representatives from different city departments and private sector service providers, including the city mayor, school board superintendent, and regional director of National Grid. Panel discussions were coupled with separate class discussions and analyses of political efficacy and redundancy.

SALT Quarters was a unique public artist residency program housed within the Near Westside Initiative, a community revitalization organization intent on resurrecting the Near Westside neighborhood of Syracuse, NY, through innovation in science, art, literacy, and technology. Each year the residency housed one local artist and two visiting artists who are charged with creating socially impactful public works in and about the neighborhood. During his year-long residency, John's public projects included:THRIVAL SKILLS - an alternative student handbook, life-hacking manual, and "Thrival" guide, co-written by seven students of Fowler HS in Syracuse, NY. The book contains 80+ pages of advice, from low-income teenagers, on how to thrive as a young person in an urban environment. The book was published in time for the students' graduation, with all proceeds from sales going directly towards the students' college fund. Contributing authors were Kim Truong, Bennitto DeJesus, Mupenzi Kabera, Titan Butikima, Jean Paul Mirindi, Thing Sai, Darius Hayes, and artist himself.SYRACUSE PEDESTRIAN ROUTES: a crowd-sourced, artist-curated, pseudo-official pedestrian transit system/map focused on residents of the Near Westside. Residents contributed to the publication of a printed map that was published and distributed across the city's transportation hubs and public institutions. The map, coupled with public walks led by the artist and neighbors, revealed the invisible and unbearable situations of those forced to walk in a car-dominated city in a harsh climate.

The 601 Tully was a pioneering community art and urban education center that serves as a hub for campus-community partnerships in the historically underserved Near Westside Neighborhood in Syracuse, NY. The center hosted university classes, community meetings, business retreats, K-12 educational programs, a community teaching garden as well as public events in music, poetry, and the arts. John first became involved with 601 Tully as a student, assisting in its renovation design and later in the construction of its final buildout. While he was still in school, John officially joined the organization as its Program Coordinator.- Coordinated and executed educational programs, included summer programs in the community teaching garden.- Planned and hosted events in music, poetry, arts, publics lectures, and more.- Installed and hosted art exhibitions.- Managed the office, cafe, website & marketing, budget, and interns.- Applied for and managed grants.- Coordinated community partnerships and artist residencies.

Under the auspices of Say Yes Syracuse, John wrote original curriculum and instructed classes in arts, ecology, and literacy for three consecutive summer programs in the Syracuse City Public Schools. During the academic year, John was employed by Say Yes to run a number of after school and weekend art programs at the 601 Tully Art center serving students of Blodgett Academy and Seymour Dual Language Academy.- Wrote original curricula, synthesizing art, ecology, and literacy.- Implemented programs and taught 10 classes of 20 students each.- Provided learning evaluations and progress reports.