Talks and workshops · Sydney and New York

Think big. Do small.

Cẩm Châu, Hội An · 4:48 AMThe dispatch

Three men work dough at a long table under a single bulb in a noodle workshop in Hội An. A clock hangs on the soot-dark wall above them.

How to start something that matters without drowning in it: find what you really want, work down one layer at a time, then take the smallest step that counts.

Andrew Phan. Neurodivergent speaker, storyteller, filmmaker, food and lifestyle photographer, and musician.

Book a talk or workshop See the method

Talks

What I speak about

A white grocery van stands in a narrow downtown alley at first light. A worker unloads beside its open side door, and lamps glow on the brick walls. — Austin · 7:22 AM, 31 March 2020Too quiet

Keynote

Think Big, Do Small

Starting big things in small steps

Big goals stall when the first step is too large or too vague. This talk is the method I use with founders and teams: ask why until there is nothing further, test the idea against what people need and what you can do, then work down one layer at a time until the next step is small enough to finish this month.

For: Teams, founders, conferences

A woman in a striped dress works over large cuts of beef at a market stall, under hanging bulbs and a red tarp, as a man washed in red light walks past. — Hồ Chí Minh City · 21 February 2025Thuy's stall

Keynote or class

Story is the structure

Story = (Obstacles / Want) + Outcome

Someone wants something, something stands in the way, and something changes. That shape holds a brand, a pitch, a project and a photograph. Using my own dispatches, from a noodle workshop in Hội An before dawn to a cottage door in the Harlem Valley, I show how to find the story in your work and tell it plainly.

For: Brands, creatives, students

Low sun on The Driskill's red-brick front, where three stone balconies stack above an arched doorway. A person stands on the middle balcony. — Austin · 29 December 2019Take a moment

Talk or working session

The Periodic Table of Creative Process

A map of how creative work moves

Creative work runs from vision to understanding, story, strategy, craft, launch and growth. The Periodic Table lays out the methods, mindsets and outputs at each stage, and which ones work together, so a team can see where a project is and what it needs next.

For: Creative teams, agencies, classrooms

Workshops

Do the work in the room

A talk starts the thinking. A workshop gets it written down.

A dark barn interior with a staircase on the left and a timber post on the right. Through a far doorway, a man in a face mask stands in a bedroom lit blue-green. — Saugerties, New York · April 2022A converted barn

Workshop · 3 to 4 hours

Brand visioning workshop

Vision, mission and goals, written down

A working session for a team or a founder. We cover the story of your business, your vision and brand foundation, your values and culture, and your goals. You leave with your vision, mission and goals on paper, and the first small step you'll take.