📝 Creative Brief: Project ME

Client:
Joshua L. Koenig (aka @MisterTBD)
Creative Director | Storyteller | Transformation Catalyst

Background / Context:
After 20 years in advertising—11 of them in creative leadership—I’ve stepped away from agency life to answer a deeper calling. A calling shaped by personal reinvention, strength through struggle, and a desire to do work that truly means something.

This isn’t a sabbatical. It’s not a career break. It’s a realignment. And the brief ahead isn’t about selling products. It’s about creating work—and a life—that lights people up. Including the person behind it: me.

The Ask:
Define and design a next chapter that brings together all facets of Joshua’s evolution:

  • 🧠 Coach, mentor, and mirror for others’ growth

  • 💪 Advocate for self-transformation through strength (mental and physical)

  • 🏳️‍🌈 Queer voice reclaiming space, challenging norms, and building community

  • 👥 Creative leader with a passion for empathy, empowerment, and ideas that actually matter

The Problem:
Too many people (and brands) are running on autopilot. The world is noisy, disconnected, and often inhumane. I’m craving work that matters—to me, but especially the people it reaches.

The Insight:
When people feel seen, strong, and supported, they don’t just change how they show up at work—they change how they show up in life.

The Strategy:
Create (or join) something that fuses creativity with purpose, wellness, self-empowerment and community. A role, a brand, or a business that’s as transformational as the process behind it.

Tone / Voice:
Authentic. Audacious. A little poetic. Entirely human.
Less “optics,” more impact.
Less selling, more soul.

Mandatories:

  • Must ignite personal joy (i.e. light me up!)

  • Must help others grow and fight to better their self, life and/or world

  • Must feel aligned in values and vibe

  • Must be built on truth, not trend

Deliverables:
TBD. (That’s the fun part.)
Could be a creative leadership role. A queer wellness brand. A coaching practice. A mental health movement. A book. A space. A something-not-yet-named.

Budget:
Not the point. Soul > salary. But sustainability is sexy.

Timeline:
In development now. Piloting ideas. Open to collaboration, conversation, and co-conspiracy.

Call to Action:
Know a mission-driven brand, team, or startup that’s doing meaningful work at the intersection of creativity, wellness, queerness, and change? Let’s talk.
I am very open to where life leads me. Curious. And ready for the next big idea that truly changes my world, and our world with it.