Welcome to ...
Two recovering nonprofit executives exploring what happens after you've built the life you thought you wanted.
We spent decades building multi-million dollar organizations, leading teams, and carrying responsibilities that followed us home at night. We checked every box on the list of things you’re supposed to want.
Then we looked at each other and said, “nope.”
So we retired.
Early.
We traded the corner offices and started asking ourselves a question nobody really prepares you for:
What does “more” look like when you’ve already built the life you thought you wanted?
We don’t have an answer yet.
But we go places. And I overthink them.
That’s what this is.
A place to share what we’re learning along the way.
Pull up a chair.
Step one: Choose Your Chair.
Free subscribers get every article. The travel pieces, the personal ones, and whatever I’m currently overthinking.
That’s the Front Porch.
Paid subscribers get the rest of the Den:
Junk Drawer (random thoughts that probably wouldn’t pass compliance)
The Mantel (behind the scenes photos with snarky captions)
Meanwhile, Mr. Dhooge... (whenever he has something to add)
Notes from the Trail (what we’d absolutely do again, what we’d skip, and the travel advice we’d give our friends)
And four times a year, a seat at the Kitchen Table for an unplugged conversation about whatever’s on your mind.
Free gets you the Front Porch. Paid gets you a seat on the couch.
Not ready to subscribe? No problem. The Front Porch is FREE. Come on in.
Step Two: Say Something
The best part of this place isn’t the articles. It’s the people sitting around the table with us.
Pull up a chair in the comments. We’d love to hear your perspective, your questions, or the part of this that made you roll your eyes.
Step Three: Where to Start
Every place has a front door.
These three articles will give you a pretty good sense of who we are and what you’ll find around here.
Wicked Stepthing : I spent my career teaching people how to love someone else’s child. Then I married a man with a nine-year-old and couldn’t figure out how to do it in my own house.
Becoming Irrelevant : on leaving the table that gave me permission to matter
Someday, Someone Walks Past Your Statue: lessons from Ephesus : Ancient ruins are brutally honest places.
Thanks again for stopping by, we are really looking forward to getting to know you better.
Mark & Tiffani