ONE CONVERSATION
It started with one conversation.
Across more than 4,000 paint projects.
I kept meeting people who were riddled with the misery of should have known better moments that became self-doubt or regret.
In less than an hour, one conversation could clear the air, bearing what they knew, didn't know, and had to know to trust themselves and confidently paint a better version of their home.
Same room. Same belongings. Different world.
Eventually I wondered:
Could the same conversation work without a bucket of paint?
WITHOUT THE BUCKET
It could.
Beginning in 2008, after the market crashed, I declared myself a writer. For one full year, I wrote and interviewed more than a hundred people.
They had to have the conversation with themselves first, before having it with others they believed should have known better.
Again and again, when the conversation was actually had, people cleared the air by knowing together and doing better.
And on and off for the next eighteen years, I kept writing, researching, having the conversation, and trying to understand what I had discovered without the bucket of paint.
I should have listened to my oldest daughter when she told me the name of my book, which I dismissed as too funny.
When my daughter heard me talk about a recent conversation, she said it again, and I finally knew what to call it.
BURP.
Clear the Air. Know Better. Do Better Together.
THE TROVE
In The Trove I follow the knowing that brought me here—from belonging, becoming, and bearing what I know. Because when we know together, we do better.