So he set about trying to make a living without a job. This was a new idea for him, so he wasn’t sure where to begin. One idea he had was to drive a party bus, but that made his wife cry. Then he decided to just do the thing he had been doing at jobs for his entire career: bring people together to do creative work. And if there wasn’t a team of people already established, then he’d have to go about creating one.

He helped small businesses for free, so they could figure out what they needed. Then when they figured it out, he introduced them to talented people he’d worked with at many big companies over the years that were really very good at what they did. Those people appreciated the work, and returned the favor by referring both clients and other talented people.

Pretty soon, they had a group. And because they were all working together, they sort of had a company. No one reported to anyone else, and very few of them worked there full time, but a company it still was.

They called it Red Bird Marketing.