In my spare time, I’m a juggler, entertainer, and keynote. It’s fun, it’s exercise for both the body and the brain, and I found it blends well with my passion for STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

Juggling by itself is only moderately interesting. It can hold the attention of the average person for only a minute or two unless it’s being used to tell a story. Extreme technical juggling (i.e. 9 balls or a 7 ball 7 up 360) tells a story to jugglers who know how hard it is. But for the average person, 9 balls isn’t much different than 5 and eating an apple while juggling is probably more fun since they can relate to eating an apple.

I like to tell a story while juggling. The story can be about my journey through the Idaho public education system and how it prepared me for MIT and how it lead to my current job as a Sr. Product Manager at the fast-growing Boise-based start-up Cradlepoint. It may be about learning how to juggle and what the different tricks mean. I also use it during presentations at work to talk about wireless routers, growing business partnerships and the challenge of innovating in a fast-moving technical world.

So when I juggle, it’s about the story that is told. It’s not about the juggling.

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