There Was Magic in That Barn

Last weekend, my wife, Rachel Dash , and I were reminiscing. It has been four years since our lives transformed in a magical barn in Maine. Bride’s magazine said it was one of the best wedding venues in America. However, in September of 2020, all the scheduled weddings were put on hold due to Covid.

When we saw the rustic barn sitting on Airbnb, we decided it would be the perfect two-week getaway from New York City. We had been cooped up on the 40th floor since March, and we longed for a change of scenery. During our respite from the big city, two very unexpected things happened.

First, my city-forever wife, Rachel, decided that she would love to live in a house with some land. One month later, we moved into our dream home on eight acres next to a horse farm in Pennsylvania.

Second, despite hating to write, I decided to become an author. For the better part of each day in Maine, I paced around the magical barn, plotting out my book.

The thought of helping corporate types, entrepreneurs, and would-be founders began to feel like a calling, so I jumped in headfirst. I wrote early in the morning. I wrote into the wee hours of the night. For the better part of two years, whenever I’d feel inspired, I’d write. And writing further energized my approach to business.

Finally, after about two years, I proudly sent a nearly 700-page manuscript to my editor. A few weeks later, the highly anticipated professional feedback came…

“Dear Evan, Congratulations…… you wrote a book only a mother could love! But… I see amazing potential. You have incredible stories and important lessons. I’m going to teach you to tell them.”

And so began another two years of work. As always, the book took a back seat to my day job as CEO of StoreBound . In my free time, I tried to refine one chapter each month. I became a student of writing and learned skills that would make me a better leader: how to get to the point, how to extract key takeaways, and the value of being succinct.

Now, almost four years since that first stroll around the magical wedding barn, I’m proud to say I’m officially an author. In the book, I share the lessons I learned, from the playground to the back of a firetruck to the Fortune 500 boardroom and, ultimately, from my journey as an entrepreneur. These lessons helped shape my approach to business and life, and I’m excited to share the playbook I used to launch my own business with a focus on innovation and culture. I also explain how Rachel and I leveraged our personal values to create a valuable company.

Over the next few months, I’ll post some of the tidbits here on LinkedIn, and hopefully, they’ll inspire you to grab a copy and see which of my lessons you can implement in your own company or career.