Noah Brier is the head of strategic planning for the Barbarian Group, a firm that comes up with “awesome stuff on the Internet” for all kinds of brands. In his free time he’s also a blogger (NoahBrier.com) and a creator of websites like How Much Does it Buy? and Brand Tags. We squeezed ourselves into his busy schedule to find out how he got to where he is, and Mr. Brier kindly filled us in.
TILE: How did you end up where you are today? Did you know what you wanted to do or did your work find you?
Noah: I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. Mostly I just followed my nose and found interesting things to work on within organizations. My real secret was to just start doing things without asking permission, that way by the time people notice it’s too late for you to stop.
TILE: How does what you do affect the world at large? Why should I care about what you do?
Noah: It really depends who I’m working for. Sometimes I’m trying to sell soda, other times I’m trying to make people healthier and on occasion I’m trying to fix the world.
TILE: We bet you’re a guy who has lots of ideas. How do you separate the really good ones from the rest, and then what do you do with them?
Noah: Generally I separate them in two ways: First, I ask myself if this is actually a good idea. Sometimes a little thought is enough to eliminate an idea. Second, I see if I actually make it happen. If it isn’t something that excites me enough to bring to fruition than I guess it wasn’t a good enough idea.
TILE: What’s the best advice you would give to your teenage self?
Noah: Honestly … Go to the gym more. Compared to my schedule today I had nothing to do when I was a teenager and I could have gotten myself into really good shape.
TILE: What is the coolest thing on the Internet?
Noah: Oh man, that’s a tough one. Well there’s Brand Tags – http://brandtags.net – which I built and I think is pretty cool. Honestly, my answer to this question changes on a weekly basis. At the moment I’ve been loving Tumblr. (Find Noah at heyitsnoah.tumblr.com!)
>> TILE brings you exclusive opinions, explanations, and interviews from experts in every industry. To read more, click on Ask the Experts in the TILE Library.
Have a burning question or an expert you’d like to see interviewed? Just Ask TILE!