Denise Cornell — What I’m Doing Now
(This is a now page. You can make one too.)
Updated May 6, 2026 from Austin, Texas
Behind the scenes at work.
Just closed out a three-year engagement building a global family office community, taking it from 40 informal members to 150+ paying member families across two continents.
Now, back to my roots. Working as a fractional operator/advisor with founding teams in the zero-to-one phase. Pre-product-market-fit, where the playbook gets built.
Keeping the roster small. Deep focus is the model.
Who is more important than why or what. I gravitate towards:
curiosity
people seeking answers instead of needing to be right (There’s freedom in being wrong.)
thoughtfulness, kindness
brave, crazy ideas that change the conversation (New and improved is for toothpaste.)
Reading.
What To Make of a Life by Jim Collins
Just back from seeing him live in San Francisco. The kind of event you say yes to first and figure out later. And it turned out a few other people in the room had done the same.
Storytelling.
Wow, it’s been two and a half years since I debuted my latest story, The Red Tractor. I’m so damn proud of this story — the writing of it, having lived it and performing it. It’s starting to feel like this story wants a bigger stage.
Two new stories in the works: Moonstruck and The Milky Way, hopefully coming to a stage soon!
Personal.
Coming up on the two year anniversary of a two-day road trip across the desert from Vegas to Austin to bring Jax home to Texas. A dog wasn’t in my plans, but sometimes life delivers exactly what you need, and then waits for you to catch-up with the plan.
