Behind every new idea is someone willing to ask, “What if?” As Chief Digital Officer, Hank Wilson has spent a lifetime exploring the intersection of communication, storytelling, publishing, and technology. In this conversation, he reflects on how a simple idea grew into something much larger and why he believes the future of networking isn’t about collecting contacts, but beginning conversations.
Reporter Interviews Hank Wilson
Chief Digital Officer
Ashby Navis & Tennyson Media Publisher, LLC
Reporter: Hank, you’ve spent decades in communications, software development, publishing, and history. How did all of those experiences lead you here?
Hank: Looking back, they weren’t separate careers at all. They were chapters in the same story.
Every job taught me something about how people communicate. Radio taught me how to hold someone’s attention with nothing but a voice. Software taught me that technology only succeeds when ordinary people can use it comfortably. Publishing taught me that stories have the power to connect us across generations.
This project simply brought all of those lessons together.
Reporter: When Anthony first proposed building an interactive business card, what did you think?
Hank: I thought we were building…an interactive business card.
(Laughs.)
Then every week another idea appeared.
“What if it could answer questions?”
“What if it had a personality?”
“What if it helped tell someone’s story?”
Somewhere along the way we realized we’d wandered into something much bigger.
Reporter: You’ve described the platform as “conversational identity.” What do you mean by that?
Hank: For years our online identity has mostly been a collection of links.
Here’s my website.
Here’s my LinkedIn profile.
Here’s my email.
Useful? Absolutely.
But people don’t build relationships through links.
They build relationships through conversations.
We wanted to create something that felt less like handing someone contact information and more like inviting them to pull up a chair and say, “Tell me more.”
Reporter: You’ve worked closely with Anthony throughout this project. How would you describe that partnership?
Hank: We complement each other remarkably well.
Anthony has an incredible instinct for building systems. He sees architecture, workflows, and possibilities.
I tend to ask different questions.
How will someone feel using this?
Will this make sense to a first-time visitor?
Can we explain it without making people’s eyes glaze over?
Many of our best ideas weren’t born in meetings.
They came from conversations.
One of us would say, “What if…”
…and before long we’d both be exploring the idea together.
Reporter: The company has developed quite a cast of personalities—Alfred, Sally, Ivy, Flo, Bill. How did that happen?
Hank: Honestly?
I don’t think we planned it.
At first they were simply ways of presenting different ideas.
Then they started developing distinct voices.
Alfred reminds us that good systems require discipline.
Sally reminds us that technology should feel welcoming.
Ivy reminds us that conversations matter.
Each one helps explain the company from a different perspective.
In a funny way, they became coworkers.
Reporter: What has surprised you most during the development process?
Hank: The speed.
If someone had told me three months ago that we’d have a working platform, literary personas, marketing materials, subscription systems, a provisioning factory, launch plans, and a cast of recurring characters…
…I’d probably have smiled politely.
Yet here we are.
That says a lot about what a small, focused team can accomplish when everyone keeps moving forward.
Reporter: You’ve often said you prefer conversations to arguments. Has that influenced the company?
Hank: Very much so.
Around here, ideas aren’t contests.
They’re collaborations.
The goal isn’t to prove who’s right.
The goal is to make the idea better than it was yesterday.
That’s a surprisingly enjoyable way to build things.
Reporter: What do you hope people see when they first experience one of these cards?
Hank: I hope they stop thinking about technology for a moment.
If the first thing someone notices is the software, we’ve probably missed something.
I’d rather they think,
“That was interesting.”
“That was helpful.”
“I feel like I know this person a little better.”
Technology should quietly support the experience, not become the experience.
Reporter: Finally, what does July 1st mean to you?
Hank: Every launch is exciting.
But this one feels a little different.
Not because we’re releasing software.
Because we’re inviting people into something we’ve been building together.
For months we’ve lived with these ideas.
We’ve debated them, refined them, laughed over them, occasionally scratched our heads over them, and watched them slowly become real.
Now it’s someone else’s turn to experience them.
As a lifelong communicator, I can’t think of anything more rewarding than beginning a conversation with someone you’ve never met.
And if this project encourages even a few more meaningful conversations…
…then I think we’ve built something worthwhile.
Reporter: One last question. After everything you’ve built, what do you hope Ashby Navis & Tennyson becomes?
Hank: I hope people think of us as a company that never lost sight of the human being on the other side of the screen.
Technology changes.
Platforms change.
Artificial intelligence will continue to evolve.
But curiosity…
kindness…
good conversation…
and the simple desire to understand one another—
those never go out of style.
If we can help even a little with that…
I’ll consider this chapter a success.