Think Simple Now. A Blog on Creativity, Productivity, and Happiness.

The Team

Tina Su | Founding Editor & Chief Happiness Officer

On a stroke of inspiration, Tina started TSN, over a weekend in late September, 2007 – with the vision of having 100 subscribers by the end of 2007, while writing about her passion for personal development, and sharing her own lessons learned. By December 2007, the site had exceeded 3000 subscribers, and took on a life of its own. Today, she is honored to be writing for 15,000+ (smart and good-looking) subscribers.

In July, 2007, Tina left her high-paying day job to focus on TSN, and other passionate projects close to her heart. She is a keen believer of “never work again“, by living a highly creative life following one’s heart, exploring one’s potential, generating value, and living one’s mission and life purpose.

Tina’s background is in software engineering, user experience design and photography. Prior to finding her present life purpose, she was tucked away at Amazon.com for six years in various disciplines.

She currently lives in Seattle with her son, husband and two dogs.

Read More About Tina Here

Add Tina on: Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

Team member since September, 2007

Nadia Ballas-Ruta | Contributor & Enlightenment Seeker

Nadia is a mindfulness coach and a spiritual/personal development writer. She is a contributor at Elephant Journal and her work can also be found at Tiny Buddha. She used to be an attorney at one of the top law firms in America. At one point she almost became a Vedanta/Buddhist nun but she was not ready to give up on the idea of marriage.

Nadia has traveled the world, lived in India and had all kinds of adventures. She currently runs Happy Lotus and is preparing to launch her own business.
By the way, in case you were wondering, she did get married a year after leaving the monastic path and can often be found meditating at the beach with her MacBook at her side.

Team member since June, 2010

Scott H Young | Contributor & Productivity Genius

Scott is a productivity and self-improvement writer. He runs the successful blog, ScottHYoung.com, which has over 10,000 regular subscribers and over 650 articles over the last three years. Scott has been featured in Flak Magazine and the radio program Be Happy Dammit!

Scott has authored three e-books, How to Change a Habit, Learn More, Study Less, and The Little Book of Productivity. You can read more about Scott at his website, ScottHYoung.com

Read all of Scott’s posts.

Team member since April, 2009

Vic Stachura | Contributor & Creativity Expert

Vic is an avid runner who enjoys his family and writing about creativity, motivation, self improvement and life skills. He currently works for a large technology company as a consultant and does a little writing and web design in his spare time. Vic is located in Buffalo NY and actually likes the snow, thank you very much.

Team member since January, 2008

Ralph Jean-Paul | Contributor & The Public Speaker

Ralph is committed to his own personal growth and works persistently to better himself. He currently works for one of the four largest American banks, and runs a personal development public speaking business in Florida. He speaks regularly at high schools, universities, corporations and seminars. You can learn more about Ralph at his website, Potential2Success.com.

Team member since March, 2009

Jeremy Sawatzky | Creative Editor

Jeremy is the secret support system behind all the writing published on TSN. Nothing gets published unless it goes through the strict filtering system of Jeremy’s brain. He does more than fixing typos; he also gives valuable feedback for site direction and creative input.

When not working on TSN, Jeremy works as a commercial photographer and currently leads a studio of talented photographers at Amazon.com.

On an unrelated note, Jeremy thinks Tina consumes more salad and avocados than should be humanly possible.

Team member since September, 2008

Tommy P. Su | Chief of Security

Being in security is a perfect fit for Tommy, because he is insecure.

Tommy pretty much stumbled into the security trade – he is scared of everything so his nervous bark is easily mistaken as that of a ferocious guard dog. Standing 1 foot 2 inches tall and weighing in at a fluffy 10 pounds, he possesses quite the intimidating demeanor.

When not at the security desk, Tommy can most certainly be found hiding under the couch.

Team member since September, 2007

Blackie P. Sawatzky | Office Cheerleader & Foot Warmer

On Blackie’s last performance review, his peers gave him the highest marks on his ability to ‘have fun at work’. In fact, he’s not even on the payroll at TSN but he doesn’t know that because he’s busy having too much fun. Aside from his job duties, he also acts as the public foot warmer, under office desks for our editors.

Like Tina, Blackie is made in China. He was found on a street corner in Beijing, selling umbrellas for extra cash. He immigrated to America late last year and settled in Seattle, where the job market is (ironically) flooded with umbrellas salesman.

When he grows up, he hopes to open a new umbrella stand next to Lisa’s pickle factory. His favorite color is black. His second favorite color is white.

Team member since October, 2008