Analytical rigor.
Real-world context.
Glorious Morning Consulting is an independent data analysis, research, and visualization practice. I founded it because I believe that good analytical work requires two things that don't always travel together: technical skill and genuine engagement with the subject.
I'm Bryan Johns. I came to data analysis by a long and somewhat wandering route — international affairs and development, environmental policy and natural resource management, sustainable tourism and hospitality management, and eventually a deliberate pivot into data science, programming, and geospatial analysis.
What that trajectory gave me is the ability to approach a dataset with real curiosity about what it means, not just what it shows. Numbers don't speak for themselves. They require context, careful question formulation, and someone willing to ask uncomfortable questions about the methodology — including its own.
I take on projects where I can do genuinely useful work, and I'm honest about what falls outside my area. If a question needs expertise I don't have, I'll say so.
A useful combination of perspectives
The work I find most interesting sits at the intersection of rigorous methods and substantive questions — where the quality of the analysis depends as much on understanding the subject as on understanding the tools.
Where the questions tend to live
Not a list of markets served — these are the domains where I have substantive knowledge and genuine intellectual interest, and where that combination tends to produce better work.
Environment & Place
Climate risk, flood hazard, natural resource management, land use, and the geography of environmental policy decisions.
Housing & Urban
Short-term rentals, housing markets, urban change, community development, and how policy shapes what neighborhoods look like.
Policy & Public Investment
Federal programs, grant allocation, disaster mitigation funding, and the gap between where investment goes and where it may be most needed.
International Development
Development finance, sustainable tourism, cross-cultural research, and the challenges of applying quantitative methods in varied international contexts.
How I think about this work
I believe in reproducible methods, transparent assumptions, and honest limitations. Analytical work that cannot be questioned isn't analytical work — it's advocacy dressed in numbers. A good analysis documents what it assumed, what it didn't measure, and what a different set of choices might have shown.
I also believe that subject-matter understanding changes the quality of the analysis itself. Knowing that FEMA's hazard mitigation programs are tied to presidential disaster declarations changes how you interpret a funding distribution dataset. Knowing the regulatory history of DC's short-term rental market changes how you investigate a structural break in listing counts. Context isn't decoration; it's part of the method.
The practice is small, and I intend to keep it that way. I take on a limited number of projects and give each one the attention it deserves. I'm not trying to build an agency. I'm trying to do good analytical work on questions that matter.
The principal believes in thoughtful work, unhurried conversations, and the occasional second breakfast. Consultations available in the afternoon, by appointment.
Have a question worth investigating?
Describe what you're trying to understand and what you'd like to do with the findings. That's where we start.