How I get so much done (My anti-TV rant)
What if I told you I have a secret that adds 28 hours to my week; would you be interested in how I do it?
Blog
Driven Design
Why can’t people excel? Why do some designers stagnate and keep churning out the same design drivel? Why do some web administrators continue to let their websites decay into irrelevance?
Some little life lessons
“Only a fool learns from his mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” – Otto von Bismarck
Aim to misbehave
It’s like this: you can spend your career doing only as you’re told, or you can do what you really think is right and what works
What you’re good at: do that.
A vitally important concept to understand about the design business…
CARF Accreditation Consultant
New Website Launched
The Simplest Email Marketing
I’m talking about how you market yourself in your personal emails — that’s the simplest email marketing.
Your signature text is a perfect place to say all those things we get tired of saying.
How many emails a day do you send? Dozens? Each of those emails are opportunities to tell clients more about yourself or reinforce answers [...]
Professional Design Tip: Quotes vs Proposal
Some clients email asking for a quote, but what they really want is a proposal. Those are two very different things for the designer and it’s important to know the difference.
A quote is given on a job with well defined specifications. For example: The website will contain 5 pages of content, feature a blog, and [...]
Just launched: AlmostViral.com
I do think that good web designers that raise the bar are a good thing. If we all do better work, it will increase the demand for good design.
Professional Design Tip: Don’t ask for a due date
Don’t ask questions about time, ask questions about logistics.
Have a point of view. Stop being bland.
Crisp. Standardized. Bland. Stop being the rice cakes of your profession.
Does your web designer hate you?
I am really tired of web design firms that have a slick personal website, but do crap work for their clients.
Good Design vs Bad Design
You might not know the difference, but your customers do.
Explaining higher education
Can designers help? Yes we can.
Why I freelance
A client recently asked “Why are you doing this?”
A marketing genius at ten
A night spent in Rome brought before me a marketing genius.
The lies we tell ourselves
We talk about freedom, but are we really free?
Five web mistakes that destroy trust for small businesses
If you gain their trust, you can gain their business.
Years of Experience vs Experiencing Years
“Do you have 25 years of experience, or have you experienced the same year 25 times?”
How to order t-shirts in Columbia, MO
So, how do you order shirts and get a good price?
Instead of “No” say…
I tend to use “no by default” reasoning because of this basic truth: Saying “yes” to one thing means saying “no” to another.
But, according to hostage negotiators, you don’t tell the captor “no”; you should find a way to explain what you can do.
Instead of “No” say,“I think we agree that our goal is x [...]
No, I can’t use the logo from the website
This is a request that almost every designer has to address at some point, almost weekly, when you work directly with the public.
Working with groups
So much about doing business has to do with setting expectations up front so that assumptions don’t get in the way.
Multi-Tasking is not effective
In an interview, I was once asked if I multi-task well.
More about assumptions
When I look back on all the business lessons I’ve learned in design, the biggest one comes back to assumptions.
Years ago the company I worked for took on a project for a high profile marketing agency that I respected and admired (and at that point, hoped to work for some day). I really wanted us [...]
The power of try
Sometimes you don’t even have to try harder, sometimes you just need to try.
Institution vs. Business
Don’t get jaded.
Building wisdom, not policies
Stop making policies for a minute and think for a change.
Avoid the Hazard of Assumptions
I’ve been part of solar race car teams. It’s an experimental process with each car’s construction and testing.
One of the things that happens with any race team is that things go wrong; AND when they go wrong, someone always says “Aggh, I knew that was going to happen.”
Why is that? What is the hint that [...]
How to motivate a designer: Be a great boss
Everybody knows that the client is the boss. In that sense, I’ve had clients that were a great motivational boss.
Wanna know the secret to motivating a designer (besides stating your budget up front)? I can tell you how NOT to do it.
Call and ask how it’s going the day after a contract is signed.
Go MIA [...]
