Is this what you really wanted to do with your spouse when you got married? Really? Have some sex or something.

I’ve had friends and co-workers express amazement at how much I get done. I don’t think of myself as a super-human-always-on type person. I know people who make me look weak by comparison.

The Scoop:

What if I told you I have a secret that adds 28 hours to my week, pain free and without a time machine? Would you be interested in how I do it?

It’s simple. I stopped watching TV about 10 years ago. When I moved to Columbia, I didn’t move here with a TV, despite the urgings of friends, family, people on the street, etc. who all “had an extra TV they could give me.”

It wasn’t an ideological decision. It was a practical decision to get more things done in college. So don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those sucky hipsters in a coffee shop that takes every opportunity to mention, “…meh, I don’t watch TV.” In fact, if I’m someplace with TV and there’s a Dirty Jobs or James Bond marathon — I’m glued to it till someone peels me away. And I LOVE the NASA channel (I watch it MST3K style, but without the volume muted).

The average ‘merican watches 28 hours of TV per week. That’s like having a part time job. Is anyone else out there sickened by that number? 28 hours? Seriously?

When you don’t have a TV in your home, certain things happen:

You get 8ish hours of sleep because you’re not up watching Leno joke about… what everyone has been watching on TV all week.

Think about it. Seriously, when I watch those guys, I don’t get it because all of their jokes require you to be up to date with TV. If you don’t watch the things they assume you watch, would they still be funny?

Those four hours a day add up

I do my freelance, house remodeling, and spend time with my wife with that extra 28 hours.

If I find 8 billable hours per week, I can add a massive chunk to my regular income. Would you work an extra day per week to double your take home pay in exchange for not watching TV?

Part of the answer is lack of drive.

Often workmen never rise above whatever job they may have because they have no drive. They slow down, work slowly, poke around, sit down and rest as much as they can. In other words, they must have a boss over them to drive them, or they would probably starve. They would never become successful farmers—for a farmer, to succeed, must get up early and work late, and drive himself. That is one reason so many must work for others.

They cannot rely on themselves—they must be driven by one of more energy and purpose.

- Seven Laws of Success, Herbert W. Armstrong

“Only a fool learns from his mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” – Otto von Bismarck

• Don’t describe appetizers at a bar as “lite dinner”
• At a strange hotel, be sure to check the temperature on the fridge before filling it with food.
• When teaching a dance class, find a way to either get people involved in the class, or get them out of the area. That makes some people feel too self conscious.
• Keep water around at all times the same way you would zip ties.
• Be sure that your wife has Chapstick® of some form at all times.
• Don’t be afraid to go somewhere for quiet time to recharge for a bit before spending time with people. It’s better to miss a few minutes of the action than be annoyed all night.
• Confirm that a watch is actually working before you leave the store/city/state/country.
• When you plan a group outing/meal, be sure to REPEATEDLY ask about the menu items and ingredients and emphasize what isn’t acceptable fare.

Anyway, while explaining why we weren’t following the assumed “rules” for a design project, I said,

“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. Those two paths lead very different places. The worst that can happen if you do what’s right is that you’ll occasionally get shot down. But hey, you did your bit for king and country, and you’ll still live to fight another day.”

So far everyone has been completely fine with that. If they’re not able to be fine with that, then we probably won’t be able to work together, and that’s okay too. There are plenty of people out there who recognize the opportunity in freelancers who have so little overhead.

But I had a client recently ask “Why are you doing this?”

The answer I typically give is “new hardwoods.” But there’s more to it than that.

When you work for the University it’s easy to become lax. There’s no real dog eat dog competition your institution faces, so there’s little incentive to explore and take risks and there are plenty of reasons to play it safe. But when I create a small project for a startup everything is on the table and I can quickly try a new script or design.

This leads to a great cross pollination of ideas and technologies that allows both careers I lead to excel.

“I don’t have the time.”

That’s a LIE. What we’re really saying is “I won’t make the time.”

We’re saying “I won’t take control of my life, I will let my job, my email, my children, my boss, my friends and my TV tell me how to spend my time and make decisions for me because I don’t want to think.”

Our behavior won’t change until we make decisions to be in control of our time. Control and management requires thinking and planning ahead. It means making a plan and carrying it out instead of doing what feels good. It’s the difference between being an adult and a child.

We talk about freedom, but are we really free?

“Do you have 25 years of experience, or have you experienced the same year 25 times?”

Twice in my life I’ve realized that I was simply experiencing the same year multiple times.

The first time was my last year of college. I suddenly came to see that I’d learned all that I could as a student, and that it was time to move forward in life.

Overnight my priorities changed. I began retiring from the student orgs I had so fiercely worked 20 hours a week for. As I withdrew from those activities I began to plan out my first career moves. I became hungry for something else: building a career.

The second time was a very similar feeling in which I again saw that I had learned all that I could from my job. I was simply experiencing the same year again, and it was time to move on. I became hungry for something else. This time was different though in that the hunger had to be balanced with the need for a steady income. Finally the move came, and while it wasn’t on a timetable of my choosing, it was providential.

So here I am now at MU. And I’m hungry — but this time, not for career change. This time it’s a hunger for honing my craft.

One of the reasons I think working for the EDU world can be such a great experience is the amount of free reign a competent person can be given. I’ve spent the first three years building the relationships necessary to bring our sites up to a generic level of adequacy, which is a much bigger goal than it sounds.

And that being complete, I’m hungry to start developing engaging multi-media content. I’m continuing to grow, take chances, and go for it. And that’s exciting.

I do this for a couple of reason:

1. It’s a fun reprieve from code and web development.
2. It’s a way to build relationships with the students so that I know what’s going on. I think the feedback I get from those students is much better than what I’d get in a focus group.

This also allows me to put my four years of experience in the t-shirt business to good use in ordering shirts.

So, how do you order shirts and get a good price?

T-shirts are priced by a number of factors:

1. Quantity
2. Number of colors on the shirt
3. Brand/quality of shirt
4. How busy the printer is
5. Whether you have existing artwork
6. The direction the wind is blowing in Brazil

1) Quantity

Like offset printing, the more you print, the cheaper they get (though they never quite become free). It’s basically the same amount of manual labor in setup to print 12 shirts (most printers’ minimum) as 300 shirts. So naturally, if you can spread that setup cost across a larger production run, the cost per shirt goes down significantly.

Some printers will break those costs down on your invoice, charging setup fees, ink mixing surcharges (for inks already mixed anyway), disposal and cleanup… I prefer to just receive a flat rate per shirt because it’s easier for me to compare apples to apples.

Also, separate lines on the invoice are typically indicative of  printers that don’t necessarily respect their product, and are trying to make their prices seem cheaper when the customer simply looks at the t-shirt line and ignores the setup. When the emphasis is on each shirt, the printer tends to place more importance on the quality of the product.

2) Number of colors printed on the shirt

More colors equals more screens that have to be set up, aligned, tested, and replaced over time. This is pretty easy to understand because it’s directly proportional. But there’s a catch; let’s say you’d like to print gold ink on a black shirt (something not unheard of here in Columbia, Missouri).

Most gold inks can’t simply be printed on a dark shirt without the shirt color affecting the gold. So your gold comes out kind of a dingy muddied version of the original. So, that’s where a white underlay comes in. The white is printed first, heated dry while still on the press, and then the gold is printed on top of it. That’s how you can have a bright gold on a dark shirt (and while you’re at it, you might as well design the shirt to incorporate white in the design).

3) Brand/quality of shirt

This is one of the trickiest parts of the printing process, and where I’ve seen customers get ripped off. Let’s talk about a basic red t-shirt. There are four big brands of t-shirts used in printing: Gildan, Hanes, Anvil, and Fruit of the Loom. Each of them make a heavy and a light weight version of the classic t-shirt, and naturally the 5.6 oz version is cheaper than the 6.1 oz version.

I can best describe the difference like this: A year from the first time you wear it, the 6.1 oz shirt will still look pretty good. The 5.6 oz shirt will have those little holes in it around the body.

Often, screen printers will bid a project on a 5.6 oz shirt just to get the job, while other printers will almost exclusively bid on 6.1 oz. Again, it’s the difference between printers that respect and value their product vs. the printers that are in it for the margin.

4) How busy the printer is

There are certain times of year when printers are overwhelmed with business and just don’t need the extra work, and since we practice capitalism in America, the price for their services in high demand simply go up.

Those times tend to be:

• The beginning and end of semesters as teams, groups and greek houses all are printing their member shirts.
• The beginning of seasons when construction companies either buy short sleeve shirts or sweaters for their employees
• Homecomings

In Columbia, the best time to order shirts is the summer. All the printers in town are hungry for work with the students out of town, and you can get really competitive bids.

5) Whether or not you have existing artwork

If you have had a competent designer create your design for you in a vector format the printer can use, this can dramatically reduce your costs.

If you have a design ready to print, you may be able to choose a cheaper printer because all they have to do is print the shirt. But slow down, now. A word of caution: Again, we get back to identifying the printer that values their product.

Naturally the shop that values their product will likely also be more diligent to

• print your shirts correctly without bits of ink blotting the shirt
• evenly apply ink to the shirts so that the first shirt is identical to the last
• ensure that all the colors are correctly registered/aligned for the entire print run

The bargain basement printers tend to fail in those three areas.

6) The direction the wind is blowing in Brazil

This actually means a number of things.

How did you talk to the printer on the phone? Did the conversation sound like this: “Uhh, hiiii…. we’re like, wanting to print some tee-shirts?” or did it sound more like this: “Hello, I need a bid on 200 6.1 oz t-shirts.”

The first conversation tells the printer that you’ve never done this before and it’s possible that they’re the only place you’ll call, meaning they can probably charge you more than the second person who sounds like they’ve called around and know exactly what they want.

This can also mean:

• the mood of the person giving you the quote
• if you’ve done business with them before
• how capable you appear to actually be able to pay the printer

Who would I recommend?

I usually bid out my projects to the higher quality printers in town. It’s important as a buyer to have multiple sources for your product to keep everyone competitive.

As of right now, the list that I would recommend is:

1. The Flying Cow
2. Sonshine Graphics
3. Missouri Cotton Exchange

This list is subject to change upon anyone botching a job or trying to rip me off.

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 and I’d like to see us get there together.”

In this way, you can discuss the original goals and ideas that seemed so pure and important at the beginning of a project, but have since become obstacles. Goals aren’t something to be gotten around— they’re you’re “business model” for the project. Goals can change for a project, but that’s called starting over, and is generally twice as expensive.

Let’s look at an example. The original peacock logo was introduce in 1956 when NBC was at the forefront of color programming. It was redesigned in 1962, 1980, and the most recent version in 1986. I chose this great brand as an example because we all know what the peacock is supposed to look like, and if you’re the average American, you’re watching something like 4 hours of TV per day.

Here’s the NBC logo from NBC.com where they have a logo on their website.

The top left is how it appears on their website in the top left corner at 72 PPI (pixels per inch). That’s important. Remember that number— 72. Now, let’s say we’d like to make that logo bigger— say 4″ wide. “No problem, just enhance it!” you might say. “Just like they do on CSI or MacGuyver.

Sorry, it just doesn’t work like that. Remember that number 72? When an image consists of a resolution of 72 PPI, that means there are about 72 pixels (squares) of of color per square inch (this varies by your particular monitor’s resolution).

This image is about half an inch, so when we size it up to 4 inches wide, we’re asking those pixels to cover more ground. At this size the image resolution is now reduced to about 15 PPI, as you can see here.

Just enhance it. Zoom in and enhance. What’s the big deal?

Ahh, CSI— you make it look so easy with your algorithms that enhance the reflection in someone’s eye. But alas, TV, as it turns out, is not reality.

Here’s an enhanced version of that NBC logo— this is pushed and sharpened as much as is reasonably possible.

Not bad if you like blurry watercolors. But we’re looking for a sharper image, and like that Deluxe Shiatsu Back Massager, we’ll pay any price to get it. So let’s go get what’s called a vector version from Brands of the World.

With vector artwork every piece is a separate part made up of geometrically generated objects. Each element is completely editable, able to be reproduced, re-colored, etc. And what’s best, it can be scaled to any size— from the small logo we started with to the size of a billboard and it will still look the same.