A client sent me a link to this wonderful TED talk: “Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action“.

Sinek discusses “The Golden Circle” — the “what,” “how,” and “why” of what we do and who we are. He explains how finding the why behind your business is crucial to driving sales and setting yourself apart in the marketplace.

But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by “why ” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result. It’s always a result. By “why” I mean: what’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care?

In a little over 18 minutes, the quick-talking Sinek covers a lot of ground and a lot of examples. He breaks down the success behind Apple, Martin Luther King and the Wright Brothers, why Tivo is less successful, and illustrates Malcom Gladwell’s idea of the Tipping Point.

Tomorrow, I intended to sit down and devote a large chunk of time to my own brand and marketing. This talk completely shifted the way I will approach my brainstorming. I highly recommend it.

Have you ever noticed how when you share a story with someone, it becomes their story too?

There is something validating when we can say, “Oh yeah, that happened to…” me, my friend, my brother, my dog, whomever… It’s a concrete way of showing that we can relate to what the other person is saying. And it can be really exciting to be the first person to share a story within your circle.

This idea was highlighted for me tonight. My wallet was stolen this afternoon. That’s a pretty simple statement, but the narrative of the events unfolding and the aftermath of it all is quite complicated. The story isn’t even complete yet. I have shared it with my immediate family, and then (somewhat without thinking) I posted it on Facebook.

As I lay awake in bed, unable to sleep, I realized that I am already tired of the story and regretted the Facebook post. I don’t know that I want to keep hashing it out with every person I know, because it’s tiring to keep reliving the experience. But, I know that the story will spread throughout my network, even though I don’t know that I necessarily want it to.

But, my story has become their story. And they can do whatever they want with it, because it’s theirs now. I’m sure you’ll hear a sightly different version, depending on who you ask.

And, yes, I realize that I’m sharing it with even more people by writing about it here.

Here’s what I’m trying to understand — what makes us want to share and spread some stories and not others?

We hear and read about tons of different things every day. What makes it something that we just can’t wait to tell someone else about?

It’s extreme.
Really good news and really bad news seem to spread quickly.

It’s out-of-the-ordinary.
It’s something that shakes up your community. Something new and different.

These ideas are probably pretty obvious. But — how can you make the stories you want people to talk about spread like wildfire? Like, your new product launch? Or your upcoming seminar?

People naturally share stories. They want to share cool, exciting, different stuff with their friends and family. But, if my business is offering the same ho-hum stuff as everyone else…why should I expect people to talk about it?

Going forward with my own business, I plan to spend more time developing my offerings and my brand into something more out-of-the-ordinary. Something easy to talk about and easy to share. Can everyone in my network tell the story of the services I offer as easily as they can tell the story of how my wallet got stolen during a client meeting at Panera?

It’s something to consider as you plan your next marketing campaign. I know that I’m keeping it in mind for mine.

Katie Olson and Scared Panda, commissioned me to create a t-shirt titled “Chaotic Peace.” Here’s how Katie described her inspiration for the shirt:

Sometimes the craziness of the city can be overwhelming. How do you stay peaceful when everything around you seems to be moving at warp speed? One of my biggest challenges is quieting my mind and living in peace AMONGST the chaos. I’ve learned to not only live with, but appreciate the chaos and still maintain a calmness through my yoga practice.

We used the Milwaukee/Damen/North intersection in Wicker Park as the setting for this illustration. I sourced the inspiration images from Google Maps and Shutterstock.

Take a look at how the project unfolded:
(Click to enlarge the images)

Below: First draft for the client, compiled of four individual drawings

Below: Second draft – The client requested a new drawing of figure and adding people walking on the sidewalks in the background.

Below: Third draft – We tried another new foreground figure and added cyclists to make the scene even more “chaotic” (Shown on gray to emulate ink selections)

Fourth draft – Another new “hybrid” version of the main figure, and we changed the cyclists to line drawings instead of silhouettes.

The final t-shirt!

I am really impressed with the printing done by the folks at Replica Chicago. This was a really detailed drawing. I have some experience with screenprinting, and I know how hard it is to get those fine lines to show up. The detail is incredible in this print. I was ecstatic with the results.

Also, 10% of all the sales of this shirt will go to Imerman Angels.

Nearly everyone has been touched by cancer somehow and organizations like Imerman Angels make a world of difference for caregivers and patients. Imerman Angels carefully matches and individually pairs a person touched by cancer with someone who has fought and survived the same type of cancer.

Pretty awesome, right? If you dig the shirt and want one of your very own, check out Scared Panda.

Almost every time I receive a picture from a client, they ask, “Is this image big enough?” If it isn’t, the jargon begins to fly: resolution (or “res”), pixels, pixelated, screen resolution, print resolution, DPI, PPI … whew! Clients are often confused because the image looks fine on their computer and they can’t understand why it won’t look great when it is printed for the final piece.

Let me try to explain some of the technical jargon, as simply as possible, as it is related to the field of graphic design.

Resolution

Image resolution describes the amount of detail an image holds. Higher resolution images are crisper and more detailed. In a lower resolution image, the fine differences in color disappear, edges become blurred, etc. There are many kinds of resolution that can apply to film, television, etc., but the two types we are concerned with here are print resolution and screen resolution.

Screen Resolution

In general, resolution is measured in ___ per ___, with those blanks depending on the medium. Screen resolution is measured in pixels per inch (PPI). There’s another piece of jargon – a pixel is a tiny square of color. A monitor uses tiny pixels to assemble text and images on screen.

The optimal resolution for images on screen is 72 DPI. Increasing the DPI won’t make the image look any better, it’ll just make the file larger, which will probably slow down the website when it loads or the file when it opens.

Print Resolution

Print resolution is measured in dots per inch (or “DPI”), which means the number of dots of ink per square inch that a printer deposits on a piece of paper. So, 300 DPI means that a printer will output 300 tiny dots of ink to fill every square inch of the print. 300 DPI is the standard print resolution for high resolution output.

How the two work together

Documents begin on screen and either stay on screen, or they are printed. If the document will stay on the screen (like a website), you just need to worry about screen resolution, so your images should be 72 PPI.

An important note: Sometimes the terms DPI (print) and PPI (screen) are used interchangeably. So, don’t be confused if someone refers to a 300 DPI image that is on screen, because pixels per inch (PPI) translate equally to dots per inch (DPI).

If you’re going to print the document, you need to make sure the images are 300 DPI at 100% of the final output size. This sounds more complicated than it really is.

We already know that 300 DPI images have 300 dots per square inch. So, if we have an image that is 300 pixels by 300 pixels — we can print it at 1″ × 1″ at 300 DPI. If this is the final output size, we are good to go. If the image was intended to be printed as a 2″ × 2″ image, we would be in trouble, because it would output at only 150 DPI. If this was intended to be a 5″ × 5″ image, we are in trouble, because the image would output at only 60 DPI.

The bigger we try to print the 300px × 300px image (note: px is the abbreviation for pixel), the more pixellated it becomes. Pixellated is a term used to indicate the degradation of the image – the eye can start to see the individual pixels, and the edges become very jagged.

Here is how a 300px × 300 px image, printed at 1″ × 1″ at 300 DPI:

Here is how the same 300px × 300 px image, printed at 2″ × 2″ at 150 DPI would look (I had to crop in on it for the purposes of the post, but you can start to see the pixellation:

Here is how the same 300px × 300 px image, printed at 5″ × 5″ at 60 DPI would look (I had to crop in on it for the purposes of the post, but you can  really start to see the pixellation:

As I hope you can see, the original image size doesn’t matter as much as what the DPI will be when the image is printed out at 100%. The image is perfectly fine at 1 inch by 1 inch, but it looks terrible at 5 inches by 5 inches because the DPI is only 60.

How can I figure out the DPI of an image?

Math. And unfortunately, it has little do with the overall file size of an image (like whether the image is 1MB or 10MB).  In general, a bigger file size is better to give your designer, but there’s a more exact method to it. We need to find the overall dimensions of the image, and then do some math.

On a Mac

• Right-click (or control-click) on an image.
• Select “Get Info.”
• Under the “More info” tab, look for Dimensions.

You should see a number like “1024 x 768″ (some number x some number). These numbers show the number of pixels in the image (width x height)

On a PC

• Right-click on image icon.
• Select “Properties.”
• Click the “Summary” tab in the properties window.

You’ll see values for the Width, Height, Horizontal Resolution and Vertical Resolution.
(You can see screen shots here). Ignore the Horizontal and Vertical Resolution values. Just pay attention to the overall Width and Height

So, if you want to print an image that is 1024 × 768 (listed as Width=1024px, Height=768px on a PC), you need to divide each value by 300 to see how many inches you can print at 300 dpi.

1024 ÷ 300 = 3.4133″ (width)

768 ÷ 300 = 2.56″ (height)

So, you could print this 1024px × 768px image at 300 DPI at a size of 3.4133″ × 2.56″ – any bigger than this, and you risk the image becoming pixellated. Sure, you can enlarge the image a teeny, tiny bit beyond this size, if you need to, but it’s best if you don’t.

That’s it!

Designers, did I forget anything? Non-designers, does this make sense to you? Is there anything that is still confusing you?

“Ugh, I just don’t care about what you had for breakfast!!”

Have you ever heard anyone say something like that about Facebook or Twitter? I know a sizable group of people who cannot understand the “me, me, me” aspect of social media. They don’t want to jump on Twitter or Facebook, because they don’t feel they have anything to say that would matter to their audience of friends and acquaintances.

They recognize that it can be really rude and self-absorbed to do nothing but talk about yourself, when your audience isn’t interested in hearing about your latest snack or TV obsession or how much you drank last night. But, many people make the same sort of mistakes on the homepage of their business website.

“We’ve worked with these great companies! We are awesome! Buy from us!” We, we, we!

You at least know the people on Facebook that you’re bragging to, but on a homepage, you’re bragging to total strangers. Think about what’s important to you when you visit a new site. You are trying to decide (quickly) if this company offers what you’re looking to buy. Do they look trustworthy? Can you quickly find what you’re looking for? If they past the initial sniff test, do you know where you should go next?

What you think is the most important thing to tell your customers on your homepage may not be the same information that they think is most important. Try to imagine your ideal customer, and think about what they want to know. If you can design your web presence around the needs of your ideal customer, you will be far more successful than designing it around your own needs and personal preferences.

Remember, it’s not about you.

Recommended reading:
Rethink Your Web Presence by Chris Brogan

7 ways your homepage is like a first date by Lisa Barone on Outspoken Media

Who wouldn’t want to be an emperor? Spreading your ideas and messages through the world, and kicking butt every step of the way? We’ve all heard that “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and creating a successful lifestyle business follows the same idea. Plus, creating and running your own business can be pretty damn scary.

But, Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit puts a really fun spin on the idea of creating and running your own business. He has put together a product that includes “the business know-how, real-life case studies and daily steps designed to help you build your empire in one year or less.”

I haven’t pretended to be a fictitious character in a long time, but picking between playing “Alexander the Great,” “Hail, Caesar,” and “Emperor-in-Training” (the 3 pricing levels) made for a really fun shopping experience. If you’re in the business of selling anything, I recommend taking a look at Chris’ store. He makes the shopping experience fun and exciting. It’s riddled with great copy and cool design. I think you could learn a thing or two from just browsing around his store.

So, why did I buy the EBK?

Personally, I was really impressed with the way Chris presents himself and his business, and I thought I could learn a lot from him. I was really intrigued by the idea of other entrepreneurs opening up about how much money they make, the mistakes they’ve made, and sharing their best tips for success.

One thing I’ve seen already is that being a one-person business can be really lonely. I’ve lost the collective knowledge of working with a group of co-workers, and I most business people aren’t very keen on telling you how much money they made last year, how much they expect to make this year, and how they make a profit on their products. It’s sort of a taboo subject, but it’s crucial to learn and understand these aspects of business in order to succeed.

I didn’t take any business courses in college, and I figured this would be a much less-expensive option than going back to school.

What comes in the kit?

• An email each day, for 365 days
• 15 case studies from entrepreneurs earning $50,000-$150,000 a year in net income, and have no more than three employees
• 6 in-depth video interviews
• 9 short videos on tools and tips
• Product launch tips
• A recording of “No question left behind” webinar
• and more…

…and what have I learned so far?

A lot, and I’m only on day 42 of 365 in the email series. I don’t want to give away the content of the kit, but here is one of my favorite tips that has really stuck out for me.

“Service providers, let me pay you.”

A little industry secret: Most designers HATE pricing projects. Actually, I’ll go so far as to say that every designer I know hates pricing projects. Every job is custom-priced, depending on a ridiculous number of variables. As a designer, pricing a project based on the specific details makes sense to me.  Variables like timeline, end deliverables, complexity of information, etc all factor into the price I quote. But, if  I were a potential customer, this would drive me nuts.

Cue the lightbulb moment.

I research online first for almost everything I buy. And if it’s for a service, especially one I’m not familiar with, the first thing I’m trying to decide is if I can afford this person/business. Their credentials/portfolio/etc. could be awesome, but if they are out of my price range, I could care less.  No prices listed? Call for quote? Click, click, back to Google I go.

I’m always interested in finding new clients, and I’d love if some of those leads were generated from my website. So, the EBK has inspired me to completely restructure my website, services and portfolio. I’m in the process of developing base “packages” that you can shop through. These packages will have set prices that you can buy right away if you’d like, via PayPal. The goal is to make it easy for your customers to pay you, which goes against everything in my industry, but makes perfect sense from a general seller-buyer relationship.

Interested?

Maybe the EBK sounds like a good fit for you. It’s not aimed at any one industry, which is another really cool thing about it. I’ve learned from a ketubah maker and a raw foods witch and all sorts of other cool people. Anywho, it’s on sale today through tomorrow (Wednesday, May 18) at 11:00am CST. One day only.

I (temporarily) fell off the blogging wagon, but I’m hopping right back on. For now, I am committing to a Tuesday + Friday publishing schedule, with a goal of increasing it to three times per week later on.

What have I been up to?

The short answer: reading, learning and brainstorming (and client work, of course).

The longer answer: I have been spending a lot of time focusing and redefining my business. This journey began about 8 months ago at the Creative Freelancer Conference. At the end of the conference, we each wrote down “Things I’m committed to doing for my business in the next six months” on a card. The conference leaders would mail us the cards in about six months, as a friendly reminder of our goals.

I received mine in the mail about a week ago:

Guess what? I am working from my own office, which I absolutely love. I have spent the last six months developing a marketing strategy. My website and resume are current, sans one recent project. I (obviously) started a blog, and I am putting the finishing touches on my e-newsletter. (I’m working on the sign-up form for the newsletter, but you can also email me to get on the list.)

Looking at this list gave me a huge boost of confidence, because when I wrote those goals, I thought I might accomplish two of them, at most.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll talk more about how I’ve made it this far (it involves a lot of reading and asking for help) and where I’m headed next (including new services!). I’m really excited to share my new goals with you.

One thing that has been instrumental in developing these new goals is my Empire Building Kit series from Chris Guillebeau. Days 1 through 41 of the 365-day EBK course have seriously rocked my socks. I wanted to mention the EBK today because it goes on sale tomorrow for another 24-hour launch, which is the first time it’s been available for sale since I bought it. If you have your own small business, or are interested in starting one, I highly recommend checking it out. I’ll talk more about what I learned from it tomorrow.  Feel free to comment or email me with questions too.

Thanks for sticking around through the post drought. I really appreciate it.

As I mentioned in Monday’s post (“Anyone who says, ‘Looks don’t matter,’ is a liar”), my mom and I went to a spa last weekend. During my massage, the massage therapist and I were chatting a little bit. I think I said something like, “I bet after all this work, you’ll need to hire someone to give you a massage.” And then I laughed.

I should mention that, up to this point, I felt very comfortable and relaxed. The massage was going great.

And then, she started talking negatively about herself and her profession.

She went on for a good 10 minutes about how she’d never get a massage because all massage therapists are perverts. She would never let anyone touch her. She talked about how she was really bad at draping and that draping was the worst part of massage therapy school. “But, don’t worry, I’ve never exposed a client.”

I’m sorry, what??

This was my first massage (which she knew) and I had plenty of my own reservations about stripping down to my underwear and letting some stranger touch me. I had kind of gotten over it (she is a professional, it’s perfectly fine, I told myself) — until she starting talking down about herself and her profession.

What she said completely changed my experience. Her lack of professionalism made such an impression that it overshadowed her excellent technical skills.

What I learned

Business is about so much more than just the service you provide. I’m very conscious of my own short comings. I know I have highlighted them for clients on numerous occasions. Maybe it’s a fear of failure, so I feel like I need to warn them first, just in case I mess it up.

“Well, I’ve never done this before, but I’ll give it a try.”

I’m sure my clients are brimming with confidence when they hear that one. I’ve had a very good track record so far, and I took the job because — even though I hadn’t done x specifically before — I have the skill set to be able to successfully complete the job. My clients don’t need to hear my nervous inner dialogue.

Before I went in for my massage, the salon owner said very positive things about the masseuse. I felt completely confident and trusted her expertise. But, after hearing her speak down about herself and her profession, my opinion completely changed. After all, if she doesn’t believe in her skills, why should I?

What you say matters. No matter where or how you say it.

It is so important to pay attention to the language we use in person, on the phone, via email, on Faceboook, on Twitter — everywhere. It all matters. Off the cuff comments or random rants on Twitter still make an impression.

I have a tendency to do or say stupid things when I’m rushed or nervous. Since I can quickly compose and publish, I don’t always take the time to edit myself. But, I’ve realized that it’s important to take time and think about what you want your brand to say about you. Because we all have a brand, even if we don’t own our own business or have a logo.

What do you think?

I’m still discovering and developing my brand. Where are you at in the process? Have you had any experiences where a comment changed your perception of a business?

Lately, I’ve been having a series of mini-epiphanies. I think I’ve finally heard the same sage advice enough times from enough people for it to really sink in. Or perhaps I needed to experience it from the client/customer perspective to really “get it.”

Look the part.

Over the weekend, I treated my mom and myself to a spa day, courtesy of a Groupon I purchased awhile back. We spent over three hours getting a manicure/pedicure, a one-hour massage and a mini facial. The services were fantastic – but the staff were sloppily dressed and there was an avalanche of dirty towels piled in the massage room. The glass was smudged with dirty fingerprints. There were scuff marks on the wall. These details made me question whether I would return and pay full price for the services. The salon just didn’t “feel” high end.

I was reminded that it is more than just the quality of work that matters to your clients/customers. Read the rest of this entry »

80 Ways to Steal Valuable Minutes for Your Work Day from the American Express OPEN Forum, shares a collection of ideas from the best small business and productivity bloggers and consultants. There are tons of time-saving lists out there, but here are a few ideas I’ve found helpful:

Step away from the desk

I’ve tried the “exercise” tip from Jonathan Fields a few times this week. When I hit a total mental standstill, I got up and moved around – either picking up clutter throughout my workspace or taking a quick walk to the 7-Eleven for an afternoon pick-me-up. When I sat back down to work, my mind was quieter, and the rest of the afternoon was far more productive.

Block time for tasks

I’ve also been trying to block my schedule into “X hrs on Task A” or “X minutes on Task B” – and aiming to complete certain things before and after lunch. I use Office TIme (available for Mac and Windows) to track my hours on a variety of things. I like that the timer is up at the top of my screen, making it easy to see how much time I have left to work. It is really easy to use, and has helped keep me accountable.

Immediately plan your day

When I arrive in the morning, I spend 15-30 minutes reviewing email, my calendar and jotting down my list for the day. I try to create the list in order of importance, and I leave off anything that doesn’t have to be done today. I reference the list all day, instead of wasting time reassessing my to-do list throughout the day.

Turn off email alerts (seriously)

It’s amazing how distracting that little “ping!” and pop-up balloon can be. Again, even if it only distracts you for 30 seconds, think about how many times the alert pops up throughout the day. I read this tip at least 30 times on various sources before I finally did it myself. Trust me, you won’t “forget” to check your email.

I’ve also stayed off Adium my collective instant messaging client (for Mac), for the last week or so, and seen my productivity greatly increase. Again, it wasn’t necessarily that I was spending all day chatting, but I was distracted by people signing on/off and the alerts that popped up.

Use the simplest tool available

Right now, I’m composing this blog entry in TextEdit, adding in the basic HTML tags as I go along. I’ve found that it takes me much, much longer to write and format the post if I do it all in the WordPress interface. [I've researched/written all this in about 20 minutes] If the extra bells and whistles are available, I use them. By using the simplest tool available, you can minimize the distractions and focus on the true task at hand.

I hope these tips help you find some extra minutes throughout your day. Please share your own tips in the comments.

Photo credit: brandoncwarren/ / CC BY-NC 2.0