I’ve been on a two-month (plus) information binge. I bought e-courses. E-books. Regular books. Had conversations with colleagues. And with clients.  And my mom.

I learned a LOT. During the process, I realized that there are a lot of things I know I “should” be doing … but I’m not. It’s not the first time I’ve heard about these things (like picking a niche) but I haven’t had the guts to actually do it. There’s a laundry list of items that I insist my clients should be doing, but I’m not practicing what I preach. And so, I’ve been freaking out.

To give you an idea, here’s a snippet of recent my inner dialogue:

What’s my niche? What makes me unique? Hm, I really like doing page layout.  But no one prints anything anymore. Maybe e-book design…but, will people buy it? What should I even charge for that? How often should I blog? What should I blog about? Man, I need an editorial calendar. Ugh, but what topics? I also really need a new website that’s better integrated with my blog. Should I use WordPress? ExpressionEngine? No, it’ll have to be WordPress. Which theme? I like the Genesis framework, but none of the child themes really suit the look I’m going for. I’m not a big enough WordPress ninja to do massive customization. Hm. My email has not been working well lately, I think I need to change hosting companies. Wow, I just lost my entire blog. Let’s go back to the old hosting company. Phew, I recovered my blog. I really need to start my email newsletter. I’ve been saying that for almost a year. How often should I send it out? I think it should be weekly, but do I have enough to say to publish one every week? What should I call it? Should I go with Aweber? Do I just send it out to my current/former clients, or should I email them and ask first? Wow, it’s been over two months since I posted on my blog. And none of the links on my blog are working. 404s everywhere. Damn.

I don’t have any real answers, but I decided that I’m just going to start. Somewhere.

I wrote this post to break the deafening silence on my blog. I picked a new WordPress theme and I’ve been developing it locally using MAMP (which is really cool, by the way). I decided that I want to combine my love of design with writing/editing (thanks, Charlie Gilkey). I realized that two of my favorite clients have coaching backgrounds and that I might want to work with coaches. I think I am going to use Aweber for my e-newsletter and I want to start sending it out this month. You can sign up for it in the sidebar. I’d love your feedback on it once I send it out.

So, I didn’t quit. I didn’t go on vacation. I just got really nervous and completely froze. As Seth Godin teaches, I must learn to quiet the lizard brain and get over my fear of shipping.

It’s not going to be perfect, but as long as it’s just a little bit better than before, it’ll have to do.

I met a client at Caribou Coffee last week to review some logo comps. If you’ve never been to one, Caribou is like Starbucks’ rural, woodsy cousin. Anyway, I picked up my coffee and grabbed a couple of napkins to wipe off the table. I did a double take, and grinned:

“Yet another thing to stay awake for: Write a really, really short novel.” followed by their tag line, “Life is short. Stay awake for it.”

It’s just a napkin. Two-color printed on one side. But the clever message spoke to a core group of coffeehouse-goers: the artists who camp out for hours, sipping coffee while working on their masterpieces. It relates perfectly to their tag line (which I never noticed before picking up this napkin.) It addresses the key pain point of their consumers. They’re tired. How can Caribou help? By serving you coffee, because “Life is short. Stay awake for it.”

A napkin, by definition, is something to be used and discarded. Yet, by printing a simple message, they are encouraging you to use it in another way — as the perfect place to scribble notes and ideas — which means you won’t toss it. And if you did scrawl something brilliant on this fun napkin, you’d create a positive subconscious association with the coffeehouse.

It’s brilliant.

How can you surprise your customers? How can you show that you “get” them? Are you paying attention to the smallest details, even things that are meant to be discarded?

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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?

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