Life Rant

A bit of work, a bit of home, a bit of me

5 Grammar Mistakes that Make You Sound Like a Chimp

laptop chimp

Writing can be really no-win. It’s not fair, but it’s true.

If you obsess over every grammatical and structural point, you can come across as stiff. But if you’re lax and make a bunch of simple errors, you’ll come across as stupid.

You make one mistake and a lot of people will let it go. Two and you’re making them suspicious. Keep that up, with your intelligence taking hits at each turn, and your reader will decide that you’re actually a chimpanzee — and not one of the smart ones, either.

Copyblogger has covered grammar nicely here and here and here. But I, as a newcomer to these parts, have a few more peeves to add to the pot. Ignore them at your peril, Bubbles.*

1. Improper use of “myself”

This is one that people make because they think that complicating the language needlessly will make them sound smart.

(It’s the same principle as a barely literate inner-city tenant telling me haughtily that her brother is “presently incarcerated in a corrections facility.”)

Unfortunately, misuse of “myself” isn’t just needlessly complicated. It’s also wrong.

Here’s a typical incorrect use:

“The committee will consist of Bob, Mr. Parsons, and myself.”

In this circumstance, “me” is the right choice. In general, “myself” is a word you shouldn’t find much use for, so if you’re using it a lot, you’re probably using it wrong. “Myself” should only be used reflexively, to refer back to the subject.

For example:

“I did the job myself.”

2. Subject/predicate disagreement

This is extremely common, and I can almost forgive it because the correct structure is cumbersome. Here’s an example of a disagreement:

“Clearly, this person didn’t know what they were doing.”

The problem is “this person” (singular) being used together with the pronoun “they” (plural). “These people didn’t know what they were doing” is correct, and so is “This person didn’t know what he or she was doing.” In each of those cases, the number (singular or plural) in the subject agrees with the number in the predicate.

Number disagreements are irritating to solve, because if you have a bunch of them and are writing about a hypothetical or unknown person, your copy ends up being overrun with awkward “he or she’s.”

A good compromise is to pick a gender and run with it. The standard used to be to assume any unknown person was a man (e.g. “This person didn’t know what he was doing”), but it’s more common today to use “she” as the universal pronoun. Alternatively, you can alternate “she” and “he” in different instances throughout your copy.

(If you’re confused on this, try substituting a person’s name in the subject. This tends to make things more obvious. Using the initial example, you’d come up with, “Clearly, Bob didn’t know what they were doing.” Assuming you know that “they” is supposed to refer to Bob and not to another group, this becomes obviously wrong.)

3. “An historic”

I always get argument on this one, but I’m going to put my foot down anyway. Not only is putting “an” in front of a word with an audible H grammatically incorrect, it’s also uncommonly annoying.

Chalk this one up to trying to sound intelligent, like the “myself” rule above. Somehow, users feel that the use of “an” in this clunky way makes them sound distinguished, kind of like adding ye olde in front of tanning parlor, or saying indubitably with an English accent.

If you’re bristling at this one, ask yourself if you’d say, “an horse” or “an house.” What would people think if you went into the store and said, “I’ll have an half gallon of milk, please”?

You can and should use “an” if the H is silent and the word starts with a phonetic vowel, like “an hour.” Otherwise, go with “a” as the article.

4. Was vs. were

Everyone makes this mistake, so don’t beat yourself up if you do. But you should also fix it.

Here’s the incorrect use:

“If I was rich, I’d buy lots and lots of pants.”

However, the correct choice here would be were, not was.

Were here would be correctly used in the subjunctive mood — a case in which what you’re saying is hypothetical. If you’ve used “if,” that’s a pretty good indicator that were is appropriate:

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

(You’re not me, so it’s subjunctive)

or

“If I were at work right now, I’d be eating a waffle.”

Remember, you use “were” because you’re actually not at work right now. But if you were writing about an actual past event, you’d use “was” (e.g. “When I was at work”).

5. Incorrect use of “literally”

Please don’t do this with a straight face. Not only will you look uneducated, you’ll also look absolutely hilarious.

Example: Kristen Stewart from the Twilight movies recently told a reporter, “I get to do something that literally if I didn’t get to do it, I would implode.”

Now, think about that for a second. If Kristen couldn’t act, she would actually collapse in upon herself like a black hole. I’d like to see that.

I collect “literally” mentions. Britney Spears has been “literally on a roller coaster to hell.” Crowds have “literally turned the city upside down.” And in a particularly grisly turn of events, a mall Santa reported that needy, sad children “literally tear his heart out.”

Whenever you use “literally,” stop and think about whether or not what you’re saying is actually true, in those exact words. If it’s not, use “practically,” “essentially,” or (ideally) “metaphorically” instead.

If there’s one thing you don’t want to be, it’s accidentally hilarious. Seriously, trust me on this one.

* “Bubbles” was Michael Jackson’s chimp. What, have you forgotten already?

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant is the creator of Zero to Business: A ridiculously simple guide to turning your online business from tech headache to profit center and almost certainly made at least one idiotic grammatical mistake above. By all means, feel free to jump all over it in the comments section.

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How Simplicity Can Help Creativity, Briefly

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” - Charles Mingus

Creativity is often made out to be a nebulous, messy, complicated, difficult thing, and it can be.

But it doesn’t have to be.

The judicious application of simplicity can help someone to create, whether that’s writing, creating art, designing, teaching, starting a small business, or in some other way making ideas take shape into reality.

People who want to create are hampered by complications — tools that are too complicated, projects that are too overwhelming, the distractions of the modern world, too many cooks, too many options, too busy.

Simplify, and many of these problems go away.

Let’s take a brief look at how simplicity can help solve some of the problems of creating:

1. Ideas. It’s hard to find ideas, right? Not necessarily. Simplify things: find vastly different ideas and combine them in a new way. This isn’t the only way to get ideas, but it’s simple and useful.

2. Ideas, again. Instead of finding ways to do more than everyone else, find ways to do less. If your competitor has a coffee shop with a wide array of beverages and food items, narrow it down: offer just one kind of coffee, but make it amazing. “We sell only one thing: the best cup of coffee you’ve ever tasted.” If you’re a blogger competing against writers who cover a vast variety of topics, cover just one, but do it better than anyone else.

3. Clear distractions. One of the biggest obstacles to anyone who wants to create these days is the distractions of the Internet, of email and IM, of meetings and people coming up to us to talk to us, of phone calls and Blackberries and iPhones. Clear these out of the way, so you can focus on creating.

4. Remove complications. Complications get in the way of creating. Find ways to simplify projects, simplify processes, remove barriers, narrow things down, remove choices, but increase focus.

5. Focus on one project till you’re done. This goes against how most people work, and in fact I have a hard time doing it sometimes, as I get excited about several projects at once. But it’s how I’ve been working recently and I can tell you, there’s no better way to create. Clear everything else off your schedule, at least for the moment, and focus on one project. Keep the focus small, so the project doesn’t take more than a week (if it does, break it into more than one project). Then just focus on that one project, until you’re done. It feels great. Now move on to the next.

6. Use one simple tool. For me, I just choose one text editor to write (usually either WriteRoom or TextEdit). The simpler the tool, the better, because full featured tools end up being distracting and you want to fiddle with all the options. A pen and pad are also great. If you must use more than one tool, keep them small and simple.

7. When you’re overwhelmed, focus on less. If the project is too big or complicated or just hard, narrow it down. If you must write a book, don’t focus on the whole book, or even a whole chapter. Just write a section — something you can do in a few hours or less. If you’re starting a new business, don’t worry about getting the whole thing up and running — what’s the smallest amount you can offer at first, the smallest unit you can create? Focus on that.

8. Do just a little each day. If you can write for 20-30 minutes a day, or take a few photos a day, it won’t be long before you’ve created something great. This tip is for those who think they don’t have time to create. It doesn’t have to take all day, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Just clear 20 minutes and create — do nothing else during that time.

9. Be in the moment, let creativity flow through you. When you are creating, feel free to be messy and don’t worry about perfection and just get it out. The best way to do this is to forget about the past and future, and just focus on the moment. Pour yourself into creating, and let it flow.

10. Whittle. Once you’ve created that crappy first draft, and just let everything pour out, it’s time to edit and whittle. Get it down to simple. See if you can cut out everything extraneous.

11. Show up. The simple truth to creating. You just gotta show up. It might or might not happen, you might or might not create something great, but you sure won’t create a thing if you don’t show up.

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The different sketch styles of the designers at 37signals

Thought it would be fun to share the very different sketch styles of the designers at 37signals. They range from very neat to a mess (mine).

Jamie Dihiansan

Jamie’s sketches are neat, well organized, and readable. They’re fairly high resolution and anyone who’s looking at them can decipher them without assistance. They also often contain supporting materials – ideas, questions, explanations, and goals.

Jason Zimdars

Jason Zimdars’ sketches are also really clean. Nicely organized, consistent, detailed (including shading), and self-explanatory. Everything has its own space. He’ll often iterate a variety of ideas, one after another, on the same page instead of using separate pages for each new idea.

Ryan Singer

Ryan’s sketches trend toward abstract shapes and general ideas, not specific detailed executions. But they’re still neat, logical, and mostly readable. They’re often used as a jumping off point for discussion instead of “this is the solution.” He doesn’t spend a lot of time on drawing, most of the time is spent thinking. The sketches are just a rough way to get an idea into a form that can be shared with others. Ryan almost always uses a thick, low resolution sharpie marker.

Jason Fried

My sketches are generally a mess. Lots of overlapping ideas, text you can’t read, and very abstract shapes, lines, squiggles, and arrows. A page like this usually takes me about 30 seconds to spin out of my head. I just draw an idea without thinking too much about how it looks. They are rarely (if ever) given to someone without explanation or discussion. Like Ryan, my sketches are almost always drawn with a thick, low resolution sharpie marker.

I have no idea if any of this is interesting, but we thought it would be fun to share the different sketch styles of the designers at 37signals.

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21 comments so far

Aris Bartee 27 Aug 09

This is interesting. I keep a sketch book of app ideas or layouts that come to mind. I kept it up even during the my “I’m a enterprise developer phase”. Now that I’m back to my design roots and coding my designs, I look over those books to ramp.

The designs are out of context and have no bearing on my current work, but it reminds what is possible.

Greg 27 Aug 09

This is very interesting. I’ve been thinking lately about my process of designing and whether I should use words in my sketches or stick with mostly abstractions in order to focus on structure and layout first then focus on copy in the next iteration. It’s neat to see the different sketch styles you guys have to contrast it with my own. Thanks for posting this.

GeeIWonder 27 Aug 09

I have no idea if any of this is interesting

It is.

Marc Jenkins 27 Aug 09

Definitely interesting stuff. My style probably resembles Jamie’s the most though I like Ryan’s more thinking, less drawing approach.

cd 27 Aug 09

This guy is the business.

Remontti Putkimies 27 Aug 09

Not sure if it was interesting. Mildly bemusing perhaps.

Jason Robb 27 Aug 09

Thanks for sharing these. It is very interesting to see the artifacts, but it would be even more interesting to hear the conversation around them. Do the neat sketches provide more opportunities for feedback? I bet it’s hard to so, or easy to say that it really doesn’t matter. Chicken scratch can be just as valuable as something more refined like Jamie’s.

Here is sketch I made recently:

I’ll be publishing 2 articles about my UX tools for sketching near the end of September with www.uxbooth.com.

Thanks again,

Jason R.

JF 27 Aug 09

Jason: My personal opinion is that really detailed sketches are a waste of time, but everyone has their own way of working.

I don’t impose my sketch style on Jamie or Jason Z., but I do wish they’d “get messy with a sharpie” for a while and give it a try. Sketches are really about exploring, not perfecting. High resolution sketches take time away from basic exploration of more ideas.

It’s like a 10 page proposal vs. a 2 page proposal. We all think we need to send out 10 page proposals, but the 2 pager usually does the job just as well and saves everyone a lot of time.

Just my 2 cents.

Robert 27 Aug 09

I think my sketches would be more effective (and I think I would put more into them) if I was better at drawing. The sketches I create are usually pretty sloppy but tend to get the point across, so I guess I can’t complain.

Jeff 27 Aug 09

JasonF, your sketch looks like Ryan’s sketch, rendered in IE6 !

Jason Robb 27 Aug 09

Agreed, JF. Like your sketches, mine are never a high-resolution representation. The best sketches are done fast, and they’re always kindling for conversation.

Do you sketch on the spot while you’re discussing a design? I imagine the tendency to go detailed happens mostly when isolated from discussion.

JZ 27 Aug 09

I think where Jason F, Ryan, and I differ is that I tend to stick with sketching a little longer than they do.

My initial sketches look a lot like theirs: very loose and more abstract. Those sketches might be a page or two in my book before the one shown in this post.

Where we are different is that I will usually continue to refine the idea on paper, which is more of what you see here.

Many times, I’ll be working in Photoshop or HTML and want to quickly try another idea without doing a lot of work. I’ll then go back to paper and “try” it there before committing to major code or graphic changes. Many times you can work on the idea right there.

The portion of the sketch above where you can see the “email” label in each row was late in the process. I was working in code and really needed to refine that portion. It was faster to go through a bunch of iterations on paper rather than vetting each one in HTML .

It is very interesting to see the artifacts, but it would be even more interesting to hear the conversation around them.

I work remotely so my sketches are 90% for myself — all of the conversation is in my head. For me sketching is a way to record my thinking. When I get stuck on a project, I always return to my sketchbook to make sure I’m executing true to the original idea, or to re-evaluate ideas I may have passed upon. It’s an invaluable tool.

JD 27 Aug 09

Actually since I’ve been working at 37signals I haven’t been sketching as much. I think it’s because at my previous jobs sketches were a form of communicating to non-designers (developers, project managers, etc.). I created sketches to explain where I wanted stuff to go, etc. Maybe there was even an IA involved that created polished wireframes in Vizio.

Now since we don’t have IAs, project managers, and HTML developers (in the Agency typical in-house sense) I don’t need those sketches anymore really. I just get it in HTML and review with Jason F, Ryan, and Jason Z through Campfire (our group chat app). Sometimes others like Jeremy or Jeffrey and even DHH chime in.

The process here is way more fluid because we don’t need to create various official and unofficial forms of documentation. Doesn’t mean this is THE WAY it should be. It’s just the way I’ve evolved my process over the past year.

Luis 27 Aug 09

Interesting or not, the different sketch styles must work because you guys put out great products.

Thanks for sharing.

Matt 27 Aug 09

@JF: It’s interesting and thanks for sharing.

I think it’s just about getting a “flow” going.

I think most would admit that it takes time (1/2 hour or more) to get flow when coding; the proverbial “zone”. Sketching seems to have a much lower time threshold.

Authors use different techniques to break through “writers block”. Some suggestions: open up a word processor and type every thought, even the most mundane…until they achieve flow. (Course, you guys are working on your second book, so you may/may not have had to do this).

Given your (our) mediums are so visual, seems that sketching is quite comparable to this/similar methods…but, the aim is similar.

I guess I’m “lo-res” too; office and home office have of 8×11.5, bond and a box of sharpies. Sketch box for when I travel.

Only bad part about this is method: sharpie hand tattoos (though, sometimes fun too).

Alex 27 Aug 09

Interesting. My sketches are very abstract :-)

DL 27 Aug 09

Thanks for the insight.

It’s nice to see how others go through the “process.” Whether it’s sketching or coding you have to find what works for you and sometimes what works for you only does because you haven’t seen how someone else does it.

I think of these posts as either wake up calls to simplify what I’m doing or validation that I may actually be on the right track.

I have yet to walk away from this type of post without having learned something that will help me with the next design or section of code that I’m going to tackle.

Russ 27 Aug 09

I was wondering if you guys have ever used or or considered using interactive whiteboards.

As your team is pretty spread out it seems like you might really benefit from sketches that could be edited simultaneously and shared seamlessly.

JF 27 Aug 09

Russ: We can share paper very easily. Just drop it in the ScanSnap, it’s saved to the desktop, and we drop it into Campfire or Basecamp where we have all our discussions. It takes about 30 seconds and it fits right into our workflow.

I’ve seen a lot of technology try to replicate pen on paper and I’ve never found it to be even close to the original.

Adam Fitzgerald 27 Aug 09

Jason,

You mention how well scanning and discussing in Campfire fits into your workflow. How do you get around the problem of interrupting people who are buried in code, or do you schedule your discussions on this sort of thing?

Interruptions are a big problem with programmers, so was wondering how you handle it in your team. Maybe a different post :)

Cheers Adam

MI 28 Aug 09

Adam: One of the wonderful things about Campfire is that it’s not in your face unless you want it to be. We generally all reserve the right to completely ignore Campfire if we’re engrossed in another task that we don’t want to be distracted from. As Ryan posted recently, we’ll even take it a step further and go completely radio silent if we really want to be head down on a problem.

If something does require an immediate response, we’re also usually available by IM, SMS , or even phone as a last resort. It’s pretty uncommon for us to have a burning issue that has to be dealt with right this second, though.

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12 Tricks for Optimizing Your Freelance Career

optimize

The day and life of a freelancer can get pretty hectic. It seems all too often we forget that we hold more than the title “boss”. We forget how best to manage our expenses and disposable income. We remember to tweet what we should be doing and forget to ever do it. We forget how to deal with clients and how to make new ones. And, sadly, we forget why we choose to do it our way rather than someone else’s.

These 12 tricks may not seem to have much to do with each other, but they all lead to the fruition of one goal: optimizing your workflow so you can focus on why you became a freelancer, instead of letting freelancing take over you.

1. Get Ready For the Day

Quit waking up at noon. No more leaving your laptop right next to your bed so you can lazily stay in bed until 2pm, only getting up to use the restroom.

Try doing this for a week: wake up at 8am (latest), take a shower, brush your teeth, eat breakfast, put on a polo shirt and for God’s sakes put on some pants. The more serious something is, the more appropriately we should dress for it. Never forget that you’re a boss – start acting like one.

2. Have Business Cards, a Letterhead, & Invoice Template

Acting and being professional is especially important when it comes time to getting paid. Buyers want that sense of professionalism, even in the freelancing world. They’re about to pay you a wad of cash; don’t ask them for it by sending an email stating, “You owe me this much.” Like all things in life, it’s not what you say, but how you say it.

Have a simple but overly explained contract. Make what was agreed upon clear. Make it attractive. Make them almost happy to pay you. And most importantly, add up each service they purchased. Here’s a good example to try and emulate.

Give your client alternative methods of contact in your email signature, whether it is Skype or a cell phone. Chances are they will never use it, but it will make you more real and give your client the peace of mind knowing that you won’t disappear into cyberspace.

Oh, and of course, spell check and grammar check everything. Did you get that?

3. What’s Your Homepage?

Even though Google is set as the default homepage for many of us, chances are we don’t conduct a web search the first time we open our web browser. We may check our email, look at a few web development sites, download something, close, and repeat.

Who ever said you couldn’t have more than one homepage? No more excuses. I personally have five homepages. They are the five websites I view most often because they have what I’m passionate about. Web development applications and articles about new design techniques that either cut or make my time more enjoyable are things I am interested in.

4. Find What Works For You

No need to reinvent the wheel. If you’re more comfortable with a PC than a Mac, stick with it. However, don’t be afraid to give new things a try. Below is a list of programs (paid and open source) that I have used through the years. I found that I strayed from your typical web development and design tools and found a more comfortable way to get my job done.

Before I used this:  

  1. phpMyAdmin
  2. Notepad++
  3. Internet Explorer
  4. Art Museums
  5. AdSense and AdWords
  6. Joomla!
    Paint Shop Pro

Now I use this:

  1. SQL Buddy
  2. Panic Coda
  3. Firefox 3.5
  4. Smashing Magazine Monday Inspiration
  5. Direct Advertising
  6. Wordpress
  7. Photoshop CS4

5. Finish Your Own Website First

When you learn to take care of your own web needs first, then you can start to tackle your clients’. The irony of a web developer/designer not having his or her own website is as ironic and unprofessional as the plumber without running water in his home. And since I consider the web as online real-estate (some live in big houses on Hollywood Boulevard, others in shacks on Noname Street), it would make sense to build your own home before you build one for someone else.

6. You’ll Be Your Own Boss – & a Lot of Other Things

You may have a passion for web design or developing web applications. Heck, maybe both. The more you want something the more you’re willing to lose to get it. For a lot of freelancers this means job security and long nights.

Most freelancers learn this the hard way. Freelancers quickly forget that they hold a lot of titles. Yes, you may be the boss, but you’re also the janitor, the receptionist, the customer support, the technical support, the accountant, the research and development, and project manager. You’re a business all in one.

Don’t get overwhelmed by the numerous responsibilities you’ve undertaken. The return for all that is the freedom to work where, when, and most importantly, how you want.

7. Advertise On Websites & Blogs You Visit

I took the plunge and cast out into the deep. I spent $50 for a month’s worth of advertising on a blog that I greatly admire and respect. The return each day was roughly an additional 70-90 hits and roughly 2-3 RSS feed subscribers.

I chose to advertise on this blog for a few reasons.

First, it was affordable. $50 is about the same amount as me going out to a restaurant or buying a new pair of jeans that I could easily live without. You’re going to have to sacrifice a little here to get a little more there.

Second, this blog I advertised with never advertised for itself. It was spread completely word of mouth. The only people viewing this blog were visitors who a friend told them to visit, or from other websites that linked back to it. Any website that gets popular by word of mouth alone is a website worth investing in.

Thirdly, I want this blog to succeed. His blog is equivalent to the surrounding property of a billboard ad I just purchased. I want the area around my billboard to be attractive. I want the bushes trimmed and the paint fresh; I want the colors bright and the spotlight working. My $50 perhaps allowed the blog author more time to write another great tutorial or give his website a new look and thus drive more traffic to his website, and in return more to my own.

The last reason is simple: I look at this blog every day. The same people who were reading this blog were people just like me. For my new project, I was looking for people who were interested in the same development and design resources as me.

In the end, it paid off. Not because I got about 60 more subscribers, but because of the relationship I built with the blog’s author and the contacts I made with the visitors coming from it.

8. Word of Mouth is Still the Best Form of Advertising

A lot of us are not moved by advertisements anymore. We could see a starving child begging for a quarter a day (and we do see this) and we’ll start flipping through the channels. Why is this? Is it because we know all marketers are liars? With this preconditioned response all of us have to a stranger offering something unfamiliar to us, a few problems arise: How do we get people to care about what we’re doing? How do we get popular without holding up a sign? Here’s what I posted on the “Advertise” page of a recent project I completed:

“Sometimes an idea works. Sometimes little things can push your product over the edge of mediocrity and flourish in a stream of superiority. Sometimes it takes a little work, other times it barely takes any work at all.

We’ll do whatever we can to get your product, service or idea to spread. We want you to talk. Good deals and great ideas get people to talk.”

I answered the two questions above more or less in the previous quote. In case you missed it, here is the answer: Certainly you can talk to other people, but not solely through an advertisement. Talk to them via forums, comments, blogs, you name it; anything that is one-on-one. You are more likely to get a response when you focus on one person than dividing your energy on a group of 5,000. Let me give you a personal example: I was a member of the a group of volunteers that did community service… at 9am each Saturday. I would send out a generic email to about 50 friends the Thursday before. How many of those people showed up? None.

This is a little example of what I’ll call “guilt” economics. I sent out that email to 50 people. For each individual to not show up is to reap 2% of the guilt of not coming (since I sent it to a group of 50 people), and enjoy 100% of the benefits of sleeping in. Advertising works just like this: everyone is trying to talk to everyone. Focus your energy on one potential client.

9. Build a Reputation By Doing a Favor for a Reputable Person

Once you’re sure you can back up what you’re offering, whether it is web development, web design, or consulting services, offer it out for free. That’s right – free. (Quit shaking your head and continue reading, I’m not done yet.) This does not mean offering it out to Joe Shmoe. This means offering it to someone who has a reputation – a great one. Many of us make our friends through another friend. Do a favor for someone who has a lot of friends (that could be in real life or we could be talking RSS subscribers) and they’ll be sure to talk about you.

10. Nothing in Life is Free, But Some Things are Priceless

Meeting someone is priceless. Making someone’s day is priceless. Money may have helped make it happen, but even money is directed by the good will of someone else. Being remembered is also priceless. Do something memorable for your client, whether it’s sending them a simple “Thank You” letter in the mail for doing business with you, or throwing in business cards that they weren’t expecting. You are bound to get that client talking about you and surely get yourself more business.

11. Follow Up & Follow Through

We’re used to having people tell us one thing and then do another. When someone does what they’re supposed to do we’re actually quite surprised. I would rather hire someone who I can depend on to do just a little, than someone who I could only depend on sometimes to do what I ask. “Under promise and over deliver” and you’ll be sure to make a lasting impression.

Unless your client tells you to stop emailing them, keep asking if there’s anything they need. I’d rather have someone who was overly helpful than someone who didn’t care at all. If you sent them a form to fill out and it’s been three days, give them a call and ask them if there is anything you can do. People generally hate doing things and love when someone else can either do it for them or lend a helping hand.

12. Keep Your Spirits & Job Alive With Personal Projects

A personal project should be something enjoyable, inventive, and inspire you to continue pursuing your freelancing career. If all you do is jobs for clients then being a freelancer will undoubtedly start to get old very quickly. Don’t let your side projects die. Upon completion of a template or web application, find an online marketplace like ThemeForest.net. If you sell a template for $30 and you make two sales each weekday for a year, that’s over $3,000. Make five templates that sell, and things really start to add up. Best of all, there is little to no maintenance cost of selling your product.

At the same time, do not let your own projects get in the way of your clients’. Remember, you have to sacrifice a little time in one aspect so you can make a bigger investment of time in something else you want to work at.

In The End, What Does “Free” Really Mean?

The “free” in freelancing should be defined as “freedom to do the job a better way.” Not necessarily how you want, but the freedom to make changes, analyze project requirements, and design accordingly in a way you think will have the best result.

The reason we can’t stand our boss is not because we’re jealous, but because we’re frustrated. We see a problem and we know we can handle it better. This is why we freelance. We know we can do better on our own with nothing but ourselves holding us back.

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Seeking Work? A Free Online Book Presents Some Good Advice

We’ve done a number of posts on good strategies and tools for finding work, whether you’re in need of a new job or some additional freelance gigs. As AltSearchEngines reports, there is a new, free e-book available on the topic, called “30 Ideas. The Ideas of Successful Job Search,” by Tim Tyrell-Smith. You can download the PDF here. The book has quite a lot of useful advice.

The book opens up with a collection of job search resources, many of which are sites that I wasn’t previously familiar with. Career Rocketeer is an interesting job search blog, for example, while Career Hub collects advice strictly from career experts.

The first official chapter in the book consists mainly of advice concerning forming an official job search strategy, and not going about the task haphazardly — tips that you’ve probably heard before. I found some of the other individual chapters more interesting, such as “11 Keys to Successful Job Search Networking,” which traces the path of a specific networking experience that began through two people finding each other on LinkedIn. The chapter “9 Ways to Bruise a Networking Relationship” also features good advice. All of the information is delivered in a conversational style, and there are many anecdotes cited.

While the large sections in “30 Ideas“ on job search strategy and smart networking are useful, I was less impressed with the several chapters on the psychology of job search. Sure, career experts advise that you shouldn’t get down on yourself as you seek work, but the psychology chapters seem to drag on with good points made only intermittently.

It’s very easy to flip around the e-book, especially as chapters are hyperlinked from the Table of Contents. You don’t have to necessarily read linearly, and you’ll get a good sense from the Table of Contents of what might be useful to read. It’s worth downloading.

Share your thoughts on “30 Ideas” in the comments.

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Help! My Friends Don’t Support Me!

friendshipDealing with those less-than-supportive friends is an issue that few people talk about when it comes to dedicating your life to a startup. Having great friends around you for support is a must, but unfortunately, sometimes the people we love and expect to support us most can surprise us in adverse ways. Has this ever happened to you?

Look at the people you surround yourself with. Are they people who you respect? Do they motivate, stimulate or teach you? Do they discourage you, slow you down or get jealous about your successes? If they are uncomfortable with your lifestyle, fight you on your choices and influence you to make decisions that you later regret, you need to take a serious step back.

The wrong influences for an entrepreneur don’t necessarily have to be overtly “negative” to be counterproductive. Maybe you have friends who just don’t support what you do by not realizing how important your business is to you. Of course, the first thing you should do is to help them understand. But if that fails, there are a few things you can do to keep yourself on track:

  • Remove, avoid or limit negative or counter-productive influences from your life.
  • Don’t discuss business with people who don’t care or don’t want to understand.
  • Surround yourself with people you admire and who motivate you.
  • Read about other entrepreneurs who excite you.
  • Accept the fact that you’re different. And be proud of that. You’ve worked very hard to get where you are. Don’t let anything or anyone chip away at your success or pride in it.

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Entrepreneurship, The Latest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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The Hybrid Thinking Manifesto

The Hybrid Thinking Manifesto

August 5, 2009 by Olivier Blanchard

http://wray-mccann.com

Several years ago, my friend Ernie Mosteller wrote this, over on Tangelo Ideas‘ blog. (I never grow tired of Purple Cow thinking.) Here’s the skinny:

“Family resemblances are a good thing. For families. But for agencies, it can get you into trouble. When the stuff you create for your boat manufacturer client starts to look or sound or feel just like the stuff you’re making for that software startup, oh, and the athletic-shoe retailer, and maybe the fast-food restaurant, too; you have to ask: Are you doing what speaks best to the audience? What’s best for the client? Or are you doing what you personally think is cool? Worse yet, are you doing what the competition is doing too?”

Absolutely.

I was flipping through some old issues of Fast Company recently, when I found a very cool little article by Christine Canabou entitled Fast Ideas For Slow Times (May 2003). In it, Christine made the argument for the fact that offering something different/unique was a crucial part of any company’s success.

Creativity is no longer exclusive to the ad agency world. Likewise, innovation is no longer exclusive to the design world. In order for businesses to thrive, creativity has to become part of their product operational DNA. In order for agencies to keep doing exceptional work for an ever-growing list of quality clients, they have to breed curiosity, exploration and innovation into their DNA.

It isn’t change. It’s evolution.

Here’s the thing: If you keep doing the same thing you’ve been doing, nothing new is going to happen to you. Your sales aren’t suddenly going to double. Your market share isn’t going to enjoy a sudden increase. Nobody is going to really notice you. If you’ve been growing at 6% per year for the past ten years, it’s probably safe to say that you’ll keep seeing 6% growth for a while longer.

A little while.

As Christine puts it: “Do nothing new, and you won’t make a mistake. But do nothing new for too long, and you risk making the biggest mistake of all.”

Yep. It’s easy to let your successes pigeon-hole you into Sisyphean repetition. Before you know it, companies come to you with requests to do for them what you did for your other client(s): “That thing you did for Spalookaboo, Inc… the thing with the talking cow and the karate-chopping mongoose… can you do something like that for us?”

Look. The last thing the world needs is another subservient chicken. More to the point, the last thing Crispin Porter + Bogusky needs is another subservient chicken project.

Something is only original once. Something is only creative once. After that, everything becomes derivative and stale. Copies of copies of copies are just what Seth Godin might call brown cows. (No matter how good and cool they are, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.)

It’s completely natural to see a competitor’s latest product or ad and think “Doh! Why didn’t we think of that?” It’s also natural to want to jump on the bandwagon by doing something similar. (The reasoning being that if it works for your competitor, it’ll work for you too.)

*sigh*

Copying for the sake of not being left behind is an expensive and terribly ineffective business strategy. (And it’s lame.) 1) You’ll come across as an “also in”. 2) You’ll back yourself into a price comparison corner (kiss your revenue goodbye). 3) You’ll be turning your back on your biggest competitive advantage – the practical application of your creative power: Innovation.

At best, being a “brown cow” guarantees stagnation.

At best.

It also guarantees that you will have to spend huge amounts of resources to promote yourself over and over and over again. That’s time, money, people… all of which could be better spent actually doing something rewarding and relevant that will help your business grow.

You could be creating WOM-worthy work for smaller clients, for example. For non-profits. For NGO’s. For niche markets.

You could be broadening your horizons… meeting new people, immersing yourself in cool new subcultures. You could be making every day a learning experience. An exercise in curiosity. A creative harvest. (By the way, the cross-pollination of ideas and disciplines is the lifeblood of innovation. Ask IDEO and FROG Design how it’s worked for them.)

Yeah, Hybrid Thinking. That’s where it starts.

By default, you would also be broadening your reach across a wider range of industries than any other agency in your sphere of influence (not just because it makes great business sense, but because it’s fun.)

Fun feeds creativity at least as much as new experiences.

Think about it. What if instead of chasing big clients, you focused on helping great little companies grow into extraordinary ones? What if you only worked with clients that you want to work with? What if you turned away work that didn’t interest you? What if you did what every innovator has done since the beginning of time: What if you changed the rules, one client at a time, one project at a time?

Would you rub a few people the wrong way? You bet. But they’d get over it.

There are also other options beyond simply increasing the breadth of your playing field. The very nature of the way you approach your work, your services and the way that you market them doesn’t have to be set in stone. Don’t sell yourself short.

Tom Peters, for example, makes a good argument for agencies to evolve into more deep-reaching Professional Services Firms (see his downloadable ‘PSF Manifesto’). After all, if creatives can come up with great advertising ideas, they can surely come up with insightful ways to improve a company’s customer service call center, design unforgetable retail spaces and help create groundbreaking new products, for starters.

This kind of transition won’t happen on its own. Client companies certainly won’t be the first to suggest it. (”Hey um… you guys make great ads, but… do you also do product design?”) It’s one of those build it and they will come things. Create the service. Create the market. Become a purple cow all over again.

More importantly, help your clients become purple cows in their own fields. (Ultimately, that will be the key to your success.)

Trust me on this: Many of them wish they had access to this kind of insightful innovation for hire. Not everyone can afford to keep top-notch designers on staff. (Or brand strategists.) Or marketing communications specialists. Or graphic artists. As for consultants… well, they can be terribly expensive and often too narrow in their approach.

Similarly, not everyone can afford a PR firm and an ad agency and a product design studio and a retail design consultant. (Assuming that, even if you could, all of the pieces would fit together properly… which is pretty unlikely.)

Enter the fully-integrated PSF/Agency: Cost-effective, versatile, nimble, responsive, insightful, completely immersed in their client’s culture. One-stop shopping for all of your innovative needs. Beyond its core team, imagine a network composed of the most brilliant minds and creative talent in the world, just a mouse-click away. A phone-call away.

Imagine if a PSF/Agency like the one I just described suddenly opened shop in your town. What if it were courting your clients? What if it had access to more contract talent than you could ever afford to hire? What if it were a lot cheaper than you are? (Sound familiar?)

What if, although advertising were only one of their revenue streams, their work still blew yours away?

What would you do?

What if they cut your revenue in half inside of two years? What would you do to stay alive?

Lay off part of your staff? Advertise more? Lower your prices? Work for free?

Purple cows don’t have to shake their baby rattles to be noticed. They don’t have to put up billboards all over town. They don’t have to engage in price wars. All they have to do is be purple cows.

Pistachio cows.

Tangelo cows.

Here’s a fresh little bit of Set Godin insight:


“Ad agencies have been backed into a corner and mostly do rattling. It’s the high-cost, high-profile, high-risk part of marketing, and the kind that rarely works. What a shame that some of the smartest people in our fieldaren’t allowed (by their clients and by their industry’s structure) to get behind the scenes and change the product, the strategy and the approach instead of just annoying more people with ever louder junk.”

Yesterday’s purple cows are today’s brown cows.

Tomorrow’s purple cows won’t look or feel or sound anything like you.

The question is, what are you doing about it?

Are you sure your model still works?

Something to think about.

Posted in account planning, acts of rebellion, adaptation, advertising, brand elevation, brand planning, brand relevance, brandbuilder | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

11 Responses

  1. Olivier, I love your thinking and your writing. And I’m simultaneously inspired and frustrated by your post. Frustrated because I’m reminded of the many times I have to watch my biggest clients use a deliberate “search and reapply” strategy — take what’s been successful in another cateogry or region of the world, adapt (sometimes with barely noticeable tweaks) and deploy it on your own brand. It’s a creativity killer but in many cases, it drives sales. So we as agency partners follow along. The other frustration is that for many agencies it is just not an option to pursue the “passion” clients — the baby brands, niche start-ups, not-for-profits — because it’s not a money-making proposition. For a consultant, perhaps, but not for agencies who — especially in this economony — are more challenged than ever to build a consistent revenue stream. What I’m very inspired by though is your “hybrid thinking” model — now more than ever, smart agency people of all stripes should be pushing themselves to deliver great ideas that transcend marketing disciplines and channels.


    • I hear ya. I can’t express to you how much I empathize with your frustration. I feel it too. It makes me want to tear out my hair and scream at the top of my lungs sometimes. (Often, even.)

      I think that eventually, change will happen. Evolution will prevail. And perhaps in some way, this recession may be the biggest chance at a catalyst that we’ve had in our lifetimes. One can hope.

      It blows my mind that so many agencies, when faced with 30% shrinkage in their revenue stream still won’t retool. It’s completely unfathomable to me. Seriously. It’s like watching a compulsive gambler piss away his life savings knowing that he shouldn’t. Addiction in all of its forms, perhaps especially to failing business models, is something I will never quite understand.

      Thanks for the comment and kind words. ;)


  2. Wonderfully thought provoking post Olivier. Makes me wonder – it’s not really about the cows at all is it. We must reinvent the entire farm.


  3. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, originality is impossible to achieve. Trust me on this one. It’s not just me who believes this, but Plato (see ‘Allegory of the Cave’ and read deeper than the literal meaning). So, if creativity = generating totally original thought, then the word creativity is itself a misnomer. (Sigh) That being said, most people will adamantly disagree with this statement – which brings us to innovation. Innovation is the only true measure of creativity. If everything a ‘creative’ person knows is the result of their experiences (which are the result of the experiences of others before them, actually), then we’re left with innovation as the driving force behind all ‘creativity’ (as we understand it). After all, innovation is taking an existing idea and making new uses out of it.

    Does this mean people should steal ideas? Obviously, no. But by virtue of our inability to ‘create’ we’re left with innovation as the driving force behind the idea of creativity.

    Leo Burnett once said, “The secret of all effective advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.”

    As the ‘Creative’ Director of an advertising agency, I agree that our roles should not be limited to what snazzy imagery we can cook up, or what compelling headlines we write – but rather how the ideas we generate affect the whole (goals of the effort). And that’s where most agencies fall short – they are stuck in the idea that they’re media buyers first and innovative thinkers second. Which is why I always prefer to work from the top down (tip of the spear branding which outflows to all subsequent communications). This way the efforts of innovation actually affect more than just specific vehicles within a marketing plan, but the brand as a whole.

    To me, ‘creative’ talent is the ability to see the big picture and then make meaningful connections with real people in context with core appeal of the brand.

    Thanks for opening this can of worms Olivier. Now I must beat myself up trying to effectually explain this on my blog. ;)


    • With the Greeks, I usually ignore the literal and go straight to the metaphor. It’s a lot clearer that way. :D

      Fantastic comment, Jim. This is why I decided NOT to pursue a career in advertising, many years ago: As much as I love advertising (as a kid, I was an ad junkie), I can’t stand the reality of the business of advertising. The typical agency model… and the degree to which it is completely detached from the businesses it serves. That’s why I called this blog “BrandBuilder” and not something more marketing or advertising-specific.

      It kills me that so many agency-client relationships don’t go beyond media buy and the associated creative. Seriously. It makes me sad. We could do so much better. So much better. *sigh*

      By the way, some of the most “creative” ideas I ever came up with weren’t new. They were just old solutions applied to new problems. Cross-pollinating ideas across industries instead of looking for solutions in industry silos.

      Example 1: Borrowing the durability of a dog chew toy for a commercial hand-held spray valve (pet industry solution to solve a plumbing industry problem).

      Example 2: Borrowing the fetishist aesthetics of vintage sci-fi pulp art to spruce up a retailer’s tired “same as” in-store promotions (publishing industry solution to solve a retail industry problem).

      The list goes on and on. Inspiration, problem-solving and innovation don’t come from visiting the muses. they come from observing the world and connecting the dots in new ways.

      Great comment, man. :)


  4. Olivier,

    Great post. I’m also a guy that’s never really let go of the Purple Cow thinking. Thank goodness that Seth and his family drove through France all those years ago!!

    Seth also had a post on his blog that I think applies to what you’re saying above… He said that often, too often, we strive for nothing more than improvement. We strive to get better. That’s faulty thinking, he suggests, if you’re going after big growth. The focus shouldn’t be on making something better… it should be on making something different.

    If anyone is interested in seeing Seth’s post “In search of better,” here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/namb47
    Cheers.


  5. Great post. I’ll retweet you as soon as I’m done here.

    By coincidence, I was just going over the copyedits for the part of my next book (Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green) that discusses the importance of delighting the customer. Purple cows delight, but purple cows turn brown if left in the sun too long. In other words, the bar has to keep going up, because what was delightful at first becomes best practice, and then becomes routine and expected. So to delight, you have to reach farther.


  6. You are on fire, my friend. So, earlier today, I was reading Sean Moffitt’s post on storytelling and it struck a chord:
    http://buzzcanuck.typepad.com/agentwildfire/2009/08/the-lost-art-of-storytelling-explored.html

    And now, later thanks to the strange art of feed readers, I am reading this and re-evaluating some of my current approaches.

    It is easy to focus on short term wins and much more challenging to balance short and long term objectives. It’s easy to fall back on the “tried and true” and harder to drive forward with something new. It’s also easier to throw money at a problem than to constructively think through, plan and execute on ideas that have your fingerprints all over them.

    I guess this is called “skin in the game”. Now, I’m rolling up my sleeves ;)



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