Essays on creative leadership,
culture, and the human side of work.
Published weekly, with an original illustration. Two series: Becoming and Advisory Notes.
There’s a concise method to get any client at any scale to commit to you in the moment.
This post was inspired by a conversation I had with a client a few weeks ago just as Seattle began to get serious about Covid-19. We were having coffee and talking about the effects of the virus on freelance work. It dawned on me that an easy to use action plan would be a great…
“Where do the leads come from?” I’d been worried about Anna since she’d left the co-op to take the sales job. We’d been in the planning stages at the time, and had no revenue. In fact, we hadn’t even put in any startup money yet. Anna was an industrial designer who’d worked mostly with exhibits.…
Back in my Leonhardt Group days, when I was selling brand design, I often used personal experiences to help our clients understand the power of our work. Stories, I found, could breathe life into what was otherwise is a pretty dry subject. Design, is of tremendous interest to designers, but most clients don’t find the…
Lost your job? Lost the pitch? Dealing with a bully? Read this article for help.
So-called personal branding is bull—. You’re a human not a product. Here’s how to maintain your humanity and successfully market your services.
Jargon prevents you from seeing problems clearly, let alone deconstructing them. Here’s how to suss out the real problems that the buzzwords are masking.