Category: blog

Learning, Absorption, Implementation, Perfection (LAIP)

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brain gear

I’ve been thinking about why, at a certain point of learning a new app or software, it actually becomes FUN, and I realize that I’ve learned enough to want to freestyle, just like learning a musical instrument to the point to where you can write your own songs. Same with the piano and drawing and Photoshop, and now I’m starting to feel it with WordPress.

There are other theories on phases of learning, but nothing I’ve seen that deals with this, the span of time during which a person is first introduced to the knowledge, to the time when they are comfortable enough to HONE their skill using that information.

1) The first step is LEARNING–somebody or something shows you how it’s done.

2) The second step is ABSORPTION–where you need time to process the information, and where you SHOULD NOT have any more input or else what you have just learned will just get confusing. It’s also important that you DO NOT jump to step 3 before this step 2 has figuratively “sunk in” your brain.

3) Third step is IMPLEMENTATION–where you create something to show that you’ve actually learned something.

4) Last step is PERFECTION–where you’ve spent x number of hours, and now it’s like second nature to you and you want to either change up the rules or hone it so you become guru level at it.

* Now, in my opinion, this is the IDEAL way to learn–to take the time do go through each of the phases.

But nowadays, I really think very few people have or take the time go even go through the Step 2 ABSORPTION phase. There’s such an immediate need to PRODUCE CONTENT that the modern learner has no time to let all this stuff sink in before they’re pressured into regurgitating the information that they just learned.

Editing, Design, and the Details

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If you ask people that love the original Star Wars movies, they’ll tell you it’s because they were fun escapism, full of amazing special effects and spaceships.

But the professionals in the movie industry know better. The secret, dear friends, of the original Star Wars movies, is in the EDITING.

Marcia Lucas, George Lucas’ wife during the 70s and 80s, led the editing team for the original trilogy. While the SFX team was winning Oscars for their work, her team was quietly garnering awards for their editing skills.

Why is editing so important? Because it determines whether a scene is boring or exciting, whether a joke stays fresh or overstays its welcome, if the focus lingers too long on the Death Star so that the audience sees the flaws in the model.

A split second of bad editing is all it takes to ruin a scene. A moment that the average person never notices, except subconsciously. If done right, the audience is amazed. If done wrong, the audience is disappointed.

In visual design, that split second is equivalent to a single pixel width. It’s hardly noticeable, EXCEPT when it’s done poorly. The human eye can detect uniformity, or lack of it, and the brain gets subliminally annoyed when things simply “don’t look right”.

How Are You A Great Detective During Client Meetings?

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Batman Detective

My story:

After more than two decades of countless client meetings, I often don’t stick to the same checklist of questions that I used to.

Totally true–one of the latest questions I asked my client was “Why do you keep a semi-automatic pistol in your office?”

His answer revealed more to me about how much his business means to him than the majority of questions I had asked, and from that point on I knew HOW to frame my interviews with that specific company, that specific owner.

I listen a lot more now, use more analogies, get to know the PERSON who’s in charge, not just the company’s products.

BUT at the same time, I also ask better questions regarding the company’s products, including their inventory, shipments, sales tracking and profit margins–whatever the client is willing to reveal to me without my going over the line. As I get older, I’m learning how to push that line further and further to get more information that will ultimately benefit my client.

I look at EVERYTHING in the room, whether we’re meeting in a small office or a large warehouse.

I watch the boss’ interaction with the workers.

I check out their technology–are they on the latest Macs or on old Windows 95 computers? Is the person in charge adept at gadgets or would he rather use pen and paper? Should I design the website so it will also look great on the client’s SVGA monitor, as well as on 1920 x 1200 monitors?

What’s the story behind their company’s name?

Sports and the SWOT Analysis

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I’m currently watching the Golden State Warriors play at Houston against the Rockets.

Whenever a basketball team I’m following is behind around halfway through the game, I look at the score, but I look at something else. WHO IS IN FOUL TROUBLE.

Why?

Because the ability of a team to have all its players on the court toward THE END of the game is more important than the beginning, because the final score is all that matters.

If the Warriors are behind by 10 points in the third quarter but NONE of their star players are in foul trouble (2 or less fouls each), then they can be AGGRESSIVE and TAKE CHANCES with both their offense and defense, because they have at least 3 more fouls to give.

But if their star players have 3 or even 4 fouls, then their actions are hampered, crippled even.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. In terms of the Warriors, their Strengths would be their defense, shooting and strategy. Their weaknesses would include shooting slumps, and more importantly, their fiery power forward Draymond Green’s foul trouble, since he’s instrumental in their winning another championship.

If Green has less than 3 fouls in the third quarter AND is playing steady, then the Warriors will probably win. Period.

Sometimes the game isn’t as much in the current score, but in the ability to stay in the game until the end.

Sample Letter of Recommendation

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writing letter of recommendation

 

* Names have been replaced by placeholders.

Gerardo San Diego
Consultant, InternetArchitect.org
June 13, 2018

Jefferson High School
1234 Mission Street
Los Angeles, CA 90034

To whom it may concern:

My name is Gerardo San Diego, and I have been a business owner in the city of Los Angeles, California since 1994. My services include content design and web consulting, marketing and strategy.

I have known Mr. John Smith since 2007, and have collaborated with him on projects ranging from website development, to digital and print graphic design, corporate branding on t-shirts and other promotional material, to strategy and mentoring sessions with students from Jefferson High School.

First, I can vouch for Mr. Smith’s knowledge of the print and design business, having seen his adept skills with dozens of Adobe and other creative software, as well as his hands-on expertise at printing machines, silkscreens, photographic equipment, and vinyl window applications, among others.

I can also vouch for Mr. Smith’s impressively calm temperament and the ability to excel and perform even when immersed in a room full of people that each want a piece of his attention—during crunch time at the shop, there are sometimes clients as well as his staff of designers and interns, each of whom needs questions answered, and he always performs admirably, as a business owner and more importantly as a human being, giving every person respectful attention and enough time to find a solution. I myself don’t how he does it, because I couldn’t do it myself, but there it is. Regardless of the situation, his demeanor always remains level-headed and optimistic.

Lastly, I can vouch for Mr. Smith’s passion for giving back to the community, especially to schools and students. John and his wife Elizabeth have two teenage daughters of their own, and they know the current and future value of proper guidance, patience, and care. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard him say, in one form or another, the phrase, “It’s worth it, for the children.”

Sincerely,
Gerardo San Diego

 

 

A Constant Gardener

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This is a picture of our lawn after not being mowed and edged for a little over a week, because the gardener couldn’t come over on Wednesday because it rained. I saw the lawn when I bent over to pick up the community newspaper, and noticed how quickly the grass had grown and become unruly.

If I hadn’t seen it at that moment and instead looked at it next Thursday, I would have assumed that the lawn had never changed, simply because I wasn’t paying attention.

It’s the same for a business. Things that we take for granted as being automatic still need attention, especially during rare moments, like rain in Los Angeles. Tasks that we begin, we don’t continue, in lieu of other, “more important” tasks.

We tend to start blogs and after a few weeks or months, simply stop writing them anymore. We forget to update our portfolio after a project finishes. We develop momentum with Facebook and LinkedIn, but forget that we also have to continue to create content for Instagram, Twitter, Behance and Alignable.

Having said all that, I’m going to offer some quick tips and shortcuts on how you can keep your content fresh, sort of like taking 10 minutes to run the weed wacker on your lawn or pruning some stray branches.

  1. Create a 1080 x 1080 pixel square in Photoshop and fill that square with an image from your latest project, then save it as a jpg file. If you don’t have Photoshop, take a picture of your latest project, then square it up on your phone. Then post that picture to your accounts on Instagram, Facebook, Behance, LinkedIn, and so on.
  2. When you finish a project and if your client is on LinkedIn, ask them to write a quick recommendation for you. If you have a Yelp page, same thing. It’s amazing how many people (including me) should have a lot more testimonials on their website and social accounts if we only remembered to do this.
  3. If your client doesn’t have time to write but can say nice things about you on the phone, write it down and then ask your client permission for you to post it as a quick testimonial on your website, either as a pull quote or added to your testimonials page.
  4. Do a Facebook live session talking about your newly-completed project, then save that as a video file, upload it to YouTube, and embed the YouTube video on your own website, as well as all your social network accounts.
  5. If you have a WordPress site, install social feed plugins on your site. Whenever you update one of your social media accounts, your website gets updated also. https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/social-media-feed/
  6. Instead of rewriting your bio on different social media accounts, create a MASTER BIOGRAPHY FILE of yourself, and write everything you can think of to describe yourself. From that master file, you can now copy and paste snippets to fill your bio descriptions on your different social accounts, deleting copy to fit within the character limitations of each account.
  7. While you’re at it, compile different photos of yourself, your company’s logo and banner, and keep all of them in one, quickly accessible folder in your computer.

Since I got serious about tending to my social media accounts, I’ve actually created a SOCIAL NETWORK folder, and within it folders for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc., and a folder for miscellaneous memes that I may want to sprinkle in just for fun.

Most of these tasks don’t take that much time, and you’ll be able to repurpose the content multiple times. The trick is to have some kind of plan, have a little bit of time for seeding, a little bit of time for pruning, and a proper tool belt for your gardening gear.

Falling Off the Humble Wagon

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One of my colleagues had a saying, “Finish it first, and then tell everyone else about it.”

It goes against everything that my ego wants me to do, but in the long run it helps to avoid embarrassment.

I use the same philosophy when I hear wonderful news about a project that I’m about to work on.

When that happens I shut up, cautiously, optimistically.

I do the work.

I wait for the client’s approval.

I wait for the client’s check.

I cash the check.

I breathe a sigh of relief.

Then I talk about it, after the fact.

All bases covered, no need to backtrack on anything.

I still fall off the humble wagon sometimes, like when I hastily posted a wireframe diagram in Instagram of a project that never got completed (client flaked), and I have since removed it.

I still fall off the humble wagon. But at least I know the wagon is there.

 

#humility #ego #getpaid #cautiousoptimism #quiet

You Are Not Your Day Planner

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Twenty years ago, I thought that the THINGS that I owned were absolutely necessary for me to do my work. My Palm 7 device, Franklin Planner, Plantronics headset, and the latest “pro” version of every software that money could buy.

I didn’t even use 95% of what I owned–they just looked good sitting on the shelf or tabletop.

Since then, I’ve deconstructed my approach to work and the gadgets I use. Do these things make me unique compared to the competition? Do these things increase my actual value to my clients? Do these things help me solve problems?

By distilling the THINGS that I use down to the fewest items, or getting rid of them altogether except for a pen and pad of paper, I am forced to distill each problem into its essence, and find a simple solution that can be understood by written words or sketched diagrams, without the distraction of things.

I don’t need a gadget to get me to that AHA! moment.

I am not my mobile device.

I am not my Adobe Creative Suite.

I am not my Day Planner.

 

#office #business #gadgets #franklinplanner #dailyplanner #dayplanner #skills

How I Podcast: an Unscripted, Freestyle Podcast About Podcasting

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One of the business groups I’m in asked me to talk about how to podcast, including basic equipment and what to talk about. I sat down and just riffed for about an hour, everything’s unscripted and straight from my mind.

 

Resource links:

Audacity (looks like it’s for both Mac and Windows): https://www.audacityteam.org/

LAME mp3 encoder for Windows: https://manual.audacityteam.org/…/installing_and_updating_a…

for Mac:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/…/installing_and_updating_a…

Lyx Pro microphone ($27!):
https://www.amazon.com/LyxPro-Cardioid-Microp…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

Studio arm for mic:
https://www.amazon.com/iksee-Microphone-…/…/ref=sr_1_1_sspa…

Sean Cannell How to Get Free Stuff through your YouTube videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD7woG2h3a0

John Campea podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYyDbdaja1UDNdFSwUrYVGA

Suicide Squad Drinking Game:
https://youtu.be/gx6KkupsHFs

Adobe Premiere Elements on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Adobe-65281782-Premiere…/…/B0755K3HQV

Steve Jobs story on saving time/lives:
https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Saving_Lives.txt

Making Biscuits Cat Rescue:
https://greatnonprofits.org/org/making-biscuits-cat-rescue

The Daily Knight podcast website:
http://www.thedailyknight.net/

 

LOCK AND LOAD: What to Bring FOR YOURSELF to a Business Meeting, Guy Version

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In addition to what you’re SUPPOSED to bring to a business meeting, here are some things that I carry just in case.

BREATH MINTS AND SUGAR-FREE GUM. Why both? The breath mints are right before the meeting begins. And if you wind up eating during the meeting, the gum is like a kneading eraser for an art student–it’ll help clean your teeth, make your breath smell decent, and get tiny food pieces that may waywardly fly from your mouth and toward the client during a heated discussion. Excuse yourself after the meal and use the gum in the restroom so they don’t see you chewing it.

HANDKERCHIEF. If you’re wearing a suit, just stick it in your breast pocket without showing too much of it so you don’t look pretentious. Use an all-cotton hanky so you can actually use it in case you get the sniffles or dry yourself in case you start to sweat.

* When I was just starting out over 20 years ago, I’d get sweaty palms before meeting the client. I always hid a hanky in my right trouser pocket so I could dry my right hand before the first handshake. If you spritz some very very lightly scented pillow mist on the hanky, your hand will smell clean and dry.

EXTRA PEN. Bonus: when I really wanted to impress a high-value client, I would bring a couple nice pens with me. My favorite are the clicker LAMY ballpoint pens, about $30 each. I would bring two different styles, and use one during the meeting. If the client compliments me on my pen (and if the meeting is going so well that I think I would probably get the five-figure project), I give the client the other pen as a little gift. It gives me yet another reason to keep in touch with the client, and if they continue to give me projects, I would periodically bring ink refill cartridges to give to the client so they wouldn’t have to worry about it.

EXTRA PAPER. Yes, you have your presentation printed papers in hand, but do you have blank sheets to write on? Do you have LARGE blank sheets to draw on, just in case the client wants to do a little creative brainstorming during the meeting?

OVER THE CALF SOCKS. You never know how far you’ll be walking around, and usually if the client takes you on a tour of their offices, it’s a good sign. The last thing you want is to be pulling your socks up because they’re only ankle length and bunch up in your shoes during long walks.

POST IT NOTES. Sometimes you need to add notes to your notes, and sometimes (and this has happened to me) the client will run out of their own post it notes. This is when you come to the rescue and offer yours.

SIMPLE BLACK TIE. Just like women have their little black dress, it’s always good to have an emergency tie tucked away in your messenger bag. It should be silk, clean but not too shiny, and simple black, so it doesn’t matter what clothes you’re wearing. This has also happened to me–I’ll have a “casual” meeting with my contact, and then we hear that the company’s CEO wants to introduce me to everyone in the monthly board meeting in another building, and everyone there is wearing suits. Even if you just have a long sleeve shirt and no jacket, being able to quickly put on that black tie and present yourself that way will give YOU confidence in facing a potentially overwhelming situation.

BUSINESS CARD CASE. Because you don’t want to be showing your ratty old wallet to everyone while you fish for your business card. An alternative would be to get in the habit of having a stack of your cards on your dresser, and put three or four in your breast pocket as you get dressed for the meeting.

A FULLY CHARGED CELLPHONE. You never know when you’ll need to take pictures, so have your cellphone ready. And if you have a lot of personal stuff on your phone, or you don’t want them to see your Darth Vader lockscreen wallpaper, then bring a small point-and-shoot camera, in case the client wants you to take pictures of their facilities and products.

UMBRELLA FOR AT LEAST TWO PEOPLE. If the weather is bad, it’s always good to have an emergency umbrella to take care of you and your client. If you want to go the extra mile, wear a proper hat (YES I SAID IT KIDS, A HAT!) That way you can let your client borrow the umbrella, and you won’t get wet while being damn chivalrous.

10 ONE-DOLLAR BILLS AND YOUR CREDIT CARD. Just in case you have to park at a structure. Just in case you have buy coffee. Just in case, just in case, just in case.

ADVIL, BAND-AID, MOIST TOWELETTE AND TWO BUCKS IN QUARTERS, in a neat little ziploc bag. Trust me on this.

Lastly, I keep a small water bottle in a separate compartment in my meeting bag. The first reason is obvious, for thirst. But the other reason is to remind myself how long I was at the meeting, because usually if the meeting is longer than expected, and I’m talking so much that I need to take frequent sips, there’s a good chance that it’s a success, or better yet that the client introduced me to people in other divisions who wanted to talk about other projects, and I was taking sips in between the meetings.

It seems like a lot to carry and wear, but except for the umbrella, you probably have these things already. It’s just a matter of remembering to bring them with you to every meeting.

 

#30DS Day 2

This article also appears on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lock-load-what-bring-yourself-business-meeting-guy-gerardo-san-diego/