Episode #21: Rizwan Javaid Today we are joined by Rizwan Javaid, a member of The Side Project Accelerator. Rizwan is a UX designer who is passionate about transforming ideas into engaging and profitable digital solutions. He is based out of California and works on a variety of projects both for mobile and web. 

Rizwan is also a blogger and international speaker, who pushes his boundaries to reach new audiences and inspire them to release their creativity. He started speaking about sketching, as he found it helped him in a variety of ways, and now has several talks and a brand focused on the power of sketching.

In this episode, Rizwan shares how he faces his weaknesses head on while implementing feedback constructively. He also gives great tips for building a talk, how to reach out to get speaking gigs, and how important real relationships are when building a brand. Going forward, Rizwan is working on clarifying his focus on sketching and now plans to manifest this critical part of his venture into his newsletter and overall brand.

This is the ninth episode of the second season of the Hacking UI podcast, 'Scaling a Side Project'. In this season we interview designers, developers, and creative entrepreneurs who built and scaled successful side projects  that we admire.

The Side Project Accelerator The program works in batches, with only 3 batches per year. Registration for the next batch of the 

Side ProjectAccelerator is now open until November 10th, and there are only 50 seats available. Apply now to reserve your spot. 

Apply now for batch #2 →

Key points from this episode:

• Find out what the Side Project Accelerator program has done for Rizwan and his project, how it pushed him to new levels and the key role that a supporting environment plays in success.
• Learn how Rizwan identified that speaking was one of his weaknesses, and how he chose to face it head-on and transform his weakness into a strength.
• How do you become a speaker? Rizwan shares his tips on how to get started and how to build your confidence as a speaker in your industry.
• Rizwan shares his views on the importance of sketching and how that can give designers an edge and open doors to greater success.
• Find out how receiving feedback is a critical way to implement continuous improvement. Rizwan shares how he navigated the challenge of using feedback constructively.
• What creates a compelling talk? Learn how Rizwan builds his presentations and why he believes in the motto of "less is more" when it comes to creating presentation slides.
• Understand why it is important to focus on value and creating good content instead of being side-tracked by disappointing analytics.
• Learn the value of starting small when creating a newsletter to ensure that you create something effective and engaging, without being overwhelming.
• Automating secondary tasks can free up time to prioritize content creation. Rizwan shares how it is critical to find a balance and a rhythm of consistency.
• What does true sacrifice look in order to achieve success? Find out how Rizwan maximizes his time as a "morning person" by waking up at 3 or 4 AM to work on his projects.
• Understand why Rizwan values feeling good about the work that he does and how he implements this by prioritizing family time while sacrificing personal time to pursue his work ventures.
• Find out what success means to Rizwan, and why having others appreciate his thoughts and ideas is an invaluable aspect of achievement for him.
• Learn why Rizwan believes that it is not a numbers game, but that connections and relationships are more valuable than metrics. Changing the lives of others and helping them improve is key.  Rizwan has the mindset of doing something small each day to move closer to his goals. Learn why this is so critical when first starting out.

Links from the show

• Rizwan’s Website (where you can sign up for his weekly Sketching Machine newsletter)
• Rizwan’s Twitter (@rizwanjavaid)
• Conference Directory
• ConversionCast

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About The Hacking UI Podcast The Hacking UI podcast is hosted by Sagi Shrieber and David Tintner, a designer and developer who are also both entrepreneurs, bloggers, productivity/time-hacking maniacs, and all around tech geeks. 

We started this podcast off with the 'Scaling a Design Team series' where we spoke with design leaders from top notch companies like Facebook, Apple, InVision, and Intercom, to discuss team structures, responsibilities, and workflows.

A few months ago we quit our day jobs to work on our former side project, Hacking UI, full time. So we found it fitting that our second season of the podcast should touch on that subject. The second season is called 'Scaling a Side Project', and we'll interview creative entrepreneurs that we admire in order to get them to share their tips, experiences, and secrets to success.