Creator's Block

Last week, Marcella and I welcomed Christine to the Creator's Block podcast to talk about what she and I learned while closely collaborating on two creative projects of unusual size.

One of those was a 10,000-word magnum opus (also known as pillar content) that discussed the five steps companies need to complete before they hire an agency to redesign their website. 

As a follow-on to the discussion we had with Christine about best practices for creative collaborations, Jessie-Lee and I wanted to use this week's episode to take a deep dive into the actual subject matter of one of the most important sections of that piece of pillar content.

It's the first question any business should be able to answer internally before they even consider embarking on a website redesign:

"Why do we want to redesign our website?"

While the answer to this question will, understandably, be unique to your organization, there is such a thing as a bad answer. In fact, there are a few answers that should result in you immediately pumping the brakes on any website redesign initiative. 

And that's what this episode is all about -- understanding when you shouldn't and shouldn't redesign your website.

(Oh, and by the way, Jessie-Lee and I will be doing an AMA over at IMPACT Elite tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. about how we pulled this massive piece of content together -- hope to see you there!)

Enjoy!

We've talked a lot about collaboration, feedback, and project management in very abstract, generalized ways in previous episodes. But for the past two to three weeks, Christine and I have been proverbially attached at the hip to complete two massive projects with substantial content and design requirements.

For example, she and I -- with an assist from a few others -- had to stand up five new, from-scratch IMPACT website pages in a single week that were associated with our merger with The Sales Lion. 

Then, yesterday morning, she and I launched a more than 10,000-word pillar content offer for IMPACT about everything companies need to do before the pick up the phone to call a web design agency.

Granted, these two projects -- and their insane timelines -- were fringe cases, but they were also the first time Christine and I got to really work with each other in such an intense way since I officially joined the internal brand team.

More to the point, we had a crash course in how to not only successfully get big creative projects across the finish line, but also how to establish a rock-solid foundation for a long-lasting, collaborative marketer-and-designer relationship.

Since these projects are still so fresh in our minds, we thought this would be a great time to have Christine on as a guest to provide candid insights on what we did well, what we could have done better, and what it really takes for marketers and designers to partner up and be successful -- whether you're working on an in-house team or for clients in an agency setting.

Enjoy!

Last week, while I was in the office, I remember saying to someone as a joke, "Our jobs would be perfect if it weren't for clients, am I right?"

We were feeling a little stressed, and we had a good laugh about it. But later on, I regretted saying it -- even though it was said in jest.

This may sound a bit Pollyanna-ish, but while I think venting is healthy, especially in an agency environment -- or heck, any work environment with insane deadlines and lots of collaborators -- I also worry about where we draw the line.

At some point, letting off steam in a totally normal way about clients -- or even the coworkers we're partnering with on projects -- can devolve into something that's really toxic.

It can drag everyone down, create opportunities for people to play the victim instead of taking responsibility, tarnish your reputation, or even completely subvert the positive culture your company is (hopefully) trying to cultivate.

So, that's what we want to talk about today.

Why does this happen? Why is it a bad thing? How do we know when we're crossing a line? And what do we do about it if we're surrounded by it?

Enjoy!

A few episodes ago, we chatted about the pressure to be creative and what that means to each of us at an individual level.

We sifted through a lot of terrible creativity hacks, debunked some myths, and got real about how the whole creative process goes down. While we loved that discussion, however, there is a piece of the puzzle we didn't touch upon.

Designers, specifically, are often viewed as one-dimensional cogs in the creative wheels of an agency. But how do we grow and develop as professionals? 

Are we supposed to remain static in our career path, forever performing the singular design function? Or, are there other opportunities out there for those who need to get up in the morning and create?

It's a tricky subject to tackle. 

But, this week, Jessie-Lee, Marcella, and Joe dove headfirst into an honest discussion about creative leadership, upward moves, lateral transitions, and all of the big, hairy (and scary) question marks that often surround the growth ladder of today's modern, professional graphic designers and developers. Whether you work at an agency or in-house.

Enjoy!

Week after week, Marcella, Jessie-Lee, and I talk about topics that help us work smarter and create better.

This, however, is not one of those weeks.

Last Friday, while having lunch with Kathleen and Jessie-Lee, I got in trouble. You see, at the time, I was about to go on vacation, and I let it slip that I had planned to edit this podcast while I was on a plane to Paris.

This bit of news did not go over well with my lunch buddies, and soon it was decided that an intervention would be required -- an intervention that would be staged during this week's episode. 

Even though I feigned ignorance about why it was considered a bad thing to be doing work while on a plane with my husband to one of the most romantic cities on earth, the reality is that even the most goal-crushing of workplace gladiators needs to take a nap every now and then. 

But when you've got a team of other amazing people counting on you (and a to do list that's a mile long), the process of getting out the door for a well-deserved break can feel like an impossible obstacle course of shifting priorities, surprise meetings, and whack-a-mole, last-minute projects. 

How should you handle it all, so you can make it to vacation without losing your mind? And were Jessie-Lee and Marcella able to talk some sense into my pre-Paris, work-obsessed brain?

You'll have to listen in to find out...

Back in early December, Jessie-Lee cruelly abandoned Marcella and myself, and we were left to our own devices to record our 51st episode -- Are Undermining Words a Crime?

If you missed that episode, for shame.

But here's the short version: A Gmail extension -- Just Not Sorry -- made waves a couple years ago. The extension would underline words like "sorry" and "just" in emails, which sounds harmless enough. The catch, however, is that women were the target audience, and the tool was designed to help them stop using language that would undermine their authority in the workplace.

The conversation was fun, manageable, and straightforward -- with some healthy disagreement sprinkled in, for good measure -- but it got a little weird and uncomfortable toward the end.

While Marcella and I were able to speak from experience about expectations about females in the workplace, toward the end, we realized our good faith discussion was becoming dangerously one-sided.

We had zero knowledge or understanding of what expectations are (or aren't) forced upon men in the workplace. Moreover, it seemed unfair to dive into an informed discussion about male vs. female leadership without a male voice present.

That's why we invited Chris Duprey -- IMPACT's COO and self-described "student of leadership" -- to join us this week as our special guest! 

What resulted was an honest discussion about the expectations of men vs. women as leaders, and in the workplace, in general. While this episode was challenging at times, I think we all were able to agree that these are the kinds of conversations leaders of today (and tomorrow) and more evolved organizations need to be having.

Enjoy!

Whether we're talking about the first mockup of a website page, an initial draft of an infographic design, or a rough draft of a blog post, we've all been there. 

We anticipate that our work will be positively received -- or at least we'll get a, "Yeah, we're moving in the right direction!" -- and are instead met with pushback.

"Eh. It's okay? Make the logo bigger. Make the font color 'pop' more, because I don't like the colors. I don't know what's wrong with the copy, but it doesn't feel right. I just don't like the direction you took."

Most of the time, we take this kind of constructive feedback in stride. Creating to fulfill the vision of others requires collaboration, back and forth, and the humble understanding that always takes the input of many to get a creative agency project across the finish line.

There are occasions, however, where -- not out of ego, but due to experience or sometimes simply our creative gut instinct -- we don't agree with the feedback we receive from clients. 

There's an artform to how you handle situations like these, since (a) you can't blow up a client relationship just because you think a client might be wrong, and (b) sometimes… you'll realize later, after they've pushed you to do something different, that they were right. Or they at least had a valid point that pushed you create something bigger and better.

It's a balancing act that we think not only creatives can relate to, but anyone in a client-facing position.

Here's the thing about being a marketing creative -- whether you're a designer, developer, or content creator.

There is this constant pressure to perform. To be creative. To stay creative. To be able to spontaneously produce compelling, engaging, inspiring products for clients out of thin air and on-demand. 

It's great that our previous ideas and our work has given us a reputation of being creative wizards, but sometimes the idea of having to live up to those expectations can be stressful.

In an act of genuine good faith, our own industry of creative professionals has attempted to solve this problem. While there is some really good stuff out there, most of the content that's supposed to help you be more creative is useless -- either because it's totally unrealistic or utter nonsense.

"You have to freelance on the side. You need to write 1,000 words before dawn. You must doodle. Here are 751 writing prompts you didn't ask for. Take a walk. Go on a vacation you probably don't have time for. Take a class you can't afford. Dance like nobody's watching. Write a novel in 100 words. Consider how a bee would solve your problem."

It's gotten to the point where it's more exhausting to sift through all of the bad creativity hacks out there than to just suffer with our momentary feelings of being uninspired.

That's what we wanted to talk about this week. It's a new year, so we're all focused on how we can be our best creative selves in 2018. But what should that look like, and how do we get there?

Enjoy!

This time of year is always full of reflection. And looking back, 2017 has been an... interesting year for Jessie-Lee, Marcella, and myself.

It's been full of amazing client work and big wins, as well as broken expectations and massive life changes.

In short, a lot has happened, but when we scoped out our annual New Year's episode, I wanted us to move beyond the usual, "Okay, this is what I want to do next year," or "I know I need to work out or become a morning person, blah blah blah."

Those are the empty, cyclical conversations we all engage in, year after year. Then we commit to the same hollow resolutions -- eat less, do more, etc. -- with the built-in expectation that these new habits would be effectively shelved by March.

Instead, I challenged us as a group to be honest about where we started this year and where we are now, and how much of that aligned with our expectations, exceeded them, or completely fell short.

Because we should look at the milestone of a new year as an opportunity to discuss where we want to go. But you can only do that if you are willing to have a candid discussion with yourself about where you've been, what you've done, and what needs to change.

Enjoy!

This week, we're discussing Brené Brown's new book, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone. 

We each read the book before our recording, but we did not discuss our thoughts or feelings about what we read in advance. 

The result was a raw, honest conversation about what scares us, what about ourselves makes us uncomfortable, those moments in our lives where we sought belonging and failed, and more. 

Because in a world where there is often such a hyper-focus on "finding your tribe" -- both at work at and home -- I think we realized through our discussion that too many people aren't honest with themselves about how you actually find your own sense of true belonging.