Tag Archives: Starting Up

My Top 5 tools of the trade

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Without a doubt, these are the five items I would not try and run my business without:

  1. uni-ball Gel Impact (not RT) 1.0mm tip pens. I’d by refills by the case load if I could. You can get them at Office Depot, which I love except their rewards program is horrible.
  2. Moo.com cards. I got turned on to these by Seth Godin. I ordered them immediately. You can order 50 cards and have 50 different images on the back. Incredible quality and service. And they are in the US now, so shipping costs less. I took my 50 photos with my next tool:
  3. My iPhone. No, it’s not a very original answer, but I’m rocking an old school, day one iPhone that I stood in line for at my local AT&T store. I still remember the small crowds that would gather in the airport to look at it those first weeks. Favorite apps: WSJ, NYT, Kindle, Logos, TripIt, FlightTracker PRO, New LinkedIn (old was awful), Fandango, Kayak, Banking, ActionMethod, Mint.com, RedLaser (more the idea than the app, it’s not great on a Gen 1 phone), Shazam, Tweetie and WordPress (and Tumblr is a cool interface), and CameraBag (I took all my site photos with it); Some games: Bloom, SlightControl, Fieldrunners, geoDefense and Spider.
  4. My MacBook. The black 13″ one. I love their titanium products, but there’s something about this black that I like better. I live in Google via Firefox (I’ve tried Chrome, but not found enough compatibility with some sites & services yet). I also have it integrated with my next favorite…
  5. Action Method products and digital tools. My new friend Scott Belsky’s (founder of Behance) incredibly crafted products (now available at B&N) and his intuitive project-based to-do methods fits creative types better that the context-based GTD system – especially if you work and your home are the same location.
  6. Okay, so I have to list a few others: Moleskine Journals (I met the US team leader last year, I felt like I was meeting a rock star and learned that I’ve been using the journals since they were first available in the US. When I die, they will be my inheritance to my children), binder clips (near addiction), index cards (5 x 8), my LiveScribe pen (although it doesn’t get that much use), and my Label Maker (thanks David Allen).

Now that I’ve started this, I realize that there are a lot more. I’ll post others like Time Machine and iDisk for back-ups in the cloud, my AT&T U-Verse internet, Google Voice, etc.

DIY web 2.0 agency presence (without a staff or an agency)

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Yeah, I know…poor me, huh? Okay, so first things first – we have the url secured and the WordPress template (I’m using Thesis from DIY) loaded and functional. But I don’t like the design. And I’m not an official designer. I started life as a Creative Director, but I’m a writer more than an artist. Which means I have dangerous opinions about design, but I’m not officially qualified.

Here, I’ll have the design department work on it – except there is no design department. This means that for now, I’ll have these photos to the right (okay, I got those out of the way) that I don’t like and cannot do anything about. And I’m not crazy about Georgia, I’d rather have Helvetica Neue or something from HF&J foundry (see just dangerous enough), but I don’t know if they’ll run everywhere.

It’s one thing to work on the brand strategy and advertising campaigns. It’s quite another to sit down with no incredibly talented teams to fall back on and just do the work your self. I don’t know if understanding how to get Google Analytics running for my blog will help my work with clients, but it just might.

Here’s the tools I’m using (so far anyway):

  1. Setting up a WordPress site for my blog, my agency (TBD), and a writing project I’m working on — eventually, I’ll have a couple of the start-ups I’ve either founded or that are clients on there as well.
  2. I’m using the Thesis template by DIY. It’s elegant, and has nice design tools although not the WYSIWYG of a Squarespace, it also doesn’t cost. And I’m anxious to see version 2.0.
  3. I’m wiring the WordPress site into my LinkedIn and my Twitter accounts. I’m trying to migrate Facebook back to just personal stuff instead of work stuff. Perhaps that is old fashioned, but so be it.
  4. I’m considering using Posterous (and now Post.ly) to help with posting (and because I’m interested in all of these automation sites). It integrates well with WordPress – and I have a Tumblr site for the random things I see and like.
  5. Instead of building out a robust personal site, I want to use other social sites to showcase client work (on Virb, Flickr, etc.), and then share presentations (SlideShare) and whitepapers (Scribd) that I’m working on as well. More for the experiment of it than because I think it will work beautifully.
  6. I’m using Google Analytics to monitor (the currently non-existent) site traffic, and I’ll register the site with Quantcast just for kicks.
  7. What am I missing?
  8. Ah, sharing on Google Reader and probably a few other items.

At TBD, we talk to clients all the time about social media – what it is and isn’t, how to and not to use it – but I am seriously impressed with the people who just started on their own, learned as they went about it, and did not quit.

Not quitting is a big deal. More on that later.

Doing versus thinking…

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It’s really nice to just sit and think about things – to roll them around in your mind, take them apart and reconstruct them in various ways. In a way, it is very satisfying. But only in a way – and that way is fleeting. Just a moment.

Doing is very different. It is messy and difficult. Filled with fits and starts. Dead ends and frustrations. Embarrassing gaffes and elusive triumphs. But when you are done, something is there. Something new (perhaps) or at least new to you. But it is there and real.

I’ve spent much of my career thinking up stuff for my companies and clients. Most of it never came into being. That’s kind of the nature of the beast in the idea economy. Lots of ideas. Very little stuff.

Not true for my grandfather. He was a carpenter and a brick mason. He built things. If he thought about something at work, then it was how to build a wall or brick around a window. His thinking had a tangible outcome. I want more of this.

The good news in our knowledge/attention/entertainment/new media/adjective-of-the-day economy, is that the tools of production are democratized. No, not for everyone (although $100 laptop is getting us there), but for most in the US it is. That means that the distance between idea and production is smaller. And that’s a good think for the thinkers and the daydreamers of the world.

In that spirit, I’ve decided to build a structure for my thoughts. A place to capture the things that I have been thinking about over the past number of years – most of which I talk to colleagues or clients about. Some of the ideas are practical, some are half-baked (if that), some I’m just working out. So, I’m doing and thinking here – or maybe doing some thinking…in public.

I’m also in the process of starting an agency (well, it’s been three years in the making), but I plan to share the story as it unfolds. As much as clients will allow, and as much as you care to read. I hope an inside (and honest) look under the hood is helpful, and I’m hoping that anyone reading will share their wisdom along the way.