Relationships are my cornerstone

Freelancers, Artists, Designers and Developers can all agree that the hardest thing to deal with coming out of an Agency environment is how to begin growing your lead or customer base. Word of mouth and connections through friends are usually the first thing that we establish because we are looking for what is familiar. Agencies have an old business ethic that teaches us to treat our clients like transactions, to quote a new friend of mine, and that very thinking is what has destroyed many companies in our country.

What is the first human agreement? It is the relationship.

What creates the need to be ethically and morally fair with your friends, family and customers? Knowing them, empathizing with them.

I would like to present a theory for making connections. Make friends.

Outgoing doesn’t mean “life of the party”

When I say that you need to make friends and allies to attract honest opportunities, I don’t mean you need to be the king of the keg to win people’s affection. I simply mean that you should first pursue groups that are in the same field and dedicate time every month to trying some of these meetups out and seeing if there is a group of people that you identify with.

If you like a particular type of software like Drupal or WordPress it is quite possible that you can find a user group in your area filled with other people who are interested in either teaching you how to work with the software or possibly work with you.

In Denver DBUG is a place to start or you can peruse the MeetUP website.

Chambers of commerce

Another fantastic resource are small local city chambers of commerce, the reason for going for the local groups will be the familiarity you get with the group that you are apart of. Being in a room with 20 people from other fields that want to talk to you and get to know hwo you are and how you work in the community is great way to not only make friends but find resources that you may also need.

Of course with COC the bar for entry is always cash but, in a smaller city or a suburb of the nearest large city there are plenty of inexpensive and fruitful places to meet other professionals.

Call on your heros

The other thing you can do is email people whom you hold in high regard as professionals or perhaps as role models in your field. I recently emailed craigmod of the Tokyo Art Space and Link Spice fame. He was nice enough to answer some questions that I had about a particular market and took the time to give insight to an area that I had been exploring.

Whenever you email someone that you are a fan of it can be rather strange, like sending fan mail to a musician that you enjoy, the results can really change your perception of them or what you found engaging about them.

I have been met with my own fair share of experiences where the image in my mind was better than the real thing. It will happen. But you have to remember that if someone you respect isn’t gracious with you it’s either because:

1. They are really busy and cannot afford the time for idle chatter OR
2. They are pretentious dicks!

Look for the humanity and feed your creativity from this. Then, you will be the greatest artist in the world!

Sincerely Your Pal,

Zach Attack Meyer
ps. I am sorry if I have every been a dick to you. call me.

Marshall Mcluhan

A godfather to the ideas of digital communication and information surfing is Marshall McLuhan. While I was studying communications in college I found myself totally enthralled by McLuhan’s book “The Medium is The Mesage.” After watching him debate other intellectuals of his time it was clear that his premise would be an important thing to review and study as someone who wants to communicate online.

The idea that my words, images, videos and websites would become a medium by which others learn and interact with me would be something that McLuhan would adopt if he were alive today. It’s amazing to think that McLuhan advocated TV’s in the class room and discussed the idea that in a few years books would be an antiquated form of research and reference because visual learning is so much faster and effective. I personally don’t think that we will ever eliminate books as a form of communication or record keeping. The instability of digital memory is far to great to ever totally eliminate paper records of information.

Reading this book is a good way for designers and developers to get an honest idea of what this communication medium should be doing.

Let me know what you think,

Zach “attack” Meyer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan

The Flaccid Launch

The ugly term “soft launch” has been used delicately in the tech industry for quite some time now and, unbeknownst to the public, it really just means, “We have something, it’s not done yet, but we couldn’t wait any longer.” Cue the nasty humping sounds and wah-wah pedal, to accent the appearance of the diseased, lecherous bean counters, making sure everyone knows that just because its not ready doesn’t mean you can’t charge for it.

I believe the car industry tried this trick a while back, and we all know what rave reviews the Taurus received–that’s right consumers, you are all going to pay us to be our beta testers. Long gone are the full years between upgrade. Seems like every January you have the latest release of some awful thing. The software industry appears to be taking business tactics from the music industry, with regards to the timeliness of hot new models being shoved into the public’s face.

Maybe you’re different than I am, but I really don’t want a product, be it hard- or software, that is going to fuck with me for six months before it does what it was supposed to do from the beginning. I’m a “late adopter” for this very reason and, even then, disaster can strike. Enter the latest streak of operating system releases from the leading monopolies.

Snow Leopard is here, and well, I have heard some really great things about the “upgrade” but, for the most part, I am sure there will be kinks to work out, as with any new framework that gets released. Apple’s track record for releasing less buggy OS has been good so far and long gone are the memories of the first incarnation of OSX. But those of us who know better, will wait to upgrade until we get the OS bundled with our new hardware.

Windows 7 likewise, will be released well before the eve of Vista’s third year in the public domain. And due to its fantastic approach of alienating and frustrating users by not having drivers available at launch I am sure that the masses are unlikely to leap all over Bill Gates’ Ken doll luggage.

I think it’s safe to say that anyone would wait for real upgrades. Real honest to goodness changes, improvements and stability bought and paid for by us. Here is the issue I see, with all the tech industry lazily launching whatever they feel is sell able to a public that is so easily distracted by the reputation of brand, there is no real backlash against inferior products. We need to stop buying from these jackasses till they get their act in line. Sony has learned from their mistakes and at least attempt to hold some kind of ethics level with their products.

Lets hope that our consumer future shows a bit more competition and a bit less wang.

Special thanks to the genius at the rantpuppets.com for these little gems of wisdom.