Perspective

So. About not posting in forever. Sorry about that, but I was busy with a new job with crazy hours, and taking care of my pregnant wife. It's a girl, by the way, born on August 5th. Thanks, and you're welcome for all the "aww" and "congrats" and such that are undoubtedly in your mind at the moment.

Anyhow, I got to thinkin'. Dangerous, I know...me and thinking have a volatile relationship.

I've already started to see MANY things change in the past five days, I wonder what else might change. One big thing that I'm sure will change with the addition of a child to my life is my perspective. I'm no longer 31 year old married guy only looking for things for ME, I'm gonna have to start watching baby tv and listening to music for kids and such. Its undoubtedly going to change the way I see MANY things.

I'm okay with it. Marketing and its surroundings are ever changing, and so is life. It kinda fits together, in its own way.

The Marketing Year

So...its 2010. Does anyone really care? I don't. Did anything change when the date went from 12/31/2009 to 1/1/2010? Other than the date, not really. I'm still a thirty year old married male with a degree in marketing and a retail job. My wife is still my wife, and so on. I woke up the morning of 1/1/10 and went right back to work, I didn't have the day off.

So if you're expecting a retrospective on 2009 based on the title of this post, you'll be dissapointed, because that's not what this is. 2009 was good to me, and that's all there is to it.

I don't really understand the whole restarting everything on New Years Eve/Day bit. Why do we do that? Most fiscal years aren't calendar years. Most birthdays are not on those two days - IMHO, a year begins and ends on your birth date. There is an actual marked transition there, as tied into the calendar as it is.

So what the hell is a marketing year? Its nothing, its an arbitrary term I just made up. There really is no marketing year. Marketing is measured by projects, campaigns, promotions, and a whole host of other things, many only loosely tied into date of any sort.

That's the way I choose to live my life. Birthdays and anniversaries are important dates to remember, because they actually symbolize passage of time in a relevant way to that person.

What's marketing got to do with it? Everything and nothing, both at once. Marketing is what I do, so its obviously tied into my life and its evolution and creation. But marketing has nothing to do with what date it is, or what time it is.

If you get all excited by the new year thing, good for you, that's great. But if you see me celebrating wildly on some other day, I may have just made a useful or realistic transition, on my own terms, and with my own skills and abilities. I didn't do it because everyone else did, I did it because it was time for it, and it felt right.

So go ahead, be one of those people who tries through February, and fails in March. Come see me in April, or July, September or December, I'll still be at it and kicking ass...because I want to be, not because of some weird tradition nobody really knows anything about.

So why'd you make your resolutions? What do you want to accomplish? Why didn't you do it before? Why now?

The Return! Business Cards

I've been gone for way too long. I have plenty of ideas to write about, since I was thinking things up the entire time I wasn't writing. But for my first post back after such a break, I thought I would talk about business cards.

Business cards have become another very important tool in marketing and promotion. In many cases, gone are the days of plain white cardstock with black printing and a logo in the top left corner. Business cards are no longer an afterthought only used as a simple way to leave your contact information with a client or friend. For many freelancers, artists, and other types of designers, a business card is more like a small advertisement. There are dozens of blogs and individual articles on the web about innovative and interesting business cards, everything from die cut cards in hundreds of different shapes, to cards on clear plastic, wood, even beef jerky.

Even non design based industries can benefit from a unique business card - a dentist's office with cards shaped like a tooth, or with dental floss embedded in the card, for instance. I've seen divorce lawyers with cards that are perforated in the middle and have the information on both halves of the card. Just about anyone can be creative with their business cards these days.

Of course, being creative just to be creative will shine through - overly gaudy or complicated cards will be ignored or discarded without a second thought. A neon green business card with purple lettering for anyone other than a graphic designer would probably be a bad idea. A business card that looks like a child designed and wrote it would be a bad idea for anyone other than a daycare provider.

With all of the blogs out there about business cards, good cards, bad cards, interesting cards, and everything else, its easy to get caught up in the storm of having unnecessarily customized cards. A font color change, or something as simple as a new graphic or text rewrite may be all that you needed. Especially if you're starting to follow the trend of using your email signature as a business card, or doing it any other electronic way.

Simple can be just as eye catching as complicated, provided either one is done right.

Trust Only In Yourself

Especially in freelance work.

But, in general as well. Don't take someone's word over yours about something you've created just because they're more experienced than you, or a higher level than you, or any reason. If you have to strike out on your own, then do it, if its feasible. You are the one that knows what's best for you, what's best for your projects, and so on.

You are responsible for what goes out with your name on it, not anyone else...YOU. If you weren't, your name wouldn't be on the project. If you aren't happy with it, nobody is. Be prepared to defend yourself, even over the smallest things if necessary. If you develop a reputation as a pushover, you'll never make it where you want to make it to. You've got to be the one that's comfortable at the plate if you're going to get anywhere.

If this seems like obvious advice, it is. But so many people overlook the obvious, looking for the little things.

Thanks for reading!

Good Message vs Big Message

Today I learned that bigger is not always better.

Specifically this particular lesson was in social marketing. There are so many different aspects to social marketing that it is really hard to be in the right mindset for every part of it. I was talking with @unmarketing and @jasontryfon and a few others, and I had expressed about inequality in different circles of twitter. Then both of the guys told me that they viewed things differently....on Twitter, everyone has the same chance to say what they want to say, and people will listen. If you have something worthwhile to say, it will be heard. It doesn't matter if you say it to 100 people, or 10000. If what you have to say is right or good, people will hear it. Quality statements and contributions win over quantity.

I still feel like the little brother that gets stuck playing deep left field, but little brother grows up.

Outside The Lines

Remember when you were little and started learning how to color? Take one crayon, and just go all over the paper without even realizing that the lines were there for a reason. I am getting to witness this kind of thing firsthand, because my nephew is starting to flex his creative muscles with scribbles and such. It looks like such a joyous experience, I wish I could remember that time in my life.

Why do we stay in the lines now? Isn't marketing and advertising about drawing outside the lines? How else would we come up with anything new? Please remember that time in your life when it was a joy just to scribble purple over Santa Claus, or make a black Easter Bunny...and put that into your work.

Thanks for reading...

Self Marketing

Regardless of job status, age, gender, whatever classification you want to go by, one of the most important things about you is your image according to other people. Not yourself, other people. We all know how to do things and make things and whatever else that gives off the image that you want to project. Unfortunately there are very few jobs right now where what you want to show or to be is not what everyone else wants to see. Self Marketing, putting forth the best image of yourself for OTHER PEOPLE is one of the hardest skills to learn, yet you are expected to know how to do so before you know how to do anything else.

The difficult thing about Self Marketing is that almost everyone that can see your personal brand isn't looking for the same thing. Adapting yourself to conform to the widest set of opinions possible without compromising your own ideas and opinions is again, probably the hardest thing a person has to do. Most people have trouble thinking from the perspective of someone looking at them, rather than projecting out from themselves.

It's weird, because when you are young you're trained to care about your own image for the most part, and learning how to see yourself in the minds of others is pretty much shuffled to the backseat...and then you hit the real world, and are surprised to learn that you've been doing everything ass backwards your entire life.

Thanks for reading...