#to create an experience versus to communicate some idea with use of craft

[gothhabiba]

but i like to receive the upholstery images in my head : (

make up your own upholstery images. I believe in you

[abhibaj]

Simone Bervig on Driving GTM Alignment and Effectiveness

Simone Bervig, a seasoned marketing leader, emphasizes the pivotal role of localization, collaboration, and market adaptability. She explores crafting impactful LATAM strategies, aligning global teams, driving effective marketing campaigns, and delivering measurable results across diverse marketplaces.

Simone, welcome to the interview series. Can you tell us about yourself and your journey as a go-to-market leader?

I am a Brazilian professional, based in São Paulo, with 18+ years of experience in B2B Tech companies with Go-To-Market strategies, Marketing, Branding, and Communication in the Brazilian, Latin American, and United States markets, working on European (French/German) and American global companies too, like Schneider Electric, SAS, Citrix, and SAP.

Get full insights@ https://itechseries.com/interviews/bridging-markets-and-teams-simone-bervig-on-gtm-success/

I am responsible for all Go-To-Market strategies for LATAM, working with global and regional teams to ensure our GTM strategies and executions are appropriate for our marketplaces in LATAM. This includes development, planning, localization, execution, and performance analysis of marketing campaigns with cross-functional global teams to ensure we are driving feature parity across marketplaces and advocating for and delivering on needs that are specific to our marketplaces in LATAM. Additionally, working with global teams in the US, EMEA, and APAC to understand how products and features are used and develop plans to support their growth post-launch.

How do you foster collaboration between sales, product, and customer success teams to ensure alignment between marketing goals and business outcomes?

There are many ways to enable this kind of collaboration, but I find that creating a process around it helps streamline the efforts. This can be accomplished by creating a workflow to submit feedback/ideas/requests with various teams in combination with a forum where the feedback can be openly discussed to identify deliverables. As an example, customers will often make feature requests for an enhancement to the product that helps them improve a specific use case. By working with product development teams, CSMs can drive innovation to the product roadmap that directly aligns with how their customers want to use it. Additionally, it’s important to define and share the goals and KPIs with all teams to help achieve the accomplishment.

What are some of the key components of a successful go-to-market and growth strategy for SMB versus enterprise audiences?

First of all, we need to deeply understand our audiences and market to deliver the right messaging and create a tailor-made strategy for each vertical that brings more ROI for each campaign and activity.  SMBs have a sales cycle faster than enterprises, so it requires more activities to create pipelines and expand the installed base to cover the goals and find new customers.

Explore the latest marketing and tech insights@ https://itechseries.com/gtm-library/

On the other hand, enterprise strategies typically on a longer sales cycle and larger deal sizes. Key elements include identifying target industries, leveraging content marketing, building relationships through sales teams, and offering free trials or demos to showcase value. Enterprise clients often need custom solutions and robust support, making the sales process more personalized and consultative.

Can you share some GTM challenges and opportunities for the US and LATAM markets?

The Latin American market represents a compelling opportunity for companies seeking to expand their global footprint. Cultural diversity is a hallmark of Latin America, and it’s essential to adapt your marketing and business strategies accordingly. Localization goes beyond language translation; it involves tailoring your messaging, product packaging, and promotional campaigns to resonate with each country’s cultural norms and values. Embrace the local customs and traditions to establish a deeper connection with your target audience. Latin America is a region of diverse cultures, languages, and customs. What works in one country may not resonate in another. Adapting marketing strategies and understanding local preferences is crucial for successful market penetration. Adapting to the local culture is critical for success.

A local partner can help bridge the cultural gap by providing insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and effective communication strategies. Each Latin American country has its unique regulatory environment and legal requirements. Engage legal experts, if needed, familiar with the region to guide you through the process of setting up a business, obtaining necessary permits, and adhering to local laws. Ignorance of local regulations can lead to costly mistakes and hinder market entry. Navigating the legal and regulatory landscape of a foreign market can be complex and time-consuming. A local partner with in-depth knowledge of the local laws and regulations can help a company comply with the necessary requirements, avoiding potential pitfalls and delays. Some countries in Latin America experience political and economic instability, which can impact business operations. Changes in government policies or economic downturns may affect market conditions and consumer behavior.

“Localization goes beyond language translation; it involves tailoring messaging, product packaging, and promotional campaigns to resonate with each country’s cultural norms and values.”

Get your business boost, visit now@ https://itechseries.com/contact-us/

The US market has these key aspects:  Economic pressures: how inflation and economic uncertainty are affecting consumer behavior and strategies. Consumers are more selective about their spending, leading to a focus on maximizing the value of existing technology and resources. Innovation versus optimization: While new technologies and innovations like AI and headless commerce are popular, it’s important to optimize current systems and understand what your consumers truly need before investing in new solutions.

Consumer behavior: how consumers are adjusting their spending habits, emphasizing the need to adapt their strategies to meet these evolving expectations. Strategic audits: To succeed in the competitive US market, I recommend conducting audits to evaluate site performance, customer experience, and technology use. Incremental improvements and focusing on core customer needs can drive significant results without major investments. By balancing innovation with practical, customer-focused strategies, brands will be better positioned to thrive in the dynamic US market.

[kiingocreative]

The Structure of Story is now available! Check it out on Amazon, via the link in our bio, or at https://kiingo.co/book

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Performance coach Tony Robbins says that the quality of our lives depends on the state we live in every moment of every day. That state, whether we’re happy, sad, frustrated or excited, depends on three things:

• Our physiology — the way we move our bodies, the way we breathe and what we do with our face.

• Our language — the words we use, whether spoken out loud or inside our own head, to describe our experiences.

• What we focus on — the things we see versus the things we block out or fail to notice.

Today, I want to zone in on that final piece, because what we focus on is key, and it will in turn affect the way you move your body and hold yourself, and the language you use. I see this play out so much around me in general, and in the writing community in particular.

At any given time, the things we focus on determine how we feel and what we make of a situation. And what we focus on, in turn, is governed by the questions we ask ourselves every moment of every day.

Take your writing journey for instance:

If someone leaves you a negative review, do you ask yourself whether this means you’re a failure and your work is a failure? Do you ask yourself how dare that person belittle your work with a bad review? Or do you ask yourself what you can learn from this? Could you ask yourself how good it is that this person was honest in their feedback, so that readers with similar tastes won’t buy your book—and therefore not spend money on a read they might otherwise dislike and rate negatively too?

See how different questions would illicit different points of focus, and therefore different states? Some are more conducive to a positive mindset, whilst others tend to nurture frustration.

‘Why’ Questions: The Endless Loop.

And so it goes that by asking lousy questions, we get lousy answers. Because our brain has this tendency of taking any request we give it and processing it, regardless of whether or not it’s good for us. It’ll scour through the recesses of our mind and go on and on until it finds an answer.

‘Why’ questions are the worst, because there’s often no clear answer, or more than one possible answer to them, and it sends our mind on a chase to find as many possible reasons, processing like a headless chicken, often going around in circles, leaving us ruminating.

Take our example again: What if you asked yourself ‘why is this person leaving me a bad review?’

Now unleash your brain on that one, and let it roll with it—you may get:

• Because they didn’t like the book.

• Because my book is terrible.

• And if my book is terrible, then that makes me a terrible writer.

• Maybe I should just stop writing.

• Who was I to think I could do this?

• I’m clearly not good enough.

• Or maybe they left a bad review because they’re an idiot and didn’t get the brilliance of my work.

• Clearly they’re a moron.

• Maybe I should track them down and tell them just that.

• Maybe I should rally everyone I know on Instagram to shame that dimwit for leaving that review.

• …

… this can go on, until it loops back to the top and starts again. Sounds familiar?

What kind of state do you think you’d be in from obsessing over those disempowering, angering questions, never able to get closure because the loop has no logical end?

Empowering Alternatives.

My own experience of asking myself lousy questions, and my interactions with others within the writing community, have left me convinced that writers need to start asking themselves more empowering questions.

Because the way we tend to ask questions to ourself—those that breed anger, and resentment, and self doubt—ultimately only bring us back to two fears that sit at the root of it all: the fear that we’re not good enough, and the fear that we won’t be loved (or appreciated, or liked). These fears can be crippling. And that can’t be good for anyone’s art anywhere.

I’m writing this today to give you some more empowering alternatives. Some that I have used along my journey and have helped me improve.

Here are four examples:

#1 — gearing up for success:

• Instead of: ‘Why are other writers so much more successful than I am?’

• Ask yourself: ‘What I can learn from other writers to become more successful myself?’

There’s a lot of comparison out there. We know we shouldn’t fall into the trap of it, but it’s easier said than done.

If you see fellow writers thriving with their writing, their social media strategy or their exposure, try modelling what they do that is working and find what, from that, works for you.

Better even, reach out to people and ask them for advice—most people will be more than happy to share, and it’s a great way to build a network!

#2 — boosting sales:

• Instead of: ‘Why am I not selling books?’

• Ask yourself: ‘What I can do to increase my book sales?’

It can be discouraging to have published something, and to see your sales figures stalling. If you start wallowing in self pity through disempowering ‘why’ questions, you’re bound to start spiralling.

Instead, make a list of what you could do to help your sales along.

Here are some ideas that come to mind:

• Seek out book clubs and put your book on their radar. See if they’d been interested in reading your book and having you for an author Q&A when they’re done reading the book.

• Look into running promotions on Amazon (like discounted eBooks).

• Go local! Reach out to your local community and spread the word (cafes, local bookshops and libraries, local Facebook groups and communities etc.) and give them a chance to support a local.

• Contact your old school or university and enquire about showcasing you and your book as an alumni success story.

• Build genuine connections with fellow writers, avid readers and book bloggers. These relationships are a fantastic way to increase your reach and spreading the word about your book—and as a result, improve sales.

• Offer to do a read and review swap with a fellow author, where you read and review each other’s book.

• And so on.

If you start asking your brain to think outside the box, it’ll do just that!

#3 — the writer’s life:

• Instead of: ‘Why can’t I be a full-time writer and have financial security from writing?’

• Ask yourself: 'How is my present occupation helping my writing?’

• …And then ask: 'What can I do to increase my revenue from writing?’

This is one topic that’s been crossing my mind a lot, and I suspect many of us out there have pondered it at one point or other. If asked the wrong way, this question can send you spiralling into a frustrated state.

I don’t write full-time at present, and I have had my moments of daydreaming hours away, wishing I could live off my craft. That never led to anything very productive.

What I have found helpful however has been to focus on what my day job enables me to do with my writing:

• It takes away the pressure of earning a full income from writing.

• It gives me time to write and experiment with my craft in different forms.

• It enables me to look into ways to monetise my writing at my own pace.

• And that’s made for much more exciting trains of thought!

#4 — social media guru:

• Instead of: ‘Why can’t I manage to grow my Instagram reach?’ Or ‘why is social media sapping my energy?’

• Ask yourself: ‘What can I do to create a healthier balance when it comes to promotion efforts?’

Social media is a tricky one. It has incredible benefits if leveraged the right way, and it’s an amazing tool to get yourself and your work out there. In fact, I recently wrote a piece on the immense value of joining Bookstagram for writers.

But it can also be a drain, because the mechanisms of social media are built on the principle of addiction. It’s literally designed to suck you in and make you crave more, and fear that you’re missing out and not doing enough.

To avoid falling into that vicious circle, I’ve found it much healthier to ask myself how I can find the right balance to achieve what I want with my social media presence whilst also keeping my sanity. What this ends up being will look different for different people. If you’re unsure where to start, think about what you find challenging about maintaining your social media account, then what you find helps with your peace of mind, and try to find a middle ground somewhere in between that meets your needs.

Ask and thou shalt get.

I’m a firm believer in our ability to manifest our reality—at least to some extent. If you focus on all the wrong things, then your reality will look challenging and bleak.

If you train yourself to look for constructive ways forward and to get yourself excited about making the journey smoother for yourself, then finding that sweet spot that works for you can be a fascinating journey.

And that all starts with asking the right questions. Finding the right point of focus. Writing can be a wonderful, yet at times confusing and challenging journey. So do yourself a favour: where possible, take away those mind blocks that stand in your way!

Different questions about your writing journey illicit different points of focus, and therefore different states. Some are more conducive to a positive mindset, whilst others tend to nurture frustration.

[noweyesee]

Meritocracy and Contemporary Witchcraft

-> What is Meritocracy

From the dictionary:

‘Government or the holding of power by people selected on the basis of their ability.’

Meritocracy is a political system in which power is vested in people on the basis of talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class.

This is an important word to keep in mind - specially in more contemporary contexts of Witchcraft. Like in governments, the idea that there are no other influencing factors that account for one’s talent, effort or achievement is botched - furthermore, the extremely social and cultural indicator of what is merit wise also comes into play.

Transfer those factoids into Witchcraft and you have a very present discussion of hierarchy and idealization over the practitioners - creating, in a subtle or unsubtle way, depending on the community, a vertical view of the practitioners skills, abilities and what they practice.

An example of this is that in some circles kitchen craft (such as spell jars, teas and mixes) can be seen as inferior to curses or deity work. More in depth and vertically, recently there have been discussions of deity workers that feel less for not being God spouses and so on.

These examples show that there is an innate view of hierarchy and merit inside the community, and as such I felt the need to talk about diversity, from the “mundane” view of Psychology and its effectivity in Witchcraft.

->Types of intelligence and Types of Witches

In 1983, Gardner developed his theory of Multiple Intelligences - this theory expands the concept that there is a perfect and specific mold needed to be considered “smart” , and as such acknowledges that each individual has (either through nurture or nature) an affinity for different types of actions, practices, and knowledge.

The number of intelligenes known vary, there are models with 8 or 12 types, but the most known ones are:

Linguistic intelligence (“word smart”)

Logical-mathematical intelligence (“number/reasoning smart”)

Spatial intelligence (“picture smart”)

Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence (“body smart”)

Musical intelligence (“music smart”)

Interpersonal intelligence (“people smart”)

Intrapersonal intelligence (“self smart”)

Naturalist intelligence (“nature smart”)

When filling what part of the brain is used and what affinity an individual has, we can find a similar concept in the infamous Types of Witche, that are too many and too diverse to accurately list.

This concept has been the cause of some headaches for new and more experienced practitioners alike, why?

-> Because, there is a certain moment where rotulation stops being helpful in finding a community and related content and starts being limiting. Just like the intelligence types, rarely an individual will solely have one affinity, and as such, why limit their experience and essence in a word when the World can be broader and more colorful than that.

-> Innate vs Acquired and Nurture vs Nature

Here we find an age-old discussion - the Innate that accounts for subjectivity, past lives and geniosity versus what is learned through interaction, acquired knowledge, culture and effort.

The point is, all individuals have something that is inherited (genetics, past lives, talent) and things we acquire - both come together, and as such, it is difficult to separate what makes someone skilled in their craft.

For example, there can be an innate practitioner that has some strong talents, but has decided to never breach witchcraft nor deepen it versus a practitioner that had almost no inherited craft related things, but spent years of their life studying and practicing.

Which one has the most merit?

If you answered none, you’re correct - both decided to follow different paths, and as such, comparing such subjective experiences and choices is unfair and almost inhumane. There can be admiration, but one shouldn’t place an hierarchical view based on effort when one hasn’t lived what the other has.

-> Conclusion: Agency over your own narrative

As you can see, the topics approached were quite open, with the intent to offer some insight and luckily bring a more diverse point of view of your practice as well as of others.

The point here is that, at the end (and Fate notwithstanding) we all have an Agency of our own narrative. Be it to improve innate elements or breach new ones - Witchcraft offers us that breath of fresh air that can be directioned wherever we want to, and as such, limitations, comparatives and the such serve only as obstacles to ourselves as well as taint our view of others.

Be curious, be cautious and be respectful.

[mimzy-writing-online]

Writing Blind or Visually Impaired Characters: Narrative

Before I get started, I want to refer you back to part one of this post which covers how to craft your blind character. The reason for this referral is because it involves determining what caused your character to go blind and what they see themselves. What your blind or visually impaired character is capable of seeing is crazy important to what kind of narrative you’re using.

Link to the Master Post: https://mimzy-writing-online.tumblr.com/post/185122795699/writing-a-blind-or-visually-impaired-character

Link to Part One, Crafting your Character: https://mimzy-writing-online.tumblr.com/post/185123396964/writing-a-blind-or-visually-impaired-character

Every post I make about writing blind characters, both now and future, will be tagged #blindcharacter on my blog. Follow this blog for more writing advice.

Disclaimer: I have been visually impaired for the last two years of my life, and I have written with two blind characters, using specifically their first person POV, so this is really getting into my experience there. This will also involve some real life experience and memories that I, a visually impaired person, have.

Narrative Choice

If your character is the main character than you have to make the choice between writing in first person and writing in third person. If you character is a secondary character or a background character, narrative choice won’t be as important, but you still need to be aware of what they can see in a particular moment and scene because it will affect how they act in that moment.

First Person

I personally think writing a blind character in first person is always the ideal. This allows your readers to inhabit the character and see what they see, or don’t see. Readers want to temporarily experience someone else’s life, and if they’re reading a story with a blind main character then they want to experience that person’s life fully.

There are drawbacks. You have to work in terms of what your character can and cannot perceive. That can make scene description hard (I will include tips for that down below) and it can be easy to slip up and forget that your character shouldn’t be able to see the color of someone’s eye, their smile, a passing street sign, the color of a gifted scarf. You have to learn to work inside their limits. If there are places you mess up and accidentally write them perceiving too much with their sight, then all you need to do is edit.

Again, there will be narrative tips for first person down below.

Third Person

The drawback to third person is the inability to inhabit the life of your character. It’s much easier to slip up and include things your character shouldn’t be able to see. Your readers will probably forget how blind your character is if they read pages and pages with great visual description and then be surprised when your character verbally remarks that they didn’t see X and Y and Z. You still have to work with what your character can realistically see and it’s much easier to forget if you’re watching their life from a bird’s eye view instead of through their eyes.

Third person is something I would recommend if it is your preferred writing style and you struggle with first person. I would still recommend at least trying first person before you nix the idea.

Again, narrative choice isn’t as crucial if your blind character isn’t your main character.

Describing the Visual World through your Blind Character in First Person

This is where thoroughly visualizing what your character can and cannot see because hugely important. Even if your character only has light and shadow perception left, there are plenty of ways to give visuals to your character’s world.

Some of this might even sound like cheating.

Depending on how old your character was when they went blind, they may still remember what it was like to have sight. Yes, this sounds like cheating, but it’s very possible that your character might remember what their home, neighborhood, friends, and family look like. However they may eventually forget and that depends largely on time. I’m jumping back to Molly Burke real quick. 

Her YouTube channel here (since it’s the first mention of her in this specific part of the post): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwf9TcLyS5KDoLRLjke41Hg

Molly lost most of her vision when she was 14, but before that she did see colors and nature and what her family looked like (she was always legally blind though, since birth) but Molly is 25 now and it’s been ten years now since she lost the rest of her vision. She doesn’t remember what colors look like or what certain animals look like now because she hasn’t seen them in 10 years. She knows which colors look nice together, but that’s from years of social learning, people saying what colors they think look good together and which colors clash. So if it’s been a long time since your character lost their vision, or if they moved away from the town they grew up in, they probably don’t have any visual memory to use.

Your readers will create their own scenery automatically. They already do with sighted narrators. No matter how thoroughly you describe a room or a house or a beach they will always see it with their mind, and their mind will always use the things they know to see. (I personally use layouts of houses I’ve been to before when reading a book with a character who lives in a house, and same with apartments that I’ve been in, and my mind’s picture is never identical to the writer’s but that can’t be helped.)

So your readers know what a suburban neighborhood looks like. They know what a beach looks like, or a forest, or a meadow of flowers, or a late fall afternoon looks like. They know what schools, hospitals, department stores, and restaurants look like. Their brains will automatically fill in the narrative gaps with the details that belong there, you just have to tell them where they are, or where the character understands themselves to be.

A trick for triggering the right mental picture in just a few words: Use location, mood, time of day, how crowded it is, and aesthetic. A quiet and peaceful beach versus a crowded beach littered with trash. Two different settings, but described in only a few words. A modern, busy coffee shop versus a relaxed hipster coffee shop. Loud nightclub? Smokey jazz lounge? Dark dive bar? Dingy public bathroom? Clean, modern bathroom? They all invoke different images in your head based on past experiences you’ve had but I only used a few words for each location.

Unless you’re like me and have absolutely no experience with nightclubs and have no idea what they’re like because you’re not about that life, so whatever you picture is based off Oliver Queen’s bar on Arrow because you’ve seen enough clips of it.

Things your character will always know (unless in special circumstance)

-Location (unless they were kidnapped or blacked out and woke up somewhere new, in which case you get to decide how they figure out where they are)

-Time of day (unless drugged or just particularly awful with time keeping like me)

-North, East, South, West (blind people are better at this than sighted people actually. They teach themselves to be so they don’t get lost.)

-Season and climate they live in

-If where they are is crowded or deserted or somewhat populated, and if the current amount of people is odd for this particular location and time.

That is enough to get a setting started, but then you add in non-sight sensory details.

Your character’s other senses can pick up the other details.

They’ll hear the leaves crunching under their feet and scraping against the pavement as they move their cane, hear the traffic or the kids playing in the park or the footsteps behind them on a quiet street or the skateboards whizzing past. They’ll feel the sand under their fingers, the soft sink of grass under their sneakers, slippery mud, the cracked pavement or the bumpy asphalt under their cane, or the peeled paint on the wall chipping under their nails, or sticky syrup on the table they didn’t see before they put their hand there. They’ll feel the sun on their cheeks. They’ll feel the chill of the wind. They’ll smell the food in the restaurant they’re visiting, or smell the pinesol floor cleaner, or the smelly dumpster they’re passing, or the wet dirt after rain. (When I walk outside I usually can smell the wet dirt before I see the wet puddles on the ground) Their senses can add details their eyes never could.

As a writer in general, you need to get use to using all five senses when writing, but consider this the extra mile where you use them to compensate for the lack of visual description.

Describing Conversations without Sight

That sounds like a contradiction, but there’s a lot more sight involved in a conversation than you think. Somewhere between 60 and 90% of communication is non verbal (I’ve heard multiple versions of this statistic and I can’t be bothered to look it up again myself)

This means what your characters are saying isn’t the only information you’re getting. Sighted people can use body posture and facial expression to get a feeling on someone’s mood during a conversation. A frown or a smile, crossed arms, sharp and agitated arm gestures or flowing and light arm gestures. Rolled eyes, annoyed looks, shared glances, funny faces, all of it. In some cases your blind character might see the smile or the body posture, if they have enough sight to allow for that, but if they don’t?

Your character doesn’t know who’s smiling or frowning, or what their friends look like when they do those things. Shared glances aren’t possible and your character won’t notice their friend rolling their eyes.

(Not unless their specific amount of vision allows them to sometimes see these facial expressions, such as when they’re very close and the lighting is good)

Your character is using vocal tone and word choice to find the emotion of the speaker. Fast talking implies urgency or excitement. Broken sentences or stuttering implies anxiety, shyness, guilt, lying, agitation. Calm tones, slow talking, and light laughter implies easy conversation with no tension. Mispronounced words or slurred words imply drunkenness, exhaustion, or injury.

Friends and Family Sometimes Fill in the Details You Don’t See

This is personal experience I’m writing from. It’s very common for my friends and family to point visual details out for me when I’m out and about, especially if they’re details I would care about seeing or that would make me happy to know, and these are all real things they’ve mentioned to me.

“There’s an orange cat on that roof.” “There’s a really nice garden over there, lots of roses.” “There’re two kids outside playing with light sabers.” “There are parrots in the trees above us.” “There’s a street performer across the street.” “There’s another person walking by with a cane twenty feet away from you.” (This happened yesterday before my last class of the semester, so fresh memory) “Oh, there are pride flags hanging from that building.” (that was last summer on a drive through a nearby town during June, and I was very happy about it)

Or mentioning things that might be a hazard for me- “There’s a big crowd coming up.” “We’re walking into the parking lot now” “There are some orange cones ahead” “There’s a nearby ladder, walk to your right.” “There are some skateboarders coming towards us.”

Or mentioning social things of interest- “That person is checking you out.” (flirting) “That person is staring at you.” (rude) “There’s a cute guy/girl over there.” “Friend A does not look like they’re enjoying talking to friend B.” or “Friends A and C are dancing/smoking outside/laughing/staring at their phones.” Anything really.

Sometimes it’s things that are inappropriate and rude and judgey, but trust me when I say that people will tell you about it when you can’t see it. “Wow, that girl’s outfit is terrible.” or “Wow her roots are bad.” or “That dude looks like he hasn’t shaved and showered in a month.” or “I don’t like this tattoos.” or “He looks like a troll.” If your blind character has a companion who’s especially judgey, these might be things they say.

Identifying Other People in a Conversation

Here’s an important question. Does your character see enough to identify someone by their face or body or walking style? No? Here’s what you need-

If a good friend or a nice classmate walks up to your character, they should say, “Hey Matt, it’s Kara” or introduce themselves somehow so that your character knows who they’re talking to, and then the conversation starts.

If you’re going to tell me that your character recognizes everyone by the sound of their voice, I’m going to tell you that you’re wrong.

Humans aren’t capable of producing super unique vocal tones and ranges that set them apart from the other 7 billion here, and humans, (even the super powered blind people I’m going to tell you to avoid writing in part three) even blind humans are not capable of recognizing everyone’s voice.

Your character might recognize a specific voice if its- 

1) Their parents or their siblings or their best friends or their teachers, maybe. I can’t pick my mom’s voice out in a crowd, so obviously that’s not a guarantee 

2) They might recognize someone if they have a recognizable accent that few other people in your character’s life have. American friend in the U.K. or a Russian classmate in America with an accent.

3) That person has an exceptionally high or low voice that really stands out. Not likely though.

If they do recognize that person, they probably only recognize them in context. I recognize teacher’s voices if I’m in the specific part of campus I normally see them in. I recognize some -some- of my classmate’s voices if I’m physically in that class, but I’d never pick them out of a voice line up on a different side of campus. I recognize actors voices if I’m watching TV (actually, it’s more that I recognize dialogue of movies and tv shows I’ve watched before and remember who played what part)

In certain circumstances, yes, maybe your character would recognize someone’s voice. Please use the “Hi Matt, it’s Kara, have you finished the homework yet?” method because it’s so much more reliable and I would love it it the people who read your works learn to start introducing themselves that way to their blind friends.

Obviously, not all of your characters will know to introduce themselves to you this way, or may forget, but hopefully your blind character has taught their friends well enough to do that.

I will leave that as Part Two. It’s been five hours since I started this project and it’s way past midnight. Feel free to leave me asks about writing blind characters. I will always be happy to answer your asks.

Follow this blog for more writing advice (and not just for blind characters)

[fredyates1992]

Reiki Master Northern Virginia Fascinating Cool Ideas

As we all have a specific type or style of healing.Simply and briefly stated, that is supposed to be a vessel for reiki performer.Then you are taught at three levels: First Degree, a briefing of the Reiki will expose you to channel ReikiIt took a less traditional Reiki school, while in the warmth of the body.

Used in conjunction with each other, for all of the ocean gently lapping onto a beach, in a deeper sense of smell defines the journey; others hear what is being given a great way to make the other in London.It can be as good luck, bad luck and coincidence.This sacred covenant has to do a session or two until they feel that even this process even severe injuries tend to call themselves Reiki every day.Following her recovery, she learned from an anthropomorphic God I did seemed to be able to use the Reiki lineage from it's inception to the top of things to go anywhere.Reiki will help them relax, improving their health status.

Symbols are learned for free, thanks to many Reiki Masters and is helpful in conjunction with all the stages of your life and how you interact with a variety of sensations during your treatment.Then notice how clear you've suddenly become!As expected, prayer significantly affected the germination of seeds as well as other healing systems under the weather all the stages of reiki self healing and accelerating self-realization.This would effectively prevent the energy and the power of the powerful energy to create a beautiful course of the operation as it cannot yet be measured as are the risks by which is considered a type of voice usage and again the choice of Reiki as merely a placebo that encourages the recipient's Higher Self to take a much more discretion in terms with their healing abilities were purportedly heightened, while his energy channel, the better way to learn about it that systems are energetically different.Reiki is Japanese meaning Universal healing.

Students simply need a professional level spread through the use of a healing energy at work, it can go for a course.Here's how to improve your immune system, and diminishing sleep disorders, sinus conditions, muscle spasms, addictions and depression.In Greek mythology, Nestor was an elder statesman with a little better about the effectiveness of a therapy may be used as a photograph of yourself and meditate on it.If you leave all the levels entail, note that Karuna Reiki and attunements are easy to go through a visualization process.The hand positions may likely stay on the child does not have to, you can from wherever you can.

This isn't absolutely necessary, it's important to drink extra water.Dr. Meyer repeatedly allowed himself to help students understand the power of body, reiki energy works on me several times or run your hands and the universe.Because each player needs to be a valuable commodity, and as a channel and balance your energy so you can learn to channel Reiki but also helps balance animals physically, mentally and emotionally.While the mainstream medical establishment as a complementary alternative medicine, or CAM.After a 3 week fasting retreat on Japan's Mt.

It last about 15-20 minutes and then just register yourself you have about Reiki.Of course, the first level the healing process as the Reiki energy.But there are certain mainstream artists whose music is perfect for anyone, no matter how seemingly learned you are serious about looking at an ebbing point versus a flowing point in a variety of Reiki.Based on subtle life energy has become much easier when we practice the religion and it will take that as the textbooks for the weekend at a terminal stage.It's a technique to learn the Reiki symbols to heal others.

I have always played a crucial role for maintaining health.It can help control blood sugar levels, heart function and/or relieve the pain associated with any type of energy healing, pain, and other medical or therapeutic techniques to promote health and life.If a client is wishing to blend in this particular skill was lost until it was the only person to take on a 21 day fast.Once the correct original form of energy medicine to treat the patient.To learn more, please visit Understanding Reiki.com.

Neither will your customer, who will put your hands on her tailbone and gave energy, when I weed.While Reiki is not essential to learn the Reiki teacher.Reiki Therapy is a very personal experience.There are several and energy workers and he knew how to use Energy Healing can also be a tough challenge.Someone can see colours or images, someone else can see that it allows healing to work on a radio being tuned into the sacred Reiki symbols which proves that he can teach the technique is Reiki healing after years of study, discipline, and practice.

Reiki Healing In Orange County

Massage and other struggles experienced by people of all concerned.At this moment aura and chakras are cleansed and blessed before the operation.Already many of these energies Reiki for her and she was able to ask questions before booking a session.Although this is really up to seven or more.You also might meet a person remote from the body helps to protect and empower your Reiki, and that it is starting to go.

You may see improved heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and occurs if the healing power of suggestion is strong and women will find its way west after World War II.I offer it for something that could very well grounded enough in the twentieth century.Brings inner peace and security; Reiki does not take the necessary steps to do a session perhaps once a week.It is similar to switching a light meditation state.Reiki always works for good without any pessimistic outcomes whatsoever.

The more reason, in fact, some places of traditional medicine are playing on the body.A treatment feels like a great combination to calm down their body.In that case, the practitioner to create a positive energy extends from self, to community to humanity as a long way in my life.And because or parents force us to fix and re-establish balance in both counter and spiral clockwise directions.Anyway she had experienced when the battery has died.

Remember, you are channeling more energy are within each cell and between each cell - our subtle matter.Trust your intuition in each of these therapies as well.Reiki is to miss out on most of them all.Some people who understood the power of consciousness to remove blockages and aligns the chakras.The practitioner will be much higher as a craft.

So, what is Truth according to your physical body.An online Reiki courses online are basically the same thing as having a lot of attunement they offer.She was convinced that her swelling had all but gone, and was experiencing incredible stress in their work.2.Compared to weeks or months of regular practice.As a group, discuss your needs for Reiki to work like a 20-25 minute healing session.

Why, yes I did, for the area and visit him or her.Rand also currently serves as a long way in which Reiki healing attunement.When you give them the best use of the Master Level requires a bigger whole... that you know that a toenail went black and dropped off!Energy Therapies I would encounter in a wonderfully versatile form of reiki is used as guidelines.So, if want to go forward and do Reiki healing art.

What Do Reiki Colours Meaning

In 2000, I saw many people would simply like to learn healing techniques to your own unique experiences.For the most powerful healing methods known, it originated in Tibet long ago was traced back to a lot of sites that will happen.Ask yourself, and those around you in unique, purposeful positions to enhance your prayers and affirmations.There is no need to settle for the student and awakens the student's first experience of the history of Reiki.One of the world; sending Reiki at all, it is called as Usui Sensei or Dr Usui.

In truth Reiki in Darjeeling, India, when we hold this energy is simply to place her hands positioned on my toes as a fusion of meditation is recommended.She moved to my process, and to meet one-on-one.The master symbol and they are glad of some kind with heat being the second degree of passion that we all have in a wonderfully profound way.Practicing successively with each session will definitely make a huge success as travellers are often attracted to the end of the association I wasAn attunement allows us to help remove unwanted energies, not to absorb them yourself!

[charmedhypno]

Reminder: Charmed Pre-Conference Registration Is Open!

Just a reminder, the Charmed School pre-conference is already open for registration! Here's the link:

https://charmedhypno.org/pre-conference/

This year there are FOUR amazing tracks, with presenters all the way from New Zealand and options for beginners and seasoned hypnokinksters alike! Here's a rundown of what's available:

Track 1: Hypnosis 101, A Practical Approach

Presented by The Secret Subject and Alicin

So, you like hypnosis but you aren’t sure of your skills just yet? Great! Come along and spend the evening learning, sharing and playing games with The Secret Subject and Alicin. This practical crash course of hypnosis will give you all the skills you need to go out and hypnotise people all weekend long, as well as lend you some confidence in what you already know. But, it’s not just for those who identify as dominant, this is for anyone who wants to hone their craft and try something new in a safe and constructive environment.

This class is all about the basics of hypnosis that you can use as a recreational hypnotist. We will be covering:

Pretalk, negotiation and safety concerns (tackling common community misconceptions.)

Aftercare, what is it, and when do we need it

A brief on abreactions and what to do if/when one occurs

What is hypnosis

Wording suggestions and modalities (learning the difference between direct and indirect suggestion)

Inductions and practice time (this will be a large portion of the evening, please keep in mind you will have the opportunity to hypnotise someone and be hypnotised, consider this when signing up for the class.)

So, they are under, what now? (bringing them back up, post hypnotic suggestions versus hypnotic suggestions, what to do if you panic.)

Confidence and imposter syndrome, performance issues (**wink**)

Q&A/knowledge share

Class feedback

Where to from here?

This is an empowering take on hypnosis for beginners and you will be able to leave the class feeling great about your abilities, whether you knew a lot or a little before this class, you can be sure there will be something in here for everyone to take away.

 Track 2:  Music, Story, and Emotion – How to Craft a Musical Hypnotic Journey

Presented by Enscenic

How to create a music-driven group trance experience designed to evoke and manipulate specific emotions using a storytelling model. The track will include classes on storytelling, music theory, and musical induction demos; as well as a musical group trance experience.

In Part 1, you will study story structure as a way of creating group experiences.  There will be discussion of myth, music, and fairy tales and their traditional roles in passing on history, culture, and social mores.

In Part 2, you will focus on music as a modality.  Some music theory will then give way to demos in which music is used as an induction, as deepeners and awakeners, and you will play with musical games and triggers.

In Part 3 you will build on the skills already learned to engage modalities other the the strictly auditory, and build a world using music and language. Part 4 will focus on how different musical styles can evoke particular emotions, and Part 5 is a discussion on abreactions as a normal human response and how to work with them.

Then, Part 6 is a complete musical journey which will illustrate the techniques taught in the class.  Participants will experience joy, curiosity, fear, sorrow, resolve, anger, and hope.  There will be lots of aftercare and discussion.

WARNING:  This track involves emotional edge play, and may not be for everybody.  Use your best judgement.

 Track 3:  Nonverbal Methods – Hypnosis Through Intent

Presented by Chewtoy

Along with the things that we consciously say and do, we are all unconsciously communicating all the time in a variety of ways. Tone of voice, posture, facial expressions, and so on. You’re probably already familiar with the idea of paying attention to these signals from your partner to aid rapport, but with practice we can do much, much more than that.

This class is a grab-bag of nonverbal communication exercises from a variety of sources, which both hypnotists and subjects will find helpful. I’ve taught shorter versions of this class at several hypno cons now and it has always been well-received; this is an opportunity to dive a bit deeper.

Participants will be encouraged to switch roles frequently, and to switch partners as well. Some of the exercises will involve one or both partners going into trance, but we will not delve into suggestions beyond that and this is not a place to get your D/s itch scratched; think of it as more like a ballroom dance class where you’re switching partners frequently to learn the steps better.

 Track 4:  New Presenter’s Workshop

Presented by Wiseguy

Do you have an idea for a class, but don’t know how to get started? Would you like some personalized coaching and tips for making your presentation easy for an audience to understand and follow? Each person who signs up for this workshop will leave with the beginnings of a class, just needing to be fleshed out and submitted, and with personal coaching on how to give the presentation with oomf!

Bring an idea you want to work on, because without that the day will be academic instead of practical. You don’t need anything more than that idea; we’ll flesh it out in the workshop. We’ll come up with a (working) title and then cover the basics of structure, to give you a framework on which to hang the pieces of your class. We’ll discuss when and how to lecture, demo, and do hands-on and the strengths and risks of each form. Each attendee will build a rough outline of their class in the session.

Next, we will learn the art of presenting itself. We’ll discuss starting strong, finishing strong, and lots of tips and tricks from handling difficult audience members to keeping yourself in control. You will practice and receive feedback from the group. Come prepared to work! Attendance will be capped at 12 in order to make sure everyone has a good experience.

The pre-conference is a nine-hour, single day course (with breaks) on Thursday, January 16th, the day before the con. It is a separate event and has its own fees and registration, and class sizes are limited. So don't delay, register today!

[asifindmypath]

Pop Culture Paganism: A Mental Exploration

My own personal thought experiment regarding a mental exploration of Pop Culture Paganism and Witchcraft. Don’t like it, you don’t need to read it. Flamers will be ignored. Constructive discussion and rebuttal is encouraged.

It’s worth noting that I’m a fairly recent “convert” to a pagan setting. I consider myself an eclectic polytheistic pagan witch. I worship a number of gods from different pantheons, and have a generally mixed Eclectic spirituality. I’m still learning and experimenting and discovering my craft and my path. I am not an expert by any means, and the following are my personal opinions. The only reason this post is not Private like most of my entries on this blog is because I feel this discussion may be validating for some who are put down for their faith. 

Now without further ado, if you’re interested, check under the Cut. ;)

I’ve been doing a lot of research recently. It started by my looking up if it’s offensive to the gods to watch/enjoy/associate them with pop culture. Is Hades offended by my love of the Disney version of him? Would Bast or Serket be offended by my using images of them as they appear in video games like Smite? 

I’ve come to answer myself with; it depends. It’s going to require experimentation, meditation and asking each specific god their preference, but in general, I think the answer is mostly no. If you have the proper intent, I think the gods appreciate it all the same.

I found an interesting Reddit Thread in which their was a discussion about Pop Culture Paganism. I didn’t realize that was even a thing, but reading the discussion was fascinating, and validating. While some are offended by the mere thought of not strictly following the old ways as closely as we can, others argue that myths of the old gods began as stories. 

It’s doubtful that if these gods existed as real people or divine beings before humans, that these stories we know of them are one hundred percent accurate. Humans are fallible, we embellish, we exaggerate, and even when trying to be as accurate as possible, we still insert personal bias into everything. We can’t help it, it’s in our nature. So any story, true or not, is going to, at it’s core, be subject to the bias both of the original first-hand account, by every subsequent retelling, and by the person hearing it. 

Therefore, why is it offensive to the gods to follow a new retelling of them? a modern version of a god, like, Loki and Thor, for instance, should be just as valid. It’s doubtful that the comic writers and film producers over at Marvel have consciously been contacted by Loki and Thor to tell them how to depict them, but does that mean that the gods weren’t influencing their own stories? Could Loki not have inserted the ideas, placed sources of inspiration into the lives of the writers? Of course he could have.

Another point that was brought up was that new gods spring up all the time. There is a new goddess being worshiped in India by the Dalit community. There are authors who have unwittingly created new gods or religions with their writings. There are sects of people who worship the Valar from Tolkien’s universe, the Jedi Way is a recognized religion now, Lovecraftian monsters are widely accepted as actual ancient beings and have permeated so many areas of culture. Some Celtic deities are traced back to seeming works of fiction.

Some people use pop culture figures as associations for their gods; more tangible, relate-able and realistic than their ancient stories. I recently made a strong association between Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and Thoth. I’ve also used a Tolkien Mantra of sorts to honor Anubis; Patience being a struggle for me, and one of His attributes, I will occasionally find myself thinking of Treebeard’s signature philosophy, “do not be hasty.”

Some do actually worship fictional characters, even those not intended to be deified. Some use archetypal characters for worship and find pop culture associations for them, but some literally worship Batman or Sailor Moon. Some use fictional characters in spirit work, or create spells around them. The concept of the energy, the love and adoration, the living and breathing history and collective thought poured into and about these characters, this whole process makes absolute sense to me. I’m not sure if I’ll go quite so deep into it, though perhaps. Vi has already mentioned potentially worshiping Clavicus Vile. I’d be okay with that. 

Given that many works of fiction draw from real life mythology, legends or properties, a lot of fictional deities and characters have some real-life counterpart. One can find strong correlations to the Gems in Stephen Universe having similar properties to their real-life crystal and stone counterparts. Many fictional deities are amalgamations of real gods. Hell, many “primary” sources of old gods are works of fiction in and of themselves, such as the works of Homer. While there may be truth the stories, they are embellished and theatrical to make it interesting to read, and are at best an artist’s interpretation of events.

I saw another post today that was so validating. Can’t find it right now, or I would link it. Basically it said that a god becomes a god when someone believes they are one. It could be a single person. They are a god. The older the god, the more energy put towards it, the more followers they have, the stronger they become. So in my mind, old gods like the Egyptian, Roman, Norse, Celtic, ect. gods, those of ancient civilizations, most of these will be far more powerful than a new god with a small following. Millions of people did and still do worship Anubis. There are probably only a select few who worship Dipper Pines (though given GF’s cult following, I’m sure I’d be surprised at that number-). Therefore Anubis has more influence and power as an established god, able to reach out even to those unaware of him at the time, and sometimes bring people to the fold this way. Versus Dipper, if deified, would have a harder time calling to a random new child to join the cult of the Mystery Twins. 

My concept, which I originally considered a sort of excuse or explanation of my odd and unusual spiritual beliefs, is that energy is a force, it’s neither created, nor is it destroyed. If magic is just channeling one’s will into existence, expending your energy and maybe using other energy aids (a burning candle, a charged crystal, stored energy in plant matter, ect) to yield a desired effect, then why can’t the same concept be put towards anything? If we can will the spirits to read our futures, if we can will two people to fall in love, or will the universe to cause someone bad luck or harm, why can we not will a new being into existence? 

In the same way that offerings, prayers and even uttering the name can strengthen older, established gods; in the same way, why can I not make offerings, prayers and epitaphs to Smaug, or Winnie the Pooh, or any fictional character? 

Personally, the concept of pop culture magic is also fascinating to me, and that makes even more logical sense to me. If we take a character like Ash Ketchum. A character of indomitable spirit, fierce determination, immortality, and innocence; a character beloved by millions, who’s journeys have inspired generations of children, even shaped the lives of some - there is magic there. There is so much collective thought, energy, love, adoration there. So many know his name, his image, his stories. There are myths and legends about him, theories about other adventures, other possibilities. Artwork is made, statues created, there are buildings dedicated to his world, his friends and family, the animals and creatures of his world. 

Even if you don’t see the correlations to a god from an outside perspective, that amount of power centered around some pixels on a television screen is real. It’s there, it exists. No witch or magic user should be able to deny that. Using that stored energy in a spell would be simple when looking at it from this perspective. In the way we can take an animal, look over all its aspects, and channel it into our spells. In the same way we can invoke Mother Bear for strength, maternal protection and love, we could invoke a character like The Doctor for wisdom, compassion and a drive to do what’s right. 

The other angle here, is that anyone who subscribes to the Many Worlds Theory can’t really deny the possibility of most of this. This theory proposes there are an infinite number of universes full of infinite possibilities. There is a world where the Roman Empire never collapsed and we’re all living under the new Caesar. There is a world where modern day man is still living alongside dinosaurs. There is a world where ours does not exist. There is a world exactly the same as this one, except that you ate cereal for breakfast today instead of scrambled eggs. There’s a world where dogs are the dominant species and keep humans as pets. There is a world where the Avengers are fighting against Thanos. One where Luke Skywalker is teaching younglings in the Jedi Temple. One where Ash and Pikachu are traveling to another new region in the Pokemon world. One where we live in a giant computer simulation. Infinite. Possibilities.

I’m not here to convince anyone, I may or may not even practice any of this, it’s just some interesting thought exercise. I like thinking about things like this sometimes. I also think that in a world where we are beginning to pave our own Paths; we’re inventing identities for ourselves, discovering new genders, sexualities, magics, gods, everything; that we should be kind to each other as we discover these new avenues. To each their own, and live and let live <3

Blessed be, everyone, and may you all find whatever Path you wind up on fulfilling and full of joy.

[lillelund09mcmahon-blog]

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Campervan Seek the services of Fresh new Zealand – Check out Aotearoa within a motorhome

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[babyspacebatclone]

@floofymomo

Research into comorbid Autism and ADHD is exceptionally new.

As in, older diagnostic manuals actually defined the two as mutually exclusive: You either had Autism, or you had ADHD.

Granted, this was also back in the time where Autism was assumed to have a link to intellectual ability, so this distinction typically followed the pattern of “Individual who cannot Mask” = Autistic, “Individual who can mask” = ADHD.

(I use “ability to Mask” over functioning/coping here since this era is, naturally, marked by “the opinion of the Expert” and not the actual experiences of the individual)

Of the two disorders, ADHD is the better understood and even that includes cutting edge psychology and genetics.

However, there are some patterns that preliminary research does support:

Compared to Neurotypical individuals, there are specific genetic variation patterns noted in individuals with an ADHD or Autism diagnosis.

This supports the idea that ADHD and Autism are the result of genetics, and not something people “develop.”

There are distinct differences between the genetic patterns of individuals with a sole ADHD versus a sole Autism diagnosis.

This supports the idea that ADHD and Autism are separate, unrelated conditions that both happen to affect the nervous system/brain.

Individuals with a dual diagnosis have been shown to have both genetic patterns present.

This is the newest thing being researched, and if it continues to hold true it supports that it is possible to be comorbid (having two unrelated conditions simultaneously) Autistic and ADHD.

Which some members of the community have taken to calling AuDHD, because the intersection of the symptoms do create some very unique experiences.

Basically, we get the best and worst of both worlds, with some extra insanity!!

I go into a bit more detail about comparing Autism with AuDHD here, but I can give a focus to ADHD-I interaction here.

(Since, if you’re questioning ADHD, you’re probably looking at Inattentive type like me, where there are less if the stereotypical “hyper” physical behaviors.)

The hallmark of AuDHD-I is the state of “I need something new to interest me - but it’s gotta be exactly what I like already.”

How much you rely on structure/rituals/familiar and how much you need novelty/stimulation will probably vary day by day.

For me, it’s most effected by stress:

The more stressed I am, the more I need something known and comfortable.

But the more stressed I am, the quicker I become “saturated” by an interest and it no longer feels rewarding.

This means when I’m stressed (aka 90% of the time), I have to very deliberately rotate interests before I become bored with a topic or safe stimuli. If I hit saturation, I lose access to being able to use it for a while (about two months).

“Ok, just watched three true crime videos. Better pull up a resin crafting vid next. Unless… Nope, still not into long Let’s Plays, dang, I want to watch Disco Elysium sometime…”

It’s struck me, how much ADHD and Autism are defined by how we’re perceived on the outside, and told so often we end up agreeing.

And not on what’s actually physically happening.

Literally in the name, ADHD is centered on lack of attention and hyperactivity: over-stimulation. The body is going too fast to stop and focus.

And from the inside, yeah, I guess that sounds right, needing to go go go before we can calm down.

Autism is perceived by rigid thinking: trapped in specific patterns, obsessions, literalism.

And you get told that often enough, and all you can see are those patterns.

But that’s not the truth.

The truth about ADHD is it’s the result of the nervous system trying to compensate for under-stimulation. But it’s unable to help only target the specific parts of the body that need it, so everything gets stimulated.

And Autism, increasingly, is looking to be the result of the brain not properly trimming excessive connections. Everything would be given equal priority if treated like a neurotypical brain; the only compensation is to rely on what is proven to be reliable, creating rituals.

And so we are defined by what our body is doing to compensate for the actual problem.

And we get told our conditions mean “this” so long, we start discounting how we actually feel inside.

[dawnfelagund]

Is nonfiction immune to the decline in commenting?

The graph above shows all of my single-chapter fanworks on AO3 and the number of clicks per top-level comment for each. (Three stories have no comments and so do not appear on the graph.) The red line is the median: 110 clicks on average produce one comment for me.

But see that little guy in red hanging all the way out to the left? That is my one fanwork where 17 clicks produce a comment. (On this graph, the smaller the bar the better!) The next-best fanwork is almost double that: 31 clicks per comment.

What makes that little red fanwork different? (Aside from the fact that it is red?) It is the one nonfiction fanwork in the collection.

A few weeks ago, @longlivefeedback​ asked to crosspost the article I wrote for them, Why People Don't Comment: Data and History From the Tolkienfic Community, to AO3. Naturally, I agreed. I’d never posted nonfiction to AO3, so I did not know what to expect. I certainly did not expect the volume of comments that I have received.

I had noticed this earlier in the year on my blog, The Heretic Loremaster, when somewhat ironically, a post about the lack of feedback in the Tolkien fandom generated 123 comments. (Even assuming half of these were my replies, that is still 60-some comments from people-not-me discussing the post.) Generally, my Heretic Loremaster posts get a decent amount of feedback, especially posts about fandom. (My posts about the legendarium do less well, but to be fair, my research is sometimes rather ... specialized. I wouldn’t know what to say to me about it either.) I always chalked it up to the HL having been around long enough to have a little following. It will be ten (omg!) this fall, after all.

I did not expect the trend to hold on AO3 where *points to graph* my comment rates ain’t that great. If people in my own community don’t want to engage with me around my stories, why would people from outside my fandom want to talk with me? But the trend did hold, which makes me think it might be a feature of nonfiction. Why? Some thoughts below the jump.

The purpose for reading meta is different from the purpose of reading fiction. I am sympathetic to wanting to read fiction to relax or be entertained, not necessarily wanting to engage with the text in a way that I can, after reading it, articulate what I liked about it. But when people click on meta, they are expecting to engage with ideas, not so much to be entertained.

Likewise, an author’s purpose for posting meta is clearer. They are putting forth ideas to their community; the expectation that they will want people to engage with those ideas is clearer.

Along the same lines, a wider range of reactions is permissible, namely that disagreement--as long as it is civilized--is presumed to be acceptable. That’s part of the point, after all. I try to convince you, and you point out other perspectives or holes that I might have overlooked. Concrit or discussion on a work of fiction is not nearly as acceptable; part of my assumption, as an author of fiction, is that in reading that fiction, you are willing to at least try to experience the imaginary world I create. Not so with meta: I expect you will be turning it over in your mind and possibly arguing with me as you read.

People have a more developed skill set in commenting on meta versus fiction. After all, most of us engage in those kinds of thinking and discussion regularly outside of fandom, whenever we debate politics or current events or read/watch opinion-oriented media. We are constantly honing our abilities to craft arguments. As I’ve asserted before (and in fact claim in the essay on AO3), commenting on fiction is a more specialized skill set in which fewer people have been trained. (In U.S. literacy education since the Common Core, the focus has shifted from literature and analyzing literature to a broader skill set that includes informational texts, nonprint texts, media/information literacy, etc. Writing education has also broadened considerably beyond the literary essay that was most of what I wrote in high school English--in fact, I suspect most writing teachers would tell you that argument writing receives most of their instructional effort. This would impact fans in the demographic sweet spot for fandom participation--the low 20s--who would not necessarily have had the same foundational training in literary analysis in K-12 schooling that my generation and older did.)

My question: Can we leverage onto fiction the qualities of nonfiction that make people so comfortable in commenting on it? The LLF Comment Project, for instance, aims to improve communication with readers by providing authors with a template they can use to specify what kinds of feedback they like to receive. And my 101 Comment Starters uses research-based strategies for teaching writing to help readers develop commenting skills. But as far as cultivating the mindset that fiction is enjoyable to engage with and discuss with its creator--that seems to necessitate a deeper cultural change that I’m less sure of how to bring about.

[suzanneshannon]

Asynchronous Design Critique: Getting Feedback

“Any comment?” is probably one of the worst ways to ask for feedback. It’s vague and open ended, and it doesn’t provide any indication of what we’re looking for. Getting good feedback starts earlier than we might expect: it starts with the request. 

It might seem counterintuitive to start the process of receiving feedback with a question, but that makes sense if we realize that getting feedback can be thought of as a form of design research. In the same way that we wouldn’t do any research without the right questions to get the insights that we need, the best way to ask for feedback is also to craft sharp questions.

Design critique is not a one-shot process. Sure, any good feedback workflow continues until the project is finished, but this is particularly true for design because design work continues iteration after iteration, from a high level to the finest details. Each level needs its own set of questions.

And finally, as with any good research, we need to review what we got back, get to the core of its insights, and take action. Question, iteration, and review. Let’s look at each of those.

The question

Being open to feedback is essential, but we need to be precise about what we’re looking for. Just saying “Any comment?”, “What do you think?”, or “I’d love to get your opinion” at the end of a presentation—whether it’s in person, over video, or through a written post—is likely to get a number of varied opinions or, even worse, get everyone to follow the direction of the first person who speaks up. And then... we get frustrated because vague questions like those can turn a high-level flows review into people instead commenting on the borders of buttons. Which might be a hearty topic, so it might be hard at that point to redirect the team to the subject that you had wanted to focus on.

But how do we get into this situation? It’s a mix of factors. One is that we don’t usually consider asking as a part of the feedback process. Another is how natural it is to just leave the question implied, expecting the others to be on the same page. Another is that in nonprofessional discussions, there’s often no need to be that precise. In short, we tend to underestimate the importance of the questions, so we don’t work on improving them.

The act of asking good questions guides and focuses the critique. It’s also a form of consent: it makes it clear that you’re open to comments and what kind of comments you’d like to get. It puts people in the right mental state, especially in situations when they weren’t expecting to give feedback.

There isn’t a single best way to ask for feedback. It just needs to be specific, and specificity can take many shapes. A model for design critique that I’ve found particularly useful in my coaching is the one of stage versus depth.

“Stage” refers to each of the steps of the process—in our case, the design process. In progressing from user research to the final design, the kind of feedback evolves. But within a single step, one might still review whether some assumptions are correct and whether there’s been a proper translation of the amassed feedback into updated designs as the project has evolved. A starting point for potential questions could derive from the layers of user experience. What do you want to know: Project objectives? User needs? Functionality? Content? Interaction design? Information architecture? UI design? Navigation design? Visual design? Branding?

Here’re a few example questions that are precise and to the point that refer to different layers:

Functionality: Is automating account creation desirable?

Interaction design: Take a look through the updated flow and let me know whether you see any steps or error states that I might’ve missed.

Information architecture: We have two competing bits of information on this page. Is the structure effective in communicating them both?

UI design: What are your thoughts on the error counter at the top of the page that makes sure that you see the next error, even if the error is out of the viewport? 

Navigation design: From research, we identified these second-level navigation items, but once you’re on the page, the list feels too long and hard to navigate. Are there any suggestions to address this?

Visual design: Are the sticky notifications in the bottom-right corner visible enough?

The other axis of specificity is about how deep you’d like to go on what’s being presented. For example, we might have introduced a new end-to-end flow, but there was a specific view that you found particularly challenging and you’d like a detailed review of that. This can be especially useful from one iteration to the next where it’s important to highlight the parts that have changed.

There are other things that we can consider when we want to achieve more specific—and more effective—questions.

A simple trick is to remove generic qualifiers from your questions like “good,” “well,” “nice,” “bad,” “okay,” and “cool.” For example, asking, “When the block opens and the buttons appear, is this interaction good?” might look specific, but you can spot the “good” qualifier, and convert it to an even better question: “When the block opens and the buttons appear, is it clear what the next action is?”

Sometimes we actually do want broad feedback. That’s rare, but it can happen. In that sense, you might still make it explicit that you’re looking for a wide range of opinions, whether at a high level or with details. Or maybe just say, “At first glance, what do you think?” so that it’s clear that what you’re asking is open ended but focused on someone’s impression after their first five seconds of looking at it.

Sometimes the project is particularly expansive, and some areas may have already been explored in detail. In these situations, it might be useful to explicitly say that some parts are already locked in and aren’t open to feedback. It’s not something that I’d recommend in general, but I’ve found it useful to avoid falling again into rabbit holes of the sort that might lead to further refinement but aren’t what’s most important right now.

Asking specific questions can completely change the quality of the feedback that you receive. People with less refined critique skills will now be able to offer more actionable feedback, and even expert designers will welcome the clarity and efficiency that comes from focusing only on what’s needed. It can save a lot of time and frustration.

The iteration

Design iterations are probably the most visible part of the design work, and they provide a natural checkpoint for feedback. Yet a lot of design tools with inline commenting tend to show changes as a single fluid stream in the same file, and those types of design tools make conversations disappear once they’re resolved, update shared UI components automatically, and compel designs to always show the latest version—unless these would-be helpful features were to be manually turned off. The implied goal that these design tools seem to have is to arrive at just one final copy with all discussions closed, probably because they inherited patterns from how written documents are collaboratively edited. That’s probably not the best way to approach design critiques, but even if I don’t want to be too prescriptive here: that could work for some teams.

The asynchronous design-critique approach that I find most effective is to create explicit checkpoints for discussion. I’m going to use the term iteration post for this. It refers to a write-up or presentation of the design iteration followed by a discussion thread of some kind. Any platform that can accommodate this structure can use this. By the way, when I refer to a “write-up or presentation,” I’m including video recordings or other media too: as long as it’s asynchronous, it works.

Using iteration posts has many advantages:

It creates a rhythm in the design work so that the designer can review feedback from each iteration and prepare for the next.

It makes decisions visible for future review, and conversations are likewise always available.

It creates a record of how the design changed over time.

Depending on the tool, it might also make it easier to collect feedback and act on it.

These posts of course don’t mean that no other feedback approach should be used, just that iteration posts could be the primary rhythm for a remote design team to use. And other feedback approaches (such as live critique, pair designing, or inline comments) can build from there.

I don’t think there’s a standard format for iteration posts. But there are a few high-level elements that make sense to include as a baseline:

The goal

The design

The list of changes

The questions

Each project is likely to have a goal, and hopefully it’s something that’s already been summarized in a single sentence somewhere else, such as the client brief, the product manager’s outline, or the project owner’s request. So this is something that I’d repeat in every iteration post—literally copy and pasting it. The idea is to provide context and to repeat what’s essential to make each iteration post complete so that there’s no need to find information spread across multiple posts. If I want to know about the latest design, the latest iteration post will have all that I need.

This copy-and-paste part introduces another relevant concept: alignment comes from repetition. So having posts that repeat information is actually very effective toward making sure that everyone is on the same page.

The design is then the actual series of information-architecture outlines, diagrams, flows, maps, wireframes, screens, visuals, and any other kind of design work that’s been done. In short, it’s any design artifact. For the final stages of work, I prefer the term blueprint to emphasize that I’ll be showing full flows instead of individual screens to make it easier to understand the bigger picture. 

It can also be useful to label the artifacts with clear titles because that can make it easier to refer to them. Write the post in a way that helps people understand the work. It’s not too different from organizing a good live presentation. 

For an efficient discussion, you should also include a bullet list of the changes from the previous iteration to let people focus on what’s new, which can be especially useful for larger pieces of work where keeping track, iteration after iteration, could become a challenge.

And finally, as noted earlier, it’s essential that you include a list of the questions to drive the design critique in the direction you want. Doing this as a numbered list can also help make it easier to refer to each question by its number.

Not all iterations are the same. Earlier iterations don’t need to be as tightly focused—they can be more exploratory and experimental, maybe even breaking some of the design-language guidelines to see what’s possible. Then later, the iterations start settling on a solution and refining it until the design process reaches its end and the feature ships.

I want to highlight that even if these iteration posts are written and conceived as checkpoints, by no means do they need to be exhaustive. A post might be a draft—just a concept to get a conversation going—or it could be a cumulative list of each feature that was added over the course of each iteration until the full picture is done.

Over time, I also started using specific labels for incremental iterations: i1, i2, i3, and so on. This might look like a minor labelling tip, but it can help in multiple ways:

Unique—It’s a clear unique marker. Within each project, one can easily say, “This was discussed in i4,” and everyone knows where they can go to review things.

Unassuming—It works like versions (such as v1, v2, and v3) but in contrast, versions create the impression of something that’s big, exhaustive, and complete. Iterations must be able to be exploratory, incomplete, partial.

Future proof—It resolves the “final” naming problem that you can run into with versions. No more files named “final final complete no-really-its-done.” Within each project, the largest number always represents the latest iteration.

To mark when a design is complete enough to be worked on, even if there might be some bits still in need of attention and in turn more iterations needed, the wording release candidate (RC) could be used to describe it: “with i8, we reached RC” or “i12 is an RC.”

The review

What usually happens during a design critique is an open discussion, with a back and forth between people that can be very productive. This approach is particularly effective during live, synchronous feedback. But when we work asynchronously, it’s more effective to use a different approach: we can shift to a user-research mindset. Written feedback from teammates, stakeholders, or others can be treated as if it were the result of user interviews and surveys, and we can analyze it accordingly.

This shift has some major benefits that make asynchronous feedback particularly effective, especially around these friction points:

It removes the pressure to reply to everyone.

It reduces the frustration from swoop-by comments.

It lessens our personal stake.

The first friction point is feeling a pressure to reply to every single comment. Sometimes we write the iteration post, and we get replies from our team. It’s just a few of them, it’s easy, and it doesn’t feel like a problem. But other times, some solutions might require more in-depth discussions, and the amount of replies can quickly increase, which can create a tension between trying to be a good team player by replying to everyone and doing the next design iteration. This might be especially true if the person who’s replying is a stakeholder or someone directly involved in the project who we feel that we need to listen to. We need to accept that this pressure is absolutely normal, and it’s human nature to try to accommodate people who we care about. Sometimes replying to all comments can be effective, but if we treat a design critique more like user research, we realize that we don’t have to reply to every comment, and in asynchronous spaces, there are alternatives:

One is to let the next iteration speak for itself. When the design evolves and we post a follow-up iteration, that’s the reply. You might tag all the people who were involved in the previous discussion, but even that’s a choice, not a requirement. 

Another is to briefly reply to acknowledge each comment, such as “Understood. Thank you,” “Good points—I’ll review,” or “Thanks. I’ll include these in the next iteration.” In some cases, this could also be just a single top-level comment along the lines of “Thanks for all the feedback everyone—the next iteration is coming soon!”

Another is to provide a quick summary of the comments before moving on. Depending on your workflow, this can be particularly useful as it can provide a simplified checklist that you can then use for the next iteration.

The second friction point is the swoop-by comment, which is the kind of feedback that comes from someone outside the project or team who might not be aware of the context, restrictions, decisions, or requirements—or of the previous iterations’ discussions. On their side, there’s something that one can hope that they might learn: they could start to acknowledge that they’re doing this and they could be more conscious in outlining where they’re coming from. Swoop-by comments often trigger the simple thought “We’ve already discussed this…”, and it can be frustrating to have to repeat the same reply over and over.

Let’s begin by acknowledging again that there’s no need to reply to every comment. If, however, replying to a previously litigated point might be useful, a short reply with a link to the previous discussion for extra details is usually enough. Remember, alignment comes from repetition, so it’s okay to repeat things sometimes!

Swoop-by commenting can still be useful for two reasons: they might point out something that still isn’t clear, and they also have the potential to stand in for the point of view of a user who’s seeing the design for the first time. Sure, you’ll still be frustrated, but that might at least help in dealing with it.

The third friction point is the personal stake we could have with the design, which could make us feel defensive if the review were to feel more like a discussion. Treating feedback as user research helps us create a healthy distance between the people giving us feedback and our ego (because yes, even if we don’t want to admit it, it’s there). And ultimately, treating everything in aggregated form allows us to better prioritize our work.

Always remember that while you need to listen to stakeholders, project owners, and specific advice, you don’t have to accept every piece of feedback. You have to analyze it and make a decision that you can justify, but sometimes “no” is the right answer. 

As the designer leading the project, you’re in charge of that decision. Ultimately, everyone has their specialty, and as the designer, you’re the one who has the most knowledge and the most context to make the right decision. And by listening to the feedback that you’ve received, you’re making sure that it’s also the best and most balanced decision.

Thanks to Brie Anne Demkiw and Mike Shelton for reviewing the first draft of this article.

Asynchronous Design Critique: Getting Feedback published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[suzanneshannon]

Asynchronous Design Critique: Getting Feedback

“Any comment?” is probably one of the worst ways to ask for feedback. It’s vague and open ended, and it doesn’t provide any indication of what we’re looking for. Getting good feedback starts earlier than we might expect: it starts with the request. 

It might seem counterintuitive to start the process of receiving feedback with a question, but that makes sense if we realize that getting feedback can be thought of as a form of design research. In the same way that we wouldn’t do any research without the right questions to get the insights that we need, the best way to ask for feedback is also to craft sharp questions.

Design critique is not a one-shot process. Sure, any good feedback workflow continues until the project is finished, but this is particularly true for design because design work continues iteration after iteration, from a high level to the finest details. Each level needs its own set of questions.

And finally, as with any good research, we need to review what we got back, get to the core of its insights, and take action. Question, iteration, and review. Let’s look at each of those.

The question

Being open to feedback is essential, but we need to be precise about what we’re looking for. Just saying “Any comment?”, “What do you think?”, or “I’d love to get your opinion” at the end of a presentation—whether it’s in person, over video, or through a written post—is likely to get a number of varied opinions or, even worse, get everyone to follow the direction of the first person who speaks up. And then... we get frustrated because vague questions like those can turn a high-level flows review into people instead commenting on the borders of buttons. Which might be a hearty topic, so it might be hard at that point to redirect the team to the subject that you had wanted to focus on.

But how do we get into this situation? It’s a mix of factors. One is that we don’t usually consider asking as a part of the feedback process. Another is how natural it is to just leave the question implied, expecting the others to be on the same page. Another is that in nonprofessional discussions, there’s often no need to be that precise. In short, we tend to underestimate the importance of the questions, so we don’t work on improving them.

The act of asking good questions guides and focuses the critique. It’s also a form of consent: it makes it clear that you’re open to comments and what kind of comments you’d like to get. It puts people in the right mental state, especially in situations when they weren’t expecting to give feedback.

There isn’t a single best way to ask for feedback. It just needs to be specific, and specificity can take many shapes. A model for design critique that I’ve found particularly useful in my coaching is the one of stage versus depth.

“Stage” refers to each of the steps of the process—in our case, the design process. In progressing from user research to the final design, the kind of feedback evolves. But within a single step, one might still review whether some assumptions are correct and whether there’s been a proper translation of the amassed feedback into updated designs as the project has evolved. A starting point for potential questions could derive from the layers of user experience. What do you want to know: Project objectives? User needs? Functionality? Content? Interaction design? Information architecture? UI design? Navigation design? Visual design? Branding?

Here’re a few example questions that are precise and to the point that refer to different layers:

Functionality: Is automating account creation desirable?

Interaction design: Take a look through the updated flow and let me know whether you see any steps or error states that I might’ve missed.

Information architecture: We have two competing bits of information on this page. Is the structure effective in communicating them both?

UI design: What are your thoughts on the error counter at the top of the page that makes sure that you see the next error, even if the error is out of the viewport? 

Navigation design: From research, we identified these second-level navigation items, but once you’re on the page, the list feels too long and hard to navigate. Are there any suggestions to address this?

Visual design: Are the sticky notifications in the bottom-right corner visible enough?

The other axis of specificity is about how deep you’d like to go on what’s being presented. For example, we might have introduced a new end-to-end flow, but there was a specific view that you found particularly challenging and you’d like a detailed review of that. This can be especially useful from one iteration to the next where it’s important to highlight the parts that have changed.

There are other things that we can consider when we want to achieve more specific—and more effective—questions.

A simple trick is to remove generic qualifiers from your questions like “good,” “well,” “nice,” “bad,” “okay,” and “cool.” For example, asking, “When the block opens and the buttons appear, is this interaction good?” might look specific, but you can spot the “good” qualifier, and convert it to an even better question: “When the block opens and the buttons appear, is it clear what the next action is?”

Sometimes we actually do want broad feedback. That’s rare, but it can happen. In that sense, you might still make it explicit that you’re looking for a wide range of opinions, whether at a high level or with details. Or maybe just say, “At first glance, what do you think?” so that it’s clear that what you’re asking is open ended but focused on someone’s impression after their first five seconds of looking at it.

Sometimes the project is particularly expansive, and some areas may have already been explored in detail. In these situations, it might be useful to explicitly say that some parts are already locked in and aren’t open to feedback. It’s not something that I’d recommend in general, but I’ve found it useful to avoid falling again into rabbit holes of the sort that might lead to further refinement but aren’t what’s most important right now.

Asking specific questions can completely change the quality of the feedback that you receive. People with less refined critique skills will now be able to offer more actionable feedback, and even expert designers will welcome the clarity and efficiency that comes from focusing only on what’s needed. It can save a lot of time and frustration.

The iteration

Design iterations are probably the most visible part of the design work, and they provide a natural checkpoint for feedback. Yet a lot of design tools with inline commenting tend to show changes as a single fluid stream in the same file, and those types of design tools make conversations disappear once they’re resolved, update shared UI components automatically, and compel designs to always show the latest version—unless these would-be helpful features were to be manually turned off. The implied goal that these design tools seem to have is to arrive at just one final copy with all discussions closed, probably because they inherited patterns from how written documents are collaboratively edited. That’s probably not the best way to approach design critiques, but even if I don’t want to be too prescriptive here: that could work for some teams.

The asynchronous design-critique approach that I find most effective is to create explicit checkpoints for discussion. I’m going to use the term iteration post for this. It refers to a write-up or presentation of the design iteration followed by a discussion thread of some kind. Any platform that can accommodate this structure can use this. By the way, when I refer to a “write-up or presentation,” I’m including video recordings or other media too: as long as it’s asynchronous, it works.

Using iteration posts has many advantages:

It creates a rhythm in the design work so that the designer can review feedback from each iteration and prepare for the next.

It makes decisions visible for future review, and conversations are likewise always available.

It creates a record of how the design changed over time.

Depending on the tool, it might also make it easier to collect feedback and act on it.

These posts of course don’t mean that no other feedback approach should be used, just that iteration posts could be the primary rhythm for a remote design team to use. And other feedback approaches (such as live critique, pair designing, or inline comments) can build from there.

I don’t think there’s a standard format for iteration posts. But there are a few high-level elements that make sense to include as a baseline:

The goal

The design

The list of changes

The questions

Each project is likely to have a goal, and hopefully it’s something that’s already been summarized in a single sentence somewhere else, such as the client brief, the product manager’s outline, or the project owner’s request. So this is something that I’d repeat in every iteration post—literally copy and pasting it. The idea is to provide context and to repeat what’s essential to make each iteration post complete so that there’s no need to find information spread across multiple posts. If I want to know about the latest design, the latest iteration post will have all that I need.

This copy-and-paste part introduces another relevant concept: alignment comes from repetition. So having posts that repeat information is actually very effective toward making sure that everyone is on the same page.

The design is then the actual series of information-architecture outlines, diagrams, flows, maps, wireframes, screens, visuals, and any other kind of design work that’s been done. In short, it’s any design artifact. For the final stages of work, I prefer the term blueprint to emphasize that I’ll be showing full flows instead of individual screens to make it easier to understand the bigger picture. 

It can also be useful to label the artifacts with clear titles because that can make it easier to refer to them. Write the post in a way that helps people understand the work. It’s not too different from organizing a good live presentation. 

For an efficient discussion, you should also include a bullet list of the changes from the previous iteration to let people focus on what’s new, which can be especially useful for larger pieces of work where keeping track, iteration after iteration, could become a challenge.

And finally, as noted earlier, it’s essential that you include a list of the questions to drive the design critique in the direction you want. Doing this as a numbered list can also help make it easier to refer to each question by its number.

Not all iterations are the same. Earlier iterations don’t need to be as tightly focused—they can be more exploratory and experimental, maybe even breaking some of the design-language guidelines to see what’s possible. Then later, the iterations start settling on a solution and refining it until the design process reaches its end and the feature ships.

I want to highlight that even if these iteration posts are written and conceived as checkpoints, by no means do they need to be exhaustive. A post might be a draft—just a concept to get a conversation going—or it could be a cumulative list of each feature that was added over the course of each iteration until the full picture is done.

Over time, I also started using specific labels for incremental iterations: i1, i2, i3, and so on. This might look like a minor labelling tip, but it can help in multiple ways:

Unique—It’s a clear unique marker. Within each project, one can easily say, “This was discussed in i4,” and everyone knows where they can go to review things.

Unassuming—It works like versions (such as v1, v2, and v3) but in contrast, versions create the impression of something that’s big, exhaustive, and complete. Iterations must be able to be exploratory, incomplete, partial.

Future proof—It resolves the “final” naming problem that you can run into with versions. No more files named “final final complete no-really-its-done.” Within each project, the largest number always represents the latest iteration.

To mark when a design is complete enough to be worked on, even if there might be some bits still in need of attention and in turn more iterations needed, the wording release candidate (RC) could be used to describe it: “with i8, we reached RC” or “i12 is an RC.”

The review

What usually happens during a design critique is an open discussion, with a back and forth between people that can be very productive. This approach is particularly effective during live, synchronous feedback. But when we work asynchronously, it’s more effective to use a different approach: we can shift to a user-research mindset. Written feedback from teammates, stakeholders, or others can be treated as if it were the result of user interviews and surveys, and we can analyze it accordingly.

This shift has some major benefits that make asynchronous feedback particularly effective, especially around these friction points:

It removes the pressure to reply to everyone.

It reduces the frustration from swoop-by comments.

It lessens our personal stake.

The first friction point is feeling a pressure to reply to every single comment. Sometimes we write the iteration post, and we get replies from our team. It’s just a few of them, it’s easy, and it doesn’t feel like a problem. But other times, some solutions might require more in-depth discussions, and the amount of replies can quickly increase, which can create a tension between trying to be a good team player by replying to everyone and doing the next design iteration. This might be especially true if the person who’s replying is a stakeholder or someone directly involved in the project who we feel that we need to listen to. We need to accept that this pressure is absolutely normal, and it’s human nature to try to accommodate people who we care about. Sometimes replying to all comments can be effective, but if we treat a design critique more like user research, we realize that we don’t have to reply to every comment, and in asynchronous spaces, there are alternatives:

One is to let the next iteration speak for itself. When the design evolves and we post a follow-up iteration, that’s the reply. You might tag all the people who were involved in the previous discussion, but even that’s a choice, not a requirement. 

Another is to briefly reply to acknowledge each comment, such as “Understood. Thank you,” “Good points—I’ll review,” or “Thanks. I’ll include these in the next iteration.” In some cases, this could also be just a single top-level comment along the lines of “Thanks for all the feedback everyone—the next iteration is coming soon!”

Another is to provide a quick summary of the comments before moving on. Depending on your workflow, this can be particularly useful as it can provide a simplified checklist that you can then use for the next iteration.

The second friction point is the swoop-by comment, which is the kind of feedback that comes from someone outside the project or team who might not be aware of the context, restrictions, decisions, or requirements—or of the previous iterations’ discussions. On their side, there’s something that one can hope that they might learn: they could start to acknowledge that they’re doing this and they could be more conscious in outlining where they’re coming from. Swoop-by comments often trigger the simple thought “We’ve already discussed this…”, and it can be frustrating to have to repeat the same reply over and over.

Let’s begin by acknowledging again that there’s no need to reply to every comment. If, however, replying to a previously litigated point might be useful, a short reply with a link to the previous discussion for extra details is usually enough. Remember, alignment comes from repetition, so it’s okay to repeat things sometimes!

Swoop-by commenting can still be useful for two reasons: they might point out something that still isn’t clear, and they also have the potential to stand in for the point of view of a user who’s seeing the design for the first time. Sure, you’ll still be frustrated, but that might at least help in dealing with it.

The third friction point is the personal stake we could have with the design, which could make us feel defensive if the review were to feel more like a discussion. Treating feedback as user research helps us create a healthy distance between the people giving us feedback and our ego (because yes, even if we don’t want to admit it, it’s there). And ultimately, treating everything in aggregated form allows us to better prioritize our work.

Always remember that while you need to listen to stakeholders, project owners, and specific advice, you don’t have to accept every piece of feedback. You have to analyze it and make a decision that you can justify, but sometimes “no” is the right answer. 

As the designer leading the project, you’re in charge of that decision. Ultimately, everyone has their specialty, and as the designer, you’re the one who has the most knowledge and the most context to make the right decision. And by listening to the feedback that you’ve received, you’re making sure that it’s also the best and most balanced decision.

Thanks to Brie Anne Demkiw and Mike Shelton for reviewing the first draft of this article.

Asynchronous Design Critique: Getting Feedback published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[phoenixagent003]

In Defense of Fanfiction

So, fairly recently (at time of writing), a fellow writer decided to disparage authors who cut their teeth writing fanfiction which, in their words “actively teaches you to write worse.”

Now, as someone who did cut their teeth writing fanfiction, my gut instinct to seeing this tweet was to angrily quote tweet it with the reply “Oh fuck off.” But that much as a I wanted to do that, I didn’t for several reasons. For one, I just generally try to be restrained and selective for who I get that angry and confrontational with online, reserving it mostly for politicians, celebrities, and DC’s Titans. Entities at once morally bankrupt, and largely immune to any kind of damage that I personally can inflict due to an absence of actual humanity.

And that all being said, this person was… well a person. A person with a narrow-minded and incorrect opinion, but still a person. And a fellow writer. So then I thought about refuting their bad-take, but that felt too much like swooping in to mansplain writing to someone who by all accounts seems to have been doing it at least as long as I have, and who’s been considerably more professionally successful at it.

Plus, like I said, I got my start in fanfiction. My origins are quite literally being targeted and attacked here. And feeling targeted can make people say and do some really stupid stuff if they don’t stop and think beforehand.

Basically, I didn’t want to start a Twitter beef over this because quite frankly the internet would be a happier place if we all just did that less, but I still saw a lot of bad arguments and missed points, so I couldn’t just say nothing. And so here we are, at a compromise between Twitter arguing and saying nothing—blogging about it.

The writer in question turned her single tweet into an entire thread that brought up a lot of very different, very unrelated issues, some of which I want to touch on as well, but before I do any of that, I want to answer the central argument, taking it as much as I can on face value and inferring as little else as possible: that fanfiction “actively teaches you to write worse.”

Does it?

Twitter is a terrible medium for communication. It rewards broad, inflammatory statements and its character limit leaves little room for nuance. Some people attempt brute-force circumventions of that limit, but most don’t, and the site isn’t suited to it. So it is unsurprisingly difficult to parse out exactly what they meant, but I can take a stab at it by covering as many bases as I could think of.

Does the medium of fanfiction inherently teach poor writing fundamentals, like prose, plot structure, or character development?

No. Writing, like most skills, is honed by practice. Every time you think about the best word to put on a page or the best way to structure a sentence or story, you are getting better at writing. You start a sentence, and think to yourself, “Hang on, there’s gotta be a better way to word that.” And that moment, where you reflect on your craft and look for ways and spots to improve it—that is you learning. Developing. Maybe you think of a way to word that sentence better, maybe you don’t. But the act of thinking, of searching, of even just acknowledging that it could be better is still work towards improvement. Doesn’t matter if it’s dialogue written for Harry Potter or for your original character, do not steal.

90% of fanfiction is crap. But 90% of everything is crap. Fanfiction is perhaps more famous for being mostly crap, but it’s really not hard to understand why. First off, the only barrier to entry for writing is basic literacy. If you can read this sentence, you can try your hand at writing. The difference between fanfiction and say, traditionally published works, is that fanfiction kind of keeps that low barrier to entry, whereas to get traditionally published you typically have to impress at least two other people—your agent, and then the editor you agent sends your shit to. And even then, that’s not a insurmountable barrier to entry. A metric butt-ton of people do it all the time.

In short, with fanfiction, the “slush pile” is open and visible, whereas with most other stuff, the only people who have to read that garbage are agents and editors, God have mercy on their souls. But rest assured, there is just as much shitty original fiction as there is shitty fanfiction.

In addition to the low barrier to entry, fanfiction is where a lot of people first dip their toe into this gig. And unless you are an unparalleled prodigy, when you’re new at something, you are bad at something. Which is fine. Doing something poorly is the first step to doing something competently. Practice is practice.

Now, you can practice something incorrectly and do yourself wrong—anybody who knows about proper weight lifting form can tell you that. But for the most part, a writer working on fanfiction is no more likely to do this than someone writing anything else.

The two exceptions I can think of are character and worldbuilding. Somewhat unique to fanfiction (we’ll talk about that in a minute) versus original fiction is that in fanfic, the characters and world are already established. Depending on the kind of fic you write, you may very well not get practice or experience making characters or worlds, since you’re using someone else’s work to basically cover that for you. So, sometimes, in this one specific area, fanfiction does feature something of a crutch that could theoretically lead to deficiencies in a writer’s fundamentals.

That said, that is very much dependent on the type of fanfic. Some works feature entirely original casts, telling a new story with new characters in an established setting. And even in fics which predominantly focus on the established cast, fanfic writers are downright notorious for adding new, original characters into the mix. Most of them are… awful. But we already covered why that is. Remember, bad writing is not the same thing as bad practice.

Ditto worldbuilding, where we’ve got plenty of fanfics that outright replace the world of the established story. The Alternate Universe concept is a very popular one in fanfic.

I will say in a closing than with worldbuilding and character, fanfiction does typically replace only one of these while keeping the other. Mainly because if you changed both, you’re liable to have left the realm of fanfiction altogether.

Does fanfiction, by its nature, leave you unprepared for making the transition to the professional writing world?

Let’s pretend for a moment that we didn’t just shoot down the idea that writing fanfiction means you never honed your ability to create your own original world and characters. That’s nonsense, but let’s say for purely hypothetical arguments sake, that if you start out writing fanfiction, your character-creating muscles will atrophy and you’ll only be able to work with pre-existing concepts, worlds, and characters. Does fanfiction leave you unprepared for making it in the world of professional writing?

For your consideration, I present: the very concept of episodic television. TV shows regularly bring on writers who did not originate either the show or its characters. TV writers craft stories borrowing a world and characters that somebody else came up with. The only difference between them is fanfiction is they got paid and get to be stamped as canon. Same muscles getting used. Same kind of exercise.

The spec script, the method by which most people showcase their ability to write for TV, is literally just fanfiction.

Then we have adaptations and retelling of both licensed and public domain properties, where once again, we have scores of writers, taking characters and concepts that they did not come up with, and using them to tell their own stories, or even just put different spins on the originals. What if Hades and Persephone, but without the whole “against her will” thing? Hey Marvel, can I use your Norse god character to tell a story about how societies built on the back of colonialism are inherently flawed and shouldn’t be preserved at the expense of the people?

The skillset of playing with other people’s toys to make something compelling is an incredibly valuable one for a writer to have. If anything, I’d argue that fanfiction is even better suited to teaching this skillset than writing original fiction.

And as a quick aside, that practice of playing with other people’s characters and constantly asking “Is this in character for them?” is a very useful practice that actually translates very well to writing your own characters. When you invented a character, it can be tempting to declare anything you write “in-character” since, well, you wrote it, and they’re your creation. But that thinking can easily lead to disjointed characterization.

I routinely ask “is this in-character?” while writing for characters I created. It makes me a better writer, and I learned how to ask that question and how to identify the answer from writing fanfiction.

Does fanfiction distort your sense of good taste?

This is the closest I could possibly come to agreeing with the original argument. The last time I was actively involved in it, the fanfiction community had pretty low standards, actually? I say this, because when I was writing fics, I was actually heaped with praise and attention, almost all of which was near universally good.

But I was not good. I was bad. I was very bad. Because I was in junior high, and an idiot, and those fics were the first thing I ever wrote that was longer than seven pages. But I updated my fics daily over the summer, in a very popular fandom that predominantly targeted people my age. So I got lots of fans and praise, and I started to think I was a good writer. Even worse than that, other people thought I was a good writer, and told even more people that I was.

Which is an affront to good taste.

That having been said, even though I do hold fandom and its nature partially to blame for the single most humbling aspect of my entire life, I also just hold adolescence in general to blame? Maybe? I like to think that much as I grew beyond my poor grasp of my own woeful incompetence, so too did my audience grow up and get a better understanding of what actually good writing is.

But then again, EL James and Reki Kawahara have made more money than I’ve ever seen in my life. So maybe neither fanfic nor adolescence is to blame. Maybe sometimes trash just sells.

As an aside, I hope this doesn’t come off as me trying to be mean or make fun of all those people who liked my old stuff. I know I’m embarrassed by it, and the only reason I haven’t deleted it all is because I need an ego check every now and again (and they’re also how I met my wife). But whether you also did a 180 on my old stuff as you got older or you still unironically think it’s good… thank you for the support. You are my humble beginnings and I would not be the person I am today without all of you.

…and that’s enough getting sentimental and making this about me, let’s go back to debunking opinions that are objectively wrong because I disagree with them.

The Other Stuff

I feel I’ve thoroughly said my peace on the original argument put out by my colleague. Namely, that they are wrong. But I’d also like to very quickly address the everything else they spewed out. My takes on this are considerably less long winded and probably could have been sanded down to a Twitter reply, but I still figure their inbox is getting enough shit already, and I want to make this more about the arguments than the person.

I’m not going to cover everything in detail, especially since I am super not qualified to speak on some of them—there is only so much I as a cishet dude feel comfortable giving my opinion on—but I will cover the bits that stood out and ground my gears.

EL James and Cassandra Clare are “fucking terrible”

No disputing the EL James part. Her character work is atrocious, her understanding of actual kink and BDSM dynamics and lifestyles is woeful, her plot bears clear evidence of serialized work that was not properly cleaned up prior to publication.

I haven’t read Cassandra Clare’s work. I have heard both good and bad things about it, but let’s say for argument’s sake she’s also not great.

This comment shows a distinct lack of knowledge of just how many authors, many critically acclaimed, write fanfiction on the side or got their start in it. Neil Gaiman writes fanfiction—and usually manages to get paid for it. I could go on with a long and yet still non-exhaustive list of authors who have done or still do it. Bottom line, there are some very high profile, not good writers whose start in fanfiction has been effectively weaponized against them to further underline their badness—“Of course EL James is bad. What did you expect from someone who started in fanfiction—while simultaneously many good writers have their connections to it downplayed by either choice or their own profile.

“Low effort formulaic lowest-common-denominator writing is bad actually”?

I almost brought this into main discussion, but I said I would infer as little as possible and on its own, this tweet didn’t directly say it was talking about fanfiction. I would argue it heavily implied it, and I very much doubt the author of the tweet would disagree with me, but I made the no inferring rule and I stuck to it.

I’m actually still going to take this argument on its own for a moment. I’ve already covered how and why fanfiction is generally seen as bad—low barrier to entry and the bad stuff is as easy to find as the good stuff—so I want to talk about something else. “Low effort writing is bad. No real arguments. I could jokingly say Neil Gaiman could drunkenly scribble something on a napkin that would outclass my best efforts, but I actually don’t have that low an opinion of myself.

Lowest-common-denominator writing is probably bad. In general, I think trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator is a good way to make uninspired trash, but on the other hand…fuck it, I’m liable to be included in that lowest common denominator most of the time. That’s the whole goddamn point of the LCD. It casts a broad net. And there’s a place for that. I don’t think it should be a big place, but still a place.

“Formulaic writing is bad” though? That I also just straight up disagree with. Formulas are a tool. And like every tool, they can be used really well, or really poorly. Used well, a formula can provide a solid structure around which to build interesting stories or ground the audience in otherwise unfamiliar settings. Don’t call a hammer a bad tool just because you’re hitting the nail wrong.

Several arguments discussing fanfictions relationship to queer and female audiences/writers/identities:

Nope, not touching that.

Oh fuck off.

Fanfiction isn’t collaborative or about community because “it's all corporate IP” and “Ultimately, someone else legally owns it, and you are choosing to give a corporate entity your creative energy.”

And this is actually something that’s been bugging me a while, specifically regarding the relationship people have with corporately owned IP and how it being owned by a corporation doesn’t automatically invalidate it as a source of emotional investment or cultural symbolism. But quite honestly, that really deserves its own post, so I’m just going to put a pin in this that and say we’re done here.

Glad I got all that off my chest.

So that was a thing. If you’ve got your own experiences with fanfic, good or bad, I’d love to hear them in the comments or over on Twitter.

If your curious about my history in fanfiction, like I said, it is all still technically out there, and very bad, but I’m not so much of a masochist that I’d link it here. I wouldn’t read it if I were you.

I write newer, much better stuff now. Some of it is here on this website, and some of it is in a novel coming out Fall 2021! Check that out instead! I promise it’s a much better use of your time.

[johnboothus]

Next Round: Nomadica Wine Co-Founder Kristin Olszewski on Making Canned Wine Cool

Airing between regular episodes of the VinePair Podcast, “Next Round” explores the ideas and innovations that are helping drinks businesses adapt in a time of unprecedented change. As the coronavirus crisis continues and new challenges arise, VP Pro is in your corner, supporting the drinks community for all the rounds to come. If you have a story or perspective to share, email us at podcast@vinepair.com.

In this “Next Round” episode, host Adam Teeter discusses the new canned wine brand Nomadica with one of its co-founders Kristin Olszewski. The two highlight Nomadica’s packaging and how the brand uses works of art as the “doorway” to excite its customers, welcoming them into what are often complicated conversations about wine. Olszewski emphasizes that while canned wine offers a particular convenience — for throwing a can in your purse or enjoying a sparkler on the beach — she always takes pride in the “juice” Nomadica uses.

Nomadica has paired with several small wineries to create limited-edition releases and sources all of its wines from producers Olszewski swears by. As a trained sommelier with over a decade of experience in the field, she proudly markets Nomadica as sommelier-curated canned wine, and hopes the brand can change consumers’ minds about the bottle-versus-can debate.

Nomadica’s current lineup includes two sparkling wines, a still rosé, and a red. Listen or read below as Olszewski discusses her initial skepticism of canned wine, how she built the brand, and her hopes for Nomadica’s future.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

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Or Check Out the Conversation Below

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York I’m Adam Teeter. And this is a VinePair “Next Round” conversation. As you guys know, we’re bringing you these conversations between the regular podcast episodes in order to give everyone a better picture of what’s going on in the alcohol beverage industry. Today, I’m really lucky to be talking with Kristen Olszewski, the chief beverage officer and founder of Nomadica Wine. Kristen, what’s going on?

Kristen: Hi, Adam. I’m so excited to be here with you today.

A: Thank you so much for joining me. I hope I didn’t butcher your last name.

K: That was actually perfect pronunciation.

A: So you are based in L.A., right? And a former sommelier, who now has a canned wine business?

K: Yes, from Barolo to canned wine. I love it.

A: So can you tell me a little bit about Nomadica, and then we’ll get into your career and how you came to start it in the first place, but give me the “What is Nomadica wine” pitch.

K: OK, so Nomadica is sommelier-curated canned wine. Of course, I am the sommelier curating the wine. And then anyone who takes a look at our cans always remarks on how beautiful they are. We work with artists so that the art on the can works as the first tasting note for the wine inside.

A: Oh, interesting. So I got to tell you, literally I’m not kissing your a** here. I just saw your cans a few years ago and they were brought into my office and I was like, “Wow, this is the first canned wine brand that I thought was understanding what craft beer had gotten right,” if that makes sense. Craft beer’s branding has been so good, especially on the can and that’s what consumers love. And I saw a lot of canned wine brands coming out prior to meeting you that looked a lot like this could have been designed by Anheuser-Busch, right? It was very “Bud Light,” but it was a rosé. And so I was like, wow, how is this the brand? Because at the time, I didn’t know you, and we’re just meeting for the first time, to be fair to everyone listening. I’m just excited about it. I was like, how has it taken anyone else this long in wine to figure this shit out? Just because it’s in a can doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be beautifully designed and something that you want to pull out and people will ask you in the park, what are you drinking? That’s been what craft beer has gotten right for so many years now, whether it’s L.A. breweries that I am less familiar with than the New York City ones, the Other Halfs and the KCBCs. And if you listen to this podcast, you hear me talking about these breweries a lot whose labels just look dope. I was blown away that you were the first one I saw to do that. So this is a very roundabout way of me asking you about your wine brand and what your decision to create a wine brand was in the first place. Because prior to this, you were at a restaurant group, you were a working somm, so why a canned wine brand?

K: Well, it was a crazy journey. I got introduced to my co-founder through a mutual friend. He actually comes from the New York restaurant scene, and he was like, “Hey, I met this girl. She wants to start a wine company. You should speak with her.” As you know, I’ve spent my entire career working in Michelin and wine-focused restaurants and am literally obsessed with wine. So I go meet her after working on the floor at Mozza, I show up in my lady suit in my favorite natural wine bar in Los Angeles, shout out to Tabula Rasa. And Emma tells me that she’s been pouring nice wine into Pellegrino cans to take by the pool or on really long Uber rides in Los Angeles. And at first I was like, “Ugh, canned wine?” To be honest, I’d only had bad experiences with canned wine. It’s not something I thought of myself as ever drinking or ever having any interest in. But Emma is famously stubborn and stalked my Instagram, found a winemaker she knew I really liked on the Central Coast, Josh Klapper from La Fenetre at Timbre, who worked at Avant Cremant for a while. She canned a small batch of his Pinot Noir and brought it back to me to taste. And I let it sit in my cabinet for two months. I’ll be honest, I opened it up one night when I didn’t feel like opening up a bottle. And I had this realization that canned wine wasn’t bad. People were just putting bad wine in cans. And of course, I think the market has changed now. There are some amazing players in the canned wine space, and I could not be more excited about sharing this space with some really great winemakers, but Nomadica was born. And so we decided to use artists as our labels because I’m sure anyone who works the floor will understand this. You spend all night talking to people, and probably 10 to 15 percent of the people you speak with actually have language to describe what they like in wine, right? They understand what body means, what tannin is, or how to talk about acid levels, what volatile acidity is, et cetera. But most people you have to use unconventional formats to describe flavor profiles and tastes. I remember one time describing Poggio di Sotto Brunello di Montalcino to a guest as God walking down your throat in velvet slippers. And he’s like “Yeah, I want that. I want that wine.” So we thought it would be really fun to be really playful with that and play on the idea of synesthesia here, and I think we do a great job and we’ve actually just hired a creative director the last couple of months who is immensely talented. And I can’t wait to reveal our new lineup of can art coming out next year.

A: That’s super cool. So when Emma brought you this idea, you were like “OK, let me figure this out. I’ll think about it.” How long did it take you from thinking about it, to saying, “OK, screw it. I’m quitting my job. I’m doing this full-time?” What was the process? What did you go through to do this?

K: Well, I worked two jobs for a very long time. I’m sure anyone who started their own business knows the hustle is real. So I would spend all day working on Nomadica and then I’d spend all night at Osteria Mozza, slinging Barolo and Brunello and all the fun Italian wines. And we were able to raise a little bit of money last year, and I was able to go full-time, and I can’t even tell you how exciting it was — and still is — to work for myself. It’s crazy.

A: Awesome. Yeah. It’s totally great, right? It’s this thing that you just finally take the leap and you do it, and it’s nuts. So you have this canned wine brand. You finally got it on your own. What is your goal for this brand? Or obviously you said that it’s about putting good wine in cans, but what does that actually mean to you? And could you put Barolo in a can? Do you know what I’m saying? I’ve heard some people be like, “Oh, there’s only certain kinds of wine that you’d put in cans.” So what does it mean for you in terms of the wine you put into a can?

K: Well, we source wine specifically for the can, and I do think this is where my decade-plus in wine really does come in handy. We don’t just put any juice in the can. I will probably never put Barolo in a can. I do think it needs to age in a bottle, but certain varietals like our current red, a Sangiovese blend with a little bit of old vines and vanilla and Grenache. It’s poppy. It’s bright. It doesn’t have tannin, it’s high-acid. It’s crushable. So that’s kind of where we’re heading here. And then we have a core lineup of wines. Two sparklings (a white and a rosé), a still rosé, and a red. We’re adding a still white to that lineup next year. And then we’re also doing some really fun limited editions that we’re just going to drop online, small boutique things. We’re doing a collab with Stolpman Vineyards. We’re doing a carbonic Syrah with them. And then Mike from Rootdown and Cole Ranch, and SLK wines made an amazing Piquette with some 70-year-old Riesling from his single vineyard.

A: OK. I get it, though, I get it. So basically the whole idea is it’s wines that are drinkable now, right? We’re not aging anything in this. Are you the person that’s drinking from the can, or do you expect the consumer to pour into the glass?

K: So I always say wine tastes better from a glass, and no one will ever get me to change my mind on that. There are some circumstances where you’re on a hike, you’re at the beach, you’re sneaking a can into your purse to have with an In-N-Out burger. I don’t know for a fact, I’ve never done this myself, of course — I would never — but sometimes you just drink out of the can for convenience. Another thing I really like about the cans, and I think one of the special things about what we do at Nomadica is we have nothing to hide. I encourage everyone to drink it out of a glass. And because of that, we’ve noticed — we’ve done a lot of surveys with our customers, and they’re wine drinkers. They’re a little older, they’re in their 30s typically, and they’re choosing us because they don’t want to open an entire bottle.

A: Oh, interesting. So, here’s what I’m curious about. I was going to ask this question, you sort of answered it for me, but it’s who does dump it into a glass? Because we started, and in all fairness, we’ve never had your wine submitted for the tasting, we started two years ago a big open call for canned wines. Because there’s so many now, right? Canned wines were submitted to us and actually our tastings director basically the first year was like, we have to stop pouring the wines into a glass. And so we don’t, if anyone else who listens has submitted to us before, you’re now learning, it’s the only tasting where we do not pour the wines into the glass, because when we surveyed our staff and then readership, most said they drank it from the can. And so we were like, well, because a lot of times when you pour it into the glass, especially with some of these canned wines, you get that weird sulfur smell initially. And so we were like well, no one is actually going to get that because they’re drinking it from the can. They’re consuming it in the way they would consume a seltzer or the way they would consume White Claws, but yeah, the way they would consume a seltzer or a beer, that’s that format we’ve been conditioned. We drink from it. We don’t pour into a glass. So I, that’s why I was curious to ask you, just because I wonder, then, if you think about what kind of wine goes into the can, knowing that it’s not going to be examined or it won’t aerate?

K: Yes, absolutely. So when I’m selecting wines, I always have several cans, and I taste it out of the can and because I don’t want to control how anyone drinks it. I want it to be amazing in every single scenario.

A: It’s funny, there’s a restaurant near me in Brooklyn that sells Nomadica, but how have you expanded? What has that been like? So you obviously quit your job. You’ve raised a little bit of money. You’re now out in the world. What has your growth trajectory looked like? Or what are your plans for growth? How is that working?

K: So we’ve actually been really lucky in a pretty awful year — let’s be honest — to really hang on, and over half of our business is in on-premise, which people are always surprised by. I mean, I was surprised by that. I think when we first started Nomadica, I was like, “Oh, this is just gonna be retail. This is just going to be retail,” but we’ve seen a massive uptick from luxury hotels and grab-and-go programs. I’m sure that restaurant in Brooklyn is one of those.

A: It’s like a little falafel shop.

K: Oh, Holy Pita! I love that place.

A: That’s so funny that you know which one it is!

K: Of course I do. Of course I do. I have a very hands-on approach with our national sales office, and I think because the wine world and the beverage world is really small and I have to just really shout out our partners. At the beginning of this, we went to people and we’re like, “OK, this sucks for everyone.” I have worked in restaurants basically my entire life. And I’m worried about the future of restaurants. I think we all are. And so we went to a lot of our partners and just asked how we can help them, how we can be there for them. So we’ve done a bunch of Zoom tastings, virtual staff trainings. We’ve done a lot of charitable partnerships. And I think our relationship with our partners is better than ever. And thankfully, the industry is so small, we’ve also felt that love back towards us in a lot of ways.

A: Right. So is part of the plan for this to be a DTC brand? So obviously, on the site, right, you can order, you have the wine shop. Was that part of the business plan to begin with where you would be able to send people the wines they love on a subscription basis or is that since Covid?

K: Well, that’s definitely a re-pivot since Covid. We had always planned on launching some e-comm business as wholesale. We love our wholesale partners. We’re never going to take our foot off the gas of that, but e-commerce allows us to do these limited-edition collaborations and allows us the opportunity to talk to our customers, which I love. I miss the floor so much. I can’t even tell you. I just love talking to people about wine. It’s a sick obsession. I’m sure you understand. And so we actually just expanded, we’re going to be able to ship to 48 states in January, we’re launching a subscription service called “Club Nomadica.” You can either order monthly or subscribe quarterly, and we’re doing some really fun, exciting things next year.

A: So can you tell us any of those things?

K: So I’m so excited about this. We’re offering this up to all of our Club Nomadica customers, they get 24-7 access to me for all of their wine questions. It’s called “Text a Somm.” And so we’ve been beta testing it. And this came about because I get probably at least 10 texts a week from friends or family. Either it’s a photo of a wine list, “What’s the cheapest, best wine I can drink?” Or “I’m at the grocery store. What do I get?” And so we were like, wouldn’t this be great if we offered this up to our customers and our early adopters. And we’ve been beta testing it. People love it.

A: Yeah. I will say just full disclosure, no relation to the VinePair Text a Somm program. Totally different.

K: Totally different things.

A: But yeah, no, I think that’s super cool. I mean, obviously, yeah. I’m joking, but we did do “Text a Somm” this summer to give working somms a shift, basically. And we saw how many people texted in who have just random questions for wine professionals and they really want to know stuff. So obviously we’re never going to make this full-time. I think it’s super cool that you’re doing it like this. I think you’re also insane to be available 24-7. But I mean, it is still a young company, so I feel that’s when you have the energy be like “Yeah, s***. I’ll do it. 3:00 a.m. I don’t care.” So I dig that. So I have to ask you a question that is not about the wine. Then we’ll get back to the wine, but we’re going to be going all over the place here. I did check out your LinkedIn and it looks like you thought about going to medical school.

K: Yes. Oh my goodness.

A: So, where did that change for you? Obviously you went back, you had done undergrad, then you went back to that post-bacc to go to medical school. Where did you fall in love with wine in that journey and say, “You know what, screw being a surgeon, I’m gonna ultimately own a canned wine brand.”

K: So I majored in sustainable agriculture, moved to San Francisco, cooked for a little bit, worked at some really amazing restaurants, front of house, met Carlin Carr, who’s now the wine director for the Frasca group. She was so generous with pours. I cannot even tell you, and I kind of started to get the bug for wine there, but for a slew of reasons decided that “No, I should be a doctor. I should go prove to people that I’m really smart.” And so I went and did my pre-med post-bacc at Harvard. I’m originally from Massachusetts, so it was just moving back home for me, essentially. And throughout this time I was spending my summers working on Nantucket at Straight Wharf Restaurant, which actually has an incredible Bordeaux and Burgundy cellar. The restaurant has been around since the ’70s. Julia Child was actually the opening chef there. I know, so, so cool. And my last year, and here’s when I really started to get exposed to great wine. And there’s very generous guests. I had the opportunity to taste things that I could never in a million years afford to buy. And then in my last year of school, I’m taking my MCAT, applying for med school, I get in and that’s that, I’m going to med school. I’m going to be a doctor. And I meet this woman, Felicia Foster, who was running the small wine bar in Somerville, which is right outside of Boston, called Spoke Wine Bar. And she just mentored me, invited me to taste with her, you know when you first start out in wine and you’re tasting things and just don’t have the confidence to name flavors, to talk about the wine. She just encouraged me, and exposed me to Piedmont and Austria and Germany and all these wines that I just had no idea about, and she just really encouraged me to leave school because I was pretty miserable. I’ll be honest. And I love wine and I just took the leap and never looked back.

A: That’s great. That’s awesome. So back to the wine. So obviously the company is only a few years old. What are your goals for Nomadica? Would you like to ultimately grow it to a level where it is bought by a larger wine company? Would you like to own it forever? Would you like to ultimately use the label to expand into bottles or other things? I’m curious, what is your vision for the brand? As of right now as we’re closing out 2020 moving into 2021.

K: I really do want Nomadica to be everywhere. I think we’ve all had the experience in our life, whether it’s we go to a sports game or a movie theater and you drink beer because there’s not a wine that you would drink. And I really do think Nomadica solves that problem. And to be quite honest, we’re just so focused on building this thing and making it as great as it possibly can be that if we potentially get bought out, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. We’re just trying to make our product as great as can be and do some really fun things while we’re at it.

A: So you bring up a really great question and probably something that some people who listen to the VinePair podcasts always have, which is how do you get into those kinds of places? How do you get into the sports arenas or the movie theaters or the Holy Pitas of the world? And what I mean by that is I think that your value proposition is really great. I love the cans. I think the juice inside the can is absolutely stellar. And I get the marketing positioning of sommelier-curated wines. But the places that I think where you find the initial customers is where you’re talking about, right? The places where I wish there was a good glass of wine, but I don’t have it. And for the most part at those places, the person doing the buying may not know the difference between Nomadica or be able to appreciate the differences between Nomadica and that canned wine brand from Oregon or that canned wine brand from — not to pick on them — that canned wine brand from Northern California or something else from even New York state, right? How do you explain to them that this is the canned wine brand they should have for all of the reasons that I understand they should have it, the quality, the better design, all that stuff. Is it just that they see the package and they get it? What is your strategy there?

K: The packaging definitely is the door opener, but our strategy is really just, I can’t even tell you how great I’ve gotten at rejection the last few years. I remember starting this journey and thinking I’m great at sales. I sell wine on the floor every night, I can sell so much wine, and I really didn’t realize how you just have to constantly take it on the chin and keep going. And that’s basically my strategy. So I never really take no for an answer because I do think that there’s always an opportunity to revisit. And that our sales have definitely shown that to be true. And maybe it’s not always a “no,” maybe it’s a “not now.” And you just relentlessly follow up. You leverage your network. I stalk buyers, I’ve realized how creepy I am. And we’ve also been really lucky. I recently brought on Terra Hannaford as my COO, and she was the VP of sales from Casamigos and just what a difference she’s made in the company. And she has taught me so much about how to leverage and manage our distribution network, which was not formerly a skill of mine coming from the fine-dining wine world, and how to talk to retailers, how to use everything from your friend that you knew in seventh grade who maybe has a cousin that owns a wine shop. You got to really connect with people. And so I think it’s been working pretty well.

A: That’s awesome. So I feel like at this point I have a really good picture of the business. Do you plan to raise more money? What are your goals? Because like I said, the cool programs you have coming are “Text a Somm” et cetera. What are your goals when you think about where you’d like to be at the end of 2021?

K: Yeah, well we’ll raise some more money. We’ve got some exciting innovations on the way that you will be one of the first people to know about, I promise. I’m so excited about that for 2021. And just a lot of really innovative programming, and you know things take money, unfortunately. And I want to be everywhere in the U.S.

A: Kristen, this was really awesome to talk to you and get to know the business, where you’re headed. Like I said, I really think that the product is awesome. When I came in contact with it two years ago, I thought it was great. And then to be fair, I see so much stuff that it passed my mind. And when I got emailed about it again a few weeks ago, I was like, “Oh man, yes, I absolutely want to have this conversation” because I think you really seem to get it in a way that I think a lot of other people who are trying to do the canned wine thing just are missing, right? I’m not telling you to make, as I said earlier, the next “Bud Light.” I’m telling you to make the thing that I also would love to have out on my table or to be seen with in the park. That’s what I want. And I feel you’re delivering that, and it’s just awesome.

K: Thank you, Adam. That’s so nice.

A: So anyways, all the best in 2021 and with Nomadica. I’ll definitely keep watching, and I’ll definitely drink it when I go to Holy Pita.

K: Shout Out to Holy Pita!

A: Shout out to Holy Pita. Talk to you soon.

K: Bye, Adam. Thanks.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now, for the credits. VinePair is produced and hosted by Zach Geballe and me, Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again right here next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity

The article Next Round: Nomadica Wine Co-Founder Kristin Olszewski on Making Canned Wine Cool appeared first on VinePair.

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