#and trying to make my workflow more efficient LOL

[windupaidoneus]

i return. office jobs time. BUT AGAIN!

so emet isn't one to get attached as easily as hilde is. hilde has a big heart & big emotions, a tendency to think he can befriend Anybody if he tries hard enough, even the most antisocial of coworkers! or well. that IS the reputation he has & he is a bit. well. unpleasant. not a friendly resting face, doesnt go out of his way to chat up anybody at the workplace, more likely to make biting remarks under his breath than show someone even a drop more generosity & gratefulness than they "deserve" for a task well done - a curt 'thank you' usually is all one can get out of him. which tbf he is constantly drowning in work so spending too much time on socialising would!! ruin his workflow! is he incredibly stressed? Well Yes Of Course

but the thing is hilde is like. very problem solvy brain. he sees a problem someone else has & is struggling to solve & hes like >:[ i can protect you (from the unsolvable problem). & while initially emet would perceive it as meddling from a tolerable & efficient but ultimately A Coworker coworker it does give him pause when hilde actually solves his problem. [ said problem is, in all likelihood, something in the vein of "Something has come up that is going to make me need to reorganise everything in an entirely different manner & it's too much to process at once for me to work out when i'm already swimming in caffeine, ibuprofen, two hours of sleep & five impending deadlines (he's not a slacker he just takes on more responsibilities than is reasonable)". hildegarde's not good at organising his own affairs but let it be for someone else's sake & all of a sudden he's a master at working things out in a timely manner too! ]

so. he comes to hold hildegarde in higher respect through that. not that he disliked him before that but he was mostly neutral. sort of positive? definitely found Some amusement in seeing hilde fumble the act of walking & there might've been some endearment in it but like. he doesn't form connections that easily. not without prompt

after that i feel like they kind of. rely on each other's insight more. well moreso emet, bc he's the one who's been helped (& hilde. well. imagine feeling comfortable asking for help 😂😂😂 he'll get there though) so he's like. there's this reliable guy. i can get his opinion or assistance on things if they give me too much trouble. not a fan of asking but he does it so naturally & without really paying much mind to it that it doesn't feel like i'm asking for help that much so it's fine. <- also bad at asking for help but it's a pride ( 🏳️‍🌈? 🤨) thing for him

the like, trigger for hilde asking for help pretty much, is uhh... well. perhaps it is a little cliché (idk i don't read fic or anything. im gleaming the aura of these fic tags & websites from afar) but who DOESNT WANT CLICHE! right? it's fun! anyway hilde (points) is horrible at taking care of himself this remains true in any universe. is he staying way too late at his desk? of course. does he have my mental illness soup? obviously. let's embark upon a journey of "here he is, it's past midnight, he's exhausted & desperately trying to finish something BEFORE the deadline day but the executive is dysfunctioning + it's late so his brain is being not so kind & he's getting really overwhelmed just sitting with his own thoughts. in walks the only other guy who'd stay at work this late for similar reasons except hes actually got it handled a little better. he is now being (very delicately bc it's more implied than "you should do that") encouraged to drop it & just go home". isn't it fucked up when you start caring about someone who was kinda just there for the longest time & now you're walking them home at one in the morning? lol

during the whole time post hilde helping emet there was like. more communication between them ofc. not at all to the point of texting each other outside of Work Stuff but at Job they didnt exclusively talk about job stuff. ykw i even imagine hilde would on occasion come to gossip about a coworker they both have some beef with (hello thancred this is you) which hilde knows bc of emet's snippy remarks, & well emet did the same. & they would end up trying to sync their breaks so they could chat over their respective hot beverages & preferably with no one else taking their break at the same time. that was bonding lmao. at that point they would refer to each other as pleasant acquaintances but they are kind of already friends. it's just that neither of them will outright call the other that without being given indication that Is the case. emet doesn't really think about it that much unless asked & hilde doesn't want to be presumptuous. in all likelihood a third party is gonna have to ask emet about it so they can be Officially Friends. but they are friends at that time.

do i think they fucked on the Late Work Night? well. maybe. who am i to know really. (no. however likely emet had to stay over bc sleepy & upset hilde is clingy hilde. he literally could not leave. emet had the next day off it's Fine hilde even made breakfast & went out to the bakery to get him some pastries as an apology)

something that makes emet realise he's come to really care for hilde is probably learning hilde's beef w thancred is bc they like, were kinda together kinda not for a time? but thancred's nature TM makes it that it was impossible for it to work & also he has a competitive nature that hilde cannot stand. & suddenly emet feels a looot more comfortable getting annoyed at him for the smallest, most unimportant shit LMAO. i imagine elidibus is also one of the famed coworkers in that beautiful au (& someone emet would be more familiar with overall) & he's like. i did not expect you to have such strong feelings on someone you're never actually having to interact with directly. & emet's just shrugging. because it's actually the exact amount of beef he should have thank you very much

meanwhile on hilde's side of things shtola is praising his ingenuity in using his history with some other guy to get closer to guy who dislikes said some other guy. & hilde has to defend himself & assure her that is NOT his intent (she is just fucking with him. of course she is. she just also finds it funny when thancred has beef w ppl) (thancred & hilde are still friends hilde is just the gossipper & the bitcher. once again we shan't forget he is me in a lot of regards)

thancred voice oh so you're courting that prick over there by talking shit about me?? hilde voice i am NOT courting him. however i am talking shit about you yea sorry i remembered that time we played mario kart & you sat on me to make me lose & got mad. thancred voice if you were trying to get with anyone else i would probably forgive you considering the circumstances. but not HIM! hilde voice i am NOT TRYING TO GET WITH HIM!!

but he is. admitting it would make him feel shallow though. he did not befriend beautiful emet for the sake of kissing him of course. but well. impostor syndrome & the whole... yknow... thing where queer- is prince next to me??? hold on. (tabs into the game) (tabs out) yup hes joined me on the bench awesome. where was i. yea thing where queer ppl feel like their attraction is inherently predatory bc of Socieeetyyy. if you think i dont include societal issues in my writing WRONG! a world without homophobia sounds ideal but i would not write about an ideal world. i'd have nothing to write about if the world was ideal. so one of the many issues hilde has to deal with is insecurities regarding the legitimacy of his ✨ blossoming feelings ✨ for the handsome coworker who smells good & is very tall & has been really kind to him & they share opinions on important stuff & have decent banter on other stuff that never feels like an actual Fight is gonna happen about it just friendly bickering & did i mention he smells good & oh god his wings could wrap him up in a hug like a blanket NOOOO don't think about it it's Bad you're a CREEP! <- is this relatable to me? well maybe. SIGH

emet... ack. he's probably not really thinking about romance as a baseline. married to his work kinda guy. his work has started involving this one weird deerguy whom he's more or less befriended [as npc i shan't yet name would tease him about] more & more though. maybe it's time to think about settling down. <- shan't be named npc teases him saying shit like that for SURE it's the kind of thing where. ok these paragraphs are not chronological they go TOGETHER okay it's IMPORTANT to note that. these two would have smth similar going to like. what i've said about... other versions of them let's say. where they get like really close but don't Talk about it. they spend more time together outside of work & work functions ("ah, so it's a date then!" teases the npc. emet rolls his eyes), hang out at each other's place, maybe even go to a concert together if anything catches either of them's fancy & they don't want to go somewhere alone, they probably share a bed more often than not when spending the night together. why do they spend the night together? could've gone out for drinks & gone home together for Safety (or they're both piss drunk & walked home leaning against each other to try & keep themselves standing LMAO no chance for either of them to THEN go home to their own place without just collapsing somewhere on the street), emet's decided to clean up hildes place because mr depression over there has trouble doing it himself but he had to come over after work so it got late, or Just Because. plenty of reasons for them to spend time together. & they do share a bed yeah. cuddle even. maybe more even. what's a little making out between friends? no big deal

it'd be during all that that hilde becomes aware of his own feelings rather than before entirely. & he fully thinks it's all him & there's no chance at all of reciprocation. It Haunts Him that he feels so predatory & evil for still going along with all this after realising his feelings (& in the UNLIKELY event they may be reciprocated what if his own feelings aren't real? what if he's being MANIPULATIVE for ATTENTION & AFFECTION? i mean. you know how it is with. mental illness). he probably has some pretty bad mental crises about it. & one of them is probably the catalyst for them getting together proper lmao. i would go Into It more but i am. once again getting tired. & also sharing info about my characters at their Worst makes me feel so vulnerable HFJKHGDJSG plus i mean... i do retain some self consciousness abt the #marysueish nature of things. ill get over it i promise. & there will be more furry modern au words. after i sleep. i still have not gotten to the date activities. fuck. WELL! sad

final message to the world (in this specific reblog) though is that emet is aware of his own feelings probably around the same time hilde becomes aware of his own & he just. keeps going along to see how long it'll take for hilde to Say something. if he says something at all. otherwise he is perfectly fine continuing like this forever <- lying to himself he is finding himself to be yearning for it & for it to be Official so he can also (rarely) express affection more overtly with words too but he pushes it at the back of his mind to pretend that yeah hes totally cool with things being implied & unsaid he is SO lying. he is SO fucking lying things being unclear stress him the fuck out too. also being able to introduce this guy he really likes & respects as his Partner would make him feel like a god & he wants that so bad. there. the final

first you're not horrible and in fact I care about you deeply and dearly, second!! Tell me about that furry modern AU i've seen you post a bit about I think? the one where they work office jobs. If you have anything you wanna say about that :] or um. Tell me hilde and emet's favourite date activities !

green. sneef. i hold ur kind words so close to my heart. always. even when i feel bad!! which is saying!! u know how it is with brain bad...

& of course i can tell u about my Epic Furry Modern AU where they work office jobs!!!!! it's one i haven't actually pondered TOO much yet but the beautiful thing abt thinking is that it's something u can do & then u have thoughts. isnt it beautiful

it would be separate from my Regular Modern AU which has its own lore. in this one they are really. coworkers. to start with. this one actually started off bc i was designing a fursona for hilde & the image came to me of him.. well hold on. this

^ this is him looking up over his shoulders while Handsome Kind of standoffish Smells good fuckkkk he smells GOOD coworker (though the way i see it it's more similar to like, when two companies work together? & they're from diff. companies basically. yeah) reaches over his head to grab something from the shelf he was sorting. & well emet is an Owl so he has Big Feathery Arms kind of like a cape... so in that scenario hilde is kind offf getting enveloped in that. not really bc emet isnt touching him but. yeah. if this hapepend to me id just die homosexual style i can promise you this

i think magic exists in this universe however we still need desk workers yk. magic doesnt, err, magically erase bureaucracy. Sad! theyre both full of magical potential but yknow when ppl either have a lot of skill but cant get hired for anything relevant to them so they settle for some nothing job OR the thing theyre really good at doesnt pay well so they go for smth that doesnt align w their preferences for the sake of living comfortably financially even if it means work is hell on their mind? them. hilde is the one who cant get hired for smth he likes & emet is the one going for a job that pays good rather than a job that suits what he likes doing. though of course he does get really really into the managing & organising aspect of Office Worker due to le autism. no way he isnt a manager of some sort he is NOT at the bottom of the ladder in any universe. i wouldnt say hilde is at the bottom of the ladder either bc he DOES have good skills & is generally a very applied worker (also idk im really not gunning for them having an unbalanced dynamic as coworkers, same company or not) but he definitely brushes his job off as not that important if asked what he does

emet probably has a sort of Reputation that makes him sound unapproachable but in the few interactions theyve had hes been a very reliable person to work with so hilde isnt particularly deterred from maybe trying to make friends for that reason. hes just.. socially awkward & anxious to start with. the moment their other coworkers (who hilde is actually like, decently friends with, likely one of the scions who mightve even been his friend before he started working there too. hell, could be a zero! or two even) catch that hes trying to befriend the guy with the Reputation theyyy try to orchestrate ways for them to work alongside each other more lmao. or like ohhh shucks i left xyz in the office over there can you go get it for me since youre nearby </3 which is entertaining for everyone in the know to watch.

they do get to work more as time goes on bc i feel like hilde would be doing like... communications stuff. great for the social anxiety lmao. & so relaying info & working out how the companies can better work w each other would be at least partly on him. he'd be involved in that i thinks. & ofc that would also involve the ppl in higher positions. fuck iahve so amny more ideas but im actually falling asleep in my seat remind me to rb with more tomorrow + the date activities ahhh

[jaehwany]

Hey ! Do you make gifs for kdramas, and if so, how do you go about doing so? Thank you 😀

yep i do! first of all you’d need to have some sort of a software to create your gifs with. i do everything on photoshop so i won’t be able to be of much help for any alternative methods 😢

when it comes to giffing, everyone has their own method that works for them, there’s no 1 set way to go about it so don’t be afraid to play around and experiment as much as possible to discover what you like! i get inspiration all the time from all the creations i come across on here 💜

really, just have fun with it!! there are no rules (except for a few lol) ✨✨

before you even gif you’ll need to make sure you’re able to source high quality downloads bc that is really the key to everything - here’s an ask i answered where i linked some resource posts for giffing dramas

sharing my typical workflow below to give you an idea of the steps involved. you’d probably be able to look up more detailed tutorials for each step or you can always DM me if you need more specific help :)

1) download the video file making sure it's minimally at least 1080p for the best quality gifs

2) pick out the moment you wanna gif and identify the timecodes (to give you an idea depending on the file 4 seconds of video would usually translate to around 99 frames)

3) trim those moments using some sort of a clipping software (or i think you can also do this directly using ps), i use handbrake for this purpose

4) when cropping and resizing, i prefer to do it using vapoursynth bc i find it a lot more efficient and i have more control over maintaining the same framing across gifs. but again, you can do this directly in ps if you prefer and don't wanna learn how to use a bunch of different software 😝

5) for resizing, it’s very important to use the correct tumblr post dimensions or tumblr might resize it for you and the gifs you worked so hard on could end up looking pixelated after posting! here’s the recommended widths for photoset posts

6) and since i’ve already resized and cropped the clips in the previous steps, once i import the files into ps (file > import > video frames to layers), they can actually already be saved immediately as gifs (file > export > save for web)

7) but of course you probably won’t wanna stop there bc you wanna make sure your gifs actually look good! i recommend playing around with the smart filters to see what looks nice to you - to do this, first switch to timeline mode and then convert your layers for smart filters (select all layers > filter > convert for smart filters). the filter i highly recommend using (and is what most creators use) would be smart sharpen but you can also try out some of the others like camera raw filter, noise, etc. 

8) once you’re satisfied, it’s time to colour!! i usually switch back to animation mode to do this (convert frames > flatten frames into clips > make frames from clips > convert to frame animation). the adjustment layers i typically use are curves, brightness/contrast, selective colour and levels but if you’re new at colouring, you can also make use of ready psds that people have already uploaded on tumblr and tweak them to your liking so that it suits the scene that you’re editing (the same exact colouring usually won’t work across every single scene/show). but just don't reupload the colouring and claim as your own!

9) final step before saving is to adjust the frame delay, some prefer their gifs a little faster/slower but i usually set mine at 0.05 bc i find that it’s most comfortable for the eyes

10) now you’re ready to save your gif 🙌 i usually save it in adaptive diffusion mode keeping the colours at the default max of 256. if you’re planning to upload onto tumblr, the file needs to be under 10mb or it won’t upload! so if you have trouble keeping your gif under the size limit, you’ll have to go back and cut down on the number of frames (i would remove frames from either the start or the end and avoid skipping any in between or your gif could end up looking “choppy”). alternatively, adjusting your colouring can sometimes help reduce the file size too (the lesser variation of colours in your gifs the smaller the file size). 

happy giffing! xx

[linz33y]

The Doctor can run (in place) and jump, and he looks down to see where he’s going to land! There’s also a little “brrRRING” sound effect on each jump, but it’s a gif, so just imagine it in your head. I promise it’s cute❤️

Next steps will be learning about maps 😁

If you’re interested in some bonus nerd ramblings, they’re below the cut 🤓

👋🤓

Ok, at some point I’m going to need to buckle down and figure out a debugging workflow. PICO-8 doesn’t support breakpoints, so I’m doing it the sloppy way and just printing a bunch of shit to the screen. It’s not efficient, especially when a crash happens before my prints execute.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but the runtime errors aren’t always the most... helpful, and honestly, idk if this is a Lua thing or if it’s a limitation of the subset of Lua that PICO-8 implements. Lua is a 27 year old language (for comparison, Python is 30) so I have to think this is another intentional artificial limitation. 

Like, what am I supposed to do with this 😂:

Sometimes you do get a helpful traceback and error message (oh look, I forgot to call the method on the instance. Again 🙄), and they happen mid-draw, which is good for a chuckle. I think I just like “seeing” how far the code executes before a crash.

So... unit tests... I don’t have any, and I hate that. I don’t think PICO-8 has a test runner, but I’ve seen a few posts about an external project called pico-test, which I’m very interested in trying it out. It’s just hard to divert time and energy to yet another New Thing when all I wanna do is make my little babies run and jump (lol said every developer ever when tasked with learning testing frameworks). Perhaps I’ll bite the bullet soon though, because for the life of me, I cannot figure out why my collision detection stopped working when I abstracted it out:

All in all, today was fun. Having all my code in a single file with zero tests is making me very twitchy, but I did at least get everything up into a private github repo (and let me tell you the terror I had when I realized this old laptop has a password protected SSH key that I haven’t had to remember in many years... jfc 😅I did finally remember it, thank god, but I have never seen my old digital ocean droplet life flash before my eyes like that before). 

Maybe when I’m a little more comfortable with the concepts, I’ll switch back to the PICO-8 IDE. It is really cute, and it lets you split your code into “tabs”, which would ease my organization woes. But for now I’m just sticking with Sublime Text 2. And I guess your tests can’t fail if you don’t write them to begin with.

[badjonesrising]

New Work: Mixed Media & Altered Tags

For the last few days, I decided to take my "letting go" and my Spring cleaning and purging to the next level. I made a commitment to myself to try to not scroll aimlessly on social media, and actually get some of my work done. I am currently working on two commissions and I have a couple of zine collabs going on. I have made a commitment to myself to enhance my workflow as well, and get me to a more efficient workflow. I have always been a prepper, but I am going to step it up a notch.

I pulled out all my scrapbooking stuff the other day (what I have here in NYC, that is) and sorted it, sent some of it to friends, and decided what was worth using. I set out to also make some altered tags or mixed media tags. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the traditional tags to begin with, so I made them all myself. I used my little corner rounder, some pretty twine, and mail art from friends. I used recycled mat board, index cards, some flash cards and deck cards as well. Together, all this STUFF, became some really neat and interesting tags! I am currently waiting on assorted ribbon in the mail, and I am going to swap out the string with coordinating colors. I love practicing using all this non-art stuff to make little masterpieces. I took me a while to get into the zone, but eventually, after two days— I got a few really good ones I liked! LOL

I do not sell these tags, although I have had a lot of interest in some tag packs recently…idk. Right now they are strictly for pen pals, mail swaps, and sometimes I like to throw them inside of my shop orders. Just like little notes and stickers, these little tags are an exciting way to add some color and jazz to the parcel. If you missed my cool mail post from last week, please read it! There is some good stuff in there.

Hope you are okay out there in the deep abyss. Take it easy y'all. Happy art making!

[thelocdbella]

How I Improved My Business

One day, while scrolling through social media, I came across West Street and immediately felt compelled to inquire about a work-study program. This video above was captured in 2015 during a photography session by Jimi Sweet, the studio’s owner/manager. I remember I was still trying to figure out the whole photography thing while working as a Reservationist in Midtown. I had no “formal” training, no professional gear and all I had were willing friends who wanted to be my models. Little did I know, that opportunity would then lead me down the road to where I am now with a thriving business and working alongside my epic Ma-tographer, Amy Anaiz.

***

Unfortunately, my dad passed that year and I became a recluse. I gave up my work-study, photography and not long after, met Amy, who I now consider my own personal mentor and sister (despite me calling her “Ma”). Haha! Over the last three years, I’ve managed to take my business off overwhelm and into autopilot because of the lessons and skills I’ve learned while working during my time at West Street and creating with Amy. If there’s one thing I’ve learned while having a mentor is that it’s okay to share your resources and anything you believe can help someone else without overextending to exhaustion. So here I am, ready to share with you the processes and applications I use on a daily to keep my business up and running and still have the time to do other important things.

Resources

I know you’re here for one thing, so I’m not going to keep you long. Below, you’ll find the applications I use. Let’s keep it real though! Although there are some good deals in signing up with these links, there are some that are affiliate links. What does that mean? It means I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. I just needed to be transparent with you so you can make the best decision for you and your business.

TAVE:

I’ve been using Tave since January 2020 at the suggestion by a friend. Note, they are not a wedding photographer, but rather a wedding planner. What is Tave? It is an application that helps in keeping me organized in so many ways. It allows me to have everything in one place. I’m talking about contracts, emails, invoices, payment processing, workflow lists, calendars, questionnaires, and quotes. And guess how much I am paying per month? A whopping $25 per month for all of that. I remember when I first started, I had an app for everything. I had an app for taking payments, one for workflows, one for calendars, my email app, and an app for invoices. Then I’d head over to Microsoft Word to draft up contracts and questionnaires. Not only is Tave saving me money, it’s saving me time; literally and figuratively. By the click of a button, I’ve created a workflow for one client and all I have to do is press send. No extra drafting of things, going back and forth between different apps. If you decide to try it, you can do so for 60 days by signing up HERE. I know! You’re welcome!

PIXIESET:

I remember finding Pixieset years ago and I am still using it. If you are a photographer, it is the coolest and most modern way of sharing photos with your clients. The presentation is gorgeous and not to mention, they have different templates you can choose from for delivery. Oh! Did you know that you can attach a printing lab to your galleries and if a client decides to order images, it goes directly to the lab? Yes! If they order prints, the lab will send it directly to them. You do nothing. Like I’ve been saying, I’m all about saving time because TIME is MONEY! Most recently, they’ve added Pixieset Website where you’re able to build your site without having to upload new images. You can do that with the images you already have in your collections. The site templates are CHIC, MODERN, SIMPLE, and easy to navigate. So not only are we saving time, we are doing it while looking poppin! OKURR!! Check out Pixieset and tell me what you think!

SQUARE:

I know, I know! You use PayPal and there’s nothing wrong with it. However, I am a big fan of Square for features such as the ability to create marketing campaigns specific for social media and/or newsletters. I’ve been able to create specialized coupon codes and a loyalty program for my trusted clients. If you’re a business with employees, you are able to use their payroll and timecard options within the app. Not to mention, their mobile app is extremely efficient. You’re able to send invoices, set appointments through online booking, and create gift cards for your holiday marketing strategies if you’re into that sort of thing. What I love most about Square is that I’ve been able to connect it to my Tave system to collect payments and these payments I can immediately transfer to my bank account or debit card for less than a 2% fee.

FLODESK:

Alright, so I’m gonna be a little honest with you. I’ve been neglecting my newsletter for roughly… 2 years. I know! That’s a long-ass time! It’s not what you think, I promise. See what had happened was, I had MailChimp right? And it was so tedious to manage that I just gave up on it. Then my internet BB, Chasing Denisse, mentioned Flodesk on her story once and I went to check that baby out! Look here, Bellas, Flodesk is the truth! Simple and easy to use. The templates are sexy AF! I was able to create and send out my first newsletter last month in under 30 mins. When you sign up HERE (I say when, because you will dump MailChimp LOL!), you’ll get 50% off your subscription.

CREATIVE MARKET:

Now, what’s the point of building a website, setting up payment processing and creating a whole workflow if your branding and look is non-existent. That’s why I love Creative Market. It’s an online space where you can purchase anything from presets or actions for your photos, social media templates, and website templates to help with the look of your business. I’ll go on and on, but there’s no need when you can look for yourself. You can buy me a latte when you’re done.

CREATIVE LIVE:

Now, over the winter break, I’ve been spending 1-2 days per week watching online courses I’ve purchased/been gifted and learning from webinars to help with improving my business. I was introduced to Creative Live by Jimi years ago and have been hooked ever since. I’ve learned about lighting, posing, photography skills I can improve on to make my portraits pop and even small marketing details to take my business from basic to bougie. With Creative Live, you can attend the class the day of, watch a replay or purchase to watch at your leisure. That’s not to say I don’t learn and get hands-on experience working with Amy, but when I’m not shooting with her or my own weddings/sessions, I need to make sure I’m keeping my skills sharp and improving as I go.

With that said, go out and be bad AF. Don’t play small. Take it one day at a time and continuously work on improving not just your business, but yourself. I hope these apps (if you decide to try) assist in enhancing your systems and allocate more time to spend time with friends and family.

What apps do you normally use to streamline your business daily?

xoxo,

Bella

PS: You can check out my revamped site and let me know what you think. It’s exciting to see!

[comicteaparty]

April 4th-April 10th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble  chat that occurred from April 4th, 2020 to April 10th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is something you’ve improved with in regards to writing or comic creation thanks to working on your story?

carcarchu

Oh this one i can answer definitively. it's 100% lineart. forcing myself to have to do lineart for hours everyday is definitely a way to force yourself to get better at it while i still don't like it it's something that i can do now without being scared about it

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Colouring. I had to get really creative in expressing emotion and hinting plot devices with colour. Also got much better with drawing gesture drawings due to looking at a lot of references!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Either writing dialogue or drawing/painting backgrounds... I used to be particularly awful at writing dialogue. It was too stiff and formal, and sounded a lot like old prose. Now, because of writing a comic and going through several scripts, the dialogue is a lot more natural, and the pacing is more realistic to actual conversations. And the other: backgrounds. I really used to not even draw them at all, and doing a comic forced me to have to think about environments in scenes. So I went from drawing floating characters to having to consider where they are and how it affects the story/mood.(edited)

Feather J. Fern

Paneling! That was my main focus to figure out how to do good paneling to have clearer pages

Deo101 [Millennium]

Honestly? Everything. It's all gotten better and I've learned so much. I would say my biggest improvement is probably in my time management, and art wise is probably composition and layouts. But it's hard to pick because I've grown so much in every aspect!

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Biggest thing I learned was to keep the story small and focused - and that the smaller, more human struggles are much better in creating tension than the whole default "the world's gonna end!" thing. Mind you, I still love a good "world's ending" story, but you gotta make people CARE about the people in that world first!

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

ohohohoooo I have done more drawing in photoshop in this short time I have worked on Wayfinders, than the rest of my life! That has given me some skills for sure! Coloring is another one, and generally just efficiency and flow in a comic

Nutty (Court of Roses)

For me it's been my use of color, and getting more confident in experimenting with it to really drive home a scene's mood!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

The clearest improvement I always notice is my layouts - I’ve gotten more adventurous with panel shapes and placement as time has gone on, experimenting with more interesting designs for the whole page. Some of those experiments haven’t been totally successful but it always feels like a worthwhile try. I’ve gotten some really, REALLY cool layouts out of these experiments, and I love seeing how dynamic the panels have become compared to my first chapter. Also speed. I’m so much faster now. Thank gooooooodness (edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) I've definitely noticed the experimental panel layouts! They're really cool.

AntiBunny

Planning. Book 2 is when I started using sketchbook thumbnails to plan ahead. The luxury of that first draft meant I could rethink panel layouts and how to best express the events happening if I first had an idea of what was happening laid out.

Also digital art by necessity since I switched to digital during the current arc. I was decent at lineart already, but other aspects have really challenged me to grow as an artist. I had to totally rethink the way I create backgrounds for instance. During this time the background quality actually declined a little while I got used to a new method, but experience has improved my skills greatly as I force myself into new methods.

DanitheCarutor

Hmmm maybe paneling, speechbubbles and backgrounds? My current project is my second real attempt at doing a comic, but I have learned a lot of stuff from the community and general art and story tutorials. Backgrounds and bubbles were the worst for me when first starting out, I only read manga before starting so the speechbubble shapes did not fit with how English is written. Plus I've only drawn wooded fantasy settings before making my comic, so using a ruler, figuring out perspective points and drawing buildings was very new to me. I still hate drawing cities and such, but I've gotten a lot better at it and it is easier to do now. Since I mostly stuck with B&W before my current project, coloring also kind of improved? Depending on who's looking at it. Lmao If I were to think about story/characters/dialogue, I have no idea if I've improved. Honestly, I don't pay much attention to the quality. Also my brain kinda says it's all bad regardless of what I make.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

For my Improvements: I'm getting better at my comic panels, as I adjust to the vertical style. Before I've always drawn the standard format. It's more than just boxes, I try to keep a variety of sizes. I'm picking up roughly how much 'gutter space' I need per 2-3 panels.etc I'm also improving on choosing colors that fits my love of detailed linework.(edited)

OH! I'm also learning about Clip studio shortcuts, how to use the assets they provide which makes the process, abit easier on me. Things I need to change, is I want to get a good speedy coloring style, without referring to my usual coloring.(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

the more I worked on the comic, the more I feel ambitious in making different angles and perspective. So it's really hitting me out of my comfort zone which is good! lol Though I'm trying to keep in mind of my speed, what I feel like I've improved a bit is trying to keep in mind of paneling and dialogue.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Process! Space and i have definitely figured out the most productive way to produce content at the rate and quality that also provides us with time for our own projects. Comics are a useful tool that helps you discover ways to better organize your creative workflow for sure!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I think probably scenery. I used to dread drawing inanimate objects but now I feel more confident in filling in a scene & even look forward to it sometimes. Maybe also page composition and paneling but I still have a lot to learn there

eli [a winged tale]

One of the reasons I embarked on the webcomic journey is to push myself to improve not only storytelling but also utilizing art to create a reader experience that would be difficult to replicate with just words. I’d like to think that 9 months into making A Winged Tale, I’ve improved on deciding when is a good opportunity to invest more into backgrounds vs character dynamics and when should be focused more on sequences of panels and composition. While the comic is written in a four panel format, more and more I’m finding areas where the story could be told by breaking those rules (attached pic). It’s a balance and I hope going forward I will improve more in pushing the limits of panels and find ways to express the story in fun and interesting ways.(edited)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Wow that's a very good description @eli [a winged tale] I look forward to reading more of your story journey

eli [a winged tale]

Thanks so much Joichi! I’m eager to keep learning~

Capitania do Azar

I'm gonna go with planning and actually getting it done. I'm so much faster because now the process is much more streamlined to me

kayotics

My whole comic was started s an exercise to just get better at comics generally so I’d probably say every part I’ve improved at? The biggest things are probably colors and the upfront planning process

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

Ooof hard question. I think my main improvement lies with page and speechballoon layouts and writing natural feeling dialouge. I'd say maybe also character acting?

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I'm slowly learning how to create more engaging comic narrative. I read and research in the polished prem webcomics to see what makes them engaging? Like I'm going to challenge myself by creating a series of short stories with a reoccurring set of characters. Every new comic series I create is an experience, trial and error. Sometimes I skip the writeup and just go in blind, trust my own instincts. I'm glad to reach out and talk about it than in my own head. I hope by this year, I'll have at least 2 chapters of Hybrid Dolls out.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I've definitely gotten better at planning/ outlining multiple chapters ahead of time. I did not even do this when I was doing the first 10 something chapters. (I did attempt an outline before I began the comic, but the story changed significantly from the outline by the time I started the comic, and I did not try to do it again for a long while.) I can't remember when I started, but I do recall having a lot of trouble the first time I tried to do it. It's gotten a little easier each time, though. In fact, I just spent the past few days outlining the next few very important chapters, de-tangling some big tangles. I'm really glad my outlining (and overall writing) skills had leveled up, because HOO boy, I don't think my 2014-2015 self could have done this!

I also became friends with enviros. I had already become somewhat comfortable drawing perspective when HoK started, but I had a sort of mechanical approach to it, like "oh I need some enviro for these establishing shots, guess I'll draw them." But now I LOVE drawing enviros! (some types anyway...) It's my comfort activity, something I treat myself to after a long day! In the thumbnails for my next few pages, there's a few enviro-heavy panels that I have to remove, because I drew too many of them (and the pacing got too slow as a result). I have to stop myself from drawing too many of these.

My biggest improvement is probably I've come to understand my characters and my themes much better, but that's more of a "I got better at making HoK" than a "I got better at making comics." There's definitely a difference between the two.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

@keii’ii (Heart of Keol) ah I totally understand I tried the outline method before I start but my story changed alot after I drew it. So it start to feel like a waste of time for me, but I'll still write an outline to make sure to plan where my story heads(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! I needed to draw those first few chapters to understand the direction of my own story.

The drawing part is an essential part of self-reflection, to try to understand what it is that I want out of the story. The answer has always been there in my heart, but I'm not able to see it clearly from the get-go.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I end up breaking scenes and put them in for future episodes, since I want to get a certain flow in the story.

It could be tricky to see what it is you want out of the story until you are in at least 3 chapters in?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I needed way more than 3 chapters -- though granted, my chapters are short, so that could be a part of it

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I see the early first script as testing the water. like a test to figure out the characters personalities. Unless you are bringing in old characters which you knew before?(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Even if the characters have been with you for a while, unless I have made a comic with them, there is a big chance that the characters will completely change, too.

DanitheCarutor

You know, I was thinking about about this, mostly about how I wouldn't have been happy if I was able to finish my comic the day I started. Then I realized I'm happy that I didn't. The first chapter wasn't the best, I was just learning how to coloring a comic, still fleshing out my characters and was still brainstorming small kinks in the story. I also still didn't have as much of an understanding of perspective, or panel and bubble layout. Even though I still have a lot I need to work on, I've gotten a lot better in all those aspects. Even though my use of color is weird, I've definitely gotten much more confident in it, enough so that I experiment and take a lot more risks with style. Even though my panelling can be boring, I have a much better understanding of how I want a page to look. I've improved a lot with my planning as well, like even though my thumbnailing/storyboarding only takes maybe 30, I've learned to step away for a bit if I don't like a layout, or analyzing why I don't like it and brainstorming ways to make it better. If I had magically finished the comic all at once, it would look really bad and may have been less readable.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

That is inspiring to hear about your improvement @DanitheCarutor

Natsu-no-Hikari

Chiming in! Just this week, Miko (my co-creator) and I were discussing how far we've come from when we started our first comic (https://liarsgotoparadise.com/) vs. where we are now. I think there have been a lot of learn experiences, such as art, dialogue, general editing - but especially with pacing and character interaction. We regret that we didn't stop to focus more on that interaction, as we wanted to move ahead in the story...and now we can't change that, except to start now and not allow ourselves to grow impatient. Take our time and enjoy the journey - that's our new motto. There's a time to rush ahead in perilous moments, but there's also definitely a time to catch our breaths and let the characters mingle and speak. It's an improvement that will become more noticeable going forward in Liars and our second comic as well.

[jadelyn]

Hi Jadelyn - I'm about a month and a half into an absolutely grueling job search. I've gotten a few interviews (which is progress for me), I know from a previous stint in an HR busy-work job that hiring takes time, and I feel like I've read every resume and cover letter advice post on the entire Internet, but it's really difficult not to feel discouraged. Any advice for keeping my chin up? What else could I be doing? (My field is communication/multimedia, if that makes a difference at all.)

Oh, love. Job searching is The Literal Worst. I want to smack people who joke about being unemployed like "at least you've got lots of free time" bitch I have been there and I would've traded all that "free time" plus a couple firstborn children (I mean, not mine? But a couple of them anyway) just to be relieved of the stress and burden that is job searching. It's that bad.So first, I'm sure if you've been reading All The Things about job searching you've already hit upon Ask A Manager, but if not, for the love of god go read her blog. Go through the archive of cover letter and resume posts. Read the comments, too - that is literally the only site on the entire damn internet where I would actively advise this lol - often people will add bits of industry-specific advice that Alison wouldn't have known to give. Her cover letter examples are the single most helpful thing on that topic I've ever found.But that doesn't really address the hard part, that discouragement. Because job searching, at its heart, is a months-long experience of constant rejection before you finally get to a "yes". Of course that wears on you! Rejection fucking sucks, and it's so easy to start to take it personally after awhile. There's not much I can say in the face of that, but what I can give you, here it is:*you already said it yourself, hiring takes time. Keep reminding yourself of that. I actually just pulled up my work email on my phone to look at the weekly recruiting report that I emailed the team today, because it has a column for "days open" for each job. My longest-open positions have been open for 216, 183, and 166 days. The first and third are branch manager positions (that 216 day one is under an area manager who is my literal least favorite to work with because he always drags his fucking feet like this, I hate hiring for him), the 183-day one is for a part time teller. It's taken this manager OVER SIX MONTHS SO FAR to try to find a part time teller! When I talk about doubling your estimate of when they should get back to you, I am not kidding. I am perhaps even understating the case a bit. So at a month and a half in, the first jobs you applied to may just now be looking at resumes lol. It's so hard to do, but be patient. Keep reminding yourself that the time of hiring managers does not move like the time of us mortals in the real world. A mere day passes for the hiring manager, and years have flashed by for us here. *that being said, don't wait by the phone for anyone on the assumption that they just haven't seen your resume yet and as soon as they do they'll probably call you, either. The only way to stay sane in a long job search is to apply and move on. You're probably keeping some kind of record of where you applied and when (and if you're not, you should be), so when you put in an application somewhere, note it down on your record, then move on and pretend it never existed at all. Otherwise you'll drive yourself crazy staring at your phone and willing it to ring. Use hobbies to distract you. Go binge watch all of Leverage before Netflix takes it away (btw fuck you Netflix). Don't dwell on the jobs stuff! *and here's the biggest thing, and the hardest one to remember: it's not about being the best applicant period. It's about being the *best fit* for the specific job.The company is not asking "who's the best worker" or "who's the best person". They're asking "who is most likely to be successful in this role?" because a successful employee helps the company and is happier and more likely to stay long-term. I've stopped short of applying to jobs that I'm eminently qualified for and which pay more than my current job, because the job descriptions were heavy on administrative work and I'm actively trying to escape the administrative dungeon. Could I do them? Sure. Would I do them well? Fuck yeah I would. Would I be successful in the long run? No, because I'd be unhappy and resentful and still looking for more. So if I applied for an HR assistant job, and I go in there as a rock star HR assistant with 4 years of experience and a degree and a certification already under my belt, and another candidate came in who was perhaps less experienced or just not an overachiever, who was competent but maybe not particularly ambitious, the company would be better served by hiring that other person, not me. Because while I might've been a huge asset to the department in the short term and worked out more efficient processes and upgraded their tech because I'm a self-starter blah blah blah, in a year or two I'd be expecting promotions and/or looking at higher level positions elsewhere, and our hypothetical competent but not spectacular employee might not have revolutionized their workflows or been the point person for a whole new HRIS implementation, but they would be going merrily along being perfectly good at their job with no expectation of change. Which is better for the company than having to go through the hiring shit all over again when I find something better and take off. So on paper, I'd be the "better candidate", but the better hiring decision would be to not hire me. So when you get turned down for a job, remember that it's not a reflection on your quality as a candidate. It just means someone else was, not a better candidate or a better employee, but a better fit for that specific job at that specific company at that specific time. Which is a reframing I've found really helpful as armor against the tendency to take job rejections personally.(and under no circumstances, ever, is a job rejection, or for that matter a missed promotion, or getting laid off or fired, or literally anything to do with bad stuff happening to you at work, a reflection on your quality as a person. We're culturally really bad about over-identifying ourselves with our jobs and it's super unhealthy. Your value as a person has fuck all to do with your place in the capitalist engine. Fuck that noise.)

[mishaelacdsblog-blog]

week uno - NOTES

Mishaela - What I want to develop & achieve this year - Be able to clearly explain what I do (lol) - Think more outside of the box and outside of my comfort zone - Experiment with new and different styles then find what works best for me and develop and strengthen that - Make more of an effort to research into things I may be unsure about or want to know more about - Only submit work I’m proud to call my own - Be happy and have a good time doing it

What do I need to do more of/ learn that I do not know - How to work better in a team environment.  - Learn to take criticism more from my peers and not be defensive over my work - Efficiently create and experiment with new ideas and concepts - Know when to shut an idea down or re-evaluate (fail fast!)

Class wants - Meaning - purpose/ why - who for (understanding the consumer) - Research - Creative confidence - try & fail (fast) - Depth and technique - Software/ hand - always changing so keep on top of it - Communicating ideas better - Workflow - concept to end product - speed and quality - Trends - Be aware of them, don't always have to follow them - Collaboration - Taking criticism/ change - Personal Values/ brand/ ethics - know who you are and what you believe - Openness & curiosity - Networking - Personal style and niche 

CASE STUDY - Ralph Lauren https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16QE3hr7Eu3l5QBq0Ccdl06MJPn23VqY2ExQvrA3z06E/edit?usp=sharing

[yourchoicepage]

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts

It’s now been 3.5 months since we launched our company Grid Consulting, it’s been an awesome whirlwind of successes, new challenges, and emotional peaks and valleys. We’ve created a fairly large network to distribute our content to in a short period of time and have successfully launched an Instagram, Facebook Biz Page, Facebook Private Group for Real Estate Discussion, Podcast distributed on 4 networks, Youtube Channel, Linkedin Page, and our website. We’ve also partnered with wonderful, forward-thinking brokers, team leaders, and agents to help with the next evolution of their business. Our focus with these partnerships: workflows, operations, and margin expansion (aka make more money!). Lastly, we’re working on our secret behind the scenes projects that we’re incredibly excited about.

So..what have have we learned since going out on our own? Here are some musings:

Positives and Challenges: It’s incredibly hard, but don’t let the doubt defeat you!

Positives: It’s all a test, challenging your psyche, determination, and willingness to power thru the peaks and valleys.

Challenges: You’re used to things being easier (but harder) because you often have months or years of company development behind you.

Positives and Challenges: The psychological warfare is real

Positives: The peaks are incredible, you’ll find yourself in a state of bliss, a state where you can do anything you set your mind to and every win is a win, independent of the size.

Negatives: The valleys are awful, you’ll find yourself in a state of sadness, a state where you question your confidence. This is totally normal, power through it, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can train yourself to snap out of the valleys.

Positives and Challenges: Your Sphere of Influence and their support

Positives: You have those people in your life that will support you with whatever it is you do. They believe in you, they trust your purpose, they have unwavering belief that you can do whatever you put your mind to and are willing to do the work necessary.

Challenge 1: You also have those people in your life that will tell you they support you, when in reality, behind the scenes they’re either wishing for your failure or thinking your project is stupid.

Challenge 2: People that you were previously close to or that used to support you disappear from your life. It’s ok, you can solve for the two above and use it as motivation.

Positives and Challenges: Lack of brand awareness

Positives: You get to create your own brand identity, you get to throw out all rules or guidelines, and start over from scratch.

Positives: You get to test alternative ways of brand development, succeeding sometimes, failing others, but you get to swing away more rapidly.

Challenges: It’s really hard to develop a brand from scratch and it often takes a long term outlook. Determination, willingness to see the big picture, put in the work, and continually develop your network of distribution.

Challenges: People may question intent, but this can be resolved by having a strong mission driven purpose.

Positives and Challenges: Small team size

Positives: You can move much quicker with a smaller team. In the early years of Amazon, Bezos instituted a pretty awesome rule: every internal team should be small, meaning it can be fed with two pizzas. Like almost everything Amazon does, focused on two aims: efficiency and scalability. The former is obvious. Smaller team’s spend less time managing timetables and keeping people up to date, and more time doing what needs to be done.

Positives: Politics or lack thereof . Smaller teams that came together to start something anew, often get the benefit of a less politically driven, career titles and personal growth oriented culture.

Positives: Titles don’t matter, it’s about execution, efficiency, performance and purpose.

Positives & Challenges: You spend a ton of time with your small team, lol.

Challenges: Each team member has to do more to get large projects done and you often need to outsource subject matter experts for specific jobs, costing $$$.

Challenges: There are less checks and balances, meaning your trust in your team members needs to be “100.”

Positives and Challenges: Change in income

Positives: Money can change you, for both good and bad. Resetting your priorities can be enlightening. When you started you career, you had certain goals, purpose, and a why, when you grow, this often changes. One of my own tricks to eliminate complacency has always been to ‘go broke again.’ This doesn’t mean actually broke, but rather trick myself into thinking that, by putting money away and setting smaller spending budgets. When you start doing this, you’ll eliminate the unnecessary, compulsive spending habits that income can create over time.

Positives:I recently read an interview of Simon Sinek, he said “There is a cost for the money we make and sometimes the cost is not worth it. That goes for companies and individuals.”

Challenges: You created a certain expectation on weekly, monthly, and annual income, now you’re starting over. It’s ok, it’ll be fine 🙂 There are plenty of jobs, companies, and leaders looking for you right now if you need it.

Challenges: Society and your sphere of influence don’t always understand the choice you made. Another quote from Sinek, he said “When entrepreneurs choose to quit their well-paying jobs that have full benefits an no pay, they are aware of the statistic that more than 90% of all small business fail in the first three years.”

Positives and Challenges: Office Space

Positives: You get to pick the geographical location of your office, can work from home, and can show up to the office whenever you want.

Challenges: Bigger companies often have snacks, everything is free, and there’s more room to roam.

It’s been an incredible journey thus far. There are peaks, valleys, doubters, supporters, haters, and lots of learnings along the way. The key is to stay grounded and focus on the long term outlook of what you’re trying to accomplish. Consistently communicate with your team and create road maps that everyone is aligned on. There are so many moments where you’ll be tested, but that my friend, is the beauty in building. Testing yourself is a learning experience that will allow you to be that much better the next time you’re faced with a similar situation. Life, business, careers, and relationships are cyclical, the same experiences will come at you in different forms throughout the entirety of your life. The more frequently you test and challenge yourself, the easier it will be the next time you’re faced with the same circle.

The post 3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts published first on https://medium.com/@YourChoice

[cleancutpage]

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts

It’s now been 3.5 months since we launched our company Grid Consulting, it’s been an awesome whirlwind of successes, new challenges, and emotional peaks and valleys. We’ve created a fairly large network to distribute our content to in a short period of time and have successfully launched an Instagram, Facebook Biz Page, Facebook Private Group for Real Estate Discussion, Podcast distributed on 4 networks, Youtube Channel, Linkedin Page, and our website. We’ve also partnered with wonderful, forward-thinking brokers, team leaders, and agents to help with the next evolution of their business. Our focus with these partnerships: workflows, operations, and margin expansion (aka make more money!). Lastly, we’re working on our secret behind the scenes projects that we’re incredibly excited about.

So..what have have we learned since going out on our own? Here are some musings:

Positives and Challenges: It’s incredibly hard, but don’t let the doubt defeat you!

Positives: It’s all a test, challenging your psyche, determination, and willingness to power thru the peaks and valleys.

Challenges: You’re used to things being easier (but harder) because you often have months or years of company development behind you.

Positives and Challenges: The psychological warfare is real

Positives: The peaks are incredible, you’ll find yourself in a state of bliss, a state where you can do anything you set your mind to and every win is a win, independent of the size.

Negatives: The valleys are awful, you’ll find yourself in a state of sadness, a state where you question your confidence. This is totally normal, power through it, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can train yourself to snap out of the valleys.

Positives and Challenges: Your Sphere of Influence and their support

Positives: You have those people in your life that will support you with whatever it is you do. They believe in you, they trust your purpose, they have unwavering belief that you can do whatever you put your mind to and are willing to do the work necessary.

Challenge 1: You also have those people in your life that will tell you they support you, when in reality, behind the scenes they’re either wishing for your failure or thinking your project is stupid.

Challenge 2: People that you were previously close to or that used to support you disappear from your life. It’s ok, you can solve for the two above and use it as motivation.

Positives and Challenges: Lack of brand awareness

Positives: You get to create your own brand identity, you get to throw out all rules or guidelines, and start over from scratch.

Positives: You get to test alternative ways of brand development, succeeding sometimes, failing others, but you get to swing away more rapidly.

Challenges: It’s really hard to develop a brand from scratch and it often takes a long term outlook. Determination, willingness to see the big picture, put in the work, and continually develop your network of distribution.

Challenges: People may question intent, but this can be resolved by having a strong mission driven purpose.

Positives and Challenges: Small team size

Positives: You can move much quicker with a smaller team. In the early years of Amazon, Bezos instituted a pretty awesome rule: every internal team should be small, meaning it can be fed with two pizzas. Like almost everything Amazon does, focused on two aims: efficiency and scalability. The former is obvious. Smaller team’s spend less time managing timetables and keeping people up to date, and more time doing what needs to be done.

Positives: Politics or lack thereof . Smaller teams that came together to start something anew, often get the benefit of a less politically driven, career titles and personal growth oriented culture.

Positives: Titles don’t matter, it’s about execution, efficiency, performance and purpose.

Positives & Challenges: You spend a ton of time with your small team, lol.

Challenges: Each team member has to do more to get large projects done and you often need to outsource subject matter experts for specific jobs, costing $$$.

Challenges: There are less checks and balances, meaning your trust in your team members needs to be “100.”

Positives and Challenges: Change in income

Positives: Money can change you, for both good and bad. Resetting your priorities can be enlightening. When you started you career, you had certain goals, purpose, and a why, when you grow, this often changes. One of my own tricks to eliminate complacency has always been to ‘go broke again.’ This doesn’t mean actually broke, but rather trick myself into thinking that, by putting money away and setting smaller spending budgets. When you start doing this, you’ll eliminate the unnecessary, compulsive spending habits that income can create over time.

Positives:I recently read an interview of Simon Sinek, he said “There is a cost for the money we make and sometimes the cost is not worth it. That goes for companies and individuals.”

Challenges: You created a certain expectation on weekly, monthly, and annual income, now you’re starting over. It’s ok, it’ll be fine 🙂 There are plenty of jobs, companies, and leaders looking for you right now if you need it.

Challenges: Society and your sphere of influence don’t always understand the choice you made. Another quote from Sinek, he said “When entrepreneurs choose to quit their well-paying jobs that have full benefits an no pay, they are aware of the statistic that more than 90% of all small business fail in the first three years.”

Positives and Challenges: Office Space

Positives: You get to pick the geographical location of your office, can work from home, and can show up to the office whenever you want.

Challenges: Bigger companies often have snacks, everything is free, and there’s more room to roam.

It’s been an incredible journey thus far. There are peaks, valleys, doubters, supporters, haters, and lots of learnings along the way. The key is to stay grounded and focus on the long term outlook of what you’re trying to accomplish. Consistently communicate with your team and create road maps that everyone is aligned on. There are so many moments where you’ll be tested, but that my friend, is the beauty in building. Testing yourself is a learning experience that will allow you to be that much better the next time you’re faced with a similar situation. Life, business, careers, and relationships are cyclical, the same experiences will come at you in different forms throughout the entirety of your life. The more frequently you test and challenge yourself, the easier it will be the next time you’re faced with the same circle.

The post 3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts published first on https://greatlivinghomespage.tumblr.com/

[cathrynstreich]

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts

It’s now been 3.5 months since we launched our company Grid Consulting, it’s been an awesome whirlwind of successes, new challenges, and emotional peaks and valleys. We’ve created a fairly large network to distribute our content to in a short period of time and have successfully launched an Instagram, Facebook Biz Page, Facebook Private Group for Real Estate Discussion, Podcast distributed on 4 networks, Youtube Channel, Linkedin Page, and our website. We’ve also partnered with wonderful, forward-thinking brokers, team leaders, and agents to help with the next evolution of their business. Our focus with these partnerships: workflows, operations, and margin expansion (aka make more money!). Lastly, we’re working on our secret behind the scenes projects that we’re incredibly excited about.

So..what have have we learned since going out on our own? Here are some musings:

Positives and Challenges: It’s incredibly hard, but don’t let the doubt defeat you!

Positives: It’s all a test, challenging your psyche, determination, and willingness to power thru the peaks and valleys.

Challenges: You’re used to things being easier (but harder) because you often have months or years of company development behind you.

Positives and Challenges: The psychological warfare is real

Positives: The peaks are incredible, you’ll find yourself in a state of bliss, a state where you can do anything you set your mind to and every win is a win, independent of the size.

Negatives: The valleys are awful, you’ll find yourself in a state of sadness, a state where you question your confidence. This is totally normal, power through it, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can train yourself to snap out of the valleys.

Positives and Challenges: Your Sphere of Influence and their support

Positives: You have those people in your life that will support you with whatever it is you do. They believe in you, they trust your purpose, they have unwavering belief that you can do whatever you put your mind to and are willing to do the work necessary.

Challenge 1: You also have those people in your life that will tell you they support you, when in reality, behind the scenes they’re either wishing for your failure or thinking your project is stupid.

Challenge 2: People that you were previously close to or that used to support you disappear from your life. It’s ok, you can solve for the two above and use it as motivation.

Positives and Challenges: Lack of brand awareness

Positives: You get to create your own brand identity, you get to throw out all rules or guidelines, and start over from scratch.

Positives: You get to test alternative ways of brand development, succeeding sometimes, failing others, but you get to swing away more rapidly.

Challenges: It’s really hard to develop a brand from scratch and it often takes a long term outlook. Determination, willingness to see the big picture, put in the work, and continually develop your network of distribution.

Challenges: People may question intent, but this can be resolved by having a strong mission driven purpose.

Positives and Challenges: Small team size

Positives: You can move much quicker with a smaller team. In the early years of Amazon, Bezos instituted a pretty awesome rule: every internal team should be small, meaning it can be fed with two pizzas. Like almost everything Amazon does, focused on two aims: efficiency and scalability. The former is obvious. Smaller team’s spend less time managing timetables and keeping people up to date, and more time doing what needs to be done.

Positives: Politics or lack thereof . Smaller teams that came together to start something anew, often get the benefit of a less politically driven, career titles and personal growth oriented culture.

Positives: Titles don’t matter, it’s about execution, efficiency, performance and purpose.

Positives & Challenges: You spend a ton of time with your small team, lol.

Challenges: Each team member has to do more to get large projects done and you often need to outsource subject matter experts for specific jobs, costing $$$.

Challenges: There are less checks and balances, meaning your trust in your team members needs to be “100.”

Positives and Challenges: Change in income

Positives: Money can change you, for both good and bad. Resetting your priorities can be enlightening. When you started you career, you had certain goals, purpose, and a why, when you grow, this often changes. One of my own tricks to eliminate complacency has always been to ‘go broke again.’ This doesn’t mean actually broke, but rather trick myself into thinking that, by putting money away and setting smaller spending budgets. When you start doing this, you’ll eliminate the unnecessary, compulsive spending habits that income can create over time.

Positives:I recently read an interview of Simon Sinek, he said “There is a cost for the money we make and sometimes the cost is not worth it. That goes for companies and individuals.”

Challenges: You created a certain expectation on weekly, monthly, and annual income, now you’re starting over. It’s ok, it’ll be fine 🙂 There are plenty of jobs, companies, and leaders looking for you right now if you need it.

Challenges: Society and your sphere of influence don’t always understand the choice you made. Another quote from Sinek, he said “When entrepreneurs choose to quit their well-paying jobs that have full benefits an no pay, they are aware of the statistic that more than 90% of all small business fail in the first three years.”

Positives and Challenges: Office Space

Positives: You get to pick the geographical location of your office, can work from home, and can show up to the office whenever you want.

Challenges: Bigger companies often have snacks, everything is free, and there’s more room to roam.

It’s been an incredible journey thus far. There are peaks, valleys, doubters, supporters, haters, and lots of learnings along the way. The key is to stay grounded and focus on the long term outlook of what you’re trying to accomplish. Consistently communicate with your team and create road maps that everyone is aligned on. There are so many moments where you’ll be tested, but that my friend, is the beauty in building. Testing yourself is a learning experience that will allow you to be that much better the next time you’re faced with a similar situation. Life, business, careers, and relationships are cyclical, the same experiences will come at you in different forms throughout the entirety of your life. The more frequently you test and challenge yourself, the easier it will be the next time you’re faced with the same circle.

The post 3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

[brettseaton]

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts

It’s now been 3.5 months since we launched our company Grid Consulting, it’s been an awesome whirlwind of successes, new challenges, and emotional peaks and valleys. We’ve created a fairly large network to distribute our content to in a short period of time and have successfully launched an Instagram, Facebook Biz Page, Facebook Private Group for Real Estate Discussion, Podcast distributed on 4 networks, Youtube Channel, Linkedin Page, and our website. We’ve also partnered with wonderful, forward-thinking brokers, team leaders, and agents to help with the next evolution of their business. Our focus with these partnerships: workflows, operations, and margin expansion (aka make more money!). Lastly, we’re working on our secret behind the scenes projects that we’re incredibly excited about.

So..what have have we learned since going out on our own? Here are some musings:

Positives and Challenges: It’s incredibly hard, but don’t let the doubt defeat you!

Positives: It’s all a test, challenging your psyche, determination, and willingness to power thru the peaks and valleys.

Challenges: You’re used to things being easier (but harder) because you often have months or years of company development behind you.

Positives and Challenges: The psychological warfare is real

Positives: The peaks are incredible, you’ll find yourself in a state of bliss, a state where you can do anything you set your mind to and every win is a win, independent of the size.

Negatives: The valleys are awful, you’ll find yourself in a state of sadness, a state where you question your confidence. This is totally normal, power through it, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can train yourself to snap out of the valleys.

Positives and Challenges: Your Sphere of Influence and their support

Positives: You have those people in your life that will support you with whatever it is you do. They believe in you, they trust your purpose, they have unwavering belief that you can do whatever you put your mind to and are willing to do the work necessary.

Challenge 1: You also have those people in your life that will tell you they support you, when in reality, behind the scenes they’re either wishing for your failure or thinking your project is stupid.

Challenge 2: People that you were previously close to or that used to support you disappear from your life. It’s ok, you can solve for the two above and use it as motivation.

Positives and Challenges: Lack of brand awareness

Positives: You get to create your own brand identity, you get to throw out all rules or guidelines, and start over from scratch.

Positives: You get to test alternative ways of brand development, succeeding sometimes, failing others, but you get to swing away more rapidly.

Challenges: It’s really hard to develop a brand from scratch and it often takes a long term outlook. Determination, willingness to see the big picture, put in the work, and continually develop your network of distribution.

Challenges: People may question intent, but this can be resolved by having a strong mission driven purpose.

Positives and Challenges: Small team size

Positives: You can move much quicker with a smaller team. In the early years of Amazon, Bezos instituted a pretty awesome rule: every internal team should be small, meaning it can be fed with two pizzas. Like almost everything Amazon does, focused on two aims: efficiency and scalability. The former is obvious. Smaller team’s spend less time managing timetables and keeping people up to date, and more time doing what needs to be done.

Positives: Politics or lack thereof . Smaller teams that came together to start something anew, often get the benefit of a less politically driven, career titles and personal growth oriented culture.

Positives: Titles don’t matter, it’s about execution, efficiency, performance and purpose.

Positives & Challenges: You spend a ton of time with your small team, lol.

Challenges: Each team member has to do more to get large projects done and you often need to outsource subject matter experts for specific jobs, costing $$$.

Challenges: There are less checks and balances, meaning your trust in your team members needs to be “100.”

Positives and Challenges: Change in income

Positives: Money can change you, for both good and bad. Resetting your priorities can be enlightening. When you started you career, you had certain goals, purpose, and a why, when you grow, this often changes. One of my own tricks to eliminate complacency has always been to ‘go broke again.’ This doesn’t mean actually broke, but rather trick myself into thinking that, by putting money away and setting smaller spending budgets. When you start doing this, you’ll eliminate the unnecessary, compulsive spending habits that income can create over time.

Positives:I recently read an interview of Simon Sinek, he said “There is a cost for the money we make and sometimes the cost is not worth it. That goes for companies and individuals.”

Challenges: You created a certain expectation on weekly, monthly, and annual income, now you’re starting over. It’s ok, it’ll be fine  There are plenty of jobs, companies, and leaders looking for you right now if you need it.

Challenges: Society and your sphere of influence don’t always understand the choice you made. Another quote from Sinek, he said “When entrepreneurs choose to quit their well-paying jobs that have full benefits an no pay, they are aware of the statistic that more than 90% of all small business fail in the first three years.”

Positives and Challenges: Office Space

Positives: You get to pick the geographical location of your office, can work from home, and can show up to the office whenever you want.

Challenges: Bigger companies often have snacks, everything is free, and there’s more room to roam.

It’s been an incredible journey thus far. There are peaks, valleys, doubters, supporters, haters, and lots of learnings along the way. The key is to stay grounded and focus on the long term outlook of what you’re trying to accomplish. Consistently communicate with your team and create road maps that everyone is aligned on. There are so many moments where you’ll be tested, but that my friend, is the beauty in building. Testing yourself is a learning experience that will allow you to be that much better the next time you’re faced with a similar situation. Life, business, careers, and relationships are cyclical, the same experiences will come at you in different forms throughout the entirety of your life. The more frequently you test and challenge yourself, the easier it will be the next time you’re faced with the same circle.

The post 3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts syndicated from https://oicrealestate.wordpress.com/

[clarencevancleave]

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts

It’s now been 3.5 months since we launched our company Grid Consulting, it’s been an awesome whirlwind of successes, new challenges, and emotional peaks and valleys. We’ve created a fairly large network to distribute our content to in a short period of time and have successfully launched an Instagram, Facebook Biz Page, Facebook Private Group for Real Estate Discussion, Podcast distributed on 4 networks, Youtube Channel, Linkedin Page, and our website. We’ve also partnered with wonderful, forward-thinking brokers, team leaders, and agents to help with the next evolution of their business. Our focus with these partnerships: workflows, operations, and margin expansion (aka make more money!). Lastly, we’re working on our secret behind the scenes projects that we’re incredibly excited about.

So..what have have we learned since going out on our own? Here are some musings:

Positives and Challenges: It’s incredibly hard, but don’t let the doubt defeat you!

Positives: It’s all a test, challenging your psyche, determination, and willingness to power thru the peaks and valleys.

Challenges: You’re used to things being easier (but harder) because you often have months or years of company development behind you.

Positives and Challenges: The psychological warfare is real

Positives: The peaks are incredible, you’ll find yourself in a state of bliss, a state where you can do anything you set your mind to and every win is a win, independent of the size.

Negatives: The valleys are awful, you’ll find yourself in a state of sadness, a state where you question your confidence. This is totally normal, power through it, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can train yourself to snap out of the valleys.

Positives and Challenges: Your Sphere of Influence and their support

Positives: You have those people in your life that will support you with whatever it is you do. They believe in you, they trust your purpose, they have unwavering belief that you can do whatever you put your mind to and are willing to do the work necessary.

Challenge 1: You also have those people in your life that will tell you they support you, when in reality, behind the scenes they’re either wishing for your failure or thinking your project is stupid.

Challenge 2: People that you were previously close to or that used to support you disappear from your life. It’s ok, you can solve for the two above and use it as motivation.

Positives and Challenges: Lack of brand awareness

Positives: You get to create your own brand identity, you get to throw out all rules or guidelines, and start over from scratch.

Positives: You get to test alternative ways of brand development, succeeding sometimes, failing others, but you get to swing away more rapidly.

Challenges: It’s really hard to develop a brand from scratch and it often takes a long term outlook. Determination, willingness to see the big picture, put in the work, and continually develop your network of distribution.

Challenges: People may question intent, but this can be resolved by having a strong mission driven purpose.

Positives and Challenges: Small team size

Positives: You can move much quicker with a smaller team. In the early years of Amazon, Bezos instituted a pretty awesome rule: every internal team should be small, meaning it can be fed with two pizzas. Like almost everything Amazon does, focused on two aims: efficiency and scalability. The former is obvious. Smaller team’s spend less time managing timetables and keeping people up to date, and more time doing what needs to be done.

Positives: Politics or lack thereof . Smaller teams that came together to start something anew, often get the benefit of a less politically driven, career titles and personal growth oriented culture.

Positives: Titles don’t matter, it’s about execution, efficiency, performance and purpose.

Positives & Challenges: You spend a ton of time with your small team, lol.

Challenges: Each team member has to do more to get large projects done and you often need to outsource subject matter experts for specific jobs, costing $$$.

Challenges: There are less checks and balances, meaning your trust in your team members needs to be “100.”

Positives and Challenges: Change in income

Positives: Money can change you, for both good and bad. Resetting your priorities can be enlightening. When you started you career, you had certain goals, purpose, and a why, when you grow, this often changes. One of my own tricks to eliminate complacency has always been to ‘go broke again.’ This doesn’t mean actually broke, but rather trick myself into thinking that, by putting money away and setting smaller spending budgets. When you start doing this, you’ll eliminate the unnecessary, compulsive spending habits that income can create over time.

Positives:I recently read an interview of Simon Sinek, he said “There is a cost for the money we make and sometimes the cost is not worth it. That goes for companies and individuals.”

Challenges: You created a certain expectation on weekly, monthly, and annual income, now you’re starting over. It’s ok, it’ll be fine 🙂 There are plenty of jobs, companies, and leaders looking for you right now if you need it.

Challenges: Society and your sphere of influence don’t always understand the choice you made. Another quote from Sinek, he said “When entrepreneurs choose to quit their well-paying jobs that have full benefits an no pay, they are aware of the statistic that more than 90% of all small business fail in the first three years.”

Positives and Challenges: Office Space

Positives: You get to pick the geographical location of your office, can work from home, and can show up to the office whenever you want.

Challenges: Bigger companies often have snacks, everything is free, and there’s more room to roam.

It’s been an incredible journey thus far. There are peaks, valleys, doubters, supporters, haters, and lots of learnings along the way. The key is to stay grounded and focus on the long term outlook of what you’re trying to accomplish. Consistently communicate with your team and create road maps that everyone is aligned on. There are so many moments where you’ll be tested, but that my friend, is the beauty in building. Testing yourself is a learning experience that will allow you to be that much better the next time you’re faced with a similar situation. Life, business, careers, and relationships are cyclical, the same experiences will come at you in different forms throughout the entirety of your life. The more frequently you test and challenge yourself, the easier it will be the next time you’re faced with the same circle.

The post 3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

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[yourchoicepage]

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts

It’s now been 3.5 months since we launched our company Grid Consulting, it’s been an awesome whirlwind of successes, new challenges, and emotional peaks and valleys. We’ve created a fairly large network to distribute our content to in a short period of time and have successfully launched an Instagram, Facebook Biz Page, Facebook Private Group for Real Estate Discussion, Podcast distributed on 4 networks, Youtube Channel, Linkedin Page, and our website. We’ve also partnered with wonderful, forward-thinking brokers, team leaders, and agents to help with the next evolution of their business. Our focus with these partnerships: workflows, operations, and margin expansion (aka make more money!). Lastly, we’re working on our secret behind the scenes projects that we’re incredibly excited about.

So..what have have we learned since going out on our own? Here are some musings:

Positives and Challenges: It’s incredibly hard, but don’t let the doubt defeat you!

Positives: It’s all a test, challenging your psyche, determination, and willingness to power thru the peaks and valleys.

Challenges: You’re used to things being easier (but harder) because you often have months or years of company development behind you.

Positives and Challenges: The psychological warfare is real

Positives: The peaks are incredible, you’ll find yourself in a state of bliss, a state where you can do anything you set your mind to and every win is a win, independent of the size.

Negatives: The valleys are awful, you’ll find yourself in a state of sadness, a state where you question your confidence. This is totally normal, power through it, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can train yourself to snap out of the valleys.

Positives and Challenges: Your Sphere of Influence and their support

Positives: You have those people in your life that will support you with whatever it is you do. They believe in you, they trust your purpose, they have unwavering belief that you can do whatever you put your mind to and are willing to do the work necessary.

Challenge 1: You also have those people in your life that will tell you they support you, when in reality, behind the scenes they’re either wishing for your failure or thinking your project is stupid.

Challenge 2: People that you were previously close to or that used to support you disappear from your life. It’s ok, you can solve for the two above and use it as motivation.

Positives and Challenges: Lack of brand awareness

Positives: You get to create your own brand identity, you get to throw out all rules or guidelines, and start over from scratch.

Positives: You get to test alternative ways of brand development, succeeding sometimes, failing others, but you get to swing away more rapidly.

Challenges: It’s really hard to develop a brand from scratch and it often takes a long term outlook. Determination, willingness to see the big picture, put in the work, and continually develop your network of distribution.

Challenges: People may question intent, but this can be resolved by having a strong mission driven purpose.

Positives and Challenges: Small team size

Positives: You can move much quicker with a smaller team. In the early years of Amazon, Bezos instituted a pretty awesome rule: every internal team should be small, meaning it can be fed with two pizzas. Like almost everything Amazon does, focused on two aims: efficiency and scalability. The former is obvious. Smaller team’s spend less time managing timetables and keeping people up to date, and more time doing what needs to be done.

Positives: Politics or lack thereof . Smaller teams that came together to start something anew, often get the benefit of a less politically driven, career titles and personal growth oriented culture.

Positives: Titles don’t matter, it’s about execution, efficiency, performance and purpose.

Positives & Challenges: You spend a ton of time with your small team, lol.

Challenges: Each team member has to do more to get large projects done and you often need to outsource subject matter experts for specific jobs, costing $$$.

Challenges: There are less checks and balances, meaning your trust in your team members needs to be “100.”

Positives and Challenges: Change in income

Positives: Money can change you, for both good and bad. Resetting your priorities can be enlightening. When you started you career, you had certain goals, purpose, and a why, when you grow, this often changes. One of my own tricks to eliminate complacency has always been to ‘go broke again.’ This doesn’t mean actually broke, but rather trick myself into thinking that, by putting money away and setting smaller spending budgets. When you start doing this, you’ll eliminate the unnecessary, compulsive spending habits that income can create over time.

Positives:I recently read an interview of Simon Sinek, he said “There is a cost for the money we make and sometimes the cost is not worth it. That goes for companies and individuals.”

Challenges: You created a certain expectation on weekly, monthly, and annual income, now you’re starting over. It’s ok, it’ll be fine 🙂 There are plenty of jobs, companies, and leaders looking for you right now if you need it.

Challenges: Society and your sphere of influence don’t always understand the choice you made. Another quote from Sinek, he said “When entrepreneurs choose to quit their well-paying jobs that have full benefits an no pay, they are aware of the statistic that more than 90% of all small business fail in the first three years.”

Positives and Challenges: Office Space

Positives: You get to pick the geographical location of your office, can work from home, and can show up to the office whenever you want.

Challenges: Bigger companies often have snacks, everything is free, and there’s more room to roam.

It’s been an incredible journey thus far. There are peaks, valleys, doubters, supporters, haters, and lots of learnings along the way. The key is to stay grounded and focus on the long term outlook of what you’re trying to accomplish. Consistently communicate with your team and create road maps that everyone is aligned on. There are so many moments where you’ll be tested, but that my friend, is the beauty in building. Testing yourself is a learning experience that will allow you to be that much better the next time you’re faced with a similar situation. Life, business, careers, and relationships are cyclical, the same experiences will come at you in different forms throughout the entirety of your life. The more frequently you test and challenge yourself, the easier it will be the next time you’re faced with the same circle.

The post 3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts published first on https://medium.com/@YourChoice

[yourchoicepage]

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts

It’s now been 3.5 months since we launched our company Grid Consulting, it’s been an awesome whirlwind of successes, new challenges, and emotional peaks and valleys. We’ve created a fairly large network to distribute our content to in a short period of time and have successfully launched an Instagram, Facebook Biz Page, Facebook Private Group for Real Estate Discussion, Podcast distributed on 4 networks, Youtube Channel, Linkedin Page, and our website. We’ve also partnered with wonderful, forward-thinking brokers, team leaders, and agents to help with the next evolution of their business. Our focus with these partnerships: workflows, operations, and margin expansion (aka make more money!). Lastly, we’re working on our secret behind the scenes projects that we’re incredibly excited about.

So..what have have we learned since going out on our own? Here are some musings:

Positives and Challenges: It’s incredibly hard, but don’t let the doubt defeat you!

Positives: It’s all a test, challenging your psyche, determination, and willingness to power thru the peaks and valleys.

Challenges: You’re used to things being easier (but harder) because you often have months or years of company development behind you.

Positives and Challenges: The psychological warfare is real

Positives: The peaks are incredible, you’ll find yourself in a state of bliss, a state where you can do anything you set your mind to and every win is a win, independent of the size.

Negatives: The valleys are awful, you’ll find yourself in a state of sadness, a state where you question your confidence. This is totally normal, power through it, you’ll be surprised how quickly you can train yourself to snap out of the valleys.

Positives and Challenges: Your Sphere of Influence and their support

Positives: You have those people in your life that will support you with whatever it is you do. They believe in you, they trust your purpose, they have unwavering belief that you can do whatever you put your mind to and are willing to do the work necessary.

Challenge 1: You also have those people in your life that will tell you they support you, when in reality, behind the scenes they’re either wishing for your failure or thinking your project is stupid.

Challenge 2: People that you were previously close to or that used to support you disappear from your life. It’s ok, you can solve for the two above and use it as motivation.

Positives and Challenges: Lack of brand awareness

Positives: You get to create your own brand identity, you get to throw out all rules or guidelines, and start over from scratch.

Positives: You get to test alternative ways of brand development, succeeding sometimes, failing others, but you get to swing away more rapidly.

Challenges: It’s really hard to develop a brand from scratch and it often takes a long term outlook. Determination, willingness to see the big picture, put in the work, and continually develop your network of distribution.

Challenges: People may question intent, but this can be resolved by having a strong mission driven purpose.

Positives and Challenges: Small team size

Positives: You can move much quicker with a smaller team. In the early years of Amazon, Bezos instituted a pretty awesome rule: every internal team should be small, meaning it can be fed with two pizzas. Like almost everything Amazon does, focused on two aims: efficiency and scalability. The former is obvious. Smaller team’s spend less time managing timetables and keeping people up to date, and more time doing what needs to be done.

Positives: Politics or lack thereof . Smaller teams that came together to start something anew, often get the benefit of a less politically driven, career titles and personal growth oriented culture.

Positives: Titles don’t matter, it’s about execution, efficiency, performance and purpose.

Positives & Challenges: You spend a ton of time with your small team, lol.

Challenges: Each team member has to do more to get large projects done and you often need to outsource subject matter experts for specific jobs, costing $$$.

Challenges: There are less checks and balances, meaning your trust in your team members needs to be “100.”

Positives and Challenges: Change in income

Positives: Money can change you, for both good and bad. Resetting your priorities can be enlightening. When you started you career, you had certain goals, purpose, and a why, when you grow, this often changes. One of my own tricks to eliminate complacency has always been to ‘go broke again.’ This doesn’t mean actually broke, but rather trick myself into thinking that, by putting money away and setting smaller spending budgets. When you start doing this, you’ll eliminate the unnecessary, compulsive spending habits that income can create over time.

Positives:I recently read an interview of Simon Sinek, he said “There is a cost for the money we make and sometimes the cost is not worth it. That goes for companies and individuals.”

Challenges: You created a certain expectation on weekly, monthly, and annual income, now you’re starting over. It’s ok, it’ll be fine 🙂 There are plenty of jobs, companies, and leaders looking for you right now if you need it.

Challenges: Society and your sphere of influence don’t always understand the choice you made. Another quote from Sinek, he said “When entrepreneurs choose to quit their well-paying jobs that have full benefits an no pay, they are aware of the statistic that more than 90% of all small business fail in the first three years.”

Positives and Challenges: Office Space

Positives: You get to pick the geographical location of your office, can work from home, and can show up to the office whenever you want.

Challenges: Bigger companies often have snacks, everything is free, and there’s more room to roam.

It’s been an incredible journey thus far. There are peaks, valleys, doubters, supporters, haters, and lots of learnings along the way. The key is to stay grounded and focus on the long term outlook of what you’re trying to accomplish. Consistently communicate with your team and create road maps that everyone is aligned on. There are so many moments where you’ll be tested, but that my friend, is the beauty in building. Testing yourself is a learning experience that will allow you to be that much better the next time you’re faced with a similar situation. Life, business, careers, and relationships are cyclical, the same experiences will come at you in different forms throughout the entirety of your life. The more frequently you test and challenge yourself, the easier it will be the next time you’re faced with the same circle.

The post 3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts appeared first on GeekEstate Blog.

3.5 Months into Our Startup ~ Lessons, Learnings, Commentary, and All Sorts of Thoughts published first on https://medium.com/@YourChoice