Now what does this say about blogging—or in the case of Twitter, micro-blogging—have anything to do with anything if I’m not as frequent as I could (should?) be? I am no pro-blogger and some will scoff at the “low” numbers I’m citing, but the bottom line is this: people that I want to know, know who I am and still, for whatever reason, care about what I have to say. Blogging has given me a place to express my opinions, which in turn, resulted in various opportunities for my personal life (friends) and my career (clients and conferences).

I believe the reason why, despite the fact that I haven’t written 500 posts and don’t blog every day, I still get steady visitors—old and new—as well as great opportunities, are two things:

1. a genuine, approachable voice—I don’t preen/pretend or write too formally


2. quality content—when I do post something, people actually reply or link to it or discuss it

Now, when you think about that signal to noise ratio, it’s a lot like when you pitch a design project to a client. In your own time, you experimented with different layouts and styles, but you end up only showing them one or two. That way, you make sure you only show the one you feel is most appropriate for them; the one you put the most thought into. I have a running text file with possible blog posts I may write in the future, but beyond the obvious time constraints for work and life, I also think about when is it most appropriate to write. Sometimes I decide to post something because everyone else is making a comment about that particular point like I did with Lack of a Shared Vocabulary. This way you can “share” the traffic because you are riding a wave of what’s “current.” However, it is also good to bring up a new point I haven’t found others speaking about at all or for a long time, like I did with Handling Rejection to begin the conversation, and if original, will get you a lot of links. Speaking of which, each post, while not always consciously targeted, can be maximized if you do narrow your focus for your blog. Current and past clients read my blog, and they often cite certain things I wrote as part of the reason why they chose me/still work with me because it was a quick and easy way for them to realize what my professional values were.

Until then, I’m always trying to balance where I can best spend my time. Having a blog can be a full time job and because it isn’t my choice career stream, I would rather ensure I post something I feel people would benefit from rather than filling the space for the sake of filling space.

That’s my two cents. Thoughts? Agree/Disagree? :)

Nope, this isn’t a CSS Naked Day post. I don’t have anything wrong with CSS Naked Day, I just like the pretty, so it stays up. :) Speaking of looks, this site design has aged pretty well considering I still get a lot of compliments on it… however, I also understand a long overdue re-align is needed. Truthfully, I wanted to launch right before SXSW and I do have a new design in the works! Yes, the main direction of the design is actually finished but due to making sure I got other projects off the ground I had to post-pone the new design. A few of you may have already gotten a sneak peek at where it’s going. I am pretty excited, so please stick around. I am hoping to have the new site launched in the next couple of months (darn you, paying clients that take priority… I kid, I love you all)

What this post really is about is the aforementioned summary of my presentation. Digital Web published my article, Presenting: Preparation, Process, and Pizzazz (Can you tell I love alliteration?) There, I outline the process I took to preparing for SXSW, questions I asked myself, my goals, outcome, and some reaction to the presentation. I hope you enjoy!

Also, Sunny Gault, host of Veoh Viral TV interviewed me during SXSW to talk a little about me, branding, and my presentation! She is super nice and easy to talk to. The video is finally up online. Take a look! (Though, I have to say, lighting can be unforgiving…)

Here is my overview.

Notable were:

• The EE 2.0 reveal with a new jQuery enhanced Control Panel designed by Veerle Pieters, and its naughty bits built on top of CodeIgniter (insert fangirlish squeal here)
• The Art of Speed moderated by Tim Ferris was one of the few panels I felt that seemed tightly controlled with great speakers and what seemed to be tangible and actionable tips. Biggest lesson? “Companies are defeated by internal conflict, more than external.” The only thing you should never speed through is building relationships with your colleagues and smoothing out any internal conflict. Also: don’t have 100% of your time filled. That leaves little room to be reactive and flexible.
• Kathy Sierra This woman is what I call a total pro in presentation. She is where the bar is set. Amazingly inspirational, fun, and informative.

Not so fun:

• What Women Need to Succeed could have been so much more. They qualified at the beginning that this wouldn’t devolve into men bashing, but I felt as if it did just that. I wish there was more emphasis on how different women define success, and more stories of their personal journeys. Instead, it felt more like the same old bitching and moaning. A huge difference from last year’s more empowering panel, Boss Lady where I felt there were more tangible and dare I say, ethical, ideas on how to succeed as a woman in business.

Internet famous? (kidding)

I can has interviews? Haha. First of all, I was featured on The Austin Chronicle where I shared my thoughts about branding, and viral video backlash. Also, Styledash’s Jonathon Morgan took me aside during the conference to ask my thoughts about what I consider “geek chic” and some geeky style talk. A lot of fun. The article isn’t up yet, but I will plug it when available. On top of that all, I managed to spend half an hour with Sunny Gault and their SXSW partner ustream.tv to talk a little bit about branding and my panel on Monday morning. That interview should be recorded and when I have it up, I’ll also show that link.

The Art of Self-Branding

I will only briefly gloss over this for now because I believe this deserves a separate blog post. At any rate, I will consider this panel a relative success: despite a morning thunderstorm after a long night of partying, I had a pretty good crowd welcoming me, where the majority also stuck around. :) I want to thank everyone who got up to go and for all the questions asked after the presentation, and all the comments and feedback. I always strive to get better every time I speak, and so your feedback—good or not-so-good—is always appreciated. I will go into detail about that in a post, soon. And yes, the slides will be up very soon on Wednesday afternoon on Slideshare and on artofselfbranding.com

SXSW Volunteers

I want to specifically thank Maria, the super cool volunteer who helped me to my panel and time it; as well as the hard working tech crew—a small glitch in sound during my presentation was immediately fixed. I also want to say hello to Wei! We need to really extend our warmest appreciation to these hardworking folks for keeping SXSW as smoothly running as possible. I am glad I had a chance to hang out with the behind-the-sceners to get an inside scoop on some of the process for SXSW.

Shenanigans

And finally, and most importantly, I have to say everyone I hung out with is SO awesome. I mean, who knew that my hapless group of friends would end up getting a free ride in an ice cream truck Individual shoutouts are lame, because you all know who you are and Flickr will have evidence. My final word on this? Bixbyheart.com

Another year, another SXSW, and I hope that even with its continued growth, that SXSW manages to keep a tight hold on its awesomeness. Take some advice from Design Eye though, please? That would be great!

For those interested, you can have a peek at my tentative schedule: http://sched.org/sxsw2008/lealea

I will be arrive March 7th in the late afternoon and leaving early Tuesday morning on the 11th. If you want to give me a shout or meet up or whatever, please feel free to leave me your contact info and I’d be more than happy to chit chat.

I notice that there’s a few prominent people deciding to pass on SXSW this year, for various number of reasons, and this is why I have a few tips for those attending for the first time based on my experience:

• Bring lots of business cards, remember to have it on your person
• Leave your laptop in the room, but bring a notepad/moleskin/etc and pen; you want to be really nimble and mobile
• Swallow your shyness and approach people! Say hi! At the end of the day, no matter who the person is, we’re all just a bunch of geeks.
• APPROACH the panelists after the talk! They don’t bite. In fact, most are super nice and invite you out to lunch .
• Don’t succumb to peer pressure to stay later than you feel comfortable or party more than you care to. If you’re tired at 10 pm, go to your hotel room and sleep!
• I’m not quite the teetotaler, but just because some of the booze is free doesn’t mean you need to indulge (or indulge too much). :-P People will still be there the next day and probably will appreciate the fact that you aren’t a) hungover, or b) looking like death warmed over. And please, remember, this is still a relatively professional setting. No matter how great a designer you are, if you act like an ass, I’ll be less likely to collaborate/hire/work with you.
• Be VERY choosy which panels you go to. You are under no obligation to STAY the entire course of a panel if you hate it. Just stand up and walk out. It’s okay.
• In fact, only go to a handful of panels. The main point is to meet and greet. :)

• There’s also a lot of free food given away during SXSW, so if you keep your eyes and ears open to which parties those may be—go there. I know I can’t resist the lure of free, especially if it involves food

  And I think that’s about it, the quick and dirty tips. So, have fun, everyone and please go to my panel if you have a chance! Woot!

  edit: How can I forget? Bad, Lea! I am heading to SXSW this year again through the generosity of Digital Alberta and The Canadian Interactive Alliance

  ]]> 2008-03-02T19:03:01-07:00 http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/free-murasaki-wordpress-theme/ Purple, girly, and FREE. Business, Design, Web Once upon a time, I used to dabble in Wordpress As it is one of the most popular blog software around, I couldn’t not fiddle with it even a tiny bit. It wasn’t my favourite software (EE holds my heart) but one of my friends needed a new theme to spice up her blog and she insisted on WP.

  Kristine is a brilliant writer, and is currently working through the JET program as a teacher in Japan. She wanted something that was feminine, but dark, with a hint of that Japanese flavour. And thus, the Murasaki theme was born. However, she’s moved on from the theme and now we want to release it to the world!

  

  Preview here | Download here

  It’s a simple enough theme: rounded corners, stylized dates, and simple image. It’s easily customizable—and one of my friends even mentioned that it’s one of the cleanest coded themes she’s seen. :) That’s the simplicity and beauty of it. So, if you want a piece of Murasaki, it’s FREE. It is being released under a fairly open CC license : The Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada

  This means you can do whatever you want with the theme, but it would be nice if you kept the link back pointing to Lealea Design in the footer. :)

  So, please enjoy this theme. Let me know if you’ve implemented it in the comments.

  ]]> 2008-01-16T18:43:01-07:00 http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/the-royal-court-of-appeal/ Personality is King. Content is Queen. Business, Design So Scrivs knows what is king. I’ll spoil it for you: it isn’t content. Wait wait, hear him out. It makes sense. Content is just part of the overall big picture of what drives people to visit your site, or use your services, or what-have-you. It is important. But it isn’t “king.”

  It’s Queen. And the King and Queen can’t work without each other… or the rest of the Royal Court.

  I won’t go into more details about why content isn’t king—Scrivs does a good job and Derek Powazek emphasizes the point further that it’s all about relationships… but Scrivs makes a good statement: “Makes me wonder who the prince, princess and court jester are now.”

  While he was probably just jesting, it did make me think. If Personality is King, and Content is its Queen… who fills up the rest of the Royal Court that makes a website, blog, service, or person excel?

  Here are my suggestions:

  • Prince = Process—how you go about doing things that’s unique
  • Princess = Design/Visual Appeal—gotta look hot to be hot
  • Court Jester = Comments/Communication?
  • Knight = the heart, culture, and values represented

    My my, this looks pretty similar to what makes a brand... hmmmmm… ;-)

    Thoughts?

    ]]> 2008-01-10T19:29:01-07:00 http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/handling-rejection/ Always with class and dignity. Business So, someone approaches you for this grand opportunity. It’s a great project, job, whatever… You really want it, and you try your hardest to be “the chosen one” but at the end of the day, even if they point out you were one of the final two or that they do enjoy your previous work, they decide to go with someone else. Ah, rejection. C’est la vie, oui? Nothing you can do at this point, right?

    Wrong.

    This came to light for me when I was conversing with a friend and colleague of mine about a recent career change. In fact, she revealed that she applied for the same job a few months previous but she was passed over for someone else. Even though she didn’t get that job, she wrote a personal thank-you note to the people involved for considering her and even personally arrived at the office to give them some cookies. The person at reception thought she actually got the job because she was being so nice, when the opposite was true. She was gracious through and through.

    ... and a few months later, when a contract position opened up in this place, she was immediately called back and subsequently hired. They didn’t have to waste money or time interviewing her all over again—they knew who she was. She didn’t let them forget her because when the first opportunity passed her by, she didn’t hold any grudges and was also very clever in leaving a great impression.

    When you are approached with a great opportunity and it just slips through your fingers, that doesn’t mean it’s time to pack up shop and immediately move on. Do you do anything after a rejection? Do you write back with a thank you note at the very least? I bet the majority of us, and myself included, just takes the rejection letter/email/phone call and does nothing after. Or, the most is just a “thank you for your time.” However, dealing with rejection like this may mean losing future potential projects and positions.

    Here’s the deal: If you’ve gotten so far with convincing them with something just to be passed over, that doesn’t mean it’s an outright rejection of you completely. It may mean that you weren’t the right fit for the job at the time. Some of us go go through a long interview process, and you passed all these initial hurdles—that means they actually like you and see something you have to offer. Don’t immediately throw this away.

    So what did I learn about rejection after this?

    • Always be gracious—there’s no need to hold grudges
    • Always follow up—either with a phone call or personal written note
    • Always leave on a good note, with a good impression—how you do this is as unique as you are
    • Be genuine—my friend’s behaviour worked because this is how she actually is in real life with friends, let alone work. People can spot insincerity and that can leave a bad impression.
    • Remind them what you offer and that you’re always available for other projects, positions, etc
    • Ask if there’s anything you could have done differently or why the other person was chosen—hey, it never hurts to ask, right?

      Anyone else have techniques or thoughts on how they handle a rejection?

      ]]> 2007-12-17T17:15:00-07:00 http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/design-interviews-moi/ I was interviewed by Design Interviews. Web, Etcetera Helen Walker of Design Interviews asked me a few neat questions and here is the result

      It also has a peek at a few projects I’d been working on that are up and running, but haven’t been highlighted on this site yet. All of which will be revealed when I finally relaunch lealea.net… which will be soon-ish. :) For now, take a look at the interview and let me know what you think! Thanks!

      ]]> 2007-11-28T17:13:00-07:00 http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/lack-of-a-shared-vocabulary/ Conflict begins when we first don't agree about the meaning of words. Design, Web The web is always rife with controversy. The proliferation of blogs only adds further fuel to the fire. Whenever there is a hot topic of debate, I sometimes hold back in participating merely because my voice may be buried and lost within the hundreds of comments. But, I do read them and reflect on the points people make. One of the things I realized when I took a look at all the arguments as a whole, the real conflict is based on a lack of a shared and agreed vocabulary. Sometimes when you look back, I actually notice that people are agreeing vehemently but don’t actually realize it!

      Define This

      I used to be a keener in school and participated in Speech and Debate Club. (I can hear your muffled laughter from here!) At any rate, one of the major tenets of debate and if you ever had the pleasure of writing position papers for History or Social Studied class, is that you always had to define the argument or specific phrases and words you were going to discuss right at the beginning. The reason is, and why lawyers also exist, is that the definitions of words are actually open to interpretation. You had to right away make a clear distinction as to what your interpretation is about so then the debate doesn’t veer into arguing about terms and actually get into the meat of the argument.

      What is design?

      In Speak Up’s recent article on landmark websites several comments try to break up the many facets regarding designing for the web, including several definitions on people’s roles in creating something special for the web. The thing that struck me and got me to write this post was this quote from Christopher Fahey (scroll to the bottom… they don’t have comment achor links):

      Many people are using Armin’s article to contend that graphic design is not what makes a web site iconic. Which is besides Armin’s point that web sites lack iconic graphic design.

      Which is an interesting point: because of the lack of the shared vocabulary in this industry, instead of actually focusing on the point of the post and a) pointing out web sites people feel have iconic graphic design, and b) explaining why that website deserves to be iconic in terms of visual appeal (not interaction)... people devolve into arguing semantics. I don’t know how this actually further the discussion and help the industry in innovating if we still are arguing about who-does-what and what title belongs to who.

      Yes, the web has a lot of responsibility overlap—it is a multi-disciplinary industry—and the web is also has other considerations when you design for it, as Zeldman contends in his latest ALA article, but at the end of the day, we haven’t actually done much but argue semantics instead of getting to Armin’s real concern in his article about landmark websites.

      I believe Jody puts it best in the comments: (argh, why don’t they have comment anchors?)

      ...my argument is that you can’t separate the aesthetics of Web design from the technology that drives it—it’s a symbiotic relationship. Print (technology) has sustained fewer changes in 100 years than the Web (technology) has in the last 10. Web design must be agile enough to respond to the technology that drives it. I think the reason we can’t come up with “landmarks” of Web design is because we haven’t defined what a landmark of web design is. And due to the constantly evolving nature of the web, I’m not sure we ever will.

      Is “graphic” a naughty word?

      Discuss. :)

      ]]> 2007-11-21T18:21:00-07:00 http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/fighting-the-good-fight/ Is it right to capitulate to every client's whims? Business, Design During my Future of Web Design stint, a few individuals approached me with specific questions in handling clients on how to get them to invest in a branding strategy. Of course, we all know the value of such an endeavor but not every client you work with understands what we understand. Sometimes, these stand-offs get really tense, because you are passionate about what you do, and the client may be equally as passionate in their assertions.

      So, now what? Do you just do what the client says? Do you keep arguing to the point where you may lose the project? Is it worth that risk?

      Fight the Good Fight

      Here’s the thing: sometimes you need to remind clients you were hired for a specific reason for your specific expertise. Not all of us are lucky with clients who understand our lingo, or even want to listen. Be firm in asserting what you feel the project needs. I think one major problem that occurs with a lot of designers and projects is that they capitulate too much over a client’s whims. Remind them that you are partners in this project: they hired you because you bring something to the table, which means they need you. Also remind them that you only have their best interests at heart and in order to do that, if you have metrics to back things up or can translate things to monetary gain, then even better.

      Compromise

      One of my workshop peeps came up to me and told me a typical in-house designer scenario: the giant company is in the middle of a re-branding, but the logo that they’ve decided to choose is next to ghastly or, it’s good but they feel it’s inappropriate for what the company stands for. She mentioned also, that the main decision-maker really likes this logo. I told her to “fight the good fight” until it gets to the point where the head honcho really puts his foot down and goes ahead with the less-than-stellar logo. If/when that happens, I would suggest trying to bargain or compromise. The brand is more than just a logo, and if the applications of the rest of the brand (through the marketing materials, website, packaging, etc) reflects the true nature of the company, then the crappy logo fades to the background to let the rest of the items shine.

      I’ve had to create websites for places where I found their logo personally atrocious, but if you continually focus on the failings and forget the positive aspects (future projects, perhaps the client is nice but just stubborn, etc), you’ve essentially not only lost the battle, you’ve lost the war.

      Quitting While You’re Ahead, Ain’t the Same as Quitting

      Or, if it really got down to it, say no and be prepared to walk away from the project. This is by far the hardest to do, and this is where things end up sketchy. Especially if you’ve just starting freelancing, or are new to the company… hell, this gets hard no matter how long you’ve been in the biz. However, if a project or client becomes abusive or morally reprehensible, then definitely just walk away.

      Thoughts?

      This is often a touchy subject with people. How do you usually get clients to understand you or when do you know to quit?

      ]]> 2007-11-14T15:31:00-07:00