This weekend we started our weekend off with my wife and I going to a Jazz game.  My boss gave us some awesome tickets and we definitely took advantage.  Jazz lost but it’s always fun to go to the game.  It was Tyrone Corbin’s first game coaching since Jerry Sloan retired a day or so before the game.  The Jazz have a lot of work to do if they want to represent the Jazz of past.

Church was good.  On Saturday I spent some time trying to do better at my church calling as Membership Clerk.  I kind of got a little motivated so hopefully I’ll do a better job at that.  Sunday I spent most my time updating records and cleaning records up.  Fun stuff.

I’m tired now so I’m just getting ready to hit the hay.  Hopefully I’ll have a good post to share in the near future.

We’re trying to make some extra money doing some things online and he’s been a big help and been a work horse.  I’m a recovering over-thinker.  He’s good at keeping it simple.  We discussed PicnicWith.Us and what we’re going to start doing there.  It’s our e-commerce site that is slowly coming together.  We can take orders but we’re barely starting to do SEO and trying to build links.

Anyways, thought I’d try to keep a good thing going by blogging.  Hopefully I’ll get some more design done tomorrow.  I’ve got a screaming 3 year old begging me to put him to bed.

That sort of mentality makes me immediately think of the things people have done to make it in Hollywood.  Selling themselves short and doing things they wouldn’t be proud of.  Something that could taint their brand if at any time their competitors needed a scandalous edge to put them down in order to lift themselves up.

What I Have to Show

I’ve been involved in the internet now since 1996 you could say and I have very little to show because I’ve spent so much time working on other people’s brands and taking what I could get to make some extra cash to get something cool or to pay my bills.  I’m kicking myself understanding how much time has been lost.  Sure I can put together a portfolio of stuff I’ve done, but many of the people I’ve worked with haven’t done much with the sites that I’ve designed and set up for them.

What I Do

“What do I do?”, seems to be the question that I’ve been asking myself a lot lately.  At the same time asking “What don’t I do?”  I’ve spent a lot of time in the past not spelling out to clients what I do and more generally speaking what most web designers do.

I’ve recently been listening a lot to podcasts and mostly others who were once in my shoes and who have seemed to walk much better in my shoes.  I’m starting to discover my weaknesses a bit more and discovering that most my weaknesses draw from trying to be too clear to clients and not asking enough of clients.  I find myself working with someone just because they are referred to me and I want to help them.  But I find that they don’t need someone like me for what they are trying to do.

Don’t Overcomplicate

In my journey of discovering who I want to be I’ve discovered I like to over-think things.  Most likely that comes out of trying to foresee future problems that may arise when clients need a bit more complicated solution beyond their immediate needs.  I’m beginning to understand how necessary it is to build things out in phases.

Mutual Goal Achievement

I have to look at what I do as more of a solution to reach a goal.  Clients have goals.  Everyone in life should have goals.  Most big goals require many small goals that add up to the big goal.  If I can take that perspective, I no longer work for a client and I no longer jump when they say jump, I consult and give direction understanding what their goals are.  I work with a client making sure that my goals some how are being reached by working with those clients so we both are moving forward with our objectives.

Setting Goals and Only Moving Forward

I’m hoping to truly define what my goals are in the next little bit so I can more effectively brand myself and what I do.  I am committed now to only work on things and work with clients that allow me to reach my goals in helping them reach theirs.