People are looking for stuff. Just help them find it. Then continue to deliver it.

Dude may be the next Einstein or Newton, but he sure as shit ain’t taking your daughter anywhere.

Aesthetics matter.

You go to a coffee shop and order a drink. It comes in a raggedy styrofoam cup with bite marks around the rim and what appears to be a faint lipstick smear. Could be the best coffee in the universe, but with a treatment like that, you’ll never even try it.

Aesthetics matter.

Your physics teacher comes in on the first day of class. (True story, this one.) He’s hugely fat, and wearing what appears to be a circus tent for pants. On his head is a massive nest of grey hair shooting in every direction. He’s got on a plain white t-shirt, on the front of which is an entire plate of spilled spaghetti. He paces the floor as he speaks, alternately teasing knots from his hair and rubbing his temples as if he’s about to die of headache.

And he was an amazing physics teacher. He was, really. But it took us all about a week to realize he wasn’t just some random insane dude who’d murdered our professor and taken his job.

Aesthetics matter.
You’re walking down the street window shopping and you see this thing. It’s this slick looking thing with nice glossy metal, shiny translucent plasticy bits and these little lights that flash. You don’t know what it is but you’re absolutely captivated. You enter the store to touch and, with any luck, actually lick this thing whatever it is.

You get inside and start playing with this wonderful object of amazement. And one of two things happens:

1. It either lives up to its promise and IS something awesome and captivating and functional…
2. Or it turns out to be something lame and gimmicky, nothing more than a turd in a sexy box.

What you’ve just experienced is this fact:

People respond to aesthetics first. People notice HOW something looks before they even know exactly what that something is.

But you’re not off the hook yet, for once you’ve created the brilliant aesthetics (which you should), you’ve then got to prove it (which you also should).

You’ve got to prove there’s the chocolatey goodness within. You have to prove the sexy coating isn’t just skin deep. (By the way, if your products/designs/ebooks/etc. are being returned in large quantities, your problem might lay herein. Look into it. Just sayin’.)

You’ve seen this in action. Heck you’ve probably lived through this exact process about eighteen billion times this week.

You went to a website and it had flashing stars and a horse jumping over a can of soup. “Christ! I’m blind!” you cried, and left the site not knowing what it was even about. Maybe there was amazing content or a store full of brilliant product. But the store wasn’t seen and the content never got read. Not a word of it.

It doesn’t matter how amazing it is. Cloaked in shit, your information never stands a chance.

So next time someone tells you, “Don’t worry about your site’s design. Just throw something up and fix it later,” don’t listen. Whoever this person is just wasted your money, turned away customers and threw a sign up on the door reading “Closed On Account Of Lameness.”

So here’s your job, your action plan for the rest of your life:

First, attract people with aesthetics.

Then keep them coming back with amazing content, actually helpful help, and ultra-functional goodies.

You might think this means more work for you. Yeah, it probably does. Fuck it. Nobody said it was gonna be easy.

That’s exactly why we need you.

We need you because you are not us.

You’ve got ideas we don’t have. Maybe they’re similar, sure. But your idea is in pink, or rotated a bit, or created with a different font, or illustrated by a genius artist.

Just because you want to become an author or consultant or whatever, amongst thousands of other authors and consultants and whatevers, doesn’t mean your idea is “taken”.

After all, “becoming a _______” isn’t the whole idea, is it? Neither is “painting a picture” or “starting a business” or “becoming a consultant”.

Finding the real idea

If writing a book isn’t the whole idea, what is? If becoming another consultant isn’t the whole idea, what is?

The whole idea is perhaps to write a book about business, in tiny, bite-sized chapters. And it’ll have custom illustrations that you’ve drawn yourself, with places for notes at the end of each section. And it’s funny as hell.

Now your “I’m going to write an ebook” idea is a bit different, innit? Now you’re starting to separate yourself from the field a bit.

So the question is, how can you flesh out your basic idea and inject more of yourself into it? What personality traits do you have that will make your ideas more appealing to your target audience?

Yeah, it’s scary injecting your personality and bits of the real you into your projects. That’s you naked in front of everyone.

But remember that those bits are what make you different from everyone else. And when you’re different from everyone else, your audience grows by leaps and bounds. Nobody likes a copycat.

Over the past couple years, I’ve developed what I think are some very basic, but often-forgotten, necessities that help me do just that. And when I do get surprised by “the one that got away”, more often than not, it’s because I’ve made a mistake and ignored one of the following.

Let’s check ‘em out!

First and foremost, grant them importance

If you’re a service provider, your clients put food in your mouth, pay your rent and fill your car with gas. Clients are your guardian angels. That ought to be enough said right there.

But clients are also your comrades. Meaning, yeah…they pay your bills, but look past the money for a moment. These people are fellow humans. Be nice. Listen when they talk. Read their email. Ask questions if you don’t understand. Or explain further if you feel they didn’t understand something.

Don’t just show them your package

Um…let me illustrate this one with a quick how-not-to:

Client: “I want a logo. How much?”

You: “$200.”

And thus ends that conversation.

Why? Because window shopping isn’t just about price. It’s also about the vibe, the personalities involved, touchy-feelies and warm-fuzzies.

Throwing a dollar amount at someone doesn’t inspire them to work with you. Throwing a dollar amount at someone and doing it with personality does just that.

Be nice. Make them laugh. Ask them how they’re doing. Say “nice to meet you” and “thanks for getting in touch” and other things that you’d say to a real human.

Wait…potential clients are real humans?

Don’t judge too soon. You never know who’s on the other end

I get a lot of emails that just say, “How much for a logo/ebook/website?” No “hello,” no “thank you” and sometimes not even a name.

Now, such terse and unfriendly emails might lead you to think there’s a jerk on the other end. Or someone who’s not serious about the job. Or any number of things. And you’d probably be wrong.

Some of the shortest and driest emails I’ve received have turned into the friendliest and most productive relationships.

Don’t judge someone based on an email. Maybe they’re being mistreated by a competitor, maybe they were rushing out of the house, maybe their child threw up on their keyboard or maybe they just ultra-hate email.

Be understanding. They’ll like you for it.

Be fast

When you receive an email from a potential client, it’s possible that a few of your competitors did as well. I get a lot of “I’m just shopping for quotes” emails. These are my favorites because I’m the fastest responder in the universe, and I make it a game to get back to them within a few minutes.

That means a lot to potential clients. It makes them feel important (they are) and it bodes well for their projects IF you can keep up the rapid communication.

I also use a program called TextExpander. It allows me to write and save text snippets which I can then paste into an email/document simply by using a shortcode. So…instead of rewriting an answer every time a client asks the same question, I can just hit “ctrl+whatever” and BAM! paragraphs of well-formed, well-written text appear. Love it! I’ve got pre-written answers for ebook jobs, websites, logos, terms of service, etc.

Now, when I say be fast, that doesn’t mean I just whip out an email that says, “It’ll cost you $200! Thanks, bye!” No…I actually write a personalized email with their name in it and everything. But I do it quickly, soon after they write me. Being able to type like a bastard helps. As does the fact that I ignore the “only check your emails twice a day” gurus out there who prefer to make their clients stand in line a while, which brings us to…

Leave your email open

Productivity gurus often tell us to check and respond to emails only between certain hours, or only twice a day or some other “system.” I think systems for the most part are bullshit, unless the system happens to be about providing good service.

When you buy groceries, you aim for the shortest line, yes? That’s because we don’t like waiting. Neither do potential clients. And believe me, they know when they’re being thrown to the back of the line to wait.

On the other hand, I bet you’ve never had a client say, “You responded way too quickly. I’m gonna go find a procrastinator to work with.”

Actually read their email and respond intelligently

The best way to look like a jackass to a potential client is to do this:

Client: “I really need you do design my ebook. Can you help?”

You: “Sure, I’d love to help with your website.”

That makes a client feel awesome.

Keep them excited

Remember that a client is probably pretty excited about his or her upcoming project, and you should stoke that fire as much as possible. If they want you to help them with Item X, tell how and why you are awesome at Item X and what the results may be for them.

You can mention that a past client had 50% increase in profits after working with you on a similar thing. Or you can send stats of what they might experience after working with you.

This works well for a couple reasons:

First, you’re showing them benefits about their project, and benefits sell. Look at effective sales copy nowadays and you’ll see benefit after benefit written up.

Second, this excitement will also turn the client on about YOU. When you write them and are excited about what your services might do for them, they’ll be excited to and will have a great vibe about you. It sort of fits into the “Grant them Importance” one above, only in this case you’re granting their dream a lot of importance and showing what might happen if it comes true.

I hope these tips might help you out. And I’d love to hear some of your techniques as well, so light up the comments if you’d like!

Good luck!

Somewhere at the heart of any service or product I’ve launched…

Somewhere in my refusal to work with some people and literally beg to work with others…

…is this one thing.

This is my secret.

This is how and why I make money, how I’ll continue to make money, and how you can do the same.

You ready?

My big secret is that I like people and try to help them.

Why is help a good thing and why does it even matter?

Plenty of people have made money by fraud, cheating and other dirty means. And while “The Game of Amassing a Large Pile” probably discounts the means by which you do so, I see two major problems with going about things in a dirtbag-like fashion:

1. It’s short-lived. You’re not going to be making money long if you do it by swindle.
2. The view sucks. So you made it to the top of the hill. Good job. Now look around and try to enjoy the view which consists of all the victims you’ve trampled.

So…earning money is the easy part.

What’s not so easy is helping other people. But when you do – oh man, when you do – you have made a friend/customer/client for life. And the money comes easier. And you’re going to like yourself a whole lot for it, too.

When you help, your sphere of influence grows. When you help, other people see/feel/hear your authenticity and that you’re for real.

Liking people and helping them can help your business

If you like people and want to help them, you’ll know if your product is good or bad.

If you like people and want to help them, who your customers are becomes abundantly clear.

If you like people and want to help them, you’ll know when you’re not a perfect fit for a client and you’ll cut them loose, knowing that by doing so you’ll help them even more.

If you like people and want to help them, your own quality-control division is always on, always working, and you’ll be putting out only those things you’re proud of.

Heck, liking people and trying to help them even explains SEO best practices.

The tough part, or…where the magic happens

You, and yes I do mean you, do stuff in life that you like. You do it in your free-time because it’s fun and makes you happy. You do it because you simply can’t NOT do it.

These things are sort of like hobbies because they’re that familiar. But they’re more than that, for if someone said, “You can’t do that anymore,” a little piece of you would die.

So…the hard question now: How do you take that stuff that is you, that makes you happy just by doing it or even thinking about it, and help others with it?

That’s a discussion for another day probably. For now I’m going to leave you with some examples of people I like a great deal. These are some of the folks who inspire me with what they do simply because they like doing it and they do it well. And moreover, it seems they’ve never let it go to their heads and always have a moment to spare, even for the little guys.

People I dig

Naomi Niles gets her groove on by creating gorgeous websites, being friendly and always saying, “thank you” despite being ultra busy. Her husband Koldo does his thing through the magic of illustration. The amazing thing is that when you look at his illustrations, all of a sudden the magic in you starts to boil up. I’m a writer and a musician, and looking at Koldo’s work makes me want to write and play music. Incredible.

Karol Gajda is amazing. His magic is in being awesome. He goes everywhere and does everything, and then he helps others by bringing them on his journey via his writing. And while he’s “big time” in his circle and is always hiking through some malarial swamp, he somehow finds the time to write me back within a day or even minutes. And if that’s not enough, Karol is also an ethical fellow amongst the often-dirty internet marketing industry. Case in point, Karol has given up five-figure income streams simply because he didn’t feel he was doing the greatest good for his customers. Class act, that.

Nick Cernis said “hi” to me on the Twitter the other day and I got all happy and glowy inside and had to pretend that I hadn’t been hoping he’d write me for the previous six months. In fact, I was so glowy that I had to take a moment and think, “What the hell…why do I feel like a schoolgirl right now?” After a bit of inspection, I realized why I like Nick.

Two reasons came to mind. First, Nick is a pro. He figures out new coding platforms while sipping his morning tea, and by lunch has something gorgeous online, up and running, and better than 99% of the other stuff out there. Second, Nick steers clear of internet cliquery. I have no idea if he does that purposely or not, but that’s what he appears to do and that’s the whole point. There’s more to internet success than commenting and guest-posting to increase your “community.” If anyone on this blue-green swirly mass called Earth should be guest-posting anywhere and everywhere, it’s Nick, ’cause that boy can write. But Nick just sort of quietly goes about his business, does his thing, and reaps all the benefits with none of the whoring. There’s something very calming about knowing a guy could very well take over the world, but doesn’t really care to do so.

Charlie Gilkey is someone I help with design goodies from time to time. Thing I like about Charlie is that he respects time, mine and his. He’s got this amazing capacity to say, “Hey…I need X by Thursday. Work your magic. Love, Charlie.” And I go, “okay,” and all is well in the world. It takes a lot of courage and a lot of confidence to take your hands off the steering wheel the way Charlie does. He lets you do what you do because he knows you can do it. Hand-holding isn’t the only way to help people out, and Charlie practices it well.

To all of you on that list, I give you my personal thanks for inspiring me, for setting the example and for going about your business with clean hands and utmost class.

Good on you. Thanks for being there and for helping me.