Elise McCabe

Conscious, Creative, Graphic Designer

presentation notes

Build Your Personal Brand by Ryan Rhoten

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At WordCamp Dayton, I made the decision to walk out of a presentation that was a bit too basic for my skill level & attend Ryan Rhoten’s “Build Your Personal Brand” & I’m certainly glad I did. Please find my notes & overview of Ryan’s presentation below.

Reasons to Manage What Comes Up When You Google Your Name

  • 93% of recruiters check your online profile BEFORE they give you a call.(based on a survey conducted on Jobvite)
  • 70% of employers have rejected a job candidate because of information they found about that person online.(based on a survey conducted on LinkedIn)
  • 85% of employers say that a positive online reputation influences their hiring decisions. (based on a survey conducted on LinkedIn)

Social Media
About the time I walked into Ryan’s presentation, he was discussing how we should secure our own name as a URL (e.g. elisemccabe.com – in my case – which is on this year’s bucket list to morph into a resume site), as well as, grabbing whichever social media platforms that your name is available on. To see which social media platforms your name is available on; go to: Know Em? & Name Check (which at the time of writing this post appears to be down).

In order to effectively engage with your audience, it’s better to boil the milk, be present on a few social media platforms & ignore the rest. So acquire your name on platforms that you’ll regularly use & leave the rest for another Elise McCabe to use as they please. To determine which social media platform is right for what purpose, Ryan recommends reading Jab Jab Right Hook.

In order to maximize your social media endeavors, it’s important to both create & curate content. Following this method lightens your load as far as writing goes & gives your readers a well rounded view of the issue at hand.

Social media is a conversation not a conversion. Instead of your posts being “me, me, me,me” they should be “you, you, you, me.”

Blogging
How do you figure out what to blog about? Ask yourself:

  • What are your hobbies?
  • What do people ask you about?
  • What do you want to be known for?

Your goal is the become the google of your niche.

Both Blogging & Social Media

  • Position yourself as a resource. Be where people go to find out about your niche.
  • Be focused & consistent. Ignore all platforms & focus on a few.
  • Take help from an app like Buffer to manage your social media presence. It allows you to schedule posts at various times throughout the day.
  • Set up rules on Buffer to automate processes: if this then that. If this happens then I want this action to take place.
  • Curate. Share posts/content others have created – of course, always give due credit.

When you share content from multiple sources you are sharing from a place of abundance.

That’s about it for my notes from Ryan’s presentation. Click here to view his presentation slides.

Fighting Imposter Syndrome at WordCamp Dayton 2015

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This weekend I had the privilege of attending Wordcamp Dayton 2015.  That being the case there will be a bit more posts than usual this month in attempt to share the wealth. The first talk of the day on Saturday was a panel discussion featuring: Jeff Chandler, Angela Bergmann, Rick Robinkoff & Steve Grunwell on “Fighting Imposter Syndrome.” Please find my synopsis of that discussion below.

What is imposter syndrome?

It’s the feeling that you’re where you are in life because someone wasn’t paying attention NOT due to a certain skill set or level of expertise you possess. The belief is that you are a fraud who has somehow slipped through the cracks & is evading discovery. This is accompanied by the fear that once folks realize who you really are, you are in jeopardy of losing that position.

How do I know if I have imposter syndrome?

Ask yourself, have I ever:

  • not accepted praise for my work but rather attributed it to someone or something else
  • felt unworthy of praise
  • felt that if an “actual” expert looked at your work they would deem it improper -or- unprofessional
  • felt as though you have nothing to contribute back to the community

If you’ve answered yes to any of the above points – there’s a good chance you’re suffering from imposter syndrome. If that’s the case you’re not alone. Many professionals who earn their living via WordPress are in the same boat including myself.

Some contributing factors to the prevalence of imposter syndrome amongst WordPress professionals are:

  • there is no university degree you can earn in WordPress & there aren’t many or any formal education programs
  • majority of our job is googling our problems & how to solve them (the better you are at googling the better job you have in the WordPress community)

Coping mechanisms/tips for dealing with imposter syndrome

  • crack jokes & make a personal connection with people
  • think of the worse thing that’s happened from your failures to help gain perspective of the reality of the situation
  • own your mistakes – people appreciate that much more over cover-ups or not accepting ownership
  • be public about it – there’s a lot of support to be had in the WordPress community
  • instead of feeling like a failure or unqualified for a particular job based on not knowing one aspect of it – learn it. Attend conferences, read & research – before you know it people will be asking you questions about subject X. Then subject Y will come along…at which point you repeat the process
  • remember we all put our pants on one leg at a time
  • just because you ask a question doesn’t mean you don’t know anything. It just means you don’t know about that one facet & you may know more than someone else in another facet.

That’s about it for my notes on the talk – I’m glad this discussion is becoming more prevalent in the WordPress community. Hearing this & the affirmation that knowing how to google is actually a skill & legitimate problem solving technique gives hope for those of us who are attempting to find our place within the WordPress community. If this topic intrigues you, I recommend checking out the following posts from Chris Lema on imposter syndrome:

 

WordPress Theme Anatomy by Corey Ellis

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A little over a month ago (what can I say? it’s been a busy month) I attended the WordPress Austin Meetup at Posh Co-Working Lounge. Corey Ellis gave a presentation on basic WordPress Theme Anatomy. It was a helpful overview to understanding what a WordPress theme is made of & how it all comes together into one working unit. If you’re so inclined you can check out his presentation slides here. So without further delay, here are my notes:

3 Main Components | The Core of Any WordPress Theme

  • index.php: You can create an entire WordPress theme with just this one page, but, it would be bulky/cumbersome to edit. That’s why you see footer.php, header.php, content.php, etc.
  • styles.css : The only thing required in the comments area is the theme name, the rest helps folks know more about/ find your theme. It won’t do anything at that point, but your theme will be a choice for folks. Once you add the CSS, it of course, will make your site look lovely.
  • functions.php : Makes the theme function.

Content – what goes in the middle of your WordPress theme- comments, sidebar, etc.

Other Good Bits to Know About

  • language attributes (in php) tells WordPress what language the site is in.
  • <meta name=”viewport” content=”width-device-width” /> indicates a responsive site.
  • <title> how title of site appears on the top bar of browser.
  • <body class> body_class : adds classes to the body. WordPress codex breaks down the various body classes or you can also create a custom one.
  • archive: something that’s an aggregator. The home page could be classified as an archive page but doesn’t use the archive.php file (i.e. homepage shows the latest 10 posts) Its an archive of posts but doesn’t use the archives.php.

Extremely Helpful Resources

Q&A Session with Corey Ellis & Nick Batik

Q: Everything could be put into index.php but the order you put everything in affects loading speeds, could you explain how that works?

A: HTML & the head of your site ( not visible to Front End user) comes before the body (FE user sees whats in the body). There are two massively important functions in a WordPress theme: WP_head & WP_footer. Developers hook up their functions to these two areas; where they hook it depends on how important it is. Corey puts most stuff in the footer. If you have script in the head, the machine has to stop, look at script, read it, then go back to what’s it doing. CSS is faster than JavaScript, so Corey wants all CSS to load prior to the functionality loading. WP head always has to be right before the </head> tag & wp footer always has to be right before the </body> tag. Language settings go in the head.

One thing you typically see in the head file is the navigation, though it could be elsewhere like the sidebar, etc.

  • wp_nav_menu — the function that says go find the menu & output its stuff. This contains two important pieces : register_nav_menu ( the theme location/description) & unregister_nav_menu (Unregisters a custom nav menu for a theme location.)
  • functions.php loads prior to the head, if there is no functions.php, index.php loads first.

As mentioned in the template hierarchy chart (linked above) index.php is the fall back on doc; the same as index.html is for an html site.

Q: What does a hook look like?
A: In functions.php , whether plugin is loaded in header/footer is determined by plugin. You can change the plugin, but be careful when updating the plugins as it may override your changes.

Q: What’s a hook?
A: The way you put actions in themes is called a hook.  You have to embed the hook,  tell WordPress where to put the thing you’re trying to do. The loop is the function in WordPress that goes & gets the stuff out of the database & by what you tell it to do , it displays it on the front page.

Q: What’s a good way to reverse engineer a theme you did not design?
A: Start by backing up. Use Firebug, find the section you are wanting to fix. Search for that class or id (in Coda) so you can find the proper file to edit.

Q: You were talking about the importance of the loop, is that any different than script? Why did you make a point to talk about the loop instead of other scripting stuff?
A: Because the loop is what controls everything in the middle.

Q: How do you style the backend of a WordPress site?
A: Google WordPress admin themes.  If you want a style to be on the admin, check the codex…you can stick it in your functions file instead of via a plugin.

A Little Glimpse into Corey’s Work Process

When Corey first began building sites he used a plugin which converted PSD wireframes to WordPress themes. He declined to give us the name of the plugin, as the code is not the cleanest in the world, to say the least. Nowadays, Corey starts with a custom created base WordPress template & customizes it per client. Other folks use frameworks like Genesis. If you are looking to develop a theme for the first time the best thing to do is to take the latest WordPress theme & break it apart as WordPress uses best practices.

That wraps it up for my notes from the meetup. There was a lot of good information crammed into a short time period, so I hope I didn’t cause your brain to explode or anything like that.

 

Refresh Austin Meetup: From Idea to Product by Adrian Taylor

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Here’s the last bit of my notes from the Refresh Austin July Meetup. This is from Adrian Taylor of Pushstart Creative’s talk  “From Idea to Product”. Adrian discussed the process of transforming an idea into a great product. Often times we start out with a great idea that we absolutely fall in love with. At this point we can’t see the forest for the trees. Yet when we take a step back we can understand that it’s not the idea that we were in love with but, solving the problem that we adore. Onwards to the notes:
Good Products

  • Satisfy a real end-user need or desire
  • Enable an experience or outcome greater than the required input
  • Have the potential to generate profit
  • Support the broader company goals & brand promise

Conception Phase

  1. Identification: find & articulate an unmet need or opportunity
  2. Validation: rapidly confirm your product theory with a research sprint
  3. Research: user audit & context research builds deep understanding

Development Phase

  1. Strategy: clearly define key elements of the solution
  2. Ideation: explore a wide variety of possible executions
  3. Design: refine concepts based on brand values & user profiles. A lot of people think their first ideas are what they love but in actuality they are in love with solving the problem.

Execution Phase

  1. Prototyping: initial development & testing of solution
  2. Refinement: resolve open issues, explore potential optimizations
  3. Production: build out remaining elements or move into manufacturing
desk rail
Deskrail: the non-conformist desk organizer with designers in mind.


Case Study: Deskrail
The dilemma was to organize the analog vs. digital tools a designer uses that encompass the space on their desk. They started off by developing a model customer based on market research & decided what items the designer will have on their desk. Then they look at analogous products that are solving similar problems, not necessarily in the same field. Some of these products include culinary organizers, machinists, tools, etc.

Once the research phase is done they:

  • Identify key considerations: aesthetically pleasing, hold a wide variety of objects, quick access, accommodate cords/ digital devices, etc.
  • Through usage understood more about the key components. The angle of the v, material it’s lined with, etc.

To make a great product we need to get over the fear of showing our folks to others. Just do it & see what the response is. Bring your ideas to people as early as possible. It’s a good way for future leads/ relationships. This provides invaluable feedback as to whether the product will succeed or fail, sheds light on potential changes that could make for a better product, and can even provide leads for future customers.

Ask yourself: What’s the cheapest thing you can build that will yield quality feed back?

Lastly comes the creation of near final prototypes which finishes off in refining the minor details. Attention to detail is key in developing a superior product.

Summary

  • Make sure your products’ goals are focused & clearly articulated
  • Get to know your end-user and their context early on
  • Collect feedback from potential users early & often
  • Continually review your products goals, user profiles & brand values throughout the process to validate decisions

That’s it for my notes from the Refresh Austin Meetup. You can check out Adrian’s presentation slides here. While Adrian’s talk was particularly focused on product design, I feel that the tips conveyed therein are equally applicable to the entire spectrum of design. All in all, it was a highly engaging & informative meetup with not only knowledgeable but fluid, engaging speakers. I look forward to the next one.

 

Refresh Austin MeetUp: Creative Extinction by Casey Hunt

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The other night I attended a lively Refresh Austin meetup at the Capital Factory. The first speaker of the night was Casey Hunt, UT Libraries developer & creator of Pleo, an autonomous robotic dinosaur. His speech was entitled: Creative Extinction: An Incredible Idea, Falling Incredibly.

pleo
Pleo, The Autonomous Robotic Dinosaur

Casey spoke about the creation & demise of Pleo the dinosaur. Pleo was the brainchild of Caleb Chung, co-creator of Furby. Caleb’s vision was to create a product with a soul that children would form an emotional connection with.  They understood that it couldn’t be a familiar creature like a cat or dog as it would always fall short of their expectations. So they choose a creature that people hadn’t yet been able to have much experience with but, would of course want as a pet. After all who can say they wouldn’t want a baby dinosaur as a pet?

The beginning of Pleo started off strong. The development team consisted of ten folks passionate about the project. They trekked out to Boise, Idaho & set up shop in a little garage. Meanwhile, the parent company Ugobe, had expensive offices in a fancy town with a strong drive to make money.

Despite the differing perspectives & circumstances of the developers vs. the parent company, as well as, the large base cost of $175& even larger retail cost of $300, Pleo sold very well in many countries across the globe. The US was an exception to that as the marketing team failed to see the vision of Pleo. They put him tethered in a plastic bubble at Target which didn’t show off his innate charm & autonomous nature. They even went as far as having him destroyed mercilessly by a BattleBot which caused children in the audience to scream in horror.  On the contrary, the Italian marketing teams understood Pleo & hosted adoption days. This made all the difference in the world.

Due to this core purpose being lost, extravagant spending of Ugobe executives & poor business deals, Ugobe went bankrupt & Pleo nearly died. Pleo’s product copyright was sold to the Chinese factory who pretty much destroyed the natural appearance of Pleo, replacing his skin tones with a toxic cotton candy look. They buried the simple, clean look & feel of the website with a dollar store saver approach. Thus a shell of the incredible Pleo is all that remains today.

For me this reiterated how vital good communication skills are. If you & your client are not on the same page, both parties will end up dissatisfied. If you both are one in vision & speaking the same language, beautiful things can happen.

Have you ever had a seemingly incredible idea that failed for one reason or the other? Have you ever been in a situation where it seems all parties are from different planets? Please feel free to share your experiences and resolutions in the comments below.

 

WordCamp Austin 2013: The Client Isn’t Always Right by Chris Lema

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chrislema
My notes from Chris Lema’s presentation

This will be the last post in my WordCamp Austin 2013 Notes Series. The last presentation I attended at WordCamp Austin 2013 was Chris Lema’s “The Client Isn’t Always Right.” Simply put Chris’s presentation was awesome. The way Chris spoke was so engaging that I didn’t take a whole lot of notes. Nonetheless, here’s what I have:

  • Establish Yourself as a Trained Professional. With a dentist or a mechanic the client doesn’t make suggestions on how to fix the problem. The client understands that the dentist/ mechanic is a professional.
  • Customer’s Value is on “What” Not “How”. As we progress we tackle harder & harder work. We focus on our own development until we get punched in the face. We focus more on what excites us than what the customer needs.
  • Create a Client Filter. (a) What’s your need? (b) What’s your budget? (c) When do you need it?
  • Create a Niche. Vertical niches focus on one industry whereas horizontal niches focus on one service which spans industries (i.e shopping cart abandonment).
  • Success = “What My Client’s Clients Need.” Not what I want, not what my client wants, & not what my client needs.
  • Talk to The Client in Their Own Language. Talk to them in the scope of what their business does or what their client needs.
  • It’s OK to Say “NO”. I think this could probably be Chris’s tagline. Nonetheless, it’s really valuable advice to not accept any project or client that comes down the pipeline. It’s better to be selective as that typically yields in both parties being happier.

Tool Recommendations

So that wraps it up for my notes from WordCamp Austin 2013. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them. Be sure to check out Chris’s amusing presentation slides. Please leave a comment below & let me know what you think.

 

WordCamp Austin 2013: Content That Sells by Hannah Hill

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My notes from Hannah Hill's presentation.
My notes from Hannah Hill’s presentation.

Next up in my WordCamp 2013 Notes Series is for Hannah Hill’s presentation “Content That Sells”. So without further adieu, here you go:

Four Steps to a Website That Sells

BE REMARKABLE! Remember that good marketing will only help bad ideas fail faster.

  1. Understand Who the Clients Are. If you don’t know who your customers are it’s really hard to offer services that fit their needs.
  2. Build Your Audience. Know who you are aiming for so that you can get relevant feedback from your demographic. Be sure to thrill the audience, don’t just satisfy them. “You can’t offer a solution until your understand the problem from their perspective.” There are two approaches to designing a site: (a) to decorate it like you would your home according to personal taste or (b) to decorate it like your store according to what the clients want. Always design according to the second method. Ask yourself: Who are they? What are their felt needs? How can I thrill them?
  3. Target Your Audience. Good things to blog about are: (a) Customer Questions: title the blog with their question. It’s OK to use shock value & cover negativity. Hit the problem head on or someone else with. It’s good for your clients to hear about the problems from you, this establishes trust through honesty. (b) Product Comparisons: Talk about your competitors pros & cons, this adds another layer of trust. (c ) Blog About Content That Will Help Clients. Don’t blog about how to change brakes but, how to know when brakes need to be changed & how to get longer life from brakes. This establishes a relationship with the customer & will increase the likelihood of them contracting work to you.
  4. Measure Your Progress. Your website is an experiment – don’t be afraid to launch it. Use Google Analytics, the Service Lion and/or Hubspot.

Additional Tips

  • Figure out what is the story/ experience of your product.
  • Check out the book on websites entitled “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug.
  • Acquire product reviews as this increases trust.
  • Blog to prove your expertise.
  • Make sure your pricing is visible. If it is not on the site at least write an article about what factors attribute to varying rates.
  • Put your pricing on the site to filter clients. This saves everybody’s time.
  • Identify a goal for each blog post. (i.e if it’s to get the reader to comment then start the conversation, “comment below to let us know what you think about…”)
  • Call to action logistics. When you have a call to action button make sure there is plenty of white space around it, that the text on the button is action oriented (i.e. “Buy Now”, “Add to Cart”, “Sign Up”, etc. ) & consider using warm colors as they are proven to be more effective.
  • The key to blogging is to do so at regular intervals. Respect your subscribers inbox by them having a rough idea how much mail they should expect.
  • Google “Demographic Studies of Social Media Outlets” & utilize your findings to tailor your social media marketing efforts to your demographic.
  • Woo Themes has a bunch of good options for “Call to Action” websites.

That’s it for my notes. Please be sure to check out Hannah’s slides.

 

 

 

WordCamp Austin 2013: Capturing Clients by Carrie Dils

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carriedils
My notes from Carrie Dils presentation.

Next in my Wordcamp 2013 notes series are my notes for Carrie Dils presentation “Capturing Clients – How Building Good Relationships Will Build Your Business”. Carrie’s presentation left me with a page & a half of helpful tips which I’ll now share with you.

  • Know Your Ideal Client. Understand what is valuable to them & where they hang out. (i.e. Linked In or a Chamber of Commerce meeting)
  • Be Visible. Participate in events your clients participate in, make yourself available & have a network.
  • Have Confidence. Know the value you provide, value your time & position yourself as someone of service.
  • Offer Value. Share information & your network. Answer questions. No matter what stage you are in your career you have valuable information to share.
  • Setting the Stage. Communicate, invite communication, insist on a response & acknowledge any form of communication you receive.
  • Set Expectations. Give them a road map – a breakdown of what to expect, a timeline – when to expect it, & the costs associated with the various services you are providing.
  • Set Your Client At Ease. Be in control, invite questions, drop knowledge or don’t (based on the client’s interest), be excited for your client (their success is yours), get your client excited & keep momentum.
  • Create a Love Fest. Send them an end of project appreciation, send yearly hand-written notes to clients – this can be around the holidays (this often attracts repeat business), give referral gifts – can be as small as an e-mail or a $50 fruit basket for a larger job &  keep in touch with clients – share a link, article, etc that is relevant to them.
  • Send Service Related News. “Hey, this new plugin could help your site, I can help implement that for you if you would like.”
  • Get Half of The Payment Upfront. This puts both sides at risk & motivates each side to do their part.

 What to do in Bad Situations?

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. – Proverbs 15:1
  • Own Your Mistake. Give a peace offering. (i.e. $100/month value website maintenance making sure all plug-ins are up to date) Starbucks does this in the form of a Recovery Coupon, learn from their model.
  • Define What Constitutes a Successful Website at the Beginning. To know what the customer wants is essential to making them happy.
  • Don’t Do Business With Friends. As you progress in your freelance career give up doing business with friends, refer them to another designer. Maybe even work out a deal with another designer that they will send their friends & family to you & you will send yours to them. It just makes everyone’s life easier.
  • Beware of Free Clients. Some folks are just trying to get stuff for free & do not really value your work.

What to Do With a Client Who’s Crazy?

  • Prevention. Set expectations for the first call’s purpose: “to see if we’re a good fit”
  • Provide Reasons. Increase cost & decrease availability or use the old “it’s not you, it’s me” bit.

Tips for Turning  Pro Bono Into Paid Work

  • Ask For A Referral or Testimony. A good word goes along way & is a nice form of reciprocation for pro bono jobs.
  • Give Them A Bill. Treat them as a paid client by giving them a bill that illustrates what the cost of the pro-bono work you provided would be. This helps them realize & appreciate the value of what you’ve done.

Check out Carrie’s awesome write up of Wordcamp 2013, there are links to her own presentation slides as well as, many of the other presenters slides. So check out her post & get inspired.