Podcast appearances and mentions of shawn blanc

twelve workflows shawn blanc sweet setup

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2023 96:51

Shawn Blanc left his job back in 2011 to become a full-time writer. Twelve years later, he's the mastermind behind sites like The Focus Course and The Sweet Setup and more. Stephen and David ask him about that journey and how he's grown his operation from a solo venture to a team running multiple projects.

Mac Power Users 674: Workflows with Shawn Blanc

Relay FM Master Feed

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2023 96:51

twelve workflows mac power users shawn blanc sweet setup

202: FOCUS Series Part 1: Focus Academy's Shawn Blanc

Havilah Cunnington

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2022 38:42

This is the first of our FOCUS SERIES going the entire month of January to get us on solid footing in 2022. I hear from so many of you and the challenges, roadblocks and distractions that keep you from stepping fully into your purpose all boils down to FOCUS. To kick off the series you'll meet Shawn Blanc, long time friend of Ben and Havilah's and focus+productivity coach with 20 years under his belt helping tens of thousands of people get clear and meet goals that previously eluded them. In this conversation with Shawn and Havilah you'll learn how focus is about having clarity about what really matters to you. Learn practical ways of how to fight back against the tyranny of the urgent. We all know how easy it is to get caught up in the moment of what is demanding your attention right ‘now'. Learn how to schedule what matters - and how to follow through! Shawn will outline what the 6 main areas of your life are and how to prioritize those. Take a deep breath and extend yourself some compassion: It's impossible to give your attention to everything all the time. In the midst of hustle culture it's easy to forget that amidst the noise. As you head into 2022, realize that what got you here might not be what carries you any further. At the end of today's episode you'll be confident in knowing if what you've been doing is serving your goals moving forward and how to take action toward what is serving your goals! Also, if you want to get connected to Shawn's Focus Course Academy you can find that HERE. Learn more and connect with Havilah: + havilahcunnington.com + truthtotable.com + theinfluencertable.com

focus academy havilah shawn blanc

Big Ideas to Succeed with Dorie Clark, Luke Burgis and Shawn Blanc

succeed big ideas dorie clark luke burgis shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2021 20:49

Big Ideas that you need for success was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Dorie Clark, Luke Burgis and Shawn Blanc in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: Dorie Clark and The Long Game – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e1 Luke Burgis on Wanting & Mimetic Desire – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e37 Shawn Blanc on The Focus Course – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e31

Big Ideas to Succeed with Dorie Clark, Luke Burgis and Shawn Blanc

succeed big ideas dorie clark luke burgis shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2021 20:49

Big Ideas that you need for success was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Dorie Clark, Luke Burgis and Shawn Blanc in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: Dorie Clark and The Long Game – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/1 Luke Burgis on Wanting & Mimetic Desire – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/37 Shawn Blanc on The Focus Course – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/31

Big Ideas to Succeed with Dorie Clark, Luke Burgis and Shawn Blanc

succeed big ideas dorie clark luke burgis shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2021 20:49

Big Ideas that you need for success was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Dorie Clark, Luke Burgis and Shawn Blanc in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: Dorie Clark and The Long Game – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/1 Luke Burgis on Wanting & Mimetic Desire – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/37 Shawn Blanc on The Focus Course – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/31

313: Side Hustle Income - How Charli Prangley Doubled Her Side Hustle Income in One Year

The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2021 53:56

How to make business branding decisions, what it means to be authentically vulnerable, and diversifying income with Charli Prangley. ----- Welcome to episode 313 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Charli Prangley about how she grows her business, builds her team, and does the work she loves. Side Hustle Income Charli is the Creative Director at ConvertKit, but she also does a ton of work on her side hustle. So much so, she was actually able to double her side hustle income in just a year! This episode is jam-packed with advice for people who are trying to grow their businesses while working full-time jobs. Charli talks about how she views branding, how she hires help for the things she doesn't like to do, and how she has diversified her income. Charli's advice will be a great reminder of why it's important to really hone in on what you're actually trying to accomplish when you're creating content online and what it takes to get there. We hope you enjoy this episode! In this episode, you'll learn: What marketing design means Why she doesn't like pop-ups How to make decisions based on your branding Which of her platforms is her favorite How she doubled her side hustle income in a year How she works with a channel sponsor on YouTube Why Twitter is a great place to connect with people How she makes decisions about what she works on Why investing in help has been key for her business growth Tips for hiring email help How to work with designers on your blog's branding Common traits of successful brands How to be authentically vulnerable Resources: ConvertKit Charli's YouTube channel Design Life Podcast Inside Marketing Design Podcast The Future Belongs to Creators Podcast Charli's site Charli's Twitch channel Pinch of Yum Pallet Doubling My Side Hustle Earnings - 2020/21 Income Report Figma Webflow Folk 309: Create with Intention – $130,000 in the First Week by Creating Premium Offerings for Your Audience with Shawn Blanc 097: How to Create a Full-Time Income from Blogging Using The Egg Carton Method with Bjork Ostrom Black and White Studios Dianne Jacob About This Week's Sponsor We're excited to announce that this week's episode is sponsored by our sister site, Clariti! With Clariti, you can easily organize your blog content for maximum growth. Create campaigns to add alt text to your posts, fix broken images, remove any broken links, and more, all within the Clariti app. Sign up for the Clariti waitlist today to receive: Early access to their $25/Month Forever pricing Optimization ideas for your site content An invitation to join their exclusive Slack community And more! You can learn more and sign up here. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

tips twitch income intention one year creative directors side hustles slack optimization pinch double d bjork convertkit your audience shawn blanc charli prangley food blogger pro

309: Create with Intention - $130,000 in the First Week by Creating Premium Offerings for Your Audience with Shawn Blanc

The Food Blogger Pro Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2021 58:40

Charging for content, creating an online course, and going from indie blogger to multi-business owner with Shawn Blanc. ----- Welcome to episode 309 of The Food Blogger Pro Podcast! This week on the podcast, Bjork interviews Shawn Blanc about the way he produces products for his audience. Create with Intention Today we're talking to Shawn Blanc about his story of going from indie blogger to successful entrepreneur. He'll talk about productivity, starting new things, serving your audience, and how to build a strong company without sacrificing every hour to your work. His business ideas are very much aligned towards helping his audience get the best possible outcome, and his story will leave you feeling inspired and motivated to continue creating and serving your readers. In this episode, you'll learn: How Shawn started working as an indie blogger How he started blogging full-time How he incorporated a membership into his blog What “thump value” means How he made money with his blog How and why he built more sites How his earnings changed when he hired more people How he decided to create an online course What it was like to start working with a team His #1 productivity tip Resources: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook John Gruber Shawn's site Substack Patreon Ghost Barrett Brooks Think Again Delight is in the Details Shawn's other projects Things 165: Getting Things Done with David Allen 305: Non-Traditional Success – Optimizing for Happiness with Jason Glaspey Soul Savvy The Focus Course Check out the Food Blogger Pro YouTube channel (and subscribe while you're there!) If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for interviews, be sure to email them to podcast@foodbloggerpro.com. Learn more about joining the Food Blogger Pro community at foodbloggerpro.com/membership

happiness audience intention charging offerings getting things done bjork david allen jab shawn blanc food blogger pro

84: Work Cycles with Shawn Blanc

Process

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2021 46:46

Shawn Blanc of Blanc Media joins us to discuss remote work, Blanc Media's unique "work cycles", building margin, physical health habits, and more! (Rebroadcast of Remotely Working episode 16) Shownotes GET Remote Work 101 — FREE (https://effectiveremotework.com/remote101) shawnblanc.net (https://shawnblanc.net/) The Sweet Setup (http://thesweetsetup.com/) The Focus Course (http://thefocuscourse.com/) Shape Up by Basecamp (https://basecamp.com/shapeup) Seanwes (http://seanwes.com/) Sean McCabe's Sabbatical Blog (https://sabbatical.blog/) Cortex (http://relay.fm/cortex) CGP Grey: Spaceship You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck) Everything Starts with Trust (HBR) (https://hbr.org/2020/05/begin-with-trust)

productivity work life balance time management cycles remote work basecamp getting things done deep work cortex shape up sean mccabe personal productivity distributed work shawn blanc sweet setup seanwes

Shawn Blanc on Building Margin Into Your Life So You Can Win More

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2021 59:47

Shawn Blanc shares how margin impacts every area of your life, and why every professional who is serious about building authentic business relationships needs margin to do it. Learn how margin allows you to say yes to the most important things, how to create genuine relationships, and why slowing down and planning can save not just your business, but also your life. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: What big idea do you have that professionals can use to do a better job at business development? Margin, also known as breathing room, is the space in our lives between the stuff that we do and the limit where we fall off the cliff. It's very easy, especially in the world of business, for people to push their energy to the absolute limits where there is zero margin in our lives. Margin can apply to more than just business, it can apply to all areas and relationships in your life. Having breathing room in Shawn's life helps him lean into his strength as a Yellow thinker. Shawn feels the constant need to fill every moment in his life with something productive, so the reminder of building in the margins is critical to doing his best work. Working on projects that are due weeks ahead instead of the next morning allows you to work more effectively with less stress. For business and your personal life, margin exists to benefit your relationships. When you have no margin in your life you are tapped out in your schedule and physically, and this leaves little strength left over for your relationships, including business development. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we use margin to grow our book of business and get more opportunities? Shawn shares the parable of the good samaritan and how margin relates to opportunities. The ability to say no to certain opportunities is as important as the ability to say yes. When we are not clear around our priorities or have no margin within our schedule, it can be easy to say yes to everything and become overwhelmed. This puts strain on your work when truly great opportunities come your way. Margin can enable us to say yes to the most important stuff. It also helps us know when to say no to certain things so that we can show up with our greatest strength during times of opportunity. Evaluating opportunities is not binary, it's an organic process. The first step is knowing your values and understanding how you work within your daily schedule. Does the opportunity align with what you care about? If it does, what are the most important things on your schedule, and do you have enough resources and time to say yes to the opportunity? Lastly, if it is important and time is tight, is there something you can give up on to take the opportunity on? Business development is probably one of the most important things you can do for your career, yet it's one of the first areas the professionals let slide when time gets tough. Great rainmakers have a roadmap for what they are going to do in terms of business development. You have to be proactive with your time and have the clarity to know what the most important things are so they don't get pushed aside. Shawn's team works in eight-week cycles which have been transformative for his business. The first six weeks are focused work time for clearly defined projects and the following week is a buffer for review. The eighth week is time off for the entire team. This work cycle structure allows Shawn's team to accomplish more in less time while also building in time to recover and celebrate what they have achieved. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How can we use margin and apply it to long-term relationships? Margin exists for relationships. We need to have breathing room in our time, in our money, and in our energy to be able to build relationships. Margin allows us to build and strengthen and grow long-term relationships as well as new ones. People often view the business of business development and sales as an impossible environment to build authentic relationships but it doesn't have to be that way. You can build the relationship first and it can result in additional business, but if not that's okay too. Margin is the foundation for being truly authentic in a relationship. Without it, you will find yourself in meetings because you need the business and it will come across in the conversation. Margin helps us with perspective and allows you to create relationships in the long term. Great business development is about creating a better future for other people. Your core expertise is how you impact people in a positive way and relationship-oriented business development is how you do that. In Shawn's experience, providing a lot of value upfront and being clear about the nature of the relationship is what leads to long-term success. The idea of serving is paramount instead of converting each user to a customer immediately. Having confidence in your ability to help people is the key to turning them into a customer. The imposter syndrome is what prevents people from understanding the value they can actually add to their customer's lives. Pulling people from one side of complexity to the other is immensely valuable. For some people, you need to charge enough money just to get their attention. A big part of your pricing is who your target customer is, and what price you need to charge to deliver your best work. For Shawn, the number is high enough so that the client will take it as seriously as he will. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we apply margin to better manage ourselves and get more done? There are five components of a focused life. The final section is on margin and maintaining breathing room in your life, because that's the make or break it for your life. Margin is the space between your load and your breaking point. Finances are the only area of your life that can be lived beyond your means, every other area has a hard limit. Having breathing room within your schedule, relationships, and emotions allows you to continue doing the things that matter the most to you. You hack your habits by giving yourself the healthy breathing room you need to sustain it without getting burned out. It sometimes feels impossible to create this margin in your life, but burnout is impossible to sustain as well. You can either recognize it and make the choice to create margin in your life, or your circumstances will make those choices for you. The two most dangerous years of your life are the year you are born and the year after you retire. We run our lives near the redline all the way to retirement which often results in an untimely demise when we abruptly stop. Where in your life are you redlining that you need some breathing room in? What can you do now to reduce your load in that area? Shawn has a simple process that he uses to assess the tasks in his life and figure out what can be eliminated to either reduce his load or increase his limits. If you don't think you have time to start planning, the first thing you need to do is eliminate something from your schedule. If you're already on the edge of burnout, it's not the time to take on new things. When you have no flexibility in your schedule, you have no time for anyone. Mo shares his insights from the habits of Shawn Blanc. You need to have a plan around business development. A great business developer has a roadmap and knows what they are focused on over time. Great rainmakers not only have an annual plan, but they also have it broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. When everything is mapped out, you can evaluate opportunities accurately against your plan and understand what is worth your time. Without the plan, you are probably just saying yes to everything that comes your way. Margin can be applied to the four areas of how we think. If you're feeling stressed about your metrics, you need to expand your pipeline. If you feel stressed about deadlines, you need to pull back and create space to do your best work. If you don't feel like you have any goodwill left in your relationships, you need to add margin by giving back. For strategy, you need to get down to three main focuses and measure against them. If you feel like you don't have the time to make a plan, that's the signal that you need a plan. Start with looking at what you can delegate or eliminate to free up time so you can come up with a plan and create margin in your strategy. If you don't take the time to slow down and breathe, your body will force you to eventually. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

business finances yellow pulling evaluating margin shawn blanc episode growbigplaybook

Shawn Blanc on Building Margin Into Your Life So You Can Win More

business finances yellow pulling evaluating margin shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2021 59:47

Shawn Blanc shares how margin impacts every area of your life, and why every professional who is serious about building authentic business relationships needs margin to do it. Learn how margin allows you to say yes to the most important things, how to create genuine relationships, and why slowing down and planning can save not just your business, but also your life. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: What big idea do you have that professionals can use to do a better job at business development? Margin, also known as breathing room, is the space in our lives between the stuff that we do and the limit where we fall off the cliff. It’s very easy, especially in the world of business, for people to push their energy to the absolute limits where there is zero margin in our lives. Margin can apply to more than just business, it can apply to all areas and relationships in your life. Having breathing room in Shawn’s life helps him lean into his strength as a Yellow thinker. Shawn feels the constant need to fill every moment in his life with something productive, so the reminder of building in the margins is critical to doing his best work. Working on projects that are due weeks ahead instead of the next morning allows you to work more effectively with less stress. For business and your personal life, margin exists to benefit your relationships. When you have no margin in your life you are tapped out in your schedule and physically, and this leaves little strength left over for your relationships, including business development. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we use margin to grow our book of business and get more opportunities? Shawn shares the parable of the good samaritan and how margin relates to opportunities. The ability to say no to certain opportunities is as important as the ability to say yes. When we are not clear around our priorities or have no margin within our schedule, it can be easy to say yes to everything and become overwhelmed. This puts strain on your work when truly great opportunities come your way. Margin can enable us to say yes to the most important stuff. It also helps us know when to say no to certain things so that we can show up with our greatest strength during times of opportunity. Evaluating opportunities is not binary, it’s an organic process. The first step is knowing your values and understanding how you work within your daily schedule. Does the opportunity align with what you care about? If it does, what are the most important things on your schedule, and do you have enough resources and time to say yes to the opportunity? Lastly, if it is important and time is tight, is there something you can give up on to take the opportunity on? Business development is probably one of the most important things you can do for your career, yet it’s one of the first areas the professionals let slide when time gets tough. Great rainmakers have a roadmap for what they are going to do in terms of business development. You have to be proactive with your time and have the clarity to know what the most important things are so they don’t get pushed aside. Shawn’s team works in eight-week cycles which have been transformative for his business. The first six weeks are focused work time for clearly defined projects and the following week is a buffer for review. The eighth week is time off for the entire team. This work cycle structure allows Shawn’s team to accomplish more in less time while also building in time to recover and celebrate what they have achieved. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How can we use margin and apply it to long-term relationships? Margin exists for relationships. We need to have breathing room in our time, in our money, and in our energy to be able to build relationships. Margin allows us to build and strengthen and grow long-term relationships as well as new ones. People often view the business of business development and sales as an impossible environment to build authentic relationships but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can build the relationship first and it can result in additional business, but if not that’s okay too. Margin is the foundation for being truly authentic in a relationship. Without it, you will find yourself in meetings because you need the business and it will come across in the conversation. Margin helps us with perspective and allows you to create relationships in the long term. Great business development is about creating a better future for other people. Your core expertise is how you impact people in a positive way and relationship-oriented business development is how you do that. In Shawn’s experience, providing a lot of value upfront and being clear about the nature of the relationship is what leads to long-term success. The idea of serving is paramount instead of converting each user to a customer immediately. Having confidence in your ability to help people is the key to turning them into a customer. The imposter syndrome is what prevents people from understanding the value they can actually add to their customer’s lives. Pulling people from one side of complexity to the other is immensely valuable. For some people, you need to charge enough money just to get their attention. A big part of your pricing is who your target customer is, and what price you need to charge to deliver your best work. For Shawn, the number is high enough so that the client will take it as seriously as he will. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we apply margin to better manage ourselves and get more done? There are five components of a focused life. The final section is on margin and maintaining breathing room in your life, because that’s the make or break it for your life. Margin is the space between your load and your breaking point. Finances are the only area of your life that can be lived beyond your means, every other area has a hard limit. Having breathing room within your schedule, relationships, and emotions allows you to continue doing the things that matter the most to you. You hack your habits by giving yourself the healthy breathing room you need to sustain it without getting burned out. It sometimes feels impossible to create this margin in your life, but burnout is impossible to sustain as well. You can either recognize it and make the choice to create margin in your life, or your circumstances will make those choices for you. The two most dangerous years of your life are the year you are born and the year after you retire. We run our lives near the redline all the way to retirement which often results in an untimely demise when we abruptly stop. Where in your life are you redlining that you need some breathing room in? What can you do now to reduce your load in that area? Shawn has a simple process that he uses to assess the tasks in his life and figure out what can be eliminated to either reduce his load or increase his limits. If you don’t think you have time to start planning, the first thing you need to do is eliminate something from your schedule. If you’re already on the edge of burnout, it’s not the time to take on new things. When you have no flexibility in your schedule, you have no time for anyone. Mo shares his insights from the habits of Shawn Blanc. You need to have a plan around business development. A great business developer has a roadmap and knows what they are focused on over time. Great rainmakers not only have an annual plan, but they also have it broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. When everything is mapped out, you can evaluate opportunities accurately against your plan and understand what is worth your time. Without the plan, you are probably just saying yes to everything that comes your way. Margin can be applied to the four areas of how we think. If you’re feeling stressed about your metrics, you need to expand your pipeline. If you feel stressed about deadlines, you need to pull back and create space to do your best work. If you don’t feel like you have any goodwill left in your relationships, you need to add margin by giving back. For strategy, you need to get down to three main focuses and measure against them. If you feel like you don’t have the time to make a plan, that’s the signal that you need a plan. Start with looking at what you can delegate or eliminate to free up time so you can come up with a plan and create margin in your strategy. If you don’t take the time to slow down and breathe, your body will force you to eventually. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Shawn Blanc on Building Margin Into Your Life So You Can Win More

business finances yellow pulling evaluating margin shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 27, 2021 59:47

Shawn Blanc shares how margin impacts every area of your life, and why every professional who is serious about building authentic business relationships needs margin to do it. Learn how margin allows you to say yes to the most important things, how to create genuine relationships, and why slowing down and planning can save not just your business, but also your life. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: What big idea do you have that professionals can use to do a better job at business development? Margin, also known as breathing room, is the space in our lives between the stuff that we do and the limit where we fall off the cliff. It’s very easy, especially in the world of business, for people to push their energy to the absolute limits where there is zero margin in our lives. Margin can apply to more than just business, it can apply to all areas and relationships in your life. Having breathing room in Shawn’s life helps him lean into his strength as a Yellow thinker. Shawn feels the constant need to fill every moment in his life with something productive, so the reminder of building in the margins is critical to doing his best work. Working on projects that are due weeks ahead instead of the next morning allows you to work more effectively with less stress. For business and your personal life, margin exists to benefit your relationships. When you have no margin in your life you are tapped out in your schedule and physically, and this leaves little strength left over for your relationships, including business development. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we use margin to grow our book of business and get more opportunities? Shawn shares the parable of the good samaritan and how margin relates to opportunities. The ability to say no to certain opportunities is as important as the ability to say yes. When we are not clear around our priorities or have no margin within our schedule, it can be easy to say yes to everything and become overwhelmed. This puts strain on your work when truly great opportunities come your way. Margin can enable us to say yes to the most important stuff. It also helps us know when to say no to certain things so that we can show up with our greatest strength during times of opportunity. Evaluating opportunities is not binary, it’s an organic process. The first step is knowing your values and understanding how you work within your daily schedule. Does the opportunity align with what you care about? If it does, what are the most important things on your schedule, and do you have enough resources and time to say yes to the opportunity? Lastly, if it is important and time is tight, is there something you can give up on to take the opportunity on? Business development is probably one of the most important things you can do for your career, yet it’s one of the first areas the professionals let slide when time gets tough. Great rainmakers have a roadmap for what they are going to do in terms of business development. You have to be proactive with your time and have the clarity to know what the most important things are so they don’t get pushed aside. Shawn’s team works in eight-week cycles which have been transformative for his business. The first six weeks are focused work time for clearly defined projects and the following week is a buffer for review. The eighth week is time off for the entire team. This work cycle structure allows Shawn’s team to accomplish more in less time while also building in time to recover and celebrate what they have achieved. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How can we use margin and apply it to long-term relationships? Margin exists for relationships. We need to have breathing room in our time, in our money, and in our energy to be able to build relationships. Margin allows us to build and strengthen and grow long-term relationships as well as new ones. People often view the business of business development and sales as an impossible environment to build authentic relationships but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can build the relationship first and it can result in additional business, but if not that’s okay too. Margin is the foundation for being truly authentic in a relationship. Without it, you will find yourself in meetings because you need the business and it will come across in the conversation. Margin helps us with perspective and allows you to create relationships in the long term. Great business development is about creating a better future for other people. Your core expertise is how you impact people in a positive way and relationship-oriented business development is how you do that. In Shawn’s experience, providing a lot of value upfront and being clear about the nature of the relationship is what leads to long-term success. The idea of serving is paramount instead of converting each user to a customer immediately. Having confidence in your ability to help people is the key to turning them into a customer. The imposter syndrome is what prevents people from understanding the value they can actually add to their customer’s lives. Pulling people from one side of complexity to the other is immensely valuable. For some people, you need to charge enough money just to get their attention. A big part of your pricing is who your target customer is, and what price you need to charge to deliver your best work. For Shawn, the number is high enough so that the client will take it as seriously as he will. Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we apply margin to better manage ourselves and get more done? There are five components of a focused life. The final section is on margin and maintaining breathing room in your life, because that’s the make or break it for your life. Margin is the space between your load and your breaking point. Finances are the only area of your life that can be lived beyond your means, every other area has a hard limit. Having breathing room within your schedule, relationships, and emotions allows you to continue doing the things that matter the most to you. You hack your habits by giving yourself the healthy breathing room you need to sustain it without getting burned out. It sometimes feels impossible to create this margin in your life, but burnout is impossible to sustain as well. You can either recognize it and make the choice to create margin in your life, or your circumstances will make those choices for you. The two most dangerous years of your life are the year you are born and the year after you retire. We run our lives near the redline all the way to retirement which often results in an untimely demise when we abruptly stop. Where in your life are you redlining that you need some breathing room in? What can you do now to reduce your load in that area? Shawn has a simple process that he uses to assess the tasks in his life and figure out what can be eliminated to either reduce his load or increase his limits. If you don’t think you have time to start planning, the first thing you need to do is eliminate something from your schedule. If you’re already on the edge of burnout, it’s not the time to take on new things. When you have no flexibility in your schedule, you have no time for anyone. Mo shares his insights from the habits of Shawn Blanc. You need to have a plan around business development. A great business developer has a roadmap and knows what they are focused on over time. Great rainmakers not only have an annual plan, but they also have it broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. When everything is mapped out, you can evaluate opportunities accurately against your plan and understand what is worth your time. Without the plan, you are probably just saying yes to everything that comes your way. Margin can be applied to the four areas of how we think. If you’re feeling stressed about your metrics, you need to expand your pipeline. If you feel stressed about deadlines, you need to pull back and create space to do your best work. If you don’t feel like you have any goodwill left in your relationships, you need to add margin by giving back. For strategy, you need to get down to three main focuses and measure against them. If you feel like you don’t have the time to make a plan, that’s the signal that you need a plan. Start with looking at what you can delegate or eliminate to free up time so you can come up with a plan and create margin in your strategy. If you don’t take the time to slow down and breathe, your body will force you to eventually. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

The Top 3 Things You Need to Implement from Shawn Blanc, Creator of The Focus Course

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2021 15:49

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Shawn Blanc. You need to have a plan around business development. A great business developer has a roadmap and knows what they are focused on over time. Great rainmakers not only have an annual plan, but they also have it broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. When everything is mapped out, you can evaluate opportunities accurately against your plan and understand what is worth your time. Without the plan, you are probably just saying yes to everything that comes your way. Margin can be applied to the four areas of how we think. If you're feeling stressed about your metrics, you need to expand your pipeline. If you feel stressed about deadlines, you need to pull back and create space to do your best work. If you don't feel like you have any goodwill left in your relationships, you need to add margin by giving back. For strategy, you need to get down to three main focuses and measure against them. If you feel like you don't have the time to make a plan, that's the signal that you need a plan. Start with looking at what you can delegate or eliminate to free up time so you can come up with a plan and create margin in your strategy. If you don't take the time to slow down and breathe, your body will force you to eventually. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

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The Top 3 Things You Need to Implement from Shawn Blanc, Creator of The Focus Course

creator top3 implement things you need margin shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2021 15:49

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Shawn Blanc. You need to have a plan around business development. A great business developer has a roadmap and knows what they are focused on over time. Great rainmakers not only have an annual plan, but they also have it broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. When everything is mapped out, you can evaluate opportunities accurately against your plan and understand what is worth your time. Without the plan, you are probably just saying yes to everything that comes your way. Margin can be applied to the four areas of how we think. If you’re feeling stressed about your metrics, you need to expand your pipeline. If you feel stressed about deadlines, you need to pull back and create space to do your best work. If you don’t feel like you have any goodwill left in your relationships, you need to add margin by giving back. For strategy, you need to get down to three main focuses and measure against them. If you feel like you don’t have the time to make a plan, that’s the signal that you need a plan. Start with looking at what you can delegate or eliminate to free up time so you can come up with a plan and create margin in your strategy. If you don’t take the time to slow down and breathe, your body will force you to eventually. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

The Top 3 Things You Need to Implement from Shawn Blanc, Creator of The Focus Course

creator top3 implement things you need margin shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2021 15:49

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Shawn Blanc. You need to have a plan around business development. A great business developer has a roadmap and knows what they are focused on over time. Great rainmakers not only have an annual plan, but they also have it broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. When everything is mapped out, you can evaluate opportunities accurately against your plan and understand what is worth your time. Without the plan, you are probably just saying yes to everything that comes your way. Margin can be applied to the four areas of how we think. If you’re feeling stressed about your metrics, you need to expand your pipeline. If you feel stressed about deadlines, you need to pull back and create space to do your best work. If you don’t feel like you have any goodwill left in your relationships, you need to add margin by giving back. For strategy, you need to get down to three main focuses and measure against them. If you feel like you don’t have the time to make a plan, that’s the signal that you need a plan. Start with looking at what you can delegate or eliminate to free up time so you can come up with a plan and create margin in your strategy. If you don’t take the time to slow down and breathe, your body will force you to eventually. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Shawn Blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2021 15:01

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we apply margin to better manage ourselves and get more done? There are five components of a focused life. The final section is on margin and maintaining breathing room in your life, because that's the make or break it for your life. Margin is the space between your load and your breaking point. Finances are the only area of your life that can be lived beyond your means, every other area has a hard limit. Having breathing room within your schedule, relationships, and emotions allows you to continue doing the things that matter the most to you. You hack your habits by giving yourself the healthy breathing room you need to sustain it without getting burned out. It sometimes feels impossible to create this margin in your life, but burnout is impossible to sustain as well. You can either recognize it and make the choice to create margin in your life, or your circumstances will make those choices for you. The two most dangerous years of your life are the year you are born and the year after you retire. We run our lives near the redline all the way to retirement which often results in an untimely demise when we abruptly stop. Where in your life are you redlining that you need some breathing room in? What can you do now to reduce your load in that area? Shawn has a simple process that he uses to assess the tasks in his life and figure out what can be eliminated to either reduce his load or increase his limits. If you don't think you have time to start planning, the first thing you need to do is eliminate something from your schedule. If you're already on the edge of burnout, it's not the time to take on new things. When you have no flexibility in your schedule, you have no time for anyone. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

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How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Shawn Blanc

habits finances hack margin accomplish shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2021 15:01

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we apply margin to better manage ourselves and get more done? There are five components of a focused life. The final section is on margin and maintaining breathing room in your life, because that’s the make or break it for your life. Margin is the space between your load and your breaking point. Finances are the only area of your life that can be lived beyond your means, every other area has a hard limit. Having breathing room within your schedule, relationships, and emotions allows you to continue doing the things that matter the most to you. You hack your habits by giving yourself the healthy breathing room you need to sustain it without getting burned out. It sometimes feels impossible to create this margin in your life, but burnout is impossible to sustain as well. You can either recognize it and make the choice to create margin in your life, or your circumstances will make those choices for you. The two most dangerous years of your life are the year you are born and the year after you retire. We run our lives near the redline all the way to retirement which often results in an untimely demise when we abruptly stop. Where in your life are you redlining that you need some breathing room in? What can you do now to reduce your load in that area? Shawn has a simple process that he uses to assess the tasks in his life and figure out what can be eliminated to either reduce his load or increase his limits. If you don’t think you have time to start planning, the first thing you need to do is eliminate something from your schedule. If you’re already on the edge of burnout, it’s not the time to take on new things. When you have no flexibility in your schedule, you have no time for anyone. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Shawn Blanc

habits finances hack margin accomplish shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 25, 2021 15:01

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we apply margin to better manage ourselves and get more done? There are five components of a focused life. The final section is on margin and maintaining breathing room in your life, because that’s the make or break it for your life. Margin is the space between your load and your breaking point. Finances are the only area of your life that can be lived beyond your means, every other area has a hard limit. Having breathing room within your schedule, relationships, and emotions allows you to continue doing the things that matter the most to you. You hack your habits by giving yourself the healthy breathing room you need to sustain it without getting burned out. It sometimes feels impossible to create this margin in your life, but burnout is impossible to sustain as well. You can either recognize it and make the choice to create margin in your life, or your circumstances will make those choices for you. The two most dangerous years of your life are the year you are born and the year after you retire. We run our lives near the redline all the way to retirement which often results in an untimely demise when we abruptly stop. Where in your life are you redlining that you need some breathing room in? What can you do now to reduce your load in that area? Shawn has a simple process that he uses to assess the tasks in his life and figure out what can be eliminated to either reduce his load or increase his limits. If you don’t think you have time to start planning, the first thing you need to do is eliminate something from your schedule. If you’re already on the edge of burnout, it’s not the time to take on new things. When you have no flexibility in your schedule, you have no time for anyone. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

How to Use The Focus Course to Deepen Relationships, with Shawn Blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2021 13:57

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How can we use margin and apply it to long-term relationships? Margin exists for relationships. We need to have breathing room in our time, in our money, and in our energy to be able to build relationships. Margin allows us to build and strengthen and grow long-term relationships as well as new ones. People often view the business of business development and sales as an impossible environment to build authentic relationships but it doesn't have to be that way. You can build the relationship first and it can result in additional business, but if not that's okay too. Margin is the foundation for being truly authentic in a relationship. Without it, you will find yourself in meetings because you need the business and it will come across in the conversation. Margin helps us with perspective and allows you to create relationships in the long term. Great business development is about creating a better future for other people. Your core expertise is how you impact people in a positive way and relationship-oriented business development is how you do that. In Shawn's experience, providing a lot of value upfront and being clear about the nature of the relationship is what leads to long-term success. The idea of serving is paramount instead of converting each user to a customer immediately. Having confidence in your ability to help people is the key to turning them into a customer. The imposter syndrome is what prevents people from understanding the value they can actually add to their customer's lives. Pulling people from one side of complexity to the other is immensely valuable. For some people, you need to charge enough money just to get their attention. A big part of your pricing is who your target customer is, and what price you need to charge to deliver your best work. For Shawn, the number is high enough so that the client will take it as seriously as he will. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

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How to Use The Focus Course to Deepen Relationships, with Shawn Blanc

relationships pulling margin deepen shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2021 13:57

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How can we use margin and apply it to long-term relationships? Margin exists for relationships. We need to have breathing room in our time, in our money, and in our energy to be able to build relationships. Margin allows us to build and strengthen and grow long-term relationships as well as new ones. People often view the business of business development and sales as an impossible environment to build authentic relationships but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can build the relationship first and it can result in additional business, but if not that’s okay too. Margin is the foundation for being truly authentic in a relationship. Without it, you will find yourself in meetings because you need the business and it will come across in the conversation. Margin helps us with perspective and allows you to create relationships in the long term. Great business development is about creating a better future for other people. Your core expertise is how you impact people in a positive way and relationship-oriented business development is how you do that. In Shawn’s experience, providing a lot of value upfront and being clear about the nature of the relationship is what leads to long-term success. The idea of serving is paramount instead of converting each user to a customer immediately. Having confidence in your ability to help people is the key to turning them into a customer. The imposter syndrome is what prevents people from understanding the value they can actually add to their customer’s lives. Pulling people from one side of complexity to the other is immensely valuable. For some people, you need to charge enough money just to get their attention. A big part of your pricing is who your target customer is, and what price you need to charge to deliver your best work. For Shawn, the number is high enough so that the client will take it as seriously as he will. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

How to Use The Focus Course to Deepen Relationships, with Shawn Blanc

relationships pulling margin deepen shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2021 13:57

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How can we use margin and apply it to long-term relationships? Margin exists for relationships. We need to have breathing room in our time, in our money, and in our energy to be able to build relationships. Margin allows us to build and strengthen and grow long-term relationships as well as new ones. People often view the business of business development and sales as an impossible environment to build authentic relationships but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can build the relationship first and it can result in additional business, but if not that’s okay too. Margin is the foundation for being truly authentic in a relationship. Without it, you will find yourself in meetings because you need the business and it will come across in the conversation. Margin helps us with perspective and allows you to create relationships in the long term. Great business development is about creating a better future for other people. Your core expertise is how you impact people in a positive way and relationship-oriented business development is how you do that. In Shawn’s experience, providing a lot of value upfront and being clear about the nature of the relationship is what leads to long-term success. The idea of serving is paramount instead of converting each user to a customer immediately. Having confidence in your ability to help people is the key to turning them into a customer. The imposter syndrome is what prevents people from understanding the value they can actually add to their customer’s lives. Pulling people from one side of complexity to the other is immensely valuable. For some people, you need to charge enough money just to get their attention. A big part of your pricing is who your target customer is, and what price you need to charge to deliver your best work. For Shawn, the number is high enough so that the client will take it as seriously as he will. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

How to Use The Focus Course to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Shawn Blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2021 13:25

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we use margin to grow our book of business and get more opportunities? Shawn shares the parable of the good samaritan and how margin relates to opportunities. The ability to say no to certain opportunities is as important as the ability to say yes. When we are not clear around our priorities or have no margin within our schedule, it can be easy to say yes to everything and become overwhelmed. This puts strain on your work when truly great opportunities come your way. Margin can enable us to say yes to the most important stuff. It also helps us know when to say no to certain things so that we can show up with our greatest strength during times of opportunity. Evaluating opportunities is not binary, it's an organic process. The first step is knowing your values and understanding how you work within your daily schedule. Does the opportunity align with what you care about? If it does, what are the most important things on your schedule, and do you have enough resources and time to say yes to the opportunity? Lastly, if it is important and time is tight, is there something you can give up on to take the opportunity on? Business development is probably one of the most important things you can do for your career, yet it's one of the first areas the professionals let slide when time gets tough. Great rainmakers have a roadmap for what they are going to do in terms of business development. You have to be proactive with your time and have the clarity to know what the most important things are so they don't get pushed aside. Shawn's team works in eight-week cycles which have been transformative for his business. The first six weeks are focused work time for clearly defined projects and the following week is a buffer for review. The eighth week is time off for the entire team. This work cycle structure allows Shawn's team to accomplish more in less time while also building in time to recover and celebrate what they have achieved. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

business opportunities evaluating margin shawn blanc episode growbigplaybook

How to Use The Focus Course to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Shawn Blanc

business opportunities evaluating margin shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2021 13:25

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we use margin to grow our book of business and get more opportunities? Shawn shares the parable of the good samaritan and how margin relates to opportunities. The ability to say no to certain opportunities is as important as the ability to say yes. When we are not clear around our priorities or have no margin within our schedule, it can be easy to say yes to everything and become overwhelmed. This puts strain on your work when truly great opportunities come your way. Margin can enable us to say yes to the most important stuff. It also helps us know when to say no to certain things so that we can show up with our greatest strength during times of opportunity. Evaluating opportunities is not binary, it’s an organic process. The first step is knowing your values and understanding how you work within your daily schedule. Does the opportunity align with what you care about? If it does, what are the most important things on your schedule, and do you have enough resources and time to say yes to the opportunity? Lastly, if it is important and time is tight, is there something you can give up on to take the opportunity on? Business development is probably one of the most important things you can do for your career, yet it’s one of the first areas the professionals let slide when time gets tough. Great rainmakers have a roadmap for what they are going to do in terms of business development. You have to be proactive with your time and have the clarity to know what the most important things are so they don’t get pushed aside. Shawn’s team works in eight-week cycles which have been transformative for his business. The first six weeks are focused work time for clearly defined projects and the following week is a buffer for review. The eighth week is time off for the entire team. This work cycle structure allows Shawn’s team to accomplish more in less time while also building in time to recover and celebrate what they have achieved. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

How to Use The Focus Course to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Shawn Blanc

business opportunities evaluating margin shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2021 13:25

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we use margin to grow our book of business and get more opportunities? Shawn shares the parable of the good samaritan and how margin relates to opportunities. The ability to say no to certain opportunities is as important as the ability to say yes. When we are not clear around our priorities or have no margin within our schedule, it can be easy to say yes to everything and become overwhelmed. This puts strain on your work when truly great opportunities come your way. Margin can enable us to say yes to the most important stuff. It also helps us know when to say no to certain things so that we can show up with our greatest strength during times of opportunity. Evaluating opportunities is not binary, it’s an organic process. The first step is knowing your values and understanding how you work within your daily schedule. Does the opportunity align with what you care about? If it does, what are the most important things on your schedule, and do you have enough resources and time to say yes to the opportunity? Lastly, if it is important and time is tight, is there something you can give up on to take the opportunity on? Business development is probably one of the most important things you can do for your career, yet it’s one of the first areas the professionals let slide when time gets tough. Great rainmakers have a roadmap for what they are going to do in terms of business development. You have to be proactive with your time and have the clarity to know what the most important things are so they don’t get pushed aside. Shawn’s team works in eight-week cycles which have been transformative for his business. The first six weeks are focused work time for clearly defined projects and the following week is a buffer for review. The eighth week is time off for the entire team. This work cycle structure allows Shawn’s team to accomplish more in less time while also building in time to recover and celebrate what they have achieved. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Shawn Blanc on The Focus Course – What You Need To Succeed

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2021 8:29

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: What big idea do you have that professionals can use to do a better job at business development? Margin, also known as breathing room, is the space in our lives between the stuff that we do and the limit where we fall off the cliff. It's very easy, especially in the world of business, for people to push their energy to the absolute limits where there is zero margin in our lives. Margin can apply to more than just business, it can apply to all areas and relationships in your life. Having breathing room in Shawn's life helps him lean into his strength as a Yellow thinker. Shawn feels the constant need to fill every moment in his life with something productive, so the reminder of building in the margins is critical to doing his best work. Working on projects that are due weeks ahead instead of the next morning allows you to work more effectively with less stress. For business and your personal life, margin exists to benefit your relationships. When you have no margin in your life you are tapped out in your schedule and physically, and this leaves little strength left over for your relationships, including business development. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

succeed yellow margin shawn blanc episode growbigplaybook

Shawn Blanc on The Focus Course – What You Need To Succeed

succeed yellow margin shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2021 8:29

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: What big idea do you have that professionals can use to do a better job at business development? Margin, also known as breathing room, is the space in our lives between the stuff that we do and the limit where we fall off the cliff. It’s very easy, especially in the world of business, for people to push their energy to the absolute limits where there is zero margin in our lives. Margin can apply to more than just business, it can apply to all areas and relationships in your life. Having breathing room in Shawn’s life helps him lean into his strength as a Yellow thinker. Shawn feels the constant need to fill every moment in his life with something productive, so the reminder of building in the margins is critical to doing his best work. Working on projects that are due weeks ahead instead of the next morning allows you to work more effectively with less stress. For business and your personal life, margin exists to benefit your relationships. When you have no margin in your life you are tapped out in your schedule and physically, and this leaves little strength left over for your relationships, including business development. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Shawn Blanc on The Focus Course – What You Need To Succeed

succeed yellow margin shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2021 8:29

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: What big idea do you have that professionals can use to do a better job at business development? Margin, also known as breathing room, is the space in our lives between the stuff that we do and the limit where we fall off the cliff. It’s very easy, especially in the world of business, for people to push their energy to the absolute limits where there is zero margin in our lives. Margin can apply to more than just business, it can apply to all areas and relationships in your life. Having breathing room in Shawn’s life helps him lean into his strength as a Yellow thinker. Shawn feels the constant need to fill every moment in his life with something productive, so the reminder of building in the margins is critical to doing his best work. Working on projects that are due weeks ahead instead of the next morning allows you to work more effectively with less stress. For business and your personal life, margin exists to benefit your relationships. When you have no margin in your life you are tapped out in your schedule and physically, and this leaves little strength left over for your relationships, including business development. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Meaningful Productivity - Shawn Blanc

The Mark Struczewski Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2021 31:50

Shawn Blanc is a creative entrepreneur living in Kansas City with his wife and three sons. For more than a decade, he's been teaching and learning about creativity and focus, his online training courses helping thousands of people reclaim their time, do their best creative work, and thrive in the midst of life's tensions. Shawn and Mark discuss Shawn's #1 productivity tip, personal integrity, super lazy people, helping your future self, boredom, mic swap, and more! His website Get productivity tips that I only share with email subscribers. Become a Mark Struczewski Insider and get the top 5 productivity tips for free. ABOUT Mark ‘Ski' Struczewski (“Mister Productivity”) works with executives to help them gain control of their time by taming distractions so they can experience less overwhelm, feel a sense of freedom, and enjoy their lives. In addition to being a productivity coach, Mark is a speaker, host of The Mark Struczewski Podcast, and an author. His strategies have guided CEOs/Executive Directors, business owners, business corporate specialists, and entrepreneurs to get back control of their time. You can find out more about how to connect with Mark and his mission to create confident leaders at misterproductivity.com. If you're looking to take your productivity to the next level or if you are interested in bringing me in to speak at your event, visit MarkStruczewski.com. Follow me: LinkedIn If you love the show, share it with a friend on Apple Podcasts.

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Meaningful Productivity - Shawn Blanc

The Mark Struczewski Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2021 31:50

productivity kansas city meaningful shawn blanc ceos executive directors

69: Clarifying Productivity Problems with the 5 Whys

Process

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2020 9:58

How do you effectively solve a problem in your productivity system? This week we discuss why clarifying your problem is just as important as solving it. Shownotes Obsidian Made Simple (https://obsidianmadesimple.com) 67: Solving Productivity Problems with the Rule of Three (https://podcast.effectiveremotework.com/67) Effective Remote Work Newsletter (https://effectiveremotework.com/newsletter)

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008 - The Best Coffee In Northwest Arkansas + Special Guest Shawn Blanc from The Sweet Setup

The 29 Steps podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 8, 2020 93:43

Jess and Jason talk about the most important thing about working remotely--how to make the perfect cup of coffee. We also talked about how technology can both help us be more productivity, but all that productivity is starting to lead to burnout for a lot of people. Plus, Jason talks with Shawn Blanc from The Sweet Setup about how he researches and figures out the best apps and tools for staying focused and productive. Shawn also talks about combating "dual focus," and why it matters. It was a great conversation and Shawn has a ton of really helpful insight into how to get the most out of the technology we use to stay organized and get work done. Shawn Blanc on Twitter The Sweet Setup Onyx Coffee, the best coffee in Northwest Arkansas (according to Jess) Snappy Ember Coffee Mug at the Apple Store Contigo Travel Coffee Mug Bodum French Press Microsoft is trying to bring back the virtual commute Jason's interview with Headspace co-founder Andy Puddicombe G Suite is now Google Workspace Ulysses Things Notion Spark Email (A few other great email options that Jason recommends) Brave Browser Apple's Refurbish Store Will Apple Silicon mean the perfect laptop for remote working?

headspace northwest arkansas best coffee shawn blanc sweet setup

4 - Tools & Productivity: Shawn Blanc from Blanc Media

Sync

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2020 52:18

Shawn Blanc, founder of Tools and Toys, The Sweet Setup and more, talks about productivity and tools, and how he achieves purposeful and focused work.

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My Productivity Toolkit in 2020

The Teaching Space

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2020 9:28

Episode 96 of The Teaching Space Podcast is a review of my current productivity toolkit in 2020. Introduction I make no secret that I love productivity tools and change my setup from time-to-time. This episode is a follow on to episode 59. In that episode I mentioned five apps: Todoist, Google Calendar, Notion, Forest and Ulysses. I will start by updating you on where I am with these apps, and then share additions to my toolkit. Todoist This is the biggest change - I no longer use Todoist as my task manager. I switched to TickTick some time ago; right after I interviewed Francesco D’Alessio actually. He highlighted some elements of TickTick that I might like. He was right, and I have been a TickTick fan ever since! Initially I joined TickTick because I liked their calendar view. Ironically, I don't use that anymore, and their features are quite similar to Todoist. If you are unsure about which to choose between the two, they are both very solid task management apps. This review appears current and balanced. There's just one inaccuracy I spotted - I can use emojis in TickTick. I like the feel of TickTick and will be using it for the foreseeable future. Google Calendar I continue to be a massive fan of Google Calendar. I have recently streamlined my approach to using multiple calendars and time blocking and am very happy with it. I plan to revisit this topic in a future podcast. Other than streamlining, the other change I have made in this area is I use an app to view my Google Calendar (also my emails) when on desktop. The app is Boxy Suite. I managed to get a special deal on it through AppSumo. While it is not an essential addition to my toolkit, it's a "nice to have". Notion I am still using Notion and love it as a concept. It's the hub of my podcast and video production; it makes collaboration with my virtual assistant seamless. If I wrote blog posts regularly I would handle them through Notion too. I continue to do my big picture planning in Notion which include things like annual and quarterly targets. As a task manager, Notion never quite worked for me. Looking back on podcast episode 59, it seems I am using Notion in a similar way to how I was then. Forest Forest is one of my favourite focus apps and stops me using my mobile when I need to be in focus mode. It’s a gamified Pomodoro timer, essentially. While I still use Forest, I should probably use it more often than I do! Ulysses Back in episode 83 I reviewed three note-taking apps as I wanted to see I was missing anything, being a Ulysses user. The apps I reviewed were SimpleNote, OneNote and Bear. Bear and OneNote came out on top. I used Bear for a while but ended up finding the document organisation structure confusing and limiting (most people love it, for me, it just did not work). I went back to Ulysses and, with the help of a Shawn Blanc course (The Sweet Setup), I am using it well. My only bugbear is I wish I could use Ulysses on my PC at work. However, splitting work and non-work writing has its benefits. I have enjoyed using OneNote for my Open University study and continue to rate it highly. What’s New? Drafts is my quick capture writing ‘bucket’ as explained in episode 91. I have reluctantly started using WhatsApp for some communication. MindNode is now a really important part of my toolkit for mind-mapping as explained in episode 89. In combination with OneNote for my OU study I have been using GoodNotes for organising and annotating PDFs. I explain this more in episode 88. Noisli is now a firm favourite to help me focus, as discussed in episode 95. Wrap Up And that's it. If you have any questions about this episode or comments you'd like to share, please join The Teaching Space Community: community.theteachingspace.com. I'd love to hear about your productivity tool preferences. The show notes for this episode include any links I’ve mentioned; you can find them at theteachingspace.com. If you have enjoyed this episode, please consider supporting the show by making a small donation towards the running costs on my Ko-fi page which you can find at ko-fi.com/theteachingspace. Alternatively, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or whether you listen to the show. Thank you. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join me for the next episode.

Episode 7: Work Cycles with Shawn Blanc

Remotely Working

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2020 49:08

Shawn Blanc of Blanc Media joins us to discuss remote work, Blanc Media's unique "work cycles", building margin, physical health habits, and more! Shownotes shawnblanc.net (https://shawnblanc.net) The Sweet Setup (http://thesweetsetup.com) The Focus Course (http://thefocuscourse.com) Shape Up by Basecamp (https://basecamp.com/shapeup) Seanwes (http://seanwes.com) Sean McCabe's Sabbatical Blog (sabbatical.blog) Cortex (http://relay.fm/cortex) CGP Grey: Spaceship You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAhsXyO3Ck) Everything Starts with Trust (HBR) (https://hbr.org/2020/05/begin-with-trust) The Margin Course (affiliate) (https://thefocuscourse.com/margin/?ref=34&campaign=remotelyworking) Simple Habits Course (http://thesweetsetup.com/habits)

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Intentional focus in an ever-changing environment with Shawn Blanc

Latitude: Mindful productivity for freelancers and founders

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 10, 2020 55:16

Shawn Blanc is the creator of The Focus Course, The Sweet Setup, and Tools and Toys. Over the past 10 years, he's transformed this business for a solo project into a growing team. We talk about what it takes to do your best creative work and how focus can lead to fulfillment instead of just productivity.

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Episode 16 - Quarantine Conference, Day 1: Tom Kelly

EDIT/OR

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 20, 2020 103:45

Episode 16 - Quarantine Conference, Day 1: Tom KellyKyle and Gilbert chat with Tom Kelly of Clean Cut Audio and three identical Taylor Swift jackets.Show NotesTom Kelly on YouTube. Tom Kelly on Clean Cut Audio. Tom Kelly on Reminiscent. Tom Kelly on Patreon. Tom Kelly on EDIT/OR. Tom Kelly on Gene Wilder on The Truth on Blank on Blank.The Mighty Black StumpHotstoppersYou know, Tom is Tom and Tim is Tim.ScreenflickAlex Knickerbocker something something Potato Jet.Kyle has The Glow.Speaking of Kyle's Glow, we wish Lauren a speedy recovery.Favored Terrain knocked their livestream out of the park.EDIT/OR Episode 12 - Fuck Podcast Conferences. And don't forget about fuckpodcastconferences.com.DronesHow many of you are afraid to click this team-building link? Three? We bet it's three.The idea of Mark tapping on the Bukkakepreneur chapter just makes us so happy.AB5 sucks.Tweet at Kyle.You're all Marked.Continue to do nothing to improve your speaking because you swear you'll clean it in post with Adobe's Project Sound Seek.We're not entirely sure why but fuck you, Earwolf. It just...it just feels so right.For more on hiding places, see John Acuff's Finish.Gilbert should have to put a dollar in a jar every time he complains about social media. And then at the end of the year he should have to take that $40,000 and donate it to one of Jack Dorsey's gurus.Moom, Keyboard Maestro, Hazel. Good stuff.Natural point of aim.Get the fuck off social media, rely infinitely more on quality sources at longer intervals (for your sanity), and listen to some fiction. Thanks so much for doing that, Audible. Very cool.And thanks so much to Shawn Blanc for doing this.And to Glenn Fleishman for doing this.Really, go visit Tom. He's our favorite Tim.Stay safe, people. But still go fuck yourselves. ❤️

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TCJ 023: Mike Vardy's Journal

Reboots

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 28, 2019 28:23

Mike Vardy is a long-time podcaster, productivity practitioner, and writer.Mike’s new book TimeCrafting: A Better Way to Get the Right Things Done is available for preorder on Amazon. Keep up to date with the book launch here.Mike’s journaling method is ridiculously simple.He uses his phone, the Day One app, and the Drafts app - using dictation and photo images to quickly capture the most important parts of each day. But Mike says that’s not where the magic happens. You’ll hafta listen to the conversation to learn the secret journaling ingredient that super-charges Mike Vardy’s life and business.Plus, check out the guest post I wrote for Shawn Blanc about how “The Note” helped me slay the dragon of self-doubt.

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R055: Pursuing Focus with Shawn Blanc

Reboots

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 9, 2019 33:11

Shawn is a husband and father. He’s known across the interwebs for The Sweet Setup - a website centered on reviewing tech devices and software.Shawn is a self-described nerd, but there’s so much more to Shawn than tech. In fact, Shawn’s current focus is, well, focus. He builds products and courses designed to help people do meaningful work instead of just talking about it, fretting over dreams that could be but aren’t, and enjoying life and the people we love, even when we’re chasing audacious goals.In this episode, Shawn talks about:His journaling practiceHow he flipped the notion of writing a book on its head and, instead, created a product that could - and does - help people learn to change behaviors.The difficult season in his life following his wife’s miscarriage.Shawn Blanc put together this special offer for Reboots listeners interested in learning about the elements of focus. Check out the guest post I wrote for Shawn outlining how "The Note" helped me tame self-doubt.

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Focused 79: Reclaiming Margin, with Shawn Blanc

Focused

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 6, 2019 65:49

The Focus Course founder Shawn Blanc is back to talk about the importance of margin, how it gave him the space he needed to work through a personal crisis, and life lessons learned from his orange 1984 Jeep CJ-7.

focused reclaiming margin shawn blanc

#1: Showing up

The RESILIENCE Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 2, 2019 9:39

How do you show up everyday? Obstacles to overcome and 5 non-sexy things that will have the most impact. Inspired curated content by Shawn Blanc, The Focus Course. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cecil-ledesma/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cecil-ledesma/support

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Shawn Blanc on Course Correction, Overwhelm and Task Management - BTTDL283

Beyond the To-Do List

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2019 47:59

Shawn Blanc is the founder of The Sweet Setup, a site that recommends the best apps for your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Shawn and his team are incredibly prolific in their reviews and recommendations of mac and iOS apps, but also create great training courses for those apps including: Unlock 1Password (https://thesweetsetup.com/1password/?ref=2) All The Things (https://thesweetsetup.com/things/?ref=2) Day One In Depth (https://thesweetsetup.com/dayone/?ref=2) Learn Ulysses (https://thesweetsetup.com/ulysses/?ref=2) In this conversation taken from bonus material from the 'All The Things' course, Shawn dicsusses overwhelm, course correction and choosing a task management software with Erik in this reverse interview. Mentioned in this episode: * Betterhelp (http://betterhelp.com/beyond) * MetPro (http://metpro.co/beyond) * Babbel (http://babbel.com)

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What is Active Reading?

The Teaching Space

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2019 8:41

Episode 60 of The Teaching Space Podcast delves into active reading. Introduction Last year I read 100 books. I know. It’s a crazy number and it’s not something I’m planning to repeat any time soon (I chat about this in episode 47). While I have run no official statistical analysis on my 2018 reading list (surprised?) I’d estimate 90% were audiobooks. I’m a huge fan of audiobooks, but one downside for me, is I don’t fully absorb everything I hear. While this is usually OK for fiction, it’s sometimes problematic for non-fiction, particularly if I’m reading for professional reasons (e.g. study). This has lead me to explore active reading, and that’s what I will talk to you about today. What is Active Reading? According to the Open University website, active reading is “reading something with a determination to understand and evaluate it for its relevance to your needs”. When I’m listening to an audiobook or a podcast, I’m listening but I am definitely not evaluating at a high level. The closest I come to evaluating is deciding whether or not I like the narrator’s voice (can I listen to it for 10 hours?!) There’s a big difference between the passive way I consume audiobooks and the definition of active reading. How to Make Your Reading Active Highlight and annotate important passages of the book (I do this on the second pass because you don’t always know what is important on the first read). Highlight selectively. Build an alternative index (I read about this in an article written by Shawn Blanc, but I believe the concept came from Maria Popova from Brain Pickings). It’s a personalised index based on your own ideas. Split screen approach: this is what I am experimenting with at the moment. I read on my iPad and have the Kindle app open on the left, and my note-taking app open on the right. I read for, then make notes. SQ3R (Source) SKIM through the text quickly to get an overall impression. QUESTION. If you are reading it for a particular purpose (for example, to answer an assignment), ask yourself how it helps. Also ask questions of the text: Who? What? Where? When? How? READ. Read the text in a focused, and fairly speedy way. REMEMBER. Test your memory - but don’t worry if you can’t remember much. REVIEW. Read the text in more detail, taking notes. Use your own words. What About Those Audiobooks? I’m not giving up audiobooks any time soon; I love them. But I have decided to focus on using them for fiction only. I need to be more active when reading non-fiction. Wrap up That’s all from me today, before I go, I have one small ask. Please sign up for my weekly email newsletter, The Teaching Space Extra. It includes access to my free resource library, as well as lots of great reading recommendations and information about productivity, teaching and tech. Hop over to theteachingspace.com/tts-extra to sign up.

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Mac Power Users 473: Shawn Blanc’s Evolved Workflows

evolved ipad pro workflows mac power users shawn blanc sweet setup

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2019 97:57

Shawn Blanc returns to the show to talk about his move to the iPad Pro and how he manages the growing team behind projects like The Sweet Setup and The Focus Course.

1056: How to Be Focused and Productive Amidst All The Noise and Distractions by Shawn Blanc with Break The Twitch

Optimal Living Daily - ARCHIVE 1 - Episodes 1-300 ONLY

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2018 11:33

Shawn Blanc with Break the Twitch shares his thoughts on how to be focused and productive amidst all the noise and distractions. Episode 1056: How to Be Focused and Productive Amidst All The Noise and Distractions by Shawn Blanc with Break The Twitch After years of impulse spending on Amazon and elsewhere, Anthony Ongaro realized that his one-click purchase habits were more of a physical Twitch than an intentional action. It turned out, this Twitch wasn't just limited to online spending. It applied to social media, impulsive smartphone usage, and more. Break the Twitch is all about minimizing distractions and doing more of what matters. Check out Anthony's new book, Break the Twitch: http://breakthetwitch.com/book The original post is located here: https://www.breakthetwitch.com/how-to-be-focused-and-productive-amidst-all-the-noise-and-distractions/ Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1056: How to Be Focused and Productive Amidst All The Noise and Distractions by Shawn Blanc with Break The Twitch

Optimal Living Daily - ARCHIVE 2 - Episodes 301-600 ONLY

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2018 11:33

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1056: How to Be Focused and Productive Amidst All The Noise and Distractions by Shawn Blanc with Break The Twitch

Optimal Living Daily

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 1, 2018 9:47

Shawn Blanc with Break the Twitch shares his thoughts on how to be focused and productive amidst all the noise and distractions. Episode 1056: How to Be Focused and Productive Amidst All The Noise and Distractions by Shawn Blanc with Break The Twitch After years of impulse spending on Amazon and elsewhere, Anthony Ongaro realized that his one-click purchase habits were more of a physical Twitch than an intentional action. It turned out, this Twitch wasn’t just limited to online spending. It applied to social media, impulsive smartphone usage, and more. Break the Twitch is all about minimizing distractions and doing more of what matters. Check out Anthony's new book, Break the Twitch: http://breakthetwitch.com/book The original post is located here: https://www.breakthetwitch.com/how-to-be-focused-and-productive-amidst-all-the-noise-and-distractions/ Please Rate & Review the Show! Visit Me Online at OLDPodcast.com and in The O.L.D. Facebook Group and Join the Ol' Family to get your Free Gifts! Thank you to ZipRecruiter for sponsoring! Listeners of O.L.D. can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for FREE! Just go to: ZipRecruiter.com/old --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/optimal-living-daily/support

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The Margins of ADHD

Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 16, 2018 28:37

We spend a lot of time building gates and systems to protect ourselves from distraction of ADHD. But, what might we be losing at the expense of saying No? This week on the show, Pete talks about control and ADHD. Spinning off of the concept of Margin as discussed by Shawn Blanc and Richard Swenson before him, what does it mean for ADHD when our systems and processes that we use to protect ourselves and our focus cause us to run out of margin in our lives and run headlong into a broader world that doesn’t understand us? Links & Notes Thank you for supporting The ADHD Podcast on Patreon! Giving up Control at Work — Shawn Blanc Margin from The Focus Course — Shawn Blanc Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives_ by Richard Swenson

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Sabbaticals: Shawn Blanc of The Sweet Setup on an 8 Week Work Cycle and Sabbaticals – BTTDL237

Beyond the To-Do List

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 21, 2018 66:47

Shawn Blanc is the founder of The Sweet Setup, a site that recommends the best apps for your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Shawn and his team are incredibly prolific in their reviews and recommendations of mac and iOS apps, but also create great training courses for those apps including: Unlock 1Password All The Things Day One In Depth Learn Ulysses Mentioned in this episode: Babbel – Get 50% off your first 3 months with offer code ‘beyond’! Policy Genius Please connect with me Subscribe, rate, and review in iTunes Follow @ErikJFisher Check out more Noodle.mx Network showsThe Audacity to Podcast: "How-to" podcast about podcastingBeyond the To-Do List: Personal and professional productivityThe Productive Woman: Productivity for busy womenONCE: Once Upon a Time podcastWelcome to Level Seven: Agents of SHIELD and Marvel’s cinematic universe podcastAre You Just Watching?: Movie reviews with Christian critical thinkingthe Ramen Noodle: Family-friendly clean comedy

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Shawn Blanc: Focus

Freelance

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2018 61:06

Shawn Blanc joins me to talk about how he focuses on what matters, builds great websites, gets great writers and more. 61 minutes.

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#16: Zarządzanie w czasie

Cafe Nerd

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 13, 2018 61:01

Czy czasem da się zarządzać? Nie, ale to nie przeszkadza nam ciągle próbować. Grzesiek, Nadia, Maciek i Krzysiek opowiadają o tym, jak radzą sobie z mnogością zadań, które spadają na ich barki. Linki do materiałów: Getting Things Done Basecamp i ich 6-tygodniowe okresy pracy Shawn Blanc i 8-tygodniowe okresy pracy Linki do narzędzi: Todoist Google Keep Remember the milk Things Fantastical Omnifocus Due

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Focused 42: Learning Your Creative Rhythms, with Shawn Blanc

Focused

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 6, 2018 58:23

David and Jason go through the Free Agents Mailbag with observations about the legend of the man who outsourced his own job, taking a hobby to the next level, and the menace of Imposter Syndrome. Then we welcome our guest, Shawn Blanc, creator of The Sweet Setup and shawnblanc.net, to discuss building an independent business with collaborators, solid project planning, and sensible work hours.

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Thinker Talk 10: Space Between

Eureka by Baron Fig

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2017 27:06

Shawn Blanc, a Kansas City writer, productivity coach, and creative entrepreneur, joins us to chat about productivity, his focus course, writing, and how Shawn lives a more focused life.Visit Shawn's website at shawnblanc.netCheck out his latest project, The Focus CourseSay hello to Shawn on twitterAbout EurekaThinker Talk is where we chat with people turning ideas into reality. Hosted by Joey Cofone and Adam Kornfield, co-founders of Baronfig in New York City.More at eureka.baronfig.comEdited and mixed by Eric Silver

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Finding Focus with Shawn Blanc

The Productivityist Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 25, 2017 28:41

On this episode of the podcast, I speak with my good friend, productivity expert, and creator of The Focus Course, Shawn Blanc. We dive into the idea of getting out of our own way, as well as discuss our takeaways from Jeff Goins's Tribe Conference and why showing up every day matters so much. Relevant Links https://tribeconference.com/ (Tribe Conference) https://ryanholiday.net/ (Ryan Holiday | Website) http://breakthetwitch.com/ (Anthony Ongaro | Website) https://productivityist.com/podcast-sean-mccabe/ (Overlap with Sean McCabe | The Productivityist Podcast) http://yesyesmarsha.com/ (YesYesMarsha.com) http://amzn.to/2xGTINO (Getting Results the Agile Way by J.D. Meier) https://productivityist.com/podcast-jon-acuff/ (Finish with Jon Acuff | The Productivityist Podcast) http://www.incidentalcomics.com/2017/09/perfect.html (Grant Snider | Perfect) https://medium.com/@benjaminhardy (Benjamin Hardy | Medium) http://tshoxenreider.com/ (Tsh Oxenreider | Website) http://zenhabits.net/ (Leo Babauta | Website) http://goinswriter.com/ (Jeff Goins | Website) https://thefocuscourse.com/?ref=3&campaign=TheProductivityistPodcast (The Focus Course) As always, I had a great time chatting with Shawn. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Thanks for listening!

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199: Making It as an Indie Publisher with Shawn Blanc

Systematic

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2017 64:06

Shawn Blanc, writer, blogger, podcaster, and Tae Kwon Do black belt, joins Brett to talk about his new video series, Learn Ulysses, subscription software models, and indie publishing.

indie publishers taekwondo shawn blanc

199: Making It as an Indie Publisher with Shawn Blanc

Systematic

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2017 64:06

Shawn Blanc, writer, blogger, podcaster, and Tae Kwon Do black belt, joins Brett to talk about his new video series, Learn Ulysses, subscription software models, and indie publishing.

indie publishers taekwondo shawn blanc

Whole Wheat

Whims That Work

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 21, 2017 50:37

Ulysses and the subscription model for apps. Medium versus Jekyll. Also, Joe bakes some sourdough bread. Show notes: Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (http://amzn.to/2fWWsjS) The last episode of Whims That Work (http://whimsthatwork.fm/6) Ulysses (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ulysses/id1225571038?mt=8&uo=4&at=1010l7cc&ct=wtw) Day One (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/day-one-journal/id1044867788?mt=8&uo=4&at=1010l7cc&ct=wtw) Scrivener (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scrivener/id972387337?mt=8&uo=4&at=1010l7cc&ct=wtw) Productivity Guild (https://productivityguild.com) TextExpander (https://smilesoftware.com/textexpander) 1Password (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1password-password-manager-and-secure-wallet/id568903335?mt=8&uo=4&at=1010l7cc&ct=wtw) Dropbox (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8&uo=4&at=1010l7cc&ct=wtw) Spotify (http://spotify.com) Spotify on Amazon Speakers (https://support.spotify.com/us/listen_everywhere/on_speaker/spotify-amazon-speakers/) Shawn Blanc’s Ulysses Setup (https://thesweetsetup.com/shawn-blanc-ulysses-setup/) Medium (https://medium.com) Jekyll (https://jekyllrb.com) Audiogram (https://github.com/nypublicradio/audiogram) Brett Terpstra (https://twitter.com/ttscoff?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) Typepad (http://www.typepad.com) Seth’s Blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com)

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Avsnitt 82: Vid foten till Älvsborgsbron

Björeman // Melin

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2017 56:07

Fredrik har varit på konferens och myst, vilket leder in på presentationer och att hålla dem. Jocke busspendlar igen, det är en svår omställning men ett fantastiskt tillfälle att uppdatera sina appar? Vi pratar om den nya intervjun eller diskussionen med Scott Forstall som dykt upp, Apples hantering av läckor, roliga gamla spel och varför Jocke köpt och returnerat en Apple watch. Sist men absolut inte minst diskuterar vi bloggar och skribenter vi följt men inte längre följer. Allra sist: en fråga och ett ämne för nästa vecka: Var får ni era nyheter från? Länkar Veckans omslagsbild är gjord av Johan Wanloo Varvet Ship it - konferensen Fredrik var på Hasselblad Nordic Ruby Hey, it’s Enrico Pallazzo! Hey, it’s Enrico Pallazzo! Mobbprogrammering Michael Lopp Rands in repose Michael Lopp om presentationer How to not throw up Putting your finger on it - creating the Iphone - diskussion med bland annat Scott Forstall Scott Forstall Video av diskussionen Verges artikel med utdraget ur The one device Tony Fadell Nitin Ganatra Scott Herz Hugo Fiennes Yubikey Apples hantering av läckor läcker Wipeout-serien Flatout Flatout på Good old games Jack Nutting Kompisens (hej Martin!) text om att ha köpt Apple watch The cow abides Drunkenblog finns inte längre Evening at Adler Wil Shipley Unsanity Slashdot - news for nerds, stuff that matters The loop Joshua Topolsky The outline Kit heter den något mystiska sidan! 512 pixels Six colors Upgrade Ben Brooks Dan’s data finns kvar - samma innehåll, sämre annonsering Shawn Blanc links.net Internet history podcast med Justin Hall Boingboing Fullständig avsnittsinformation finns här: https://www.bjoremanmelin.se/podcast/avsnitt-82-vid-foten-av-alvsborgsbron.html.

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37: Web Design & Quilting (feat. Shawn Blanc)

Orthogonal

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2017 44:14

An interview with Shawn Blanc wherein Shawn and Brett sound really terrible.

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22: The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone (with Shawn Blanc)

Bookworm

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 22, 2017 76:15

This round Mike and Joe are joined by Shawn Blanc to talk about taking massive action with The 10X Rule. The Focus Course The Focus Course Blog The Focus Course Book Club Tools and Toys The Sweet Setup Shawn Blanc The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covey, Chris McChesney, Jim Huling The 10X Rule […]

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Shawn Blanc | Improving Your Productivity and Creative Output

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2016 36:28

Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins: For big projects, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time to think and work. Work on building your focus muscle. The first five minutes of focus time are the hardest. Pick a task, pick a time, and do the task at that time. Show up every day and do your best creative work. If you can't overcome fear, push through it—fear is a sign that you're doing something that matters. The way you feel about a product doesn't change how much it's worth, which is how much the market is willing to pay for it. Protect your morning productivity time and your mental energy by setting out your clothes the night before. Don't undervalue your products. Pick one thing, do it for two months, and allow yourself to suck at all the other areas of your life—after that, pick a new thing. Pick one action you can do tomorrow morning that will get you closer to the most important goal. Show Notes: Aaron: We both really loved Cal Newport's Deep Work book. When did you get interested in the idea of intense focus and structuring your life in a way to make sure you get your best creative work done? When did you find that book or that idea and really start working on that? Shawn: I think I found the idea years ago. When I was a creative marketing director, like I mentioned, I was doing 80 hours a week. Part of my schedule was that on Fridays, I would come home and work from home. I wouldn't be on email or answer the phone. I had an assistant, and anyone who needed to get ahold of me needed to go through my assistant. She would screen anything and see if it was urgent or important for the day. If it was, she'd let me know. I set up this distraction-free work time for myself on Fridays, because as the director for the marketing and all the creative stuff we were doing, it was on me to make sure that our marketing campaign for this big, end of the year, 25,000 person conference was going to happen. It was all on me. I had to drive that. You can't do that in 10-minute time blocks scattered throughout your day. For big projects, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time to think, process, come up with ideas, and work on stuff. That was my first experience of going, “I have to have this. If I don't, I won't be able to do my job, and I will always be in reaction mode.” That was my first experience, and that was in 2008 when I came across that idea. It was born out of necessity for me. Obviously, that's not new to the world, but it was new to me. When I quit my job and started blogging for a living, I came to that same spot of saying, “I need to set aside time every day to write without distractions, intentionally.” That has evolved as we've had kids, schedules have changed, and seasons of life go up and down. I need uninterrupted stretches of time on a regular basis to do my most important work and to focus on the stuff that's not urgent today but is very important. If I neglect it, those things will become urgent, or the needle is going to start going backwards and I'm going to start losing ground. Why Deep Focus Matters Shawn: Focused time has always been important. Then I came across Cal's book, So Good They Can't Ignore You. I read that in 2015. That's a fantastic book. There was this chapter in there on intentional practice, and that resonated with me so much. It's very similar to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's book, Flow. He has a lot of books on very similar topics on finding flow, getting in the flow, whatever. He has one book called Flow and another one called Finding Flow. It's the idea that not only do you need those times of uninterrupted work, but when you're in that moment, if you can get into the flow, it's challenging, it's hard, etc, but you feel more rewarded. You feel better. You have a higher motivation about the work you're doing. You feel like you accomplished something. I don't know if anyone listening can relate to this. You spend your whole day in reaction mode, bouncing around between your email inbox, your Twitter feed, your Facebook feed, your Instagram feed, back to email, back to Twitter, back to Instagram, back to Facebook, back to email. You're bouncing around all these inboxes, and then you're like, “Wow, I just spent four hours. I haven't done anything.” Aaron: You read a bunch of short emails, maybe you replied, maybe you sent some tweets, maybe you saw some articles. It's so easy to spend all day doing short, quick tasks that don't really change anything. Shawn: Exactly. They don't change anything, and you feel zero satisfaction afterwards. You don't feel like you got anything done, as opposed to if you took those four hours and, instead, spent it focused on something intentional, something that was challenging. If you set aside time to do deep work, when you come out of that time (even if it's just one hour or half an hour), if it was distraction free and you're focused and being intentional, you come out feeling better. After spending intentional time working on something without any distractions, you feel more motivated and you have more energy. It's this muscle. You have a focus muscle that you have to work on, as opposed to the distraction muscle. Why is Creating Focused Time So Hard? Shawn: The hardest thing for getting into that focused work time, getting into the flow, is called the Activation Energy, just getting started. The first five minutes of focus time are the hardest. Something I like to do is have a set time every day when I am going to have my focused writing time, and before I even get there, the day before, I write down what my single most important thing is that I'm going to be writing about. I have the time on my calendar, and I have the challenge, project, or task that I'm going to be working on. As Cal Newport would say, what's the artifact that I'm going to try and get from that focused time? Then I come, sit down, and do the work. I know that the first five minutes will be hard and I probably won't be into it. I have to power through those first five minutes, and then you get into that flow. Time begins to get lost. Anyone who has been a painter, artist, musician, whatever, you can usually relate. You say, “I was just in the flow. I was in the zone.” That's where your best work is going to be created. That's where you're going to feel the most satisfaction with your job. That's where you're going to increase your skill level as a creative person. You're going to level up your ability to do stuff. Sean has talked about this so much with his Learn Lettering course: he did 9,000 hours of intentional practice! That's what he was doing every day. He had this focused time where he was practicing letters. You have to put in the time. How to Stop Procrastinating and Do Your Best Work Aaron: Everyone should read Cal Newport's books, So Good They Can't Ignore You and Deep Work. Both of those books are phenomenal. It's so important as podcasters to pick a day to outline and record an episode, and write the topic in advance. Say, “I'm going to spend 30 to 45 minutes at this time writing about this thing, and then I'm going to record an episode.” Otherwise, what ends up happening, and this is true of so many areas of life, is that you will spend a lot of time thinking about how you should do a thing. I've been thinking about how I should record a screencast for three weeks now. “Hey, I have to record that ‘introduction to limiting' screencast for my Logic course,” and I've been thinking a lot about it, but I haven't done it yet. It's so silly, but that's how procrastination works. You spend more time thinking about how you should do a thing instead of just doing the thing. Pick a task, pick a time, and do the task at that time. That's such a simple version of an idea presented in Deep Work that is so life changing. I talk about that book all the time because I love it, and I know there are still some people who haven't read it yet. It is a book that anyone who wants to create stuff for a living professionally needs to go listen to. Shawn, you should do a whole series of videos or interviews where you talk about deep focus for creative people. Shawn: I do. I did some stuff, like the TheFocusCourse.com/margin page. I interviewed Cal Newport, and we talked about this. I interviewed a few other folks and wrote some articles, and it was on this topic of having margin in your life, the breathing room, so that you can do your best creative work. That's our mantra over there at The Focus Course: Show up every day and do your best creative work. I think margin is a huge part of that. The deep work, the focus, it's a huge part of it. Otherwise, you're just working on your email inbox all the time. That's no fun. Push Through Fear Aaron: The first question I want to talk about is this one from Mariali. She asked, “How did you overcome the insecurity of giving birth to a new idea you weren't sure people would respond well to?” I think this was about a book but it could be about anything, really. Shawn: I didn't overcome the fear. I put it out there and stuck to the plan. The way that worked with my Delight is in the Details book, was that I had done it as a podcast mini series for my members only. It was a little five part podcast, and I got a lot of positive response from people. I had teased it out, and I got a positive response, so I thought, “I should sell this for maybe like $5 as a sample for the Shawn Blanc membership thing.” I thought, “I should rewrite it, so it's a little bit more structured. I'll rerecord it so it doesn't have the welcome in it, so it's a little bit more of its own product.” As I'm doing that, it goes from five episodes to like 12. There were all these extra chapters that I ended up writing. Then I thought, “Gosh, if I'm going to to this, I might as well interview some other people, and then I can charge more for the thing.” Instead of charging $10, I could charge like $20. That would double what I'd make from it. So I made the book, and when I was getting ready to sell it, that was the hard part. That launch day, I just felt super insecure. I felt bad and sick to my stomach. I texted a few friends of mine. I was like, “This book is coming out in an hour. People are going to hate it.” Everyone was like, “Stick to your plan. Put it out there.” The people I trusted, who's opinions I cared about, all said, “You're fine, keep going.” I listened to them, and I did. I kept going and it. I pushed through that fear. I never overcame the fear—I just pushed through it. I kept going. You begin to learn that the fear becomes this mile marker for you, a sign post that you're probably doing something that matters and creating something that matters. Now I've learned that when I feel that, “This might not work,” or, “Holy crap, what am I doing? I'm in over my head!” I should probably keep going, because I might be on to something that matters at this point. Aaron: That's fantastic advice. The Market Decides What a Product Is Worth Aaron: I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I talked about this in the Fired Up Mondays podcast this morning, which is that the market decides what's valuable. People will complain when they see a product that they don't think is worth as much as the company is charging for it. Let's say that you look at a Lamborghini, and you're like, “I don't know why anyone would ever pay $400,000 for that car. Why would you want that car? You could just buy a 1999 Toyota Camri that has 140,000 miles on it for $4,000.” “This '99 Camry works great. It gets me everywhere. Good gas mileage, pretty comfortable. Not the most amazing sound system, but it does have a Bose sound system in it, so it's fine. Why would anyone spend $400,000 on a Lamborghini?” The way you feel about a product doesn't change how much it's worth, which is how much the market is willing to pay for it. There's somebody out there willing to pay that much money. They have that much money, and it doesn't matter what you think about that product. Somebody else went out and made that, and they're going to make money from that while you're at home complaining about how somebody else is spending $300 for a picture book from Apple. How you feel about the price of a product doesn't matter. Shawn: It's how the people that are buying it feel that matters. To say, “I'm not going to start a Lamborghini company because used Toyota Corollas exist,” that's silly, but that's how we feel. Aaron: Relating to my courses, which I'm getting close to wrapping up, pricing is interesting for me. If I hadn't met Sean and the people in the seanwes Community, I think I would have charged a fraction of what I'm planning on charging. I probably would have charged closer to $20. I would have put all this time and energy into it and not priced it high enough, because I didn't realize that there are people out there that sell courses for $1,500 and $10,000. Don't Undervalue Your Products Shawn: I bought a course recently that cost me $2,000. Aaron: So many people don't know that. A lot of us still think that $2,000 is a ton of money. For a lot of people, it is. That doesn't mean that you have to apply such a low price to the product that you're making, just because you feel like $50 is a lot of money. Don't charge too little for your product because you feel like a higher price is a lot of money—that's an easy trap to fall into. Shawn: That's very true. You have to step back. This course I bought, for me, it was a no brainer. I bought the book that was written by the guy, and I went through the book and implemented some of the stuff in there, and it helped me launch my time management class. That did $20,000 its first launch week. I spent something like $18 on this guy's book, and it helped me make $20,000. So his $2000 course was a no brainer for me. This master class version of that book, the online course version of it, that was a no brainer for me. There were a ton of videos, all this implementation stuff, coaching, and all this stuff that was involved in it. There were all these things you can do that can increase the value of your stuff. Don't increase your price just because. Start with your basic price and then double it and double it again. Now you're probably at a decent starting point. You're so prone to under-valuing your own work. You don't just jack the price up because people say so. You need to look objectively and say, “Alright, am I providing the value?” If someone comes in and takes my Focus Course, for example, we charge $350 for it. It's not a lot, but it isn't a little, either. If someone spends $350 and goes through this course, are they going to be able to walk away with at least, ideally, $700 worth of value? I want them to get at least double the value they're paying for it. Can I get it to be even more? Can I get them to walk away with $3,500 worth of value, 10X the amount of value that I'm providing? You charge that, and if people take it seriously, they'll walk away with something that wil literally change the way they spend their time with work, family, health, and finances. This is across the board for their life, and you can't put a price on that. Objectively ask yourself if you're delivering on your promises and providing the value that you say you are. With your stuff, Aaron, with podcasting, if you can help people get a podcast off the ground, they can turn that into a full time business. That's worth $50,000 or $100,000. Someone could say, “Thanks to your stuff, I started a business that's now thriving. I do this as my job.” That's worth so much money! To charge $20 for it? Don't undervalue your stuff. First Steps to Improve Your Focus Aaron: I want to answer Kyle's question here in the chat. I'm going to read his question and I'll let you take a stab at it, Shawn. Kyle asked, “Is there a best first step to improved focus? I can think of so many directions I should go: exercise more, eat better, write down what I'm doing the next day, sleep better, etc. Trying to do all of it at once isn't sustainable. What should I start with?” Shawn: This is great, Kyle, excellent question. I feel like there are two best first steps (which obviously doesn't make sense, you can only really have one first step, but play along). We talked about this in the Focus Course. On the very first day of the Focus Course, there's this super dorky assignment. You have to set out your clothes for what you're going to wear tomorrow. Tonight, when you go to bed, pick out tomorrow's outfit. It's super dorky. You can do it in two minutes. In the morning, you have to wear the outfit you picked out the night before. You have to actually follow through with your commitment. You set this thing out, and you say, “I'm going to wear these pants and this shirt,” etc. In the morning, you wake up, and you have to wear it. You've made a commitment to yourself the night before. In the morning, you wake up and you follow through on that commitment. It's a small step towards strengthening your personal integrity, which is your ability to follow through with your commitments to yourself. That's super powerful. The other component to setting out your clothes the night before and then putting them on is that it's your current self helping your future self. You've saved your future self five minutes in the morning. The quality of my time in the morning is super valuable. My mind is fresh, it's the beginning of the day, there are no fires happening yet. That's my best chance to get my best work done, early in the morning. Protect your morning productivity time and your mental energy by setting out your clothes the night before. It's this idea of helping your future self. Once you get your toe in that water, you begin to see all the other areas of your life where you can begin to help your future self. We were talking during the podcast about this. Kyle says, “Yes, I've done this.” That's awesome. As Aaron and I talked about earlier, when you have that deep work focused time, try to decide ahead of time what that focus is going to be. This is your current self helping your future self. It's so powerful. For me, I write down my topic that I'm going to be writing about tomorrow when it's time for me to write. I have the topic ahead of time, so I know what to write about. Then, when I sit down, I don't have to think about. I have the singular focus to write about this topic that I've already chosen. That can really help with improving focus. Be ahead of your own curve and help your future self. Those of you who are registered for the Creative Focus Online Summit will get to hear Josh Kaufman and I talk about this. He talks about the importance of going on a walk in the morning and having 30 minutes where you leave your phone at home. You go outside, you're moving, you're getting sunlight, but also, it's 30 minutes of thinking time where you can be undistracted. You can just think. He calls it “noodling.” You let your mind “noodle.” He talks about how when you have a productivity system and a focus system that gives you space to think and to be uninterrupted for a little bit, you're going to be far more productive than if you have a system that doesn't give you space to think. For him, he says that that is the number one, single most important component of being more productive and focused—actually having carved out time on a regular basis where you can just think. Be distraction free. That's why he says to take a walk. You can combine that with movement, being outside, getting sunlight, and things like that. It's easier than sitting on your couch and staring at the wall for 30 minutes. I don't say that to put that idea down, but it can be easier to be undistracted when you're outside walking around and you leave your phone at home. As opposed to, you put your phone next to you on the couch and you hope that it doesn't buzz. You can put it in airplane mode, obviously, but it's still right there. You want to grab it and take it off of airplane mode. So coming back to Kyle's question: You have so many directions you want to go. Exercising, eating, writing down what you're doing the next day, sleeping better. Right? People say, “I want to improve my relationship with my spouse. I also want to get better at budgeting my finances. I also want to get better at budgeting my time. I also want to read these books.” You look at it, and there is so much stuff that you want to do. You can't do all of it right now, so pick one thing. What's the one that's most exciting? Build One Habit at a Time Shawn: Kyle, you listed exercise as the first thing on your list, so I would start with that. Not to pitch my course, but I'm going to pitch my course. We go through all the core areas of your life: your job, your relationships, your finances, your “down time,” your physical health, and your inner or spiritual life. These are the six areas of your life. We go through each one of those and spend time on each one, where you list out what's important to you in this area of your life. What's a goal that you want to have or a lifestyle practice that you want to implement, and how can you move the needle forward toward that goal? You come up with six goals and six action plans, one each for the main areas of your life. Spoiler here, at the end of the course, you pick one. Focus on improving one area of your life for six months and ignore the other ones. Don't ignore them in terms of ignoring your wife for two months while you're focusing on work, but you pick one area to build a habit, a routine, a lifestyle practice, that has you making meaningful progress in that area of life. A lot of people say that it takes 21 days to build a habit. Actually, if you're a habit building master, you might be able to do it in 21 days, but it takes most people 60 days to build a habit. That's the average. That's two months! I think a lot of people are probably familiar with the Jerry Seinfeld productivity tip with the calendar. You write a joke every day and you put a big X on your calendar, and you don't want to break the chain. It's the same with this new habit of yours. Say, “What's one thing I can do on a daily basis that's going to help me move toward my goal of exercising more, of being more physically active?” What's the minimum dose, the smallest thing you can do? You're going to go walk for 20 minutes, or whatever it is. Do that every single day for two months. It's a small start, but now you've done it. You're two months in, and now, instead of it being this thing you are trying to get the motivation for to move forward, you're doing it. It has become routine for you, which requires far less activation energy, far less mental energy. It has moved into your life. It's there. It's something that you're doing on a daily basis. Now, you pick the next thing. “Okay, I have the exercise thing.” Keep that and layer the next thing on top of it. You're doing that for your physical health. What about for your inner life, your spiritual life? What's something you would want to layer on top of that, something you could do? Now, during that walking time, maybe you're going to think about something. If you read a Bible or something like that, you could say, “I'm going to have a Bible verse that I think about during my 30 minute walk.” Maybe you're trying to improve your relationship with your spouse. Bring them along on your walk. Now, you can incorporate this. Say, “I'm going to do this on a regular basis,” and you do that for two more months. Then you pick the next layer. Maybe it doesn't build on that 30 minute walk itself. Maybe it's an entirely different part of the day, but the core is the same. Pick one thing, do it for two months, and allow yourself to suck at all the other areas of your life—after that, pick a new thing. This is why New Year's resolutions never work. We say, “I'm going to go to the gym for five hours a day every day starting on January 1st, and I'm going to start budgeting, and I'm going to stop eating chocolate, and I'm going to go on date nights every week, and I'm going to read a book a week.” January 1st, go! It's so much. You're going to run up and try to push a truck, but you don't have the energy, the strength, to move and change that much that quickly. With the truck analogy, if you're driving a car and you want to try and tow another car, you don't gun it with all this slack on the tow line. You're going to rip both of the bumpers off. You start super, super slow. You slowly build up that speed. That's how you do it without getting in a wreck. You actually make that momentum. Start with just one thing. The hard part is giving ourselves permission to pick one thing and focus on that for two whole months. That's the hardest part, really. It's not in the doing. It's in the not despising those small beginnings. That's the crash course of the Focus Course right there. This is the value. If you stick around for the after show at seanwes, this is what you get. Aaron: I'll agree with Shawn and say this: pick one action you can do tomorrow morning that will get you closer to the most important goal. I know how many goals you have right now. I know, because I have that many goals, too. Pick one thing and write it down. Get a little calendar. Make a big X. Do that every day. You'll get other stuff done, too, but you need to think about doing one important thing first thing in the morning right after you wake up. Get that thing done, and then pat yourself on the back, feel good about it, and move on to the next thing. You can follow Shawn Blanc on Twitter @ShawnBlanc, and be sure to check out his website at www.shawnblanc.net.

Shawn Blanc | Improving Your Productivity and Creative Output

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2016 35:44

Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins:For big projects, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time to think and work.Work on building your focus muscle.The first five minutes of focus time are the hardest.Pick a task, pick a time, and do the task at that time.Show up every day and do your best creative work.If you can’t overcome fear, push through it—fear is a sign that you’re doing something that matters.The way you feel about a product doesn’t change how much it’s worth, which is how much the market is willing to pay for it.Protect your morning productivity time and your mental energy by setting out your clothes the night before.Don’t undervalue your products.Pick one thing, do it for two months, and allow yourself to suck at all the other areas of your life—after that, pick a new thing.Pick one action you can do tomorrow morning that will get you closer to the most important goal.Show Notes:Aaron: We both really loved Cal Newport’s Deep Work book. When did you get interested in the idea of intense focus and structuring your life in a way to make sure you get your best creative work done? When did you find that book or that idea and really start working on that?Shawn: I think I found the idea years ago. When I was a creative marketing director, like I mentioned, I was doing 80 hours a week. Part of my schedule was that on Fridays, I would come home and work from home. I wouldn’t be on email or answer the phone. I had an assistant, and anyone who needed to get ahold of me needed to go through my assistant. She would screen anything and see if it was urgent or important for the day. If it was, she’d let me know.I set up this distraction-free work time for myself on Fridays, because as the director for the marketing and all the creative stuff we were doing, it was on me to make sure that our marketing campaign for this big, end of the year, 25,000 person conference was going to happen. It was all on me. I had to drive that. You can’t do that in 10-minute time blocks scattered throughout your day.For big projects, you need long stretches of uninterrupted time to think, process, come up with ideas, and work on stuff.That was my first experience of going, “I have to have this. If I don’t, I won’t be able to do my job, and I will always be in reaction mode.” That was my first experience, and that was in 2008 when I came across that idea. It was born out of necessity for me. Obviously, that’s not new to the world, but it was new to me. When I quit my job and started blogging for a living, I came to that same spot of saying, “I need to set aside time every day to write without distractions, intentionally.”That has evolved as we’ve had kids, schedules have changed, and seasons of life go up and down. I need uninterrupted stretches of time on a regular basis to do my most important work and to focus on the stuff that’s not urgent today but is very important. If I neglect it, those things will become urgent, or the needle is going to start going backwards and I’m going to start losing ground.Why Deep Focus MattersShawn: Focused time has always been important. Then I came across Cal’s book, So Good They Can’t Ignore You. I read that in 2015. That’s a fantastic book. There was this chapter in there on intentional practice, and that resonated with me so much. It’s very similar to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Flow.He has a lot of books on very similar topics on finding flow, getting in the flow, whatever. He has one book called Flow and another one called Finding Flow. It’s the idea that not only do you need those times of uninterrupted work, but when you’re in that moment, if you can get into the flow, it’s challenging, it’s hard, etc, but you feel more rewarded. You feel better. You have a higher motivation about the work you’re doing. You feel like you accomplished something.I don’t know if anyone listening can relate to this. You spend your whole day in reaction mode, bouncing around between your email inbox, your Twitter feed, your Facebook feed, your Instagram feed, back to email, back to Twitter, back to Instagram, back to Facebook, back to email. You’re bouncing around all these inboxes, and then you’re like, “Wow, I just spent four hours. I haven’t done anything.”Aaron: You read a bunch of short emails, maybe you replied, maybe you sent some tweets, maybe you saw some articles.It’s so easy to spend all day doing short, quick tasks that don’t really change anything.Shawn: Exactly. They don’t change anything, and you feel zero satisfaction afterwards. You don’t feel like you got anything done, as opposed to if you took those four hours and, instead, spent it focused on something intentional, something that was challenging. If you set aside time to do deep work, when you come out of that time (even if it’s just one hour or half an hour), if it was distraction free and you’re focused and being intentional, you come out feeling better.After spending intentional time working on something without any distractions, you feel more motivated and you have more energy. It’s this muscle. You have a focus muscle that you have to work on, as opposed to the distraction muscle.Why is Creating Focused Time So Hard?Shawn: The hardest thing for getting into that focused work time, getting into the flow, is called the Activation Energy, just getting started. The first five minutes of focus time are the hardest. Something I like to do is have a set time every day when I am going to have my focused writing time, and before I even get there, the day before, I write down what my single most important thing is that I’m going to be writing about. I have the time on my calendar, and I have the challenge, project, or task that I’m going to be working on.As Cal Newport would say, what’s the artifact that I’m going to try and get from that focused time? Then I come, sit down, and do the work. I know that the first five minutes will be hard and I probably won’t be into it. I have to power through those first five minutes, and then you get into that flow. Time begins to get lost. Anyone who has been a painter, artist, musician, whatever, you can usually relate. You say, “I was just in the flow. I was in the zone.” That’s where your best work is going to be created.That’s where you’re going to feel the most satisfaction with your job. That’s where you’re going to increase your skill level as a creative person. You’re going to level up your ability to do stuff. Sean has talked about this so much with his Learn Lettering course: he did 9,000 hours of intentional practice! That’s what he was doing every day. He had this focused time where he was practicing letters. You have to put in the time.How to Stop Procrastinating and Do Your Best WorkAaron: Everyone should read Cal Newport’s books, So Good They Can’t Ignore You and Deep Work. Both of those books are phenomenal. It’s so important as podcasters to pick a day to outline and record an episode, and write the topic in advance. Say, “I’m going to spend 30 to 45 minutes at this time writing about this thing, and then I’m going to record an episode.”Otherwise, what ends up happening, and this is true of so many areas of life, is that you will spend a lot of time thinking about how you should do a thing. I’ve been thinking about how I should record a screencast for three weeks now. “Hey, I have to record that ‘introduction to limiting’ screencast for my Logic course,” and I’ve been thinking a lot about it, but I haven’t done it yet. It’s so silly, but that’s how procrastination works. You spend more time thinking about how you should do a thing instead of just doing the thing.Pick a task, pick a time, and do the task at that time.That’s such a simple version of an idea presented in Deep Work that is so life changing. I talk about that book all the time because I love it, and I know there are still some people who haven’t read it yet. It is a book that anyone who wants to create stuff for a living professionally needs to go listen to. Shawn, you should do a whole series of videos or interviews where you talk about deep focus for creative people.Shawn: I do. I did some stuff, like the TheFocusCourse.com/margin page. I interviewed Cal Newport, and we talked about this. I interviewed a few other folks and wrote some articles, and it was on this topic of having margin in your life, the breathing room, so that you can do your best creative work. That’s our mantra over there at The Focus Course: Show up every day and do your best creative work.I think margin is a huge part of that. The deep work, the focus, it’s a huge part of it. Otherwise, you’re just working on your email inbox all the time. That’s no fun.Push Through FearAaron: The first question I want to talk about is this one from Mariali. She asked, “How did you overcome the insecurity of giving birth to a new idea you weren’t sure people would respond well to?” I think this was about a book but it could be about anything, really.Shawn: I didn’t overcome the fear. I put it out there and stuck to the plan. The way that worked with my Delight is in the Details book, was that I had done it as a podcast mini series for my members only. It was a little five part podcast, and I got a lot of positive response from people. I had teased it out, and I got a positive response, so I thought, “I should sell this for maybe like $5 as a sample for the Shawn Blanc membership thing.”I thought, “I should rewrite it, so it’s a little bit more structured. I’ll rerecord it so it doesn’t have the welcome in it, so it’s a little bit more of its own product.” As I’m doing that, it goes from five episodes to like 12. There were all these extra chapters that I ended up writing. Then I thought, “Gosh, if I’m going to to this, I might as well interview some other people, and then I can charge more for the thing.” Instead of charging $10, I could charge like $20. That would double what I’d make from it.So I made the book, and when I was getting ready to sell it, that was the hard part. That launch day, I just felt super insecure. I felt bad and sick to my stomach. I texted a few friends of mine. I was like, “This book is coming out in an hour. People are going to hate it.” Everyone was like, “Stick to your plan. Put it out there.” The people I trusted, who’s opinions I cared about, all said, “You’re fine, keep going.” I listened to them, and I did. I kept going and it. I pushed through that fear.I never overcame the fear—I just pushed through it.I kept going. You begin to learn that the fear becomes this mile marker for you, a sign post that you’re probably doing something that matters and creating something that matters. Now I’ve learned that when I feel that, “This might not work,” or, “Holy crap, what am I doing? I’m in over my head!” I should probably keep going, because I might be on to something that matters at this point.Aaron: That’s fantastic advice.The Market Decides What a Product Is WorthAaron: I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I talked about this in the Fired Up Mondays podcast this morning, which is that the market decides what’s valuable. People will complain when they see a product that they don’t think is worth as much as the company is charging for it. Let’s say that you look at a Lamborghini, and you’re like, “I don’t know why anyone would ever pay $400,000 for that car. Why would you want that car? You could just buy a 1999 Toyota Camri that has 140,000 miles on it for $4,000.”“This ’99 Camry works great. It gets me everywhere. Good gas mileage, pretty comfortable. Not the most amazing sound system, but it does have a Bose sound system in it, so it’s fine. Why would anyone spend $400,000 on a Lamborghini?”The way you feel about a product doesn’t change how much it’s worth, which is how much the market is willing to pay for it.There’s somebody out there willing to pay that much money. They have that much money, and it doesn’t matter what you think about that product. Somebody else went out and made that, and they’re going to make money from that while you’re at home complaining about how somebody else is spending $300 for a picture book from Apple. How you feel about the price of a product doesn’t matter.Shawn: It’s how the people that are buying it feel that matters. To say, “I’m not going to start a Lamborghini company because used Toyota Corollas exist,” that’s silly, but that’s how we feel.Aaron: Relating to my courses, which I’m getting close to wrapping up, pricing is interesting for me. If I hadn’t met Sean and the people in the seanwes Community, I think I would have charged a fraction of what I’m planning on charging. I probably would have charged closer to $20. I would have put all this time and energy into it and not priced it high enough, because I didn’t realize that there are people out there that sell courses for $1,500 and $10,000.Don’t Undervalue Your ProductsShawn: I bought a course recently that cost me $2,000.Aaron: So many people don’t know that. A lot of us still think that $2,000 is a ton of money. For a lot of people, it is. That doesn’t mean that you have to apply such a low price to the product that you’re making, just because you feel like $50 is a lot of money.Don’t charge too little for your product because you feel like a higher price is a lot of money—that’s an easy trap to fall into.Shawn: That’s very true. You have to step back. This course I bought, for me, it was a no brainer. I bought the book that was written by the guy, and I went through the book and implemented some of the stuff in there, and it helped me launch my time management class. That did $20,000 its first launch week. I spent something like $18 on this guy’s book, and it helped me make $20,000. So his $2000 course was a no brainer for me.This master class version of that book, the online course version of it, that was a no brainer for me. There were a ton of videos, all this implementation stuff, coaching, and all this stuff that was involved in it. There were all these things you can do that can increase the value of your stuff. Don’t increase your price just because. Start with your basic price and then double it and double it again. Now you’re probably at a decent starting point.You’re so prone to under-valuing your own work. You don’t just jack the price up because people say so. You need to look objectively and say, “Alright, am I providing the value?” If someone comes in and takes my Focus Course, for example, we charge $350 for it. It’s not a lot, but it isn’t a little, either. If someone spends $350 and goes through this course, are they going to be able to walk away with at least, ideally, $700 worth of value? I want them to get at least double the value they’re paying for it.Can I get it to be even more? Can I get them to walk away with $3,500 worth of value, 10X the amount of value that I’m providing? You charge that, and if people take it seriously, they’ll walk away with something that wil literally change the way they spend their time with work, family, health, and finances. This is across the board for their life, and you can’t put a price on that.Objectively ask yourself if you’re delivering on your promises and providing the value that you say you are.With your stuff, Aaron, with podcasting, if you can help people get a podcast off the ground, they can turn that into a full time business. That’s worth $50,000 or $100,000. Someone could say, “Thanks to your stuff, I started a business that’s now thriving. I do this as my job.” That’s worth so much money! To charge $20 for it? Don’t undervalue your stuff.First Steps to Improve Your FocusAaron: I want to answer Kyle’s question here in the chat. I’m going to read his question and I’ll let you take a stab at it, Shawn. Kyle asked, “Is there a best first step to improved focus? I can think of so many directions I should go: exercise more, eat better, write down what I’m doing the next day, sleep better, etc. Trying to do all of it at once isn’t sustainable. What should I start with?”Shawn: This is great, Kyle, excellent question. I feel like there are two best first steps (which obviously doesn’t make sense, you can only really have one first step, but play along). We talked about this in the Focus Course. On the very first day of the Focus Course, there’s this super dorky assignment. You have to set out your clothes for what you’re going to wear tomorrow. Tonight, when you go to bed, pick out tomorrow’s outfit. It’s super dorky. You can do it in two minutes. In the morning, you have to wear the outfit you picked out the night before.You have to actually follow through with your commitment. You set this thing out, and you say, “I’m going to wear these pants and this shirt,” etc. In the morning, you wake up, and you have to wear it. You’ve made a commitment to yourself the night before. In the morning, you wake up and you follow through on that commitment. It’s a small step towards strengthening your personal integrity, which is your ability to follow through with your commitments to yourself. That’s super powerful.The other component to setting out your clothes the night before and then putting them on is that it’s your current self helping your future self. You’ve saved your future self five minutes in the morning. The quality of my time in the morning is super valuable. My mind is fresh, it’s the beginning of the day, there are no fires happening yet. That’s my best chance to get my best work done, early in the morning.Protect your morning productivity time and your mental energy by setting out your clothes the night before.It’s this idea of helping your future self. Once you get your toe in that water, you begin to see all the other areas of your life where you can begin to help your future self. We were talking during the podcast about this. Kyle says, “Yes, I’ve done this.” That’s awesome. As Aaron and I talked about earlier, when you have that deep work focused time, try to decide ahead of time what that focus is going to be. This is your current self helping your future self.It’s so powerful. For me, I write down my topic that I’m going to be writing about tomorrow when it’s time for me to write. I have the topic ahead of time, so I know what to write about. Then, when I sit down, I don’t have to think about. I have the singular focus to write about this topic that I’ve already chosen. That can really help with improving focus.Be ahead of your own curve and help your future self.Those of you who are registered for the Creative Focus Online Summit will get to hear Josh Kaufman and I talk about this. He talks about the importance of going on a walk in the morning and having 30 minutes where you leave your phone at home. You go outside, you’re moving, you’re getting sunlight, but also, it’s 30 minutes of thinking time where you can be undistracted. You can just think. He calls it “noodling.”You let your mind “noodle.” He talks about how when you have a productivity system and a focus system that gives you space to think and to be uninterrupted for a little bit, you’re going to be far more productive than if you have a system that doesn’t give you space to think. For him, he says that that is the number one, single most important component of being more productive and focused—actually having carved out time on a regular basis where you can just think.Be distraction free. That’s why he says to take a walk. You can combine that with movement, being outside, getting sunlight, and things like that. It’s easier than sitting on your couch and staring at the wall for 30 minutes. I don’t say that to put that idea down, but it can be easier to be undistracted when you’re outside walking around and you leave your phone at home. As opposed to, you put your phone next to you on the couch and you hope that it doesn’t buzz.You can put it in airplane mode, obviously, but it’s still right there. You want to grab it and take it off of airplane mode. So coming back to Kyle’s question: You have so many directions you want to go. Exercising, eating, writing down what you’re doing the next day, sleeping better. Right? People say, “I want to improve my relationship with my spouse. I also want to get better at budgeting my finances. I also want to get better at budgeting my time. I also want to read these books.”You look at it, and there is so much stuff that you want to do. You can’t do all of it right now, so pick one thing. What’s the one that’s most exciting?Build One Habit at a TimeShawn: Kyle, you listed exercise as the first thing on your list, so I would start with that. Not to pitch my course, but I’m going to pitch my course. We go through all the core areas of your life: your job, your relationships, your finances, your “down time,” your physical health, and your inner or spiritual life. These are the six areas of your life. We go through each one of those and spend time on each one, where you list out what’s important to you in this area of your life.What’s a goal that you want to have or a lifestyle practice that you want to implement, and how can you move the needle forward toward that goal? You come up with six goals and six action plans, one each for the main areas of your life. Spoiler here, at the end of the course, you pick one.Focus on improving one area of your life for six months and ignore the other ones.Don’t ignore them in terms of ignoring your wife for two months while you’re focusing on work, but you pick one area to build a habit, a routine, a lifestyle practice, that has you making meaningful progress in that area of life. A lot of people say that it takes 21 days to build a habit. Actually, if you’re a habit building master, you might be able to do it in 21 days, but it takes most people 60 days to build a habit. That’s the average. That’s two months!I think a lot of people are probably familiar with the Jerry Seinfeld productivity tip with the calendar. You write a joke every day and you put a big X on your calendar, and you don’t want to break the chain. It’s the same with this new habit of yours. Say, “What’s one thing I can do on a daily basis that’s going to help me move toward my goal of exercising more, of being more physically active?” What’s the minimum dose, the smallest thing you can do?You’re going to go walk for 20 minutes, or whatever it is. Do that every single day for two months. It’s a small start, but now you’ve done it. You’re two months in, and now, instead of it being this thing you are trying to get the motivation for to move forward, you’re doing it. It has become routine for you, which requires far less activation energy, far less mental energy. It has moved into your life. It’s there. It’s something that you’re doing on a daily basis.Now, you pick the next thing. “Okay, I have the exercise thing.” Keep that and layer the next thing on top of it. You’re doing that for your physical health. What about for your inner life, your spiritual life? What’s something you would want to layer on top of that, something you could do? Now, during that walking time, maybe you’re going to think about something. If you read a Bible or something like that, you could say, “I’m going to have a Bible verse that I think about during my 30 minute walk.”Maybe you’re trying to improve your relationship with your spouse. Bring them along on your walk. Now, you can incorporate this. Say, “I’m going to do this on a regular basis,” and you do that for two more months. Then you pick the next layer. Maybe it doesn’t build on that 30 minute walk itself. Maybe it’s an entirely different part of the day, but the core is the same.Pick one thing, do it for two months, and allow yourself to suck at all the other areas of your life—after that, pick a new thing.This is why New Year’s resolutions never work. We say, “I’m going to go to the gym for five hours a day every day starting on January 1st, and I’m going to start budgeting, and I’m going to stop eating chocolate, and I’m going to go on date nights every week, and I’m going to read a book a week.” January 1st, go! It’s so much. You’re going to run up and try to push a truck, but you don’t have the energy, the strength, to move and change that much that quickly.With the truck analogy, if you’re driving a car and you want to try and tow another car, you don’t gun it with all this slack on the tow line. You’re going to rip both of the bumpers off. You start super, super slow. You slowly build up that speed. That’s how you do it without getting in a wreck. You actually make that momentum. Start with just one thing.The hard part is giving ourselves permission to pick one thing and focus on that for two whole months.That’s the hardest part, really. It’s not in the doing. It’s in the not despising those small beginnings. That’s the crash course of the Focus Course right there. This is the value. If you stick around for the after show at seanwes, this is what you get.Aaron: I’ll agree with Shawn and say this: pick one action you can do tomorrow morning that will get you closer to the most important goal. I know how many goals you have right now. I know, because I have that many goals, too. Pick one thing and write it down. Get a little calendar. Make a big X. Do that every day.You’ll get other stuff done, too, but you need to think about doing one important thing first thing in the morning right after you wake up. Get that thing done, and then pat yourself on the back, feel good about it, and move on to the next thing.You can follow Shawn Blanc on Twitter @ShawnBlanc, and be sure to check out his website at www.shawnblanc.net.

Shawn Blanc | Content Strategy and Growing an Audience

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2016 52:30

Shawn Blanc is a writer, small-business owner, productivity coach, and creative entrepreneur living in Kansas City with his wife and their three sons. Shawn has been teaching and learning about creativity, diligence, and focus for over a decade, and his online courses have helped thousands of people do their best creative work while learning to thrive in the midst of life's tensions. A while back, Shawn sent an email that caught my attention. He wrote about the importance of creating a customer avatar and developing a content strategy to connect with them and help them achieve their goals. I liked the email so much that I emailed him back and asked him to come on my show to talk about his journey to making a living through writing online and what he's learned about growing an audience. Shawn also shares my passion for productivity and deep focus; so much so that he's gathered 12 incredibly smart people for a free 5 day online summit about the power of focused life. In this episode, Shawn shares how he was able to make a full-time living by writing online, and we discuss how you can grow your audience by creating a customer avatar (your ideal listener) and creating content that addresses their needs and desires. Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins: Interview your customers to get a real life picture of your audience. Start selling products as early as possible. Your customer avatar is a real person that exists out there. Use the language of your customer avatar in your content to create a deep connection with them. Be in people's weekly cycle at a minimum. Your niche is going to draw your audience but your ancillary interests will keep people interested. Show up consistently to earn people's trust and create an anticipation of future value. Do guest-based podcasts to grow your audience. Reach people that are far outside of your social circle by connecting with the people you can connect with right now. Show Notes Aaron: Shawn Blanc is a writer/small business owner/productivity coach/creative entrepreneur living in Kansas City with his wife and their three sons, and Shawn is a member of our Community. He's been teaching and learning about creativity, diligence, and focus for over a decade now. His online courses have helped thousands of people do their best creative work while learning to thrive in the midst of life's tensions. A while back, Shawn sent an email that caught my attention. He was writing about the importance of creating a customer avatar, that's knowing who you're creating for and what you want to help them achieve, what kind of person you want to help them become. I thought it was really interesting, so I sent him an email right back. I said, “Shawn, do you want to come on the show to talk about this? I think podcasters need to hear about this idea of customer avatars and also content strategy.” Shawn agreed, and he also shares my passion for productivity and focus, so much so that he has gathered 12 incredibly smart people for a five day online summit about the power of a focused life, and that's going to be starting, I believe, as this episode comes out. If you're listening to this in your podcast player, it's starting today, I think. I'll give you that link later. In this episode, I want to talk with Shawn about why you as a podcaster need to create a customer avatar, know who you're creating for, develop a content strategy, and then also the benefits of deep focus, what we call deep work. A few small changes in your daily habits can lead to big improvements in your productivity and creative output. Shawn, that's one of the longer intros I've ever done. Thanks for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here. Shawn: Thanks, Aaron. I love it. Super excited to be here. Shawn Blanc Aaron: I think of you, Shawn, as a writer and as the creator of an online course called The Focus Course, which is great. You're so much more than that. Do you want to give everyone a quick introduction, how you got here and where you came from? I would also like to hear what your biggest struggles have been over the years of getting to the point where you're at right now. Shawn: Absolutely. I'm in Kansas City. Originally, I'm from Denver. I'm a Colorado guy at heart. I've been married for going on 12 years, and my wife and I have three boys. It's insane at our house. We used to call the first two the Twin Tornadoes, but we just had our third eight or nine weeks ago. Aaron: Congrats! Shawn: It's awesome. Love it. I love being a dad. I used to be a drummer. I know that we have a lot of musicians around here. Sean McCabe plays a little bit of music, I think. Aaron: Yeah, he used to write music, just like he used to do lettering. I still play drums. Shawn: I used to play drums for a large ministry here in Kansas City, and I ended up transitioning out of that. It's a long story, but I ended up becoming a marketing and creative director. I ran a team, an in-house design team, with about 17 people—web developers, print designers, web designers, writers, editors, project managers, whatever. We did a bunch of stuff. One of our huge things was that we would host a conference at the end of the year that I was running. 25,000 people would come out for that. I did that for several years, and then my wife and I got pregnant with our first kid. I was like, “I don't want to do this work as a dad.” Part of it was just super demanding. Anyone who has experienced working in the corporate design scene knows that it's a very demanding spot. Everything is urgent all the time. I was doing like 80 hours a week, and I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun, but I was like, “There's no way. I don't want to do 80 hours a week as a dad.” I had that, plus I had this little blog on the side, where I had been writing about marketing stuff. I felt like, “This would be a good opportunity to quit what I'm doing and take a leap, see if I can take my website full time. Could I blog for a living?” That was the thought. I was doing about $1,000 a month in advertising and some affiliate stuff. I figured that if I could give it 40 hours a week, I could get the revenue up to a spot where it could pay the bills. I figured that it could grow from there. Aaron: How old were you at this point? Shawn: I was just about 30, not quite 30, like 29, when I made that jump. I asked everyone that was reading on the site. I said, “I'm quitting. I'm going to do this thing full time.” I asked people if they would be interested in supporting me to write the site for a living. I was like, “If you like what I'm doing, I'll write more if you want to give me some money to do it.” I did this little membership drive. I was going to charge $3 a month for membership. I was doing a daily podcast as a perk of membership. Aaron: You aren't still doing that, are you? Shawn: It's on hiatus at the moment. We'll see. I'm going to be diving back into the podcast scene starting early 2017. I miss podcasting. It's fun. Aaron: You decided to ask people to support you, give you $3 a month, to go full time with your writing? Shawn: Basically. I figured if I could get 500 people, at $3 a month that's $1,500, plus the other $1,000 I was doing, and that would be $2,500 a month. That's not a ton, but I figured that would be enough to cover the bare necessities. I figured that things could grow from there. People signed up, and I hit the 500 person mark by the end of the month before I had even quit. I started my new job, April 4th 2011, basically fully funded as an independent blogger. Aaron: I bet that was exciting. Shawn: It was really exciting. I felt like I got this permission slip from my audience to go for it. As a creative person, sometimes you need that. Sometimes you want to be like, “Do you guys care? I'm here. I'm making this stuff.” A lot of the work we do as creative entrepreneurs is for your audience. I know that we're going to talk about this in a little bit, the customer avatar profile. It's for these people that you really want to serve. When you hear back from them and they go, “Hey, we like what you're doing. Let's keep the relationship going,” it's like having a DTR with your audience. There's something cool about that kind of permission slip moment. It's like when you sell your first product, or whatever it is. People are interested. You get your first positive review on iTunes or whatever. Obviously, there's going to be the junk that comes later, but whatever. Aaron: Some of the haters that come later? Shawn: You forget about that stuff and you keep moving on. Aaron: That's awesome. Asking for Money Aaron: When you think back, do you remember any big struggles or hurdles that you really had to overcome about that period in your life? Shawn: There were so many. It's hard to say, “If I could do it differently, I would do it this other way,” because who knows? If I had done things differently, maybe it wouldn't have turned out the way I thought it would. One of the biggest struggles for me was asking for money. It was a huge challenge related to the membership drive. I was asking folks to support me on a regular basis to write for a living. I was like, “Who am I? What kind of a dork says, ‘Give me money so I can blog for a living.'” Aaron: Nobody pays for things online anymore. Nobody wants to pay for writing. Shawn: Exactly. That was a huge challenge. It has continued to be a challenge for years. I have been doing this for almost six years now, full time. When I came out with my first book, it's called Delight is in the Details, and it was an eBook package thing. I did some interviews. I charged $29 for my book, and I felt like this huge hypocrite. It was this feeling of, “This is information. Information should be free on the internet. Why would anyone ever buy this?” I felt like there was no value in this thing that people would pay for. I was like, “I have to do it. I'm going to charge for it.” Aaron: Sorry to jump in, but at the time, did you really feel like $30 was a lot of money? Shawn: Oh my gosh. I woke up feeling sick to my stomach the day I was going to launch it. I was like, “I can't believe how much I'm asking for this.” Aaron: What did you think was going to happen? Shawn: I thought that people would buy it because they trusted me, and then they would read it and come and burn my house down because I had ripped them off so bad. I charged so much money for something. Aaron: It was your first time launching a product, right? Shawn: It was. It was my first product launch ever. It ended up bringing in like $5,000 in that first 48 hour launch window. It made $5,000 that first couple of days. In hindsight, it was this huge inflection point for me. I think I spent about 100 hours building the thing, made $5,000 from it in the first week, and I thought, “Woah, that was a great return on my time investment! Now I have this product that I can continue to sell.” Since then, in the last four or five years that I've sold it, I want to say that it's sold $50,000 over the years. That's awesome. There's something great about creating a product, and it changed a lot. Producing and selling a book changed my relationship with my audience. Now I'm creating products for them to buy. That initial hurdle was huge. $29 was so much money. I think that was probably the biggest struggle, of being able to properly identify how much value I'm providing people and to price it correctly. That's just hard. I think that's why you should start selling stuff as early as possible, because you have to learn. There isn't a formula for how much value you're providing and how much you should charge for it. You can't just plug your stuff into a worksheet and get a number back. You have to feel out the market, your market, your audience, your skill level. How much polish are you doing? How much depth of information are you providing? Whatever skill, service, or product it is you're providing, you have to learn how to make money and price your stuff! It's hard to do it when you're starting. The biggest challenging for me at first was becoming comfortable asking for money and learning to accurately price my products. Aaron: The other thing is that once you launched that book and got familiar with all that stuff, that was a stepping stone to your future products, your future books and courses, and everything else that you're doing. I'm sure, at that point, you felt like, “Okay. I've done this once before already. Now it's like riding a bike. I just need to get back on and keep peddling, keep going.” Shawn: Yeah, absolutely. It really was a huge stepping stone. One thing I loved about creating and launching a product was that there was a start and an end date to it. This thing has to ship. I worked on it, and I was done. I put it out there. Boom, now it's there. I'm done. It's out in the world. Obviously, you iterate on it. A year later, I added some new interviews. I added some new chapters. I created some videos. I remastered all of the audio for the audio book. Product Launch Hiccups Shawn: Super random story related to this. It was the relaunch of Delight is in the Details, a year after it had come out, and I put it out there. People are buying it during that relaunch period. I get an email from someone going, “I was just listening to the audio book, and the last chapter sounds like it's not edited correctly. Something is weird about the last chapter. You should check it out.” I recorded the audio book and edited it by myself. I go and I open up the audio book for the last chapter and I'm listening to it, and it is the original take that I did of the book. The way I did the audio book, I'm reading it into my microphone in GarageBand. If I goofed up in the middle of a paragraph, I would just take a pause, say, “Okay, again,” and then I would start talking again. That was my marker. The last chapter of the book was that track, the whole thing. The audio track should have been 10 or 12 minutes for that chapter, and it was 30 minutes because of all my edits, retakes, and pauses. The whole thing. What's worse is, it was there from the very beginning. For a year, I had been selling that thing. I was mortified. For a year, I had been selling my book with the last chapter all messed up, and I was mortified. Aaron: Nobody said anything?? Shawn: They didn't. Either no one listened to it, or when they listened to it, they just assumed… I don't even know. I was so mortified. There you go. What worse thing can happen? Earlier, I had been so concerned about selling something that people weren't going to consider valuable. Here's this huge, huge mistake. What a goof! Aaron: I need to remind everyone that this audiobook is called Delight is in the Details. Shawn: The irony, right? That was one of the selling points of the book, too. I was like, “If you buy this book, it's a case study in sweating the details itself. You'll see all the areas where I've sweated the details in this product.” Whatever. Oh man. I was mortified. Aaron: Thankfully, no one came and burned down your house, and it was over a year before anyone even said anything. A lot of us are so curious about people who do such good work, so when a mistake does happen, it's almost humanizing. It's like, “Now I can relate to this person, because they're not 100% on top of everything all the time, either, like I struggle with. I make a lot of mistakes, so it's kind of nice when you see a really awesome musician on stage mess up a part and then jump back into it. You're like, “Oh, they are humans, too.” That's really cool. Nobody burned your house down, thankfully. Shawn: That's why it's so helpful to ship early. You get stuff out the door and you start learning. I love it. Aaron: I tell people this a lot, too, when it comes to podcasts. If you're thinking about making a podcast, there are so many things you can tweak, improve, or work on forever, but it's so much better to say, “What's the minimum I have to do? I want to try and do a good job, but let's do this, ship it, and iterate and improve on it every single week.” If you don't ship something, you'll just pick at it and tweak it endlessly. Before you know it, it's been a year and a half, and you've got three or five episodes you recorded 18 months ago that you're still working on. In the meantime, nothing has happened. Start Moving Shawn: As well, we have this picture of what we want something to look like and what we want it to be, but we have zero experience. I like the analogy of those lifesize mazes. Especially around Halloween and Thanksgiving, there are those corn mazes. They're these giant things. Imagine someone standing at the entrance of this life size maze, staring at the entrance to it, and in their mind, trying to figure out how to get to the end so they can get straight to the end the fastest way possible without making any mistakes along the way. Impossible! Not going to happen. You have to go in the maze and go left to realize that you should have gone right. Then turn around. You have to go through the thing to make it through. I like the phrase, “Action brings clarity.” Action brings clarity. You're waiting for clarity before taking action, and it's not going to happen—you have to start moving. You just have to get going and you adjust course as you go. You start to realize what you should major on and what you shouldn't. Aaron: That's an incredible analogy. I'm totally going to use that in the future now. It's perfect. You sit there and you imagine yourself being at the end of the maze. That's where you see a bunch of other people. Your friends have gone through the maze and they're at the end, so you're like, “I have to get to the end fast. I can't make any mistakes. I can't take a wrong turn, because that's where all my friends are, and that's where I want to be.” You do have to go through it. That's really incredible. Creating a Customer Avatar Aaron: Shawn, you sent out an email and you were talking about this. I want you to explain how you think about customer avatars, and then if you did something like that for yourself when you were just starting, or if this is something that evolved over time. Customer avatar and content strategy, go! Shawn: This is great. When I first started as a writer, I was doing ShawnBlanc.net. My entire job was publishing articles and links on my website. I didn't have a customer avatar or a customer profile, what I had was an ideal reader. I think, in terms of podcasting, it's very similar. Who's your ideal listener? For me, I actually had a person who was my ideal reader, who's name was Shawn Spurdee. He was a really good friend of mine. He and I had become friends through the blogging Twitter-sphere back in the day. When I wrote articles or links, I had him in mind. I thought, “Is this something he would find interesting? Is there a story in here that he's going to want to read? Is this a link to something he would like?” You had that ideal reader. John Gruber wrote about this for his site, Daring Fireball. He talked about his ideal reader, and he called it “a second version of himself.” He goes, “This person is interested in all the same things I'm interested in, and he cares about what I care about. All the design decisions I make on the site, all the articles I choose to link to, the stories I choose to tell, all of that stuff is with this ideal reader/listener in mind.” It was instrumental for me to have an “ideal reader” for all of the work I was doing. You know who you're trying to target. I'm still the writer for sure, but we've switched a lot more of our focus onto direct sales, building a customer base, and selling products to our audience. I still don't have that ideal reader. Who am I writing this for? Who is this product being created for? It has gone beyond just an individual person that I know. We did a customer profiling thing. I have a guy who works for me full time, and his name is Isaac. We took a couple of big, giant sticky pad things, two feet by three feet, they're huge, these giant sticky notes. Aaron: Where do you get those? Can you get those on Amazon? Shawn: You can get a lawnmower on Amazon, so I'm sure you can get sticky notes. We got ours at Office Max, an Office Depot kind of thing. It's weird. You drive to this store, and you can walk in, and they sell products on their shelves. You have to pick it up with your hand and drive it home yourself. Aaron: It seems like a waste of time. Shawn: For this customer profiling session or whatever, basically, we had these four quadrants. What do they think? What do they feel? What do they want? What do they say? Something like that. You're trying to get this picture of this person. Who is this person? What are the things that they say? Like, “I love my family. I like to watch Netflix.” Whatever. Aaron: “I want to learn how to make a podcast.” Shawn: Exactly. It's not just business, it's just life. What are the kind of phrases they might say? If you ask them what they care about, what things would they list? What are their pain points that they're feeling in life? For us, creating this customer avatar, we named him Brian. We found a random picture of somebody and stuck it up there to begin to humanize the person. Your customer avatar is a real person that exists out there. We talked about, “Here's Brian,” and we came up with this stuff. Brian has a job that he kind of likes, but he's got these other creative ideas that he really wants to pursue. Maybe he wants to take it full time. Maybe not. That's not really the most important thing for him. The most important thing for him is getting his best creative work out there and being able to do it and feel like he's making progress on the areas of life that matter to him. He's also a dad and a husband, and he cares about his family quite a bit. He cares about his kids. He still wants to be available for them. When he comes home from work, he's really tired, so the evenings don't feel like a good time to do his creative work, but he's not a morning person either, so he doesn't know when he's going to get the time. These are some of the scenarios, the stories, that begin to emerge as you begin to write stuff about this person. What are the pain points that they feel? When they look around, what do they see? What kind of car does Brian drive? Does he like minivans? Does he have a minivan? How many kids does he actually have? You really kind of start to come up with this stuff, and there's a lot you can do to get to a higher level of doing these customer profiles. You can actually do interviews with your customer base. Aaron: I do this! I try to meet people and talk to them, especially when it comes to podcasting. When you interview your customers, you can actually begin to get a real life picture of your real life audience. Creating an Empathy Map Shawn: There's this thing that we did, an empathy map, and you take the empathy map to create your customer profile. We ran this survey to our email list, and we ran a separate one to our customer list. It was, “When it comes to focus, what's your single greatest challenge?” It was just this open-ended question where people could write stuff down. Some people say, “Time.” Or, “I can't focus. I'm distracted.” Then you get some people who go, “I'm trying to build my photography portfolio website on the side because I love photography and I'm trying to grow it. I'm working this other job, and when I come home in the evenings, family is first. I spend time with family, so by the time the kids are in bed, I've only got about an hour left in the day. I'm so tired, and I don't want to spend time trying to work on my photography website, so I don't know where to get started.” The person who gives an in depth answer to the challenge like that, vs. someone who just says “time”, they're really in touch with their pain point. There's a book called Ask by Ryan Leveque, and you can find it on Amazon. He teases out, “You ask these questions, and you separate the people with the longest answers. You put their answers up at the top.” You cut the list at 20%. The bottom 80%, forget about those people, and look at the top 20%, these “hyper-responders.” What are their challenges? What are their pain points? Aaron, you could do this. You could say, “When it comes to building a podcast, what is your single greatest challenge?” You'll probably have someone who says, “Building my list.” Or, “Building my audience.” Or, “Technical stuff.” But then you might have someone who really gives this heartfelt, in-depth answer. If someone gives you a heartfelt, in-depth answer, they're hungry for a solution. That person is going to pay for a solution. That person is going to digest this, and when you give them something, they're going to check it out. Look for these hyper-responders and cater your response to them. That's what we did. That's how we figured out that our biggest pain points for people who go through the Focus Course are one of four primary buckets, so to speak. It's time management, getting traction on their business or side projects, finding clarity on what's important to them and what they should be doing about it, and a lot of people also feel overwhelmed by all that's already happening in life. Or, they look at the thing that they're trying to make progress on, and they feel overwhelmed. They don't even know where to start. Really, all of these things feed off of each other. When one is in a rough spot, the others start to be in a rough spot as well. We go, “Okay, these are the main challenges we're going to address as part of the Focus Course, in all of our writing. This is it.” The people that fit within these four buckets are the ones who are willing to pay for a solution. Use Your Audience's Language Shawn: Read the actual responses, the answers, and take the language that people are saying and use it in your articles. Answer their actual questions in podcast episodes. You use it in your marketing language. The landing page for your product, or your podcast, or your sign up, or whatever—use the actual language of your hyper-responder customers. Now, not only are you listening to them and you know who that ideal customer is, but you're also even speaking their language. A) it's going to be cool because hopefully you'll do more sales, but B) you'll actually get to connect with the people you want to connect with. That's the whole point. That's why we're here. That's one of the huge benefits of having these customer profiles. It can help you stay focused on who you're trying to talk to and what it is you're trying to talk about, to help them. Aaron: That's mindblowing. That's fantastic. At the core, I kind of know this stuff, but hearing you explain it made it even more clear to me. I love that. I want to take it in this direction. How to Grow Your Audience & Create Deeper Connections Aaron: One of the most common questions I get about podcasting is about growing an audience. It's always, “How do I get more attention? How do I get more listeners? How do I grow an audience?” I love what you said right here. Use the language of your customer avatar in your content to create a deep connection with them. That's where listeners come from. So many people think that they'll magically get 100,000 people to listen to their podcast, and they won't have any idea of who these people are. They're nameless, faceless avatars on the internet. No! Especially in the beginning, you start small. You develop relationships with people who care passionately about the thing that you're talking about. By investing in them, getting to know them, and asking them questions—regardless of whether you're doing some kind of business thing or not—by just talking to them and getting to know their language, that's how you're going to resonate with them and even more people. What methods have you found effective for growing an audience and developing deeper relationships? Shawn: I think that's a great question. Everyone wants to know the answer to this. For me, there are three primary keys to growing an audience: Consistency Honesty and transparency Relationships. 1. Consistency Shawn: Consistency is core. This is a phrase in the seanwes Community, and it's a phrase I like to use, and that's this: show up every day. That's consistency. We're just people of habit. The internet is a thing of habit, so you have to have that consistency where you're in people's regular cycles. Sean McCabe talks about this a lot. You want to be in people's weekly cycle at a minimum. Show up on a regular basis. Also, that's how people know you're going to be there. There's something about that consistency. One of the ways you develop an audience where people are tracking with you and paying attention when you're showing up consistently. When you show up consistently, not only do you earn people's trust, but you create an anticipation of future value. You want to have that. That's huge. People are like, “I want to know what's next. I want to follow this story and be here.” Consistency is huge. 2. Honesty & Transparency Shawn: This comes out in a lot of ways. In some ways, you want to have the transparency like Nathan Barry talks about, to “teach what you know.” Share what you know. Also, there's a human element, passion and persona, who you are as an individual. Humanizing yourself is so helpful. We don't want to connect with brands, we want to connect with people. As indie entrepreneurs or indie creative folks, when you are running your own thing, you are a brand but you're also a person. You've got to keep the person aspect of it, the human aspect of it, you have to keep it there. Allow your mistakes to show through. Allow your passions to show through. For me, at ShawnBlanc.net, I cut my teeth and grew my audience originally by writing about Apple stuff. I wrote tons of product reviews. It was super nerdy, gadgety stuff. I would also write about coffee, camera gear, books I was reading, music, and things like that. Aaron: Stuff you cared about. Shawn: Exactly. Other interests that were related to Apple gear because it was my site, and I can write about whatever I want. That humanized the work that I was doing. So many people came to my site because of the Apple stuff but they stayed because of the coffee stuff. Your focus, your niche, is going to draw your audience, but your ancillary interests will keep people interested. You're a real person with real interests who is not just this robot spinning off the same thing all the time. 3. Relationships Shawn: This is huge. I stink at it, but I'm trying to reply to emails. When people email me, replying back to them. Also, here's a prime example, having me on your show, Aaron. The practicality of it is that when this show goes live, I'm going to tweet about it. I'm going to link to it. I'm going to point the people that track with me over to your stuff. That's a way for you to grow your audience, but it's also a way for me to grow my audience. Your listeners, a lot of people, don't know who I am. Now, hopefully, some of them will come check me out and sign up for our stuff. There's a really cool dynamic here of introducing your group to someone else. Hopefully, that person will also introduce their audience to who you are. Doing guest-based podcasts is an awesome way to grow your audience. I did some back in the day, when I was first starting my site. I did interviews, blog interviews. The whole thing was conducted over email, and it was just this back and forth email. I did one with Daniel Jalkut, who used to work at Apple and then started Red Sweater. He has the best blogging app on the planet for Mac, MarsEdit. It's a super great app. I emailed him and did an interview with him. I did an interview with John Grubar. I did an interview with Brett Simmons, all these people who are super famous Apple people. I'm going back and forth with these guys and posting their interviews. They link to me on my site, and I get this influx of new readers. Or you find software that's awesome. I would do super in-depth reviews about this stuff, and then people would link to those reviews. Honoring other people, connecting with other people, and doing stuff that's worth talking about. Then the word will spread. That consistency, being transparent and honest about who you are, having that passion and that human dynamic to the work that you do, and then just trying to connect with other people. Do things that people are going to want to talk about. Another example is the summit that we're doing, the Focus Summit. I'm punching way above my weight class here with some of these folks, and it's a chance to hopefully get some of their audience to discover the work that we're doing and visa versa. I hope that people who sign up for this summit will get introduced to some new people and that they'll find some incredible resources. It's just fun. We're all just folks trying to do our best work, right? Aaron: Absolutely. I love that. That's one of the best answers for building an audience that I've ever heard. The Importance of Investing One-on-One Time in Your Listeners Aaron: The thing that I'm working on, and I just want to share this, is investing more time in my listeners. It's hard sometimes, because you can spend all the time in the world talking to people on the internet, as I'm sure you know, Shawn. I'm sure people are constantly emailing you, asking for your thoughts, your advice, and your feedback on stuff, and you try to stay really focused. Something I've wanted to do is spend a little bit of time every day, like on Twitter, reaching out and telling people that I appreciate what they do. Or, if somebody emails me, having a conversation. In depth, giving them 15 or 20 minutes of focus time to reply, and even asking them questions. Someone says, “Hey, thanks for doing your show. I really appreciate this thing.” I'll reply and say, “Thank you so much. How is your podcasting journey going? What are you working on right now? What do you want to get better at?” Some great conversations have come out of that. I'm trying to invest a little bit more in my listeners. I'm at the point now where I've started inviting some of them on the show. “Hey, you sound like you'd be a cool person to talk about podcasting with. Would you like to come on the show?” It just spreads. It's the building of community that will eventually attract people to you. When I started, I had 30 or 40 friends, maybe a couple hundred followers. Every new person that finds my show and gets to know me as a person, who respects the work I do, they might have 200 people that follow them, and they share my show with those people. It just spreads out from there. It becomes this big net. You can eventually reach people that are far outside of your social circle just by connecting with the people you can connect with right now. Let them do the work of sharing your stuff with their people, too. Shawn: Yeah, exactly. Focus Summit & Products Aaron: That's fantastic. We're getting close to the end of the episode. We need to wrap it up. I told everyone in the beginning that I would get you to talk about this Focus Summit that you've got coming up. What's the deal with this? Tell us a little bit about that. Shawn: The summit! I'm so excited about this. We have Jocelyn Glei, who just wrote this book called Unsubscribe, which is a fantastic book. It's about email distractions and stuff like that. We've got Josh Kaufman, who wrote The Personal MBA. Anyone who is trying to do anything related to business, you need to read The Personal MBA. It is a bargain. Aaron: So much good advice. Shawn: It's like a $35 book, and that book is so packed. Excellent, excellent stuff. Sean McCabe is on it, and Sean and I talk about how quantity leads to quality, which ties right into this stuff on showing up every day. The summit is going to be really, really cool. When this podcast drops, the summit is going to be kicking off. Here's the link: The Creative Focus Summit. After the summit wraps up, we're opening up registration for our Focus Course. That has become my flagship product. It changed everything for me, in terms of what I was focusing on. I came up with this course as the next product in a series. I had done Delight is in the Details, and I wanted to write a book about diligence and productivity. I wrote the book, and then, long story short, I realized that it needed to be a course. I felt like the way that I wanted to get these ideas across wasn't a book that someone would read, highlight, think was cool, and then puts back on their shelf and returns to life as usual. I want something that's really going to effect change. I knew that a book would probably go farther, broader, and reach a total number of more people. I would rather fewer people go through the course but have a higher number of them really get real impact. For me, the book ended up turning into the Focus Course, and we've had close to 1,300 people go through it. It's basically productivity training for creative people and entrepreneurs and leaders. It's way, way more than that. It's not tips and tricks. It's what I call “meaningful productivity.” It actually gets to the core, the heart, and the foundation. What do you really care about? How are you really spending your time? This is not a “Five Life Hacks That Will Help Me Go Through My Email Inbox Better.” It's hard questions that will make me challenge my assumptions about my family, my work, my down time, and my rest time. Anyone that thinks that taking a nap will improve productivity, the Focus Course is for you. Aaron: That's me! You have to have a healthy life to do your best work. Shawn: You can't sprint this. This is a marathon, so you have to have that breathing room. The Focus Course opens up after the summit is over, and I'm super excited about it. We're going to have a whole group of people cruising through in January. We're doing a winter class for it. We've got some forums, so everyone can share their progress. It's going to be a blast. I'm really excited about it. The summit is free, and the Focus Course itself is going to be something we charge for, obviously. Aaron: You have to charge for things, or else people won't take it seriously. Shawn: It's so true. Aaron: You have to invest. Shawn: That's something else. We didn't get into that earlier when we were talking about the pricing stuff, but that's another reason to charge for your work. Someone is actually going to have skin in the game. They're going to find value for it. Aaron: They have to ask themselves, “Okay. Do I think this is going to help me enough in my life journey to actually put money towards it?” If they answer that question for themselves and then make the choice to give you that money, they are going to say, “I told myself, I believe, that this is worth my time, so I need to invest my time in it.” Shawn: Exactly. Very true. Aaron: Where should people go if they want to follow you, connect with you, or ask you questions? Shawn: Twitter is a great spot. I'm @shawnblanc on Twitter.

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Shawn Blanc | Content Strategy and Growing an Audience

The Productivityist Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2016 51:46

Shawn Blanc is a writer, small-business owner, productivity coach, and creative entrepreneur living in Kansas City with his wife and their three sons. Shawn has been teaching and learning about creativity, diligence, and focus for over a decade, and his online courses have helped thousands of people do their best creative work while learning to thrive in the midst of life’s tensions. A while back, Shawn sent an email that caught my attention. He wrote about the importance of creating a customer avatar and developing a content strategy to connect with them and help them achieve their goals. I liked the email so much that I emailed him back and asked him to come on my show to talk about his journey to making a living through writing online and what he’s learned about growing an audience. Shawn also shares my passion for productivity and deep focus; so much so that he’s gathered 12 incredibly smart people for a free 5 day online summit about the power of focused life. In this episode, Shawn shares how he was able to make a full-time living by writing online, and we discuss how you can grow your audience by creating a customer avatar (your ideal listener) and creating content that addresses their needs and desires.Highlights, Takeaways & Quick Wins:Interview your customers to get a real life picture of your audience.Start selling products as early as possible.Your customer avatar is a real person that exists out there.Use the language of your customer avatar in your content to create a deep connection with them.Be in people’s weekly cycle at a minimum.Your niche is going to draw your audience but your ancillary interests will keep people interested.Show up consistently to earn people’s trust and create an anticipation of future value.Do guest-based podcasts to grow your audience.Reach people that are far outside of your social circle by connecting with the people you can connect with right now.Show NotesAaron: Shawn Blanc is a writer/small business owner/productivity coach/creative entrepreneur living in Kansas City with his wife and their three sons, and Shawn is a member of our Community. He’s been teaching and learning about creativity, diligence, and focus for over a decade now.His online courses have helped thousands of people do their best creative work while learning to thrive in the midst of life’s tensions. A while back, Shawn sent an email that caught my attention. He was writing about the importance of creating a customer avatar, that’s knowing who you’re creating for and what you want to help them achieve, what kind of person you want to help them become.I thought it was really interesting, so I sent him an email right back. I said, “Shawn, do you want to come on the show to talk about this? I think podcasters need to hear about this idea of customer avatars and also content strategy.” Shawn agreed, and he also shares my passion for productivity and focus, so much so that he has gathered 12 incredibly smart people for a five day online summit about the power of a focused life, and that’s going to be starting, I believe, as this episode comes out.If you’re listening to this in your podcast player, it’s starting today, I think. I’ll give you that link later. In this episode, I want to talk with Shawn about why you as a podcaster need to create a customer avatar, know who you’re creating for, develop a content strategy, and then also the benefits of deep focus, what we call deep work.A few small changes in your daily habits can lead to big improvements in your productivity and creative output.Shawn, that’s one of the longer intros I’ve ever done. Thanks for joining me today. I really appreciate you being here.Shawn: Thanks, Aaron. I love it. Super excited to be here.Shawn BlancAaron: I think of you, Shawn, as a writer and as the creator of an online course called The Focus Course, which is great. You’re so much more than that. Do you want to give everyone a quick introduction, how you got here and where you came from? I would also like to hear what your biggest struggles have been over the years of getting to the point where you’re at right now.Shawn: Absolutely. I’m in Kansas City. Originally, I’m from Denver. I’m a Colorado guy at heart. I’ve been married for going on 12 years, and my wife and I have three boys. It’s insane at our house. We used to call the first two the Twin Tornadoes, but we just had our third eight or nine weeks ago.Aaron: Congrats!Shawn: It’s awesome. Love it. I love being a dad. I used to be a drummer. I know that we have a lot of musicians around here. Sean McCabe plays a little bit of music, I think.Aaron: Yeah, he used to write music, just like he used to do lettering. I still play drums.Shawn: I used to play drums for a large ministry here in Kansas City, and I ended up transitioning out of that. It’s a long story, but I ended up becoming a marketing and creative director. I ran a team, an in-house design team, with about 17 people—web developers, print designers, web designers, writers, editors, project managers, whatever. We did a bunch of stuff. One of our huge things was that we would host a conference at the end of the year that I was running.25,000 people would come out for that. I did that for several years, and then my wife and I got pregnant with our first kid. I was like, “I don’t want to do this work as a dad.” Part of it was just super demanding. Anyone who has experienced working in the corporate design scene knows that it’s a very demanding spot.Everything is urgent all the time. I was doing like 80 hours a week, and I really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun, but I was like, “There’s no way. I don’t want to do 80 hours a week as a dad.” I had that, plus I had this little blog on the side, where I had been writing about marketing stuff. I felt like, “This would be a good opportunity to quit what I’m doing and take a leap, see if I can take my website full time. Could I blog for a living?” That was the thought.I was doing about $1,000 a month in advertising and some affiliate stuff. I figured that if I could give it 40 hours a week, I could get the revenue up to a spot where it could pay the bills. I figured that it could grow from there.Aaron: How old were you at this point?Shawn: I was just about 30, not quite 30, like 29, when I made that jump. I asked everyone that was reading on the site. I said, “I’m quitting. I’m going to do this thing full time.” I asked people if they would be interested in supporting me to write the site for a living. I was like, “If you like what I’m doing, I’ll write more if you want to give me some money to do it.” I did this little membership drive. I was going to charge $3 a month for membership. I was doing a daily podcast as a perk of membership.Aaron: You aren’t still doing that, are you?Shawn: It’s on hiatus at the moment. We’ll see. I’m going to be diving back into the podcast scene starting early 2017. I miss podcasting. It’s fun.Aaron: You decided to ask people to support you, give you $3 a month, to go full time with your writing?Shawn: Basically. I figured if I could get 500 people, at $3 a month that’s $1,500, plus the other $1,000 I was doing, and that would be $2,500 a month. That’s not a ton, but I figured that would be enough to cover the bare necessities. I figured that things could grow from there. People signed up, and I hit the 500 person mark by the end of the month before I had even quit.I started my new job, April 4th 2011, basically fully funded as an independent blogger.Aaron: I bet that was exciting.Shawn: It was really exciting. I felt like I got this permission slip from my audience to go for it. As a creative person, sometimes you need that. Sometimes you want to be like, “Do you guys care? I’m here. I’m making this stuff.” A lot of the work we do as creative entrepreneurs is for your audience. I know that we’re going to talk about this in a little bit, the customer avatar profile. It’s for these people that you really want to serve. When you hear back from them and they go, “Hey, we like what you’re doing. Let’s keep the relationship going,” it’s like having a DTR with your audience.There’s something cool about that kind of permission slip moment. It’s like when you sell your first product, or whatever it is. People are interested. You get your first positive review on iTunes or whatever. Obviously, there’s going to be the junk that comes later, but whatever.Aaron: Some of the haters that come later?Shawn: You forget about that stuff and you keep moving on.Aaron: That’s awesome.Asking for MoneyAaron: When you think back, do you remember any big struggles or hurdles that you really had to overcome about that period in your life?Shawn: There were so many. It’s hard to say, “If I could do it differently, I would do it this other way,” because who knows? If I had done things differently, maybe it wouldn’t have turned out the way I thought it would. One of the biggest struggles for me was asking for money. It was a huge challenge related to the membership drive. I was asking folks to support me on a regular basis to write for a living. I was like, “Who am I? What kind of a dork says, ‘Give me money so I can blog for a living.'”Aaron: Nobody pays for things online anymore. Nobody wants to pay for writing.Shawn: Exactly. That was a huge challenge. It has continued to be a challenge for years. I have been doing this for almost six years now, full time. When I came out with my first book, it’s called Delight is in the Details, and it was an eBook package thing. I did some interviews.I charged $29 for my book, and I felt like this huge hypocrite.It was this feeling of, “This is information. Information should be free on the internet. Why would anyone ever buy this?” I felt like there was no value in this thing that people would pay for. I was like, “I have to do it. I’m going to charge for it.”Aaron: Sorry to jump in, but at the time, did you really feel like $30 was a lot of money?Shawn: Oh my gosh. I woke up feeling sick to my stomach the day I was going to launch it. I was like, “I can’t believe how much I’m asking for this.”Aaron: What did you think was going to happen?Shawn: I thought that people would buy it because they trusted me, and then they would read it and come and burn my house down because I had ripped them off so bad. I charged so much money for something.Aaron: It was your first time launching a product, right?Shawn: It was. It was my first product launch ever. It ended up bringing in like $5,000 in that first 48 hour launch window. It made $5,000 that first couple of days. In hindsight, it was this huge inflection point for me. I think I spent about 100 hours building the thing, made $5,000 from it in the first week, and I thought, “Woah, that was a great return on my time investment! Now I have this product that I can continue to sell.”Since then, in the last four or five years that I’ve sold it, I want to say that it’s sold $50,000 over the years. That’s awesome. There’s something great about creating a product, and it changed a lot.Producing and selling a book changed my relationship with my audience.Now I’m creating products for them to buy.That initial hurdle was huge. $29 was so much money. I think that was probably the biggest struggle, of being able to properly identify how much value I’m providing people and to price it correctly. That’s just hard. I think that’s why you should start selling stuff as early as possible, because you have to learn. There isn’t a formula for how much value you’re providing and how much you should charge for it.You can’t just plug your stuff into a worksheet and get a number back. You have to feel out the market, your market, your audience, your skill level. How much polish are you doing? How much depth of information are you providing? Whatever skill, service, or product it is you’re providing, you have to learn how to make money and price your stuff! It’s hard to do it when you’re starting.The biggest challenging for me at first was becoming comfortable asking for money and learning to accurately price my products.Aaron: The other thing is that once you launched that book and got familiar with all that stuff, that was a stepping stone to your future products, your future books and courses, and everything else that you’re doing. I’m sure, at that point, you felt like, “Okay. I’ve done this once before already. Now it’s like riding a bike. I just need to get back on and keep peddling, keep going.”Shawn: Yeah, absolutely. It really was a huge stepping stone. One thing I loved about creating and launching a product was that there was a start and an end date to it. This thing has to ship. I worked on it, and I was done. I put it out there. Boom, now it’s there. I’m done. It’s out in the world. Obviously, you iterate on it. A year later, I added some new interviews. I added some new chapters. I created some videos. I remastered all of the audio for the audio book.Product Launch HiccupsShawn: Super random story related to this. It was the relaunch of Delight is in the Details, a year after it had come out, and I put it out there. People are buying it during that relaunch period. I get an email from someone going, “I was just listening to the audio book, and the last chapter sounds like it’s not edited correctly. Something is weird about the last chapter. You should check it out.”I recorded the audio book and edited it by myself. I go and I open up the audio book for the last chapter and I’m listening to it, and it is the original take that I did of the book. The way I did the audio book, I’m reading it into my microphone in GarageBand. If I goofed up in the middle of a paragraph, I would just take a pause, say, “Okay, again,” and then I would start talking again. That was my marker. The last chapter of the book was that track, the whole thing.The audio track should have been 10 or 12 minutes for that chapter, and it was 30 minutes because of all my edits, retakes, and pauses. The whole thing. What’s worse is, it was there from the very beginning. For a year, I had been selling that thing. I was mortified. For a year, I had been selling my book with the last chapter all messed up, and I was mortified.Aaron: Nobody said anything??Shawn: They didn’t. Either no one listened to it, or when they listened to it, they just assumed… I don’t even know. I was so mortified. There you go. What worse thing can happen? Earlier, I had been so concerned about selling something that people weren’t going to consider valuable. Here’s this huge, huge mistake. What a goof!Aaron: I need to remind everyone that this audiobook is called Delight is in the Details.Shawn: The irony, right? That was one of the selling points of the book, too. I was like, “If you buy this book, it’s a case study in sweating the details itself. You’ll see all the areas where I’ve sweated the details in this product.” Whatever. Oh man. I was mortified.Aaron: Thankfully, no one came and burned down your house, and it was over a year before anyone even said anything. A lot of us are so curious about people who do such good work, so when a mistake does happen, it’s almost humanizing. It’s like, “Now I can relate to this person, because they’re not 100% on top of everything all the time, either, like I struggle with. I make a lot of mistakes, so it’s kind of nice when you see a really awesome musician on stage mess up a part and then jump back into it. You’re like, “Oh, they are humans, too.” That’s really cool. Nobody burned your house down, thankfully.Shawn: That’s why it’s so helpful to ship early. You get stuff out the door and you start learning. I love it.Aaron: I tell people this a lot, too, when it comes to podcasts. If you’re thinking about making a podcast, there are so many things you can tweak, improve, or work on forever, but it’s so much better to say, “What’s the minimum I have to do? I want to try and do a good job, but let’s do this, ship it, and iterate and improve on it every single week.”If you don’t ship something, you'll just pick at it and tweak it endlessly.Before you know it, it’s been a year and a half, and you’ve got three or five episodes you recorded 18 months ago that you’re still working on. In the meantime, nothing has happened.Start MovingShawn: As well, we have this picture of what we want something to look like and what we want it to be, but we have zero experience. I like the analogy of those lifesize mazes. Especially around Halloween and Thanksgiving, there are those corn mazes. They’re these giant things. Imagine someone standing at the entrance of this life size maze, staring at the entrance to it, and in their mind, trying to figure out how to get to the end so they can get straight to the end the fastest way possible without making any mistakes along the way.Impossible! Not going to happen. You have to go in the maze and go left to realize that you should have gone right. Then turn around. You have to go through the thing to make it through. I like the phrase, “Action brings clarity.”Action brings clarity.You’re waiting for clarity before taking action, and it’s not going to happen—you have to start moving.You just have to get going and you adjust course as you go. You start to realize what you should major on and what you shouldn’t.Aaron: That’s an incredible analogy. I’m totally going to use that in the future now. It’s perfect. You sit there and you imagine yourself being at the end of the maze. That’s where you see a bunch of other people. Your friends have gone through the maze and they’re at the end, so you’re like, “I have to get to the end fast. I can’t make any mistakes. I can’t take a wrong turn, because that’s where all my friends are, and that’s where I want to be.” You do have to go through it. That’s really incredible.Creating a Customer AvatarAaron: Shawn, you sent out an email and you were talking about this. I want you to explain how you think about customer avatars, and then if you did something like that for yourself when you were just starting, or if this is something that evolved over time. Customer avatar and content strategy, go!Shawn: This is great. When I first started as a writer, I was doing ShawnBlanc.net. My entire job was publishing articles and links on my website. I didn’t have a customer avatar or a customer profile, what I had was an ideal reader. I think, in terms of podcasting, it’s very similar. Who’s your ideal listener? For me, I actually had a person who was my ideal reader, who’s name was Shawn Spurdee.He was a really good friend of mine. He and I had become friends through the blogging Twitter-sphere back in the day. When I wrote articles or links, I had him in mind. I thought, “Is this something he would find interesting? Is there a story in here that he’s going to want to read? Is this a link to something he would like?” You had that ideal reader. John Gruber wrote about this for his site, Daring Fireball.He talked about his ideal reader, and he called it “a second version of himself.” He goes, “This person is interested in all the same things I’m interested in, and he cares about what I care about. All the design decisions I make on the site, all the articles I choose to link to, the stories I choose to tell, all of that stuff is with this ideal reader/listener in mind.”It was instrumental for me to have an “ideal reader” for all of the work I was doing.You know who you’re trying to target. I’m still the writer for sure, but we’ve switched a lot more of our focus onto direct sales, building a customer base, and selling products to our audience. I still don’t have that ideal reader. Who am I writing this for? Who is this product being created for? It has gone beyond just an individual person that I know. We did a customer profiling thing. I have a guy who works for me full time, and his name is Isaac. We took a couple of big, giant sticky pad things, two feet by three feet, they’re huge, these giant sticky notes.Aaron: Where do you get those? Can you get those on Amazon?Shawn: You can get a lawnmower on Amazon, so I’m sure you can get sticky notes. We got ours at Office Max, an Office Depot kind of thing. It’s weird. You drive to this store, and you can walk in, and they sell products on their shelves. You have to pick it up with your hand and drive it home yourself.Aaron: It seems like a waste of time.Shawn: For this customer profiling session or whatever, basically, we had these four quadrants. What do they think? What do they feel? What do they want? What do they say? Something like that. You’re trying to get this picture of this person. Who is this person? What are the things that they say? Like, “I love my family. I like to watch Netflix.” Whatever.Aaron: “I want to learn how to make a podcast.”Shawn: Exactly. It’s not just business, it’s just life. What are the kind of phrases they might say? If you ask them what they care about, what things would they list? What are their pain points that they’re feeling in life? For us, creating this customer avatar, we named him Brian. We found a random picture of somebody and stuck it up there to begin to humanize the person.Your customer avatar is a real person that exists out there.We talked about, “Here’s Brian,” and we came up with this stuff. Brian has a job that he kind of likes, but he’s got these other creative ideas that he really wants to pursue. Maybe he wants to take it full time. Maybe not. That’s not really the most important thing for him. The most important thing for him is getting his best creative work out there and being able to do it and feel like he’s making progress on the areas of life that matter to him. He’s also a dad and a husband, and he cares about his family quite a bit.He cares about his kids. He still wants to be available for them. When he comes home from work, he’s really tired, so the evenings don’t feel like a good time to do his creative work, but he’s not a morning person either, so he doesn’t know when he’s going to get the time. These are some of the scenarios, the stories, that begin to emerge as you begin to write stuff about this person. What are the pain points that they feel?When they look around, what do they see? What kind of car does Brian drive? Does he like minivans? Does he have a minivan? How many kids does he actually have? You really kind of start to come up with this stuff, and there’s a lot you can do to get to a higher level of doing these customer profiles. You can actually do interviews with your customer base.Aaron: I do this! I try to meet people and talk to them, especially when it comes to podcasting.When you interview your customers, you can actually begin to get a real life picture of your real life audience.Creating an Empathy MapShawn: There’s this thing that we did, an empathy map, and you take the empathy map to create your customer profile. We ran this survey to our email list, and we ran a separate one to our customer list. It was, “When it comes to focus, what’s your single greatest challenge?” It was just this open-ended question where people could write stuff down.Some people say, “Time.” Or, “I can’t focus. I’m distracted.” Then you get some people who go, “I’m trying to build my photography portfolio website on the side because I love photography and I’m trying to grow it. I’m working this other job, and when I come home in the evenings, family is first. I spend time with family, so by the time the kids are in bed, I’ve only got about an hour left in the day. I’m so tired, and I don’t want to spend time trying to work on my photography website, so I don’t know where to get started.”The person who gives an in depth answer to the challenge like that, vs. someone who just says “time”, they’re really in touch with their pain point. There’s a book called Ask by Ryan Leveque, and you can find it on Amazon. He teases out, “You ask these questions, and you separate the people with the longest answers. You put their answers up at the top.”You cut the list at 20%. The bottom 80%, forget about those people, and look at the top 20%, these “hyper-responders.” What are their challenges? What are their pain points? Aaron, you could do this. You could say, “When it comes to building a podcast, what is your single greatest challenge?” You’ll probably have someone who says, “Building my list.” Or, “Building my audience.” Or, “Technical stuff.” But then you might have someone who really gives this heartfelt, in-depth answer.If someone gives you a heartfelt, in-depth answer, they’re hungry for a solution.That person is going to pay for a solution. That person is going to digest this, and when you give them something, they’re going to check it out. Look for these hyper-responders and cater your response to them. That’s what we did. That’s how we figured out that our biggest pain points for people who go through the Focus Course are one of four primary buckets, so to speak. It’s time management, getting traction on their business or side projects, finding clarity on what’s important to them and what they should be doing about it, and a lot of people also feel overwhelmed by all that’s already happening in life.Or, they look at the thing that they’re trying to make progress on, and they feel overwhelmed. They don’t even know where to start. Really, all of these things feed off of each other. When one is in a rough spot, the others start to be in a rough spot as well. We go, “Okay, these are the main challenges we’re going to address as part of the Focus Course, in all of our writing. This is it.” The people that fit within these four buckets are the ones who are willing to pay for a solution.Use Your Audience’s LanguageShawn: Read the actual responses, the answers, and take the language that people are saying and use it in your articles. Answer their actual questions in podcast episodes. You use it in your marketing language. The landing page for your product, or your podcast, or your sign up, or whatever—use the actual language of your hyper-responder customers. Now, not only are you listening to them and you know who that ideal customer is, but you’re also even speaking their language.A) it’s going to be cool because hopefully you’ll do more sales, but B) you’ll actually get to connect with the people you want to connect with. That’s the whole point. That’s why we’re here.That’s one of the huge benefits of having these customer profiles. It can help you stay focused on who you’re trying to talk to and what it is you’re trying to talk about, to help them.Aaron: That’s mindblowing. That’s fantastic. At the core, I kind of know this stuff, but hearing you explain it made it even more clear to me. I love that. I want to take it in this direction.How to Grow Your Audience & Create Deeper ConnectionsAaron: One of the most common questions I get about podcasting is about growing an audience. It’s always, “How do I get more attention? How do I get more listeners? How do I grow an audience?” I love what you said right here.Use the language of your customer avatar in your content to create a deep connection with them.That’s where listeners come from. So many people think that they’ll magically get 100,000 people to listen to their podcast, and they won’t have any idea of who these people are. They’re nameless, faceless avatars on the internet. No! Especially in the beginning, you start small. You develop relationships with people who care passionately about the thing that you’re talking about.By investing in them, getting to know them, and asking them questions—regardless of whether you’re doing some kind of business thing or not—by just talking to them and getting to know their language, that’s how you’re going to resonate with them and even more people. What methods have you found effective for growing an audience and developing deeper relationships?Shawn: I think that’s a great question. Everyone wants to know the answer to this. For me, there are three primary keys to growing an audience:ConsistencyHonesty and transparencyRelationships.1. ConsistencyShawn: Consistency is core. This is a phrase in the seanwes Community, and it’s a phrase I like to use, and that’s this: show up every day. That’s consistency. We’re just people of habit. The internet is a thing of habit, so you have to have that consistency where you’re in people’s regular cycles. Sean McCabe talks about this a lot. You want to be in people’s weekly cycle at a minimum.Show up on a regular basis. Also, that’s how people know you’re going to be there. There’s something about that consistency. One of the ways you develop an audience where people are tracking with you and paying attention when you’re showing up consistently.When you show up consistently, not only do you earn people’s trust, but you create an anticipation of future value.You want to have that. That’s huge. People are like, “I want to know what’s next. I want to follow this story and be here.” Consistency is huge.2. Honesty & TransparencyShawn: This comes out in a lot of ways. In some ways, you want to have the transparency like Nathan Barry talks about, to “teach what you know.” Share what you know. Also, there’s a human element, passion and persona, who you are as an individual. Humanizing yourself is so helpful. We don’t want to connect with brands, we want to connect with people. As indie entrepreneurs or indie creative folks, when you are running your own thing, you are a brand but you’re also a person.You’ve got to keep the person aspect of it, the human aspect of it, you have to keep it there. Allow your mistakes to show through. Allow your passions to show through. For me, at ShawnBlanc.net, I cut my teeth and grew my audience originally by writing about Apple stuff. I wrote tons of product reviews. It was super nerdy, gadgety stuff. I would also write about coffee, camera gear, books I was reading, music, and things like that.Aaron: Stuff you cared about.Shawn: Exactly. Other interests that were related to Apple gear because it was my site, and I can write about whatever I want. That humanized the work that I was doing. So many people came to my site because of the Apple stuff but they stayed because of the coffee stuff.Your focus, your niche, is going to draw your audience, but your ancillary interests will keep people interested.You’re a real person with real interests who is not just this robot spinning off the same thing all the time.3. RelationshipsShawn: This is huge. I stink at it, but I’m trying to reply to emails. When people email me, replying back to them. Also, here’s a prime example, having me on your show, Aaron. The practicality of it is that when this show goes live, I’m going to tweet about it. I’m going to link to it. I’m going to point the people that track with me over to your stuff. That’s a way for you to grow your audience, but it’s also a way for me to grow my audience.Your listeners, a lot of people, don’t know who I am. Now, hopefully, some of them will come check me out and sign up for our stuff. There’s a really cool dynamic here of introducing your group to someone else. Hopefully, that person will also introduce their audience to who you are.Doing guest-based podcasts is an awesome way to grow your audience.I did some back in the day, when I was first starting my site. I did interviews, blog interviews. The whole thing was conducted over email, and it was just this back and forth email. I did one with Daniel Jalkut, who used to work at Apple and then started Red Sweater. He has the best blogging app on the planet for Mac, MarsEdit. It’s a super great app. I emailed him and did an interview with him.I did an interview with John Grubar. I did an interview with Brett Simmons, all these people who are super famous Apple people. I’m going back and forth with these guys and posting their interviews. They link to me on my site, and I get this influx of new readers. Or you find software that’s awesome. I would do super in-depth reviews about this stuff, and then people would link to those reviews. Honoring other people, connecting with other people, and doing stuff that’s worth talking about.Then the word will spread. That consistency, being transparent and honest about who you are, having that passion and that human dynamic to the work that you do, and then just trying to connect with other people. Do things that people are going to want to talk about. Another example is the summit that we’re doing, the Focus Summit. I’m punching way above my weight class here with some of these folks, and it’s a chance to hopefully get some of their audience to discover the work that we’re doing and visa versa.I hope that people who sign up for this summit will get introduced to some new people and that they’ll find some incredible resources. It’s just fun. We’re all just folks trying to do our best work, right?Aaron: Absolutely. I love that. That’s one of the best answers for building an audience that I’ve ever heard.The Importance of Investing One-on-One Time in Your ListenersAaron: The thing that I’m working on, and I just want to share this, is investing more time in my listeners. It’s hard sometimes, because you can spend all the time in the world talking to people on the internet, as I’m sure you know, Shawn. I’m sure people are constantly emailing you, asking for your thoughts, your advice, and your feedback on stuff, and you try to stay really focused. Something I’ve wanted to do is spend a little bit of time every day, like on Twitter, reaching out and telling people that I appreciate what they do.Or, if somebody emails me, having a conversation. In depth, giving them 15 or 20 minutes of focus time to reply, and even asking them questions. Someone says, “Hey, thanks for doing your show. I really appreciate this thing.” I’ll reply and say, “Thank you so much. How is your podcasting journey going? What are you working on right now? What do you want to get better at?” Some great conversations have come out of that.I’m trying to invest a little bit more in my listeners. I’m at the point now where I’ve started inviting some of them on the show. “Hey, you sound like you’d be a cool person to talk about podcasting with. Would you like to come on the show?” It just spreads.It’s the building of community that will eventually attract people to you.When I started, I had 30 or 40 friends, maybe a couple hundred followers. Every new person that finds my show and gets to know me as a person, who respects the work I do, they might have 200 people that follow them, and they share my show with those people. It just spreads out from there. It becomes this big net.You can eventually reach people that are far outside of your social circle just by connecting with the people you can connect with right now.Let them do the work of sharing your stuff with their people, too.Shawn: Yeah, exactly.Focus Summit & ProductsAaron: That’s fantastic. We’re getting close to the end of the episode. We need to wrap it up. I told everyone in the beginning that I would get you to talk about this Focus Summit that you’ve got coming up. What’s the deal with this? Tell us a little bit about that.Shawn: The summit! I’m so excited about this. We have Jocelyn Glei, who just wrote this book called Unsubscribe, which is a fantastic book. It’s about email distractions and stuff like that. We’ve got Josh Kaufman, who wrote The Personal MBA. Anyone who is trying to do anything related to business, you need to read The Personal MBA. It is a bargain.Aaron: So much good advice.Shawn: It’s like a $35 book, and that book is so packed. Excellent, excellent stuff. Sean McCabe is on it, and Sean and I talk about how quantity leads to quality, which ties right into this stuff on showing up every day. The summit is going to be really, really cool. When this podcast drops, the summit is going to be kicking off. Here’s the link: The Creative Focus Summit.After the summit wraps up, we’re opening up registration for our Focus Course. That has become my flagship product. It changed everything for me, in terms of what I was focusing on. I came up with this course as the next product in a series. I had done Delight is in the Details, and I wanted to write a book about diligence and productivity. I wrote the book, and then, long story short, I realized that it needed to be a course.I felt like the way that I wanted to get these ideas across wasn’t a book that someone would read, highlight, think was cool, and then puts back on their shelf and returns to life as usual. I want something that’s really going to effect change. I knew that a book would probably go farther, broader, and reach a total number of more people. I would rather fewer people go through the course but have a higher number of them really get real impact.For me, the book ended up turning into the Focus Course, and we’ve had close to 1,300 people go through it. It’s basically productivity training for creative people and entrepreneurs and leaders. It’s way, way more than that. It’s not tips and tricks. It’s what I call “meaningful productivity.” It actually gets to the core, the heart, and the foundation. What do you really care about? How are you really spending your time?This is not a “Five Life Hacks That Will Help Me Go Through My Email Inbox Better.” It’s hard questions that will make me challenge my assumptions about my family, my work, my down time, and my rest time. Anyone that thinks that taking a nap will improve productivity, the Focus Course is for you.Aaron: That’s me!You have to have a healthy life to do your best work.Shawn: You can’t sprint this. This is a marathon, so you have to have that breathing room. The Focus Course opens up after the summit is over, and I’m super excited about it. We’re going to have a whole group of people cruising through in January. We’re doing a winter class for it. We’ve got some forums, so everyone can share their progress. It’s going to be a blast. I’m really excited about it. The summit is free, and the Focus Course itself is going to be something we charge for, obviously.Aaron: You have to charge for things, or else people won’t take it seriously.Shawn: It’s so true.Aaron: You have to invest.Shawn: That’s something else. We didn’t get into that earlier when we were talking about the pricing stuff, but that’s another reason to charge for your work. Someone is actually going to have skin in the game. They’re going to find value for it.Aaron: They have to ask themselves, “Okay. Do I think this is going to help me enough in my life journey to actually put money towards it?” If they answer that question for themselves and then make the choice to give you that money, they are going to say, “I told myself, I believe, that this is worth my time, so I need to invest my time in it.”Shawn: Exactly. Very true.Aaron: Where should people go if they want to follow you, connect with you, or ask you questions?Shawn: Twitter is a great spot. I’m @shawnblanc on Twitter.

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Fostering Creative Focus with Shawn Blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2016 41:07

Shawn Blanc is back on the Productivityist Podcast with Mike Vardy. On this episode, Mike and Shawn will be diving into the subject of creative focus. A father of three, Shawn has a passion for creative focus and productivity, regularly writing about these topics on his blog since 2007. In this episode, Shawn and Mike chat about Shawn's Creative Focus Online Summit, the systems and tools Shawn's employed in both work and life, his core values, and books that he's bought...but might not have necessarily read. Specific subjects Mike and Shawn tackle in this episode include: The Systems vs Tools Debate and how Shawn uses both to traverse his life (02:07). How his work values and practices relate to his family life (03:55). The concept of personal integrity and the future self, plus a simple exercise he does on The Focus Course to establish these concepts (06:07). The Blanc Media Core Values (09:53), the guidance given to him by Barrett Brooks to articulate these values, and how it ties up with his business direction (11:10). The concept of traction and how to apply this in real life...and towards reaching your goal (17:52). An article he wrote titled Learning Not to Think About It, what it meant for him, and how he does it (22:38). His reading practices, how he expounded on this in his article I Buy More Books Than I Read (26:48), and one book that has really impacted him in making choices, changes, and spending his time for the coming year (31:35). Finally, he talks about the Creative Focus Online Summit, The Focus Course and how these can help us to manage our time and other areas of our lives (35:34). Relevant Links: http://shawnblanc.net/ (shawnblanc.net | Shawn Blanc) http://shawnblanc.net/2016/10/blanc-media-core-values/ (Blanc Media Core Values | Shawn Blanc) http://barrettbrooks.com/ (Barrett Brooks | Website) https://thefocuscourse.com/?ref=3 (The Power of a Focused Life | The Focus Course) http://shawnblanc.net/2016/08/how-to-get-time-for-your-projects/ (How to Get Time For Your Projects | Shawn Blanc) http://shawnblanc.net/2016/09/learning-not-to-think-about-it/ (Learning Not to Think About It | Shawn Blanc) https://fizzle.co/sparkline/2-experts-share-exactly-how-to-use-a-productivity-journal-increase-productivity-by-23-fs099 (2 Experts Share Exactly How to Use a Productivity Journal (& Increase Productivity by 23%) | The Fizzle Show) http://shawnblanc.net/2016/08/i-buy-more-books-than-i-read/ (I Buy More Books Than I Read | Shawn Blanc) https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/3890-2016-reading-challenge (Goodreads | 2016 Reading Challenge) http://amzn.to/2gFAQXC (The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure by Grant Cardone | Amazon) https://thefocuscourse.com/?ref=3 (The Creative Focus Online Summit) https://twitter.com/shawnblanc (Shawn Blanc (@shawnblanc) | Twitter) Thanks for listening, and if you enjoyed this, you'd want to subscribe to the show in https://www.patreon.com/Productivityist/posts (Patreon) where we offer bonus episodes and other perks to patrons! Want to help even more? Leave us a rating and review on the platform you're listening to – like iTunes – so we can keep improving the show.

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Episode 38: Building Creative Habits with Shawn Blanc

UI Breakfast: UI/UX Design and Product Strategy

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2016 52:10

Your creative skills aren't worth much until you practice them regularly. But how do you find time for that? Our special guest today is Shawn Blanc — author of The Focus Course, a creative entrepreneur, and my role model from years ago. You'll learn how to set goals, avoid distractions, build personal integrity, adopt the right habits, and live a truly focused life. Podcast feed: subscribe to http://simplecast.fm/podcasts/1441/rss in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes or Stitcher. Show Notes The Focus Course, Shawn Blanc, The Sweet Setup, Tools & Toys — Shawn's websites and projects Byword — great tool for writing in Markdown (read its review on Tools & Toys) Delight is in the Details — Shawn's first book (read my review here) The Procrastinator's Guide to Progress The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Deep Work by Cal Newport Monument Valley Soundtrack — Shawn's favorite music for doing focused work Download your worksheet on finding creative focus (and more free resources from Shawn) Follow Shawn on Twitter: @shawnblanc Leave a Review Reviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes.

design tools creative habits productivity stitcher habit markdown creative habits shawn blanc sweet setup

004 – Shawn Blanc of shawnblanc.net and The Focus Course

U-Turn

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2016 74:26

About Shawn Blanc Shawn Blanc is a guy who makes stuff on the internet. He got started writing for his site, shawnblanc.net, which he took full-time in 2011 by offering paid memberships to readers. Since then, he has started two other sites, Tools & Toys and The Sweet Setup, that are devoted to cool stuff and great software, […]

toys shawn blanc sweet setup

Mac Power Users 295: Workflows with Shawn Blanc

workflows mpu mac power users shawn blanc

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2015 89:20

Shawn Blanc returns to the show to talk about his new Focus Course and leading a more focused life, productivity planning and shares some of his favorite tools for writing and creating. Thanks to MPU listener Jigar Talati for help with the shownotes this week!

77: "Parallax" (VOY) with Shawn Blanc

Random Trek

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2015 43:23

"Parallax" - Shawn Blanc, writer, Sweet Setuper, and focused individual, joins Scott to discuss “Parallax” (VOY S1E3). Blending a crew, black holes, poorly aging special effects, and the troubling relationship between Neelix and Kes are all discussed. Next on Random Trek: ENT’s “Dear Doctor” (S1E13). Host Scott McNulty with Shawn Blanc.

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The Power of Focus with Shawn Blanc

The Productivityist Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2015 54:45

In this podcast episode, Mike welcomes his friend Shawn Blanc, creator of The Focus Course. They have a deep discussion about intentionality, being attentive, the creative process, productivity, and – fittingly – focus. Relevant Links https://thefocuscourse.com/abc/?rel=3 (The Awareness Building Class) https://thefocuscourse.com/?rel=3 (The Focus Course) http://toolsandtoys.net/ (Tools and Toys) https://shawnblanc.net/thedetails/ (Delight is in the Details) https://fizzle.co/sparkline/2-experts-share-exactly-how-to-use-a-productivity-journal-increase-productivity-by-23-fs099 (2 Experts Share Exactly How to Use a Productivity Journal (& Increase Productivity by 23%) | The Fizzle Show 99) http://twitter.com/shawnblanc (Shawn Blanc (@shawnblanc) | Twitter) This week's episode is brought to you by Transpose. Check out that everything Transpose has to offer by visiting http://productivityist.com/transpose/ (Transpose) today!

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13: 10.3: Best CIA Spy Submarine App

Techtonic

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2015 45:47

Joe and Jacob and joined by special guest Shawn Blanc to discuss his workflows and work on The Focus Course.

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Inquisitive 8: A Little More Playful, with Shawn Blanc

Inquisitive

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 8, 2014 74:09

This week Myke is joined by Shawn Blanc. They talk about the newly relaunched toolsandtoys.net, how Shawn manages his many projects and how he keeps his cool when launching things to the world.

playful myke inquisitive shawn blanc

#UC010: Installier das mal, der Mac ist neu

Der Übercast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2014 71:01

Es gibt weit mehr als Dropbox and 1Password das auf einen Mac gehört. Wir diskutieren all die kleinen Helfer und Menu-Apps, die es verdienen als erstes auf einen jungfräulichen Mac installiert zu werden. Wir machen uns in Folge 10 über einen rein hypothetisch leeren Mac her und verkünden, was die Bare Essentials sind die jeder installieren muss. Da wir natürlich nicht alle gleich ticken, werden darauf hin ein paar individuelle Extras aufgezählt, welche jeder von uns mental als essentiell abgespeichert hat. Lieber Fluggast, wenn dir das Gehörte gefällt oder dir Sorgenfalten auf die edle Stirn fabriziert, dann haben wir etwas für dich: iTunes Bewertungen. Überbleibsel giveaway Unser gigantöses _giveaway__ hat seine Gewinner gefunden: Die Marked 2 gesponsort von Brett Terpstra himself gehen an: @das_schaf und Angela Meyhöfer. “Delight is in the Details“ von Shawn Blanc dürfen sich @tobiasbrummer und @wissmann für lau ordern. Die Fournova Lizenzen von Tower 2 gehen an Thomas Schlosser und @ningwie. Wir freuen uns, dass dieses Mal mehr Leute mitgemacht haben und einige auf Facebook gar den Link geteilt haben mit ihren Freunden. Falls ihr es dieses Mal nicht geschafft habt was abzustauben, harrt aus, denn heute hauen wir zwei TextExpander Lizenzen von Smile als giveaway raus. Eigentlich sollten hier jetzt noch ein paar Überbleibsel stehen, aber Piloten sind auch nur Menschen und machen beispielsweise beim durchgehen der Checkliste Fehler. Falls ihr uns nur hört ist euch das wahrscheinlich gar nicht aufgefallen, aber hier wird ungeschönt und brutal die Wahrheit ans Tageslicht gefördert in Form von decodierten Nullen und Einsen, die live und direkt auf euern’ Bildschirm gezaubert werden. Magie (wenn auch schwarze). Überschallneuigkeiten Das Navdy Heads-up Display ist ein beeindruckendes Gadget mit enger iOS und Android Integration und eignet sich perfekt zum Nachrüsten in euern Skoda. Das Schmankerl hat Untertstützung für Gesten (in der Luft) und Spracherkennung an Bord. Zur Zeit kann man es für 299$ vorbestellen (später sind es 499$ im Verkauf). Als Lieferdatum ist Anfang 2015 angegeben. Alpha und Omega Jeder Macintosh-mit-der-Maus-und-Tastatur Bediener kennt die Situation: Der erste Start und man fängt an seine Lieblingsanwendungen zu installieren. Sven hat schon einmal im Hinblick auf unsere heutige Sendung vor einem Jahr seinen Blog Post The Fresh Mac Install veröffentlicht und verweist zugleich auf die extra-nerdige Version von Brett Terpstra der ebenfalls zeigt, was auf einen neuen Mac bei ihm so draufkommt. Der gemeinsame Nenner Irgendwie sind wir uns ja doch ein wenig einig. Ohne Dropbox geht gar nix. Wir alle installieren die App zu aller aller erst und genießen dann, wie unsere wichtigen Dateien und Einstellungen für das System ab sofort vollautomatisch synchronisiert werden auf unsere Festplatte und der Kaffee automatisch heiß und frisch gebrüht überbracht wird. Damit wir uns im Der Ubercast Adminbereich einloggen können und dort Unruhe Stiften können wir als nächstes 1Password runtergeladen. Ab dem Moment haben wir Zugriff auf alle Logins für Webanwendungen, sonstige webbasierte Dienste und die erworbenen Lizenzen. De facto, auch ohne 1Password geht es nicht. Das war es auch schon. Episode Ende. … nein, nicht wirklich. Aber da es ab hier wieder anfängt Turbulenzen durch die Turbine zu hageln, folgt nun eine grobe Unterteilung. Die zweite Stufe: Launcher Damit die Muskelreflexe nicht ins Leere gehen während man Mac per Tastaturkürzel bedient muss natürlich der Launcher des Vertrauens her. Bei Sven ist das Alfred 2. Andreas kommt eigentlich mit Apple Spotlight gut aus und stuft Launcher per se nicht unbedingt als Teil der Bare Essentials ein. Irgendwann installiert er aber doch LaunchBar, weil dass sich so gehört. Patrick fährt zweigleisig. Er hat ⌘-SPACE für LaunchBar reserviert, was auch eine der ersten Apps ist, welche er installiert. So kann er spielend durch die Ordner auf seinem Mac springen – was er mit Alfred nicht gut kann, da die App leider keine fuzzy search Funktion hat (z.B. wird der Teekränzchen Ordner nicht gefunden, wenn man nur Kränzchen eingibt). Etwas später folgt dann aber trotzdem Alfred 2 mit ⌥-SPACE, weil viele der Skripte und Workflows von den Nutzern einfach so gut sind. Wie wichtig uns die Launcher sind verraten die Zahlen, denn die Lügen ja bekanntlich nie: Alfreds Sven oder Svens Alfred wurde seit dem 4. Juni 2013 insgesamt 7.008 mal aufgerufen, damit drückt er seinen ⌃+SPACE Shortcut 16,8 am Tag. Patricks Alfred ist reaktiviert seit dem 25. Juli 2013 und er hat den Butler 2.190 mal mit den Glöckchen herbeigeklingelt. Im Durchschnitt sind das läppische 5,7 mal am Tag. Dafür haut er bei LaunchBar so richtig in die Tasten: Durchschnittlich 110x pro Tag (Spitzenwert: 214). Andreas ist wie sein Co-Pilot “Kombinator” (die Spitznamen werden von LaunchBar ausgesucht nach dem Nutzerverhalten), beide lieben die Send to und Instant Send Funktionen. Andreas kommt auf 65 Aufrufe pro Tag (Spitzenwert: 207). Damit Patrick diese Statistik beim nächsten Jubiläum von Der Übercast zur Hand hat und vergleichen kann, ob sich was geändert hat, werdet ihr nun zugescreenshotet: Link zum Bild: Launcher Statistik Futter für den Launcher Sven’s favorisierte Alfred Workflows (siehe auch #UC007 zum Thema LaunchBar): Rdio Caffeine VPN Toggle Evernote Add to Fantastical Alfred for Trello Translation für Google Translate Nebenbei nutzt er auch Suchfunktionen im Beruf und halt auch, um die eigenen Artikel auf der Webseite flott zu Tage zu fördern. Andreas nutzt naturellement die eigenen LaunchBar Actions, daneben noch die Livesuchen für dict.cc, Merriam-Webster und diese fantastische Spotlight Search Action. Bei Patrick kommt LaunchBar skripttechnisch nicht so zum Einsatz. Hauptsächlich nutzt er die Websuchen von StackExchange, GitHub, Amazon, eBay und Co. Die Google Maps suchen nutzt er ganz oft, sei es um die Route direkt anzuzeigen oder einen Ort zu suchen. Alfred versüßt ihm die studentische Tätigkeit mit BibDesk Search, BibQuery und Skimmer. Daneben kommt noch vom Internet-Buddy Gabe Weatherhead der Application Buckets mit auf die stets-im-Einsatz Liste – ein Horter und App-Messi braucht so was. TextExpander (inkl. giveaway) Weil wir alle einigermaßen faul sind gehört auch Smile Software TextExpander zu einen der ersten Apps die installiert werden. Das ist nützlich und nicht zum Lachen. Pfui Andreas und Patrick! Aber deswegen wird ja nicht gelacht. Auch nicht, weil wir zwei Lizenzen für das tüchtige Helferlein TextExpander abzugeben haben. Wer wissen will, warum bei einem Audioformat wie ‘nem Podcast brav melden wie in der Schule nix bringt, der hört am besten rein an dieser Stelle. Zurück zur Tagesordnung: Bei Sven sind die Markdown Service Tools von Brett Terpstra integriert und SearchLink, ebenfalls aus dem Hause Terpstra. Das man als Poweruser Snippets in andere Snippets integrieren kann verrät euch Andreas. Dieser packt Shell Scripts und AppleScripts zusammen und triggert was das Zeug hält. Daneben findet Andreas die Autokorrekturgruppen der Deutschen Sprache noch ganz nützlich und das diese bei ihm gar auf auto-update gestellt sind. Patrick tut kund, dass es für in als 30:70 Deutsch-Englisch-Schreiber oft ein Ärgernis ist, die Autokorrekturgruppen manuell von übereifrigen Snippets zu befreien. Geschäftstiger (roar!!) Sven beichtet derweil, dass er den Namen vom Chef automatisch korrigieren lässt, damit er nicht wie der letzte Horst bei den wichtigen Emails dasteht. Anbei dazu ein Post von Dr. Drang der euch zeigt, was so mit geht mit einer Skript in Skript Lösung: Modular URL shortening TextExpander snippets. Was als Blogger nicht fehlen darf in der Ideenschmiede für Snippets ist Shaun Blancs Idee Namen aus der Technologie-Szene automatisch zu korrigieren. Anmerkung der Redaktion zum letzten Tipp und dem Thema “Nerd-Shaming”: Dies ist auch ein Tipp an Sven, der in den Show Notes eine App immer wieder ganz individuell geschrieben hat. TextExpander giveaway Was gibt es abzustauben??? 2 Lizenzen für TextExpander von Smile Wie nehme ich teil? (1) Hört euch den Flug UC#010 an (2) Werdet sozial aktiv: Auf allen sozialen Netzwerken findet ihr einen speziellen Post zu unserem Gewinnspiel. Es gilt diese frohe Botschaft zu verkünden. Es reicht sich ein soziales Netzwerk auszusuchen, dem Übercast dort zu folgen, bzw. zu liken Auf Facebook den Beitrag teilen und liken Oder auf Twitter den entsprechenden Tweet retweeten Es geht sogar bei Google+ plusen und sharen Oder bei App.net reposten Mit diesen zwei Schritten seid ihr im Pool und vielleicht einer der glücklichen Gewinner. Klar, wenn ihr auf mehreren Netzwerken aktiv werden, so steigert ihr damit auch eure Chancen. Teilnahmeschluss ist Sonntag, der 22. August 2014. Die Bekanntgabe der Gewinner erfolgt dieses Mal direkt und persönlich im Sozialen Kanal der Kandidaten, da unser Aufnahmeplan gerade etwas unregelmäßiger aussieht. Die Helfer im Hintergrund Wir nähern uns der Nicht-Essentiell-trotzdem-cool Ecke. Derjenige mit dem Micro auf Senden ist gerade Patrick. Dieser merkt an, dass bevor der ein neues System aufsetzt, er als erstes seine TaskPaper-Liste zu rate zieht: Setup a new system: - Go through this list and adjust it (add missing pieces, etc.) - Make a SuperDuper! backup - Optional: Rename Hard Drives - Adjust path to volume/file location - Adjust paths in Hazel scripts - Adjust paths in Keyboard Maestro scripts - Adjust paths in TextExpander scripts - Adjust paths in Services - Adjust paths in Scripts - Adjust paths in Workflows - Adjust paths in GeekTool - Make/replace SymLinks - LaunchBar - LittleSnitch - 1Password - Dropbox - Drag and drop applications from Backup - Migrate Preferences from Backup - Geektool's Preferences - Transmission's Preferences and Applications Support Files - Dictionaries from `/Library/Dictionaries` - Install the rest of the applications manually Was aus der Liste entfernt wurde sind Hyperlinks zu den jeweiligen Ordnern oder Dateien auf seiner Festplatte – ist halt übersichtlicher so. Als nächstes installiert Patrick LittleSnitch, damit Marco und Manfred von Objective Development stolz auf ihn sind. EXKURS Des weiteren wird der Schummler-Tag eingeleitet. Denn trotz dem Fakt, dass wir seit Folge 7 Picks eingeführt haben, bleibt einem ja nur ein Pick pro Show. Patrick nutzt das aus schamlos aus, um die Maschine vom Kurs abzubringen. Er stellt kurz eine weitere Alternative zu Illustrator vor: Affinity Designer ist seit kurzem in der öffentlichen Beta und will ähnlich wie Sketch die Leute aus der Adobe-Hölle befreien. Wir drücken die Daumen. Zurück auf Kurs. Die Queen Sven ist not amused und fordert Stringenz. Ne, als Vielflieger ist er sowas natürlich gewöhnt und lässt Nachsicht und spendiert eine Runde Tomatensaft auf’s Haus. Also… nvALT kommt bei Patrick als nächstes auf die Kiste. Da man hier schlank und schnell seine Notizen ablegen kann und finden kann. Sein Setup sieht so aus und wird per Dropbox auf alle Devices geschickt. Mit Hazel, dem Putz- und Räumungsdienst von Noodlesoft holt sich Sven die Roboter auf den Mac. Andreas gibt geradewegs weitere seiner Lieblingsregeln für den Donwloadordner zum besten: runtergeladene HTML und .exe löschen runtergeladene Videos umbenennen DMG - Lizenzbestimmungen Dialog unterbinden Da er ein netter Kerl ist, gibt es auch einen Download-Link für euch. Und wo wir schon gerade bei der Roboterfraktion gelandet sind, da darf Keyboard Maestro natürlich nicht fehlen. Hier ein Auszug aus Andreas seinem Nutzverhalten-Katalog: Die zeitlerische Markdown Library. Als Networker vor dem Herren werden jeden Montag die Xing Events automatisch geparst und für in Frage kommende Termine wird eine URL generiert. Effizienz und Selbstanalyse Skripts für die eigenen Prioritäten, Mindnote Map, etc. Zudem werden im Büro alle 10 Minuten Facebook, Google+, Twitter und Minecraft Tabs im Browser geschlossen. Wir stellen noch einmal klar: Keyboard Maestro kann mehr als der Name suggeriert. Es können z.B. zeit- und datumsabhängige Trigger genutzt werden, um Skripte anzustoßen, per GUI-Programmierung kann man eine Reihe an virtuellen Mausklicks erstellen (um ein Programm ohne AppleScript-Unterstützung zu skripten) und vieles mehr. Die App ist bei Patrick ebenfalls essentiell und spielt ganz oben in seiner Top 10 mit. Sein Steckenpferd und Haupteinsatz zweck ist die Palettenfunktion von Keyboard Maestro. Das sind Listen mit selbst hinterlegten Kurzbefehlen, Skripten oder was auch immer. So muss er sich nicht wie bei TextExpander ‘zig Snippets merken, sondern zündet in jedem Programm meist den selben Shortcut, welcher ihm dann eine Programmspezifische Auswahl an Befehlen zur Verfügung stellt. Er muss dann nur noch aus einer Liste auswählen, was er den nun eigentlich für eine Rakete in die Luft jagen will. Hier ein Auszug aus seinen Lieblingspaletten: Markdown Maestro Guide – genauso wie Andreas seine Library, nur ganz anders (und nicht so up to date). Notizen erzeugen aus dem Stegreif, dem Browser, Clipboard oder einer Textselektion: Notes Palette Filing Macro Stichwort nvALT: A Bulletproof ‘Open nvALT Notes with’ Method (für die Leute mit mehr als einem Text Editor). Noch mehr Helfer(lein) Sven möchte Caffeine nicht missen, denn die App verhindert, dass ihm der Bildschirms bei Präsentationen einschläft (oder wann auch immer der Bildschirm nicht schnarchen gehen soll). Die Augen massiert und entspannt bekommt Patrick von F.lux. Die App tönt euren Bildschirm in einen ganz gemächlich in einen wärmeren Farbton, sobald die Sonne untergeht. Macht ihr Überstunden, so wird’s noch wärmer. Beim Thema Farbschema fällt Patrick auch gerade ein, wie toll Solarized eigentlich ist und das man auch mal testet wie hässlich Path Finder aussehen kann. Ein Mann und sein Text Editor. Bei Andreas ist das Vi aka Vim bei Patrick FoldingText (Markdown schreiben ohne Markdown zu sehen) und Sublime Text (für alles andere). Als nächsten auf der Tagesordnung bei einem neuen Mac steht bei Patrick “das Dock schöner machen”. Ganz im Geiste Tine Wittlers werden hier die Grundregeln abgearbeitet: Nur die Apps ins Dock, die eh immer offen sind. Das Dock gehört UNTEN hin und automatisch versteckt. Anders geht’s nicht. Ist alles an Ort und stelle, darf man “Spacer” erstellen per Terminal.app: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}' Will man die Space auf der Dokumentenseite des Docks (da wo der Mülleimer ist) haben: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}' Um das Dock gefüllt schneller aufspringen zu lassen, kann man das Delay abstellen. Öffnet wieder das Terminal und kopiert die Folgende Zeile rein, danach Return drücken: defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0 && killall Dock Zum wiederherstellen des ursprünglichen Verhaltens: defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay && killall Dock Noch mehr Tipps für Tüftler gibt’s hier. Wer viele Fenster offen hat und Fechner heißt nutzt Moom von Many Tricks. Wer Fechner oder Welker heißt und viele Apps in der Menüleiste hat braucht Bartender. Dann ist endlich Ordnung in der Menüleiste. Patrick legt auch die Hand für die App ins Feuer. Eine weitere Empfehlung kommt von Patrick. Choosy bewirbt sich als “schlauerer Standardbrowser für OS X”. Es findet von alleine heraus, welchen Browser ihr gerade am meisten nutzte, kann aber auch eine Liste an Webadressen von alleine immer in eurem Zweitbrowser öffnen, z.B. wenn ihr Online-Banking betreibt ist das ein zusätzlicher Sicherheitsfaktor. Klappt wunderbar in Kombination mit einem Launcher. Mindmaps in schön und ohne Käse. Mindnode hat laut Andreas nix überflüssiges und man bekommt damit ohne Extrafunktionen schnell was auf die Beine gestellt. Die anderen beiden nicken zustimmend. VLC gehört bei Videoprofi Andreas ebenfalls auf den Mac. Es schluckt alle Formate die ihr auf es werft und kann auch ohne zu Mucken konvertieren. Unsere Picks Auch hier wird wieder geschummelt. Andreas hat es Patrick gleich getan und mogelt unverschämt noch einen zweiten Pick rein… bis auf das er hier das Unschuldslamm mimt. ☝ Andreas: iStat Menus - alle System-Statistiken in der Menüleiste, DIY TRX - Fitnessgeräte selbst schrauben. Patrick: DropShare - Droplr/CloudApp auf dem eigenen Server. Sven: Timeful — Aufgaben im Kalendar planen; Selbstlernend mit Gewohnheiten-Unterstützung In Spenderlaune? Wir haben Flattr und PayPal am Start und würden uns freuen.

amazon google men pr space system er chefs productivity videos als app mac apps method falls smile ios ab tipps paypal macht alpha library trigger tower noch micro setup pool ebay butler gesch automation ganz anfang beta bloggers damit route ort emails haus andreas kr delight nur namen delay stelle leute schule chancen weil beruf jubil einsatz wahrheit display zudem liste reihe luft programm freunden sonne devices dieser klar beitrag zahlen gadgets etwas zur kurs caffeine kaffee sven bord tipp ordnung terminal shortcuts feuer dropbox illustrator server github priorit magie geh netzwerk montag sketch schritten funktion gewinner lachen botschaft bartenders termine maus beine kombination verkauf fenster html dock ecke extras empfehlung browsers netzwerken herren pathfinder zeug gewinnspiel kandidaten fakt helfer irgendwann manfred hinblick roboter maschine leere statistik effizienz formate redaktion daumen horst merriam webster ein mann workflows vertrauens daneben drang anwendungen einstellungen dienste bildschirm auszug zugriff klappt tagesordnung stirn notizen verhaltens piloten snippets zur zeit os x kiste unten docks super duper 1password rakete tageslicht turbulenzen gesten vim turbine nutzern skoda kerl skript die augen markdown die app putz spitznamen launcher haupts werdet dateien welker lizenzen anmerkung vlc festplatte online banking senden grundregeln textexpander aufrufe clipboard spacer mind maps nachsicht ordner audioformat anbei nachr choosy nullen im durchschnitt logins sorgenfalten skripte derjenige skimmer sublime text spracherkennung stack exchange nutzerverhalten situation der flattr text editors keyboard maestro befehlen teilnahmeschluss fechner einsen mindnode moom unterteilung stegreif affinity designer deutschen sprache brett terpstra shawn blanc kalendar ordnern skripten vielflieger bildschirms farbton webanwendungen stringenz ideenschmiede launchbar horter solarized der mac noodlesoft mucken suchfunktionen bei patrick tastaturk kurzbefehlen

#UC007: App Launcher Bondage

Der Übercast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2014 71:55

Mit Marco Masser und Manfred Linzner von Obdev aus Wien navigieren wir die neuste Version von Launchbar 6 (dem beliebten App Launcher für OS X), sprechen über die deutschsprachige Apple Entwicklerszene und vereinbaren ein denkwürdiges “Safe Word”. Diese Woche fliegen wir über Wien und gabeln dort Marco Masser und Manfred Linzner von Objective Development auf, um über das holde Entwickeln von Anwendungen, Apples Entwicklungsumgebung, LaunchBar 6 und Little Snitch 3 zu reden. Nach dem furiosen und verwirrungsstiftenden Intro für die zwei Wiener erntet Patrick leider Gottes weder schallendes Gelächter, noch entrüstete Ausrufe für seinen Swift-Witz – dafür aber fällt der Luftdruck in der Kabine schlagartig ab… wobei die Maschine erst knapp 2 Minuten in der Luft ist. Das eigentlich schlimme ist, dass es nicht besser wird. Weitere Schlagworte die Fallen sind Bondage und Tantra. So viel zur Qualität des Ubercasts. Lieber Fluggast, wenn dir das Gehörte gefällt oder dir Sorgenfalten auf die edle Stirn fabriziert, dann haben wir etwas für dich: iTunes Bewertungen. Überbleibsel Zum Thema Paperless gibt es noch Rückfragen von Andreas, und zwar wie es bei allen am Mikrofon so mit Fahrtickets aussieht. Andreas schildert sein Vorgehen beim digitalen Erwerb von Tickets mit dem DB Navigator und FahrInfo SVV. Manfred ist seit 2 Jahren komplett Paperless und hat mit dem MacSparky Paperless Guide angefangen. Anfangs nutzte er noch Evernote, wobei die wachsende Datenbank dann immer schwerer zu managen war. Nun nutzt er eine Ordnerstruktur und BitTorrent Sync. Um auf dem Mac das archivierte Material aufzufinden nutzt er Spotlight und das hauseigene LaunchBar. Außerdem merkt er an, dass es in Wien für alle öffentlichen Verkehrsmittel und auch Zugverbindungen eine digitale Variante gibt. Das erntet neidische Ohren der deutschen Nutzer. Marco dahingegen stellt sich als low-maintenance Digitalarbeiter raus. Er ist eher kein Paperless-Typ, da bei ihm ganz einfach wenig Dokumente anfallen. Überschallneuigkeiten Auch wenn wir mit den Flieger die Schallmauer nie und nimmer durchbrechen könnten, werden ab und an mal “News” zu uns durchgefunkt. So zum Beispiel das frisch anlaufende Google Domains für welches man sich zurzeit als Betatester anmelden kann. Google Domains is a new domain name service set to launch from Google. It’s currently in private beta, though you can request an invite. Official pricing is unavailable at the moment, but from images on the site it looks like domains will run around $12. Features will include free private registration, easy domain forwarding, branded emails and more. Ebenfalls neu auf dem Radar ist Pocket Premium, welches für $44.99 im Jahr mit permanenten Backups glänzt und so einmal zum Archiv hinzugefügte Seiten ewiglich in ihren Status Quo speichert. Hinzugekommen sind auch eine verbesserte Suche und passende Tags, die zum jeweiligen Link vorgeschlagen werden. Für alte Read It Later Supporter gibt’s es sogar 45% Rabatt auf Lebenszeit. Premium Alternativen: Pinboard zurzeit $10 einmaliger Eintrittspreis $25 für die Archivierung (pro Jahr) InstaPaper inkl. Abonnentenaccount $12 im Jahr Die Features von Pocket Premium sorgen nicht für Begeisterungsstürme bei den 5 Leuten im Flieger, niemand sieht so recht die Trumpfkarten im Vergleich zum bisher gebotenen. Profi-Nörgler Andreas geht sogar soweit das Archivierungsfeature als Unnütz zu deklarieren… also auch das von Pinboard… was Pilot Patrick wiederum völlig fertig macht. Dem ist dieses Feature heilig und mindestens 1x pro Jahr auch nützlich. Es hilft ihm einige API-Schweinereien bei Pinboard zu ermöglichen wie zum Beispiel ein lokales offline Archiv der eigenen Pinboard Seiten zu haben (und um dort beispielsweise dann einige Workfloweinträge aus Sean Korzdorfers öffentlichen Notebook (✝ R.I.P.) erneut zu analysieren). Historie von Obdev und das App-Entwickeln an sich Das 1995 veröffentlichte LaunchBar ist eine der “ältesten” Mac OS X Apps (siehe “Longstanding Mac Apps” von Shawn Blanc). Marco gibt Einblicke, wie die erste Version von LaunchBar aussah. Das Licht der Welt erblickte die App dank Norbert Heger. Der Obdevler wollte sich so um unnötige Maus- und Tastaturakrobatikaktionen drücken und repetitive Aufgaben vermeiden. So war die V1 nur ein reiner Applauncher, welcher mittels einer Sammlung von Shell Skripten arbeitete. In einem Fenster in der Ecke wurde derzeit besagter Script-Ordner mit den Kurznamen der Skripte geöffnet, man machte einen Klick und los ging es. LaunchBar Veteran Shawn Blanc hat auch hier zwei Screen Shots aus seinem Archiv gezaubert für Leute die mal OS 9 Luft schnuppern wollen. Als nächstes gibt es für den Interessierten Hörer einen kleinen Einblick in Firmenhistorie. So zum Beispiel erfahren wir, dass das Team von 4 auf 11 Personen gewachsen ist, wer an welchen Projekten arbeitet und wer was für eine Aufgabe erledigt. Zudem gibt es food for thought, nämlich was Entwickler damals noch selbst erfinden mussten und was von Apple dann nach und nach (komplett) übernommen wurde. Ein Beispiel, welches von unseren Gästen angeführt wird, ist die offizielle Schnittstelle zur Lokalisierung. Bei so einem “Klau” denkt Sven natürlich sofort an das Stichwort “sherlocking”. Marco gibt aber nun die offizielle Entwarnung und verkündet, dass nach 2 Wochen Yosemite-Spotlight-Nutzung er den angestiegenen Funktionsumfang der App als positiven Effekt deutet. Apple bringe so das Konzept eines Launchers der Öffentlichkeit näher. Ein Zugang würde geschaffen werden, welcher nach der Eingewöhungsphase, den nach mehr dürstenden Nutzer vielleicht gen eines erweiterbaren und funktionsschwangeren Launchers auf dem Markt stößt. Nach Manfred hat Spotlight immer noch ein großes Gebiet in welchem es sich verbessern kann, wo sich seit Jahres nix tut: Daten rein und raus schicken, um diese dann weiterzuverwerten sei immer noch nicht wirklich möglich. Was hat sich für Entwickler verbessert? In unserem Gespräch mit Obdev können wir festhalten, dass es mit der Vermehrung der Wildkatzen und schönen Plätze in Kalifornien stets leichter wurde mehr Features in die vorhandene Applikation zu integrieren. Dank dem Anstieg öffentlicher APIs sind weniger Hacks nötig um an Daten zu kommen. Auch zeigte Apples Gatekeeper eindeutig, dass die Fruchtfabrikanten aus Cupertino immer noch interessiert daran sind Entwicklern möglichst viel Freiraum (abseits von der auferlegten Sandkiste) zu lassen. Ebenfalls neu seit OS 10.9 ist auch die spezielle Signatur von Kernel-Erweiterungen, welche eine verbesserte Sicherheit gibt und als Entgegenkommen von Apple gewertet werden kann. Wie tastet sich Obdev an Swift ran? Marco ist begeistert, dass Apple genug Mut hatte eine neue moderne Sprache einzuführen und auch, dass Swift parallel zu und mit Objective-C verwendet werden kann. Das Endziel nach Marco ist, dass Swift die Zukunft wird, also prognostiziert er das aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach in einer fernen(?) Zukunft immer mehr ausschließlich mit Swift gecodet werden wird… auch wenn Objective-C weiterhin als funktionabel gilt und die problemlose Co-Existenz beider Sprachen beworben wird. Ganz intern und ganz offiziell passend zum Thema: Auch in Zukunft wird es LaunchBar und LittleSnitch nicht im App Store geben. Ersteres hätte mit viel Drücken und Ziehen noch die Chance dazu, Letzterem ist es auf Grund der erwähnten (selbstgeschneiderten) Kernel-Erweiterung nicht möglich in die App Store Familie einzutreten. Patrick fragt, ob der App Store trotzdem noch interessant ist für Obdev und eine eventuell bereits geplante neue Anwendung dafür ein Kandidat wäre. Ganz diplomatisch bejaht ihm das Manfred mit einem “Ja”. Er plaudert weiter aus dem Nähkästchen und informiert uns, dass für Obdev schon immer Apps interessant waren, welche eine Nische bedienen, herausforderndes programmieren erfordern und ganz einfach nicht von jedem geschrieben werden können. Ebenso aber die Kehrseiten dieses Ehrgeizes, nämlich das auch Apples Direktsupport für Entwickler, welchen man immer einmal pro Quartal anfordern kann, meist nicht den Profifragen standhalten konnte und die Helfer oft mehr oder minder ratlos war. Irgendwann hat Obdev diese Möglichkeit des Feedbacks komplett verworfen, da die Fragen der Wiener für Apple zu trickreich waren. Somit hatte sich schnell ein neuer Workflow eingebürgert, und zwar das alle Problemlösungen intern vom Team gelöst werden. Spiel, Satz und Sieg. Eine Sache die Patrick öfters gehört hat ist, dass die WWDC einen Raum schafft, in welchem solch trickreiche Problemfragen fachmännischer von den Applemitarbeiter beantwortet werden können; drum spricht er die Support-Foltermeister direkt darauf an. Marco bejaht dies. Auf der WWDC konnte er auf seine spezifischen Fragen Antworten aus erster Hand erlangen. Sein WWDC-Besuch liegt zwar schon eine Weile zurück, aber in einem persönlichen Gespräch mit dem Entwickler von Apples QuickTime wurde im Rede und Antwort gestanden. Marco betont, dass man allerdings auch die Person finden muss, welche für die Frage maßgeschneidert ist. Hätte er mit einem UI-Spezialisten seinen Plausch abgehalten, so wäre ihm damit auch nicht gedient gewesen. Das man ein optimales Feedback bekommt ist also tatsächlich ein Merkmal der WWDC. Allerdings kann es durchaus sein, dass man nur die Puzzelstücke bekommt, welche Apple auch bereit ist ans Entwicklervolk zu verteilen. Marco nennt auch hierzu ein, zwei Beispiele (… die ihr gerne nachhören könnt). Der Ausflug in den iTunes App Store: Pebbles Pilot Patrick möchte wissen, was das Leitmotiv hinter der Entwicklung von Pebbles war. Kurz, ob das nun Entwickler-Spieldrang war etwa einmal mit Objective-C etwas für iOS rauszuhauen, oder herauszufinden wie profitabel der Spielemarkt im App Store ist und welche Chancen daraus für das Unternehmen erwachsen können. Wie sich herausstellt ist Pebbles auch wieder einem einzigen Entwickler aus dem Team zuzuschreiben: Johannes. Die Redaktion sieht hier Parallelen zu Panic, wo auch oft genug quasi pro Entwickler für die Kreation an sich verantwortlich war. Wie dem auch sei, zurück zur Ausgangsfrage; Pebbles wurde unter anderem entwickelt, weil Johannes neugierig war, wie das Signing und auch die Xcode 4 Integration so funktionieren auf iOS und mit dem App Store. Die literarische Übersetzung von Sven folgt auf den Fuss: Den großen Zeh ins Wasser halten. Was wir Nutzer aber daraus lernen ist, dass Obdev den Fokus auf OS X hat. Marco bejaht das, schiebt aber auch direkt nach, dass firmenintern schon Pebbles als potentieller Spielplatz für ein Swift-Projekt gehandelt wurde/wird. Abschießend hält er fest, dass für Neuentwickler die Nutzerzahlen von iOS natürlich wesentlich interessanter sind. LaunchBar 6 Hier wird das Obdev Team wieder gefordert. Wie im Schulunterricht müssen die wesentlichen Neuerungen runtergerasselt werden. Manfred holt sich eine 1 mit Sternchen ab und gibt einen kleinen Ausblick was als nächsten noch auf der Karte steht, zum Beispiel selbstgebastelte User-Themes. Um die Nerdherzen jedoch noch höher schlagen zu lassen gibt es hier und jetzt ein paar Lieblingsactions von LaunchBar 6. Keiner der Fluggäste und Piloten lässt sich lumpen und was nun folgt ist die Ausbeute dieses Austausches. Links zu LaunchBar 6 Actions: LaunchBar Scripts GitHub Repository von Andreas AppleScript Beliebtheit auf GitHub Offizielles Objective Development Forum - LaunchBar Actions Keyboard Maestro Macros Action Pinboard Actions hlissner/launchbar6-scripts prenagha/launchbar Launchbar Actions von Manuel Weiel Justin Lancys Tools um Browsertabs zu organisieren Wie immer quetschen die vernetzwerkten Schwaben noch einen lokalpatriotischen Link rein. In diesem Falle zum Stuttgart Opendata Framework. Der hat zwar jetzt nix mit Actions an sich zu tun, aber damit, dass die ehrgeizigen Baden-Württemberger einen weltkosmosweiten Standard entwickeln (hust). Ein weiterer kleiner, firmeninterner Vorausblick: Es gibt noch viele (auch große) Features die noch auf LaunchBar-Nutzer warten. Die App bieten sich an konstant ausgeschmückt zu werden und Obdev hat wohl noch eine Todoliste vor sich, die sich gewaschen hat und welche unsere Augen erneut leuchten lassen wird. LittleSnitch 3 Der Überwachungschef auf Mac OS X und das Kind von Obdev Entwickler Karl hat fast schon 15 Jahre auf dem Buckel und Betas für Yosemite sind bereits am Start. Was der versierte Blogleser vielleicht nicht vermutet, da tendenziell mehr über LaunchBar durch die Technikpresse wandert: Little Snitch ist quasi das Zugpferd von Objective Development. Eine Empfehlung die es auf den Punkt bringt spricht Sven noch einmal an alle Nutzer aus: In einer Welt wo immer mehr vernetzte Applikationen Daten durch die Gegend pusten und man vielleicht zumindestens ein Stück Kontrolle darüber haben möchte (… denn da hilft LittleSnitch). Der sanfte Ausklang hin zur Landebahn Die abschließende Frage von Patrick zum Thema Softwarepiraterie endet mit einer Hommage von Marco und ihm an die Entwicklerszene, welche Apps mit Liebe zum Detail und ausgefeilten Funktionsumfang für die Nutzergemeinschaft des Macs entwickelt. Eine Sache die beide nachdem Umstieg auf das Apple Betriebssystem sehr beeindruckt hat und den Schritt vom Freewareuser hin zum Gernezahler wesentlich erleichtert hat. Der Rest der Mannschaft stimmt in den Tenor ein. Kurz, wir sind alle immer wieder erstaunt über die aktive und talentierte Entwicklerszene, welche für unser System der Wahl Programme schreibt. Gewinnspiel Was gibt es abzustauben??? Na ganz objektiv dürft ihr nun drei Mal raten… es gibt: 2 Lizenzen für LittleSnitch 2 Lizenzen für LaunchBar Wie nehme ich teil? Frisch zitiert und druckreif aus unserer Marketingabteilung kommt hier die Anleitung: Hört euch den Flug UC#007 an — ach kommt schon… am besten nehmt ihr uns gleich ins Abo. Folgt, liked oder plust uns bei einem sozialen Netz eurer Wahl: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ oder App.net Im jeweiligen sozialen Netz findet ihr einen Gewinnspiel Post, bzw. Tweet welchen ihr bitte shared, liked, plust, retweeted oder mit 7G einmal um den Mond schickt Mit diesen drei Schritten seid ihr im Pool und vielleicht einer der glücklichen Gewinner einer Lizenz für Launchbar oder Little Snitch von Objective Development. Schluss mit der ganzen “Teilerei” und somit lustig ist am Freitag, den 11. Juli. Die Bekanntgabe der Gewinner erfolgt während Flug UC#008 (VÖ Freitag, den 18. Juli). Des weiteren werden die Sieger natürlich auf ihrem jeweiligen Sozialen Kanal, ob das nun Facebook, Twitter, Google+ oder App.net ist, kontaktiert und informiert… wir finden euch schon und die Lottofee wird ihr Übriges tun. Letztendlich können die vier Softwaremillionäre hier dann ihre Coupons einzulösen. Wer die Apps von Objective Development regulär erwerben möchte dem wird mit dieser kleinen Liste geholfen: Hier kaufen: Objective Development Hier fragen: @launchbar und @littlesnitch Hier der Preisüberblick für LaunchBar: LaunchBar – Single License: 24€ Upgrade von LaunchBar 5 auf LaunchBar 6 — Single License: 15€ LaunchBar – Family License (5 Computer): 39€ Upgrade von LaunchBar 5 auf LaunchBar 6 — Family License: 24€ Endlich “Picks” Darüber hat sich Patrick besonders gefreut, da ihm seit Anbeginn seiner Podcastinglaufbahn und der Taufe dieses Podcast eine Empfehlung schon länger auf der Zunge lag. Wie immer gilt, wer die detaillierte persönliche Meinung hören will, der darf gerne noch einmal genauer hinhören. Marco: PaintCode von PixelCut Manfred & Andreas: xScope von The Iconfactory Patrick: Uberspace.de und seine flexible, faire Preisstruktur Sven: WiFi-Explorer von Adrian Granados Das war’s. Wir wünschen einen angenehmen Aufenthalt, drücken allen Teilnehmern die Daumen und bedanken uns recht herzlich bei unseren tollen Gästen. Bis zum nächsten Mal. In Spenderlaune? Wir haben Flattr und PayPal am Start und würden uns freuen.

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51: No Silver Bullet

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Play Episode Listen Later Jun 19, 2014 84:23

Dan and Haddie are joined by their friend and guest Shawn Blanc to discuss starting something, building a name for yourself, consistency, and how sometimes getting fired can be the best thing ever. Links for this episode:Shawn Blanc - TwitterShawn Blanc is @shawnblanc on Twitter ShawnBlanc.netThis is a tech- and design-centric website. I’ve been writing here since the summer of 2007. In the spring of 2011 I quit my job and began writing this site full time. The Sweet Setup We recommend the best apps for your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Recommendations are sorted within app categories. You can read all about us, subscribe via RSS, or follow us on Twitter. Tools and ToysTools & Toys is a daily collection of items for the pickiest of gadget geeks, software aficionados, snowboard junkies, music lovers, writers, coffee nuts, and all around collectors of fine paraphernalia. Weekly Briefly - PodcastWall Street (1987)- IMDBWall Street (1987)- Rent/Buy on Amazon"Greed is Good" - Gordon Gekko speech in Wall Street (1987)[VIDEO] Altucher Confidentialpatrickrhone / journalDelight is in the Details — By Shawn BlancSponsored by Squarespace (use code DANSENTME for 10% off) and HostGator (use code DANSENTME for 50% off VPS).

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50: Upping Your Game

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Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2014 88:38

Dan is joined by Haddie and Shawn Blanc to discuss delegating, hiring, firing and freelancing. Links for this episode:Your business card is CRAP! - YouTubeOne of those “Things I’m Learning the Hard Way” posts | OwltasticThe Sweet Setup — We recommend the best apps for iPhone, iPad, and MacTools and Toys — Hand-Picked for Work and PlayThe Weekly Briefly | A podcast by Shawn BlancShawn BlancSquare Cash – Email Money for FreeArcher Avenue - Matching Awesome Podcasts with the Best AdvertisersSponsored by Harry's (use code QUIT for $5 off your purchase).

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Daily(ish) 8: Make The Internet You Want to See

Goodstuff Master Audio Feed

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 27, 2014

This is not a weather podcast. Or is it? Jumping off from Shawn Blanc’s daily podcast discussion on creating the internet you want to see.

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CMD Space 78: The Sweet Setup, with Shawn Blanc

CMD Space

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2014 61:26

This week Myke is joined by Shawn Blanc. They discuss his new site The Sweet Setup and what goes into running a website with multiple editors and contributors.

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CMD Space 58: Delight is in the Details, with Shawn Blanc

CMD Space

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 21, 2013 61:57

This week Myke is joined by Shawn Blanc. They discuss visiting San Francisco, his new ebook – Delight is in the Details – and the process of creating it.

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Show Me Your Mic 6: Shawn Blanc

Goodstuff Master Audio Feed

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2013

Shawn Blanc joins me to chat about the start and ending of the B&B Podcast, moving to the 5by5 network, and his unique workflow for his solo membership show.

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Mac Power Users 126: The Mac Home Server