How I Work
The BULK of my creative work, such as designing and writing – is done alone after we define your project objectives.
It took me a good chunk of my life stressing why I always felt so drained after going to loud parties or working in “busy” offices but I finally was taught the difference between being extroverted and introverted; and also the different major personality types and how they derive their energy.
Turns out my personality type is an ISTP and I am introverted. What this means to you is that you are going to get my very best energy and creative thinking and output for your investment, IF you leave me alone to do my work when there is work to be done.
As a business owner, understanding personality types can give you a tremendous improvement to productivity when you let people do the jobs they are meant to do.
This does not mean you will get “the silent treatment”…
Collaboration is mandatory
Now after you just read that paragraph above I will probably totally confuse you with this one, but we MUST collaborate to get things done and really work any magic.
This means that you will need to participate in providing feedback and input for the projects we work on together.
If you are unable to because you are aloof or just bogged down with other responsibilities, then I will need to have access to key decision makers on your team who are able to collaborate in an intelligent and friendly manner.
None of this, “this is just the way we do it” or “just get it done” BS.
I may be the expert at what I do, but you are the expert with your business and to achieve our objectives we will need to have conversations, share information, solve problems, and set SMART goals.
Minimal Meetings
I’ve wasted more time than I care to admit attending meetings that were nothing other than glorified pep talks, or owners and managers insist…
“WE NEED TO HAVE A MEETING!” or “LET’S GET ON A CALL RIGHT NOW!”
Why?
Maybe my past experiences with meetings have been less than desirable, but I will attend meetings ONLY if there are clear objectives. Otherwise I believe that it should not be a self-imposed barrier to doing business together.
With technology such a screen capture software, and virtual project management platforms, we should be able to focus our time and energy on taking action and doing the work, instead of just meeting for the sake of meeting.
Time is a precious asset so let’s do something with it that will have an impact.
Responsive not reactive.
We are all guilty of being reactive but it does more harm than good. I understand that there is the occasional “emergency” or ad campaigns that “need to go out today!” But our success of working together as a team is going to be greatly increased if we develop a roadmap and set some communication guidelines before we just start firing off daily email requests and text messages and expecting instant responses.
I’m a firm believer in self-care and managing our time, conserving energy, exercising, rest, and spending the bulk of my time learning SO THAT I can be effective with the time I spend working.
If you think that getting an instant response from me or having access to phone, text, Skype, Slack, email, key strokes per minute, lines of code per hour, and daily meetings on a dime, is what makes me valuable to you… then your priorities are vastly different than mine, and we are probably not a good fit to work together.
I also hope that you have a sense and humor!
My point is that I like to think, plan, and evolve a strategy that is valuable for your business… So we probably won’t work well together if you just like to talk, throw something against the wall and “hope it sticks” or are simply a price oriented decisions maker.
If you do have a sense of humor, and value a straightforward approach then let’s work together!