I have used webinars for several years now and I love them.  

I don’t like organizing in-person events because of all the logstics, people involved and cost. So whenever possible, we’ve scheduled webinars to showcase our products, do advanced training and offer practical content.

In fact, we built an entire training division using them. (At WebDesign.com we stream 15-20 hours of new content every month using webinars. And at iThemesTV, another 1 hour or so training a week.)

Along the way, we’ve picked up some best practices from just doing them week in and week out and seeing how others do them.

So I gathered these up and put them into a free ebook titled 15 Best Practices for Rockin’ Webinars. 

In this ebook, you’ll learn:

• What is a webinar anyway
• 6 benefits for using webinars in your business
• How to make the most out of your webinars (and your attendees happy)
• Recommended resources for webinars
• How to record your webinar
• 5 tips to remember during your webinar presentation and more

For the past 6+ years, I’ve been using WordPress in a number of ways to make money personally and build my personal brand and an audience. Of course, the last four years we’ve been building an entire company based on it — with over 180+ professional themes and plugins and over 350+ hours of on-demand WordPress web design training.

I recently gave a talk to a local group on this subject and wanted to share it also for the benefit of our community via a free webinar on Wednesday, May 23 at noon central standard time.

In this webinar, I will talk about the four categories of making money with WordPress and offer 5 tips for making money with it from my experience working in the community as well as starting iThemes.

I just launched my new ebook called “I Want To Hire You But Your Resume Sucks,” filled with 30+ tips to get a job.  It’s packed with things I’ve learned as both an employer and employee.

Here’s a snippet about what it’s about really ….

A resume is just piece of paper. But it’s also a brochure that sells your services to employers.

But the fact is: Most resumes suck.

Not because of the paper or even format, but because you haven’t done the work building the key areas employers look for to make it rock.

The statistics about those who are underemployed or unemployed are depressing.

I have some theories on why those stats exist. Namely, you aren’t ready for a real job.

You haven’t done the work to GET hired. But I want to help.

In “I Want To Hire You But Your Resume Sucks,” I give you 30+ tips for how to start doing the things that will make you an attractive free agent to prospective employers.

Warning: They will cost you mostly time and energy. But you should have a lot of that on your hands.

You can get this ebook for free by joining my new blog community at Purposeful Paychecks where I’m going to be talking about work-life alignment and offering blunt career advice.

She’s emotionally unstable and insecure. You must give her all the emotional energy and time you have and then some more. Even when you don’t have any more to give. It’s never enough. Oh, and she can’t ever look fat in that dress. So constantly shower attention and affection her way.

She requires all of your attention. You can’t be looking at other girls, I mean, startups or jobs. She’ll wander off as fast as you can blink. Or worse, she’ll throw your crap out on the curb, or sell it on Craigslist. She knows when your spotlight isn’t on her.

She needs your singular focus. Hobbies and other things (like your silly workout routine) get cut because she takes all your time. Maybe some friends too who just don’t understand your relationship. She’ll also wake you up in the middle of the night with superficial needs like reminding her why she’s the only one for you. You will need to talk it out until the sun rises and you need to be at the office.

She gets super jealous. Like going from zen to nuclear war in 5 seconds. Seriously, don’t even think about looking elsewhere, or else she’s gone! And every other relationship will be looked on with skepticism and envy,

OH … if you make it a couple of years together … in some kind of miracle … she’s going to want kids, a new house, new clothes, a new car. And you get to start over with a whole new set of demands.

***

UPDATE: Brad shared with me this video on the Hot/Crazy Scale from How I Met Your Mother. It cracked me up so I thought I’d share.

I thought after the first couple of years this bad habit would stop, but it hasn’t. I still feel compelled to make sure the business is rolling along and the essential things are getting done. And sometimes those issues keep me up at night.

I see holes that need patching. I see balls that might have been dropped. Issues to be dealt with. Problems to solve. Fires to deal with. And always, always, people to lead and manage.

Successful startups need drivers and champions. Typically it’s one person – the founder. Someone that wakes up in the middle of the night and keeps the enterprise moving forward. Someone that is constantly thinking about how to acquire more customers, tackle new markets and new products, tweak existing processes, pushing the individuals and teams to go farther … and generally be the person manning the radar and looking out on the horizon. Always.

Maybe it’s compulsion. Maybe it’s neurotic. But someone has to do it. And that is obviously the founders.

No one else will do it.

And honestly, it sucks to lose sleep. It sucks to feel the weight of all this on your shoulders and to feel it in your gut. It sucks to be the one person that HAS to make sure things are getting done while juggling a million other little things that NEED to get done too.

But if you don’t have this consistent inner drive to push everything forward constantly, you might need to rethink your startup dreams.

You cannot rely on anyone else to do all of this. And if you don’t do it, you might miss something vastly important.

There is the day-to-day pressing issues and those 6 months or years down the line. It all has to be watched, examined and reviewed constantly … and then appropriate adjustments made.

You have to be vigilant. You have to be “on the watch.” I rarely let my guard down as a result.

The biggest issue I’ve seen in my own business and others is cashflow. Managing, forecasting and maintaining good cashflow is perhaps the most critical component in a startup (or any business). It’s the lifeblood of the business. That sounds obvious, but I’ve seen new entrepreneurs fail at it and sink their ships.

Without cash, you starve.

If you’re in a service business, if you don’t invoice and then followup on payment, you won’t get paid. (People are never anxiously awaiting your bill to pay it as fast as they can!) Then while you’re doing that you need to fill the pipeline with the next billable projects in your queue to repeat the cycle over and over again.

If you’re in a product business, it’s about each month’s sales and how the current month is progressing because you have a baseline number you have to hit to keep things above water. There is also seasonality, market, customer and competitive issues at play that mess with product sales and cashflow.

But driving the business means eating and sleeping it, especially in the early years. And I’ll tell you at four years in, I still eat and sleep it (or not in today’s case). I tell people I have few if any hobbies that don’t directly relate back to my work, or help me do it better. It happens that I also enjoy the work I do and my work has always been extremely important to me.

So here’s the thing for rookie entrepreneurs: Be ready to eat, sleep, breath your startup for a long, long time. Everything in it all ultimately falls on you. It is your gig. Your name is on most everything related to it. You’re the person in charge, the person people look to, and the one who must deal with today’s issues while simultaneously preparing for tomorrow’s.

You must be the lead driver. The one intensely focused on the race and the moves that will help you win. You must be fiercely determined to get where you need to go. You’re watching the dashboard to make sure things aren’t overheating, switching gears to get optimum speed around curves, and looking around the next curve.

You must be the lead champion of the brand. And the causes your products and services promote. No one else will care as much as you do. You cannot delegate that to someone else. No one loves your startup baby like you do.

You must be a lead teacher and trainer. No one else knows your passions, your instinct, your reasons, your background data and your history and knowledge of the products and services you offer like you do. Somehow you have to start teaching and delegating things to get done out to others.

You must be watching vigilantly on the horizon. Looking around the next corner or curve for the icebergs or clear waters (aka Threats and Opportunities).

… so get some sleep now while you can.

My post on How to be a Professional has been by far the most popular post on this blog. So I thought I’d expand on that after getting asked to speak to high school students at our local career tech yesterday and repurpose for you here.

So I’ve got five basic keys to share that I believe if you do these things, you’ll be successful in your WORK, whether you go to work for someone else or start your own business.

1. Start with Passion

It all STARTS with passion — a fire burning inside of you about something. Passion is typically easily identifiable. You ooze energy, excitement, devotion to a cause or subject.

A passion is about a chase, a quest, a never-ending hunt. And sometimes, if left unchecked, it’s an all-consuming obsession.

Passion about something moves your soul when it is expressed in your life. It is focused joy and love for a subject. A passion blocks out the world or time (and sometimes people) for the chase.

You follow it, follow it, follow it … running without exhaustion after it … until you find yourself LOST in it.

When you emerge from it …. you ask yourself:

How is it really 2 a.m. in the morning?!
When was the last time I ate?!

Been there before? I have hundreds of times.

Passion is dreaming and wondering about when you can continue the chase to the neglect of most everything else. A passion in work is matched usually with some foundational NATURAL ability or interest or curiosity.

One of the most difficult things we’ve found as a business is finding people with DRIVE and INITIATIVE that typically is birthed out of genuine passion for what we do.

For me, it was writing. I loved to write. I loved to express my inner thoughts for the world. I loved the effect it had on people (and still do). My first published writing was a Letter to the Editor of the Lone Grove Ledger. And last year I got to see my name on the cover of a commercially published book! But mostly my writing passion now expresses itself as BLOGGING. It’s one of my life passions and I’m always seeking ways to use and refine it.

You should actively start seeking to DISCOVER what your passions are NOW … and it’s likely you’ve unearthed some of them already or on the path to finding and exploring them.

Here’s some thoughts on how to find your passion:

• Try lots of different things out – you need to take a lot of things out for a test drive and see what invokes the chase.
• See what sticks and resonates – see what causes a spark that lights a fire in you.
• Ask for some direction – ask others what they see in you and potential ideas; be around people who love what they do.
• Watch for the tractor beam – passion pulls you in … be alert to that gravitational pull.
• Be patient – it just take time to find things you really like … I’m still finding new things I love and draw me in!

And then when you find those passions ….. hold on to it. Seek it out. Fan the flame. And make a bonfire of it!

Side note of career or professional advice: Potential employers, including myself, and prospective clients look for passion and enthusiasm about what you do. We want to know you have that fire about the role you are looking to fill with us or the work you’re going to provide for us. We want to see HUMBLE, focused passion for the work you do!

2. Sharpen Your Sword

In your work, you need to pair that passion with actual SKILLS that allow you to get paid to do it every day. People pay you money (whether with a paycheck or from an invoice) because you have a skill that adds value to their life.

Think about the value you offer others now. It’s often the skills — whether a great sales personality, or the ability to build software programs — that add value — more sales, more revenue … or helping customers save time and money with your software.

Think about the reasons you pay others money. In the past I have paid a real estate agent to sell my house (and to buy ones as well). I am interested in their skills of knowing how to negotiate contracts, knowing the neighborhood and knowing potential buyers. Those things go back to skills. They have a skill of understanding the legalities of real estate contracts. They have personal skills related to knowing people. They have spent time honing their skills of the neighborhood, how houses are contracted, what to look for in bad and good houses, etc etc.

The skills I developed initially with web design — like learning CSS or HTML so I could build cool websites — allowed me to get paid to follow my passion.

Simply put: SKILLS PAY THE BILLS.

And your work should be your craft and you should be dang proud of the work you do in your craft. Your work is a display of your unique gifts and talent to share with the world.

And if you align your passions with skills …. you get PAID to do what you love!

By the way, you can be passionate about something but not get paid …. but that’s called a hobby.

So here’s how to hone the skills within your passion to get paid to do it:

• Build upon previous skills – start with a simple set of skills and add to them, bolster them, build them up
• Always be adding more – you must always be looking and acquiring new skills to build upon your other skills or else you’ll get left behind
• Always be learning and growing – just because you’ve mastered one skill doesn’t mean you should stop honing it or developing and mastering others
• Always be searching for new skills to acquire – look for innovations, what’s new, what’s emerging that will set you apart and what people value most
• More skills = more money – employers and potential clients value people with great skill sets to lean on and utilize and we pay a premium for it
• Skill acquisition isn’t necessarily about a piece of paper – just because you have a degree or a certificate doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to do something; relying on paper alone is a recipe for disappointment

In our business and on the web, technology changes faster than the speed of light and competition is always increasing and getting better. We must always be learning new things …. and enhancing previous skills to stay up to par for our customers.

For our team that means learning new technology, like HTML5 or understanding emerging concepts like Responsive Web Design and being on the cutting edge and be thought leaders of those who utilize it. (Or whatever it may be.)

As a side note … let me say … if you stop learning that’s what I call being plateaued. In the medical community they would call that death. I kind of do too.

You won’t be spoon fed new skills by employers or clients. You’ll have to actively engage in learning new skills and building on others and actually put your life in drive.

So keep getting better and better, adding more and more skills in your arsenal.

Here are two general ways that I’ve seen personal success in adding skills:

Master the TOOLS of your craft

For people in our business typically that means mastering software or code. Software like Adobe Photoshop or code like PHP or Ruby on Rails.

Make sure you:

• Know them inside and out, backwards, forwards
• Get fast and efficient at them
• Learn all the shortcuts
• Stay ahead of what’s coming next with those tools — subscribe to the blogs, magazines, whatever you can to learn the latest tricks of that software

I got several jobs in my previous career because I knew and mastered one particular software application. What is it for your field? Seek those tools out and start learning them to add it all to your skills vault for your craft and passion.

By the way, for almost every professional … I highly suggest learning the software known as Google. Meaning specifically … learn how to Google to get the answers. It is a GREAT way to learn. If you have a question, Google probably has the answer. There’s probably a video tutorial on it, or a content-rich site about it … and Google can help you find it.

Google is a troubleshooting tool. It can even add, get the weather, and tell you the local time in Dubai.

Next, learn from the Masters of your craft

Find someone far far ahead of you and seek out their help and ongoing counsel. Be their apprentice, even if it means not getting paid! For a lot of people that means interning, or doing whatever you can to learn at the feet or in the shadows of some of the best in the business. I have frequently bought lunches and coffee for those I’m seeking advice and counsel from (although that’s not even a fraction of the value I get back out of it).

Find, follow and study the best in your field. Ask them how to get started and get better

Don’t just be inspired by the best … be MOTIVATED by the best to be better.  Don’t be intimated or give up because of how far ahead they are – those people spent YEARS and YEARS honing their craft, sharpening their sword, failing and learning and picking themselves up. They are the best because they didn’t give up!

There is no such thing as an overnight success. And it’s been said that it takes 10,000 hours to master success in a skill or field. I did some math and I’ve been doing this (startup entrepreneurship) for over 4 years now. At a minimum of 60 hours a week on average (and that’s on the low end), I’ve got around 12,000+ hours in this field.

And guess what? I still feel I’m not where I want to be. I’m not the best. I’m not even close.

I’m not even the best I WANT to be. I’m still chasing excellence with each and every step.

NEVER ever ever stop learning. Never settle for today’s best … or worse yesterday’s. That’s the path to complacency and mediocrity. And I don’t want to use the time and talents I’ve been given (and fostered) doing half-ass work.

Trust me … there will always be someone better, faster, even smarter, and often more naturally gifted than you. There is always be something new to learn.

So be on a lifelong quest of learning and applying that learning. Be a craftsman always sharpening his sword each and every day.

Honing your skills takes a lot of hard, consistent work. It ain’t easy. This is why I started this discussion with passion. That all consuming devotion to what you do will help keep you going when the crappy times come (and they will). Your passion drives your desire to learn more about it and to master it or seek to master it every day.

3. Seek Out Wisdom and Guidance

You need to find mentors and advisors in every facet and walk in life, not just your field … to walk with you.

I love having mentors and advisors because I get to learn from their pain and mistakes … at a fraction of the cost they paid to go through it.

My mentors are my counsel of elders for living a life of purpose and passion. I want people who have rich and diverse experiences and expertise … who graciously give it ALL away to me. I want mentors who want to leave a legacy within me.

Mentors are truth tellers. They aren’t like my mom who likes everything I do on Facebook. (Sorry Mom!) They don’t sugar coat the truth just to pacify your ego. They simply want the best for you.

Mentors help you see your blind spots as they help you get perspective. They are partners for life ….

• Sometimes they pick you up.
• Sometimes they pull you back down to reality.
• Sometimes they put their boot in your butt and a fire in your pants.
• Sometimes they walk beside you through the dark and scary times ….

Here’s how to find a good mentor:

• Identify, then observe potential mentors — see how they act when no one is looking. Now I’m not talking about stalking them. Merely observe how they act toward and around others
• Make sure they deserve to be your mentor – do they have an ego to be fed by you, or are they looking at multiplying their influence in the world through you
• They must first and only want your ultimate best – mentorship is about legacy, not selfish gain or ego
• Buy lunch or coffee on their terms – after you’ve identified someone you want to potentially be your mentor, seek out the easiest way on them to speak one-on-one. Don’t assume they have time to spend an afternoon with you. Work around their schedule.
• Start by asking them questions and heed their advice with action – show them you are willing to act and move on their advice
• Good mentors are teachers … who are learners — I’m not talking about educators, I’m talking about those who are actively seeking to get better and willingly sharing it with others. Good mentors pass it on and pay it forward.
• Again, respect and value their time!

The last parting thought about mentors is this … one day when you get ahead … commit to BE a mentor to someone else who asks!

4. Get Experience by Having Experiences

Next you also need EXPERIENCE … and EXPERIENCES. This is about USING your skills and passions in the real world. I want to see people who have been under “live fire” conditions — not simply someone who has sat in a classroom and learned the theory about it.

Live fire experience can also be baptism by fire. Being thrown into a situation and being forced to make the best of it. I love those experiences. I want to see how people will act and react. How will they work if they don’t have guidance? Or what if they don’t have all the tools they need? What will they do?

I want to see people who have had real live experiences like this.

This is why I like to throw our new developers into a scenario where they are forced to learn and get better … and typically that means pushing them to get their first theme or plugin out as soon as possible. (And trust me, when you put a product out that potentially thousands of people could hate, you get immediate feedback and are forced to learn on the fly.) After their first one — whether that fail, flop or fly — they are initially battled tested and through this process we learn a lot about them as they do themselves.

In college, I was frustrated by many of my friends who were 10 times smarter than I was, but who worked at Taco Bell at night. I thought it was a waste because they could make the same money working IN their field doing similar duties (yes, like taking out the trash).

Sometimes the best way to get those are by pro bono work (or dare I say free) in their field like an internship.

Needless to say you need a set of DIVERSE experiences so you also know what you like and don’t like.

Here’s some ideas for getting experience and experiences:

• Start somewhere, anywhere you can — At first, take what you can get and opens up to you. But try a variety of situations and work opportunities if you can (with the note of saying don’t job hop simply to job hop – leave every place you worked at better where your boss would want to hire you back)
• Doing free work at first – Yes sometimes you have to give your time away
• Get an internship – Not enough young people seek this out while going through formal education. That’s a waste. Even if it means answering phones or taking out the trash for a company doing work in the field you are most interested in. It’s a step IN the door that’s often the hardest.
• Doing the grimy sucky work of the craft — This could mean taking out the trash, or perhaps cleaning the bathroom. New team members here typically get tasked with fixing bugs and helping in our support forum. It’s one of the most valuable things we do for our customers but perhaps the hardest job in our business. If you survive and thrive in that, you’ve earned other opportunity here. It shows you want to be here and will do whatever it takes to make progress!

Let me give you an example of how I’ve done all of this:

I’ve helped my dad bag minnows in one family business and charged customers for it on Saturdays when other kids were out playing. I’ve swept floors, cleaned motorcycles, worked under the most hard-working, never-let-you-sit-down uncle in another. I’ve worked a state park job where I mowed (I’m asthmatic and have bad allergies) and worked with convicts.

While in khakis and a polo shirt at several jobs, I helped move furniture in the heat or other “manual labor” tasks others wouldn’t dare do in my spot … without complaint. I wanted to show them I was a hard worker and would do the work that needed to be done.

At almost every job, I noticed when my bosses came in and made sure I matched or exceeded it. I’ve also worked under terrible, mean-spirited, micro-managing bosses while being underpaid and underappreciated … but still gave my full day’s work to them and everything that asked of me.

Along the way though, positively, I gleaned a bunch of amazing contacts from people who sought to work with me (because I put in my time and gave my full attention to my job, seeking always to get better). I’m confident all my bosses would have hired me back. I sought to leave every job better than when I started. I also sought in each position — from the internship and jobs I held in college that helped me boost my career — to learn as much as I could from anybody willing to teach me.

By the time I started iThemes in 2008, I had held over 13 different job since I was 16. I knew what I liked, didn’t like, hated and LOVED. I had a wealth of experiences to bring into my new job as a full-time entrepereneur.

• You need to figure out what you DO and DON’T want to do. How you are best suited to work. What your strengths are and your weaknesses.
• You need to see how workplaces function.
• You should work in a big company and a super small startup or maybe something in between too if you can.
• You need to figure out how to be a professional and you do that by watching the real true pros.
• You need to learn the difference between reality and idealism.
• You need to learn how people value your skills … what price they assign to them.
• You need to know how money works — you need to see how money is made …. not just on a paycheck but how client work translates to revenue that provides for the paycheck.
• You need to see the bad, good and downright ugly — all of it.
• You need to watch and observe how others do the job you want to do — and how you can be even better!

Otherwise how will you know what’s really really good … or just disgusting awful?!

That’s one of the painful parts working with young people like we do (the average age of our team is about 27-28 or so): They don’t know the difference!

Experiences are simply water markers to gauge perspective and success in the future. They are case studies to fall back on.

And along the way of having these priceless experiences …. BE SURE to document the experiences in your field, following and chasing your passion …. so you know what you want out of it!

5. BE. READY.

So now …. if you have and are doing all of these things above — seeking passion, acquiring skills, gleaning wisdom from others and having diverse learning experiences … you are RIPE for opportunities to come your way.

Passion + Skills + Wisdom + Experiences = OPPORTUNITIES

I think those are necessary ingredients and prerequisites to not just starting a business … but living a life of purpose that makes a difference in the world … in your work!

Get and develop those things …. and trust me … opportunity will come.

Sooner or later, if you’re good and getting better … honing and mastering your craft …. collecting experiences and connections …. seeking wisdom from those with more experience and expertise … WHILE doing right by people …… there will be a glimmer of opportunity present itself to you at some point.

Do the first four and keep doing them … then be READY that opportunity.

All of this has been about building up to get that opportunity … to be READY FOR IT. So that when the opportunity presents itself …. you can jump in, hit go, push publish, launch, dive in.

I tell people that I was at the right time, at the right place … and I was READY for iThemes.

I was 31 years old when the opportunity to start iThemes opened to me. I spent the better part of my life building momentum, skills, experiences, connections … for THIS opportunity. I was impatient and ever frustrated. I used it all as wood for my fire to do what I have done since 2008. I channeled all of it …… for the events in 2007 and 2008 so that I could seize the opportunity that opened to me.

I like to use SURFING as an example for this. Surfers swim out into the ocean and wait and watch for that “big wave” … the perfect wave to come in. But what if the big wave comes in and they don’t know how to get up on the board?!

What if they haven’t honed their skills to ride that wave? What if they are on the wrong beach and haven’t sought out the veteran surfers to see where the best waves are?

The goal is to BE READY for your opportunity. And to do your homework and practice to find something that you love so much, and can be so dang good at … that someone will actually PAY you to do what you love each and every day.

So here’s my final word to you ….

The world needs you.

We need you.

I need you.

We — the watching world — need your gifts, your talents, your skills, your passions expressed through the unique lens of your life.

We are waiting for you to bloom and blossom and to share all of this awesomeness with us — whether it by through starting your own business or as a professional in your field.

We want to see the one-of-a-kind creative display of who you are and what you have to offer the world ….

So again ….

1. Find and follow your passion. Stoke the fire for your craft.
2. Don’t give up on learning and being better. Stay hungry for more.
3. Learn from the wisdom and experiences of others in order to go farther
4. Seek out your own experiences of the world to gauge it all for yourself
5. Then be on your toes and not on your heels …. READY to jump at what opportunities present themselves.

We are waiting for you …..

So here’s the deal ….. My question and challenge for you is this …..

What’s the NEXT step you’re going to take TODAY? To move forward your life and dreams forward.

Let me know how it goes!

***

[ DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS A FREE PDF EBOOK HERE ]

We use it to find out what they are great at and how we can fit that into the context of our team dynamics and to ensure they are in the best position for our company and themselves.

[ If you'd like to see a full presentation I gave on this subject for our LifeDev series at iThemes, click here ]

So What are Strengths?

According to author Tom Rath of StrengthsFinder, here is the formula for strengths:

Talent (a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving)
X Investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills and building your knowledge base)
= STRENGTH (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance)

StrengthsFinder includes 34 different themes aka strengths and based on more than 40 years of research and has been taken by over 4 million people.

How to Take the StrengthsFinder Assessment Tool

1. Buy the StrengthsFinder print book or Kindle version — in the print version the coupon code for the assessment will be in the back and if you buy the Kindle version, you’ll get a coupon emailed. The book is more a desk reference than a book you read from cover to cover. However, reading the introductory chapters will benefit you greatly.
2. Go to StrengthsFinder.com and set aside 30 minutes or so to take the test to get your Top 5 Strengths.

How We Use StrengthsFinder at iThemes

Matt, our COO, and I most likely currently get the most out of the assessments as we seek to lead the company … but here’s how we’ve integrated it into our teams:

• Every team member takes the StrengthsFinder assessment tool. Notice I didn’t say test, it’s a discovery tool not something you pass or fail. We have given away dozens of the books to those outside our team to help others learn more about themselves.
• Each person’s top 5 strengths are posted privately but for our entire team to see. This allows others and in particular their team lead to know what their strengths are and immediately use the book reference to find out more and how to work with them. Since we’ve been doing this for over 2 years now, we are starting to build contextual experiences with many of the strength themes and how they have played out for us.
• We try to do a quick session with the new team member to unpack it and giving examples and guidance from past experiences. We talk about how their strengths are used in their work here and how we can maximize it. We talk about others who share their strengths.
• It gives us a common language and context to talk about regularly. The veterans of the team are asked to share experiences. It is something our leadership team talks about often, especially when new team members arrive.

Here’s how we shake out with our top strengths as a group:

• 11 – Strategic
• 10 – Learners
• 8 – Relator, Individualization, Ideation, Input

One of the spinoff books in the strengths movement is: Strengths-Based Leadership …. with all of our strengths combined, we fall in the Strategic Thinking category of leadership.

Quick Tips for Getting the Most Out of Assessment Tools

Here are some quick thoughts and tips for using StrengthsFinder and other assessment tools:

• Remember they are simply tools - they cannot replace personal relationships, interactions and experiences. They are simply specific tools designed to highlight specific areas of personality or skill development.
• There is only one of you - no tools can adequately paint a picture of who you are. Even though the tools segment you into groups – in StrengthsFinder case it’s 34 themes – everybody is different. Put all of this in perspective as you use any tool like this.
• Understand and read about OTHERS too - don’t just read about your own, get to know other people’s profiles. This helps me not only understand myself but those I interact with on a daily basis.
• Find someone to talk with - from a colleague, partner or friend, get a buddy to be able to discuss your profiles and get feedback from.
• Have your significant other take them with you - this isn’t always an easy initial conversation but my wife and I have taken lots of these tools together and it provides a channel of communication to talk about them together – in order to better understand and love each other. Almost a day doesn’t go by that we don’t talk about one of the tools we’ve used from StrengthsFinder to 5 Love Languages.
• Check out the careers and relationships suggestions - in particular the Kiersey / Myers-Briggs Personality Tests have been almost spot on for the careers and positions I’ve found most enjoyable and attuned to who I am.
• Application is key - don’t take tests just to be a test junkie. Think about how they apply to your personal and professional life. How it helps explain certain situations or people, so you will be able to work better with them.
• Don’t go overboard - balance and moderation in most things is a wise rule of life. Just like lack of using your unique skills and personality causes problems, overcompensating does too. Find balance in your context, in the real world of daily life and see how they work out for you.

Here are some other assessment tools I’ve used or taken:

• Kiersey / Myers Briggs - took this in college and have come back to it almost every week since. I am an INFJ.
• 5 Love Languages - this is one of THE best tools for an intimate relationship. But I also see value for it in your profession. I am “Words of Affirmation”
• Standout - just like StrengthsFinder, it is a book with a code for the online assessment and author Marcus Buckingham was a Gallup researcher and writer and pioneer in the Strengths movement. I am a “Pioneer” and “Influencer.”
• Kolbe — I know very little about this one as I only took it this year. I’m a high “Quick Start” and essential or medium “Fact Finder.”

How about you? What has your experiences been with assessment tools like this? And what are your “types?” Post them in the comments below.

1. Assumptions and ideas are like farts in the wind. Do your due diligence. Then test everything. Beta test the big things. Get feedback. Iterate. But until you test your idea and get feedback, you’re simply looking at a crystal ball. We’re not fortune tellers or prophets.
2. People love and value transparency and communication. I’ve seen it in actual software and in our business whenever I’ve just humbly stood before our groups and just laid it out on the line for them. Cold, sometimes hard, direct, open and honest facts. And people ALWAYS respond to it.
3. People value open and honest input and feedback – but more importantly just acknowledgement. For the most part, “users” just want to know you’ve read through their issue, listened and sought to understand it. Even if you tell them, “No.” But whatever the case, you must acknowledge the input.
4. Some people will jump ship. You will lose people along the way no matter what you do (or don’t). Often, it is better and needed for the project to move forward. The faster you get the habitual-can’t-be-pacified haters out of your software the better. Yet I always listen and evaluate. These are often the most vocal, and bitter.
5. When TONS of people jump ship, you need to reevaluate what you’ve done. Massive unrest and unhappiness is a sign of something bigger. It’s likely you’ve missed something core in your software that fundamentally needs to be addressed and quickly. Or likely that you are hitting the reset button and seeking to chart new territories. Of course, one person yelling as loud as 50 people doesn’t count.
6. Forks happen. Just like shit. Some people get really pissed off and decide to fork your software and compete directly with you. Sometimes they just need a reason to poop on you. It’s all in a day’s work.
7. Competition keeps you honest and sharp. Knowing that others want your customers and team and actively courting them helps keep you honest and relevant and innovative and sensitive with ears open to needed improvements and innovations.
8. People want to belong and contribute to something bigger than themselves. See: The open source software movement and specifically WordPress. They will work harder, longer and be more happy when they are giving of their time and talents to other people, things, organizations, processes, movements, whatever, that make a difference in people’s lives and where they see their contribution making an impact. We’ve seen it in our software support forums — users helping other users because they believe in the product. The same is true for businesses with heart, soul and a compelling vision of the future.

How else is business like software development?

However, for the past four-plus years I’ve been around and worked with software developers and programmers and I continue to learn more and more about the process and principles behind good software management. Our team has also shipped well over 180 software projects (merely called themes and plugins) to date and have thousands of customers around the globe interacting with them.

I’ve seen big software launches (Builder and BackupBuddy), with our developers hustling to fix bugs and support team scrambling to answer questions and respond to issues like it was a city-wide fire … as well as regular time updates to software with new features and innovations to improve what we’re doing. Along the way I feel I’ve gotten a flow or feel for how it all works. What to expect (the unexpected, unimaginable). How long things should take (always longer than expected or desired). I’ve seen the formula work and the formula fail.

But even though I am not a programmer, throughout all this I can’t help but see the parallels between business startups and growth (or lack thereof) and my experience leading teams that build software and seeing how customers react to it. The actual experience and the approach distilled down by programmers (far more brilliant than I) is really an excellent way to look at it all. (And how I’m increasingly looking at my own life as well.)

The quote by E-Myth author Michael Gerber that has become the entrepreneurs mantra is: Work ON the business not IN it. And that’s where I think software development can add some great value and perspective — evaluating the processes and systems you have in place to output the desired results.

But note: I’m not talking about the actual software that might actually be used and run in our business. It’s a metaphor for approaching your business as a whole and how you build something of value that people will pay for and tweak it as you grow.

Here’s my thoughts on approaching your business like we approach software development:

For the past couple of months I’ve been thinking (and now sharing with our team) how our overall business is just like the software products we build and ship.

iThemes as a company is currently at version 4.3 or something like that now as a company. (We started in January 2008 so I simply said 4.3 because it’s the third month of the fourth year.)

Our Beta was the first 6-9 months of our business. This is where we actually saw whether or not people would pay for our products. We started to get in the black around month 6, when we hired our first actual employee. This is a nerve racking yet fun time of seeing whether our idea had wings.

In actual software development, we’ve had tons of “brilliant” or even “good” ideas. But we don’t know whether a product will be a hit or flop until we test the idea. This is where “little bets” come into play. Making assumptions and testing them in a way that doesn’t sink everything else we’re doing.

Now we’ve had major changes, or releases, in who we are and what we do since the launch of our company. With each new version release of our company’s direction, we’ve had people who decide it was for them or had to make hard decisions when expectations and direction didn’t match the output we were getting. We’ve had to pivot and pull back and try again because we were moving in the wrong direction.

No matter what you do some people will leave. They won’t like it. They have their own ideas and plans and values about the way your business (your software) should be run. That goes for both customers and employees. This is also what I call life.

I’ve had to learn the hard way that not everyone will love or even like everything you do. Sometimes they won’t even love or like 50% of what you do. But as with good software development I’ve seen, you have to do what’s ultimately best for the most people. This is called leading.

In business as in software, you figure out if your plan and thoughts and leadership was right, if people come back or connect in and follow you where you’re leading.

But also some “features” or divisions or products or ideas we’ve had have plainly flopped. For fear of depression, I don’t want to count the failed projects we’ve started in the business (mostly at my guidance). Sometimes your best laid plans just fail miserably. Crickets chirp.

I remember numerous times as we released software products with features we just KNEW people who love … only to see customers actually rave about something we put in as an afterthought.

But you only know until you put your version out there. That’s why we say “launch and learn.” Ship good products and make them better and better over time and with customer input.

In the case of business, your partners, customers and most importantly team give you feedback on what’s working. As the entrepreneur and leader, it’s my job to take all this input into account, weigh it according to priority, importance and how it fits with the vision and direction I’m leading … then make a decision on the next version of the business.

Like software, it’s done in incremental improvements. It’s like the software principle of “Iterate fast and release often.”

It’s mostly little tweaks to the operating system. Sometimes big ones, but from week to week, it’s small incremental changes to all we do.

A business like software is a living organism, always changing, always adapting, always seeking to be and do better. If it’s not iterating and adapting, it’s likely to end up doomed, shelved and dusty software. It’s outdated software that no one will use. Just like the old hard drives or floppy disks you might find at a garage sale. Irrelevant.

So the goals is … getting better and better with each new version of your business. Learning from your mistakes and missteps (and trust me, I’ve had my fair share). Understanding your customer and team and what works now, while looking on the horizon and anticipating the roadmap and schedule for the next iteration of your business.

Of course along the way, we have have found our share of bugs.

All honest and good software programmers will tell you that EVERY piece of software on the planet has bugs in it. (Yes, everything has bugs in it. No actual software is immune. Even the one your son did.)

Like software and every business in existence, we have issues. We have bugs in our system. We aren’t immune or perfect, far from it. But we seek to prioritize the bugs reported (by our team and customers) and deal with them accordingly.

Some bugs don’t get resolved immediately, others can and do. Some, like just certain problems with our products, don’t have easy solutions and perplex us. The leadership team’s responsibility (like the lead developer) is to identify problems (with the help of our people) and solve them as best we can for the next iteration of our team and business.

All of it is educated guesses. You take everything into account, gather the essential data you need to make decisions, maybe beta test it with certain groups (like team leads) and push forward with a new release when all looks good.

It involves launching those fixes and testing them, and starting the process over again. It never ends. You must find what works and what doesn’t. What needs your immediate attention and focus while also peering out onto what looms out in the distance. Prioritizing all of it according to importance and need, with the direction and vision you’re point it to. But the focus is always pushing the software product — the company — forward to enduring success toward our mission and goals.

I’ve heard it said that good software takes 10 years.

For startups, mileage varies.

We are currently on year 4. And I’ve heard the life cycle of a business is now around 20 years. Companies must continually reassess, refocus, reinvent. We’re working hard to build new features (leadership structure as well as improved products and services), tweak and stabilize existing code and make bug fixes as they arise (culture, processes and people all need refinement), while looking to the next innovations in what we’re doing and who we’re serving.

If the Internet and the software business has told me anything, as much as we must continually improve and consistently innovate with our products and services … the same is true for our business.

The work is never done.

But put in perspective, looking at it like good software development, helps me understand what we’re building to — incremental version releases to improve the core product, our business, for our customers, while working toward an unrealistic, perfect and idealistic final product that we’ll never actually exist.

So here’s to version 4.4 of our product that we’re working to roll out next month!

***

I’m going to share heresy with you. Here are my five tips for helping designers become entrepreneurs … but more so living life without regrets, while changing the world for the better.

1. Work is your life’s masterpiece. (Or one of them!)

I love work. It’s not a four-letter word to me.

Work should be fun. It should be a blast. People occasionally ask me about my “hobbies” and I always looked stumped. I usually say I don’t have any because I have a job that consumes me and spend my time honing my skills to get better at it or learn more for it.

Work should be the profitable pursuit of passion and purpose. Work should align with passion and purpose in life. It should sync and fit your unique skills, strengths and gifts.

Seek to find that type of work that fits you.

If you are in a job that doesn’t or sucks or drains the life out of you (and your passion), CHANGE IT.

When I hated my job, or maxed it out, I found a new one. Before iThemes I averaged about two years on a job before it lost its flavor (but always left in good standing with my bosses). And even now I’m always constantly seeking to align my own passion and purpose and strengths with my work.

In regards to entrepreneurship, I always ask aspiring entrepreneurs about their life goals and objectives first, before getting into the mechanics of starting a business.

The key question is: What are your life goals and how do you best achieve them? Is it through a job or a business? Which one will help you meet those goals and live your dreams? Whatever the answer is – do that.

Sometimes it might be better to get a job and work for someone else …. but if you like to create your own job and future, check out entrepreneurship.

When I started iThemes in 2008, I set to create work and a work environment that I loved and would thrive working in. That’s the beauty of being an entrepreneur — you create your future.

2. Perfectionism is evil.

I love artists and designers and developers. I enjoy working with them to see their talent released for the world to see.

But most creative types have this disease called perfectionism.

I say it is evil because it can stop you from ever letting the world see your true talent and gift with them. This quote by Albert Schweitzer says it best:

“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”

As artists and designers, you need to learn how to ship. Or else your gift dies in you. And if you only enjoy your gift, then that’s selfish. The world needs you to share you and your work.

Sometimes you need to ship your “good enough” stuff.

In the early days of our business, if we hadn’t shipped “good enough” stuff, we would have ran out of cash and run away. We ship good stuff, and make it better and better with time.

As a designer-entrepreneur, if you don’t ship, you don’t get paid. Period. That’s called a starving artist and a waste.

This is a hard pill to swallow for artists. But it’s reality. Don’t waste what awesomeness you have to offer the world.

3. You need people, dummy.

Most talented artists I’ve met tend to be extremely independent minded. You like your silos. You like your islands. You don’t play well with other people.

But the fact is … you really need people — and lots of people.

You need people who buy your stuff. You need people who sell your stuff. You need people to help you do your taxes, or help you learn to ship and keep you accountable.

We found this African proverb that we use prolificly in our business:

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

We go together. So will you, despite your irrational thoughts to the contrary, ESPECIALLY if you’re going to create a business around your work.

We’ve probably all been around the supremely talented designer who couldn’t get along with the chair he sat in because his ego was so big.

Don’t be that person.

Value people. And they will value you.

4. Passion + Purpose + Profit

It takes all three to have a business.

Passion is this:

Light yourself on fire and people will come watch you burn.

As a creative type, you hopefully have a burning passion about your work by default. (If not, get one or pivot and find it.)

Follow your passion. Share your passion. And find out how to channel your passion in profitable, world changing ways.

When I started to share the core values and philosophies we held dear in our business, it took off. We built fans, who paid us money to keep doing what we love. It was a true catalytic moment in our business. People want to follow those who believe in something enough to stand up for it.

Be bold. Make waves. But do it all in the right way.

Be uniquely you. Just don’t be an idiot doing it.

Purpose is about offering something of value to the world, or your little part in it. It’s about doing something bigger than yourself. Your work can be bigger than you if it impacts people’s lives in meaningful ways.

Business MUST be about profit. We must earn money to keep the lights on and pay the bills, but business is also about making meaning in the world.

5. Now is the time. Now.

Not tomorrow. Not five weeks from now. Today.

As I talk to young people (or those of any age) I believe NOW, today is the best time to start building the momentum toward starting a business.

The college students I talked to today have a great opportunity and advantage …. coming out of college they have little overhead, low financial burn.

Fact is, if they fail they can always go can live with their parents.

They don’t have mortgages or kids. They are young and if they fail, they have a longer runway to fix it for next time.

I also caution people though … that there are no overnight successes. It’s a myth.

Everybody starts somewhere. Everybody builds on their relationships, experiences and expertise to BE READY to push launch on their business dreams when the opportunity arises and the planets align.

I spent 15 -plus years building momentum to what I’ve started at iThemes. It didn’t magically happen. It was the culimination of my life aimed at that one purpose: to start a business.

So start NOW building the resources, connections, experience and expertise you need to do what you want to do in business and with your life. Get ahead of everybody else. Be focused. Redeem the time and opportunities you have to get the steam you need to start the adventure.

It also means being ready.

Then when the moment arrives to build something bigger than yourself that changes the world … you’re ready for the adventure.

***

Homework: Yes, I gave them homework and you too …. what is the one small risk you can take today that forces you to step a little outside of your shell, in order to do what you really want to do?

Write it down. Put a date on it to do by.

Then share it with someone who will light a fire under your butt and nag you to get it done.

#lifewithnoregrets