“We need a flier (brochure, website, logo),” is how most design projects are initiated. That’s when the possibilities start to dissolve.

Maybe it’s a mandate from on high.

Maybe it’s what you’ve done every year.

Maybe you hope the flier will clarify what you want to accomplish. But that’s backwards.

Even when you really know you need a website or an annual report or an event logo, you should first ask why.

A brochure or a flier is merely a form — the what. They are just vehicles for your message.

The form could be writing in the sky.

The form could be a wine and cheese party with a presentation.

The form could be a short video.

Don’t limit the possibilities by starting with the what. Since you (as the client) are always right, you might get just what you ask for. But the most beautiful flier in the world can’t make up for the lack of why.

Even if you do describe the function as well as naming the form, you still risk thinking in limiting terms. You’ll always see a flier as a two-sided piece of paper folded in thirds. You’ll always see an annual report as an accounting of numbers. Maybe the flier can also be a lampshade. Maybe the annual report can also be an invitation (invitation in a broad sense, not a literal event).

Start with why. Now there’s potential for surprise or clever reuse or delight.

This new approach has a built-in problem though. What exactly do you ask for? How do you budget for why rather than what? How can you ask for a cost estimate if there’s no what to describe?

It requires a shift in thinking.

You’ll see design as a way of thinking, a problem-solving tool — not an end in itself, a poster or a website. This shift in thinking might cause you to hire different people, to ask different questions, to engage in a different way than you had before.

The end result might still be a logo, but now you’ll see the logo not as colors and fonts but as a container for your values and aspirations in a way you hadn’t before.

Designer Yves Behar of FuseProject told an interesting story at a sustainable design conference called Compostmodern. As a partnering design firm with Puma, he and his design team noticed that the plastic sleeves that t-shirts arrived in from the manufacturer could be folded just one more time, making the plastic sleeve smaller, thereby reducing waste and saving Puma tons of money. This was able to happen because of the unique relationship between the design firm and Puma that gave designers access to the inner workings of the company.

This ingeniously simple solution came about by chance and because the why was about a sustainability, not about redesigning t-shirts.

On your next project, let the form remain a blank slate until you’re really sure what the function is.

See related posts:

• The Tree of So-So? Or the Forest of Effective.

• Design Briefs: Don’t Get Caught Without Them

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(Image credit: Flickr / Amanda Wood, under a Creative Commons license)

It doesn’t matter if it’s a report, a marketing brochure, a workshop description or a fact sheet. It doesn’t matter if the reader is a committed, in-your-camp devotee. It doesn’t matter how much you think they need your information or how interesting it is.

Why is focusing on benefits so hard?

It’s easy to dismiss the conventional wisdom that people make emotional decisions.
But we do, then we back them up with rationale. Sometimes we have to, but our brains als0 require it. All humans want to reduce pain. Pain can be a wish for more free time, a fear of looking stupid on a dance floor or a need to feel confident in our work.

Stating benefits requires taking a stance.
Taking a stance is scary. Features are just objective statements. But benefits require you to know why you exist, what people need from you and what you’re trying to accomplish. These, and more, make up your road map. Without a road map, you will experience difficulty and discomfort every time you sit down to write. Who needs that?! Dry facts and features won’t carry our vision along; benefits will.

We don’t think our audience really needs it.
It’s easy to think that your particular information will sell itself. Or that your project doesn’t require emphasizing benefits. But if you think of benefits beyond the standard bullet list, and instead as a way to connect to what people care about and why, you will win a set of return eyeballs, a supporter, an advocate, a future customer.

What can you do?

Tie a tangible benefit to each feature.
Think of features in a broad sense: “We’re the only organization fighting for the rights of sea monkeys” is a feature. Then go further and imagine the ultimate outcome, the one big reason why someone needs your service or information. People ultimately desire things like:

• Feeling safe
• Feeling valued or good about themselves
• Feeling confident and smart
• Saving or making money (so they can________)
• Having freedom or more free time (so they can__________)
• Feeling challenged
• Belonging (so they can not feel alone, so their life can have more meaning, so they can________)

You don’t literally need to  say, “so you can feel confident and smart.” Instead, you’re using this new context to shape your copy, which might be a list but will more likely be fluid content.

Pick the right approach for your specific needs.
For one audience or project, you might eliminate features altogether (features broadly means dry, objective facts). For another, you might focus on benefit-rich copy, including features in sidebars. For another, you might do the reverse, focus on facts and features while benefits play a supporting role.

You have to pick the right approach that matches your desired outcome. It’s not enough to think, “people need this great information” or “this is what we want people to know.” Help them see why.

Put yourself in their shoes.
Picture Dan receiving your new report on Blue Widgets. He’s got a pile of work and 50 unread emails. He’s curious to read the report because he’s got some exciting ideas to suggest, but he dreads plowing through it. Knowing that Dan has a potential valuable contribution to make, how will you cater to his “pain” so you both benefit?

Hire a professional.
When we’re too close to our own work, we can’t see clearly. An objective voice asks challenging questions that move us to a better place. If budget is a concern, explore benefits on your own, then hire a good copywriter to transform your raw materials to shape a good story.

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“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious,
too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—
waiting for a gift from the sea.“
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh

And you? Where do you go? The museum? The shower? A bike ride?

Working smarter often involves working harder at first, but not harder on the same old stuff. Working smarter means putting systems in place that conserve time, energy and money. But that work often means asking hard questions. Otherwise we would set up resource-saving systems more often.

Which brings me to marketing budgets. It’s easy to squander time and money, equally valuable assets.

We all do it. It’s hard not to. Being organized and clear takes effort.

The problem is, we also lament that we have no time or money to get the job done the right way. The right way:

• Meets a short- or long-term goal

• Changes a behavior for the better through our work

• Gains a prospect

• Closes a sale, or

• Fills a workshop….to name a few.

In other words, we create convenient blind spots. But you can’t progress with blind spots. And the bigger the organization, the easier it is to keep getting derailed.

Not too long ago, I declined to submit a proposal to an organization I would have liked to work with. Their budget was fairly small, yet they required a cost estimate for 12 rounds of corrections. They should have needed only two or three. They lightheartedly confessed to too many cooks in the kitchen. This is no laughing matter, especially when resources are precious. Instead of putting their resources towards a well-conceived and executed effort, they put them towards poor planning, beaurocracy, and mistakes. Even worse, they were planning for the negative instead of the positive.

I want to help people succeed, not be party to their failure.

This first month of the new year is a perfect time to start spending your precious resources on the right stuff. To do that, apply some of these questions to single projects or your overall business goals.

Can this project or effort do double duty? Can your annual report function like a year-round marketing tool? Can a piece be transformed by the recipient to be reused? The result could be extra kudos, new customers, more free time, or saved money. My approach is to ask the kind of questions that find overlooked opportunities.

Do you have a system for evaluating your efforts? Soft results like a compliment are just as valuable as hard results like numbers. But how are you getting them? Websites have user logs, but is someone reviewing them? What if it’s not a website? A simple analog system to track how people found you is better than nothing. Remember, your budget is limited; you want to know how and why you’re successful…or not.

Are you meeting people where they are? Is your ideal client really on Twitter? Or are they sitting in the waiting room of a yoga center? Are they at beer and wine festivals or are they on LinkedIn, or both? Sometimes you have to be in many places at once till you figure that out. And if you have to be in many places at once, what kind of strategy are you using to conserve your time while being interesting, useful and friendly?

Have you done your homework? It doesn’t matter if you’re hiring a web designer, a business coach, a copywriter or a marketing person. Have you asked enough questions or are you blindly trusting? (Hint: I love when people ask questions. Be demanding. Be curious. Educated clients command great work!)

Do you know who you are and what you’re trying to achieve? I mean, do you really know? Or has it gotten lost in the shuffle? Are you on auto pilot? Are you doing things they way they’ve always been done? Can you post your values or goals on a wall?

Finally, what do you need help with and what can you do yourself? Where do you get the most stymied? Some people need higher-level thinking and strategy. Some need physical tools like a branding system or templates. Some need a marketing plan.

Get clear on what you can do versus what you should invest in so you can get your systems in place.

So you can protect your resources.

So you can spread your magic.

“Ship often. Ship lousy stuff, but ship. Ship constantly.” —Seth Godin

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Diving in head first not only goes against conventional wisdom, but it goes beyond most people’s comfort zones.

We’re always told to plan, to be level headed, to be prudent, to be structured. The only problem is that our fear, doubt, procrastination, worry, perfectionism, definitions of success (add as necessary) trick us into staying put. But we believe that our delay is really prudence.

The irony is that it often takes doing something first before we can figure it out.

Not the other way around.

We wait for the epiphany or the permission or the consensus from the committee.

We wait for the degree or the store front or the perfect date on the calendar.

Waiting and delay kills the energy needed to launch into that activity. Delay is the perfect open door for energy-sucking doubt to creep in.

Do-first-figure-it-out-later is not a good idea if:

• You could lose your shirt because shipping it required a lot of money

• You could lose enormous amounts of time by putting the cart before the horse

• You’re not clear about who you are and what you have to offer

• You’re not in sync with your values, intentions or interests or those of the company you work for

You usually know as much or more than you need to know for taking that first step. You are more likely to discover better ways to enhance that service or product by first trying it out than you would if you had planned, planned, planned. You now have new information to go on that you didn’t have before.

The truth is, there’s a lot of schlock out there. Delayers are usually the most conscientious ones. They care about making it right. So if you’re delaying announcing that workshop you haven’t fleshed out, or offering that new service that lacks details, or testing that product on a group before it’s perfect, just know that your effort will be better than most. Offer a discount if it makes you feel better.

The key is movement. Movement triggers other actions, ideas and improvements.

So, what’s on the ship list? What step can you take?

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(Image credit: Flickr creative commons / skipnclick)

My mother likes to tell people what I said about chemistry class, “I don’t know why anyone would care about the rate of a reaction. I don’t even care about the reaction itself.”

This, coming from the daughter of two biochemists.

I’ve always loved science, but failing at one type forever brands you a flunkie.

And yet, I’ve spent more hours than I can count creating science on the stove, in the oven and, unfortunately, in the fridge of the bluish-green variety.

Chemistry was never so fun than at a recent cheesemaking class with cheese whiz Mary Rosenblum (and science-fiction author). Thanks to SlowFood Portland (organizers) and to Chef Robert Reynolds Chef Studio (use of space).

It helps that Mary has a casual swagger in the kitchen and is a most generous teacher, making you feel as though her 20 years of cheesemaking could be yours if you allowed yourself to experiment and not worry too much. Suddenly, the rate of the reaction and especially the reaction are interesting, and not just because you get to eat the results. Alas, Mary is a storyteller, a science-fiction one at that. I found myself on the edge of my seat wanting to know how the milk thickened.

Most of all, the way Mary taught cheesemaking is how I feel about cooking. It’s not that complicated, mistakes aren’t the end of the world (in fact they’re good teachers), it’s fun and creative. If we demystified cooking, more people would do it.

Among what I learned was:

• A local source for pasture-raised milk, which will produce a better cheese. Or buy raw milk.

• Since spring milk tastes better, you can buy a lot and freeze it. But that shouldn’t stop you from making cheese any time.

• Feta lasts as long as a year if it’s in brine. Mary packs her feta, as well as the soft mold cheese we made, in jars with garlic cloves and olive oil. Great gift idea.

• You don’t have to go nuts with sanitation in the kitchen. Just use common sense. Example: don’t pet the cat and then stick your hands in the cheese.

• Feed your mistakes to your chickens or your neighbors chickens. They’ll love it.

• Do get yourself a cheese thermometer though, as they have finer increments of degrees than a candy thermometer.

• Most store-bought milk has stabilizers that increase shelf life, even organic milk, but produce lesser quality cheese.

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Ricotta Cheese
by Mary Rosenblum

1. Heat a gallon of whole or skim milk on the stove to at least 190 degrees. Remove from heat.

2. Use either 1/4 cup of vinegar or lemon juice, or 1 teaspoon of tartaric or citric acid dissolved in water, and add to the milk. Wait till you see the curd start to separate from the whey (which will be clear). Stir very gently to incorporate the acid into all the milk but be careful not to break up the curds too much. Add more acid if solids don’t separate.

3. When cool enough, drain the curds through a wet, boiled or microwaved muslin (or some other thin clean cotton). It’s okay to let the curds and whey sit overnight.

4. Rinse curds under water if you want to remove the vinegar or lemon flavor. Alternately, you can add a lemon rind for flavor.

5. Refrigerate or freeze. Ricotta is one of the few cheeses that freeze well. Use in any recipe calling for ricotta.

How easy is that?

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Consider becoming a member of SlowFood Portland for other events like this.

When one door is closed, don’t you know, another is open. —Bob Marley

With the closing of the year, December is a perfect time to consider the doors you’re keeping open, the doors you have yet to open and, often more importantly, the doors to consider closing. Not slamming. Not locking. Just closing. (You can always reopen them.)

I talk a lot about closing doors so you can open others, not because it’s easy for me to do! It’s because I know it has to be done in order to conserve energy, create success, explore new opportunities and maintain enthusiasm for your work.

We keep doors open that are better shut, and for good reason.

We fear a potential loss. We’re hard-wired to avoid loss, a concept called loss aversion. Barry Schwartz talks about it in his book, “Paradox of Choice.” Even if a loss will really be our gain, we often make decisions that don’t benefit us because the primal part of our brain kicks in. Just by knowing this, you can override that automatic response and make a different decision.

You will always have a loss, but you will always have a gain, too. The problem is, the gain is unknowable and the thing we have is knowable. It might suck, but at least it’s familiar. We also don’t want to disappoint people, another form of loss aversion.

Opening a new door takes energy and time. Yes and no. It depends on the door. Most of us are so risk averse that we’re not likely to open a brand new door so wide that an ocean of possibility rushes in that we suddenly have to deal with. And remember that we’re also closing doors.

We have to figure out what we want. Many of us work on auto pilot and we also do what is nearest or easiest or most crisis-oriented. We rarely leave time for the kind of reflection that can open up new opportunities. This affects all of us — the in-house marketing or project manager, the sole proprietor, the small business owner.

Other people are involved. If you work for or with other people, closing doors might be a little trickier. You have to justify a change. But maybe your staff plugging away at an effort that isn’t beneficial. Or you’re working with companies that don’t bring out the best in you. Maybe you can’t seize another opportunity because your time and effort is tied up elsewhere. You might need to step up and gently closes a door.

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Years ago, I got rid of a large part of my book collection. I thought it was sacrilege but I wanted to simplify my surroundings. I created three piles: Keep, Get Rid Of and Maybe. I let the Maybe pile sit for a few days. I discovered I kept books I thought I should read but didn’t really want to. They were a cognitive drain. I got clear with what I was really curious about, what made me feel expanded and what I deeply wanted to learn, which meant having to acknowledge the opposite.

Business and work decisions are more complicated than books. But most likely, you don’t need to think about which doors to close; you already know what they are. Look at your business efforts that leave you anxious, frustrated, bored, unappreciated, angry or uncertain. The doors to open? They say those will open magically, but only when you’re courageous enough to close some first.

You have good and important things to offer. You have to make sure that the right doors are open for those things (and the right people) to move freely about.

Good luck! And if you have a good door-closing story to share, I’d love to hear it.

It is always easier to do than to plan to do. We often have an internal knowing about where we’re going and what we want to accomplish, whether it’s a visionary decision or just a project. So we skip the kinds of meaningful questions that help us chart the best path.

But that’s because the questions can stop you in your tracks (proof that you’re getting somewhere!) because they’re hard to answer. They involve having to think critically about who you are and why you do what you do. They call to mind selling and marketing, which most of us avoid.

But most of all, we’re not clear about who we’re walking towards. Or we’re walking towards everyone and no one.

As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Only that phrase has a negative focus. What if, instead, you viewed questions that help you plan for success as a fun and revealing exercise?

I have a confession to make. When I’m working on my own projects, I try to skip the planning process I make clients go through.

Then I turn back around and start where I should have started.

And then I have a good laugh at myself for thinking I can construct the walls of a house without first giving it a foundation.

Maybe we feel pressure from our boss. Or there’s an event coming up and we need materials for it quickly. Or we’ve lingered too long with a bad logo, a confusing company name or zero marketing. We just want to dive in and get started.

We are all pressed for time. But here are three truths of skipping a discovery process:

• It wastes much more time than it takes.

• You lose out on the ah-has that take you from so-so to really effective.

• You remain confused and efforts become ad hoc rather than deliberate, thereby sapping your enthusiasm.

Do this: Pick any endeavor in your work right now and apply these questions. Commit them to paper so they are free from your mind, allowing you to create space for new ideas to flow. Play with it and don’t worry about getting it perfect. Do this especially if you tend to avoid this kind of process.

• Who do I need to reach that matters the most?

• What do I want them to do, feel and think? What action do I want them to take?

• What is their pain point (their biggest challenge or struggle)?

• How will I know if I was successful in my efforts?

• Why am I doing this? Is it even needed?

• Does this effort or project directly support my overall goals? (And what are those goals anyway?)

• What is the one single message I want delivered? And is this the only or the best way to deliver it?

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You’ll notice I started with two questions that refer to the people you’re trying to reach. When you frame any business action around your essential people (not all people, only those who matter most to your business), everything else flows from there. It forces you to pick sides. This can be scary and difficult. In some cases, there is more than one type of person or audience. That’s okay. Knowing who they are helps you shape the right messages.

Focusing specifically on who you serve requires bravery because it often means closing doors to keep the right ones open to the right people.

Even if you’re clear on who you serve, are you sure you know what motivates them, what they fear, what they most need? (more on this in a future post)

Your energy is precious and your product or service is valuable. You have to make sure your efforts are guided by those you want to serve most. If you can picture your prospects or customers as real live people, all of a sudden marketing to them seems less like a burden and suddenly more fun. But first you have to reveal who they are and then reveal what they need most.

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Or, instead, do you coast along and hope that something appealing will snag you, or that you’ll an opportunity will drop at your feet?

Personally, neither sounds appealing, at least not all the time.

But there’s another option — a hybrid of the two. It can take some of the heat off if you feel like you fall into either of those categories. Or especially if you bounce back and forth between the two.

In Steve Jobs’ now famous Stanford speech, he talked about connecting the dots.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect the dots looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.”

If that sounds a little woo-woo, remember we’re talking about a great designer, marketer and businessperson. If it’s good enough for Apple, it’s good enough for your business or life.

Why is this a hybrid of the two extremes?

Because there’s a dose of intention mixed with believing. Jobs obviously didn’t succeed by this alone. He worked really hard. This hybrid approach frees you from worrying that you’re spinning your wheels or taking the wrong path.

Worrying depletes valuable energy best spent on the dot itself, or the next dot and the one after that.

But it does require that you intentionally engage with people or in activities or business ideas that align with your interests and values. If you do this, you’ll almost never go wrong.

You also have to apply some common sense if something requires a big investment where you could lose your shirt. But don’t use investment (time or money) as an excuse until you know what loosing your shirt actually means to you.

Sometimes this intention/believing mix is only about:

• having that conversation
• fleshing out that new service
• toying with that joint venture
• taking that workshop you keep forgetting to sign up for
• submitting that article
• doing that thing that seems a little hard or awkward at first
• asking for that help
• doing that thing you fear others will think is stupid
• expressing that personality you keep squelching (even your business personality)
• launching that thing that isn’t quite ready for prime time

Waiting for something to just happen or waiting till you’re inspired means missing out on taking a not well-worn path that could lead to something great. There’s an inherent aliveness in believing the dots will connect. It means that every person you speak to, every thing you read, every place you go, can suddenly take on new meaning. It doesn’t mean you have to work any harder. It just means that you’re consciously open to it possibly going somewhere.

And if it doesn’t? You haven’t wasted much time.

Try this.

Pick any one thing you’ve done (big or small) and go over in your mind the seemingly trivial dots that led you there. Don’t forget to notice the indirect paths, the random introductions. Maybe you’ll recall almost not doing something that, had you not, wouldn’t have led to meeting so and so.

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{image credit: Flickr / Diane Cordell}

Think about your typical day and all the actions you take, the opinions you have, the advice you give, the troubles you troubleshoot. We all have blinds spots when it comes to what comes naturally. We don’t realize there is value in that pool of deep knowledge or interest we’ve spent years cultivating. We don’t think that sharing or selling that advice or information is a possibility. You might be thinking, “It’s just how I do my job.” Or, “Who would want to know that?”

• Have you ever been put through the ringer and lived to tell about it? People want to learn from your mistakes.

• Can you teach someone what you know (without fearing you’ll lose a potential customer)?

• Do you know a few things about industries that sit just outside yours that you can share with customers or prospects?

You’ve probably heard of content marketing. It’s a way of marketing that gives (or sells) relevant and well-crafted information to customers and prospects as a way of building loyalty. It’s based on the belief that a well-educated customer is a good one. It can also mean engaging customers in a way that invites participation.

The opposite of content marketing is solely selling one’s products or services to the exclusion of any useful information that informs or entertains. It can sometimes mean bludgeoning people to death with ads and promos.

Content marketing is about a slower trickle of good information and conversation leading to better and maybe repeat customers down the road. It might take longer but it’s worth it. This happens by establishing yourself as a go-to person. Before you discount yourself as an industry go-to person (or thought leader), remember that you only have to reach who you want to reach. People are hungry for help and information, and having relationships with businesses they buy from.

What comes back to you might travel a wacky, indirect path. It’s about putting something out into the universe and not being sure how you’ll reap the reward.

It’s not a new concept, but it’s one that’s taken hold and made easier by social media and other online tools that allow you to reach anyone, anywhere. That’s the best part; it’s democratic. Anyone can play because there is little to no financial barrier to entry. It only requires:

• believing in and capturing your vast body of knowledge (see below)

• setting up the systems that work for you

• creating a voice that fits with your brand and being consistent about output

Businesses are doing this through social media sites, webinars, telecalls, e-newsletters and much more. It does not have to be complicated.

You can start small and add to your effort.

If this is new to you or the technology or systems seem daunting to set up, start by keeping a list, and throughout your day, make note of the following:

• Compliments you receive

• Things you’re always educating people about

• Things that bother you about your profession

• Systems or processes you’ve set up that work well for you

• Struggles you’ve encountered in your life and work, and how you overcame them

• What you hear others say about their own challenges

• What’s missing out there as you search for help or information

• Examples of businesses outside your profession that are thought leaders

Don’t edit yourself. Once you start a list like this, you will keep adding to it. You’ll stop taking for granted all the things you know and do and can offer the world. And you’ll begin to see ways that you can extend your current services to start engaging people on a different level.

Have questions about how you can implement this stuff? Let me know.