Digital Hitchhiker

I’m a big fan of stickers, I love getting stickers from businesses and brands. They are low cost and easy to get printed. That’s why one of the first things I did when I started LooseKeys and got going with the HopCast was to make stickers. Some of the stickers are just the logos but the ones that people really love are the illustrated characters. They are a lot more fun then just a simple logo sticker and often instead of giving out business cards, I hand out the illustrated stickers of myself to people.

What’s great about stickers is where they end up. I’m really not out there putting them up anywhere since most of the time you don’t want to get busted for vandalizing property or public spaces. Still somehow they end up all the over the place. Sometimes they are in fun places that a ton of people will see like the bathroom at Pizza Port in San Diego or just a fun location like 15 stories up on the outside of a building.

Typically they end up on street signs or more then likely in the trash. For every 50 I give out, one or two end up someplace pretty neat. What this really has become for me is a low cost form of advertising. Stickers attract attention when someone sees them. So much attention that when someone see’s one, they snap a picture and send it to me on Twitter. How cool is that. Not only have 100’s of people seen this sticker on the street but now everyone that follows this person on twitter now knows that sticker is me. It’s an extremely cost-effective way to create a lasting impression.

Next time you see a sticker of me somewhere, grab a picture and send me a tweet, I love seeing where they end up.

It seems like everyone has a newsletter lately that offers special content or a recap on what’s been happening on their blog. It’s a great way to have direct communication between you and your readers.

Blog posts and videos you upload can sometimes get missed with the amount of content getting shared but newsletters go right to the people that are interested in what you or your business has to say. The easier it is for people to get your content, the more likely they’re going to read or watch it.

I’ve been having some really great success with the Chicago Motion Artists newsletter; I’m sharing quality work from members and keeping everyone updated on upcoming meetings. I also have one for the Hop Cast that recaps the last month. With those two newsletters up and running, I figured it was time to get one going for digitalhitchhiker.com and maybe LooseKeys in the future.

I found this awesome service called Chimplr (MailChimp + Tumblr). It adds a button at the top right of the blog under the follow button. This gives anyone the option to follow you on Tumblr, like a post or sign up for the newsletter. When someone clicks the button they get a little popup to add their email address. Making it really simple.

I’m still working on what I’m going to include in the newsletter but you can count on the same great quality you find here and don’t worry I’m not going to fill your inbox with spam.

As many of you know, I co-host a video podcast about craft beer called Hop Cast. Its a side project that I’ve been doing for several years now. Its just me and my buddy drinking and talking about beer. Overall its been a lot of fun to do and it doesn’t take too much time to put out an episode every week or so. About a year ago we got an idea to shoot another side project that would explore the cellars of craft beer geeks. We wanted to make it fun and also poke fun a little at how obsessive beer geeks can get about cellaring. Our inspiration for our new project Cellarz was the MTV show Cribs. Once we were finally able to shoot it we had to find the time to edit it and do the graphics for it. Well, it took us a while. It’s hard to believe it took a year for us to get the first episode of Cellarz online. When we first started the project we were pretty excited about it and started telling everyone about what we were working on. You know I’m all about sharing what I’m working on. The response was great and people loved the idea. That’s exactly the response you want to hear. How could this back fire; we had a fun idea and the response was outstanding. You hear from a lot of startups and businesses about the importance of building buzz early. But they never really tell you how early you should build the buzz. Well I think I learned what’s too early with Cellarz. It is easy to get excited about a new product, but if you generate excitement before you can deliver, everyone might not be there when you finally show up. With Cellarz, we had a teaser and a logo done for the show and it seemed like we were in good shape. Since this was a side project, it kept getting pushed to the back burner. Every month it just kept getting pushed to the side and it almost seemed like it was dead. But knowing that we had some of that interest for the idea out there we still wanted to deliver… no matter how late it was. Really we should have waited until we had some sort of rough cut or product together before we started telling people what we were working. There has been a couple projects over the last couple years where I’ve seen how revealing too much about your company, product, or service too soon can really back fire.

This was a fun project and we got a pretty good response when we finally uploaded the finished product. I think if we could have uploaded it within the first couple months of us teasing it, we could have had even more people excited to see it.

I’m not really one for new years resolutions so I won’t be declaring any but I’m looking forward to a great 2012. This past year was great with the launch of LooseKeys and with Maeve and I finally setting a date for the Wedding. I also managed to record and release 40 episodes of the Hop Cast with Maeve and Ken and I also started a new social media podcast with Case Morton, InsightIntell. The one project that really hasn’t worked out this last year or got as far a long as I would have liked was CellarCaptain. I hope to give it another try this year and see if it can gain some traction. I’m really excited for what 2012 has to offer. I’m hoping to really push LooseKeys forward this year; if you thought I was busy with all these great explainer videos in 2011, I’m expecting even more exciting projects to come. I know many of you are interested in the ups and downs of running a business and I hope to share more of that this year as well. Hopefully I’ll be posting more here and on the LooseKeys blog this year.  I know with the wedding planned for October 6th 2012 it’s going to be a busy 10 months here and I can’t wait to share it with everyone as I move forward. Thank you all for the continued support.     

There are some days where you sit down in front of your computer with a fresh cup of coffee or tea and just stare blankly at the screen, there is too much to get done and really no way you can physically and mentally do it. You need to take this as a sign that you need a break and you’re on the verge or burning yourself out.

I’ve been working a full time job as well as doing freelance work on the side for the last three years. Why? Well, mostly because I love what I do. I enjoy learning from each project and meeting new folks. When I look back over the past year, in addition to my full time job; I’ve done graphics for five music videos, been working on three different blogs, have a weekly craft beer podcast, done a handful or explainer videos for different startups and helped to create the Chicago Motion Artists Users Group. No matter how much I enjoy what I do I’m always worried about burning myself out. And with a heavy workload, demanding clients and no free time, it is easy to become overwhelmed and completely burnt out. The problem with me is I’m a workaholic and have an inability to stop at times, which has worked both to my advantage and disadvantage. I know many other freelancers and entrepreneurs who are hustling just as much and are dealing with the same thing. Still pushing yourself isn’t a bad thing but it could come with a price. How do you avoid the burnout with the constant go, go, go? Everyone you ask has their own tips, but it really just comes down to taking a break from the computer; if it’s for five minutes, two hours, or a week. It doesn’t have to be a safari trek across Africa either. It’s all about finding what works for you. I love checking out new restaurants to eat at, so having lunch with a friend, or dinner with my lovely fiancé works wonders. Or I’ll find myself just hanging out with friends, chatting over a fine craft beer. Sure it may not be anything exciting but it’s enough of a break to take my mind off work in order to refocus. When your body and mind starts to suffer then the effects can be seen on your work. Making time for yourself not only can improve your general health but it may even help you to get through that creative block you’ve been having and spark a great idea.