24
Apr

Starting Small

One thing that I quickly learned after starting my own business was that you have to start small, you can think and dream big but it has to start somewhere. Just because you think you and your team can do better work than that commerial you saw on TV, doesn’t mean you’ll get to do that work. Just because you can do the work doesn’t mean you will do the work.

You’re not going to score that big client or nab those huge budgets when you first start your business. I think that’s what a lot of students or younger people realize quickly when they start out. I know I wanted to believe when I first got out of school that if I grabbed a project with Nike or Google, either on my own or working with a studio then I’d be set. But I had a lot to learn… and at the time I didn’t even realize that. By starting small you learn about your business, yourself and you get better.

If I didn’t start LooseKeys small I wouldn’t of been able to learn how to manage people efficiently. Not sure if I could of handled a team of four starting out, but a team of two I understood. Being small allowed me to take risks and test new ideas, something that’s harder to do when you’re big and worried about making sure every piece of the machine is moving correctly. At some point you’ll add people and get those bigger jobs which is what I see happening now at LooseKeys  It’s not a straight climb up by any means but sort of feels like a game of shoots and ladders. I’m working my way up and soon this small team will be a small army.

24
Nov

You can go far on hard work and big dreams, often a hell of a lot farther - an faster - than people with more education and experience.

19
May

Fear Strikes When You’re The Weakest

I typically don’t remember many of my dreams but I’ve noticed lately that I’ve been waking up to dreams that have a very bad outcome. Not so much a nightmare but rather just everything turning out wrong. I know I have a lot going on with building a business and a wedding just months away, so it’s no wonder that when my mind is at rest that it’s struggling with some of these issues. Being an entrepreneur you have to walk a fine line of boldness and fear. It’s not wrong to have the fear and I’m really thankful that I’m only having these thoughts when I’m sleeping because I know that this kind of fear can immobilize you. Fear is persistent. It doesn’t go away. Fear will wait for one of your weak moments and then it will strike. Which makes sense that it’s surfacing when I’m asleep. In order to succeed, you can’t let fear beat you or you’ll never move forward.

17
Jan

Will Smith Shares His Secrets Of Success

23
Feb

Make Sure To Dream Big

I know this might sound rather self-helpey but sometimes we all need that little reminder to push ourselves to reach for the stars. We all have dreams of where we want to go or what we want to do. You should try and put some time to the side each day, just to dream. Why? Because if you can’t see it or dream it there is no way you can make it happen. Successful people think about their goals, their dreams about how they are going to achieve them all the time. Henry Ford said it best, “Whether you think that you can or you can’t, you’re usually right.” Basically if you think you can, you can. But if you think you can’t, then you can’t. We can quickly get caught up in working and the everyday ins and outs of life and forget what we are working towards. I’ve been guilty of this, on occasion. I get caught up working on each project, jumping straight from one to the next and I forget why I’m even doing what I do. Sure I love what I do but there is more to it for me besides just paying bills and getting food on the table… We can all easily lose sight of what our dream was and what it was that brought us down this path. You need to make sure that you do something which is going to move you toward where you want to be in your life, each day. Even if it’s just picturing yourself in the position you want to be. Something I’m trying to do in the morning while planning out my to-do list for the day is also taking a moment to just stop and think about where I’m going. Taking a breath, a moment to myself and really just thinking where do I see myself in 5 or even 10 years. Taking some sort of step like this is the only factor that will help you to achieve any results. So don’t spend another day of your life pushing your dreams to the side. Stop looking at reality and start looking at what you want. Stop focusing on just the problems or the work you have to do and focus on the vision of who and where you want to be.

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