Marketer. Designer. Entrepreneur.

The Rules of the 9-5er Road for a Former Entrepreneur

Gregg — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:07:53 +0000

In case you didn’t know, I love my job. Last year I left the self-employment world and became a 9-5er. This wasn’t a last resort, mind you, it was a choice, a goal I had been working toward for some time and was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

New Chapters, Old Habits
The thing is, for 6+ years my livelihood depended upon ideas. Good ideas. The ideas that could be rapidly turned into revenue for either me or a client I was working with. As I transition to the life of a workin’ man these ideas keep coming.

I’m glad they are because some of the best have been for work. With the rest, however, my instinct wrestles with the reality that I no longer have to chase them. These projects aren’t about making it big, they simply keep me busy instead of the brain-drain of TV, help me hone and learn new skills, and are just plain fun to work on. So with my new work-lifestyle, I needed to lay down some rules for these evening efforts.

Rule #1 – No Personal Funds May be Used
In other words, all projects must be self sufficient individually or as a group. If a project requires funds to get started, I’d better have some coming in from another or it’s a no go. Period.

Rule #2 – No Projects During Work Hours
I am committed to my job. Not just looking forward but also in the present during every work day. They have hired me to do work for them, not for me. If the project doesn’t match my job description, it will have to wait. It’s just that simple. Luckily, my job rocks

Rule #3 – No Projects When There’s Chores to Do
Chores may be an old-fashioned way to refer to this, but it’s an accurate description. I’m specifically referring to things like a sink full of dirty dishes, a dishwasher full of clean ones, or a meal Kim is cooking alone. If the sink is full or dinner isn’t ready, my projects will have to wait.

The Bottom Line
So, I’ll keep poking around with my ideas and projects but hopefully these rules will keep things in perspective. Our society is addicted to passionately chasing the “next big thing” and sacrificing spouses, jobs, and friends to get there. Entrepreneurship is fun, but that is a road I never want to take.

Speaking at Snowcial: A Lesson in Nerdiness

Gregg — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:56:26 +0000

At the Snowcial conference last week, I got the opportunity to share a quick, 5 minute presentation on whatever topic I chose. I got 20 slides, auto advancing every 15 seconds. Most people try to be funny with these sorts of things, but I warned David Laplante (the organizer) of my lack of stage humor and he assured me it was okay to share whatever I pleased. So, I did and was reminded how awesome my facial expressions are when I’m nervous and exaggerate my expressions :)

Cover Story for NSAA Journal

Gregg — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:50:06 +0000

Recently, I had the chance to write an article about ski resorts and social media marketing for the NSAA Journal. What I didn’t realize is that it would be the cover story. Pretty dang cool.

Ski Resort Social Infographic

Gregg — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:54:51 +0000

I haven’t posted on here in a while so I thought I’d share this little infographic I whipped up last night. I originally had other content ready but the idea came and figured I’d just get it out now rather than later. Not my best work, but considering it was less than 2 hours start to finish (including data gathering), I’m pretty happy with it.

Original Post:
http://www.slopefillers.com/one-day-of-ski-resort-social-media-activity-infographic/

What is it with square, orange logos?

Gregg — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:57:04 +0000

When Canyons Resort updated their logo last year I didn’t catch it at first because it reminded me so much of two other logos I had seen: Origin Design and Orange. Since then, they just keep popping up.

Ten Reminders for Coding HTML Email Templates

Gregg — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:49:49 +0000

I’ve done very little coding for email templates. In fact, in the last five years, I can count all such projects on one hand. Recently, I forced myself to not defer the duties of coding a new template to our guru, Kurt, but rather put that task on my to-do list and get up to speed on best practices as well. Here’s a reminder list for me when I do my next template, but also for anyone else who is interested:

1. Layout - Use tables for layouts, not divs.

2. Stylesheets - Don’t use stylesheets. Keep your styling inline, most email programs strip out stylesheets.

3. Padding / Margin - Use empty cells and rows for padding rather than “padding” or “margin” css attributes.

4. Text Areas – Don’t use style=”width: ____;” or width=”" on div or paragraph tags. Outlook ignores them. Define width by the size of the cell the content sits in.

5. H_ Tags – Include a tag around the text of any header tags (h1,h2,h3, etc.). Hotmail ignores your color assignment and sticks in their own weird scheme.

6. Images – Use style=”display: block” in all IMG tags so you don’t get a gap below your images.

7. Background Images – Best bet, don’t use them. They display inconsistently (if at all) in email programs.

8. Borders – Cell borders seem to never be displayed right with tables. If you need a vertical border, try using cols with width=”1″ and a background color instead.

9. Images & Line-Height – Remember your table’s defined line height. If you have a row with a defined height of 12px and a line-height of 16px, that row will be 16px tall. If an image 8px tall sits in that cell, even with no text around it, you’ll have a gap.

10. Test – Code like it’s 1996 and test like mad.

Web Accessibility for Designers

Gregg — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:29:16 +0000

Thought I’d share an infographic I made for the USU CPD a couple weeks back. Pretty simple, still wading through the early learning stages of making infographics, but a fun project nonetheless.

Design Portfolio Collage

Gregg — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:41:31 +0000

In the spirit of 3rd grade, I made a collage over the weekend. Rather than magazine clippings, I used a bunch of stuff from my design portfolio. Here’s a small version, click on the link below (or the image) and you can view the full size PDF.

Design Collage (PDF)

29 Ways to Stay Creative

Gregg — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 14:50:09 +0000

Great little video I stumbled across the today.

Design: Random Photoshop Stuff

Gregg — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:15:03 +0000

I snagged a few design DVDs a while back and had a jolly old time going through the projects. Below are a few that I put together back in the day that I simply forgot to put up on the site.