What Can You Do to Solve the Problem?

Most of the time people are more than willing to tell you what can’t be done and why it can’t be done, specifically and in detail. However, the same person doesn’t offer up any solutions of what CAN be done. Or worst yet, many people are willing to accept, without a protest or contest, defeat.  This “Oh well!” attitude is expensive. Are we all really that willing to give up at the first sign of difficultly? Are you? Do you ever ask yourself what you can do to solve the problem?

When you live in a deadline driven world, like I do, where excuses are not acceptable you learn to be resourceful. The magazine doesn’t care that the client changed their mind fourteen times, they still need the art for your ad before the deadline. If you don’t want to pay for a blank page, you had better get your art in.  End of story.

This willingness to give up is even more baffling when you consider the plethora of resources we all have available at our fingertips. If there is even a hint of a solution, a quick internet search will confirm or deny the suspicion. Chances are the problem you are having, others have had too.

The next time you find yourself explaining to your clint, boss, husband, child, mother, vendor, what you can’t do. Take the next step and offer up what you CAN do to solve the problem, make the situation better, make things easier in the future, etc. Better yet, offer several solutions, with details and options. You’ll be the hero, even if they don’t act on any of them.

Being a problem solver will make you more valuable, and you may even be called a lifesaver!

5 Deadly Reasons that Black is Killing You – Part 5

Deadly Reason #5: Black is Killing Your Digital Brochure

Since the invention of the pdf, digital brochure and all kinds of sales material fly across the world as email attachments or downloads. If you are using large solid areas of black you instantly put up a resistance to printing the document out. You alarm your potential client with a refrain in their brain that goes something like this "Wow, if I print this out it is going to burn thought all of my black ink." I think I will skim through it and see if there is a page worth printing or skip it. 

You may rethink your digital brochure; because what looks good as a physical printed bound brochure you hand someone might not be a practical, usable document to send digitally.

People fear public speaking, death and a white piece of paper.

Here is your assignment: Write about anything! Write any length in any format on any subject or subject. It is wide open and it is all up to you. Take all the time you need or want. That’s a pretty frightening order, isn’t it?
This is exactly what most people face when they go to post online. They have no idea what to say or why they should be saying it in the first place. They write about their kids, express their scorn or post funny pictures of themselves dancing with a bear in Cabo. Or they write nothing. After all, the confused mind says “no.”

When you know what your Personal Brand is, what your topics are, what your tone of voice is and know what business you’re in you have a basis, a platform, to talk from. A position, if you will. You have a lens to view the world through.

Take anything, say the word “white.” As a creative designer I might choose to talk about how white is the greatest background color because it is the most forgiving and the most versatile. And how it is the most used. I might compare and contrast it with black as a background color.

A graphic designer might talk about all the different whites available in papers from a cool whites to warm whites.
A chief might talk about egg whites.
A fashion designer when to wear white
A businessman talk about White papers
An accountant white collar crime
A dentist about white teeth
A teacher about white index cards

And then there is all kinds of other white things, such as:
White vinegar
White noise
White hot
White roses
White knight
White house
White space
White light
White elephant
White symbolism

Now add a form or format – a 160 character tweet, a 300 word blog, an article, a book, a page, a paragraph.

If I now say to you write two paragraphs on the word white, could you do it? I’ll make it easier – you have 15 minutes!