Pocketful of Joules

I recently met up with a fabulously awesome friend of mine and we got on the subject of how tricky it can be to make the leap from networking with someone to building a one-on-one relationship.

It seems silly, but once you get out of college it’s not that easy to make new friends. At least, it wasn’t that easy for me. I’m not an unfriendly person, but getting over that hump from casual conversation to actual friend was pretty darn scary.

I guess it’s just that fear of rejection, or of people thinking that I’m a dork. But that doesn’t make sense either, because I kind of AM a dork. I’m not shy about my love of Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, random pop culture trivia or my dorktastic dance moves. So why am I too shy to tell someone I want to hang out with them?

I don’t know what I expect to happen; maybe they turn to me and laugh saying “No, I would NEVER want to hang out with you. You have a stupid face and smell like cheese!* Why would someone like me EVER want to be seen with someone like you?” Yeah, that’s probably not that likely outside of my bizarre daydream world.

Anyways, how many times have you met someone at a networking event that you think “this person is really nice, I like them” and then nothing ever comes out of it? So, about a year ago I finally decided to do something about it. I joined a really great program with Business Volunteers Unlimited called GIVE. In fact, I was one of the lucky members of the GIVE Class of 2010.

When I joined that program, I made myself a promise that I would make some new friends. So I went to the first couple of meetings and when I spoke to someone who seemed nice and funny, I jotted their name down. A couple days later, I’d send them an email saying that it was really nice to talk to them and would they like to meet up for lunch sometime.

Most of the time, they said yes and we’d make lunch plans. Once I was in a situation of talking to them one-on-one, it was great! We usually had lots in common and by the end of the lunch felt so much more comfortable with each other. Then, the next time I’d see them at a GIVE event; I could walk up and talk to them without feeling like an idiot.

Lunches with new contacts turned into Happy Hours where everyone was able to cut loose and really start getting to know each other. Now that it’s been over a year I really feel like I’ve got some really great friends, including the fabulously awesome chick that sparked the idea for this post.

So, if you want to grow your business network or just get through a networking meeting that you’re boss forced you to attend, just think of it like you’re going out there to make a new friend. Starting up a conversation with someone is scary, but most of the time they’re just as intimidated as you are.

*At this point anyone who was a girl scout is singing, “one is silver and the other gold”. Which is actually pretty mean when you’re categorizing your friendships.

**Yeah, I’m totally eating Doritos right now while writing this. So maybe I do smell like cheese…

Have you ever walked up to someone and just verbally exploded all over them? You know, when you’re not really paying attention to how much you’re actually talking and the moment you walk away you get that flush of shame realizing that the conversation was definitely 95% you and 5% them?

Yeah, that totally just happened to me. I know my obsession with this house selling/buying process is pretty bad. I mean, I talk about it with my husband, my friends, my parents, on my blog, etc. on a pretty regular basis. I actually would love to NOT think about it for a while because it’s totally stressing me out.

However, without my brain’s consent, my mouth detonated a verbal ninja which jumped out and beat the crap out of an acquaintance. Within the space of about 10 minutes, I had told him about my experiences trying to sell our townhouse, what we’re looking for in a new house, the prices of houses in the area’s we’re looking, how much cheaper the taxes are in different counties, what the neighborhood was like at my favorite house (so far), and how I already decorated the house in my head and have made friends with the neighbors. Oh yeah, and I might have said something about how in my head my imaginary child is best friends with the neighbors kids.

Oh my god. Mortified doesn’t cover it!

Okay, I know I’m full of crazy but I typically don’t let that crazy out on unsuspecting people! I’m pretty sure that this super nice guy didn’t give a crap about my rambling conversation, but he was kind enough to smile and nod. He didn’t even turn around and run for the hills the second I shut my mouth, so he deserves an award for that.

Why do we do this? And come on, I know it’s not just me…right?

I guess my point is that even though we may ‘know better’ about something, everyone makes mistakes. Of course, I like to laugh at my mistakes and share them with strangers so they can laugh at me to. So, there’s that.

Anyways, if you have a story about when you trapped someone with your verbal diarrhea please share!

Most everyone has heard of instances of photoshop mistakes where a model somehow loses a leg or finger due to an overzealous graphic designer airbrushing away her ‘imperfections’. If you haven’t, please do yourself a favor and google “Photoshop Fail” to see what images come up. It’s so bad it’s good.

I can’t believe how many times these examples of what NOT to do appear in the mainstream media. They took a chunk out of Demi Moore’s hip on the cover of W Magazine, they over-thinned the thighs of a model in a Victoria’s Secret catalogue so that she looks like she’s standing on toothpicks, and they stretched a Ralph Lauren model so much she looks like she’s part giraffe. As a consumer you think ‘rookie mistakes’ and laugh at how stupid it is that someone was paid to do such a bad job.

Well, I really wish everyone would start paying a bit more attention to another kind of bad design, which I’m going to call ‘desktop publisher fail’.

Now, before you get angry at me, I’m not saying that everyone who takes on the task of desktop publishing sucks at it. I’m also not saying that you need to have a degree in graphic design to create something attractive. What I am saying is that just because you put together a flyer in Microsoft Word it does not make you a graphic designer.

Can I please scream that from the rooftops??? Microsoft Word is NOT a design tool! I don’t care if it has lots of fonts, clip art and borders!

Deep breaths…. Anyways, I admit that I am a little bit of a design snob. I’ve found it helpful as a marketing guru to learn and use graphic design programs over the past 12ish years. I’ve also found it worthwhile to take a few graphic design classes and collect a stash of books and magazines that inspire me.

It is so very important that your business has a cohesive look with your branding materials. Think about it, if you see a photography company that has a terribly designed brochure, website or business cards, are you going to trust them to do the photography for your wedding?  If you walk into a law firm that uses 15 different fonts on its newsletter and a mess of colors on each page, do you feel like they’re a professional firm to deal with?

No.

Just as the packaging to a food helps you decide whether you want to purchase it, the packaging of your company influences people to buy your products or services.

Here are the top 5 easily fixable mistakes I see in graphic design:

1. Using too many words and not leaving any white space. When you have a page of nothing but words (as in a newsletter or on an advertisement) there is nowhere for your eyes to rest. White space actually makes your pages more attractive and easier to read. If you must be super heavy on text, adjust the line spacing and margins.

 

2. Including too many accent colors in one design. Just because you can use every color in the rainbow doesn’t mean that you should! Colors should complement your message content, not draw attention away from it.

 

3. Too many fonts on one page. I’ve seen over 10 fonts on a normal four-page newsletter before. I know it’s exciting to have a lot of font choices, but please don’t use more than 3 – 4 at the most. Too many makes your design look messy and immature.

 

4. Playing with font effects. Many amateurs excessively capitalize or play with underlines, strikethroughs, italics, shadows and other special character effects. An excessive use of these effects makes a page look cluttered and unprofessional, so please don’t use them unless absolutely necessary. And then, only sparingly.

 

5. Image scale mistakes. Often it is necessary to change the size of an image or logo that is incorporated into your design. Please, please, please make sure that when you change the width of an image you also change the height. I can’t tell you how many squished logos I’ve seen lately!

 

Pull out a sample of everything you have that represents your company. Are you making some of these mistakes right now?

* There are instances that a graphic designer will use any of these tips to their benefit in their design.  For example, using 50 different fonts purposefully in an advertisement could end up as a masterpiece. However, for the typical inexperienced desktop designer you’re going to want to heed these tips.