Jeff Miller's Big Idea Creativity seeking form

I get a fair number of emails related to potential project work and I’m often surprised at them for a number of reasons.  I’ll go through some specifics in a moment, but my thesis is this: the web is a communications medium.  If you are involved in the creation of websites as a paid professional it means you are a professional in the Communications industry.  Take the time to ensure that your business communications reflect that.

I’m writing this from the perspective of being the email recipient, but most of this is universal. Pretend I’m that person you are emailing today. 

• Greeting/Introduction
  If you didn’t know me and walked up to me on the street you’d probably put your hand out and introduce yourself. Do the same in an email. Tell me who you are, what your company is, and where you are located. It gives me a sense of who is talking to me.
• Why You Chose to Email Me
  Where did you come across my name? Just randomly on the web? From the EE forums? A friend? And why me over the other folks you could have emailed? Not only does this help me know which of my marketing efforts is working, if you’ve been referred it allows me to seek out and thank that person.
• Signature
  Have a signature file with your name and contact info. Give me a way to check you out online to see if I think potential projects might be a good fit.
• Tone
  Friendly, self-deprecating emails get my attention and create an instant desire in me to want to respond quickly and helpfully.  Whine, demand, complain or abuse and I’ll just trash your email with no further response.
• Send a Thank You
  If you take only one thing away from this post make it this one: send thank you emails. “Thanks in advance” doesn’t cut it.  I’m saddened by the number of times I spent some time putting together a response and never heard a single word back. People don’t always respond in the way you want but send the “Thank You” anyway just for their time.  If you asked someone on the street for directions they didn’t know the exact answer but made some effort to be helpful you’d (I hope anyway) say a quick “Thank You” before heading down the road.  Have the same courtesy with your professional interactions.
• Wait Until the Weekday
  More and more the web world seems to ignore weekends and I think that’s going to hurt us long term. We need downtime.  I’m guilty of weekend addiction myself, having my iPhone handy all the time to check email and Twitter.  Let’s help each other get back to the idea of weekends off and hold off on sending business-related emails over the weekends or after hours.  I’ll understand if you’re from a different timezone, but generally there’s no reason I should be getting business email on a Saturday night.

Let’s talk a bit about Twitter. I know Twitter is awesome for how quick and immediate it is, but it has its downsides as well.

• Proper Support Channels
  This is related to ExpressionEngine questions.  I love helping people learn EE and and am always humbled that people seek me out for it.  But please understand, if I’m not careful I can kill large chunks of time essentially providing free EE tech support. I’d much rather see you post first in the EE forums, then promote that thread on Twitter.  If I’m able to help I’ll follow the link and chime in, but if I can’t at least that way your request is in the formal system and available to others.  If your question is around the use of a 3rd party add-on then seeking out its support channel is best.  If you’ve already done that then link me to it so I know and don’t duplicate efforts already underway.
• Be You
  In general I’m uncomfortable having conversations with brands.  Use your corporate Twitter account for promotional tweets, but if you want to have a conversation step out from behind the logo. Use a personal account that has your picture.
• Wait Until the Weekday
  I know - people are on Twitter on the weekends so it seems really easy to hit them up. It’s like IM, right?  But again - I ask for help in keeping our weekends for personal and recreation time.  I might be working but if I am I’m probably under the gun to get some client work cranked out. Please wait to ask your questions until business hours.
• Say Thanks
  As I write this there is a question on Twitter that I’ve been tagged on.  I’ve responded to two questions from this person in the past without getting so much as a simple Thank You in return.  I have to say, I’m not inclined to respond again. Twitter may be a relatively new communications platform, but it’s still all about people.  Help me to feel valued and not just like an instant-answer monkey.

Poorly Written Email Example
I don’t want to get too carried away here but wanted to show an example of a poorly written email and a well-written email. We’ll start with the bad. This is the first email from this source, we’d never communicated in the past and this is the entire email:

Hi- I may have an assignment - pretty chilled - for a very nice client. We will need a partner to help build, and build out a CMS in EE.

We are very collaborative.

I can send your specs if this is something you are interested in bidding on.

My questions:

• Who are you?  There is no introduction or context.
• Why me?  There is no explanation of how you came to be sending me this email.
• What type of company are you?  First you say “I” and then you say “we”.
• What on earth does “pretty chilled” mean?
• What does “We are very collaborative” mean?  It seems really important the way it’s been called out but I haven’t a clue.
• The typos don’t instill a great sense of confidence.
• Lack of a signature doesn’t help. In this case I was able to look at the sending email domain and figure things out, but still.

Well Written Email Example
Again, this is the first email from this source and this is the entire email:

I’d like to see about bringing you in on a possible client project. I’ve seen your work, read your EE books, and reviewed your project guidelines. I think this is right up your alley.

As a quick overview, you and I would be working together to accomplish a complete design, content and back-end overhaul of (website deleted).

I would be responsible for the front-end design and initial HTML/CSS build (in close consultation with you along the way, of course). You would be responsible for EE architecture and implementation to take it from my static code to functional site. You and I both would interact directly with the client as well as each other, and would each be paid directly by the client. (I’ve worked with this client on print projects for a few years. Never had a problem getting paid, and they are generally pretty easy to work with.)

The design phase of the project would start in late March, with a goal to launch the completed site within 6 months.

I’ll be happy to provide a full site plan and content overview if you’re available and interested. The only urgent part of the job is getting them an estimate. They’re trying to get a budget approved and make a decision next week if at all possible.

Interested? Feel free to email or call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx (home office) or xxx-xxx-xxxx (cell) with any questions.

Best regards,

This is not a long email yet I already know why he chose to contact me, the nature of the project, the pay process, the schedule, what’s needed of me if interested, and alternate contact info.

Which feels like a professional communicator to you?  Which feels like a project that is going to go well and be successful for the end client? Which would you answer with greater urgency and interest?

Knowing that, why would you bother to write emails that didn’t inspire the same feelings in your recipients?

I get a fair number of emails related to potential project work and I’m often surprised at them for a number of reasons.  I’ll go through some specifics in a moment, but my thesis is this: the web is a communications medium.  If you are involved in the creation of websites as a paid professional it means you are a professional in the Communications industry.  Take the time to ensure that your business communications reflect that.

I’m writing this from the perspective of being the email recipient, but most of this is universal. Pretend I’m that person you are emailing today. 

• Greeting/Introduction
  If you didn’t know me and walked up to me on the street you’d probably put your hand out and introduce yourself. Do the same in an email. Tell me who you are, what your company is, and where you are located. It gives me a sense of who is talking to me.
• Why You Chose to Email Me
  Where did you come across my name? Just randomly on the web? From the EE forums? A friend? And why me over the other folks you could have emailed? Not only does this help me know which of my marketing efforts is working, if you’ve been referred it allows me to seek out and thank that person.
• Signature
  Have a signature file with your name and contact info. Give me a way to check you out online to see if I think potential projects might be a good fit.
• Tone
  Friendly, self-deprecating emails get my attention and create an instant desire in me to want to respond quickly and helpfully.  Whine, demand, complain or abuse and I’ll just trash your email with no further response.
• Send a Thank You
  If you take only one thing away from this post make it this one: send thank you emails. “Thanks in advance” doesn’t cut it.  I’m saddened by the number of times I spent some time putting together a response and never heard a single word back. People don’t always respond in the way you want but send the “Thank You” anyway just for their time.  If you asked someone on the street for directions and they didn’t know the exact answer but made some effort to be helpful you’d (I hope anyway) say a quick “Thank You” before heading down the road.  Have the same courtesy with your professional interactions.
• Wait Until the Weekday
  More and more the web world seems to ignore weekends and I think that’s going to hurt us long term. We need downtime.  I’m guilty of weekend addiction myself, having my iPhone handy all the time to check email and Twitter.  Let’s help each other get back to the idea of weekends off and hold off on sending business-related emails over the weekends or after hours.  I’ll understand if you’re from a different timezone, but generally there’s no reason I should be getting business email on a Saturday night.

Let’s talk a bit about Twitter. I know Twitter is awesome for how quick and immediate it is, but it has its downsides as well.

• Proper Support Channels
  This is related to ExpressionEngine questions.  I love helping people learn EE and and am always humbled that people seek me out for it.  But please understand, if I’m not careful I can kill large chunks of time essentially providing free EE tech support. I’d much rather see you post first in the EE forums, then promote that thread on Twitter.  If I’m able to help I’ll follow the link and chime in, but if I can’t at least that way your request is in the formal system and available to others.  If your question is around the use of a 3rd party add-on then seeking out its support channel is best.  If you’ve already done that then link me to it so I know and don’t duplicate efforts already underway.
• Be You
  In general I’m uncomfortable having conversations with brands.  Use your corporate Twitter account for promotional tweets, but if you want to have a conversation step out from behind the logo. Use a personal account that has your picture.
• Wait Until the Weekday
  I know - people are on Twitter on the weekends so it seems really easy to hit them up. It’s like IM, right?  But again - I ask for help in keeping our weekends for personal and recreation time.  I might be working but if I am I’m probably under the gun to get some client work cranked out. Please wait to ask your questions until business hours.
• Say Thanks
  As I write this there is a question on Twitter that I’ve been tagged on.  I’ve responded to two questions from this person in the past without getting so much as a simple Thank You in return.  I have to say, I’m not inclined to respond again. Twitter may be a relatively new communications platform, but it’s still all about people.  Help me to feel valued and not just like an instant-answer monkey.

Poorly Written Email Example
I don’t want to get too carried away here but wanted to show an example of a poorly written email and a well-written email. We’ll start with the bad. This is the first email from this source, we’d never communicated in the past and this is the entire email:

Hi- I may have an assignment - pretty chilled - for a very nice client. We will need a partner to help build, and build out a CMS in EE.

We are very collaborative.

I can send your specs if this is something you are interested in bidding on.

My questions:

• Who are you?  There is no introduction or context.
• Why me?  There is no explanation of how you came to be sending me this email.
• What type of company are you?  First you say “I” and then you say “we”.
• What on earth does “pretty chilled” mean?
• What does “We are very collaborative” mean?  It seems really important the way it’s been called out but I haven’t a clue.
• The typos don’t instill a great sense of confidence.
• Lack of a signature doesn’t help. In this case I was able to look at the sending email domain and figure things out, but still.

Well Written Email Example
Again, this is the first email from this source and this is the entire email:

I’d like to see about bringing you in on a possible client project. I’ve seen your work, read your EE books, and reviewed your project guidelines. I think this is right up your alley.

As a quick overview, you and I would be working together to accomplish a complete design, content and back-end overhaul of (website deleted).

I would be responsible for the front-end design and initial HTML/CSS build (in close consultation with you along the way, of course). You would be responsible for EE architecture and implementation to take it from my static code to functional site. You and I both would interact directly with the client as well as each other, and would each be paid directly by the client. (I’ve worked with this client on print projects for a few years. Never had a problem getting paid, and they are generally pretty easy to work with.)

The design phase of the project would start in late March, with a goal to launch the completed site within 6 months.

I’ll be happy to provide a full site plan and content overview if you’re available and interested. The only urgent part of the job is getting them an estimate. They’re trying to get a budget approved and make a decision next week if at all possible.

Interested? Feel free to email or call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx (home office) or xxx-xxx-xxxx (cell) with any questions.

Best regards,

This is not a long email yet I already know why he chose to contact me, the nature of the project, the pay process, the schedule, what’s needed of me if interested, and alternate contact info.

Which feels like a professional communicator to you?  Which feels like a project that is going to go well and be successful for the end client? Which would you answer with greater urgency and interest?

Knowing that, why would you bother to write emails that didn’t inspire the same feelings in your recipients?

Men in Black II. My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Sweeping forest fires in Colorado. Snipers in DC. The Euro becomes official. Queen Elizabeth dies. No Child Left Behind act signed into law by President George W. Bush. Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT.

Remember the year?  Remember the decade?

I do, quite well.

The year was 2002. In addition to those events of significance there was also a much smaller decision, made in the living room of a small house in Holland, MI.

With a 3 and 5 year old scurrying about the house playing, with the security of a corporate job disintegrating at our feet, and with a insecure job market offering little in the way of options, together with my wife I decided to start a small business named Boyink Interactive.  I chose the name because I had no idea if I would be doing software/database or web development and I had already purchased the boyink.com domain name in earlier years (totally on a whim).

Every year around this time I write these posts, always feeling incredibly blessed and humbled that yet again, for another year, God’s chosen to allow us to continue to make a go of it.  Not only have I been able to provide for my family, I’ve gotten to do work I choose and love for people that are a pleasure to work with.  I get to follow whims that become additional businesses like Train-ee, and I get to choose to enter a period of full-time family travel while continuing to work.

It pleases me to no end to celebrate 10 years - a decade - in business as Boyink Interactive. 

Even if it is considered the “Tin Anniversary”..

I’m pleased to announce that Boyink Interactive is now a dedicated mobile web development shop.

But it’s not what you are thinking.

While I am getting more involved in the world of responsive web design with the goal of sites that adapt themselves to both the desktop and smaller-screened devices, that’s really not the topic of this announcement.

Rather, the Boyink family is no longer weighed down with the ownership of a stationary sticks-and-bricks house.  At approximately 11:30 AM ET on April 27th we tucked (shoved?) the last remaining possession from our house into our fifth-wheel trailer, climbed in the truck, and pulled out of the driveway that we had called home for 16 years.

We drove all of 5 miles to a local campground and setup home for a month, giving our boy time to take Drivers Ed and giving us time to finalize the stationary-to-mobile transition.

You can read more about the personal side of our world at our family adventure blog, where we’ll keep adding to the content we posted during the year-long RV road-trip that got us started down this path.

What about the business side?

Mostly?  Business as usual. 

My preferred mode of communication has always been email, and only a small percentage of my projects are with local clients.  Even with those clients face-to-face meetings are rare. I even found that our mobility allowed me to meet existing clients in person that I never had before - so I’m not worried that this transition will distance us from work.

I’m also hoping to be able to attend more Barcamps, Startup Weekends, Meetups, and regional conferences as we travel and that those experiences would connect us to people and locations in ways not possible being stationary.

We’ve no definite plans for where we’ll go (being able to decide such things last minute or on-the-fly is a great advantage of this lifestyle) but my hope is that we’ll see more of the US and then do some travel outside the US (but have no idea where or how quite yet).

If we end up somewhere close to you be sure to shout out - we love meeting up with others and sharing a beer or coffee!

The formal listing will happen on Monday, but we’re too excited to wait to make all the announcements.  After 16 years of ownership, blood, & sweat we are putting Boyink! World Headquarters up for sale. 

This is part of our master plan to become fully mobile, ideally by mid-May.  I’ve posted the details of the house including photos and price on our Adventure Site.

No, we don’t know where we’re going once back on the road.  Yet, anyway.  Too much to think about between now and then!

Here’s the latest in my series of garage creations.  I’m not sure what the final resting home of these pieces will be but I’m sure having fun making them.  The entire process - from scrounging at the recycling yard, to arranging potential pieces in the garage, to the welding/assembling to the viewing and enjoying is sheer pleasure.  I really like the fact that once they are done, they are done.  There’s no subsequent need to update the system files or the 3rd party add-ons, or take backups.

This one practically fell together with the automotive “A” arms being natural legs and in perfect proportion to the coil spring body.  The ears & face platform are most of a small garden tiller (I just had to unbolt 4 blades and bolt two of them back on to get the ears going in the right direction).  The face is part pressure regulator of some sort and the end of a garden trowel blade.

It’s fun to see a friendly looking creation come out after the mean cat! ;)

I know, recently I blogged about clothes and now it’s shaving.  Next thing it’ll be discussing my feelings or something…

A few weeks ago the topic of wetshaving came up again on Twitter and I thought, why not?  I’ve been a life-long electric razor user and the only real reason is that’s how my dad shaved so that’s how I started shaving.

But with a combination of thick hair (which doesn’t mean “lots of hair” but rather “each strand of hair is thick”) and sensitive skin I’ve always suffered from neck rash and ingrown hairs.  Since the ingrown hairs were mainly on one side of my face I always attributed them being a stomach-sleeper and laying that side of my face on the pillow.  But maybe a better complexion would come from a different shaving approach?

To get started I followed advice from fellow web developers Wes Baker and Paul Burton and bought the following (spending about $150):

• Razor:  Edwin Jagger DE89L Double Edge Safety Razor Lined Chrome
• Blades: Gillette 7 O’Clock Super Platinum Double Edge Blades
• Brush: Edwin Jagger Super Badger
• Soap: Pre de Provence Shave Soap
• Razor/brush stand

Lessons Learned
Mainly what I wanted to capture here was the learning process - what I expected and what I’ve been finding or where my results have differed from what I’ve read.

How Smooth?
This struggle was one of expectations - just how smooth a shave should I expect? Watching some YouTube videos I heard the phrase “baby-butt-smooth” so initially that’s what I went for, going over each part of my face multiple times looking for it to be smooth both with the grain (WTG) and against the grain (ATG).  What I found is that parts of my face (cheeks) can withstand multiple passes with no issue, while others (throat) can’t and the result is rash.  I’ve learned instead to leave well enough alone in spots that are more prone to rash - a baby smooth shave only lasts so long anyway. My results are decent WTG but do leave stubble ATG.  Overall this is still a better result than I would get with my electric razor.

With the Grain?
Most advice says to only shave “with the grain” but I’ve found this doesn’t work well.  I need to go slightly against the grain or I don’t get good results. I think a more aggressive blade may help so plan to try that in the future.  I’ve also discovered I have a cowlick on my neck so there are spots where there is no grain - hair grows out in all directions.

Lather
I’m new to the whole “shaving soap” idea so watched some videos and read some forum threads around how to work with the brush and soap to create a shaving lather.  The advice seemed to mainly be “work at it for several minutes”. using lots of elbow grease.  I tried this a few times and was getting weary of the time it was taking and the mess & noise it was making.  At one point while shaving I ran out of lather and just quickly got my brush saturated with soap again and did a quick mix in the bowl. What I got was a wetter and thicker soapy cream that felt better and didn’t seem to work much differently than the “ideal” lather.  It’s messy and drips all over but doesn’t take as long to ready, my arm doesn’t get tired, and I don’t make such a racket with the brush and ceramic bowl.

Facial Hair
Working around mustaches and goatees is a pain.  I used to keep the edges fairly neat but it may well be that those get a bit sloppier with this shaving approach and then get re-established at haircut time.  Or I need to purchase a dedicated beard/mustache trimmer.

Overall
It’s taken a bit of practice but I feel like I’m coming out with a better shave than I used to get, with my neck rash gone and ingrown hairs drastically reduced. I don’t think my left cheek skin has looked this good in years. 

Still practicing though!

The follow-up piece to Dumpster, the Zombie Cat is Gearhead van Helsing the noble but misinformed vampire cat hunter.

Imagine his surprise when confronted not by a vampire cat, but by Dumpster the Zombie cat instead.

So, if you haven’t been closely following the Boyink Family life for the past year and a half or so let me catch you up.  In December of 2009 we made the decision to take a year-long RV-based family road trip.  As part of that I sold my hobby vehicle, a 1964 CJ6 Jeep that I had invested countless hours in.  That Jeep was the latest in Jeep ownership that stretched from the time I turned 18 and included a 1966 CJ5 and a 1952 Willys Wagon. 

Fun in the garage wasn’t limited to just vehicles.  I’ve also made tandem bikes, a quadcycle, and a small junkyard sculpture.

Since coming back from our trip I’ve found myself restless and antsy - especially when the evening hours roll around and I’m done with the days work, am tired of looking at screens and don’t want to read a book.  I think I was driving the family nuts with my frustrated pacing and desire for something to go do.

I was missing an offline hobby.

So last week I hopped in the truck and made a visit to the local metal recycle yard where I grabbed a bunch of scrap metal in various shapes.  I had no preconceived notion of what I wanted to build - but rather just figured something would present itself from the bits I had gathered.

It didn’t take long to see a cat’s head in one of the shapes and car rim suggested the arched back of a angered cat.  With that idea the build was on. Some automotive “A-arms” provided easy legs, a box of nails supplied whiskers, eyebrows, claws, and a spiked tail.  1/2 of a garden rake became the mouth with fangs coming from the ends of some railroad spikes.  I found myself with help at times, with my son doing some of the welding (and even turning down friends at the door to do so).  My daughter dubbed it “Dumpster” and I added the junkyard zombie cat as that’s what came to mind as it came together,.

Enjoy!