One of my favorite things about Seth Godin’s work is his language. His books each have their own unique vernacular which can make grasping the concepts he is presenting to you really easy to understand – but make it a little difficult to talk about these concepts with those who have never read the book – or have experience with Seth Godin’s writing. Linchpin is full of new additions to the Godin Glossary like art, genius, gift, cog, factory, work, and even some old favorites like remarkable and tribe. His practice of giving new meaning to words reiterates his message of defining your own path (and sometimes your own definitions) in life.

The first line in this book is enough to keep a conversation going all night. “You are a genius.” Seth Godin says everyone, each and every human on this earth is a genius. Now I know what you might be thinking, Really? Everyone? Yeah I was skeptical too, but I kept reading.

We are all able (and have at some time in our lives — even if it hasn’t been since toddler-hood,) solved a problem in a way that no one had ever thought of before, done something remarkable! The reason why many of us aren’t practicing our genius and don’t even believe ourselves capable is for a multitude of reasons — many of which get examined in depth over the 236 pages of Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Fear of judgment or not fitting in, fear of being noticed, being held responsible for our actions. All these tiny voices in our “lizard brain” that start being encouraged at the start of life — by parents, friends, school, media, etc. It’s something we accept as the way things have always been, you have to play by the rules to get ahead. Seth Godin says, if you want to be valued, playing by the rules is dangerous!

work, has been transformed in just a hundred years from doing things that involve heavy lifting to leveraging and enhancing your personality. (page 210)

The only way to affect change in another person (what Seth calls creating art!) is NOT fitting in, NOT falling in line and NOT following the map, but to make your own. Being remarkable (worth remarking about,) is not something you can do a little bit of while still playing it safe, to be a linchpin you must commit yourself to your art, acknowledge your genius and live up to it!

This book is inspiring, thought provoking and like many of my favorite business books, it doesn’t take any shit. You have no excuse for not practicing your art anymore… So if you are happy with the status quo… if living up to your genius is more responsibility that you are willing to accept, then this book is going to scare the pants off you — cause it gives you nowhere to hide.

If you’re intrigued — but nervous, give it a chance, be nervous, it’s OK. But don’t let it stop you, start reading.

the best future available to us is a future where you contribute your true self and your best work. Are you up for that? (page 2)

Kyle Steed just published his 3rd installment in this series of tattooed designers, check it out!

Today my client and friend Laura Marchbanks invited me to attend Visitors Day with the Networking group she is a part of (The Northstar chapter of BNI.) It was by far the best experience I have had at a networking event! I met some very friendly people, had a few laughs and ended up running out of business cards! I have not made any decisions about weather this group is something I want to make an ongoing commitment to — but it was a great way to spend this Tuesday afternoon and it got me inspired for some new blog material! So here we go…

If you are looking to get more involved in face-to-face business networking, you first will need to decide what type of group will best suit your needs, your brand and your business. There is no real right or wrong on this, it just has to do with what you are looking to put in and what you will be expecting to get out, so here is the basics on the 3 different types of face-to-face business networking groups that you might find out there.

The 3 Types of Business Networking Groups

Social Groups.

Social groups are pretty standard fare, and probably what most of us have had experience with when it comes to business networking. These are usually non-structured gatherings set in a social setting like a bar or party. The social business group is all about “mingling” or “schmoozing”, you “work the room” and meet various others that may or may not turn into business leads. These can be fun or painfully awkward depending on your personality type. I tend to not enjoy these that much since most of my experiences at these include people who aren’t having very genuine exchanges, they feel cheesy a lot of the time… but perhaps I just haven’t been to a good one yet.

Examples of Business Networking Social Groups and/or where to find out about them (some of these are local to the Pacific Northwest of Seattle, but it gives you an idea of what I am talking about): Your local Chamber of Commerce, Girl Power Hour, Biznik…

Referral Groups.

The main focus of this type of a referral  group is to generate leads for your fellow members. These are often set up as non-compete groups – meaning every niche is only covered by one person in each group. (one tax attorney, one massage therapist, etc — you get the picture!) They are also very structured because they’re all about business! These types of groups can be good for those of you who enjoy structure, their clear cut agenda makes the socializing come easier – you know everyone there is there because they want to learn about you and your business and they want to talk about theirs. Plus the structured atmosphere gives you a sense of urgency about networking — if you know you have 20 minutes to meet the newcomers, you make it a point to talk to them, but when you have 2 hours to “work the room” you may end up migrating to a circle you already feel comfortable with.

Examples of Business Networking Referral Groups and/or where to find out about them (some of these are local to the Pacific Northwest of Seattle, but it gives you an idea of what I am talking about): BNI, I Take the Lead, Local Business Network, LeTip…

Trade Associations.

These groups are targeted to your industry. You see these a lot on sites like Meetup.com and they can be more social but tend to be more of a business support group of sorts. You meet for breakfast with 8 other local Freelance WordPress Developers and you can advise each other on client matters, marketing strategies, new technologies and all sorts of things you may not hear from other business owners who are not in your particular industry.

Examples of Business Networking Trade Associations and/or where to find out about them (some of these are local to the Pacific Northwest of Seattle, but it gives you an idea of what I am talking about) (for designer/developers/freelancers): AIGA, GAG, Mediabistro…

This is something I thought everyone did until I recently saw a fellow designers PSD files.It’s a small thing that makes the process of web design way more productive for me… - Liz Andrade, helikopterdesign.com

Check out this interview I did with MartyRomero of They Call Me Marty, this site has some great interviews on it and I’m happy to be a part of it! :)

I am interested in growing their business—some clients get really excited about this and we form a strong client/designer bond… some people just want someone who can work cheap and fast and get something out the door for them. That’s just NOT me.  – Liz Andrade, Interview at They Call Me Marty

Blame it on the internet or the evolution of consumer gadgets or whatever you want to blame it on but in today’s business world, being a nerd is an asset! Being a little off kilter, a little different is something clients and (many) employers are seeking out! Blending in and matching the status quo have become a burden on your business and being a little bit nerdy (or a lot nerdy) is where it’s at!

Why is this? What is it about nerdiness that adds that special ingredient for success? Well, here’s one nerds two bits on the matter…

Nerds are Inspiring!

Part of being a nerd has to do with having some strong opinions on whatever it is you’re nerdy for — be it Star Wars, video games or typography — nerds pride themselves on knowing a lot about what they are into and your opinions on the matter are part of your identity.

Working with someone who is nerdy about their chosen profession makes any consumer experience infinitely more enjoyable than getting service from someone just “doing their job.”

When shopping for new eyeglasses for myself I encountered this for myself and I could not stop talking about it! In the past I had always bought my glasses from the closest LensCrafters and it was a perfectly adequate experience. I truly have nothing bad to say about this company, they had a nice selection of styles, everyone was always very polite and it was always convenient to stop in and get my frames adjusted whenever I needed to.

This past year I shopped for glasses at 2 separate locally owned Seattle businesses for frames (Seattle Vision Clinic and Eyes on Fremont) and the experience I had at both of these places made something that in the past was nothing more than a necessary task into a remarkable experience! How? The people at these locations were total eye wear nerds!

This is a sect of nerd I was not even aware existed, but they were really excited to talk with me about what I wanted, what I liked and what I didn’t like. They were able to suggest ideas based on my face shape and style, they knew about eye wear designers, frame shapes, materials, vintage styles and their enthusiasm for the subject was infectious!

When you are passionate about what you do, you inspire the people around you – and who doesn’t want to work with someone inspiring!?

Nerds are Authentic

Part of being nerdy is accepting yourself for who you are and what you are into even if isn’t what fits into the status quo or flow into the mainstream. Those who are able to embrace their nerdisms and not be ashamed of them have this obvious badge of honesty.

Whether it is real or imagined, if someone can be totally open and honest about their Red Dwarf obsession, you feel they are probably transparent about other things in their life, like business practices and ethics.

Nerds are Memorable

Nerds are usually stand out from the crowd… and being unique makes you easier to remember, as simple as that. It is each of our unique experiences and abilities that make us valuable individuals, blending in has become a liability to any business trying to be remarkable!

What do you think?

Are you a nerd? Have you had experience working with, buying from or being served by a nerd?

I have already wasted so much of my time dealing with this, that I don’t even want to write a full post about it – but, If you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook – you have surely seen me talking about my problems with Network Solution hosting and I have the full long story posted on my Facebook wall if you do want all the ridiculous details.

After a very stressful weekend, I finally had enough and am now very happy to have CMD+Shift Design at a new hosting home! :)

I feel good – like it’s a fresh new start!

Well, you’re supposed to share screen shots – but a few of the shots I made this week were from photos taken of some recent print work. So far, dribbbles been fun, but it really is more of a way to share stuff for inspiration more than to get critique, it seems.

If you’re looking for some guidance on designs in progress, check out ConceptFeedback.com!

…and in case you were wondering – nope. I don’t have any Dribbble invites yet.

Well, if you follow me on Twitter or caught last weeks post, Web Hosting Woes: A Letter to my Readers and Network Solutions you know all about the headaches I have been enduring with the security issues my web host has had lately.

As I said, I’ve given Network Solutions chances to step it up on security again and again – and in the multipile times I have had my site hacked they have historically been unwilling to do much to help me. Well last week, they finally put forth some real effort on solving the problem! It seems that the issues finally started effecting a lot of their users and they were speaking up — so after many updates over the week, they tell me today that all the security issues have been isolated and resolved.

I hope this is true, but I am still very skeptical. On Wednesday morning, I pretty much resolved to leaving them because I just COULD NOT loose anymore business because of these security issues and I was so tired of not getting any help. Even though I am payed up with them through 2011 and would end up loosing $200+ dollars if I jump ship now (yep, they told me they will not refund my unused months of service!) – that’s a small price to pay to not have my site hacked every 6 weeks!

So as of now, I’m thinking I’ll stick with them and see how things go, I’m keeping a close eye on my site everyday for any funny business, if the scurity is lapsed on their servers again – I am gone!

Thank you to all of you who have been so helpful to me during this week – offering support, advice, referrals to new hosting, etc.

If you’re a designer and you have not heard about Dribbble, you must be living under a rock!  The community has been abuzz about this new online design network for weeks now. Dribbble is an invite only design critique community, similar to ConceptFeedback.com and as of yesterday, I was finally “drafted” off the bench!

Now — so far, it seems like a fun community to be a part of, but what has been most interesting to me is how everyone who isn’t a part of it yet is hurting for an invite! I was whining on Twitter for several days before I got one. In fact, in the early stages of the sites launch when people started talking about it, I wanted in before I was even 100% sure what it WAS! What is this? I don’t know, but someone invite me! All I knew was a lot of cool designers were a part of something and I wanted in!

The power of exclusion is pretty amazing, people want what they can’t have (or so they say.) I think I understand Dribbbles reasons for their set up, closing the site to be invite only puts the power of who is part of the group into the design community itself, possibly cultivating a higher quality of users — however, I can’t help but think in other ways all it really does is run on that Junior High “popularity contest” rule. Making it invite only doesn’t nessecarily mean the most valuable designers get drafted, people will draft their friends.

What are your thoughts on this? Have you used Dribble? Are you looking for an invite? (I don’t have any yet!) What do you think of the “invite only” policy — is it about quality, exclusion, or just a marketing scheme?