No Work? Reinvent Yourself—Change is the only constant

I think you're the type of person who doesn't just cut half and give it to your employee, you cut what you think the employee needs and eat the crumbs that are left, so I congratulate you, you're a good, you're a good man , Charlie Brown, you're okay, so you bring a guy and you start learning to delegate you learn to collaborate you learn to manage absolutely and most importantly you're teaching and sharing what you know and this is what they always say teachers say this and it's a cliché if it's totally true you learn more from the student than he will ever learn from you and I want to explain that a little but I don't want to explain it I want you to do it like this Do you mean when you say that, like you, you didn't realize What would you learn so much about if you had someone to teach?

I think it's interesting to teach someone things you know first of all. I didn't really think I knew much, I think I had certain levels of skill, but I say if you've been paying attention in life, you should have, you should learn something and so having someone there that you can bounce ideas off of. and sharing information, you realize how much you really know and then a conversation starts in that conversation that stimulates and challenges each other and I think that's what one of the challenges of

work

ing alone is who is there to challenge you. It's like you have that kind of inner voice that I can do that for you, so having an intern or a student there that can challenge you in your thoughts and that can bring new dialogue and information to the table.

I think that's what really started where I started to grow as a person mm-hmm and it made me want to learn more so I could share more mm-hmm and so we started that collaboration between the two of us. I think I felt like I was becoming a better, more knowledgeable person and he could, he was always there on time. every day the front door was ready to move on to the next task and that lit the fuel even more, where do I take this? What is the next step? So I brought in another intern because

work

started to pick up speed and then I brought in another person at the time I had moved and had a house so we're going to talk, we're going to talk about transition right now, roughly, but I think it's important because I had a garage, so I moved. from this apartment with the extra bedroom and now I had a house with a garage in a yard and I put in more computers, so I'm fine, I felt comfortable bringing that person, it's little baby steps, little progressions, a kind of scaffolding.

My efforts in trying to build something bigger. I didn't want to jump in head first. I was taking baby steps, but at least I was moving forward with the goal that I need to do something that I can be sustainable in and something that I can have to grow my business and my career, so I hired another employee when I started as an intern. She was fantastic and I offered her a job after a few months, yes, but we were in the garage and it was difficult. She surprised me. she that she took his job because she's like this person who just graduated from school and I thought she was incredibly talented, why would she want to come work in my garage?

Then he saw something that I think in me, maybe I think he saw something in my Vision: I wanted to grow the business and I needed to get a bigger boat, so I took another leap of faith and got an office space in Old Town Pasadena, so I was really scared because now I have more. More general expenses, I had to pay rent for utilities and more computers, and the salary is taking me out of my comfort zone and is really what allowed me to start growing and maturing as an individual and maturing as a business owner mm- hmm, okay. so let's customize the slides here, this is where Aaron's office is now, right on the main strip in Old Town Pasadena, it was more like Colorado, it's right above the truck shoe store, it bans shoes and yeah , and something else, that second floor there and lush. you can see it on the second floor with orange lights and now I'm going to show you a little bit about their office space and it's gone through an expansion, they've knocked down some walls and they've moved in, they open up their office and Soon I think you'll probably outgrow that one too. office, that's right, it's a chance that that pot is probably getting too small for that pot, so you probably need to get a bigger pot, so yeah, it just needs to keep growing, so here you can.

See Aaron with his dog Shelley Shelby Shelby and some of his staff, okay, and now we'll see some of his work. Yes, I know the internet is very smart, so all of our fans were probably already crawling on your Behan site or on your website itself, your website proper, but let's take a look at some of the work, so now you're in the food and beverage space, your brand, some really awesome restaurants and really fun dream projects if you make things out of what this craft cider is. and cold brew coffee from Kalifa Kalifa calathea calif yes, thank you and then packaging coffee for static mm-hmm and some fashion things too, you will start to notice that I have moved away from the youthful lifestyle and adopted a portfolio that can attract clientele . that I could probably afford to pay like I can afford to pay my staff and in order to do that, get out of my comfort zone of doing what I knew well that I needed to, we needed to create a portfolio that could attract the clients that I wanted mm-hmm and so I feel like I've heard that before, no, yeah, I can't point the finger and I think I came up with that, yeah, that's probably okay, go ahead, but I think for a lot of your audience it's For example, how do you get to the next level?

How do you attract a certain client? Hell and I learned this from students. I was asked to do a lot of portfolio reviews at my alma mater at Cal State Northridge and AIGA and I would always get the student's portfolio and there they would show work from homework assignments and projects that they were probably most proud of or something they actually did. in real life and that it was actually printed, but many times those projects. Weren't they so good? It's like if I designed this logo on this brochure for a bank, for example, and I see that the design is not that good, but they think it's the best piece in their portfolio because it was actually printed or there was. a real client and I learned from that you know I don't think you have to show something that you actually did.

I prefer that you show me something that exemplifies your capabilities and your design skills, so if that means you have to do something on your own or if you are in class and the teacher gives you a project, do the project but then go to the next step and expand that project in that system for your portfolio, so from that lesson because I didn't want to look at projects that didn't appeal to me, so when I started a kind of farm 2.0, when I have employees, we needed to attract a new clientele, so We asked ourselves what kind of customers we want to attract and maybe we were interested. doing some kind of beverage company, we liked coffee and we like restaurants, so I entrusted this to my employees, okay, let's invent a hypothetical project and start putting something together, so we put together a project brief, we act like if we were the client, so we needed to have parameters so that it wasn't the Wild West and running everywhere we needed to have parameters and we designed things, we made fun of him, we filmed him for a portfolio and we exposed him, but we published it on dribble.

We posted it on our website and then people started calling because they liked something, a beverage project, and then they had a beverage project themselves, so we started getting clients based on the work we were doing, so we didn't We were waiting. Customers came to us and we said okay, we have to put something there, you know, put a little bait in the water for them to bite so we can bring it in, we have to create something hmm, a good example is us, I, I had . an opportunity for a restaurant branding project, I honestly don't remember how the guy found himself, as he was going to open a pizzeria and that was extremely exciting.

It had been our first restaurant project that he came into and that's when we first opened his office in Pasadena. We didn't have a lot of furniture, we didn't have anything on the walls, it was like, oh my God, we have to look professional, so we were printing things and putting them on the wall like we were really cool. busy came to the office and we pretended we were really busy and did the dog and pony show and he thought he was sure we had the project and he didn't call us back so I thought that was our chance to get into the business of restaurants, but since we didn't get that project, I'm okay guys, we need to create that hypothetical restaurant project and we took it as an opportunity and put it on the Internet and then we started getting calls. doing restaurant projects, but I think that

only

works if you do good work, it can't be mediocre work, otherwise you'll probably get mediocre clients.

I don't think anyone wants me to do mediocre work, not even mediocre clients do. mediocre work, let me ask you a couple of questions so you can worry about doing those artworks trying to create the look and facade that you are in the studio and then not being able to work for any other reason that I don't think you got the job. I think there wasn't a certain polish. I was still refining our game in terms of how we sell our skills. About us? We're still trying to define who we were. so I think they didn't necessarily have confidence in our ability, we probably didn't have that body of work to fall back on yet, so I think there were two aspects: they had confidence in our ability to do something and do you have anything to back that up?

Can I see that you like case studies? Yeah, I'm going to mention a couple of things because I want to fill in some of the gaps for the audience. I remember talking to you about this and I think I'm glad you finally made those

change

s, but I remember looking at the portfolio, so now you have half your foot in this other world called the adult world and half on the other foot in the world of youth action sports lifestyle brands and I think even at this point, because you and I have had so many conversations, especially when you were still living in Santa Monica, we would go out to lunch first, it would be like once a week and then twice a week and it seemed like we were having lunch every day and I was meeting with you, we were chatting basically trying to help a friend improve his business game, which is something that made me feel great, but I remember seeing some really beautiful mature typography and work for real estate. clients and some beautiful identity design work that was in conflict with this other one, if you remember going back to the surf brands, those kinds of things I was doing were diametrically opposite in look and tone, so I don't know if I didn't explain it clearly to them . at that point you need to make a decision because it's kind of schizophrenic people that show up on your site, they'll see something or they'll wonder which designer I'm going to choose.

I won't get more sophisticated. mature person who can understand big companies or who doesn't want that youthful, nervous energy and I think at the time you weren't ready to let it go, but in the end you did and you started changing portfolios, so it's a recurring theme here, but I'm going to try to do the best I can to articulate your ability to look at the moment and make some really difficult decisions that seem to go against every fiber of your being, as far as we can trace it. I just want to get the job done.

I have great pride and ownership. I think it's good, it's ethical for me to do the work and then let it go and that transformed you, then hire more employees and then make a big commitment to anyone who was there and had to sign the contract. . Leasing is like a three-year lease, you're making a commitment, a promise to pay someone else rent that you're not sure you'll be able to keep for the next three years, it's a big review moment and you're doing all these things. , you call them small scaffolding steps, but in reality they are giant commitments in which you have to overcome and also let go of part of the past to make room for the future.

Yes, you did all that and I. Congratulations, it took you a while. I always say you would be 10 times more successful if you moved a little faster, but you are super successful. Now I'll show you a little more of your work, but there's something else I want to talk about here and you've mentioned it a couple of times. I feel like I need to point out when Hugh Barton was here, the psychotherapist, he talked about the difference between self-confidence and self-esteem. He's never heard this explained this way before and I hope I don't ruin this part.

Self-confidence is how you feel about

yourself

and your work when no one is around. Self-esteem is what you feel when other people are around and I believe that you are one in the same because you really can't have confidence in

yourself

if you don't have theself-esteem. Because? Because you mentioned twice that you brought in this superstar designer and you weren't sure if she would want to do it. Working with you because you are working in her garage, so I have never suffered from that because I always thought that I have a lot to share and the work is going to be really good, don't worry about the IKEA tables on the cardboard. box that we worked with and then it came up again when clients came in and you said, oh, let's make sure we look a certain way when I want to spend all my energy working on the internal, working on the mindset of self. -esteem - confidence in myself to be able to learn to talk to people because, in theory, when all that disappears, when it catches fire or something happens, you still have this inside and that's the important thing, but the last thing you mentioned that is something we refer to as closing the gap, many creative people know their full potential and keep telling themselves that if a client ever gave me the opportunity I would do this amazing job, what they are doing is You are putting the burden on the work and the leap of faith.and the risk in the hands of the clients, you told yourself very wisely, we want to do this kind of work realistically, looking at our own work, we are not going to make this work based on our portfolio, so we need to dedicate time, energy and gathered the resources to do this type of work and you, by doing what you did, you almost felt instant results, you presented the projects that you talked about, it was shared on all these sites and these blogs and then all this attention was for you, yeah. and it was wonderful, so you were rewarded for making efforts to show the people of the world the potential that you believed in yourself but had not shown before and that is how you do and get this job for those who are scratching their heads. and thinking about this right now, how do I make that transition from being a poor, broken person, but not a broken person, just a broken person and how do I make that transition, how do I get out of that?

To close the gap, you have to do a good job. all the conversation we're having now you guys mean you have to know your craft, that's the beginning part, but it's not the end, it's just the beginning, okay, any other questions and I'll show you more of your work and when how to find out things like life lessons that you're taking away from this, okay, any other kind of questions you guys say, this is like the best livestream ever, it's like it's a little hyperbolic, but I'll take it, okay , someone is putting it. in quotes air quotes Gianfranco is saying that adult design equals money I don't know, okay, you're doing it right, distant men.

I talked to Mike. Taylor did much better and she asks when you are looking for a climate when you are looking for clients are you looking for? one with defined budgets for your service or are you looking for? Do you work with clients to organically develop a budget for your service? She understands the question, yes I do, okay, she knows I was when she's hungry, she'll take any client, so when you're developing and you're trying to build that foundation. You'll take on virtually any client, as long as they're willing to pay you for your craft. As you evolve and become more polished, I think the rules

change

a little bit. a little bit and I think fortunately for the design of my business farm, we've evolved quite a bit in a very short period of time, so the rules that I look for and at work I call them this kind of three P's, there are three rules what do I want. to try to get it right and me to determine if that's the right project for us and the three P's are the profits of our portfolio and the people, that's what the portfolio is.

I look at it when someone calls me. Will it be a project that I get very excited about? juicy project something I want to put in my portfolio I want to be proud of the other is the profit I want to evaluate to see if the client is qualified if they have a budget, then I dig deeper and you know what questions This question sometimes reveals itself when you make a proposal and The third is people who say that 85% of your problems come from 15% of your customers. Essential 80/20 is the Preta principle, but yes, I modify it a little.

So I've worked with a lot of what I consider bad clients and it just takes your soul away when you work with certain people who either don't respect you or don't respect your craft or on the contrary, I think it's very important when you're in a business relationship that be a healthy relationship, so my rule is that I need to have at least two of them working for me, you can't have just one and I think the Unicorn is If you can have all three, then when evaluating the type of job you are for We want to work or the type of people, I don't necessarily have to make money every time.

I might take a job if the people I respect and it's fun to work with and it's a portfolio piece that's really exciting because I know it's an investment that will get me the next job, but you can do any combination, but for me they have to be al minus two of those three, yeah, okay, two. out of three, any other questions, Emanuel Sam, yes, very good, very far, how do you produce good work when you are in a hurry because you have very little cash? You got it, yeah, how do you produce a job? I don't believe in work.

Quick, I think as a creative director guiding my design team, I never say work faster, hurry up because I think Vinnie is going to get inferior work, they're just going to like it, there's that tension and they're trying to create something in which that I believe. Be highly productive and try to get something done in a short period of time. I think part of that is that you have to be realistic about the project in the timelines that you assume. I think it would be a disservice to your client if you took on a project that you can't meet the deadlines and if you can't do it to a certain standard and quality that you believe in and then you just shouldn't accept it, you have to be able to walk away from a project because, in Ultimately, you're going to tarnish that relationship and they're not going to come back.

I believe in building relationships so that the client keeps coming back. Personally, I'm not a salesperson, so I don't do traditional cold calling like sales. I don't do a lot of bounce marketing because it's just not my style, so when I have the opportunity to work with the client I want to make sure I do my best because I want to be able to continue that work. In the relationship, you have a follow-up question for him. I'm trying to monitor Facebook and YouTube as well. You know good, why don't we do this? Okay, Erica, do you have any projects you regret?

I regret having done a project in which you were good. Well, it's a great question. I'm trying. I think a lot of times the projects I regret are because I didn't align or have the same values ​​or principles as my client, so I don't think that's the case. necessarily whether I made money or I didn't make money is or whether it is a portfolio piece or not. I think the projects I regret the most are aligned with someone who didn't respect our craft or I didn't respect their vision and so I try to avoid those relationships, but sometimes you don't know until you get into that relationship, so it's a challenge and sometimes you have to be willing to accept the fact that it may not be a good relationship and just say you know.

I just don't think it's a good option. I think I wish you the best of luck and just part ways, but the projects that you regret, I think I'll keep finding them and I'm always trying to do my thing. The best due diligence to curb that, but it's a challenge, so how do you handle those projects where you realize maybe we shouldn't have taken this, but you did and then you have to move on? I rarely don't. I like to leave people in the lurch. I think there's something about my personality, so I usually don't walk away from a challenging situation.

I think if it's about the client and it's a tumultuous relationship where there is tension and we don't see each other's eyes. so I'm just going to have that conversation with them, you know, I think maybe there's someone better for you and then we'll have to come up with some kind of exit strategy. I think the opposite if we continue in this tumultuous situation. relationship then I don't think we will be able to produce our best work, the experience will be tarnished and in the end neither party will be happy, so why go through that long process?

I think it's better. to be open and transparent and just say: I don't think we're the best option. Well, I wrote some things here. I say yes, there was a YouTube question asking if that fake restaurant project is still available somewhere on their site and what it is. called is no longer on our website, but it lives on the internet because one of the best things is that there is an influential blog called Dye Line mm-hmm, there are other blogs out there and when we post projects with tech and social media people. Pick it up if it's noteworthy and share that information to keep the project alive.

I think the one I was referring to is called Old Boy Blues mm-hmm. I'm going to find it, yes, Old Boy Blues and the designer who worked on it. who was actually an intern at my company, she's now my art director and she's been with me for five years, so this project was, you know, it was kind of a labor of love and we were like trying to feel it out and it was all mockups it was hypothetical, but that gave us our first restaurant project and today we do a lot of restaurant work and I think on any given day we're probably working on two or three restaurant projects.

I can't find your project here, but I'll try the old blues, let me design, see what I come up with, you can keep talking about why I found this. I think talking about how technology can help you drive marketing is even the mugo project we were talking about before. They picked me up at the dye line. I did not expect this. They picked it up because I had posted something on my website. The dye line picked it up and posted it and then I started getting all these calls and one of the calls I got. was from DreamWorks DreamWorks contacted me and said they wanted to do a licensing partnership deal with me on mugo and this is all because I published something.

I tried to create an opportunity. I didn't know it was going to take advantage of me, but I knew I needed to put something out there and create my own opportunities and then I was able to get Moo into Walmart and into urban stores in retail, but I learned a lot from that. I'm not going to do Moo Go anymore, but I think that opportunity taught me a lot of lessons about the business side of design and took me a lot less from the creative side, so when I go to client meetings I can talk about the business side that I learned through of muga, like what the user went to. market strategy, you know what your, what your cost is, what your distribution channels are, you know, you ask these questions that I would never have been told, I knew how to ask because I was a designer.

I was more talking about the right font and colors, but I think if you talk business on a strategic level and bring value to the relationship, that's when they're most intrigued and see you as a valuable partner instead of just a designer and That's when my business really started to grow as I shifted the dialogue from design to business strategy and I think that's a big part of why my business took another step forward. Well, I'll make a note to continue with this, but we found old man blue, yes, he's right here on the screen because he was writing old man and he knows blues, so this is what it looks like.

I remember you worked on this and this reminded me that I should ask you this question about demos and things like that because some people on our show I told him that you would be on the show and they told me to ask him how he does such a good job with these demos and bands. Is there any advice you can share with us? How much work goes into these photographs? we're seeing here, well we're not photographers so we just do the best we can, we just try to figure it out and I think that's the key to these things, you'll just figure it out.

You don't have to go into it, you don't have to know the outcome, you just have to be willing to take the first step, so we could take, for example, this image here, yes, this is a stock photo that you compiled on the brick wall. No, actually there was this is one of the alleys behind one of our offices in Pasadena and we filmed this with the SLR camera and then we touched up the graphics on the brick wall, who's the best-carried guy? the box and the bike he was an employee at the time, oh yeah, so he modeled for us, and he had a strong old Besson style, okay, what restaurant are we photographing anyway?

Yeah, so we thought we need to get that contextual shot. So we went to a burger joint and said we were doing a student project. Would you mind if we took some photos? And they told us there is no problem. So we ordered some food and took some snapshots. Yes, I remember that at that time I barely even knew how to use the camera too. I was asked not to lose the child, but I already knew enough about how to take a photo that is well lit and that he understands lighting and they are the key parts of his being. can dosuch cool mockups for us, it's a lot about storytelling, so it's like we wanted to tell the story, the story of the brand, contextualize it and that was the circuit, there might be a date there around 2012, maybe 13, something So. that that's cool and then I want to see your portfolio now, a design on the farm in the back, you get a lot of leads from behan s... we get it a lot, you get a lot, so I want to talk about this. for a brief moment because I've been harping on this to our audience and they're like Chris to King getting work and I said are you in bands and what does it look like and how much effort and energy did you put into those?

So I'm going to skip to this one since it's the newest one. I sure decided it works. Let's take a look. Go ahead and tell us about this. What are you doing here? This is a project that we have just launched. yesterday it's called bivouac it's a cider company in San Diego California they came to us maybe a year and a half ago because they saw some logos that we put on Behance which was also just a hypothetical project what was the rusty coffee rest coffee Yeah, so we let you know, so they found us at B Hance, they contacted us and we started, but they do it. cider they wanted to make canned cider they wanted to have a restaurant or some kind of watering hole for their customers to be consumers and this is a year and a half process so When we put this together it is a combination of telling a story.

Telling a brand story and addressing many of the different facets of the brand, we try to look at micro and macro stories. A lot of what you see here are those cans and boxes, they're mockups, so if we make a 3D model or use stock photo sites that I think we got from yellow images. Don't worry, they make all these kinds of really cool lighting mockups, so we bought them there and a lot of these other ones, like when Look at stock photos like the ones here with the guy holding the beer bottle and finding the photo appropriate stock photo that doesn't look like a stock photo and also aligns with the brand vision, so it's not just like taking a photo and leaving it there it's like you really have to curate and think about how that story works, if it's the right demographic, they have the right lighting and the tonality that we love to use in stock c.com is really great. stock photography site, they don't feel like stock, we also use Shutterstock.com, but Shutterstock is generally good for more pedestrian type images, they do look stock, but it's a combination of mocking things and photographing them, even in a studio. study well, this is what I want to do.

I don't break this down and I'll prepare you for this in case you don't want to, but I will ask you a little bit about the business part. of this thing, but not yet, okay, let's talk about these cans, it's a CG computer generator, it's photographed, can you tell me what you think? I think it's CG, how can you tell? Because I know you don't have a picture, you can, okay? You're right, it's a mockup, it's a mockup, but I think it's beautiful. I think some of the best interpretations of the brand are mockups. I don't think I have to be if I don't have qualities.

I don't care, I think it looks great. I'm just guessing because you said I still don't. To take photos and take a can sweating like that, it's not that easy to do and I look a lot at the gradations that you would use. that yellow yellow images yellow images for this how much does it cost you to buy the model for this and put it on put your label dollar fifty $250 worth a dollar fifty dollar fifty dollar fifty so this look thank you for sharing this now I just want to take a moment and tell you this to you guys out there, Aaron might have accumulated these resources that he could, it's up to you guys to figure it out, because if you're going to look for 3D mockups, you might spend quite a bit of time against the clock and error and find the right one, so I really appreciate you saying that and I haven't heard of C stock before and we'll talk a little more about that, so he's sharing his resources and basically telling you guys to go out and make better compositions. and I'm not going to feel your competition right now, let's continue here, why did you put this kind of mountainous landscape behind?

Tell me about the thinking behind that. Sure Farm Design is a brand agency, so we are trying to attract clients. and create branding systems for them, so it's not just a logo or just a website. We like to create systems so that we can create a brand system that is effective and can connect and communicate with its audience. It should have many different facets and So there are many types of tertiary, secondary and tertiary artifacts, as we like to call them, so the primary artifact could be a logo and then if you scroll down a little bit more, you know that you will have brands secondary, colors, textures, let me.

Let me drive this around a little bit, sure, tell me about the mountain, where did you make this label? Is this for an advertisement or did you just add this for presentation? Did they really use this? Yeah, that was actually born out of one of the mood panels that we created, I think, and we actually used that texture, if you can sort it, it's kind of an ethereal, hazy background to capture the essence of this adventure and style of outdoor living, yes it's just a cold mountain and yes I want my drinks to be cold, yes ok this photo of the restaurant is their actual place of business this is a rational place to just look at it literally opened ago two days, I see, so this is hot off the press, yeah, where's San Diego?

So you drove to San Diego. we took this photo that they gave us and we're actually going to go there and take it with consumers consumers in the space because I think it brings a different dynamic so even though we're posting it now, we're going to

constant

ly update it to kind of improve it and make it better so we want to reshoot them and give us a different energy by having people there. Why is it important for you to

constant

ly improve and review these presentations? They already know bands, because I know there are clients out there.

The cost of looking not just today, you know next month a year from now, so why don't we have the opportunity? This is dynamic information, it's not static, once you put it there, it doesn't have to be that way, it's not permanent, it's not like us. You're printing something and you have to burn it and reprint it. It's very easy to fill it out again and in this form, and because clients in the future will see it, they will want it and they will see those details and the nuances, so we are always trying to improve our craft, yes, constantly improving our craft, well, I want to tell you this, guys, there is this concept of Jim, he publishes books and seven strategies for wealth and happiness, he talks about miners and old people, what you What you don't want to do is mix these two things: you don't want to making less effort for an important result or goal and you also don't want to make more effort for a lesser goal when you are speaking.

About your lead generation source, basically all of your sales and marketing in terms of inbound comes from Banan's, so it's up to you to do the best job and I've seen you do this and assign teams to do it; It could be days, if not weeks. working on the layout, typography, color palette, writing, order and reviewing photography and that is why your work stands out. There are a hundred thousand, maybe a couple of million people in Behan s... well, why does the best job always come up? to the top is because they put time and energy into it and you should do the same.

I want to come back and you're approaching us for the show here and I'm sure our live audience awards one to ten but it's going to end at some point so I want to break this down real quick just give me shorter answers as the The slides I want to talk about are a deep dive into your portfolio, your sales and marketing technique because of the work we're in. Seeing here, embrace your adventure, did you guys write yes we did? So there's a little voice of typographic treatment and you can use that. I saw it on the can and again it's pictured here.

I guess it's a file state, okay and then. This is another 3D mockup, yes, again, yellow images mm-hmm, very good look, look at that corrugated cardboard guys, it looks very elegant. I say this because when I look at the portfolios I realize that it is a mockup. is revealing the man behind the curtain. I want to try to create something that you can't tell, like who is real or not, that's the level of detail we're trying to get, so it's like how the light hits it, how the shadows. It reflects all those little nuances, if you can manage to not reveal the man behind the curtain, then I think he's fine or we'll publish it.

Are they giving you the 3D model? You're giving the artwork and them? render it for you, it's actually really cool because if you subscribe to a premium version at Yellow Images com, you can ask them to make a 3D render for you, just give them the drawings and I think in two to four weeks they'll give it to you. something but then they will use it as they will sell that model as an original model because they are also trying to create content so for a small fee of $300 a year they will actually make custom renders for you what is it? the limitation and how many you can do.

I think it's just an angle, but I thought I mean in one year you paid $300 a year with no limit. Wow, yeah guys, if you hired a CG guy before this, they'd charge you. over 300 this, I think, I think they're in Russia, whatever, okay, so if you guys are in the 3D mockup rendering business, now you're out of business, okay, let's stay here, ride the winds, They have changed something you wrote with your pen. the Misty Mountains themselves, these roller coasters are these mockups, it's a mockup and you can say that we even put like a water stain in the real shadows of the roller coaster and then we composited all that together with the compiled background photo, yeah. everything is a composite in this whole project here.

I would say we probably invested around a hundred hours to simulate set illnesses, maybe two people working on it for over a week mm-hmm, that's how important it is for us because I know the investment of that time and effort that I have to paying my employees to do this, so it's an investment and we know this will be the next project right now. I'm going to say something that is both a compliment and an insult to you, are you ready, I say to my team, guys, look at these mockups, this is the gold standard for my team, we could do better than this because we are better than them, isn't it?

Are you telling me that we are not so? well like them, so I throw it out there so that you, my team, can't make better mockups and designs on this, you're not worth that much to me. I don't see it that way, but you know. insult insults we are better than this I think anyone can be better than this and I know it and with that it is as if we were all also we know that we can improve in this game too and so within a year we hope that our portfolio and our models will be better than they are today, so never sell them on their laurels.

I mean your mockup game is tight so you're already in that kind of the top echelon are these his shoes that's what yeah we've also composed because the shirt the photo wasn't great so we composite things together , a lot of color correction, shadows, highlights, beer stains or water stains, so this is so you know when, when. They say they're a brand agency, they really are because they're writing copy there, they're working on a lot more touchpoints than just the brand itself or just a package, they're trying to create the whole kind of visual reflection of What's About? is about this brand, so I think you did a great job explaining all of this, of course, this is what we see on a lot of sites and you would like to make these multiple logos that you call brand artifacts, okay? so that's what you like to do for your clients.

This is a file photo. I'm pretty sure it's like guys throwing jumps or whatever you're doing right, rekt, okay, good job, man, and I want to say this to both designers and clients who are potentially watching this episode is that there are a lot of really great images, there may be too many of them and the problem is the ability to refine and find the right image, so the image may not cost you much in terms of payment, such as buying a stock or off-stock image, It's really pennies compared to what it would cost to commission someone for what you're paying, it's someone with a good eye who can pick these things out and scan hundreds, if not thousands, of images to find them. the right one for you and that's a skill and it's worth paying for because they took an asset that's a dollar and turned it into a hundred thousand dollar image because they selected the right image, it could be gone. correcting the color and adjusting some things will become absolutely those details curation is so important that it's like you can tell pretty quickly if it's us Photograph graphic or a mockup, we try to increase that perception of what it is and be able to tell a story, so you focus on the story and I think if you doyou do really well, I think that's what we're trying to achieve.

Well, I want to talk a little bit about business now. Can we talk business? how much they pay you for that project, the baby walk, yeah, it was interesting because they actually got stock options in the business, here we go, what did you know? He's actually a co-owner, but it's very small, very, very small, but this thing. is sold to Budweiser, you know you combine in an hour, but instead of cash, I think it was 45,000, 45,000 is good for you, so in three payments spread over a year and a half, but yeah, excellent and when you told him Client and I want to talk about some of the mindset issues here.

Put this at $45,000. We always have these kinds of fears like: Is it too much? It's very little? Tell me about your mindset when you're working on the budget for this. Everything was fine, so the person who contacted us was actually already committed to another agency in San Diego, an agency I admired when he was in school over 20 years ago. I bought books because their logos were there and If they weren't, they're amazing, they're still amazing and when I heard he's working with them, I thought, "Okay, we're not in your league or the league you're looking for, but he He said I saw." The Rust project that can is on our B Hance pages and that was a hypothetical project.

He said: I love what you guys do. There's something about that and that's why he wanted us. To put together a proposal, I knew the agency he was already committed to but had concerns with, so I took the risk of bidding higher outside of my comfort zone because we always got you're pushing. when we chat we have our departure time and you say, ask for more why are you out, you can say something like, okay, this is that one, okay, okay, this is at the same time. I think I'm going to listen to Chris again. I'm going to try to get out of my comfort zone because my comfort zone was probably a lot less, so I put that part of everything together and my number I said is 45.

I found out that the other agency I think was a hundred and twenty thousand. so I was a wolf I wish I was less than them but I was incredibly happy with what I got but I could have asked for more but it's like you know you're always trying to figure out what your comfort level is and what it is. You bring your value to the project and you are always evaluating whether that client can afford it. I want to talk about this for a quick minute because there aren't many people on the show who know me as well as you do.

I have had thousands of hours talking sometimes about personal matters sometimes about business in the last 20 years since we met. I just want to give you guys a chance to totally make fun of me right now when I'm talking to you. I'm like Erin, blah, blah, blah, you can match, you can, you can do your parody of what you think you hear when I say these things. I'd love to hear you say that for our audience, for our fans, I think they're going to like it. that, how do you listen?, how am I barking these things at you, how do you listen, how does this sound in your brain?

I mean, you're ready, you don't like doing your close-up, right? Oh my gosh, tell people what it sounds like. in your brain I'll get out of your shot, go ahead, well, I mean first we started we were like enemies because we were like no, we started as enemies like I just wanted to crush you. I never saw it like that. and then it was easy to crush you, you know, I always admired what you've been able to achieve and build before even starting the future and it was really impressive, but I think a lot of my pride and stubbornness is like I don't want to. to listen to someone who appears.

I probably listen to my parents, but I didn't want to listen to you, so for you it's like I can figure out I'm going to do it my way and I had to do it. I realize you're giving me really sound advice, so it's hard for me to bring you closer to Perry, but I have to break down walls and leave you like you're younger than me, but I consider you my wise uncle. I don't know if that's an insult, but I know that you provide so much knowledge, whether it's correct or not, it's like I start to leak it and I start to let it in slowly, so it's a slow turn, but I think I'm more open. to listen to you because I think you provide great content for your audience and I think they see incredible value, so as much as you want me to make fun of you, I'll appreciate it.

Can I just turn? We do that you can do whatever you want man I was trying to give you your now it's not my house how can you make fun of me because other people have done it and they've done a fantastic job so this is what I heard Aaron use these words, dragged enemy. and burn so you can put those things together okay yeah it's all good everything's good we have a great relationship guys okay Erica Emmanuel and Sam guys do you have any last thoughts before we close the cover? Guys, I have a question from ina.

Son, what do you do when your professional opinion or project differs from what the client wants and he can't be convinced to use it? Yeah, basically, what do you do when your clients start taking the project further away from what it's supposed to be? Answer that, it's a great question, we deal with this all the time, all the time. I think at the end of the day, they are the customer and they hired you to provide them with a service. The best we can do is that we can. We can guide the process as best we can.

We also know that we probably know more than them from a brand point of view, so the best we can do is say that our pro advice is that we urge you to do this Altman ultimately at the end of the day they are going to do what they're going to do and that's how it's going to be, so you have to pick your battles, but you try to do what's best for the customer and at some point you get it. just let them do what they're going to do, well I hope they answer the question, your answer is good enough for me, yeah, okay guys, I want to thank you for coming on the show, Aaron, before we say goodbye.

I want to see some. about your work and I'll talk a little bit about your trip and then I'll send this out with some music. I guess I can say that you can say whatever and then when you talk about my trip, it's like I want to say hello. to the people who are not here in the studio and those are all my employees past and present because yes, because they helped shape who I am and they helped shape the business, so this result is a group collective of young and truly talented individuals. So you just know I want to make sure everyone knows this isn't me.

This is a collection of people who I think are like-minded. Well, I can't leave you there, okay, I can't when you say this isn't me. I see a man transform from the guy who says... I can't even hire an intern to cut things for me from ten years ago, whenever that was in 2000, somewhere in 2005, to now, 13 years later, what happened to that man? Peter Pan, you know, I realized that to grow you have to accept that you don't know everything, so I think I was very honored when I hit rock bottom and kind of reevaluated who I am and who I loved.

To be like that, I wanted to do things that are bigger than me and do things that fulfill me and I think one of the most important things that I have learned that fulfills me is helping others become better people too. for me it no longer works the work is not done for myself I do it to support and nurture my staff and my clients and I believe that that is the greatest reward it is not something monetary it is not a reward z' on the On the wall, it is really like seeing the people that I work with and the clients that I work with being successful in life and there are a couple of designers on my team and on my staff that are really taking things that they learn from me and then they are mentoring the students so they are now volunteering their time on the weekends and created their own program and are sharing information that they learn from me so that was pretty powerful so I just want to continue to empower people to empower people and be in that situation.

I wasn't in that situation when I was a solopreneur. I was just focusing on me, now I'm focusing on something beyond me, so when I say it's not just me, I'm trying to lead a team and you just know them. They are the ones who are helping with the vision and guiding this path that we are all traveling. It's not that I'm just trying to pave the way. Mmm-hmm, okay, so this is what I hear from you. is that when you work alone as a solopreneur, it becomes kind of an echo chamber and I hate to say it like that, but it was very self-centered, it was all me, me, me, it's like Marshall Marshall Marshall and that's what became and what I hear from you now is that if I read this correctly is that you now take pride not in the work that you do, but in how you are transforming other people's lives so that when your team grows and they do great work, you can take pride that you were able to create a space or guidance or mentorship or just help them find the right clients to get to that place and then also combine it with that it wasn't about what I wanted to do it from a design point of view that is very self-centered and selfish. .

It was about trying to help your clients have the same kind of success, so you can't have a successful business without being a different kind of person. -hmm everyone wants to be successful so few people are willing to do the work it takes to change and to me that is what you have been able to do, you have taken everything that I believe is an accumulation of your experiences and prejudices and You have gone against that, you have let go of so many things and that is what it has been. I think the key to your transformation I think is pretty accurate.

I think it's getting out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself and I think it's when you grow as an individual and then you learn from that and then you challenge the people around you to help them grow, so I think getting out of that comfort zone is a big part of growing to be able to get out of your comfort zone that you have. so we can accept the fact that you don't know everything, okay, so let's look at a couple of last slides and then we'll close the program or close the program. There's a few more things here, of course, you guys can go to the Hanson search for farmhouse design, there's a couple of farmhouse designs there, but you'll recognize the work and then you can browse the rest of their portfolio and I think Aaron will relaunch the site on Thursday , so if you go to farm design network, hmm, I will be able to see the newly created site and this is really wonderful and beautiful work, it has great attention to details, patterns, textures and color palettes and I really appreciate with love all the contextual apps you provide, so see it in context.

It makes it feel so real and so rich, I don't mean in terms of price, but it's just a pleasure for the eyes. I think that's what you guys want to do and you see this diversity now. I look at this little kid who loved basketball and you're an athletic guy and then I see what you've become, like the guy from Montana and the guy who's like running in Spartan races and you're pretty tough and super competitive, so competitive. I like. you just leave me in the dust, you keep doing these things like I'm just trying to limp across the finish line and you're a guy who was afraid of commitment, afraid of being in public and speaking in Ted, great achievement.

Congratulations to you for making the final commitment and getting married and before anyone starts crying, let's end the show like this, okay, yeah, it ended quickly, yeah, okay, so I'll come back to me Erin, thanks for coming. friend of the show, I know this is a great moment for both of us because there were a lot less questions and worries and all that kind of stuff about what it entails and I'm so grateful that you were so transparent and shared everything. the Updown. I was a little surprised that they could talk about the money he had and just let it go, maybe it's all there, so guys, we don't have an applause track, but thank you very much.

I'm going to close the program. Let's cut this. Let's do it. Let's try. This music sounds appropriate.