NttG#2 – The People

Hey Folks. Back again with my second installment of New to the Game. Before I talked about getting involved and some of the ways you can do that. Now I want to talk a little about how I’ve leveraged getting involved into getting some work.

Podcasting did a few things for me:

First I met Phil, Shawn, and Bob and discovered the mantra “Never Design Alone.” No matter what idea or design I come up with, someone else is always going to see something in my stuff I didn’t and make it better.

I also have a skill set as a writer, it’s what I went to school for, but I’m not the best editor. I can do some graphic design but I don’t have a lock down on the business side or marketing side of this stuff. What I’m saying is I have a skill set, but not every skill needed to be successful at making and selling things. I also don’t have the time or resources to become accomplished in those area’s I’m lacking. My partners in this adventure called Encoded Designs do.

The third part is I’ve interviewed a lot of people who can now open proverbial doors for us. On top of that, the people I’m working with have their own networks. If we’re lacking in some skill or need a door opened, then one of them most likely knows someone, and probably more than one someone, who can help us.

So the lesson is surround yourself with people who you can work with and who bring something or someone to the table that you don’t. You can have some overlap, in fact you should, but if you have a group of just writers & designers who only know writers and designers, who have little to no marketing, graphic design, art, or editorial ability, or know people who do, then you’re going to have a much harder, and more expensive, time getting people to look at the things you make.