- Hello, everybody. Welcome to a new vlog.
I'm going to say at the start,
that I know this is going to be one
that goes over a day or two.
So that tomorrow, when I wake up
and realize I didn't finish the vlog,
or felt like I didn't give
enough content for the vlog
just today, I set the
intention from the start.
(upbeat chime) So that's
what's going to happen.
I've dyed my hair again,
you probably noticed
because it's looking real pink.
I feel like I need to do
some more bleaching on it,
because at the top, it is
not so colored anymore.
But hey, I'm really,
really liking being back.
Feeling like myself again,
I feel like when my
hair is pink or purple,
or like colored in some way,
it just makes me feel like
I've got my shit together,
you know, and this is a
week where I really need
to have my shit together.
Actually the whole next
month or so is going to be.
We've got some big
things going on at work,
huge project that I'm leading,
and lots of pages that
we need to get produced
for our marketing site,
to go out over the next month or so.
Like up until the end of the quarter,
the end of September.
Last week was such a busy week.
Like one of the busiest weeks of work
that I've had all year. I feel like.
It's at a stage right now where there's,
I think I might have
talked about it actually,
in the last vlog.
It's like just on the brink of chaos,
and there's so much happening
that there's just no
time to get distracted.
And that's good because
I get distracted easily,
when I'm not like fully
loaded with stuff to do.
And I can tend to procrastinate.
And when there's this much stuff going on,
it's just not possible to procrastinate.
I find it really motivating personally,
but I also know that this
is like a state of working,
and like being,
that makes it really easy to burn out.
So this weekend,
I very purposefully took
a lot of time to relax.
I did a little bit of side
hustle stuff and some writing
sorted out some finances,
but for the most part,
I like watched Schitts Creek on my iPad,
I read a whole book, I
went for swims in the pool.
Because we went to my
boyfriend's parents place
for the weekend. That was really good.
And I feel like I rested enough
to be ready to tackle this week, you know?
Yeah. I've been spending my
morning getting organized,
and like planning deadlines for things.
Like I said, we want to
launch a lot of pages
for the marketing site.
I normally like to take my
time with marketing site pages,
because I feel like when
you're putting out a new page,
getting it into its
best state for the start
gives you a bit of base to
be improving from in future,
you know.
Normally we can take the time
to get a page super right,
and go through my full
design process with it,
try new creative things. But yeah,
for these pages, it's kind of like,
we need them to be up
and existing on our site,
so that Google can start ranking them,
and they can start sort of
having some benefit for us
in terms of SEO.
So, I am taking the mindset
that the important thing is
to get up a page with the
content that needs to be on it.
Of course I have standards
when it comes to design,
and there's like a threshold,
that I'm not willing to go below
because that would hurt our brand.
Even though it might help
our SEO to get it up sooner.
It's this balance that
we've got to live with.
All right, this is the page
that I designed last week,
about our email marketing features.
So this is a page that
is designed to rank for
people searching for
email marketing tools.
So it's a pretty simple page in that,
it's like doing the standard,
like content thing at the side,
content thing at the
side, alternating thing.
There're a couple of special pieces,
like this thing here where you click,
automated emails and it shows you
the process for sending
either a broadcast,
or an automated email.
We've got the other content
hanging out over here.
And then there was this block
here that's kind of new,
which is like telling you
about some teaching content,
we have some internal links there.
Overall with this page, I think it's good,
It uses our design system,
I think it communicates
the information clearly.
I've used the same style of
image with little illustration.
So yeah, I'm happy with
all of those things
that I've created there, and
I think it's looking good.
But I know that if I'd spent
a longer time wireframing,
I would have come up with new,
and like way more creative ideas
for displaying this content.
This was like a gut design.
It was going with the gut,
going with what instantly do
I think will be the best way
to produce this, using similar elements
that we've already got
somewhere else in our site
to make the code easier.
Thinking about all those things,
knowing that our deadlines are in place.
So yeah, that's the next few
pages that I'm designing,
I'm having to keep that mindset.
I hope in future that we can go back
and sort of rethink, and
come up with creative ways to
display content.
Because I think that honestly
helps our marketing site
stand out from others, when
I do take that approach.
But for now this will
do the job just fine.
It tells people what they need to know.
It's easy to understand,
easy to scan and skim.
So it's going to be like a
helpful page for us as it is.
Friday, I did the hand
off of this page to Corey.
Who's going to start
building it this week,
while I am moving on to
wire framing and designing
the next page, ready to hand off to him.
I think like next Monday,
actually we're going to try it.
No, not that soon.
But there's like this chain
of events happening basically,
to get four pages out
within the next six weeks.
And it all needs to go in order,
and be sticking to the deadlines
in order to make it happen.
So we'll see, I'll keep
you updated over the next
month or so, how we go on that.
In other news, you saw me
talking in a recent vlog
about trying out mechanical keyboards.
I was using Mark's to see if I liked it,
and wanted to buy my own.
I did like it in the end,
and so I have bought
my own. I got this one.
I've got no idea what it's called,
but I'm going to put the name
of it on the screen right now,
so that you can see what it's called.
I wanted one specifically
that had media keys,
that's what I didn't
like about Mark's one.
Because I like mute, and
constantly adjusting volume,
or using the fast forward
keys and things like that.
As I listen to music pretty
much constantly while I work.
I am planning on buying some
cute colored key caps for it,
because there're some cute sets around,
but also, let me come
and show you the thing
that I bought over the weekend.
I watched the YouTube
video about how to paint,
like just the inside of the keys,
so I bought a bunch of really
cute colored spray paints.
Along with the primer,
and the top coat thing,
to attempt to do that myself.
So we'll see how that goes.
We also just got in an order
from Ikea, so that's exciting.
We got some new furniture built.
Got a new dining table,
a new coffee table,
and a couple of other
little bits and pieces.
Also I've been buying more plants.
I got an olive tree, to
try and grow in some pots
on our terrace.
Apparently they can withstand
the heat really well.
I can't, so I'm going to go back inside.
Anyway, I think that is your update
on everything and where we're at.
Now that I've done my sort of sorting out,
and getting things planned,
like communication, like everyone answered
who had questions for me,
after I signed off on Friday.
That's all done.
Now I can dig in and get
going on this wireframe.
So, I'll be taking the
same approach as I did
to this email marketing page,
and partially limiting the amount of time
I spend wire framing, because otherwise
I'm going to start to come up with more
and more creative things,
and more, and more things that
are more difficult to build.
So we'll time box it. Let's get this done.
(soft guitar playing)
Good morning everybody, it's Tuesday.
I don't know why I held up two fingers,
I guess because it's the
second day of the week?
I don't know.
I told you this vlog was
going to go over two days,
maybe that's where the
two was coming from.
Anyway, last night I had my Spanish class,
which is still happening online,
even though the Spanish school is open,
our classes opted to
continue with online lessons,
which I quite like, because
it means there's less,
commute time to get there,
even though it's only a 10
minute walk away, but hey.
It's nice to end the Spanish class,
and go straight into like having dinner
and hanging out for the evening.
It was a busy day today, it's
said to be another one today.
On Tuesdays, I always find
myself working quite late,
and so I took some time
this morning to get prepped
for a new episode of
inside marketing design,
all set up ready to be launched tomorrow.
This one, which this
episode will already be up
by the time you see this vlog.
So you should go and listen
to this inside marketing
Denali episode. I think it's my favorite.
It's an interview with Adam
Stoller from Base Camp,
and Base Camp just do things so different,
to any other company that
it was just fascinating.
There're loads of like little nuggets.
Honestly, the episode could have been
like double the length. And I
think when we actually talked,
we ended up talking for
like two hours, but yeah.
It's only 40 minute, so you
should go and listen to it.
I think I'd like for the next
season to make it a priority,
to speak to companies who do
things differently to the norm.
I feel like we've covered a lot of bases
in this first season of the show,
and I'm specifically
looking for interesting
or unique approaches to marketing
design in future seasons.
So I'll be asking people, I don't know,
in advance I guess,
before coming up with the episode lineup.
What's different about how they do things,
or anything special or unique,
so that I can pick based on that.
Today, is a lot of stuff
the same as yesterday.
I didn't get as far as they wanted
with a wireframe yesterday,
but I'll show you where I have got up to,
and we'll be continuing that today,
because I need to get it done.
Also finally, hopefully,
launching some of the
personalization stuff that
I think I talked about
a couple of vlogs ago.
There's just been, I don't know,
hasn't been a focus to get it live,
but it needs to go live.
So, I will get that done.
This week I also needed
to set up some user tests,
but I probably won't do
that today to be honest.
Also today though, exciting news,
I'm going to be speaking at
Figma's Europe conference,
they're doing a virtual conference,
and it is free for people to attend.
Which is really cool.
So I'll leave the link in the description,
you should go and sign
up to come along to it.
As some of you may know,
Figma sponsor my channel,
which is really great.
This channel is powered by Figma,
and so I'm always happy and proud
to be promoting a Figma thing.
They are a product that I
use to do all my designs,
and they're a great company.
And I'm excited to speak
at their conference.
I'm going to be doing my
talk on how to self promote,
and how to build your
reputation through it.
And the fact that it's not actually scary,
or like gross to be doing
some sort of self promotion.
I first ran it as a
workshop at Epicurrence,
a few years back.
And since then it's been evolving,
presented it as a talk in a
bunch of different places,
and it just gets better,
and changes a little bit
each time I do it.
Yeah. It's going to be fun to do online,
because I have not presented
a talk online before.
I have been like a guest
on webinars and stuff.
But today, the reason I
brought it up, is because
I have like a tech check,
with someone from the
Figma conference team.
So they'll be showing me how
that's all going to work,
which would be good.
Because I didn't want
to show up and be like,
what's going on here?
And like I said, you
should come along to it.
I think it's September 17th,
let me me confirm that.
September 17th, and it is
in like the UK time zone.
But I think even if you're not in Europe,
it's in the afternoon, Europe time.
It'll be in the morning, if
you're in the US or whatever.
You can check it out
yourself on the website.
Also this morning, I went for a run,
which is not something I
usually do, to be honest,
for our team retreat.
So, back backup.
(rewind sounds)
Twice a year, ConvertKit
has a team retreat.
The last one was in February, in the US.
The next one was meant to
be in September, in the UK.
But thanks to Covid, obviously
that's not happening,
so we're having like a
virtual retreat instead.
It's the first time we've had to do this,
and we know it's not
going to be quite the same
as being together in person,
but it's going to run for three days,
and they've got some
great sessions lined up
to try and foster some
of the same community,
and conversation that happens
when you are in person at the retreat.
So, I don't know, I'll put
back when that happens,
about how it's gone, or maybe
I'll vlog my way through it,
if you're interested in
seeing how a remote company
runs a retreat like that.
As part of the retreat, we are
doing a five K run together.
When I say together, I
mean everyone would do it
individually, whenever fits their schedule
over the three days,
so that I'm not ending up
having to like run at midnight
because it's whatever time in the US.
Everyone tracks their five K run in Strap,
but we have like a little running group,
and everyone's training right
now, and it's super fun,
and like encouraging.
So I've been taking part in that.
I'm not a strong runner,
I am incredibly slow,
and I get exhausted very easily.
But it's been fun to
have a reason, I guess,
to get back into it, and
to feel that encouragement.
So, yeah, that's what I did this morning.
And then working on the episode,
now I'm going to open Slack
for the first time today.
Let's see how many notifications I have.
Not as many as I thought, that's good.
Still a lot, but it
shouldn't take me too long
to get through things.
I'm going to start my workday
by diving into all this,
and seeing what people have got for me,
and then getting on to the
work that I planned for myself,
let's go.
(upbeat drums playing)
Right, making myself a coffee,
to get in to my afternoon work.
It was a morning of, like I said,
catching up on people's needs and stuff,
but now I can get stuck
into that wire framing.
Check out our new dining table though.
I'm really pleased with it,
we just need to get
some chairs that match,
because these ones do not,
but they will do for now.
(upbeat rock music playing)
Okay everyone,
I think I have a wireframe
that I'm happy with.
I think I'm happy with it.
Usually I like to finish something,
and then sleep on it before
sharing for feedback,
just so I can do another review myself,
and I don't know, sometimes
you just spot things
the next day, or sometimes
later in the afternoon,
or whatever time you can spare.
Like sleeping on something,
putting it down for a while,
and coming back to it with fresh
eyes is always a good idea.
But, in the interest of time
with this very quick
project we're working on,
I've shared it with the teams,
so that they can hopefully
get all their thoughts to me
by tomorrow, so I can start
moving onto the design phase.
But I will show you the wireframe.
So, the page, did I
explain? I can't remember,
is like a Linktree comparison page.
Basically, ConvertKit landing pages
are infinitely more
powerful than Linktree pages
for using as a LinkedIn bio.
And we have a new feature
called collections
that will let you do a
similar thing to a Linktree
list of links added to
any ConvertKit page.
So, this is my wire frame,
and the page goal is to
showcase how we compare, and
how we differ from Linktree
and try and convince
people to use us instead.
So this will be a big image,
maybe an illustrated graphic,
potentially a video one day too,
whenever we have time to create that.
Starting with a quote, and then
I've broken down the content
into three steps.
This is always part of the
wiring process, honestly,
is synthesizing the content,
and figuring out the best
way to group the information
to present on the page.
So this is what I came up with.
We talk about the fact that
it's got everything you need,
and that you can do it all for free.
Because basically there's a
lot of ConvertKit free features
that you have to pay for on Linktree.
I think about customizing,
and then I think about the
other ConvertKit features
that you can make use of as well.
Three extra points, I think this is nice.
One, they couldn't fit
within all this other stuff,
but two, I think it like
breaks up the page a little,
you've just gone two
columns, to now go three,
it's like a break for
your eyes, I don't know.
This weird carousel, we've
used this style elsewhere
on our site.
This is not the thing I'm
trying to do with this page,
in the interest of time
is make it quick to build,
by reusing elements from elsewhere.
So this will show four
different types of a link,
in bio page, and that is not
the image that will be used.
That's just an example that
I pulled from elsewhere.
This is just all wireframe,
even though there's some
like colors and heading,
styling, and things in it.
This is just how I wireframe.
Anyway, then we go to
this comparison tree.
I don't know if I really
like comparison tables,
but they seem to be effective,
and so I'm begrudgingly
including it in this one.
Although I feel like they look really fake
when you just have everything
ticked in your columns,
So I'd like us to make
sure we include something
that Linktree has that we don't.
Just to show that we're
being honest about this,
and also to make it
more helpful for people
to actually make a choice.
And then we have our
end with another quote,
just for some extra social proof.
Hopefully we can get
some people who are like,
they might recognize from
Instagram or whatever
to give us these quotes, so
they'll see that their peers,
(small bell chime) are using it.
So yeah, this is my
page, and as you can see
all these dots around, I've
left twelve points in envision,
for the team to look
at, read and respond to.
Hopefully they like it. We'll see.
My afternoon now that I've done that,
I'm really happy that I
got that finished actually,
it was worth putting
in that focus time for.
But my afternoon is going
to be spent writing.
I need to get a post up with an agenda
for our marketing meeting,
which is happening in two hours.
So yeah, I have them first, very quickly,
and then another post as well.
This is the thing I think I
talked about in the last vlog,
remote work, so much writing involved,
so much communication.
But it's good, because
I think it forces you to
get your thoughts clearer.
And I definitely feel like
I've become smarter since
having to write everything down,
and like synthesize it first
myself rather than just being
like, Oh, I've got this
idea. Get on a call,
let's chat about it.
I think it is really good to
have to write things down.
So, let me go do some writing,
using my fancy keyboard,
which I am really quite liking.
I figured out how to
turn on the backlight,
can you see that there? What fun.
(calm instrumentals playing)
All right, is the end of the Workday,
I've written several thousand words today.
We had a great meeting doing,
I can't refer to explain
what we were doing,
a pre-mortem for a project,
which is where we like try
and think ahead to anything
that could potentially go wrong
with it, or go very right with it,
so that we can be aware of
those things at the start.
Yeah, it went well. I took
all the notes during it.
I just like wrote up the notes.
I like to group my notes and
themes, so that I'm not just
like posting the raw notes.
Because I don't feel like
that's super useful for people.
So yeah, took a bit of
extra time to do that,
but now it's done.
And like I said, written
several thousand words,
but it was a productive day.
I got lots of stuff checked
off my to do list over here,
which is good.
Now I need to go water the
plants, and take the trash out
and then chill for the evening.
So I'm going to end the vlog here.
Thank you for watching,
and hanging out with me.
I hope you're still
enjoying these and just,
you know, seeing what I get up to,
a little slice of my Workday.
If you've got suggestions for
anything particularly you want
to see me talk about more
in depth in future vlogs,
please let me know, because I
am very open to suggestions.
And if you don't say
anything, you're just going to
keep seeing more of this.
And that's what will happen.
Thanks for being here,
thanks for watching.
I hope you have a really good week.
And I'll see you in the next vlog. Bye.
(upbeat pop beats playing)
