2:2 The Best Ideas Stick

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Lee:

Hi and welcome to the WP Innovator podcast.The WordPress podcast for design and web agencies. Let's make WordPress work for your business.

Lee:

Hi, and welcome to the WP Innovator podcast. This is our milestone episode. That's episode 10. I'd like to thank my wife, my parents, the kids.

Lee:

I'm actually messing around, but hey, this is episode 10, and what a blast we've had already over the last two and a half months. We've gone from zero downloads to over 3,000 downloads a month, which is pretty darn epic. So thank you so much for your support over the last few months. Right, we've got an amazing episode lined up with you as Episode 10 with a young man called Russ Perry. He's launched a business that comes at design in a whole different way. And he's also a WordPress geek, which is cool. So he's got some great tools to share with us.

Lee:

Before we crack on, be sure to check out even, SociPress. It's a Twitter automation tool from within your WordPress website, and it's a perfect upsell for your WordPress clients. Hey, we made it, we love it. You can check it out at leejacksondev.com/plug in, and for a 10 % discount, just use the promo code podcast.

Lee:

All right then, let's do this.

Lee:

Hi, this is Lee at the WP Innovator podcast, and I'm really, really excited, and I mean it, I am really excited to be interviewing today Russ Perry. I've talked about it on Facebook quite a lot with all my close friends about how excited I am to interview an actual pickle. Because if you look at his profile pictures, this is a guy who apparently works on a daily basis dressed as a pickle. Would that be Correct, Assumption? 

Russ Perry:

Yeah. I got three of them in the closet. I rotate them out every other day and one for the weekend.

Lee:

One for the weekend. Do you have a black tuxedo version as well?

Russ Perry:

No formal pickle, although I did once put a clip on tie on it to a networking thing, which I did wear it to. It's a fun gimmick, but it's super hot. I'm in Arizona, and you only can wear it briefly most of the year because it's too sweaty and hot.

Lee:

I've been to Arizona. The only thing I can remember, only two things I can remember about Arizona was one, I was too hot. Number two, I tried rattlesnake.

Russ Perry:

Oh, yeah. It's pretty basic. It's just like chicken or something. Exactly. Everyone says.

Lee:

Oh, it tastes just like chicken. And it really does.

Russ Perry:

Yeah.

Lee:

Well, if you don't know who Russ Perry is, then you may have been living under a rock, but he's all over Facebook, he's all over Twitter. The guy is a social media genius as far as I'm concerned because I pretty much see him every day. But he runs a company called Design Pickle, hence the reason we're talking about pickles. It's a fantastic model where you can pay a monthly fee for design services. So if you've heard of, say, something like the WP curve model where you can send something in to be actioned on even a daily basis, and there's an unlimited cap. It's the same thing. And to me, it's mind blowing. It's really exciting. And they seem to have grown really quickly over the last few, I think over the last year, especially. And there's been an awful lot of articles that I've read as well over the last few months, especially talking about the exciting set up that Russ and his team have done. I'm going to shut up for a second, Russ. And do you just want to say hi to everyone, introduce yourself and tell us what you're all about?

Russ Perry:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you pretty much hit it on the head with what we are focused on. And actually with Dan and WP Curve, I've shared this before, but I read his book about over a year ago in December 2014. And I had actually created the framework of Design Pickle unexpectedly because I was doing some consulting and I didn't want to have to manage that. The small design things that always come up but that are fairly time consuming. So I built this system and then I read his book and I was like, Oh, my gosh, I have the same thing, but for design, this is amazing. I should brand this and I should sell this to other folks. So that's what we worked on. The branding piece was me just trying to come up with something funny and silly and memorable, which I think we've successfully achieved. And so then we've now been in business for just about a year. We're coming up, I think, either this is January when we're recording this. I don't know when it's in air, but on the 21st or 22nd is our official year, birthday or anniversary. I haven't even thought about doing anything yet.

Lee:

I feel like I should be singing Happy Birthday right now.

Russ Perry:

Yeah, it goes so fast. I can't believe it. I'll have to now say, I don't know how long you can classify yourself as a new startup if you've now been in business over a year.

Lee:

I think you can class yourself as a startup for up to 10 years.

Russ Perry:

Okay. It's like we're still in beta, like companies that are always in beta.

Lee:

Isn't it a mindset, though, I think as well, like a startup mindset? I think you could always, in theory, be a startup because I think a startup mindset versus an established business, as in with processes and office politics, I wouldn't want to work for that company. I'd like to always be in startup mode. I found that exciting.

Russ Perry:

Nice. Yeah. Well, and I think for us, that's always been the case. My background is I had a very traditional creative agency. And so while we're not a pure software startup in the sense of what we're doing and selling, I literally studied startup and startup models and startup culture and just building a business to mimic those types of businesses when I was creating Design Pickles. So we're proud to have a lot of the same DNA. 

Lee:

That's awesome. Do you want to give people just a quick low down of what you guys do at Design Pickle? Because we've got a lot of design agencies who listen to the podcast, who email in, et cetera. So I'm sure they'll be fascinated with what service you offer and how you offer it.

Russ Perry:

Yeah. So we like to say we're this new fourth design tool that you have available for you and your business and your clients. We're an on demand graphic design service. So once you sign up, you just have a designer always at the ready. Usually we try to match you with the designer. Then when you need stuff, you just email in your request and we get it back to you as quick as we can on average, usually next business day. The service is flat rate. So we're really excited that we've created a model that you can have this on demand creative resource without having to worry about what the pricing is. And at the time of this recording, it's $370 a month for that. And you can truly use us as much as you want, and that price isn't going to change. We try to focus ourselves on what I call the creative and design design you're going to need for your sales and marketing efforts. So we're not going to necessarily rebrand you. We're not going to do landing page or theme design or website design, but it is all the stuff you'll need to market whatever it is you're doing for your sales.

Russ Perry:

So it could be brochure, it could be banner ads, it could be blog, customised blog ads. We have a lot of podcasters who use us for their weekly graphics. And the rule of thumb is, can you explain it in an email? And if so, and obviously, is it in the realm of graphic design? And then if that's the case, then we'll take a stab at it.

Lee:

I've just got images of me every week at Canva trying to make the latest image.

Russ Perry:

Here's the deal is that I'd say over half of our clients have a design experience. And what we're doing isn't rocket science. You'll see the work and you'll send in the request and you'll get it. And it's like, oh, yeah, that's simple. I can do it. I can do it in Canva. I could have Fiverr do it. But what we found is that at some point people realize, look, if I want to get my business or if I want to take things to the next level, whatever that is for them this year, your time is not best spent in Canva. It's not. We're just thinking.

Lee:

About a time waste in there. I could literally send it over to somebody. I can explain it in three minutes or less versus Canva in three hours.

Russ Perry:

I'm personally really proficient with the Adobe design applications and Canvas brainless. Anyone can use that. But it is a rabbit hole of time where you're all of a sudden, two hours later trying to get something done and you're like, What the heck just happened? What's two hours worth now that you could have been spent on business development or sales or writing or whatever? The other things are that you're the best at.

Lee:

The idea of this excites me as well because I'm a massive fan of the four hours work week. It was only a little while ago where I was suddenly introduced to the idea of actually... The idea of my time being worth an awful lot and the idea of me then sitting down doing stuff like paperwork that I shouldn't be doing. I should be doing things like concentrating on the business. Paperwork, trying to knock together graphics with a graphics editor, etc. All of these sorts of stuff will sap my time because I'm not an expert in those things. But there are people who are and they can do it quickly. It looks awesome and you're freeing up time as well to concentrate on the business. So I'm a massive fan of the model. Thanks. I know both you and Dan. I'm not yet a fan boy, thankfully. Otherwise, you would not get a word out of me in Edgeways. I'd just be giggling. I'm just waiting for the day that John Lee Dumas calls me and says, do you want to be on entrepreneur on fire? And it'll just be an entire episode of me going.

Russ Perry:

Well, I need to do better in my marketing business. You're not a fan boy yet.

Lee:

Maybe I'm in denial. Who knows? It's just all the front, mate.

Russ Perry:

You're just trying to be cool right now.

Lee:

Little toss of the hair there. Carry on

Russ Perry:

One other thing I'll say in regards to design in general is I think that design needs have changed a lot over the last few years. I mean, over the last three to four years. So you're going to still... We're just one of several tools that any business is going to need to be successful. For us, I don't ever brand or market design, pick, or l ase the end all solution. You're always going to need somebody else for some of the things we don't do. But what I realized, and this is why I started the business, was that there's this new surge of content that people need for their business that really at the end of the day isn't too complex. But it is something that is like we were just talking about time consuming or it's distracting. So you get involved in something and then all of a sudden you're focused on Facebook ads for an hour and then your whole day is shot because you just totally... Your brain is shifting gears too much. So for us and what we're trying to fit the need is to be a new tool that people haven't had access to in the past where we can take on the production design work they're going to need and not have to have that nag in the back of their mind like, Oh, man, I got to do that podcast graphic this week, or I got to do this this week.

Russ Perry:

They could just have it automated and sent and get it done every single week to their specifications.

Lee:

I love having people like you on, mate, because just that phrase, the brain shifting gears has just instantly been another aha moment for me as well. I'll be putting small things off and they'll be niggling, like you said, at the back of the mind. But then if I stop for five minutes to do something that only takes me five minutes, the actual impact of doing that has broken me away from actually doing the development that I was doing and to actually then focus back on there. I've done it three times today and I'm thinking, Whoa, it took me 20 more minutes to get back into the previous task and catch up where I was because my brain was just in a totally different place.

Russ Perry:

Yeah, and nothing we do is in a silo. So if I'm doing some Facebook ads and I have to go online and I already aligned it, let's say you're using Canva, like we've been talking about, you go online and you see that and then you go to upload them, then you open Facebook and then all of a sudden you see three notifications and a question, and then you forget about the ad that you're trying to do. It's like this rabbit hole where service like ours or let's say you're using WP curve, it's just an email. You could literally pull it up on your phone, send in what you need, and it's out and you're not distracted by 20 other stimuli pulling you in different directions.

Lee:

Me and Facebook, I'm actually in therapy about that.

Russ Perry:

Yeah, it's tough.

Lee:

It really is. Damn you, Mark Zuckerberg. But anyway, hey, mate, you've mentioned you've been in business... Well, you've been running this model. It's nearly your birthday, or it is your birthday, which is awesome. Over the last year, what's been the biggest challenge to your business?

Russ Perry:

Man, I would honestly have to say it is dialing in what our sales strategy is because I design... The reason I picked this is because this business is because it's such a huge market. Everybody, for the most part, needs graphic design at some point in their life if they're communicating anything. But that in turn has been almost a paralyzing me too big of a market. So we're trying to say, Okay, out of everybody who needs us, who are we going to go after? So we've tried a lot of things. I tried to hire sales guy. I tried to automate all the sales. I've tried to go only content. I've tried to do only ads. A lot of trial and error. I think this year, I don't know if I have the answer yet, but what we're trying to do is just to simplify things a little bit, be more focused on some solid content generation on our end, and then probably going after more niche audiences of people we know who are content producers, but find the value in our service because it is very much like a pickle, I'd imagine. You either really love a pickle or you don't like a pickle.

Russ Perry:

There's really no middle ground for pickle fans. And for our service, it's about the same thing. So finding more of the right clients and less of the ones who are just so, so on it.

Lee:

That's good. I guess this is quite an important question. Is there a difference between a pickle and a gherkin?

Russ Perry:

Actually, one of my friends here in Arizona, she's British, she says usually gherkins are smaller, but they are ultimately the same thing.

Lee:

My wife absolutely loves pickles. I'm so and our daughter utterly hates them. I'm afraid she's not at age nine, she's not your target audience, though. So I think you're good. 

Russ Perry:

Well, and that's definitely talk about distractions. You don't know how often I want to just write and market about pickles and because I think it would be hilarious. And everyone resonates with it. We did an event at the infusion soft conference last year and we were handing out pickles and it was like I was handing out gold bars. It was like mayhem. But yet I come back around asking myself, Is this relevant to... Is this the right time energy I should be spending on pickles? Actual pickles? And usually I come to the answer is no.

Lee:

You're creating a pickle monster, mate. You were talking about the target audience. What you have, yes, appeals to absolutely huge range of people, very diverse range of people. The people who are listening into this podcast would be design agencies or freelance designers as well as web developers. We do have a little group of social media marketers as well who are listening, who are using WordPress, so they like to pick up tips, et cetera. A lot of those groups would be involved in creating marketing materials for their own businesses, but some of them, especially the designers, might be doing it on behalf of other people as well. Would like a design agency be able to hook up with you guys and have a $397, was it, $370 a month contract to send you some amends on a document they're working on for another client, or is it only for their own things?

Russ Perry:

Either way, I will say that the further down the chain the end user is, whoever is receiving the graphic files, the less wow factor there is. Because if you're using it as an engine for your design for your clients, no problem. But there's always going to be extra steps. You got to send it to the client, they got to review it. If there's edits, then you got to go back and forth. I say it doesn't matter to us, but for those people who do end up using it for their clients, we always recommend they just pad timelines a little bit more because the way we're able to get our pricing as low as it is and the way we're able to have such a consistent experience is we just have a really defined process of that next business day creative timeline. So whether it's a revision or a new request or whatever, you're always going to be looking in those cycles, which could drive an agency nuts if they are used to being able to call their favourite freelancer and threaten them to get something immediately. So I say that, but we definitely become design insurance for the agencies that use us well.

Lee:

That's what I was thinking of was the insurance.

Russ Perry:

We're always available, we can get stuff done. It's a solid experience. So once you do figure out the timing and your own unique needs because everyone's different, then it's just going to be there. And for the price, it's a no brainer, especially if it can offload a ton of other stuff that isn't necessarily urgent that now you're not having to pay a freelancer due. Or for where I see it, it's like your own marketing, which a lot of us fail to think about because we're so busy working for our clients.

Lee:

Yeah, we do tend to lose focus on our own stuff because we're just doing... We're in the business, not on the business. Cary on. I think you're good.

Russ Perry:

I was going to just share something that I have every week is for us, what we do is I try to post work samples and stuff on Instagram every week. And so creating, I don't think we're currently doing this, but a great idea was if you wanted to do collages of client sample work or featuring a monthly recap into a brochure of stuff that you've done, we're going to be a great tool for that because we can take what we've created for you that month, create a marketing piece out of it, and then all of a sudden you have automated marketing being provided by the design pickle team if you plan it out right. I like to get creative when I think about our tool because it is like a system that the more creative you are with how you use it, the better value it's going to be.

Lee:

That's awesome. Really exciting. I'm probably looking at my credit card thinking, you're selling to me. What's going on?

Russ Perry:

What's going on here? Great ROI for the interview.

Lee:

Yeah, exactly. I'm just thinking of so many things I could apply to this right now. I should focus obviously.

Russ Perry:

Well, let me play devil's advocate, though, because I think this is a more macro point to make about any type of small business person. If you're an agency or a web development shop is we're not going to be like, there's going to be many instances where our tool is not going to be a good fit. And so I think the important thing here is for any smart agency or any smart business that's growing is you need to diversify your supply when it comes to design. You need to diversify it is when it comes to development or anything because the last thing you want is to be held hostage by one resource. And that's what I see with younger businesses, it becomes the Achilles heel is they have an awesome person or resource that they have and then all of a sudden they're gone and then their client relationship gets burnt to the ground because some guy decided to go on holiday and not tell you.

Lee:

That's happened to me before a couple of years back. I remember that one. I'll cry later and curl up in a difficult position. I don't know. Well, like I said, it's exciting. I'm asking a lot of these questions, obviously, because I'm just intrigued. I've got a lot of agency background myself. I've worked in design agencies and run one for many years. The business I have now is actually focused at producing code for design agencies because of the experience I've had. But I'm absolutely intrigued to know why can I recommend design pickle into the agencies I work with? So a lot of these questions have been, I imagine, are questions that design agencies are going to want to know and are also really helpful for me because it's arming me as well with when I see a client that's got a problem that could be resolved with a pickle, I know now and I'm armed to say what I need to say to recommend them go check out the pickle.

Russ Perry:

Yeah. And actually, let me throw out one more thing, too, which I don't normally talk about, but I think it's an important piece for smaller companies that are getting going. More so than design or more so than development, where agencies and companies get so wrapped up and just lose an insane amount of time is in the client service management. It's like in meeting with the client, talking with the client, trafficking things with the client, working with the client. And so another area, and this is definitely self promotional, but I want to share it, that we've seen agencies kill it with our services. They actually resell it and they allow their clients to work directly. We have an affiliate program. But the point is, is they signed their clients up with a design pickle account, be very transparent about it, say, Hey, we are not the best fit to do this small design work, but guess what? We got a good deal of design pickle. You can work with them directly. And then now all of a sudden, all this small stuff that usually eats up a ton more time because you're having to be the middle man, we handle directly.

Russ Perry:

And then the agency can focus on the more strategic stuff that they're best fit for. So I bring it up because that's another area where people realize that they lose a lot of time. It's not just being in Canva doing stuff for clients, say for the social media people out there. It's okay, here's now then the creative and here's now the review and the meeting and let's talk about it. Just the food for thought about, because that's our number one limited resource as we're getting going with these small businesses is our time.

Lee:

I feel like it's my duty right now. If people are getting a bit excited by what Russ is saying, just head over, you can press pause and head over to designpickle.com. That's designpickle.com just to go check this out because I remember when I was first exposed to this idea many moons ago, not that long ago, it blew my mind. And there's been a lot of conversations I've had with a lot of people about what Russ and the team are doing. So it's designpickle.com. All right, this is not a major advertorial, but it sounds like it. But it's been really good fun. It's amazing to learn more about what you're doing. Now, I imagine, mate, you must have started quite small and then you've had to scale as you've had more and more people, which I can imagine would be one of the massive challenges to your business. Has there been any product or idea that you guys have had or any system that you've put in place that's really helped manage the cycle of upscaling? Because I'm guessing you're starting... No, I'll shut up. I think that's a good question.

Russ Perry:

Yeah. Well, I'll share one that we've just implemented, and I don't know if I have enough data, but I'll tell you why we did it. So we now have an application based process to sign up for our service, and it's legit. I get the people who apply and I look at them and approve them or decline them, and people do get declined. Then after that, there's a call with me one on one, and then if it seems good, we let you into the service. Here's why we do that is because before what we would do, our model was we'd sign people up and then we would ask them to have a kick off call, like, hey, let's get connected, let's talk about the service. And a large majority of people, like 80 % or more would skip that call. When we looked at who was having the most success with their service, it was the 20 % of the people who had had that kick off call. And it wasn't that the 20 % were any different than the other people. It's just more about the personalities of the people signing up. And so what this application process now has forced us to do or forces the client is it basically forces them to have a kick off call before their client.

Russ Perry:

So we can talk about a lot of the nuances of the service because at the end of the day, creativity, it's a little bit different than code. Code is binary. It either does this or it doesn't. It either is what you wanted or it doesn't. For creativity, there's so much left for interpretation. So we have to have a lot of expectations to be set first before clients come aboard. But anyway, the point of that being is that process is the end goal is to make sure that we get clients who are culturally a better fit so that they'll stick around longer, they understand the service before they start even using it. And then keeping people out who suck because there are people out there who sign up for the service that are just not a good fit for... They're drains, both emotionally and with a lot of their attitudes. And so this is a nice way to keep those folks out. And so far, it's been working well. We've seen no decrease in sign ups, even though we've slowed down that process.

Lee:

That's pretty mind blowing. And I mean, the idea there, I guess, is not only are you ensuring that you are getting a good quality client, like you said, who's not going to be a drainer, et cetera, but also you're ensuring that they're going to get the most out of that out of the service that you offer and also presumably educate them on what they can do as well that they may not have considered. That's great. When did you implement that? That's just only been recently, hasn't it?

Russ Perry:

Yeah, two weeks ago. We just started it. But honestly, it's awesome because I get to connect with people. We get to hear about their business. I get to give them a little bit of customized context of how they might be able to use the service, answer questions. Then once they do sign up, they're in a much better position versus just signing up, getting access to our system and being like, Okay, now what?

Lee:

That's awesome. I imagine a lot of agencies would like to do that with some of the clients that they get as well. It's like a pre interview. Hey, before we do this massive branding project for you, let's have a chat.

Russ Perry:

I remember one of the most respected consultants in the agency space, I think his name was David Cohen, he talked a lot about having a paid evaluation as the beginning part of your engagement. So some paid analysis or some paid measurement of whatever project it is that you're doing. And he said the reason for that was to test, A, what it's like to work with this person, and B, if they value you as an expert. And so that, he said, was a huge strategy. And it didn't even have to be a big deal. It could be $50 or $500 or $1,000. But just something to where that there's enough friction that if someone's going to be pushed back on that, you know real quick that they're not going to be a good fit for you

Lee:

Yeah. Hey, are you planning to write about any of this in the near future as well, because, again, agencies will struggle with, especially with the pitching process, where you're expected to produce material in advance without even being paid. And if you win, you win. If you don't, you don't get paid, etc. And I know a lot are trying to find ways forward through that and learn from other people. Will you be sharing any of your experiences in the future?

Russ Perry:

Yeah. So I encourage everyone, if you want to get the inside scoop of all the stuff that we're doing from the application process. Recently, I blogged, a pretty extensive blog about why we've eliminated discounting and discounts. We used to offer a lot of promotions and things. Just go to designpickle.com/weekly pickle. And that is our weekly newsletter. I generate a ton of content on there, training, insights, stuff. And so all of the things we do, usually after enough data, I'll put together a blog about how it's going and what our thoughts were. So no doubt with this whole application based process, we'll be doing something on it. Coming up soon is going to be... Actually, this week we're publishing one all about Xavier, that software and how to use that in your small business. And then another one we're doing is a launch strategy I did that we ended up selling $30,000 worth of design pickle services in six days. And so I'm going to walk through that strategy and what we did for that. So just really cool, relevant stuff. It's not just all theory and link shares. It's actual real things that are going on in our world.

Lee:

Here's what's happened.

Russ Perry:

Yeah, here's what we did. Here's what happened. Here's what we learned. Here's how you did it.

Lee:

Well, I already get the weekly pickle, which I enjoy. I'll put these in the show notes and encourage people to go check out the weekly pickle and follow what this wonderful man is doing and learning. Thanks for that. Well, here's a question for you. You mentioned before we kicked off that you are heavily involved in using and playing with WordPress. We've got a lot of people who are working with WordPress on this podcast, hence the name. So is there a WordPress plugin that you would recommend people go check out and why?

Russ Perry:

Okay, I'm sure you guys all know about this by now, but I discovered prettylink.com, pretty link the plugin. It's so super basic, but we use it an insane amount. And it's just like a URL redirect tool that sits in your dashboard. But here's why we use it. And I'll give an example of case study. So we do these open houses once a week with prospects. We used to use GoToWebinar as our URL, as our registration. So what we would have, we'd have all this marketing stuff out there that's like, Okay, click here to sign up for our open house. And before, what we would do is we would just hard link to the registration page. Well, we recently tested a different platform out called Webinar Jam. And what I had to do is I had to go back and find every single link that we had hard coded to the go to webinar registration page. And so now what we do is we build all of our links in pretty link. So they're just like alias. So now for open house, it's designpickle.com open house. And it's your own little bitly basically, like inside your WordPress.

Russ Perry:

And so then I can point that to the current registration page. But now if I need to change it, I can just change where it's directed to versus where the actual URL itself. So it saves from a marketing standpoint, it saves a ton of time and energy because then I can keep the same core URLs out there in my ecosystem. But if I change the landing page or wherever it's pointed to, I can just go in and change the short link. So I don't know. That might be like 101 for your audience. But for me, it's such a lifesaver.

Lee:

It is actually the second time that it's been mentioned in the last few episodes, but it is something that is such a great plugin. And you can do pretty much everything you've said can be done for free, which is fantastic. But I love the insight you've given in how you use it, which is fascinating. And I was just thinking of those who'd still deal with design to print as well. So if you're sending print campaigns out there and you've got URLs on that, you can use it for tracking who's responding from what print campaign. But also it means you haven't got that worry as well, doesn't it, of if the URL does have to change in the background, you can still keep that pretty link going. It's not going to affect what you've sent out in print. So that URL is still for realsies.

Russ Perry:

Yeah, exactly. And I use it too for things like if I want a mask. I mean, this is 101, but if I want to have someone for a sales meeting rather than sending them some gnarly, Here's my meeting request link from insert, whatever platform I'm using to manage those meeting things, I can have a branded URL designpickle.com meet with Russ, and then it's really easy.

Lee:

I've been sending my doodle link out all this time. I could have.

Russ Perry:

Been doing that. Yeah, which is fine. But what if you want to change... We don't want to use doodle anymore.

Lee:

Yeah, exactly. And someone was recommending something else to me the other day that I was checking out. So yeah, you're totally right.

Russ Perry:

So you could just have your URL meet with Lee and then whatever you end up using in three months from now, four months from now, you're not having to go change.

Lee:

I'm an idiot in a good way. What blogs or online resources are your go to places as you're evolving your strategy and growing the business?

Russ Perry:

Yeah. So one guy that I'm just on fire for right now because I just got his new book is Cal Newport. And he just published a book recently called Deep Work. He is a professor at George Rurgetown, has MIT PhD in computer sciences. But his whole thing, his blog, which is called Study Hacks, is all about how we can eliminate distraction and find that place of deep work, or some people referred to as the flow state where we are just in concentrated creation mode. So he's actually the only blog I have delivered to my inbox because the content is such a value and mainly reminding me of how distracted I usually am and how I can get away from being distracted. So that's the one I recommend. And then other than that, other than our blog, I'm pretty news agnostic right now. I try to keep focused on just creation right now versus consumption.

Lee:

Yeah, that's something I can really resonate with. Just shared on Facebook just before we had a call how I've stopped reading the news itself over the last few months.

Russ Perry:

That's an old school four hour work week recommendation.

Lee:

It is. The four hour work week, mate, is my bible at the moment.

Russ Perry:

Yeah. Well, I'll tell you a quick anecdotal story. I don't know which more time we have, but it's... Are you married by any chance? I am indeed married. Okay, so my wife just started her own business two years ago, and she's crushing it. She's super organized. Her business is professional organizing for homes and spaces. But I told her, I was like, You are the perfect entrepreneur because you are driven, focused. She does not suffer from shiny object syndrome, which I know a lot of us do. But anyway, long story short, I have we've been together, this will be our seventh year being married next month, and we've been together almost 10 years. So I don't know when the four hour work week came out, but I have a first edition copy. I got the first book and it was there. No joke, two or three months ago, my wife, we're just chatting, she's like, you know, she's like, Have you heard of this book called the 4 hours Work Week? She's like, some friends of mine recommended it to me. That was a good book for entrepreneurs. I just about teared up of overwhelming emotion of how excited and proud.

Russ Perry:

It wasn't because I forced her on her or told her to read it. She discovered it on her own. It was like full circle, like, Oh, you really are becoming an entrepreneur. I love it.

Lee:

I always find it's funny how, like your wife, there are entrepreneurs who are super organized and super focused. I've found a lot of the entrepreneurs that I seem to gel very well with are the ones that are totally disorganized like me. It's the shiny object syndrome. It was really helpful reading the four hours week because I can honestly say, especially over the last few months, I'm starting to become that super focused, organized entrepreneur that I never thought I'd actually become, partly because, hey, let's face it, I'm a little bit lazy at times. It's really helped sharpen me. I'll put the four hours work week in this section in the show notes as well. I'm sure people have read it, but some people are like, Where? Where book?

Russ Perry:

I like that book because for me, it was a mindset shift. A lot reading that book allowed me to really think about the world in a much different way and forces you to let go of habits and things that you take for granted, like the news being one of them. Why do you have to read the news? You'll eventually find out about something that's a big enough deal. It's a somber example, but the attacks in France, I found out maybe a day after it happened. But I didn't know the minute it happened, but I found out really quickly. And it wasn't through social media, it was just through conversations with people.

Lee:

That good old fashioned conversation thing.

Russ Perry:

Exactly.

Lee:

That's awesome, man. Hey, with the format of the podcast that we're... We're a new podcast. We've been around for three months now. In fact, this month we are on record to get our biggest downloads so far. We've already smashed last month's record, which is awesome. The model that seems to be working at the moment is we really like to wrap up a podcast with some real sage wisdom advice.

Russ Perry:

Oh, yeah. No pressure.

Lee:

No pressure. I'm just going to build it up and build it up here. Obviously, you've not just been an entrepreneur for the last year, you've been in business for a long time, you got a lot of experience. Is there one action that you would recommend people that can quickly apply to their business today or in the next few days that you really believe will start to make a difference in their lives and in their business? That's a massive question, I know.

Russ Perry:

One thing. I'm going to have to go, I'm going to have to steal from Cal Newport because his book is just so fresh in my mind and I've seen it. I think the ability to create environments where we are not distracted, and that could be literally a pad and a paper in a park. For me, it's grabbing a stack of blank sheets of paper and going to a coffee shop. But the reason for creating those environments is giving ourselves the ability to come up with the solutions and not rely on external inputs or distractions to influence us. And so that for me is going to be the biggest game changing thing and has been is giving yourself the permission to think and create and constructing the physical environment to do so. Because we always say we want to do that, but yet we don't have the capabilities because we're being bombarded with a thousand other things that are other people's priorities.

Lee:

Absolutely. We've got the computer in front of us. We've got emails coming in, notifications, push notifications, text messages, et cetera. I just love that idea of going into a physical space where there is me, paper, my brain, nothing else. For me, my space usually is going for a run. So I'll have to do my creative thinking. I've got no pen or paper, but I'll go out for a run and I'll record my thoughts as I go. So I've got all this audio of me sounding absolutely knackered, but with amazing ideas that I've taken whilst I'm running.

Russ Perry:

And that's called active meditation, as I learned. So when you're doing something... I'm going to.

Lee:

Put that on my Twitter, that entrepreneur active meditator. There you go.

Russ Perry:

When you're doing a task that it's like a low mental thing, like a running or usually it's some type of physical exercise, what you do is you focus on one problem or one thing you're trying to work through. And it has a lot of the similar effects of meditation in the sense that it keeps you focused on something. And I have the same thing when I run and I have a million ideas. And what I find is I actually don't write things down, but the reason is because I find that through that whole process, the best ideas I remember and everything else falls by the wayside.

Lee:

The best ideas I remember. I think that needs to be my mantra as well because I'm forever trying to make notes and losing them. I guess I should really think if I remember it, it's obviously a good idea and stop putting so much pressure on myself for writing notes like I've been writing madly throughout this entire call, despite the fact it's recorded and I can listen back. It's been it's been great and it's been really, really inspiring. I've had absolutely tons of moments where I'm like, Oh, yeah, I got to write that down. I got to do something with this. This is exciting. I really, really appreciate it. I am sure there's people who would love to connect with you, like I said, follow your blog and maybe even communicate with you. Where are the best places and what are the best channels to get in touch with you, Mr. Pickle?

Russ Perry:

If anyone is interested in just connecting with me, my email is russ@designpickle.com. I love chatting with folks. It may take me a little bit to get back to you, but I will. Then our service, super basic, designpickle.com. You can find us on social media, Twitter, Instagram is our main ones, and that is @designpickle. So definitely check us out.

Lee:

So if you're on Instagram and you're into pictures of pickles, it's @Design Pickle. And if you're on Twitter like me all the time, @designpickle, design Pickle. That's awesome. I'm going to make sure this is all in the show notes. You've been a complete legend. I'm mind blown by how cool this is. I can't wait to upload it and tell the world all about this podcast.

Russ Perry:

Awesome Well, I Appreciate it. 

Lee:

All there's left for me to do, mate, is just to say thank you very much. It's been a complete honour. I bid you adieu, buddy.

Russ Perry:

All right. Take care.

Lee:

Take care.

Lee:

There we have it. Episode 10. Russ Perry was awesome. He was funny and he was dropping knowledge bombs left, right, and center. So I truly hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Now, I'd love to let you know about a really exciting new venture that the guys over at WP Elevation are doing. They're sharing with the world their proposal blueprint. This is the same proposal blueprint that we have used over the last two years to get some amazing clients, and they're giving it away for free. So you can check that out over at lejacksondev.com/WP Elevation. That's lejacksondev.com/WP Elevation to get your hands on that amazing content, that amazing proposal.

Lee:

So all that's left for me to ask is if you want to get in touch, if you want to be on the show, if you've got any feedback whatsoever, then get in touch with me on lejacksondev.com/contact. That's leejacksondev.com/contact. I would love to connect with you. So have an awesome week and I'll see you next episode.