Jennifer Dopazo, Author at Candelita

28 Aug

During my Fabricant Way interview with Matt Dilling of Lite Brite Neon Studio, he said something that struck me as truly profound. He described his clients as “teachers who…help change our view on the medium, change our view on our technique, and change our view of the world around us.”

Do you see your clients as teachers? Do you listen to what they tell you about their unique project and then see how it applies to other situations?

If not, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the relationship that you’ve built with clients. Shifting your perspective from that of an expert guiding rookies towards a perfect site to a student learning about clients’ needs changes your entire business model.

It’s all too common among creative experts to become so comfortable in our own methods and judgments that we dismiss other approaches - especially those suggested by amateurs - out of hand. But we can learn the most from people operating outside of our industries specifically because they’re not biased by formal instruction and years in the trenches.

When it comes to websites and other digital media, users are often not experts. This fact, ironically, makes amateurs the most knowledgeable people on your team in some cases, and a confident designer will heed those insights rather than shrugging them off.

What have you learned from clients that you might not have discovered without them?

21 Aug

By Jennifer Dopazo

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Management

Are your productivity apps wasting time?

August 21, 2016 | By Jennifer Dopazo | No Comments">No Comments

If you’re like most Americans, you could use more time. Between long work weeks, which are still the norm despite Tim Ferriss’ best efforts, family and household responsibilities, sleep, and a wee little smidge of recreation, most of us feel pressed for time.

And so we do what any good modern human does: we seek the elusive app that will make us more productive. We imagine these gizmos as genies who can restore lost time back to us through the magic of modern technology.

However, the opposite is often true.

The sheer abundance of productivity apps can lead anyone struggling with time management to waste hours upon hours simply attempting to identify the best tool for the job. Sometimes this results in weeks of testing out different apps before finally committing to The One. And once the winner has been selected, there’s often still a time-consuming learning curve and plenty of upkeep to eat into your day.

So how can you make the most of productivity apps? How can you ensure that they’re actually saving - not wasting - your time?

Start with analogue

Before you even begin plundering your favorite app store, sit down with a piece of paper and a pen to determine what you actually need. Why analog? Because the digital world is full of distractions. When it comes to getting in your head, it’s better to limit the shiny objects that might divide your focus.

And get down to the nitty gritty details

When I say determine what you actually need, I mean get down to the fine details. If you’re looking for a tool to help you manage social media, for instance, identify all of the social media channels that you need to manage and exactly what you need the tool to be able to do for you. Determine how much you’re willing to spend on the tool and what little extras might make you splurge. By going about your search with a list of must haves in hand, you’ll immediately narrow down the options available to you, saving time looking at every available offering.

Respect simplicity

It’s easy to get enthusiastic about more features, but bells and whistles can turn a user-friendly time saver into an over-whelming new to do list item. Keep that list of must haves in your mind throughout your search and don’t be lured in by unnecessary elements that will make the tools you use more complicated and harder to maintain.

Give yourself time

Once you’ve found a simple tool that does what you need it to do, carve out some time to learn how to use it. We’ve all been guilty of attempting to wing it through new technology to save time only to discover that we’ve made errors that will cost time down the line. The best way to avoid wasting time is to have a sure grasp on how the tool work from day one.

Stick with it

If your tool of choice is working, don’t be tempted by the next new must have productivity tool. Sure. You’ll probably outgrow your current tool’s capabilities one day, but compulsive app-swapping is often just a way to distract yourself from the work at hand.

What are your favorite productivity apps?

14 Aug

By Jennifer Dopazo

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Business visioning Creativity

Thought experiments for developing your brand personality

August 14, 2016 | By Jennifer Dopazo | No Comments">No Comments

Think back over your life and pinpoint that one person who stands out head and shoulders above the rest. You’re looking for the person who has superglued herself to your psyche - through her inventive fashion choices or rallying laughter, her ability to always find the best in others or her knack for seeing the humor in life’s most challenging moments.

We all know someone who has become larger than themselves by blazing his own trails and imagining his own future, and whether or not we agree with his choices, it’s difficult to deny our admiration for his sense of self.

Because you don’t accidentally stumble into the role of iconoclast. We all start off with strikingly similar DNA. It’s the deliberate choices that we make that make us. And it’s the daring choices that we make that make us original.

Likewise, for your brand to stand out from all of its competitors, it’s necessary to make deliberate choices about your brand. Each decision that we make in relation to our brand either establishes it as something special or as just another business. Even if you choose to avoid brand management altogether, you’re making a decision that will impact how your customers and prospects perceive your company.

To establish a brand personality that reflects what you want your business to become in the minds of prospects, try these easy guided activities.

Build-A-Buyer

Hopefully, you’ve done some research and identified who your target markets are. Developing a Buyer Avatar (or Buyer Persona or Buyer Archetype - choose your own marketing jargon) will help you to carefully craft messages to the unique individuals who comprise a market sub-group.

Imagine a character who personifies one of your target markets.
What’s his (or her) name and story?
Write a journal entry from the POV of the buyer that expresses where she is in life right now, what she wants, and what she’s worried about.
Check out this post that provides a little more detailed instruction (and a workbook) on building a buyer persona.

Brand Hero

We tend to hold those people in the highest esteem who have the greatest sense of purpose. Likewise, brands with a purpose beyond profits are generally seen as more desirable than those with none, especially when it comes to Millennial markets.

Identify a person whom you admire for his or her purpose-driven life.
What is it about that person which inspires you?
How can you authentically integrate those same qualities to promote your own brand’s purpose?

Celebrity All Star

Of course, not all heroes are celebrities, but all celebrities find their way into the spotlight. How? Through a combination of compelling personality traits that captivate audiences. Some, like everybody’s favorite girl-next-door Jennifer Lawrence, are feisty and devil-may-care. Others, like Viola Davis, exude sophistication and wit. Similarly, deciding on a few key traits to define your brand’s personality will bring it to life and make it feel more like a member of the family than a corporate entity.

Imagine that your brand is a living, breathing human with a story to tell. What actor would you cast in the role?
What qualities make this actor such a brilliant fit for the part?

Time for a Pop Quiz

Next time you pass one of those “Which villain of Westeros are you” quizzes, answer the question from the POV of your brand. Who knows what ideas and inspirations for pop culture fun you might discover to infuse a little more personality into your brand?!

How would you describe your brand’s personality?

07 Aug

By Jennifer Dopazo

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Business visioning Creativity Inspiration

How 6 Brooklyn entrepreneurs brought their business ideas to life

August 7, 2016 | By Jennifer Dopazo | No Comments">No Comments

What do the owners of a boutique lingerie shop, a recycler of reclaimed vinyl, a lending library visionary, a real-life Willy Wonka, and a neon artist have in common?

More than you might think, and the common threads that ran through our interviews with the modern-era fabricants can teach creatives valuable lessons on bringing ideas to life.

Let passion kindle your ideas

Sam Bard of SHAG Brooklyn smoothly transitioned her artistic interest in sexuality and intimacy into an erotic boutique that’s made Brooklyn sexier than ever. Her business partner Ashley Montgomery was compelled by a passion for artisan business owners to use the space to help artisans bring their products to market.

Monkey, the man behind Wreckords, was motivated by a love for New York’s manufacturing industries, and Matt Nelson of Mellow Pages Library by a love of small presses.

Daniel Sklaar of Fine and Raw Chocolate possesses a zeal for chocolate that might have turned into a detriment to his career as a chef, but when he used it within the logical context of a chocolate factory, success was assured. And Matt Dilling turned a childhood fascination with electricity into the brilliant Lite Brite Neon Studio.

While you don’t have to love what you do to be a successful professional, if you want to break out of a professional life you don’t love, pursue your passion.

Embrace failure as a healthy part of the ideation process

Failure will happen. It’s inevitable. Rather than fear it, embrace it. Run to it! It’s an important part of the process, and our Brooklyn-based entrepreneurs assure us that resiliency in the face of failure is critical to delivering a product that’s unique.

Matt Dilling put a fine point on it:

“Maybe it’ll be amazing. Or maybe it’ll blow up. But you’ve got to try, right?”

Seek out unidentified markets and unmet needs

SHAG Brooklyn fulfills two distinct needs: a place for customers to comfortably explore their sexuality and a place for artists to share their hard-to-retail projects. Lending local talents this space gives the boutique a cozy, curated atmosphere that makes customers feel right at home.

Likewise, Matt Nelson saw a need for a space dedicated to book lovers and to those small presses that are often underrepresented in larger book shops and libraries.

Both ventures demonstrate the power of providing singular products to eager, overlooked markets.

Watch all of our Fabricant Way interviews to gain inspiration and insight into creative entrepreneurship. Our new season launched in July, and you’ll be able to catch the new episodes here over the coming weeks.