Made By Few is a conference created to bring together designers, developers, creatives, and entrepreneurs who work in the startup space. The goal of this conference is to highlight different people, cultures, and talents in the hopes of inspiring others. This fall, the conference was held in Little Rock, Arkansas, bringing people together from all across the region. One of our Rocketeers, Zach Harris, attended this year’s conference and shared some of his valuable findings with with us here in Dallas. Here are three key takeaways from the conference:
Build Your Culture (Deva Pardue – The Wing) – By surrounding yourself with a solid core team, you are able to create the culture you desire. Leadership training can help your core team work cohesively, and help with managing new hires. To ensure that new hires are a solid fit, evaluate if they fall into line with the company’s culture. Don’t extend past the skillset of your team. It’s okay to reach out to outside contractors, but make sure they work well with your staff. Collaborating with new people exposes you to new ideas and techniques. Building a culture also builds an atmosphere. This is important because the first thing clients notice is the environment you have built within your agency or firm.
Laugh, Think, Cry (Saul Colt – The Idea Integration Co.) – When considering whether or not an idea is good or bad, ask yourself if it would make people laugh, think, or cry. A good idea will do two of these things, but a great idea will do all three of these things. If it only does one of these things, then it may not truly be a good idea. Connecting with people’s emotions is much more effective than simply presenting them with something pretty. Going the extra mile to connect with people’s emotions could be the difference between success and failure.
Don’t Allow Yourself to Get Pigeonholed (Spencer Charles and Kelly Thorn – Charles&Thorn) – Doing the same work for the same clients will help you keep the lights on, but it doesn’t always allow you to spread your creative wings. When you are working with the same clients and consistently doing similar work, it’s tougher for you to convince clients to take risks with you. It’s important to do the work for your clients, but allow yourself to do work that inspires you personally as well! Your personal and professional projects will begin to play off of each other. This will generate new ideas you can present to clients, which might help you find new and interesting ways to creatively tackle projects.