Not that long ago, I looked at my connections on LinkedIn and realized something rather embarrassing: I had no idea who half those people were.

I knew there was a reason I was connected to them because connections require permission from both parties. And I could guess that some I didn’t know were probably connections that came after interactions from LinkedIn’s Q&A section.

Just from my own completely unscientific poll, only a relative few people seem to use LinkedIn as a serious tool in terms of creating a meaningful relationship with their connections.

The rest of us really aren’t sure what we should do with the connections we’ve made. And there’s that small group who seem to just be playing a numbers game… get as many connections as possible just for the sake of it. Or use it as another way to spam people through the status update function.

Bottom line: For those of us in that “not sure what to do” category, there’s room for improvement.

So I’ve decided that I’m going to reach out to the connections I don’t really know and ask to talk by phone.

And let me be clear: This is not a sales call!

Personally, I love helping people connect. If you need a person who does X and I happen to know someone that does X, I get a lot of joy from connecting the two parties.

But how can I connect people if I really don’t know them that well? How can I find potential partners on projects if I don’t really know you or what you do? How can I be a fantastic trusted resource for my clients if I’m not constantly building and interacting with my connections.

The answer is, I can’t. Or at least I can’t do it well.

I’ve done a couple of these calls so far and plan to do a lot more in the new year.

So far, all calls have been great and showed me what a good idea this is.

I want to share with you how simple the process is. Then you can decide if you want to give it a try.

1. If it’s a brand new connection, I now tell them right off the top that I’d like to talk by phone. If it’s someone that’s been a connection for a long time and I’ve never really interacted with them, I’ll send them a note through LinkedIn and explain what I’m doing.

2. In that request to talk, I’m totally honest about why I’m doing this, and it’s the reason I’ve given above. I also make it clear that it’s not a sales call. Truthfully, I couldn’t care less if we talk about what I do. I simply want to know about the other person and his/her business.

3. Assuming they accept the invitation, we setup a time to talk either by phone or Skype. Skype is really handy to talk to people in other countries. While this hasn’t happened yet, if they have no desire to talk at all, either by phone or even e-mail, I think I’ve probably learned everything I need to know about them.

4. When the scheduled time/day arrives, I’m the one to make the call since I made the request. I don’t ask to talk, then expect them to call me.

5. I ask lots of questions, but I don’t have a rigid list. I don’t want it to feel like an interview, I want it to be a natural conversation. What do I ask? Great question. Glad you asked:

• I ask about what they do. Yes, their website probably says it, but there’s often more to it. Honestly, not everyone does a great job of explaining their passion on their site. Digging a little deeper helps me understand them better.
• I ask which keywords should make me think of them. For example, I know a lot of copywriters, but most have preferred areas they like to work in. Perhaps even more important is understanding what isn’t a good fit for them.
• I ask how they market themselves or their products. Since I don’t tend to connect with other designers, this question isn’t so I can gain some competitive edge. I mostly talk with other freelancers and we all deal with how best to market ourselves. So I’m curious to know what has and hasn’t work for them. And I’m also willing share my successes and failures if they’re interested.

And depending on how the conversation goes, there are any number of other questions that might spring to mind.

As they’re talking, I’m typing notes that I’ll put alongside their entry in my address book. And I tell them I’m doing that so they don’t hear the keyboard clicking and wonder if I’m chatting on Facebook while they’re talking.

6. If they want to know about what I do in the design, consulting and speaking realm, I’m happy to share whatever they want to know. And if that happens, we both begin to get a better picture of whether there might be some partnership opportunities between us down the road.

7. When we wrap up, I stress that they are free to contact me any time if they want to talk, bounce around some ideas, or update me on what they’re doing and their keywords.

I don’t put them on a mailing list or try to push off any of my free marketing materials on them. Not that there’s anything wrong with doing either if you think it’s beneficial and you’ve asked their permission. It’s just not my style.

In the calls I’ve done so far, I could tell there was genuine appreciation for the effort to reach out. And in all cases, I’ve shared different tips that I’ve picked up that they can apply to their own situations.

I’ve learned from them as well because I’ve found people genuinely like to engage and share what they know.

So as this year comes to a close, take a look at the connections you have, whether it’s on LinkedIn or some other site. How well do you know all of them? What might be the value of getting to know them better? What might that mean for growth and success of your business in the new year?

http://blog.therisetothetop.com/2010/02/seth-godin-what-it-takes-to-be-an-entrepreneur-way-beyond-2010/

I could comment on this video interview, but it would be a waste of your time and I don’t want to influence your interpretation of what he’s saying.

Just watch the interview and take from it what you can.

Warning: I’m going to be very direct today. If you’ve been spinning your wheels trying to get your freelance design business running while making excuses along the way, you may not want to read this.

This year, I’ve been thinking a lot about where I am with my business and where I want to be. Overall, I’ve had a lot of success, but have been thinking it’s time to take it to a much higher level. When you start seriously focusing on that, an amazing thing happens: The right people and circumstances seem to appear out of nowhere. (You may have heard the old saying, When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.)

But while this has been going on for me, I’ve also been running into a lot of hopeful copywriters and designers who are, as I phrased it a moment ago, spinning their wheels. Obviously I don’t know the details of everyone’s circumstances, but here’s what I can tell you based on people I’ve talked to since I started as a freelancer some years ago. About 5% of the folks who want to make a change in their career haven’t done so for valid reasons. For example, in addition to working a full-time job and managing a family, they’re also responsible for a seriously ailing family member.

The trouble is, the other 95% seems to think that they’re in that valid 5%. Those “95%” folks are certainly busy, but these days everyone is busy and probably struggling to some degree. Yet the ones who are serious about making a change find a way to do it, even if it means sacrificing what little free time and resources they have. In fact, I dare say it’s impossible to make a career change without some level of sacrifice. Unfortunately, these people won’t face the reality that they’re never going to get around to making a change. They fool themselves by reading and posting on blogs, or buying (and even reading) books that they’ll never put into practice.

Doing that gives you the illusion of making progress. But if you’re never taking what you’re reading and putting it into practice, the best you can say is that you’re becoming a professional reader or web surfer. Of course, if you’re not getting paid for that, strike the word professional from the previous sentence.

That brings us to Jeremy Tuber’s book, Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks. I’ve mentioned Tuber’s other book, Verbal Kung-Fu for Freelancers, here. As for BASAS, I just finished it. At just over 500 pages, this isn’t a glossing-over of how to succeed as a designer. This book covers so much, it’s simply easier for me to link to the book’s table of contents so you can see for yourself what it covers.

Pleasantly, this is an easy read. Tuber gets right to the point on each topic, so you’ll move through the book at a quick pace. If you’re a struggling designer and can’t find at least one action step from each section, you’re simply not paying attention.

But here’s where I want to tie things in to what I said earlier about the folks spinning their wheels. This book is filled with many, many ways to get off to a great start and begin notching some victories. Even if you’ve been freelancing for a bit, I think you’ll find helpful hints or new distinctions on certain topics just like I did. For example, if I had better known and appreciated the difference between a logo design and a concept design when I was starting out, I might not have developed such an intense distaste for logo design. (See page 47 in the book.) And the chapter, “Think Only Kids Tell Stories?” (page 267), should be required reading by every designer who thinks hanging a virtual OPEN FOR BUSINESS sign is good enough.

So, bottom line, I recommend this book without reservation for those who are serious about putting the advice and ideas to use.

Having said that, don’t bother buying this book (or any other for that matter) unless you intend to put it to use. You know if you’re one who has been making excuses about starting a freelance design career. As we approach the beginning of a new year, this is a natural time to start planning what you intend to do in 2010. Not what you would like to do, but what you intend to do. If you intend to make a design career happen, this book is going to help you. If you simply like the feeling that you’re making progress when you’re really not, save your money. In fact – and this may be harsh, but I’ll say it anyway – it may be time to get really honest with yourself and move on to something else. There’s no shame in giving up a “dream” if you’re never really going to move it from a dream in your head to real, measurable action.

I’m hoping you’re going to make it real and just need a kick in the rear-end.

By the way, if you do consider yourself serious, also look into Tuber’s iTunes album, From Zero to Graphic Design Hero. If quiet reading time is hard to come by, having something you can listen to during your commute or when you and your iPod can get away for a bit is a great use of your time. Tuber’s calm and friendly voice will walk you through some foundational items that will help you build a strong and successful graphic design business. From iTunes, you can see the topics and hear audio samples of each chapter.

If you didn’t know how old you were, how old would you be?

I like questions like this. (A related one is, If you didn’t know what day it was, what day would it be?)

The idea is that, if you didn’t have the facts in a given situation (or relied on the opinions of others), what would your interpretation of that situation be based only on your gut feeling and personal experience?

The reason I’ve been thinking about this question is because, if I didn’t know (through the media) that times were tough economically, would I know it based on how my freelance business is going? And the answer is no. I’m about as busy as I can be at the moment.

That’s not to dismiss the true suffering people are going through in certain areas. But there is a lot to be said for creating a career where there’s generally always some sort of need for your services, and where you have more control over the decisions that create success.

Sites you should know about

I’ve always had an appreciation for people who freely share some of their knowledge and experiences with others in their field.

Two blogs I’ve stumbled across recently are:

Direct Creative Blog – http://www.directcreative.com/blog/

ProFreelancing Blog – http://profreelancing.com/

Both are worthy of being added to your bookmarks.

Is the (design) world telling me something?

In the space of a couple of days, I’ve been talking to separate people about new ways to present material online that go beyond presenting that same material as PDFs.

This isn’t new, just interesting that it has come up so often in recent days and may soon affect how I do some layout projects.

Sites like BlueToad and WebIOB offer reading experiences that, when used properly, can make reading material online more interesting and interactive. At the same time, it might help with some security issues that direct marketers have with PDFs they sell that can be easily passed around to people who didn’t buy them.

There’s a lot more that can be said on this topic. But my point is that, as a designer, you’ve always got to be ready to see how these technologies will affect what you do. Not to mention being tuned into what people are talking and thinking about in terms of different ways to present content.

To me, that’s part of the excitement of this career… there’s always something new to learn which means you’ll rarely be bored.