Perpetual Recess

True to form, I am updating our blog only after a major life event. If you know me very well, you know I'm a subscriber and loyal follower of Seth Godin, a.k.a. Marketing Pure Genius. Every morning I can count on waking up to his daily blog post which typically arrives somewhere between 3-5:00 AM. It's valuable. It's consistent. And it's something I look forward to almost as much as that first cup of coffee. THIS is the kind of blogger I want to grow up to be. One day... one day.

In the meantime, you are reading this because Russ (my partner and best friend) and I were married on May 16th and this is our first week back on the job after our honeymoon. The last several weeks have been a delightful chaos, but we are finally settling into some form of normalcy - although, I won't kid myself that it's a permanent state.

One of the questions I've been asked a lot lately is: What is it like to work with your spouse?

Our studio is in downtown Redmond in the Glacier Place complex. It's a little over 300 square feet, and Russ and I are planted squarely in the center of it - our desks butting up against each other so that I can see his dark, curly hair just above his monitor. I'm too short for him to see much of me. There's a little of both of us reflected in this space - his love for Swiss design, and mine for all things funky and vintage. He pretends not to like the weird stuff I drag home from antique stores, but I noticed he didn't hesitate to hang my 4x6 old metal signage on our studio wall.

Because Russ and I have been in the design field for so long, working side by side has been a mere extension of our relationship. Back when we worked with competing firms, we knew each other's clients, the ups and downs of the industry, and the deeply personal way that design impacted our lives. It's always been easy to relate.

We try and limit the stress we take home, and for the first time since I've known him, Russ now leaves his laptop at work. Our kids no longer complain that we spend too much time on the computer - which is exactly why we decided to go out on our own in the first place. We've been fortunate that our clients are also people we adore as individuals, so the lines between work and home are blurry sometimes. That said, we wouldn't have it any other way.

So far, there hasn't been any such thing as a typical day at work. The only constants have been coffee, laughter, and Russ' occasional "I didn't understand a word you just said."

What's it like to work with your spouse? It's like being in 4th grade again and going out to the playground to find your best friend waiting for you by the swings. Who would have thought some day I would get paid to do what I love with the person I love the most in the world?

It's Friday afternoon and Russ and I are sitting here in the new studio updating our website. After a week of corporate naming, design meetings, and public presentations - not to mention hyper-speed wedding planning - the desire to be creative is wrestling with a greater desire to get out and enjoy the emerging sun and start the weekend.

That said, I thought I'd give the blog a little bit of love in hopes that it would warm up my typing fingers and inspire me to draft some clever new copy explaining the who, what, and why of Studio Absolute.

The move back into entrepreneurship has been paved with serendipitous meetings and fast friendships with truly wonderful people. Russ and I are planners by nature, but by allowing our clients to shape the business model as we go along, we are building a design & marketing firm that is flexible, agile, and approachable - characteristics you wouldn't necessarily expect from a traditional advertising agency.

Recently Seth Godin (my idol for all things marketing related) asked the question: What could you do differently with your business that would be so remarkable, so unique, that people would literally stand in line to work with you? I think the first step in discovering that answer is to look for the pain points in the industry - what does your competition do that you could run circles around? Not just improve on - but completely blow out of the water!

I was thinking about that McDonald's commercial that shows the two designer-types with their trendy glasses and metrosexual shirts sipping lattes in an upscale coffee shop. One of them mentions McDonald's now serves (supposedly the coffee shop equivalent, but let me tell you - they are disgusting) lattes, but minus the stereotypical attitude. It's a revelation! You can enjoy a fancy mocha - prepared by a real barista - even if you're not wearing designer jeans!

In terms of what makes Studio Absolute worth standing in line for - we demonstrate from start to finish that every project is an opportunity to build a long term relationship with a real person. We feel blessed that all of our clients thus far have made that an easy task simply being likable individuals! When they come to our studio for the first time, they'll meet two normal people that are genuinely excited to hear about their new product, service, or company name that requires a bright and shiny presence in the world.

Well, that felt good. Now back to the website where I've got to sum that up cleverly and in a tiny fraction of my manifesto here!

Insomnia

This is my first ever post to Studio Absolute's blog. It's a significant day - one that I've been putting off mainly for lack of words, but also for the sheer lack of understanding behind the blogging mentality. I never kept a diary or journal when I was growing up - it just seemed pointless to recap what I already knew about my day or how I was feeling. I was there, you know? There's also this thing about the word "I" that "I" have to come to grips with if "I" am going to amount to any kind of blogger. I usually read over my emails and letters and count how many times I've said it (I)... and if it's anywhere near the number of times I've used it in the last two sentences alone, a major rewrite is forthcoming.

So that said, the one thing I have now that I never had as a kid, is insomnia. Big, fat, insomnia - which explains why there wasn't a need for a diary growing up. I simply slept, and dreams would carry my thoughts from my heart, through my brain, and dispel them out into the universe with one clean swipe off the whiteboard. Now that the universe is Web 2.0 savvy, I guess it's time I find a new, more relevant way of communicating with it than simply sleeping my day off.

Dear Blog, would you like to know what's keeping me awake tonight? Where to start... The clock taunting me ("It's 12:56, 1:00, 1:30... you know you've got a meeting at 7:00... what do you think you're doing writing a blog at this hour!?"); the unrelenting pressure of starting a new business; wondering where I will find the time to create the forms, the plans, the web content - all the necessary business evils that are so important, yet so hard to stop and DO; the desire to help our team grow while cultivating passion for what they are naturally, and uniquely gifted at; wondering how I could have forgotten to take a critically important medication for over a week - wait, oh yea, I HAVE TONS OF STUFF ON MY MIND!

Well there it is, dear Blog. I hope that unlike all the diaries and journals I've written only one entry in and then abandoned, that we actually meet again.

Good night.