You Can't Lose!

Dan Ostrower from 3rd Horizon discusses the value of insider/outsider perspectives in client services. Topics include sales leadership, innovation levels, and designing 3 party agreements. The podcast explores team chemistry, client relationships, and balancing personal values in professional services.

Artist Tracey Halvorsen shares insights on how relationships influence client engagements. They play a guessing game on client budgets. The conversation delves into the dynamics of client services and the importance of nurturing relationships in business. Richard drops a 'fack'. It's a mix of laughter, tears, and deep life discussions.

Richard and Joe discuss meaningful connections, reject the idea of scaling, and advocate for intentional solutions. They navigate in-person events post-COVID and highlight the efficiency of email communication. The podcast explores guest dynamics, dark patterns on LinkedIn, and the transition to in-person events. Additionally, it delves into balancing work and personal care, EOS in business operations, and embracing simplicity and core principles.

In a very special Valentine's Day episode join Joe and Richard for a deep dive into the complexities of male friendships, personal growth, and the evolving landscape of professional relationships. They explore the significance of nurturing genuine connections outside of work and the impactful role of friendships in personal and professional development. Listen as two friends talk about friendship and about being friends. Also! Plans are hatched to organize an event of some kind...

It's Story Time again on the pod! Richard has a sordid story about browser tabs, and then Joe has a story about a client video conference pitch fumble. From there we unpack pitching. It's so weird! Why is this the way? Richard has notes.

Jon Lax of Teehan + Lax and Meta fame is our first brave Story Time contributor. Thank you Jon! Jon is the best and his story weaves a client pitch nightmare that will sound familiar to many, and haunt your dreams. We screw up all of the value Jon brings by talking about the Vision Pro release, the nightmare of Vision Pro personas, whether or not we are merely meat spaceships piloting the alien flora in our guts around, and much more. We do get back on point and talk again about the value of ensuring you're solving the right problems. If you focus on solving the right problems, and find alternative solutions for clients for all the other problems, you'll provide the best value you can, the way only you can.

Small Teams & Identity + The Sports Illustrated RFP Story Come for the sales conversation, stay for Richard's deep thoughts on identity, the power of small teams, and work culture. We go deep fast. Then in the wake of Sports Illustrated's seeming demise Joe dusts off the SI RFP story. It's 2013 and SI wants a complete Mobile First redesign in time for NFL training camp 4 months away. There's RFP response tips and advice, swoop and poop stakeholders, spec work, a big NY pitch, MULTIPLE law suits, and all the friends & innovations we made along the way.

Look at James White or @signalnoise to his friends. The man is a vibe standing out in a crowded marketplace. A complete idea of who he is and what he does snaps into place once you've made the connection to him and his personal brand. As salespeople, as colleagues, as members of social networks it pays dividends when your personal brand/vibe/identity snaps into focus clearly and completely too. In this episode we investigate. ALSO!!! Richard got a new job at Knapsack and it sounds amazing. Let's pull up close for that new-job-smell and find out what the first day of school was like. Remember, if you don't know who the smelly kid is on the first day of school then you're the smelly kid. ;)

The InVision Design Maturity Assessment surfaced the unmeasured value of collaboration, EQ, cross discipline relationships, and open communication. In this episode Richard reveals more about the origin and value of the DMA, what it surfaced, and how the same ideas can apply in a host of areas. Meanwhile somehow in the same podcast Joe explains the aggregate suit remedy for "professionalism," in fresco dining as the backdrop to corporate culture, and a handful of botched pitch and client stories.

For the first half of the podcast Joe and Richard revisit familiar ground re: wellness and relationships. Joe overshares about working out as only he can. Thankfully his wife does not listen to the pod. At the 30 min mark we dig into the latest news about the end of InVision. Richard shares his thoughts and reflections as someone who experienced peak InVision in many ways and it turns out like most great experiences it's the people who matter more than anything else. Lots of insights into what Richard experiences in his tenure, insight into the powerful Design Leadership Forum, and lessons to be learned from both. There's a lot of episode in this episode!