Is it better to go and workfor a company for five yearsto get expertise,or is it somethingthat you can just teach yourselfby intensely focusing on that?And I wanted to ask.One of the things that youcan do if you have a jobis that if in theright environment,you're given the latitude toreally run with your ideasand follow themall the way throughand make mistakes along the way.And of course, correct.And you don't get thatfrom reading a book.And I'm wondering if youthink that the value that youget from experience, if you'regiven the freedom to reallyhave a certainamount of autonomy,is that more valuablethan reading the books?That's a very great question,and it ties into somethingthat Frankie and Italked about yesterday.So let's have a dialogue.Just you and me.OK, so everybodyelse, just pleasemake sure you'remuted because I thinkthis is an excellent thingyou're talking about.There are many ways tolearn things in life,and I'm not telling youthat there's one wayor there's a better way.The better way is whateverworks best for you.So when you go andwork for a companyand you have really greatinspirational people whoare experts orwhatever it is that do.That's probably one ofthe best ways to learn.Plus, you get paid.Here's the question is,are they good teachers?Will they make time for you?You have to think aboutthat because Kyle Cooper isone of the most celebratedtitle designers living today.He's not a great teacher.The way he critiques yourwork is that's terrible.Then he'll take it and just tearit and throw it in your faceand you're like, OK.I mean, I've worked for himfor a brief period of time.And he'd say, Chris, thatlooks like a cartoon.I'm like, what doyou mean, kyle?And he just walk away.Figure it out.So it's a guessing game.I put something else in frontof him like, that's really good.I'm like, OK.He liked that hedidn't like that.And luckily for me,I'm the type of learnerI can reverse engineerthings pretty quickly.So the way I learned totell stories sequentiallywas because they made me waitso long to meet with Kyle.I sat in the back room and I sawall these storyboards lined upon the wall stacks are15, 20 boards deep stackedalong the wall for alldifferent kinds of picturesthat I've worked on.I didn't know I could not gointo it, so I went into it.I started to riflethrough each boardand seeing two three five sevendifferent attempts at solvinga problem, a singular problem.A light bulb wentoff in my head,I think that's what he'slooking for when he says,there's no idea here.That's what he meant.Never explained it to me.So we have to kind of takethat into consideration.OK, if you cometo work for us, wetake great responsibilityin thinkinglike, we need to help you.We need to teach you becausewe're now teaching like,that's our mindset.Like, it's to teach.That's our culture,it's part of our DNA,and it's been that wayfor a very long time,just not outwardly.So my interns, the reasonwhy I only take on a fewis because I haveto give you my time.I have to look at your work.I have to give you a critique.I have to give you a game plan.I have to show you thingsthat you don't know.That's a responsibility I take.So if you are able to get intoa company like that, Oh my gosh,jump on that.Because those peoplewill help you grow.So fast, they'll turn youon to books and resourcesand other kinds of things.They'll give you that reallykind of insightful commentthat a little tweak, alittle adjustment here,and it's just a whole newidea or a whole new design.That's fantastic.But I want to warnyou, they're probablynot that manycompanies that do that.OK, now.That's experience.Let's talk about a differentkind of experience,so I've had a businesscoach for 10 years.I met with himevery single week.He would say allkinds of things to me.It wouldn't always explainthe theory behind it.But I got it.I grabbed it.I used it.I didn't need to understandwhy it works, how it works.I just needed to do it.And that's what mademe a good student.It's also what madeus really successful.I don't even knowwhat I'm doing,but I'm going todo it regardless.And now I'm goingthrough all these books.And some of thethings he would saywould be expanded for awhole chapter with data,with research, with casestudies over and over again.So was thinking, boy.When I'm a consultant.And this all I do andI'm just teaching people.I want to make sure Iknow these things and can.Reference these things and citethem so that it's not just hey,Chris.Go try to do that.It gives me a muchdeeper understanding.So when I talk about.Learning from thesebooks, and I posted it.It confirms a lot of things.I knew from anecdotal evidence.But I want to be carefulwith a lot of you guysthat oftentimes we mistakecorrelation with causationbecause this worked in this way.We jump to allkinds of conclusionsand we start to tell otherpeople this is the way thingswork.In my.Or could just bemisread the information,so that's why I stronglyencourage everybody.To pick up a bookand read about it.If nothing else.You have a little bit moreammunition, a few more toolsto work with just for yourself.Frankie, you and I weretalking about something.Did I cover enough ofwhat we talked about or dowe need to go back into it?You're muted.I mean, I have the benefit ofthe conversation that we had.I think if anyone elseout there needs more,they should definitely speak up.I had some clarityyesterday, but itwas because I wasunclear on exactly.I misinterpreted, Ithink the informationthat you put out inskewed the intention.I took it for almostlike face value,and that's a communicationthing, right?You put it out and I tookit how it applied to me.I, you know, but it worked out.It worked out for me, at least.Yeah OK.Rachel, let's go back to you.Yeah anything elseyou want to say?Yeah, just toclarify one point howyou said that it'simportant to be if you'regoing to be an employee,be an employee of peoplewho can teach you well, so thatis there a distinction between?I mean, I don't want to kindof make it all about me,but I've been invited bymy three biggest clientsto come in-house forthem and basicallysplit my company into 3 anddo the same thing for eachof them.And I see this as anopportunity to learn very deeplyabout who my clients arebecause my niche is marketingfor non-profits.And if I have the responsibilityto see how an idea that I haveplays out and be responsiblefor that outcome,it's very different than acontractor who just has one joband can walk awayfrom it and isn'tresponsible for the outcome.And I'm wondering if, ifmy boss is a teacher who'strying to teach mefrom his like hecan't teach me how to do amarketing campaign, but he is.They are a teacher whocan teach what they do.Is that the samekind of learning?It's a differentkind of learning.I think if I understand whatyou're asking correctly,they're asking you toapply your expertiseand learn more about them.And by learning more about them,you can do your job better,but you're not going to advancein your marketing expertise,per se.That's what we'retalking about, right?It's like if you design a logoand they say if you spend timewith their employees,you'll havea better understanding of howthis logo is going to be used.That's totally true.It's specific to them, andyou'll design that for them.I don't think thisis necessarilylike you're an in-houseperson splittingyour company intothree, it's justpart of your discoveryprocess to spendtime getting to knowyour clients really wellon their business.So that you canmake recommendationsbased on what you've learned.I think it's morean issue of that.This reminds me of alittle bit of storyor the story that's a littlebit of a tangent to what we'retalking about.You guys know thatcompany, Salesforce,they're like worth a couple ofbillion dollars, Salesforce.And I know somebodythat used to beone of what did theycall them, sales manageror something like that?And he told the story, it's likelegendary within the companythat everybody was trying toclose this insurance companyand they couldn't do it.So this particular salespersonsaid, guys, I'm out of here.I'm going to go andmove my office intolike, say, it'sfarmers insurance,I don't, I don't know.I'm probably butchering allparts of this story here,but the intent is good, right?So they're OK, soI'm not here to sell.I would just like a corner inyour office to kind of figureout how you work.So he spent months there, movedto that city, camped out there,started watching peoplework, and from thatwas able to figureout a lot of waysto improve theirprocess or systems,increase productivity,et cetera,and close at that point, thelargest client for Salesforceever.So they spent that timeto learn about the client.So when we talkabout energy, effortdivided by the numberof potential clients,think about that.Spent months with one clientclose the biggest deal ever.So I'm hopefullygoing to I'm tryingto tie that back to ourposition discussion, right?How many clients doyou want to serve?The smaller number, thebetter that you can,the better job will do for them.You have a greater opportunityto know who they really areand to build something trulycustom and tailored for them.
