Up until this point, I've been scheduling one on one calls with my private web design clients the old fashioned way...that is, calling or emailing back and forth until a suitable day and time is found which in some cases seems to take as much time as the appointment itself.  Anyone with me?  

But I've come across something wonderful! Time Driver at www.timedriver.com.  They have a 30 day free trial and it's only $30/year after that. I'm about to sign up for the year.  You make an online appointment book, go to a calendar and choose the days and times you are available for appointments, and then you get a link.  You send this link to your clients, they click on it and are taken to a beautiful little scheduler that shows them all the times you have available and they choose one.  The best part is that you can easily sync it with your google calendar AND it sends you and your client email reminders about your appointment. (Did I mention that I love this tool?)

So instead of hours of your time back and forth and keeping track of who made an appointment and who didn't...you just make your appointment book, send out the link to your clients, and see the appointments pop up in your calendar...
2 minutes MAXIMUM...SCHEDULING DONE.

As I trekked my way through the world of creating a business and a website that supported my business in becoming successful,  I realized that I had no idea what I was doing.  I couldn't figure out why these classes and services I was offering (which were amazing in my head by the way!) were not resonating with my people, no one was signing up...then I discovered the secret to finding the right people and inspiring them to work with me AND yesterday I came across a video from Simon Sinek speaking at the TED conference (TED - inspiration at it's highest! www.ted.com) that summed up this wonderful secret to success that not only makes your business successful, but also inspires you during those 'not so perfect' moments, and here it is - 'How Great Leaders Inspire Action' (ok, so it's not 2 minutes...but it's 18 minutes of pure clarity!)...

We are so used to reading and writing and talking and listening that we're wrapped up in the words.  It's true that what you say is important, but in design as in public speaking, 3% is what you say and 97% is how you say it.  The chance that someone will read every word on your website is slim and so they must get the message another way.  Here is where we pull design (how we say it) out of our back pocket! The colors, fonts, and layouts you choose are remembered much more than any sentence you write.  

Our brains are wired to read images first...we had to learn to read.  Reading requires higher levels of brain function which is essentially translating visuals (the word) into meaning.  Colors and images, however, rocket straight to the part of the brain that makes an emotional decision before any logic is applied.  For example, large amounts of black and yellow together mean danger (think bees!) and we get this message in .03 seconds without reading a word or figuring it out...we just know this...it is our instinct.  So if you want to create a peaceful, calming website, bright yellow and black wouldn't be a smart choice.  No matter how calm you words were, the design wins, the decision is made, I need to be on high alert, this is not safe! 

This is a pretty obvious example, but our brain also reads much more subtle cues in the visuals that surround us.  This is one of the first things graphic designers learn, make sure your visuals support your words.  If your words and visual communication match, your message is strengthened, remembered, and trusted.  If not (see BE CALM above!), your viewer is confused and they don't trust that you know what you're doing (even though you may be the best at what you do).  This all happens within seconds of opening your site, the judgement is made before your guest even starts to logically look through your offerings.  And in the age of quick information, any confusion = a quick click back to Google to find the next guy.

Creativity and Joy, 
Erin