willie jackson

Blog

  • Painful lessons

    I did some work for a guy last year who turned out to be a fraud.

    The day he was supposed to mail me a check for $17,000.27, he disappeared. An open records request by a very helpful paralegal resulted in a shocker: Mr. Moneybags was incarcerated for his inability to fulfill some personal financial obligations.

    We had one more discussion when he emerged from jail, wherein he reported having been in the hospital (not knowing that I knew the truth), hoping things would return to normal.

    They did not.

    Inexperienced freelancers often get burned like I did because they don’t have the proper contract(s) in place, because they don’t get things in writing, and because they don’t realize that many clients seek to extract the maximum amount of work for as little money as possible (and sometimes less than that).

    This particular situation stung because 1) I was going to quit my job with the money I had earned and 2) I had several friends doing work for this guy, and immediately realized that none of us would be getting paid. Oof.

    Instead of doing cartwheels in traffic following the bad news, however, I reframed the issue and emerged smarter and more determined than ever.

    It was an invaluable lesson for me (although one I could have done without), and embarrassing disasters like that are just as important to my story as the public victories.

  • The glamorous life

    …is not how I would describe self-employment.

    I work 3 to 4 times harder than I ever did when I had a job. There’s no regular paycheck, no “job security,” and no real structure imposed upon my day.

    The highs and lows experienced on a weekly basis are dramatic. Backflip-worthy victories and gut-wrenching setbacks.

    I learn more in a week (leadership, management, engineering, marketing, and team-building) than I would learn in three months under different circumstances.

    What’s the main reason I do it, though?

    The freedom.

    The freedom to win, and the freedom to lose.

    I own my successes in my failures.

    I take responsibility for my shortcomings.

    I slay the dragon every morning or watch in horror as Resistance leaves me paralyzed.

    I show up every day here on my blog and hone my voice.

    I wage war, break things and make art.

    And I wouldn’t trade my crazy life for anything.

  • Team work

    During my final year at FSU, we were forced to work on group projects in order to receive a passing grade in certain classes.

    It was terrible.

    Being paired with students who were apathetic about their academics essentially meant that one or two individuals carried the weight of the entire team. Unfair at best.

    Since that time, I’ve collaborated with dozens (if not hundreds) of small teams in completing projects professionally (in my former life as an IT Consultant) and in a freelance capacity (I’ve hired dozens of contractors for odd jobs).

    These are the critical factors that appear to have contributed to the success of my projects over the years:

    1. Progress updates — how’s it coming?
    2. Ownership — what are you on the hook for?
    3. Deadlines — by when can we expect your portion?
    4. Accountability — what do you promise to contribute?
    5. Transparency — are you having any issues that we should know about?

    Given the nature of modern projects with team members often living in different locations and time zones, software often facilitates the collaboration where email falls short.

    At Domino, we used Basecamp to coordinate and it worked great. Recently, I’ve been using Asana with my team and find it in some ways to be the best collaboration tool I’ve used (it’s focused!).

  • WordPress Performance Class: Live event in NYC

    In two weeks, I’ll be teaching a live class on web performance in New York City.

    I’ll be covering as much material as the time contraints permit, and there will be a Q/A portion at the end to address your specific questions.

    The event will take place at New Work City in their main lecture area (I’m making that name up), and covered in brief will be the following:

    • The Business case for having a faster site
    • How to properly configure W3 Total Cache on your site
    • Overview of optimization tools available
    • Before/after speed test with optimization on/off
    • How to integrate a Content Delivery Network
    • Introduction to advanced topics (opcode cache integration, custom server, builds, etc.)

    My schedule doesn’t often permit me to do live facilitation like this, so I look forward to sharing some of the things I’ve been busy with over the past few months.

    And if the event gets the kind of traction I think it will, there will be a followup hand-on session in a more intimate setting. It will be at a higher price point and go into much more detail.

    So if you run a self-hosted WordPress site, live in New York City, and want to learn how to extract the most performance out of your site, I hope you’ll join me.

    Who: Yours truly
    What: WordPress Performance Class
    Where: New Work City in Chinatown, NYC
    When: Monday, November 28, 2011 at 7:00 PM (ET)
    Why: Web performance can be confusing. I can help with that™.

    Drop me a note if you’re coming — I’d love to hear from you.

  • When did we forget our dreams?

    This reminds me of a George Clooney quote from Up in the Air:

    How much did they pay you to give up on your dreams?

    And this.

  • On Mentoring

    As I reflect on my professional trajectory and how it has been impacted by other humans, I can’t help but marvel at the influence that my mentors have had on me.

    At the same time, I’m often shocked when friends tell me that they don’t have any mentors and don’t know how to go about identifying one.

    The tactics involved in securing mentors aren’t particularly difficult, so it might be worth addressing the topic from a different angle: being in a position to have mentors in the first place.

    • Have something that you’re (seriously) interested in: if your desire to secure a mentor at work is to avoid the harsh reality that your job is uninteresting, you might consider addressing the true source of the issue. Figure out how to make it interesting, evaluate why you’re there in the first place and whether you have to be (hint: you don’t), or — my personal favorite — quit.
    • Identify exactly what it is that you want to learn: are you trying to go from selling $10,000 per quarter to $100,000 per quarter? Do you want to live life on your own terms? Are you interested in finding out how to launch a web application in a crowded space and make it successful? These can be tied to specific outcomes that frame the nature of your relationship with a mentor. Don’t conflate the role of a mentor and a life coach.
    • Understand that having a mentor is a two-way street: if your idea of having a mentor is for someone to email you every week and offer insight into the things that you need to do in order to become more successful, you’re missing the point. A mentor rarely needs anything from you (e.g,, compensation), so one of the most important things you can do as a mentee is update your mentor on your progress. This is immensely gratifying to the mentor and the entire point of having one in the first place.
    • You don’t need someone’s permission in order for them to be a mentor: if someone doesn’t have to time to “formally” mentor you (something that’s misunderstood and unnecessary in many cases), no problem! You can mirror their actions, and absorb their wisdom from a distance. One of my most influential mentors had no idea he was mentoring me.
    • Setting expectations is important to avoid disappointment: As with any relationship that’s more than casual, expectations need to be set and there must be accountability on both sides. If someone repeatedly lets you down or is not meeting your needs, there’s no rule against having a candid discussion about expectations. If you don’t have this kind of relationship with your mentor, you might not be getting the most out of the relationship.

    Further reading on the topic can be found in this fabulous post by Pam Slim.

  • The impossible balance

    I spent much of the day (yesterday) with a client who loves her business.

    She calls herself “insanely courageous” and I can understand why. From the heartbreaking stories of her upbringing, to the overachieving nature she took on in her academics, to the fact that she now invest 50% of profits back into the business — my client is anything but ordinary.

    The impossible balance she’s struck involves doing what she loves every day, creating lasting change in the lives of those served by her business, and being compensated fairly for it.

    I know plenty of people who hate what they do for a living but are compensated quite handsomely.

    I know plenty of people who create lasting change, but would be in trouble pretty quickly if they missed a paycheck.

    I know plenty of people who make plenty of money, but add very little value to anyone’s lives.

    Melissa didn’t get where she is by chance or by interviewing her way to the position, or by just praying very earnestly for it to be that way. She has worked extremely hard to get where she is, and she never settled along the way when easier paths were available.

    I’d love to see more “heart-centered” businesses receiving recognition and providing a framework for other businesses to follow. It’s a beautiful thing to see up close.

    Some people are deterred by the impossible. Others specialize in it.

  • We get it

    I think there is a balance to be struck when marketing.

    Like us on Facebook!

    Forward to a friend!

    Please retweet!

    Stumble this!

    A balance between providing the tools for your tribe to spread your message…and instilling in people a sense of obligation to spam others with it.

    Have you ever neglected to tweet or share or forward something compelling because the author neglected to request this?

    Think about it, I’ll wait.

    Giving your message “wings” should not come at the expense of making frequent asks.

    Giving your best every day (requesting and expecting nothing in return) appears to be the most effective path to building a long term following.

    The Chris Brogans and John Grubers of the world act as social and journalistic flight traffic controllers, pointing out interesting things that provide value to their tribe.

    If you are doing something worth sharing, your tribe will do the rest.

  • Politics

    A few questions to consider:

    1. Who’s making the money?
    2. Who is the gatekeeper?
    3. Who is the real gatekeeper?
    4. Who attracts unwanted attention?
    5. Who makes friends with everyone and transcends the pettiness
    6. Do the answers to the questions above impact your success?

    These are the questions I would ask before getting into any industry without substantial financial backing or political clout.

  • Poise and grace

    I once spoke at a conference where a well-known member of the software community saw fit to interrupt my presentation with a correction (related to some political issues of marginal importance to most people).

    It was rude, in poor taste, and created a tense moment for everyone in the room.

    It would have been easy to posture and fuss, asking her to interrupt someone else’s talk instead of mine. And I would have been completely justified in putting her in her place (I had the mic, after all) while it was happening.

    I patiently waited for the interruption to end (it was brief, thankfully), allowed a silence to hang in the air, and continued with the presentation.

    Afterwards, she apologized.

    I try to remain cool under pressure at all times, and there seems to be a wellspring of patience to draw from when challenging situations arise.

    This isn’t to say that the enthusiastic assertion of one’s will is never appropriate — the key is knowing when each is appropriate.