Alex Rolek's guest appearances

Alex Rolek

The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-Fox

Michael Bierut

Gabby Wallace

Cal Newport

Cathryn Lavery

Laura Roeder

Jim Hopkinson

Eric Kass

Douglas Davis

Betsy Helmuth

Debbie Millman

Steve Dotto

Todd Henry

Laura Thomas

Lisa Cummings

John Hargrave

OwlTail

Michael Sacca

The Busy Creator episode 11, w/guests Michael Sacca and Alex Rolek, co-founders of Brandisty.com Michael Sacca (@MichaelSacca) and Alex Rolek (@AlexRolek) are the co-founders of Brandisty.com, a website that allows companies to put their brand on the web. The duo started out as a small agency doing web design and software development before shifting towards a B2B product. Along with Prescott, they discuss the origins of Brandisty, how they went about getting early feedback, and the day to day scrappiness of running a small web software company.Show Notes &amp; Links Brandisty is a small software company, about 5 staffers plus contractors TinyFactory, the agency from which Brandisty was born Brandisty’s inception was born from frustration — “can I get a transparent PNG?” Valio Con, a design conference where Brandisty was introduced as a beta product The Busy Creator on Brandisty Delete Blood Cancer on Brandisty TinyFactory started as an agency Michael studied the music business Alex studied finance and real estate development Entrepreneurs struggle to install productivity habits Distractions at work are annoying The difference between marketing and sales The conference was to validate the idea “customer service is our marketing” Say Rhythm rather than Routine. Alex endorses a lifestyle of moderationTools Brandisty.com, (obviously) HTML5 Node.js AoHell (RIP) Visual Basic Amazon Web Services: Route 53, EC2, Virtual Private Cloud, S3 SublimeText, the text editor of choice TextMate, also good Git and custom Git servers, rather than GitHub GoLang, a language for lower-level image processing Trello, for project management Do.com (RIP), Jira — other project management software tools Salesforce, the owners of Do.com gChat and Skype to keep track of remote workers Google Docs for company-wide assets Medium, well-read site but doesn’t convert well Reddit, as an underrated communication medium Designer News and Hacker News Inbound.com / Hubspot.com GrowthHackers.com HOW Forums (RIP) Creative Mornings Likemind Techniques Use a blackboard in your office. Keep it old school Keep a Kanban board with projects; rearrange as necessary Use small post-its on the cards Don’t use a mobile phone app to do your laundry (it’s not needed!) Use the Rubber Duck test Template your email responses and communication tools Set “Do Not Disturb” mode for the working day, counter-interuitively Generate potential leads, do some research, ask them to become beta testers Generate leads from content and social media Aim for better quality traffic, not necessarily more Give up coffee or alcohol; observe results. Don’t forget to read books, in addition to blog posts, to learn other people’s perspectivesHabits Get everyone together for planning and vision; let people work independently from there Monday morning meeting: plan the week, review stats, update on all departments Friday meeting focused on marketing and to review stats Handle communication and responses in the morning; focus on productivity the rest of the day Alex favors the “anti-routine”, and fear of monotony. Varies his wake-up and work-out times. Michael favors a strict routine (due to fatherhood). Gym in the morning, breakfast, show, and off to work. Wake up before the sun rises. Try networking events in the morning, rather than those in the evenings

The Busy Creator episode 11, w/guests Michael Sacca and Alex Rolek, co-founders of <a href="http://Brandisty.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brandisty.com</a> Michael Sacca (<a href="http://twitter.com/MichaelSacca" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@MichaelSacca</a>) and Alex Rolek (<a href="http://twitter.com/alexrolek" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">@AlexRolek</a>) are the co-founders of <a href="http://brandisty.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brandisty.com</a>, a website that allows companies to put their brand on the web. The duo started out as a small agency doing web design and software development before shifting towards a B2B product. Along with Prescott, they discuss the origins of Brandisty, how they went about getting early feedback, and the day to day scrappiness of running a small web software company.Show Notes &amp; Links <ul> <li><a href="http://brandisty.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brandisty</a> is a small software company, about 5 staffers plus contractors</li> <li><a href="http://www.tinyfactory.co/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TinyFactory</a>, the agency from which Brandisty was born</li> <li>Brandisty’s inception was born from frustration — “can I get a transparent PNG?”</li> <li><a href="http://valiocon.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Valio Con</a>, a design conference where Brandisty was introduced as a beta product</li> <li><a href="http://brandisty.com/busycreator" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Busy Creator on Brandisty</a></li> <li><a href="http://brandisty.com/deletebloodcancer" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Delete Blood Cancer on Brandisty</a></li> <li>TinyFactory started as an agency</li> <li>Michael studied the music business</li> <li>Alex studied finance and real estate development</li> <li>Entrepreneurs struggle to install productivity habits</li> <li>Distractions at work are annoying</li> <li>The difference between marketing and sales</li> <li>The conference was to validate the idea</li> <li>“customer service is our marketing”</li> <li>Say Rhythm rather than Routine.</li> <li>Alex endorses a lifestyle of moderation</li></ul>Tools <ul> <li><a href="http://brandisty.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brandisty.com</a>, (obviously)</li> <li><a href="http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_intro.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">HTML5</a></li> <li><a href="http://nodejs.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Node.js</a></li> <li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOHell" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AoHell</a> (RIP)</li> <li><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ms788229.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Visual Basic</a></li> <li><a href="https://aws.amazon.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Amazon Web Services</a>: Route 53, EC2, Virtual Private Cloud, S3</li> <li><a href="http://www.sublimetext.com/2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SublimeText</a>, the text editor of choice</li> <li><a href="http://macromates.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TextMate</a>, also good</li> <li><a href="http://git-scm.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Git</a> and custom Git servers, rather than <a href="http://github.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GitHub</a></li> <li><a href="http://golang.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GoLang</a>, a language for lower-level image processing</li> <li><a href="http://trello.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Trello</a>, for project management</li> <li><a href="http://do.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Do.com</a> (RIP), <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/?clicked=j.a.com_introduction" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jira</a> — other project management software tools</li> <li><a href="http://salesforce.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Salesforce</a>, the owners of <a href="http://Do.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Do.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.google.com/hangouts/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">gChat</a> and <a href="http://skype.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Skype</a> to keep track of remote workers</li> <li><a href="http://docs.google.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Docs</a> for company-wide assets</li> <li><a href="http://medium.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Medium</a>, well-read site but doesn’t convert well</li> <li><a href="http://reddit.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Reddit</a>, as an underrated communication medium</li> <li><a href="https://news.layervault.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Designer News</a> and <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hacker News</a></li> <li><a href="http://inbound.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Inbound.com</a> / <a href="http://hubspot.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hubspot.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://growthhackers.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GrowthHackers.com</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.howdesign.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">HOW</a> Forums (RIP)</li> <li><a href="http://creativemornings.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Creative Mornings</a></li> <li><a href="http://likemind.us/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Likemind </a></li></ul>Techniques <ul> <li>Use a blackboard in your office. Keep it old school</li> <li>Keep a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_board" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kanban board</a> with projects; rearrange as necessary</li> <li>Use small post-its on the cards</li> <li>Don’t use a mobile phone app to do your laundry (it’s not needed!)</li> <li>Use the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rubber Duck test</a></li> <li>Template your email responses and communication tools</li> <li>Set “Do Not Disturb” mode for the working day, counter-interuitively</li> <li>Generate potential leads, do some research, ask them to become beta testers</li> <li>Generate leads from content and social media</li> <li>Aim for better quality traffic, not necessarily more</li> <li>Give up coffee or alcohol; observe results.</li> <li>Don’t forget to read books, in addition to blog posts, to learn other people’s perspectives</li></ul>Habits <ul> <li>Get everyone together for planning and vision; let people work independently from there</li> <li>Monday morning meeting: plan the week, review stats, update on all departments</li> <li>Friday meeting focused on marketing and to review stats</li> <li>Handle communication and responses in the morning; focus on productivity the rest of the day</li> <li>Alex favors the “anti-routine”, and fear of monotony. Varies his wake-up and work-out times.</li> <li>Michael favors a strict routine (due to fatherhood). Gym in the morning, breakfast, show, and off to work.</li> <li>Wake up before the sun rises.</li> <li>Try networking events in the morning, rather than those in the evenings</li></ul>

The Busy Creator 11 w/guests Michael Sacca & Alex Rolek