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I’m Taking a Break

back_soon Between holding down a part-time job, doing work for my kick-ass business blog consulting services clients, launching my How to Start a Business Website and Hire a Web Designer ebook, developing the Gateway Blogging learning program, and writing posts here every week…

I need a break!

You’ll still find me on Twitter and leaving comments at my favorite blogs. You can still get in touch with me.

But I’m not posting here until the beginning of September. I have to work on stuff for my clients and other projects.

In the Meantime…

You should read my new book: How to Start a Business Website and Hire a Web Designer. It’s chock full of all the stuff you wish you already knew. It does what it says on the tin, as they say. In gloriously plain English, a nice big font, and pretty tables & diagrams. It’s a seriously nice-looking book (most ebooks are kinda chintzy-looking, and I hate that, so mine are different).

Check it out.

My Newest Ebook - How to Start a Business Website and Hire a Web Designer

eb001flt2 I’ve been secretly slaving away on a new ebook that’s now ready: How to Start a Business Website and Hire a Web Designer. It’s written for beginners. Rather than present an overwhelming set of choices and options when it comes to getting a website and hiring a designer, I present only a few of the best options. It’s a "best of" approach that cuts through the confusion and empowers you to make smart choices and avoid costly beginner mistakes.

Many designers wish that their clients were better educated before they are approached for hire. Folks who find themselves wanting to get a website for the first time wish there was a resource that gave them easy information so that they can be better prepared for the process of getting a site and working with a designer.

If you or someone you know needs the basics of getting a domain name, hosting, understanding site platform options, and finding the right designer, then this book will help smooth out that process.

Read about what’s in it and get it here:

How to Start a Business Website and Hire a Web Designer

The Curse of Knowledge vs. Beginner’s Mind

image Have you ever tried to teach Microsoft Windows to a person who knows nothing about computers?

Probably not. Think about it for a moment. Where would you even start? Could you explain why the My Documents folder is on the C drive even though it looks like it’s at the same level as the C drive? Or how someone is supposed to know when they should single click vs. double-click?

If you’ve ever tried to explain or teach something, you have often found yourself frustrated that you couldn’t communicate as clearly as you’d hoped to. Every time you try, and the other person does not yet understand, you begin to grasp that your assumptions are greater you’d realized. Much greater.

It is impossible to not know something once you have learned it. You have passed the point of "know return" (sorry, heh, couldn’t resist).

But those who know often must teach those who don’t. Bit of a problem, don’t you think? The more you know, the harder it is to communicate the basics.

There’s a phrase for this: the curse of knowledge. For many years, I’ve been teaching people–absolute beginners–how to use Microsoft Windows, how to surf the web, how to use Excel, and many other subjects. With all that practice, I’ve become skilled at explaining things in a way that’s easy to understand by beginners.

Yet, even still, the curse of knowledge haunts me. Every time I write a post and I think I’ve written something too simple, I always get a lot of positive feedback.

Beginner’s Mind

image There is an Eastern philosophical perception hack called Beginner’s Mind. To cultivate beginner’s mind is to see things anew. To never become jaded. To brand that beginner’s experience into your empathic memory, so you can call it up and relive it at will. This is how I am successful at writing for beginners. It’s an exercise in empathy and understanding.

And tomorrow, I will have a new book for you that I’ve written for people who don’t have a website yet or who do but they feel like they don’t even know what they don’t know about the process of getting a site or hiring a designer.

Stay tuned…

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