209 - TZL - John Wheaton

Interview them. Tell their story. Learn more about them. Understand their why. Why did they do the things that they do? We've spent almost 45 minutes here with John talking about his why for Wheaton Sprague but, I mean, clearly he has kind of set it up where he's been able to have conversations. And I got to tell you this, there's not a person out there that doesn't like to talk about themselves. I tell people all the time, John, I've never been told no, I don't want to be on your podcast. Sometimes it might be a timing issue scheduling stuff like that, where it's like, I want to do it, I just got to find the right time. But no one has ever told me no and that's the one thing that I sold to Mark and Chad when we originally wanted to start and do this podcast. I was like, listen, it's going to be valuable, let alone for the simple fact that we can get in front of potential clients and our current clients and maybe just build a better relationship with them in a different way because the heavy lifting is really done by the person conducting the interview, right? Because I've got to do all the prep and all this other stuff. You just have to show up and talk and you don't have to worry about anything else. You don't have to write 600 to 1000 words and have it proofed and go back for three or four edits and all that stuff. You just have to show up and talk and go from there. And if you're in front of the right interviewer, you can really be made to look great. That's just the way it works. John Wheaton [45:38] I couldn't agree more, of course, as a pod fellow part-time podcaster. Seth Godin says this really well, he says you got to decide what you're going to do for free and you got to decide what you're going to do for money. So Seth Godin blogs for free every day, three or four or 5000 days in a row. But if you want him to speak, he has a fixed fee and he always speaks for money. I podcast for free because I want to put value into the marketplace and I am so gratified. I do it for me and for us and for the company. I tie it into the company but I've been so gratified. I've had people send me notes of encouragement. Hey, John, I'm so and so you don't know me literally this message. My son was on your podcast. I never heard clearly what he really did until you framed it on the podcast and let him tell his story. I understand it better. Thank you for putting my son in the limelight. I had a guy say to me, that I was looking for something I didn't know what it was and I stumbled on creating structure podcasts and I found it. It is exactly what I wanted. It’s exactly what I want to have. But let me echo your statement but let me make it even bigger. As the world gets flatter, and technology gets more accessible, if we as design professionals do not have a focus on telling our story, through print, website, video, and audio, there are fewer and fewer ways to differentiate and I'm going to frame it as a no oriented statement. Go ahead, please don't start your podcast. Don't blog. Forget about it because as AI and technology get more and more sophisticated, some of what we do will no longer exist but there will always be a story to tell and there always be value to give to the marketplace and there will always be some things to do whether statutorily required, or whether because a client wants a cool thing. But please don't podcast,

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