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Topic

Leadership

A collection of 19 issues

Reflections on 24 years from freelancer through building one of the first Shopify studios in the world through burnout and back to soloist

I’ve been reflecting on how ultimately none of this matters—how good we are at our craft, who we can serve and help, the processes we develop, or the results—if we can’t master sales and marketing and storytelling.

#UnderdogChallenge—my 23-year journey from soloist to agency principal and back in under 500 words

After nearly 23 years, I’m back on the tools, working directly with amazing clients—designing and building beautiful, elegant, highly functional Shopify stores—learning and growing and achieving things I’d forgotten I was capable of.

Building strong foundations with Shopify based on the fundamental principles of ecommerce success—part 2

If you are not building your business on a foundation of core ecommerce fundamentals, you are wasting time, money, headspace, and resources. You are likely focusing on the minutiae and things that don’t matter now.

You have a vision—what about your objectives, strategy, plans, and goals?

Goal-setting is hard. Where do you start? What’s the difference between an objective and a goal? How do you keep track of goals or measure success or failure?

Why is “strategy” a dirty word?

As founders, principles, and leaders, it’s hard for us to acknowledge and admit that, while we might have a strong vision for where we are going, we probably don’t have a clear plan for how we’re going to get there. And, even if we do, it’s likely incomplete or we’re too close to it.

Do you really want more features—or, do you actually want to achieve objectives?

If we rephrase “requirements” as goals and objectives, we will see leaner, more nimble projects that move faster, cost less money and headspace, and lead to more impactful and successful outcomes.

Should I hire an internal Shopify developer for my ecommerce site instead of paying an agency on retainer?

While agencies might seem more expensive at face value, even if you work mostly with one person, you are typically getting the benefit of a team’s breadth and depth of knowledge, perspective, and expertise.

Webinar: How to Stay Nimble as a DTC Brand

Some of my thoughts on how to develop more nimble mindsets in your organization, pragmatism, purpose, and a healthy dose of the first-principles of ecommerce—with a few nimble design and development conceps thrown in at the end.

The journey isn’t just lonely at the top

In our effort to build lean teams, we tend to underinvest in team-building. We overload our teams with too much complexity and too many areas of responsibility without the frameworks or systems to support them or enable them to have sounding boards and forums for healthy discussion.

A first-principles mindset

If you’re building a people-first organization, you will grow faster and require less operational oversight if you develop and encourage a first-principles mindset in your team.