I’ve been getting a TON of hits for the search term “evofc”. Now, at first I thought there had to be something else that was picking up the audience and mis-guiding them to my site. So I took a look at the results, headlamps and a soccer team… college enrollment codes…. hmm. But you’ll notice, the first two pages or so have a ton of all my personal accounts from flickr to myspace. Perhaps people just want to know what EVofC means? E-Visions of Creativity, my friend.

There was a year between high school and college where I was VERY lost as to what I wanted to do as a career. I had always had a love for the web and had been creating websites for myself and friends for a couple of years at that point. Tiny geocities, not awesome to look at, sites. In my search for a career, something to do for the REST of my life, I wanted to make sure that what ever it was I would love, I would want to do, for a lifetime. This kind of decision was very hard for me to conceive at the age of 18. I spent most of my time online, gaming, building sites, playing with photoshop and wondering what I was going to build the rest of my life on. In a particularly heated discussion with my father, I exclaimed, “Dad, I know you want me to go do something.. but I’m not sure what I want to do! I want to love it, I want to be it, for the rest of my life!! That’s hard.” My father shook his head, “April, why don’t you just build websites for a LIVING.”

DING, DING, DINNNNNGGGG!  We have a winner!!! An epiphany then crossed over me, like a cold shower. ” You mean they pay people to do this?” Finally, I had found my answer, this wonderful morsel of personal honesty and self-realization. The answer to the ultimate question after high school, “What do I want to do with the rest of my life.”

So, instead of working at a burger joint or a movie theater through college, I started my first freelance company, E-Visions of Creativity. And now you know the rest of the story behind what EVofC stands for.

I was surfing some of my more design-related RSS feeds when I came across a very interesting artistic work featured on Quipsologies.

Tim Gaudreau has made a huge photo collage out of all the trash he’s thrown away in the last year to make a statement regarding America’s waste and energy consumption. After 365 days of photographing everything he threw out, he amassed over 5,000 photos of his own trash.

Check out his website to learn more about this interesting artistic expression of America’s consumption. Perhaps we can all take something away from this personal experiment and use less.

It’s that time again! October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and to spark awareness around the world wide web PinkforOctober.org has asked web site owners to go pink for the month of October.

Last year, I grabbed a pink wordpress theme and called it a month. This year, I’ve gone ahead and created a pink theme in honor of my grandmother and aunt who have had to bare the burden of cancer. My aunt, Diane, and grandmother, Zella, are survivors. Tragically I have lost Diane to a second wave of cancer after she had beaten the disease. My grandmother is still doing well with no signs of remission.

My thoughts go out to all those who are fighting cancer and those survivors out there who have beaten this tragic disease. My heart goes out to you and your families and friends, that you will all stay strong through the fight and come out in the end. I financially support cancer research and cure development, and I do all that I can to create awareness in my community regarding this disease.

Every year, every dollar, every effort of cancer awareness brings us that much closer to finding a cure. Won’t you help?

Oh my goodness! What an amazing time I had in Austin! I want to thank Aaron, Brooks, Parts, Derick, Domino, Erica and all the rest of the Red Bull staff who made this event amazing and the weekend just a blast!

Austin is definately living up to it’s city slogan “Keep Austin Wierd.” While I was there I saw all walks of life, in this great mixture of amazing harmony, culture and character. The town is eclectic and an amazing sence of charm and character every where you look. Unforunately it was VERY hot, humid and muggy while we were there.

We were staying at the Hilton in the heart of down town Austin, so if I looked out my hotel window I could see the Frost Bank Tower as well as the Texas State Capitol building. Our hotel was only two blocks from 6th St. An area of Austin that is heavily populated by bars and clubs, so much so that almost every building houses one. In fact, on weekend evenings the street is barricaded off so that pedestrians can walk into the streets to get around.  So needless to say I had a lot of fun while we were there. My favorite 6th St hangout was Red Fez. Austin, TX is also the home of the South by Southwest conference, which, after this experience, I’ll be attending, no DOUBT!

I had a few firsts while I was there, since I’m from Kansas, there are some things that I really haven’t had the experience of well.. experiencing. For instance, I went on my first pedicab ride. My second, third, forth, and fifth trip through a revolving door. I also have had my fair share of cab rides now as well.

But all of this is trivial in comparison to how much fun and craziness the actual Red Bull Flugtag Texas event was! We spent the first two days visiting the site and getting all the interactive materials ready for the big night on Saturday, and what a night it was! Gates opened at 5 pm and the crowds started pouring in. The Interactive Landing Zone was a big hit (especially in the early hours since it had AC) and Red Bull took over 600 photos of the event, participants, and spectators to post to the website. Red Bull believes this is the largest national event crowd they have had, with the headcount reaching 80,000 or so. The event park area had to be closed down at one point since it had reached capacity, and there was additional crowds located on the bridge, across the river and on the water. In the main area, people were standing shoulder to shoulder and moving through the crowd became a bit of an effort. The crafts that flew during the event were amazing and it was neat to see how much creativity and effort had been put in by all the teams participating. The winning craft, Skate and Destroy was amazing as it went off, the pilot actually stayed on the craft event after it’s landing!

So I needless to say I had a GREAT time in Austin, and I love all the charater and charm the city had to offer. Yea it was a little hot, and definately a little moist, but it was an amazing time filled with lots of great memories that I’ll keep with me for years to come. Becareful Austin, I’m coming back in March, and I’m going to rock it!

Last night I attended the Refresh Phoenix speaking event featuring Pam Slim, author of the blog Escape from Cubical Nation. Pam focuses on transitioning corporate employees to the freedom of entrepreneurship, and gives us some simple steps to freeing ourselves from the bonds of the cubical.  

1. Create your life plan: Visualize where you want to be and what kind of life you want.
2. Find your passion: What do you love to do and are great at?
3. Find your market: Who do you want to help and market to?
4. Execute and Implement: Don’t focus on making it perfect, just start working on it.

Pam instructs that your life plan should always guide the rest of your decisions regarding making the rest of the decisions regarding your new business or career. Make sure to always regroup and say to yourself, “Does this help me get to where I want to be?”  

Regarding selecting a passion and a market Pam says to truly be happy in your new career you should only accept “projects you would do if no one paid you.” This insures that you won’t be overworked and will be able to truly enjoy the life plan you’ve set out as your goal. Joshua Strebel, owner of Obu Web Technologies, suggested to double or even triple your prices to create value of your service as well as to be able to hand select the cream of the crop of your clientele. Pam related this comment with that of high school romance. “If you seem desperate no one will want to date (work with) you. Being secure in your value and turning away clients will make clients see value and be drawn to you.” 

Pam discussed team building and how to successfully build a great support team. She suggests finding a balance between your “big picture thinking” by finding employees who are detailed oriented to compliment you. She warns to not select employees that are exactly like you. If you have trouble on trying to find excellent employees, try finding a mentor in your field that is just a few steps above you in their business and ask for guidance. She sited Bruce Tuckman’s Four Stages of Team Building as a good model to follow as well as mentioning real value in Myers & Briggs personality inventories as good ways to find a truly balanced group. 

Pam also touched on making sure that you keep with your life plan, don’t feel pressured to work a straight eight hours because that’s how you were “taught to work in the corporate environment.” Make sure you take the time to do what you set out to do in your life plan so as to not burn out. Also, during the course of your business, feel free to take a time out and make sure your business is aligned with your life plan. 

I really enjoyed Pam and her opinions, and even though I may never start my own business, I feel a lot of the discussion can help people shape their careers, regardless of whether or not they’re self-employed. :) Thanks Pam!!