Original Photo by Jill Greenseth

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of me having gone independent.

Wow.

A year. Really? I go back and forth between “that’s it” and “that long”? In some aspects, I feel like it was only a couple of months. In other aspects I look at all that I’ve managed to accomplish everything I’d set out to do, and much much more.

I partnered with some amazing talent, many of whose work has earned us opportunities to work together more than once. I worked with some amazing clients (many of whom are brands that I really, really love).

I’ve co-built a couple of funny little apps that got a fair amount of attention, which was never the plan…the plan was to have fun building them.

I co-founded our own little version of a much larger movement that, in it’s own right, has paved the way for more opportunities for myself and countless other people. That’s one of the most gratifying and exciting accomplishments of my life, and I’m SO happy and grateful to have been a part of it and have made all of the friendships and connections I have along the way.

One year in, I’ve learned a lot about making choices and how to learn from the choices that I, and others have made.

The Next Chapter

It’s only appropriate that my newest client not only has choice in their name, but is excited to learn what happens when you give a community some opportunity to make choices.

My newest venture is a new kind of building. This one is less about building a website site and a lot more more about building a community. Learning from the wonderful community building experience we’ve had here at IndyHall, I thought it’d be great to take the model to the road and allow others to benefit from it. This next foray into community building is with a company called Choice Shirts, just outside of Philadelphia in Pennsauken, NJ.

The new project is called The Choice100 and it’s first incarnation as a blog has launched last night. It’s simple and direct, but that’s by design. The whole goal of the project at this stage of the game is to facilitate asking a potential community of design talent what they think about the proposed community model, and feed back as to what would benefit them the most.

This project has me really excited for a number of reasons. One, it’s a really fun opportunity to have conversations with the folks who work in a field that I’m closely tied to (design, that is) but from a whole new angle for me; graphic design for apparel.

Even moreso is that a company with a fairly traditional (and well established) business model is just as amped as I am to listen to their customers (who, in this case, double as their product creators) and be so open about the process.

In the preliminary research on who to have in the loop for this, I got some really positive feedback from designers that have worked in other t-shirt “contest” and “designer community” scenarios. Of course, they’ve all had thoughts as to what was good and what was bad. What’s really great about ChoiceShirts and The Choice 100 is that the company has a history spotted with creative evolutions of existing and established business models, and that they are embracing a conversation within a community to help model the next steps for their company.

Sounds wonderfully Cluetrain to me. What happens when you stop selling and start conversing. ChoiceShirts is not only embracing that, but they’re excited to embrace that. That’s immensely energizing and inspiring for me.

We’re going to be starting from the ground up. This blog is out there to announce the existence of this new evolutionary process for ChoiceShirts, and gather the interested parties in a place where they can converse. Next steps will include some real-world brainstorming, which we’ll facilitate at IndyHall much like the first brainstorming session we held back in August.

Check out the site, leave some comments, and subscribe to the blog and twitter feeds if it sounds like something you’re interested in participating in. Remember, this project is about us hearing what you have to say!

Big thanks to Allen @ CenterNetworks for inviting me to put together a contribution to his “StartupMonth” series. As one might expect, I put an Indie spin on it. Check out the piece (and a bunch of other excellent contributions) at http://www.centernetworks.com/startup-tips-alex-hillman-from-weknowhtml!

Tags: centernetworks, startups, article, tips

ive been thinking about something that was mentioned at this past weekend’s CreativeCamp. One of the attendants was telling me about how he recently returned to Philly and noticed an attitude issue. He said something to the effect of, “I thought New York was stuck up, and really Philly is just bad, maybe even worse. And really, he’s right. Its not so much of the NYC/”We’re better than you” attitude, its the Philadelphia/”We’re Philly and we don’t need or want your help”.

So that, to me, screams pride. Surely, Philadelphians are some of the most proud people in the country. I mean, look at our sports fans. Notoriously some of the most violent, verbal, and aggressive sports fans in the country…and not like they’ve earned it, right? Whens the last time one of this fine city’s sports teams won a sports championship? I digress, and refuse to speak about something that I admittedly know absolutely nothing about (sports).

So this pride that we have, is it what’s hurting us? Philadelphia is the home to many, many incredibley smart and talented people from every industry on the planet. But so few of those people reached their success alone. Most of them, like so many other successful individuals, leaned on the shoulders of peers and mentors. They overcame their pride, and did the hardest thing in the world for a proud person: they asked for help.

This is where I see an opportunity for coworking to break down a huge barrior in our local industry. We shouldnt have to worry about being “not New York”. A venue like coworking not only enables, but encourages collaboration. Working as a team to produce that which couldnt exist as individuals. I don’t know about you, but that’s something that I can’t wait to be a part of.

swallow your pride, philly independents. dare to be great, with us. the founders of this country did it, thats enough inspiration for me.