The start of an honest book

- I had the opportunity to have this interview at the Hall Conference where Emily and I both had the privilege to speak. And the opening keynote was given by a Rule29 client and friend, Susan Cain. For those of you who do not know about Susan, Google, her Ted Talk. It has over 19 million views and is one of the most watched talks of all time. And her best selling book, "Quiet", "The Power of Introverts "in A World That Can't Stop Talking," is a national bestseller. Or visitor her site, quietrev.com. It's not only a Rule29 creation, but it's also an incredible resource for all things about introversion. It provides advice and stories for introverts and extroverts on how to approach our quiet side. It's a must watch, read, visit or do all three. Susan's talk was the subject of my and Emily's exploration on whether or not she was an introvert or an extrovert. - Okay, so... - I wonder after seeing her speak I don't know if I'm an extrovert. Like, I think I'm one of those ambiverts because I do like diving deep and I do like moments of quiet. - Yeah. - But I do seem like I'm an extrovert. (laughing) - Well, no, I think what at the... And I should be careful to pre-label you but I think that what I see, I see a lot of energy coming out. - Yes, I have tremendous energy yeah. - And that doesn't mean that it doesn't drain you. - Yeah. - Right, 'cause I know, typically when I leave a conference like this, I am just like, zapped. - I am so exhausted, yeah. Especially after you speak, I'm just like, I need- - Yeah. - You need to take a nap. (laughing) - You just wrote this book. - I know. - That you launched on Kickstarter. - Yeah. - So tell me about that. - Yeah, that was exciting. So, you know, all my clients, they do self-driven projects. That's a big thing with design entrepreneurship. A lot of my clients are doing these self-driven projects, and sort of like you were talking about why you started podcasting. It's sort of why I started writing this book. There was two reasons. One, I felt like a lot of my clients were doing self-different projects and I needed to be able to understand how... What's all involved in it? How do you do time management? How do you devote some time and energy to something that doesn't necessarily make money right away. - Right. - So I thought I needed to do this myself. And then second, was all my competitors had books and I didn't. (laughing) And everybody's been... I get the funny... My favorite story and I get this a lot is people will say when they see me, or when they want to work with me, they say, "I've read your book." But I've never written a book. - So tell me your response. - I'm always like, "that's really great "but I haven't written a book. "You probably recognize me from my speaking." But they think because I'm out there so much and pretty well recognized, you know, I think they- - Yeah, obviously you have a book. - They thought I had a book and it's really pretty funny. So I'm like, well, if they think I have a book maybe I should write a book. (laughing) And also my dad is 93 and he was a book seller and I really wanted to write a book before he passed. - Hmm. - So I promised him, I'd write the book. - What a great tribute to your dad. - So, yeah. So I wrote the book, it was such a labor of love and it was a full family. So my daughter is 24. She had done kind of, not a Kickstarter but a similar kind of crowdsource product that startup with... She was the marketing director... Marketing Manager of a startup. - Okay. - And so she had a lot of experience. So she helped me a lot for like the Kickstarter 'cause it was so much work, but it's been great. It's been a really great experience just for me to learn what needs to happen and all the moving parts. - Hmm-hmm - So it was sort of a learning experience for me, and I'm really proud of it. So yeah, it's- - I'm proud of you too, by the way. - Well, thank you. - And you know, we've done Kickstarter projects before and there was really an art and science to it. - There really is. - And you did it brilliantly. - Yeah, and the people... Everybody that's the thing it's a team, right? It's like a community. And so I hired the right people and I hired them. So, none of this was barter, I paid them their value and because I paid their value, they did. It wasn't like, it was seamless. Do you know what I mean like a lot of times you do barter? They don't always do the best job, or they- - Or I'll get to it when I can get to it. - Yeah, exactly. So I paid everybody their fees that they wanted all my community all came out to support the Kickstarter- - Oh yeah. - People out of there are like you... People out of the woodwork that I haven't spoken to in years were so great. You know, like- - I was super excited and it's funny you used to tell that story about book. And I was just like, "Is it possible Emily doesn't have a book?" - Yeah. - I would've bet a million bucks you had one. - Yeah, yeah. And I never, I just never... I'm so busy cause I love the relationship part of my job. I love writing too, but I was just like, I'm so busy. I'm so busy and I'm just a one-person firm, but I decided I needed to make the time to do it. And also 'cause I'm getting... You know, I wanted to have a legacy. I wanted to have something where I could have something in writing. The other big reason is I felt like the industry was going in not a great direction. And I felt like a lot of people were not practicing good behaviors, a lot of because I think there's a... what I call design bubble right now? There's too many designers. - Hmm - I think there's way too many designers starting their own firms, not knowing what they're doing and really hurting our industry. And so I wanted to write a book for those people who maybe couldn't afford to hire me, but really wanted to learn kind of basic good strong practices. But it's also... So it has basic stuff in it but it also has a great lot of advanced stuff in there for people who already know what they're doing. - Yeah. - And they just need kind of next level stuff. - And I also feel too that no matter how long you've been in the business, it's never a bad thing to be reminded of some of the basics. - Exactly. - Yeah. - Yeah, you sometimes forget that kind of stuff. - Yeah, for sure. - Yeah, yeah. - So what's the title of your book? - It's called "Brutally Honest".