For the next week, I will be out of town.  I’ll have the chance to sleep in a tent, swim in a lake, cook my own food, and watch the stars miles from civilization.  I’m looking forward to the brief reprieve from reality, but I won’t ignore it completely.  Who knows what groundbreaking branding idea I’ll stumble across while clearing a trail or what phenomenal marketing theory I’ll unearth while building a fire.

Good things are yet to come – and this week will be full of them!

When things started out, I wanted to share my views on: international business, current marketing trends, and potential marketing campaigns.  I’ve held to those three pillars of contents ever since, and I’m fairly proud of the more than 90,000 words I’ve punched into the computer.  I can’t promise where this site will go from here, but I can guarantee it will be an exciting trip!

I’ve been trying to use Fridays as a way to share outside resources lately, and today is no different.  So here you have it, the evolution of my blog from amateur to somewhat professional:

1. http://oldsite.eamann.com/uo/Archive/archive.htm A hard-coded HTML website/blog I maintained in college at the University of Oregon (beware, some links are broken!)
2. http://unpublishedart.blogspot.com/ My original Blogger site
3. http://oldsite.eamann.com/ The original EAMann website
4. http://ericsasianadventure.blogspot.com/ A blog I kept while travelling Asia in graduate school

All three of these sites pre-date Mindshare Marketing (though Unpublished Art is still updated from time to time … when I remember).  I think they all speak a great deal about the journey that’s brought me to today.  So what do the next few years hold?

There are a few things to watch out for and a few specific questions you should ask when looking for a new brand coach.  I won’t take time to go into all of the dimensions that make up a good coach, but here are at least three things to keep in mind.

First of all, watch his demeanor:

Focus on the 90-10 rule of business.  In any new engagement or interview, the consultant should be doing 90% of the listening and only 10% of the talking.  He’s trying to learn about your business – both its current state and your a patient with a broken leg all because he never stopped talking long enough to examine the situation. Avoid this experience with your brand coach at all costs!

Next, you want to gauge the way she approaches giving advice:

If she just comes out and tells you what to do, run away!  A good brand coach figures out where you are and where you want to be – then she tells you what kind of path you could walk down to get there.  Remember, there’s no single answer, so a cut-and-dried “do this, then that” solution is sure to miss other (potentially cheaper) alternatives.  A good brand coach will come armed with a multitude of weapons in her arsenal.  If she only has one or two tools at her disposal you should keep shopping.

Then, ask about outsourcing:

A good brand coach won’t offer to do everything for you.  I’d be worried if one did!  A brand coach should have the strategic picture in mind, and will be able to readily recommend to be when they grow up: hire an adult who knows their strengths and is comfortable outsourcing their weaknesses.

To many, I appear to be a work-a-holic.  I spend several hours in the office followed by several more working from my living room.  It gives me something to do, but it also drains me without showing any immediate symptoms of burnout.  I don’t get irritable, I just stop sleeping.  This is bad for me, for my family, and my work – and when my work suffers I sleep even less.

So when I take a weekend, I try to avoid work as much as possible.  Since you’ve already had Saturday and Sunday, here are four tips on how to make your Monday even more relaxing:

1. Turn off the computer – I limit myself to no more than 40 minutes of computer time per day on a weekend.  Any more than that and I’m tempted to work.
2. Make yourself an extravagent breakfast – Pop tarts or cheerios just don’t cut it.  Step out of your daily routine and prepare a meal that’s out-of-character for you.
3. Go for a hike – The weather’s been fantastic lately!  Take the opportunity to leave the house and get some fresh air.  I’m confident you’re just a short drive from being able to take a long walk in the woods.
4. Turn off Twitter – And Facebook, and MySpace, and any other social network that has you connected 24/7.  You’re just leaving the digital world for one day, not your entire life.

These tips aren’t going to solve everyone’s work-life-balance issues overnight, but they might help you approach the shorter workweek with reignited passion for your job.  At the least, you’ll get a good night’s sleep tonight.

Unfortunately, few of us in business are good at design.  Our brochures turn from informative to “information overload.”  Our websites become cluttered and clogged.  And our presentations turn in to monotonous bulleted lists of what we actually say aloud anyway.

Here’s a great article from Soul Shelter that talks a bit more about the benefits of good design in business: Design and Entrepreneurship

Tim is right on the mark with this article; I hope it’s as useful for you as it has been for me.