Allan & Steve are the chubby founders of LessEverything. This is their blog, hear them rant, praise, give advice and talk about Just Stuff, Less Accounting, Lovd by Less, More Honey, Events, Less Memories, Code, Business, Design, Marketing
Recently I started talking about purchasing a 1963 Lincoln Continental. The people around me warned me and generally were a bit skeptical. This only fueled my interest. Why? Because everyone thinks I’m crazy for doing it.
Seth Godin talks about how the safe choice is often the risky choice and the risky choice is the safe one. I’ve made a life few decisions that made no sense to the people around me. It turns out those were some of the best decisions I ever made.
Most people are sheep and they don’t realize it. Follow their beaten path and face the cliff after them.
Every coffee shop I've been to has good coffee. What makes me choose that one place I return to over and over? It's not the coffee.
Here is the talk I did at Small and Special this year. If you like this talk you’ll love LessConf. I won’t be speaking at LessConf, but the speakers are all better than me. (I will be doing Q&A with them though.) Buy your tickets now!
Allan and I attended the BarCamp in Tampa this weekend and had a great time. I gave one talk each day and Allan gave an awesome talk on Saturday. Saturday afternoon I sat in on @veeus’ talk and provided comic relief. The high light for me was the people we met. It is always really cool to find such nice, smart, genuine folks at an event like this. I was inspired by the organizers who did an amazing job organizing. I hope we do as good a job at BarCapJax Oct. 18, the day after LessConf.
| girls flirted with | 1 |
| boys flirted with | 3 |
| talks given | 2 |
| talks participated in | 4 |
| talks where my participation was appreciated | 1 |
| new BFFs | 14 |
| good talks | 3 |
| awesome talks | 2 |
| really good conversations | 54 |
| really bad conversations | 3 |
| conversations with at least one crazy person | 1 |
| I tried to save someone from a conversation with a crazy person | 5 |
| successful saves | 4 |
| Allan bitched about me | 83 |
| Pieces of Pizza Eaten | 4 |
| Nights I slept on the roll out couch, while Steve had the king sized bed | 2 |
| talks given | 1 |
| times I was uncomfortable because of something Steve said or did | 14 |
| New Friends | 31 |
| Things Learned | 44 |
| Hours Driven | 14 |
| Times I thought about my family | 494 |
On October 17th in downtown Jacksonville we will be hosting the first LessConf.
About a year ago I started pestering Allan with the idea of doing a conference. He was never interested, so I’d wait and then bring it up again. On June 30 I spoke at The Small and Special Conference in Seattle and after my talk I called Allan to chat and tell him how it went, and he said the most amazing thing: “We should do a conference.” I’m so glad he had such a great idea.
We’ve been going to technical and business conferences for a while and have been inspired and made a lot of great friends. That’s what we want LessConf to be, a place where you can hear some great speakers, people that have actually made something awesome and where you can see old friends and make new ones. We also wanted it to be really personal and a place where the speakers are really approachable, so we came up with a plan to make that happen. First we decided there should only be one track, that way no one is missing anything. Next we decided to make a lunch with the speakers. Each speaker will have there own table and, on a first come first served basis, you can pick which speaker you want to eat with. There will be Q&A time after each talk. We also decided to have a social after the day of talks so you can meet new people and get more time with the speakers.
Allan and I also wanted to be very accessible so starting the Wednesday before the conference, anyone that RSVPs can work with Allan and/or I on those days. We decided that working with you folks is the priority, so if you have questions about your stuff, you want to pair program or get design help or UI tips, we have set aside that time for you.
We worked really hard at picking speakers that have inspired us. So although they may not be the most famous, these are talks that will change your life and your approach to business and work.
If you haven’t heard these guys speak or read their blog make sure you check them out. They are two of the coolest and most straight forward guys out there. They totally “get it” and have a wonderfully no nonsense approach to business and the web.
Kevin is one of the key people behind Wuffoo. If you’d like an example of great UI, check them out.
Grasshopper used to be called GotVMail. They have killer customer support and amazing marketing. We’ve watched this company use Gary Busey as a spokesmen and send chocolate grasshoppers to people as apart of their re-branding.
Freshbooks is the largest invoicing application on the web. They have really good UI and are all around good people. Mike knows how to build a web company.
When Derek was at the helm of CDBaby (he sold it) it was one of the companies I admired the most. The personal attention and killer aesthetics, right down to the purchase confirmation email, were always brilliant. Derek remains inspirational, his blog is a source of wisdom and always offers a fresh perspective on business and how to relate to customers.
I first met Gary at FOWA Miami 2008. I admit that I didn’t know who he was, but listening to him was then and remains a kick in the pants reminder to always be genuine and engage my customers whenever I can.