Mel Richards

curious being / leaning into adventure sports, travel and painting / specialized in branding/design/UX/copywriting/funnels

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

“Stress primarily comes from not taking action over something that you can have some control over.”

— Jeff Bezos

[DAN KOE @thedankoe]

Observing human behavior & conscious decision-making during political cycles

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@joeytrend Both very good but if you want to get to work fast: Tick Tick. If you want to get fancy with workflows: Clickup

[Brett @BrettFromDJ]

Let's take a designer.

Give them 2 weeks to design a brand.

Research, strategy, moodboards, etc.

Give me 24 hours to do the same, with none of the above.

We do a poll to vote on which one is which.

Bet you wouldn't be able to tell.

It isn't that I'm a better designer.

It's that the design process is largely a bunch of BS.

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

there's a satisfaction in going analog

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@BrettFromDJ Still don’t understand how you manage like 4-5 clients posting new medium/large tasks in 1 day. What then? And I imagine some clients are really eager? E.g. “We’d love this done within the month so we can make this big event we’re going to.” 60hr week? Yet your avg is 25 in 2023?

[Peter McCormack 🏴‍☠️🇬🇧🇮🇪 @PeterMcCormack]

Whatever you think of Coinbase, this ad is actually brilliant.

[Jason Fried @jasonfried]

Thoroughly inspired by the business side of the @elonmusk biography.

Most overused and inaccurately applied word in the book: Reckless.

I find most of his business decisions snugly wrapped in *practicality*. Much of the stuff that’s branded risky actually feels like risk reduction to me. Like most things, it depends which lens you look through. Bold, simple, and practical is how I see it.

Many of the decisions appear reckless if you’re peering through the antique monocle of corporate America. Musk looks through a telescope. The focal points are entirely different.

Looking at what he’s done, and what he’s doing, traditional corporate America has actually taken the riskier route - fear, marginal decision making, complexity, and mediocrity slathered in marketing.

Mistakes come in all shapes and sizes, but the ones that come with slow decisions, committees diluting responsibility, sloppy cost control, and the prerequisite of pseudo-certainty before making a move are the worst kinds. Musk doesn’t make those kinds, his critics often do.

His mistakes are real, and, like all mistakes, have real consequences, of course, but they’re rooted in forward motion, rather than anchored in preservation of what was. I’m glad there’s someone out there unafraid of making those kinds of mistakes, and showing all of us what’s possible when you pierce the membrane that holds most things back.

Interesting times!

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@itsmikekoziol Great thread. I recently gave up the agency model, for many reasons mentioned here. I just didn't see the ROI on $ and energy. Already having more fun, and noticed deepening of client relationships too, as I feel I have time to truly be present for them.

[Codie Sanchez @Codie_Sanchez]

Every time my husband and I get into an argument, we use one thing to defuse it...

The "Too-Small Trigger"

It may completely transform your relationship, it did for ours:

We were having trouble “picking our battles.” I’m a fiery latina who thinks they’re ALL battles. He’s an ex-military, no grey lines type.

So we started something…

How often do you look back on a fight with a significant other and think... that was dumb.

I can’t believe we got into it over:

• clothes left on the ground

• dirty bathroom sinks

• being 5 minutes late

• taking out the trash

Whatever.

We as humans do a terrible job at prioritizing when we’re elevated. So, we started doing this one thing mid-fight that’s a pattern interrupt:

When one of us starts to get upset, the other one listens for a second. Then right about when they’re going to start defending themselves and shifting blame… We instead say, “1 to 5?”

We ask the other person on a scale of 1 to 5 how important this is to us. And for some reason... It triggers the other person to pause, think about it, breathe, and then respond.

Sometimes it is TRULY a 5. Resolving this is really a priority. But most times it’s not. It’s a 1-3.

We say, okay it’s a 1-3. And we can have a discussion on changing it or our expectations. We constantly prioritize at work, but not well in our relationships. This changed the game for us.

Bonus framework:

Temperature Gauge.

Stop these arguments before they start. You can *feel* yourself getting riled up… Hot face, tight chest, grinding jaw…

Now we notice these signs and say, "Hey I’m feeling a little amped, can I calm down and we circle back?"

You take the blame upfront, and they get a willing partner on the backend.

*We certainly don’t have it all figured out, but we’re not afraid to get tactics from coaches and counsellors. I hope this helps you, too.

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@danmartell Coach

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

Notion moving more towards #projectmanagement https://t.co/sVGNyBTguh

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@danmartell @danmartell Thanks for writing Buy Back Your Time: most actionable biz productivity book for owners I’ve read yet! I’ve been implementing, got 2 new hires on the way!

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@sharifelkomi lol! Hey was great meeting you! Too bad in the whirlwind of things we never got a chance to talk shop!

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@JeffBooth Have you read Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change ? Curious to hear your thoughts on arguments made.

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@thejustinwelsh When was this start exactly? And how much of your success do attribute to good timing?

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@nathanbarry You’ll get a very biased answer for every platform you ask this on.

[Mel Richards @MelRichardsEh]

@envato Are Template Kits collections the same on Envato Elements and Themeforest?

[End Wokeness @EndWokeness]

This comedy skit from 2013 is our woke reality in 2023: