Start consistently cranking

A fresh coat of ideas

Five years ago almost to the day, I started a newsletter called Plan Your Next.

Less than a year in, I quit writing, with ideas and talent as scarce as the hair on a Sphynx cat. (God, those creatures freak me out.)

Three years ago, in a dramatic game-winning-come-from-behind-home-run-smash-to-right-field-with-bases-loaded fashion, I plucked the newsletter from near death and started writing every Sunday.

Then I built a two-day workshop called Approachable Design and coasted for a while. Then, Approachable Design started to become more than that. But I wasn't giving it enough dedicated attention.

So with a new site, and a fresh newsletter to focus on what some people like to call a Personal Monopoly, I'm bringing my mistakes, my wins, my past career, my new creator career, many illustrations, ideas, and personal stories to this new format called, Make It Yours.

I'm also a control freak and this new format lets me have power-hungry dictatorship-like control over everything I create. (I'll write a longer post on why I chose ConvertKit over Substack in the future)

Make It Yours is about learning to make better design decisions to stand out from the crowd. To build something you're proud of, and to embrace your taste. (Damn, maybe I should have named it that?)

You're here now because you've joined me on one of those two paths, and this is my evolution to build something audacious.

Starting a new idea means you sometimes need to consolidate, remove, cut, demolish, or skin. Starting is the easy part though.

Consistently cranking is where you make real progress.

🎨 Better Design Decisions

• ​What do the home pages of 10 creative entrepreneurs have in common?: #3 is less about design but I still see too many people talking about themselves and not how they can help the reader.

• ​Get inspired by my growing collection of hand-picked websites: My design vault that I'll be adding to upwards of 1,000 organized and hand-picked sites.

• Even a low-fi (but well-formatted) website can stand out: The web is 95% text, and if you can learn to wield text correctly, even a simple layout without any color can be effective.

• Incredible—and hilarious—thread of "rebrands": My fav is Skipping breakfast > Intermittent fasting. ☠️☠️

📸 Make It Yours Moment

Thanks for sticking around for this fresh coat of paint. Next week I'll dig into why every product or service you have should have its own highly-designed landing page.

Your friend in design,

Nate