That first look is a promise about your work, so it should match your work, no better and no worse. Better, and you're writing a check your shop can't cash. Worse, and you're losing customers you never get to meet. Piece four of ten.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Cheix1FED9w

The whole talk, as video and as audio: https://markheinz.com/notes/the-whole-picture

A listing isn't a sign you hang once and forget. It's a conversation, and it goes stale if you let it. If you do one thing this week, pull up your own listing on your phone the way a stranger would, and fix anything on it that isn't true today. Piece three of ten.

https://youtube.com/shorts/b804EbkLJFw

The whole talk, as video and as audio: https://markheinz.com/notes/the-whole-picture

They don't expect you to be slick. They expect you to be current, clear, and easy to reach, because that's what everything else on that phone has taught them. Piece two of ten from the talk.

https://youtube.com/shorts/CQNCHb23IOg

The whole talk, as video and as audio: https://markheinz.com/notes/the-whole-picture

Here's the first, the idea the whole talk hangs on. Your brand is what a customer expects from you before they've paid you a dollar, and marketing is everything you do that builds that expectation or spends it. The logo is the signature at the bottom of the letter. It isn't the letter.

https://youtube.com/shorts/cTqa_D98S0w

The whole talk, as video and as audio: https://markheinz.com/notes/the-whole-picture

I was at Verona Coffee Co this morning, a day after the Collinsville Chamber’s Coffee Talk, for a roundtable on the future of local news. Stephanie Malench, who publishes the Collinsville Daily News, had invited a group of business, civic, and community leaders.

The paper wrote it up the same day:
https://www.collinsvilledailynews.com/business/collinsville-leaders-envision-a-more-connected-local-news-community/article_3f2d0a6e-6e40-4d30-9020-e99dab6574cc.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtVXu-3NWGI

The short version is that before they've paid you a dollar, your customer has already met you somewhere, met somebody, and heard something about you. The talk takes those one at a time, with one thing to do for each: fix your listing this week, put a real face with a real name on it in October, and answer every review within a day, signed.

If you'd rather listen, here's the audio.

Thank you to the chamber for having me, and to everyone who came out on a Tuesday morning!

Congrats to my friend Mike Redenbeaux and everyone at The Beach Off 111 coworking space on their open house in Pontoon Beach last night! And I’m hoping for a great grand-opening this coming Tuesday, September 8th.

My company Rendered is helping with the marketing and web development for the new space, including the brand new beach111.com website we built and launched recently.

Pay them a visit to learn more — and you remote workers and biz owners without a proper office space may want to subscribe to a desk or seat while you’re at it. Charter memberships are open now!

Tap it and the note reads itself to you, images and all. It’s a generated voice, not mine, and the player says so. There’s a speed control for people like me who listen to everything at 2×.

If you’d rather hear this note than read it, you already know what to do.

The program was a team from First National Bank of Waterloo doing a deep dive on community banking, and the highlight was that state program, called Advantage Illinois. Rob Pickerell, who leads commercial banking there, walked us through it. The short version: the State of Illinois can participate in a small business loan alongside a community bank, which lowers the blended rate the business actually pays. And small is broader than you might think: the program is open to businesses with fewer than 750 employees. The most favorable terms go to the smallest businesses and to businesses operating in economically disadvantaged areas.

If you run a small business in Illinois and you've been putting off equipment, a building, or an expansion because rates are ugly, it's worth asking about. You apply through a participating lender rather than the state, and a lender can tell you quickly whether you qualify. First National Bank of Waterloo is one of them.

This is part of why I show up to these things. Not for the donuts. There's a whole layer of practical help out there that never reaches the people it's for, because it lives in rooms most owners are too busy to visit. Consider this note me saving you a seat.

I could have ordered all of this from a big print-on-demand site in a few clicks. But Rendered exists to be the marketing department for local businesses, so it only seemed right that local businesses would make the gear. Both shops treated a tiny first order like it mattered, which tells you something about why places like these stick around.

The cap is black on black on purpose. The prism only shows up when the light catches it, and I love that. It lets me represent without attracting too much attention to my forehead.

Wearing my own logo is pretty rewarding. Rendered is a big part of who I am, so it feels natural to wear it around. Plus, anything that makes my early mornings easier is a win in my book, and the little shirt-and-cap collection has simplified the daily dressing ritual. 👖👕👟🧢 ✅

I stared back and smiled as I ate my burger and daydreamed about being kids for a moment. Also had to text him and share the experience.

Rendered is giving me some really cool opportunities, including working with a friend on an upcoming coworking space nearby.

I’ll post more soon on the topic, but wanted to share a sneak peek that I took at the location this morning.

It’s going to be a really neat, quiet place to get work done, with a conference room and dedicated desks.

Perhaps buying front row tickets wasn’t the best move in terms of sight lines, but I’m looking forward to the production nonetheless.

The show also features talented friends from church covering several parts.

Update, 2:08 PM. We snuck into some open seats up higher.

After five years of dating and pretty much being together every possible waking moment, they're set to spend the rest of their lives together as husband and wife.

Congrats to the happy couple! Mia and I are stoked to gain a wonderful daughter-in-law, and we're looking forward to seeing how God blesses and uses their marriage.

https://youtu.be/TlSkm_Jo2NA

Those ten years have gone by in a flash. And even though I haven't been to a show or performed live at a venue since then, I've been blessed to be able to play drums and sometimes bass almost every Sunday of the year at church, plus some special worship events here and there.

I'm not sure why I bring it up, except that ten years seemed worth marking.

Thankful for how the Lord has used music to lead me on such a crazy-yet-beautiful path through life, and how He uses it all for His glory and my good.

How effective are your efforts if you’re not primarily branding your company and your people every chance you get?

Your vendors may come and go, but your company’s brand needs to be firmly established and top-of-mind with your current customers and prospects. When you only promote their products, you risk becoming interchangeable with every other reseller.

Reach out if you’d like me to take a look and give you an honest assessment of your brand. Chances are good that people can buy the same stuff from someone else. What they need to know is that they can trust you to really take care of them and their needs better than the other guys.

Of course I’m talking about that “Archive” button that started showing up in every email app. I mean, there’s already a trash can for that. Right?

Not exactly.

I was explaining this to my son Simon just yesterday while pointing at our mailbox out by the curb. Imagine your email inbox is the island in our kitchen. Every day the mailman delivers more mail, and every day one of us brings it inside and drops it on the island for later.

What happens if you never deal with it? You end up with a giant pile of real mail mixed in with sales flyers, vehicle warranty notices, and political mailers. Eventually you have to manage the constant inflow — or face the wrath of Mom (she likes a clean kitchen).

So you sort each piece into one of two places: a box where you can keep it in case you need it later (the archive), or the trash can where you never have to see it again.

Once everything is filed, the island is clear for the next day’s mail — and Mom is happy. The same logic applies to email. When you archive or delete what doesn’t need your attention right now, your inbox stays clear so you can actually see the important new messages that keep coming in.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaYQupYRSLr

On this Fourth of July I’m really thankful to be able to slow down a bit and enjoy some family time.

We got out in the heat for a stroll around the lake at Caseyville Park and made some animal friends along the way. Of course it didn’t hurt that Mia had snacks for them (she likes to stay prepared).

Now we wait and see if the rain puts a damper on the fireworks festivities this evening.

Happy Independence Day! Stay safe.

As of this week there's a mailbox at the end of the lane. If you'd like new notes to land in your inbox, there's a quiet little form at the bottom of every note, or right at markheinz.com/subscribe. Now and then, not every Tuesday at nine. Once in a while I'll send something that never makes the site at all. No noise, no tracking, and one click gets you back out.

I built it on my own rails, same story as the last note.

And if you're reading this in your inbox already: you're the reason it exists. Hit reply anytime. It lands in my real inbox, and I read everything.

The normal move is to rent a scheduler like Calendly, take on one more subscription that doesn't talk to anything else I run, and then rent Zapier so it does.

But I already owned the hard part. The booking engine on my site knows my real availability, blocks double-bookings, and handles time zones and confirmation emails — because it already runs my paid sessions. Offering a free intro call on those same rails was the small job, not the big one.

The page she needed didn't exist when she asked. It does now.

And the door lives on my contact page now, for anyone who'd prefer to just talk.