With somewhat of a compulsive personality, stepping away mid-project can be almost impossible at times. The "busier" I feel, the more difficult is it to step away from being "productive". That "busy" feeling and drive to be productive are just symptoms of mental clutter, disorganized thoughts, and fixating on little issues for too long in one sitting. There is one thing I do that breaks me out of the anxiety of not being productive enough, and often, leads to solutions revealing themselves, new ideas sparking, and an increase in actionable accomplishments. Meditate.

Someone you might see as successful/productive/together may have mentioned meditation to you -  or you've heard the Tony Robbins/Tim Ferriss/guru-types talk about meditation like a super power. The thing that frustrates me, more than anything, is they never tell you what 

. I have no idea what they do. The one person out there I've really heard talk about how he meditates is Naval Ravikant (@naval on Twitter). He has a great post on meditation (

). Even Naval would tell you to take his meditation recommendations with a grain of salt - so take mine with no more weight.

I do think Naval gets it right when he says the purpose is to do nothing. Humanity has only been in this single-track mind of constant productivity since the late 1800s. That's like 3 to 5 people ago, depending on how young your ancestors had their babies.

Over the last two years, when I get stuck in the course of work or start to feel the subtle mental shake that is anxiety starts to reveal itself, I've begun to train myself to stand up from my desk and decompress. Here's how I do it:

 (or lay) somewhere with minimal potential distractions. I'll sit in what's called 

. That's just what's comfortable for me. Do what's comfortable for you. (Or don't - remember, I told you to take this all with a grain of salt 🤌).

 Take a deep breath. I'll pay particular attention to the position of my body. How are my hips aligned? Am I hunching my back? Where are my hands?

I've found that putting my hands on my knees, instead of in my lap, and sitting with my shoulders and back straight actually forces my chest to open up, which leads to deeper breathing.

3. Don't try to actively clear your mind.

 I'm not sure it's possible. Visualize yourself stepping back from your thoughts. Watch them like the stock ticker on the bottom of business TV. Just take notice - see what comes up. The point is not to fight it or resolve all the issues. It's just to watch.

 - if you find yourself stuck on a particular thought, try to feel the position of your face.

Try this: I want to you close your eyes right now, and picture an object, like an apple. Envision it. 

Did you notice your facial muscles actually contracted as if you were looking at something physical in front of you? We can't control that physiological response, and we end up 

actually, physically, looking at the thoughts.

 When you get stuck, intentionally relax your face, let your eyes roll back in your head, and the thought may just float away.

 It might suck. It might not be fun for the first bit, while you clear out your "mental inbox". Stick with it. You'll soon start to find you need less time to bring your mind back to the center. You'll find that some insult from 20 years ago still really bothers you and that you can let it go. You'll remember that thing that you said you'd do two weeks ago and never did, and you might realize that it was fine that it didn't get done.

Ultimately, what you'll realize is that you're not just carrying around the weight of today - you're probably carrying years of mental paperweights around all the time.

Taking a pause, forcing myself to "do less", and just sitting, processing, breathing deeply, and watching my thoughts float by (haven't gotten to every day yet, but I'm trying) has unlocked a world of creativity, ideas, solutions, and honestly, just made my life more peaceful.

Doing Less: A 5-step Practice To Get More Done

Defining the purpose, vision, and mission of your business are some of the most important efforts you’ll make when it comes to guiding your organization. Having a clearly defined purpose, vision, and mission statement help others understand who you are and why you do what you do, as well as guide your organization internally, serving as a barometer for continued success and internal alignment.

 guide to have your own branding session with your team, or if you'd like to work with us to define your purpose, vision, and mission, you can 

A purpose statement is a short phrase that explains the reason you exist. It’s what drives your business and it should be written in the present tense, as though you are still living it today. Your passion for what you do should come through when writing this type of sentence so have fun with it!

A few examples of purpose statements would be:

“We exist to provide families with affordable housing options.”

"To inspire every student that comes through our doors."

To create your purpose statement, ask yourself: What is it that drives you? Why do you exist? Be sure this sentence helps answer those questions.

A vision statement is written in the future tense - as though it has already come true. It describes what your organization and the world around you will look like when you have fulfilled your purpose.

Here are a few examples of vision statements:

"To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information." (Disney)

"To help the world run better and improve people’s lives." (SAP)

Ask yourself: "What should our corner of the world look like when we have fulfilled our purpose?" Don't be humble - be ambitious. Your vision for the future should excite you and those you share it with.

A mission is more than just goals for your business - it’s the overarching purpose that ties everything together. It should be written in the future tense as well and described using action verbs to show exactly how this mission will come about.

"To be the most feared and respected organization in this industry, as well as the top employer." (UFC)

"Our mission is to build an innovative portfolio of branded consumer products based on our world-class research and development that anticipates and satisfies people’s desires for healthy, convenient, affordable food anytime. Our passion is nourishing people. Our purpose is sustaining life." (Campbell Soup Company)

A well-written mission statement should be able to be looked at every day, and responded to by saying "yes, we're doing that right now". It's your team's marching orders toward your vision, powered by your purpose.

Strong organizations develop clear and strong purpose, vision, and mission statements that guide their work. These statements are the foundation of your values and culture, so take time to develop them carefully. If you'd like to learn more about how WEBPRISM can help you uncover your driving purpose, vision for the future, and everyday mission, contact us today. We love working with passionate people to discover these critical components of their now, and future.

Write A Killer Purpose, Vision and Mission Statement

Yesterday, I left my comfortable corporate job to take our digital creative agency full-time. WEBPRISM came through serendipity - my decision to leave the corporate world did not. It started with a baby and a cheese stick.

This story will seem like it's about the pursuit of money - it's not. It's almost the opposite.

When I graduated from business school, I was sure that climbing the corporate income ladder was the path to financial security, thus peace. Not a terrible assumption, but the 4 years of higher-level education and 2 accounting classes taught me nothing about the nature of money, happiness, or living a peaceful life. The following 3 years of post-grad life were exactly what you might expect - rented an apartment slightly too expensive, in an area that was too expensive, and my fiancee and I got jobs that barely (so we thought) paid the bills. Two and a half years, and one wedding later, we were in about forty-thousand dollars of credit card debt - almost 1 year's salary when I first got out of school.

Finally realizing how deep in the hole we were was devastating. It took about 18 months, 3 pay raises, and a steep cut to our restaurant habit to climb out. Right near the end of the process, with maybe 3 or 4 months left, we found out we were going to be parents. Queue another financial freak-out. I needed a new job, that paid 

 more if Ashley was going to potentially not work, and something with significantly more flexibility - there was no way I was going to leave my wife and brand new baby home to travel - little did I know a pandemic would make that a non-issue.

So I found a new job with better pay, our beautiful son was born, and we moved to a new apartment with more space for the baby, and paid off the last of the credit cards, and breathed a sigh of relief.

I didn't realize how emotionally stunted I was until my son was born. The littlest things made me break down in tears of joy, amazement, in awe of the beauty that comes with a helpless little part of you existing. 

As I started to realize what was happening to me - that my son was opening me back up to the beauty that children see the world with, I couldn't help but focus on him. On the life happening right before my eyes. Having my son look me directly in the eyes for the first time, seeing him smile for the first time, watching the tenderness of my wife as a mother, hearing his first laugh, watching him take his first steps - each milestone slowly rewired my brain. It fixed my sense of what was important. The list of things that could take my attention from my family became shorter every day. I found that happiness, and peace, were right where I was - I just had to be broken open to accept them.

On a day like many other pandemic days before, my first conscious action out of bed was joining a Zoom call - a quarterly all-company meeting. My son had just started eating solid food, and cheese sticks were (and still are) one of his favorites. On a cold winter day, in our subterranean walk-up apartment, my son and I sat on the concrete floor, in front of our lit fireplace, slowly sharing that cheese stick. Sitting there, with my AirPods in my ears, completely ignoring whatever was being said by one of the C-Suite/VPs/Directors/whomever, watching my son completely demolish every piece of cheese stick I handed him, something broke in me.

Sitting here on the floor, sharing this cheese stick with my 9 month old is infinitely more interesting than whatever I'm listening to right now.

It hit me like a train. I had to find a way out of anything less important than spending time with my family, with my son. I, especially, had to find my way out of any type of work that I could easily say is less interesting than sharing a cheese stick with my kid.

Making more money alone wouldn't solve this problem. Climbing the corporate ladder would mean 

 time with family, not more. So we went the other way - figuring out how to design our life so that we could live on less. Over the next 10 months, we overhauled our life. In August, Ashley left architecture to help me build WEBPRISM. Yesterday, I left the corporate world.

Serendipity, or maybe being open, brought me everything I needed to build WEBPRISM. Clients started to reveal themselves to us. Referrals came at just the right times. My day job started "taking care of itself", and lent me the freedom to pursue building a business based purely on our passion for creating and building on the internet. It fits into our lives - around the beautiful parts of being a father, a husband, and being alive. Yes, I still have to make choices that take me away from family every so often, but they're on my terms. We draw the boundaries. If it's not more interesting than sitting on the floor eating a cheese stick with a toddler, we're either delegating it or just saying "no".

How a cheese stick made me realize I had to quit my job.

The internet has always been a competitive space, but now more than ever there is an overwhelming amount of competition. As the world becomes increasingly digitalized, it's important to have a website that can not only keep up with this trend but also be ahead of it.

Companies are still putting effort into increasing traffic to their websites, rather than focusing on conversion rates once they get there. This is a huge mistake. To succeed in 2022 and beyond you need one thing: A website that works for your company's growth goals instead of hindering progress!

Today, the majority of web traffic occurs on a mobile phone - if you haven't made your site mobile-friendly, then you're losing out on traffic. It's estimated that over 70% of users are unlikely to return if the site is not usable with their device. Having a web-designed mobile version of your site is a must when it comes to casual site visitors, and people who look up your business while out and about.

It's estimated that for every second your site takes to load, you lose up to 6% of visitors. As mentioned above, with more users browsing from their mobile devices, you can't afford to have a slow site. One of the best ways to benchmark your site is with Google's 

As social beings, we look to others for validation of our decisions and use the positive (or negative) experiences of people similar to us to make decisions. Testimonials are one of the strongest ways to show potential customers that others just like them had a positive experience with your product or service.

Google is one of the biggest sources of traffic - many users will type your site address into Google rather than going directly to your site. Ensuring you have addressed basic SEO, such as meta descriptions, and basic keywords, enables users to find you more easily when using a search engine. 

 is a great tool to evaluate your site's SEO status, and ways to improve.

 are, in our opinion, the two most important.

Guiding your users on how to interact with your site with a call-to-action (CTA), typically a button or form, is one of the best ways to convert visitors into customers, and gather customer information (phone/email). Creating a call-to-action that uses strong, clear language is key to successfully converting website visitors into customers - "Buy Now", "Download our Guide", "Sign Up Today".

One of the fastest ways to make your site appear less legitimate is through unclear, poor photography choices.

Gathering visitor emails, with an offering or download, is a great way to build a lead list of potential customers. As your business grows, the larger your email list, the larger your pool of potential customers to send offers and updates. It also opens up the opportunity to offer a newsletter down the line and keeps your communication with your audience directly rather than relying on social media or other means of reaching your customers/leads.

As more people become integrated into the digital world, it's important to keep up with the trends and latest developments. By 2022 we're likely to see a sharp rise in voice-activated search - as this trend continues (and develops) you need to ensure that your site is prepared for these changes!

The above points help create an optimal user experience, which is a must to ensure your site's success. If you're looking for help with any of the above points or would like some support designing a new website that works toward your business goals - don't hesitate to contact us today at 

7 Key Features Every Website Needs to Succeed in 2022 and Beyond

1. A lack of success
2. The omission of expected or required action 

Failure is a strange concept. I had to look up the definition. My understanding of failure (and how I think it's used in commonplace conversation) was that it's an inability to meet a goal set out at the beginning of an endeavor. So when I posted a few days ago (on LinkedIn) that 3 of the 4 of my best investments that led to WEBPRISM were failures - that wasn't an accurate characterization of how I really view those experiences.

For some context - those three experiences were:

an event-management platform for managing attendees called "At The Door"

A two-year stint operating a vending machine business

A business installing smart home technology

Looking at each of these endeavors, none of them were successful from the perspective of the initial goals I set out. My assumptions about each were wrong, the implementations were missing a lot - but looking back now in the context of my life, each experience taught me something critical that enabled me to continue on the path that led me to today.

No - At The Door didn't "take off", monetize, get me out of my day job, and "succeed". It did teach me the full cycle of building and launching a multi-platform app.

No - the vending machines were not cash kings, nor was it a low-impact business - but I did set up my first LLC, learn a ton about accounting and inventory management, contracts, and sourcing.

No - installing smart home equipment didn't become my full-time gig, and it was may more time on a ladder than doing the configuration part that I enjoyed - but I learned to bid projects, invoice clients, run ads successfully (and unsuccessfully), and the limit of what I can reasonably do in a day.

Judging each of these experiences from the starting viewpoint, prior to doing any of the work, is ridiculous. Of course I didn't meet my own ill-conceived, inaccurately set expectations. My reasons for pursuing each were majorly flawed. And yet - each experience taught me something invaluable, that actively gets used today. Deciding whether or not something is a "success" or "failure" by only looking at the finite situation, without considering the lasting consequences doesn't make sense. You wouldn't call a game in the second quarter. Life is not a set of isolated experiences and incidents, it's a composition of the ripple effects of actions and choices, that we only get to see in the rearview mirror.

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Doing Less: A 5-step Practice To Get More Done

Write A Killer Purpose, Vision and Mission Statement

How a cheese stick made me realize I had to quit my job.

7 Key Features Every Website Needs to Succeed in 2022 and Beyond

Failure is a weird word