[00:00:00.240] - Gordon
Hello.
[00:00:01.020] - Taylor
Hello.
[00:00:10.160] - Gordon
My name is Gordon from Drayson Design.
[00:00:12.110] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.
[00:00:14.070] - Gordon
And welcome to "This Week With Taylor and Gordon," a weekly podcast and vidcast where we talk about things that have affected our businesses over the last seven days. And thank you so much for joining us. It's been two weeks now, hasn't it, since we. Well, three weeks, I guess. We had two weeks off, so I apologise for that. We basically just were really busy on a couple of projects and just didn't have a chance to do a podcast. So apologies for that, but we are getting close to our 199th and 200th show, which have both already been recorded. This is. What is this episode? 197, possibly. I think we've got one more after this and then we've got our two recorded ones. So they're two episodes to look forward to where we have two guests and we talk to each of them and it's, it was good episodes, weren't they?
[00:01:16.030] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:01:17.050] - Gordon
Right, let's get straight into our topics today. Would you like to go first or shall I?
[00:01:22.800] - Taylor
I'll go first this week.
[00:01:23.760] - Gordon
Off you go.
[00:01:24.810] - Taylor
So when I am building plugins or just building anything, mainly coding, sometimes I hit kind of like a brick wall where I don't know where to go from there, and I, I'll spend, you know, a bit of time going in one direction and then kind of thinking "it's not really working that way." So I spend a bit time going another direction and then just. I just end up kind of starting and stopping lots and lots of little times and don't make any progress. And I'm not sure how to, how to move forward. Sometimes it's things like architecting of the code base, for example, or thinking about the best way to solve a problem. And the two things that I've found is one, to step away. Step away from what I'm doing and just think about it. You know, there's lots of times where I'll be thinking about something, I'll be like, "oh, I need to. I want to do that." And then I'm itching to get to my computer because I thought of an idea. But there's other times where I'm kind of, you know, spend weeks maybe just thinking about it, going, "I just don't know how to solve this."
[00:02:32.070] - Taylor
And it's not something that you can kind of, you can force, really, because it's a problem, you know, and if it had been done before, I wouldn't have the problem. Um, and the other way is kind of just, just keep chiselling away at it and kind of, I guess... I guess what I do in my head is I break it down. I break it down even further and say, "okay, well, I can't do that. So what if I were to break this down even further, then what am I trying to solve?" And then if that's again, still too difficult, okay, say, "okay, let me try and break it down even further," until I get to the point of actually what the issue was to kind of fix my problem. And then it kind of happens where everything gets done pretty much, you know, in the afternoon, for example, once I've solved that one problem. I had that recently with a project where I was building a booking plugin and the main UI had been done. I had built the actual functionality. It was a newer version of something I'd previously built.
[00:03:35.990] - Taylor
And I was kind of building upon it, improving it, completely rearchitecting the plugin, redoing how the UI looks. And I got to redoing the UI and that was really, really good. And then I was kind of like, "oh, now how do I implement the previous kind of system and things into the new UI? And it took me a few, a few good weeks to actually figure it out and actually break it down. And then, yeah, and then I ended up building out the entire rest of the plugin that evening. And yeah, then it was done. So even though, you know, it would have taken me, you know, two, three weeks to build. The actual time to build was probably, you know, maybe two days in total, because the time it took to actually think about what I needed to do, took the longest time. And I think this happens in a lot of, you know, not just coding. In a lot of different places people write books, for example, you know, when they are writing, you can't just sit down and write a, you know, a novel and something that wins awards.
[00:04:44.380] - Taylor
It takes time. It takes thinking and, and re-going over things. Do you find that?
[00:04:51.040] - Gordon
Yeah, sometimes. Quite often it's things that I've already done in the past and I've forgotten how to do it. And so I try and take notes on things and I use Evernote for that so that I can remind myself what it is I'm supposed to be doing. Because quite often there's processes that you do in systems that you've built where, for example, I've just had a new video that I've taken and I'm in the process of having that being ordered at the moment. And setting up the ordering process, and just tweaking it from what I had previously, required me to go and look at all my notes, to just remember all the little bits and stages that you only have to do every time you change it. But that might be once every six months, you know, so it's not something that you need to do all the time, and you forget these things.
[00:05:43.690] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:05:44.610] - Gordon
And the other thing I think is, if you are working for someone, you need to make sure you keep in contact with them so that they know, you know, where they stand and what's going on. Because, you know, having someone sort of sit around for two, three months when, you know, you think you're going to be doing it in a week or so is not great for them. And it's not great for you, is it?
[00:06:12.000] - Taylor
Yeah, it's a really tricky one, mainly because it's hard to explain that I'm doing nothing to someone. To say "I'm doing something" and they go, "what are you doing?" And I say, "I'm doing nothing."
[00:06:29.210] - Gordon
Yeah, "show me what you've done."
[00:06:30.370] - Taylor
Yeah.
[00:06:30.680] - Gordon
"Well, I can't. There's nothing to see."
[00:06:32.790] - Taylor
And that's the frustrating bit is that it's trying to keep people up to date, but also it's very difficult to show someone nothing and for them to go, "oh, okay. Yeah, so I understand. You're thinking about it." And they, you know, in their mind, they're just going, "well, that's just an excuse." And that's the other kind of conflict I have with myself of wanting to kind of make sure that I'm keeping in communication with people, but also not making it sound like I'm making up lies and not making it kind of harder for myself and putting more pressure on myself because then you try and force things and it's just not going to happen and things like that. So it's a balancing act.
[00:07:16.460] - Gordon
So have you put any sort of processes into place for this?
[00:07:21.100] - Taylor
I'm trying to just keep people updated and I guess just be a bit more honest about it. A lot of the times when I have been, you know, I have said, "oh, well, this is where we are." And obviously I haven't made as much progress. People are like, "that's fine." They understand. And that's, yeah, that helps a lot because it reduces the pressure on myself as well, because it builds up. Because when you do finally contact them. They're expecting big things and sometimes you don't have anything.
[00:07:50.630] - Gordon
So it's always better to under promise and over deliver. I found that with lots of things. I do that a lot with my magic, especially my children's shows. I sort of, I tell them what we're going to be doing and I try and be as concise as I possibly can, but there's always a few little things that I keep back that I don't tell them about. Not enough for them not to book me, but enough for them to say when they do receive these little extras, "oh, that was a nice touch." Or "I wasn't expecting that." Or "that's really nice." You know, just little extras that, you know, you go above and beyond really and give them a really good experience. And then if you have taken a bit longer to do something than you said you were going to do, well, these things sort of add to the final product and they go, "do you know what? You know, it did take a bit longer than I was expecting but boy is it good. You know, I'm really pleased with how it came out." And it sort of sets their own internal mindset so that when they come back to you for another project, that's what they're thinking. "Yes, it might take him a little bit of time over what he said, but you know, I'm gonna be blown away by it at the end." Which is what we always try and do. Right?
[00:09:07.020] - Taylor
Yeah, that was the idea is that I, you know, I wanted to show something that I was proud of and that was of what I thought was a good standard. And you know, one of my standard. And I also built a settings page so you could kind of control the entire plugin, especially when they were using it on multiple websites. We, in the past, had to edit the core plugin files when you uploaded it to a different website and then you had to edit it from the plugin file. So it wasn't very intuitive, it wasn't very easy. And so this way, you know, again, this wasn't something that I had mentioned before, but it's something that I added and they were really happy with.
[00:09:48.980] - Gordon
So very good. Excellent. Anything else you want to say on that?
[00:09:52.580] - Taylor
I don't think so.
[00:09:54.260] - Gordon
So my topic is making - taking something that would normally be worthless and thrown away and making it into something that people want to keep with a bit of mystery and a bit of publicity. So it's all, it's all a bit vague. Let me explain what I'm talking about. Quite often when I'm performing as Pip Kennedy, which is the name I use when I'm performing for adults, so not children shows, effectively. So we're not talking about sort of, you know, blue shows. That's not what I do. But shows where the audience is mainly in adults. So that could be a wedding, it could be a, you know, a 25th birthday party, that sort of event, corporate event, that sort of thing. And quite often I get playing cards signed. Now, these playing cards are signed for many reasons, mainly being to make sure that when they see that card again, they know it's theirs. And it also reminds them what their card is if they forget, well, it's got their signature on it, so we know it's their card. And I read something in a newsletter that I get through email called "One Ahead," and it was very interesting.
[00:11:08.420] - Gordon
It said, if you are showing spectators a pack of cards and there's lots of cards in that pack that have already been signed, because you've had someone sign a card. You've done the trick and they've put it back in the pack and you've kept it to keep your pack sort of at a reasonable level, rather than it getting smaller and smaller. If you're showing a pack and there's lots of signed cards in there and you say to someone, "take a card, sign the card" in their mind, it's not going to be quite as unique for them as an experience as it could be, because I've obviously got lots of other cards in this pack that are signed and it's just something I do all the time and it's not special for them. That's sort of one of the ways that people could view this. And it got me thinking and I thought, "yeah, I agree with that. That makes sense." Especially if someone takes a card and it's already got writing on it. You know, it's like, do you then have them sign on top of that or do you have them put it back and get another one?
[00:12:10.220] - Gordon
You know, they get a bit confused if they've taken a card that's already signed and so on. So I've decided that I wanted to not put these cards back in the pack. Now, that gives me two options. I can either take that card and keep it and put it in another sort of area in my office, which I can then use to practise with. If I've got tricks that require me to mutilate them, tear them, fold them, whatever that trick requires. I've then got a stack of cards that I can do that with. And I'm not using sort of expensive brand new cards to do it with. I can practise with the older ones that have, you know, got signatures on that aren't important anymore. And that's one thing I could do. The second thing I could do is to give them something that would be a little bit intriguing and potentially a bit of publicity for me as well. Now, the thing I came up with is to add a little sticker onto the back of their playing card that fits in with the design and give it to them. Now, there are other magicians I've seen who do this, and they have like a little sticker with their name and their website address and their telephone number on it. And that's really, for me, I don't like it. It's a bit tacky for me. I don't think it's very upper class. So I didn't want to do that. But I did want them to be able to see my website and have access to it if they wanted to. So what I came up with is a little circular sticker which has got a square QR code on it. Now, it's circular because it fits nicely on the back of a bicycle playing card, which has three circles and it fits nicely on the middle circle. And this QR code has got a little picture of me in the middle just so that I know what that QR code is for. So if I do any more in the future, I can distinguish one from another. And that QR code will be put onto the back of this card and handed to the people, with the QR code showing, so they know it's there and I won't say anything. So it's a little bit of, "ooh, what's that?" And they can choose to scan it, they can choose not to scan it.
[00:14:33.330] - Gordon
It's up to them. But it's sort of a little bit of mystery for them. And I have a feeling that people are going to, you know, curiosity is going to get the better of them and they're going to want to see, you know, what it is. And so my plan is to have, at the end of that QR code, a page on my website that has a video of me that basically thanks them for joining in the magic, hoping that they've really enjoyed it and, you know, whatever else I want to say, and, you know, it's a nice way, I think, of getting people to come to your website without having to give them a business card which they might lose. And also a nice way to thank them for joining in and having fun and hoping they enjoyed it. So I'm testing that. I've just got the stickers through the post this week. They arrived on Wednesday. Haven't actually performed anything where I can actually put these stickers on yet. So I don't know what, what the result is. The QR code is a dynamic QR code so that I can track where it goes and change that in the future if I want to. But more importantly, it allows me to track how many people are actually scanning it, which is really useful because I can see, I can measure to see if what I'm doing is worthwhile or not. If no one scans it, then obviously it's not worthwhile. But because they're only round stickers with a QR code on, I can use them for other things. I can repurpose them; I can send them to a different URL to do a different job, you know, that's the beauty of having a dynamic QR code. So that's my little project that I've been working on. The stickers arrived, I've got a thousand of those to play with. They didn't cost a great deal. They're printed on plastic, so they're like vinyl printed stickers. So they're going to last longer than the cards that they're going to be stuck to. They're scratch proof so you can't mess up the QR code. And the QR code has got redundancy in it. You can have 25% of the QR code obscured and it will still work. So if you are doing QR codes, make sure you know what size you're going to print it.
[00:16:51.250] - Gordon
Do a mock up, which I did, to make sure that they can be scanned at that size, which is really important. You don't want to print something and find they're not scannable. So check at all stages. Maybe I'll come back a little bit in the future and let you know if these are working out for me or not or if I've repurposed them for something else. I thought I would just give it a go. I didn't want them to be thrown away and I think it adds just a little bit of mystery. What do you think? If you're watching on YouTube, please leave us a comment below. I'd love to hear what you thought. Anything you want to say on that?
[00:17:25.660] - Taylor
I don't think so. I think it's a nice idea. Yeah.
[00:17:29.530] - Gordon
You can only try these things and you know it's not costing me a lot of money to test this and if it works it's going to be great and if it doesn't work, well I can repurpose them, use them for something else. That's everything from me.
[00:17:42.210] - Taylor
That's me as well.
[00:17:43.360] - Gordon
Thank you so much for joining us. As always you can like, share and subscribe on YouTube.
[00:17:48.860] - Taylor
You can also go to our website thisweekwith.co.uk to find all of our past episodes.
[00:17:53.310] - Gordon
And we'll be on all of your favourite podcast platforms as well. Just do a search for "This Week With Taylor and Gordon" and you will find us there. Thank you for joining us. We will hopefully be back with you next Friday at 1pm until then, my name is Gordon and I'm from Drayson Design.
[00:18:15.080] - Taylor
And I'm Taylor from The Creative Tinker.
[00:18:17.620] - Gordon
Goodbye.
[00:18:18.310] - Taylor
Bye.
