The Alt Summit Rolodex and Notes from the Panel

Well, Alt Summit is done for this year, but the business cards live on. Guys, the business card trade is CRAZY. I mean, some of them made me exhausted just looking at them. There were mini party kits, jewelry, boxes, wood, candy...so much work. So much AWESOME work! You ladies are just so clever. I got some lovely gold earrings and a bracelet from Moorea Seal, which just about doubled my jewelry collection since I left a lot of stuff back in Denmark. I was going to attempt to DIY a special gigantic rolodex for it since most definitely do not fit any standard size, but again, that would have been crazy. Right now they are all spread throughout my studio and I'm snacking on the sweets.
The real winner of Alt 2013 was letterpress. On thick, lovely cotton paper. With colored edges. Bingo.
So, I spoke on the panel with Jaime Derringer of Design Milk, Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day, and Ruth Harding of Windmill Words. These ladies are fantastic. Since I jumped on the panel last minute there was already an outline in place and all I had to do was add in. Easy squeezy. Our panel was a bit more conversational in that we all contributed throughout rather than divi it up in 10 minute intervals, which I think is a bit more helpful because we all could pitch in.
I led a segment on "what are you spending your time on instead of the things that will bring you traffic?" and I did an exercise that helped me prepare for it and maybe it'll help you too, if you'rea blogger. First, I wrote down what I'm actually doing on my blog, mostly the DIY process.
Then, I highlighted in pink what things I need to continue doing myself, and in orange what I could potentially give to someone else. Some are both pink and orange because I do like to have my hand in most everything (agh, so THAT's my problem!). THEN, I wrote down the things that will bring traffic to Lars: good content, advertising, sponsors, beautiful photography and highlighted those in the same way.

It helped me take inventory of how I spend my time and what things I do not ned to spend my time on and I recommend it too if you think you're at the stage where you need to hire out help.
It also helped me to see that I'm so grateful for my contributors and I work with a number of people for this blog. My photographers are ESSENTIAL and have been such a help to how I've shaped Lars. I've worked with some stellar photographers (Hilda, Amanda, Lina, Jessica to name a few) and stylists. I also have three great content contributors, Katie Farber, my sister Caitlin Watson, and Tori Bowman. My angle on the panel was how I hire help when I don't pay my contributors in money. This site is not monetized, but I hope to do so very soon (wink, wink, sponsors!) so I offer trades with those with whom I work. In the past I've traded my branding skills with photography. With my content contributors I will be doing a giveaway swap, link exchanges, advice, merchandise, ad space, portfolio building, and shout outs as much as I can. I know they are happy to contribute (at least that's what they tell me!), but "exposure" only goes so far before resentment possibly sets in so my deal/rule is: If Lars makes money, YOU make money. So here I go setting out to bring money to this site so I can make awesome projects and pay my contributors.
What do you think about working for exposure?
So, there you have it, there are all my recaps from Alt. Check out Recap from Alt Summit 1, 2,
Panel photos by Justin Hackworth for Alt. See the rest of the Alt Summit photos.