R Creative Managing Owner, Joshua Rystedt, recently sat down with Bailey Cooper from our preferred payment processor, the MP Group, to discuss the importance of relationships in business. Watch here.
Financial services companies, from insurance to wealth management to accounting and more, provide invaluable services to their clients. The right digital marketing will show this to potential customers, generating leads through clear design and good content. One of our clients, GracePoint Insurance, is proof of that.
One year ago I replaced my aging MacBook with a Linux powered laptop - for running my business. Macs are known as the machine for marketing businesses. I took the plunge anyway.
Rystedt Creative is now solidly a national firm. We’re serving businesses and nonprofits in Silicon Valley, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, and (of course) our beloved Baltimore. We’re both a local company with local roots and a national company with clients throughout the country. And we recently made a big decision.
What if, for free, you could sit down with a professional who writes effective content for businesses and pick her brain about how to blog right? Well this interview is the next best thing.
Purchasing a new website is a bit of a mystery. Even after you've chosen a Web Developer and defined your project, you may not know how your website is being built. Every company and every project is unique in some ways and so processes vary, not only by developer and agency, but also from project to project. Yet some steps remain constant. Wondering how we build websites? Wonder no longer. Here's our creative process, step by step.
What have you loved about your first year in business? Joshua A few weeks after quitting my full time office job to run Rystedt Creative I remarked to Gabrielle that this was the best decision of our marriage. Why? The time with my family means the world to me and I'm now pursuing one of my passions full time (my previous job didn't have a very positive or creative environment). I love that I can answer client questions any time they have them. I love the people I have worked with so far - especially Farm Market iD, Lady Environmental, and Holy Cross Lutheran Church. I love the combination of creativity and organization that running a business like this requires. Gabrielle I guess to answer this I need to back up a few months before we actually started Rystedt Creative. You could say it’s the “inception moment”, when Josh and I sat down to talk about our future and decided to actually do this crazy thing and start a business. I say crazy because, well, it was crazy. It still is. And I love that about this whole thing. We said “yes” to an off-the-wall idea (okay, not that off the wall – we’re both first born INTJs – there’s no true off-the-wall here) and went forth and did the dang thing. Together. I love that Rystedt Creative is truly a family business. Sometimes our three-year-old will want to “play client”, and we have to answer phone calls and talk about copywriting or blog posts. The whole thing is awesome to me. What have you not loved about your first year in business? Joshua Let's face it, running a new…
Creative work is challenging - both in the act of actually creating and in the act of finding time to do so. More than half the battle in creating new content (of any sort) is finding the time and head space to simply sit down and do it. Outside distractions suck so much time, especially if that time is a few hours one afternoon to work on a your company's blog posts. These distractions, like customers in your shop, children trying to break into your home office, or a contractor working on your building, can all get in the way of sitting down at the computer to work. But once you’re at the computer, you might even find the distractions beyond your open Word doc or WordPress admin panel are much more attractive and urgent than the work at hand. Emails, social media, news sites, and even needed technical updates can all suck the productivity right out of your block of work time. So how do you overcome overwhelm when you sit down at the computer? And, maybe more importantly, how do you curtail the “Twitter break” that turns into an hour-long trek down a rabbit hole of political debates or a sidestep into your Facebook feed and catching up with old friends? Here are some helpful ways that you can cut the virtual clutter and get right to work when you sit down to create: Schedule Time for Everything You schedule your meetings, lunch break, and everything else that you do in your work day, but what about when you sit down at the computer? Cracking open your laptop screen might signal the beginning of a block of work…
There are many important factors that make up a successful business. Motivated employees, technology usage (hey, we can help with that), financial investment, marketing strategy, and more. Yet I think there is a single most important factor in successful business. Your committed diligence in accomplishing what you love is the most important factor in a successful business. Perhaps this principle could be broken down into two factors: hard work and passion. Yet I think they go together. If your passion doesn't motivate you to work hard you may not be as passionate as you think you are! This successful business factor, this passionate diligence, is actually one of the most important factors for a successful life. A successful king of the 10th century B.C. once wrote: "Keep thine heart with all diligence: for thereout cometh life" and "A slothful hand maketh poor: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich." According to this successful man the contents of one's life springs up from one's heart (one's passion). Furthermore, diligent work leads to success. What worked three millennia ago still works today. [text_with_frame id="368c1dbfefba91dceb946d322e0e86bc" content="‹¨›p‹˜›‹¨›em‹˜›If you find this article helpful consider giving it a share‹¯›nbsp;‹¨›/em‹˜›?‹¨›/p‹˜›" line_color="rgba(0,0,0,.07)" text_font="body" heading_font="heading" animation="none" animation_speed="2" animation_delay="0" __fw_editor_shortcodes_id="e6852c2dacc162bc8c34ba646905e841" _fw_coder="aggressive"][/text_with_frame] Growing a Successful Business and a Thriving Family I wear a lot of hats (perhaps you do as well). The most important role I have is as husband and father. I have a growing family (our third child is due soon) and love every moment of it. I am passionate about my wife and my children and that drives me to work hard. If I didn't love these people as much as I do I wouldn't expend nearly…
Basic programming and logic skills are no longer a niche skillset. Most people who learn basic computer logic skills can put those skills to use in everyday circumstances. With basic programming and logic skills Microsoft Excel functions seem less like spreadsheet wizardry, troubleshooting your home machine becomes less aggravating, and tweaking some of the HTML for your blog isn't nearly so intimidating. Programming and logic skillsets also help develop organizational and problem solving skills. Yet most educational systems still aren't teaching such concepts to students. So we are starting to teach the concepts to our children early. There are some things we can begin teaching even our 2 year old daughter that will be invaluable later. Yet we don't want her glued to a screen. Her parents are on their computers most of the day - she doesn't need to be yet. So we are using books and toys to teach some simple concepts early without the use of actual computers. Logic skills and technical terms don't require a computer to teach. Logical Problem Solving For Christmas 2016 we bought our daughter the Fisher-Price Code-a-pillar. She was scared of it at first but has since come around to this adorable caterpillar with flashing lights. This toy has different segments each with its own color and command - such as "turn right" or "stop and sing a song". Each segment connects to the rest of the toy caterpillar through a USB port. Our children can rearrange the caterpillar's segments to make it do different things and navigate around different rooms and obstacles. The Code-a-pillar is about as simple as a programming toy can get. It doesn't teach if-then-else type logic but…
