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PARADE Update: You Got The Interview! Now What?
PARADE Update: You Got The Interview! Now What?
One hour after Meghan sent her hot-off-the-press professionally updated resume to a hiring manager, he called to see if she could come in for an interview the next day!
Interviewing is intimidating, nerve wracking, and can make you feel like you're two beats away from a heart attack. But preparing for the interview is much simpler when you realize that there are just five key questions going through your interviewer's mind.
Here are three of them:
Can you do the job? You need to be able to talk about the skills, knowledge, and training you have that will help you perform the job successfully. My recommendation is that you walk into your next interview with 3-4 "personal career stories" that showcase a career success. Your stories should include: what the goal was, what the challenge was, and what the result was.
What "extras" do you bring? For most job openings, about 90% of the work has been defined but not the remaining 10%. This means you have a terrific opportunity to flaunt any bonus talents that may be of value. For example, if you're going for a job as a Pubic Relations manager, you may have some experience in marketing or desktop publishing that is not required for the job, but might be valuable to the company.
Where are you a risk? Every new employee is a risk to a company, whether it's a job requirement that you don't meet or a skill you don't have, or the potential that you're overqualified for the position. I recommend that you beat the interviewer to the punch by stating where you a risk and then reassuring him why it won't be a problem. If you're asked what weaknesses you have, respond by bringing up an area that could improvement but quickly add what you are already doing to strengthen that area.
For a complete discussion of all five question, see my best-selling eBook, "Interviewing Smart: Insider Secrets to Getting the Job"
PARADE Update: Creating a Rock Star Resume
PARADE Update: Creating a Rock Star Resume
Meghan found a terrific job opening at a socially conscience company where she can leverage her marketing expertise and culinary background.
As I talked about in my book, "Career Smart – 5 Steps to a Powerful Personal Brand," this is what I know for sure: When you are able to articulate the kinds of responsibilities, the management style and company culture where you want to work in your next career – the universe has a way of sending you those opportunities.
And now the universe is churning out opportunities for Meghan! The next step is for us to create a rock star resume.
Here are my top three tips for creating a resume to help you get noticed, get hired and even get a higher salary!
Showcase key words. Key words are those skills in the job postings that are listed as the "job requirements." Look closely at the job description and use a highlighter to mark all of the requirements listed. Then, take all of those requirements that you meet and showcase those "key words" towards the top of your resume underneath the "Objective" section. Label this section "Key Strengths" and list those requirements that you meet in bullet format.
Emphasize results. This is the single biggest difference in making your resume stand out from your competition. Don't talk about responsibilities. That's boring. Instead, talk about what you have achieved for an organization, or what you've helped the organization achieve. For example, don't just say that you managed a team of 9 people in the sales department. Instead, say that you led a sales team that generated $250,000 a year for the past three years. Quantify each of your career highlights in terms of dollars, numbers or percentages.
Show leadership and teamwork. Hiring managers look for candidates who are strong contributors and strong leaders (or at least demonstrate leadership potential.) Talk about projects or teams that you've led – and what the results were. If you haven't led any projects or teams in your professional life, then highlight any leadership experience you've had in professional organizations, sports leagues, church activities or community events.
Meghan's Assignment this Week:
I gave Meghan one of my exclusive resume templates to showcase her marketing and events-management skills. She will be busy this week converting her resume from being "responsibilities" to "results" focused. That means she'll be meeting with past managers and business associates to learn the real results of her previous marketing campaigns and big projects. Ideally, she'll want her resume to state that her marketing campaigns helped gain a certain number of new customers, or that the projects she worked on helped generate new revenue, saved the company money, or created more market share for the organization.
Her homework assignment is not easy, but it will be the icing on the cake to help Meghan's resume stand out from her competition and land that fabulous job.
PARADE Update: Work your netWORK
PARADE Update: Work your netWORK
I'm so proud of Meghan! Today she had a terrific breakthrough. Through a series of powerful questions in our session together, Meghan was able to sort through all of the research that she's been doing, as well as the wide variety of industries, companies and job roles that she's had over her 10-year work history – and define a crystal clear career vision that excites and motivates her.
One of the biggest mistakes I see career changers make is being too broad in their career search. Applying for jobs in which they are under-qualified, over-qualified, or simply have no passion for. Those professionals who make successful career changes are laser focused on where they want to go and how they can add value to an organization.
Now that Meghan has defined her career vision and completed her personal Career Success Blueprint™, I can now help her align her networking opportunities, resume and interview responses towards that vision. I'm confident that with her strengths, passions and past career successes we'll be able to snoop out job opportunities so that she can successfully transition into her dream career! 🙂
So now it's time to build and leverage her professional network – and to work her network. I provide a step-by-step strategy for this in my book, "Career Smart – 5 Steps to a Powerful Personal Brand" and a few of those strategies include –
- Get connected to people who could hire you, or introduce you to others who could potentially hire you. Re-connected with past employers, customers, and colleagues. Meet new contacts by attending industry conferences, trade shows, business networking events, and association meetings that target the industry (high tech, health care, etc.), or the job role (marketing, finance, management, etc.) you want. Try to attend a couple of events each week.
Meghan made a great connection at a birthday party last week! She met someone who has the type of job role that she's interested in and now Meghan has set up time with her to learn more about her career path, the company where she works, and her job responsibilities.
- Network in person and on-line. Another great way to network is by joining LinkedIn.com to connect with other professionals and executives (i.e. Facebook is a social networking site, whereas LinkedIn.com is a professional networking site.) Make sure you create a profile that showcases your career strengths, results, and successes. Meghan is already making great strides in connecting with past colleagues, customers and business associates.
- Be a resource for your key connections. When you're in a career change you never want to give the impression that you're hungry for a job. Instead, you want to be seen as someone who's resourceful, knowledgeable, and has a wide network. Send out personalized notes and e-mails with links to reports, case studies, press releases, videos, and cool websites that you think may interest individuals in your network. Invite them to business networking events, and introduce them to other movers and shakers. Professionals are drawn to other professionals who are resourceful and well connected.
The goal is to create a pull relationship with your network so that they are drawn towards you (not running away from you!)
When you're searching for a new job, remember to stay focused in what you want, stay positive, and believe in yourself. It takes persistence and patience – but you WILL find those companies who jump at the opportunity to have you join their team! 🙂
PARADE Update: One (Penguin) Step at a Time
PARADE Update: One (Penguin) Step at a Time
When a career change overwhelms you – take penguin steps In our session today, Meaghan shared that she was feeling overwhelmed. Trying to juggle a career change with managing a family, home and "life" was taking its toll on her sanity.
This is common among career changers (which is why I think so many professionals stay in jobs that are unfulfilling and unmotivating.) Reinventing your career is a step-by-step process that takes persistence, endurance and a lot of patience. If you're feeling overwhelmed, my advice is to step back, breathe and take penguin steps.
In the movie "March of the Penguins" the penguins took tiny baby steps as they shuffled across the frozen ground of Antarctica. Their steps are tiny but with their focus and commitment they successfully reach their final destination over 100 miles away.
Changing careers is also a journey. Sometimes you can run, sometimes you can walk, and sometimes (like when you're feeling overwhelmed) the only way you move forward is by shuffling along and taking penguin steps.
Meaghan is in a similar situation. She has successfully assessed all of her experience, strengths and successes, and has determined the type of work she wants to be doing in her next career move. Now, she is assessing the job market to determine the industry that most excites her.
However, she shared with me that didn't get very far with last week's assignment of checking company websites, on-line job postings, business periodicals and industry magazines to find those industries and companies she'd most like to work in – because she was feeling overwhelmed.
My recommendation was to break down the assignment into smaller bite-sized chunks (think penguin steps.) So we took out a piece of paper and scribbled out four columns which we titled: industry, company, job role and personal contact.
Through a few coaching questions, Meaghan tackled the 1st column which was "industry." She was able to quickly define two distinct industries that really excited her – education and food sustainability. This was a great start! She was breaking through mental roadblocks and seeing two different industries where she knew she could thrive!
Next, she quickly identified a couple of companies within each of those industries that she'd like to explore career opportunities. Then, we discussed job roles that she would be qualified for within each of those companies and industries. Also, she thought of a few contacts in her personal network that could potentially provide support.
By breaking up the step into smaller tasks, Meaghan was able to break through the clutter and roadblocks in her mind, and move forward in identifying possibilities to a career that would motivate and inspire her!
Thinking back on my own personal career, I made several job changes and I remember feeling overwhelmed just like Meaghan. Mostly, it was due to fear. Fear of change, fear of failure, fear of the unknown. But what pulled me through was knowing that if other professionals could be happy in their career, then I could do, too!
By looking at a career change as a "process" and then breaking up the process into smaller-sized tasks, it allowed me to take bold steps towards a new career – even if some of them were only penguin steps!
Meaghan's Assignment this Week
In my book, Career Smart – 5 Steps to a Powerful Personal Brand, one of my strategies for transitioning into a meaningful and purposeful career is to define the industry and job role of where you want to be. This becomes part of your career blueprint (i.e. North Star) in helping you transition into an inspiring career.
Meaghan's assignment this week is to research a variety of industries and companies, and then complete her spreadsheet with a list of those that would excite her, as well as the job role for each industry and company listed that defines how she could potentially bring value to the organization.
By assessing the current job market and identifying job roles that are right for her, Meaghan is getting one step closer to identifying a more meaningful and purposeful career.
PARADE Update: Wanting More Than Just a Job
PARADE Update: Wanting More Than Just a Job
Focus your energy on those jobs you really want!
Meaghan had a terrific break-through this week! She was able to identify that even though she met all the requirements in a job posting that her friend had sent to her – it was not a job that she actually wanted. So she made the decision – not to apply. (loud gasp!)
I know what you're thinking… as a Career Coach, aren't I supposed to be encouraging Meaghan to apply for jobs? Well, yes, but my role with Meghan (as defined by her) is to help her reinvent her career into a job that she actually enjoys.
I asked her how it made her feel to not apply for a job that she's highly qualified for, and she said "empowering." Since she completed Step #1 in my 4-step process, she now has the knowledge and understanding of what she needs in her new career to be fulfilled, challenged and inspired. In other words, Meghan now has her own job requirements! (Sing it, Sister!!)
This is a huge milestone when it comes to reinventing your career because so many times throughout the process we're faced with a fork in the road. Turn right and you'll go down the very familiar career path where you're in a cycle of being in qualified yet unfulfilling and uninspiring jobs. Turn left and you're faced with unchartered territory of changing industries, job roles or professional goals – which can be new and exciting, yet make even the most experienced professionals feel anxious and afraid.
The fact that Meghan has chosen to reinvent herself in a new career in unchartered territory and feels EMPOWERED is huge!
I remember one of the times I felt most empowered in my own career was when I turned down the opportunity for a 2nd job interview. At the time, I was in between jobs with no other potential offers in sight. I had just come out of a cycle of jobs working for a string of what I considered to be poor managers.
After my 1st job interview with this particular hiring manager, my stomach was in knots, my throat had a big lump in it and I couldn't sleep. I realized that what was keeping me awake was not the fact that I was out of a job – it was the idea of working for that particular hiring manager. He had the same traits as some of my previous managers and I knew that I'd be frustrated and unhappy working for him. In other words, I didn't want to leave one sinking ship for another sinking ship – even if that was my only potential offer at the time.
I sent the hiring manager a thank-you but no thank-you note, and then focused all my energy on identifying my own job requirements and finding the right job for me. Two months later, I was in my dream job!
I'm not sure if the universe sends us our right job because we're clear on what we want, or if the right jobs have always been there and we missed them because our focus was scattered and we didn't see it. But what I do know for sure is that when me and my clients get a clear focus on defining our job requirements, and then focus all our energy on getting that job – it works!
When you have the commitment and enough money in the bank to be able to explore where your passion is, what your strengths are, what kind of responsibilities excite you, and where all of those intersect with today's job market – that's when you're going to hit gold. Meaghan's Assignment this Week
The next step for Meaghan is to assess today's job market and identify which jobs are right for her. She needs to research company websites, on-line job postings, business periodicals, and industry magazines to find job openings that excite her. Now that she's put a stake in the sand to identify her job requirements, I'm excited to see where that takes her. 🙂
PARADE Update: One Step Closer
PARADE Update: One Step Closer
I'm delighted to see that Meghan has completed her first assignment – creating her personal Career Success Blueprint™. Her goal is to transition into a career that motivates and inspires her … and now she is one step closer. She's created a career vision that excites her!
Many professionals and executives become stuck when they think of career goals. It can be difficult trying to envision a career that would be meaningful, purposeful and inspiring. I mean, seriously, who has that, right?
Well, actually lots of people! Specifically, those who are able to articulate their passions, strengths, successes and the type of organization and management style where they perform their best.
I'm thrilled that Meghan has successfully identified each of these key areas. She knows the type of career that inspires her includes doing meaningful, socially conscious work, flexing her creative muscles, as well as being in a project management-type of position where management respects her ideas and gives her decision making responsibilities.
She also has defined the type of organization, culture and management style that she needs in order to be at her career best.
This is a big accomplishment for Meghan, and I'm proud of her for completing her first assignment! Her background and work experience includes being an executive pastry chef, marketing specialist and entrepreneur, so getting clear on a career vision took dedicated focus and thought.
Establishing a powerful career vision and goals is critical if you want to have a meaningful and purposeful career. One of the biggest mistakes I made in my own career was thinking that if I got a job – then that was where I was meant to be. After a few months, I'd start feeling unfulfilled, unmotivated or unappreciated. Then, one day I realized that I need to be more proactive in my career. I needed to set the bar higher for what I wanted (and needed) in my career. Once I did that, I achieved greater success than I ever dreamed possible inside a Fortune 100 company.
Now that Meghan has a strong sense of direction and purpose for her career, we're moving on to Step #2 which is – assessing the job market. Meghan needs to understand what kind of jobs are available that align to her personal Career Success Blueprint™.
Her assignment this week: review on-line job boards, industry magazines, company websites, and business periodicals to get a clear understanding of what the "hot jobs" are, and what the requirements are for those jobs.
She'll need to come back to me with job postings that she's found that excite her! It doesn't have to be the entire job listing, but can just be something in the listing that excites her such as the job tile, a few of the key responsibilities, or even the description of the organization.
The purpose of the assignment is to see what types of job openings are available that align to Meghan's strengths and spark enthusiasm for Meghan. This will give us the roadmap to create a customized resume to help her land her new career!
I can't wait to see what she finds! 🙂
PARADE Update: Make Those 20 Seconds Count
PARADE Update: Make Those 20 Seconds Count
Meghan shares the same challenge that many job changers in today's market are facing. That is, her career history includes such a wide variety of industries, job roles and responsibilities, that she's not sure how to market (or position) herself to potential employers.
The biggest mistake I see job seekers making is writing their resume and including every job that they've ever had and every skill that they've ever had. However, most hiring managers don't care about all the different skills you have and tasks you can perform – they simply want to know – can you successfully perform their job?
So to position Meghan in the best possible light to hiring managers, and help her stand out from competition, I'm working with Meghan on the following –
Step #1 – Creating her personal Career Success Blueprint™. This includes her identifying three (3) primary areas of responsibility she wants to have in her next career. She's also identifying her "must have" conditions about the company culture, management style and working conditions. These may include a baseline salary, flexible hours, telecommuting, professional training and development, a clear career path, autonomy, growth company, etc.
Step #2 – Assessing the job market. Meghan needs to understand what kind of jobs are available that also align to her personal Career Success Blueprint™. She'll need to review on-line job boards, industry magazines, company websites, and business periodicals to get a clear understanding of what the "hot jobs" are, and what the requirements are for those jobs.
Step #3 – Customizing a polished and professional looking resume. Hiring managers, on average, only take about 15-20 seconds to review a resume before determining whether or not to interview the job applicant. Therefore, it's critical that Meghan's resume showcases her in the best possible light. I'll teach Meghan how to create a resume that highlights the right key words, and makes her stand out from the competition.
Step #4 – Developing a personalized job search strategy. Now that Meghan will have a keen focus on what she wants in her next career, as well as a top notch professional resume – now she'll be ready to seek out those job openings. I'll help her create an on-line and off-line targeted job search strategy, as well as give her my exclusive networking techniques to help her get more referrals, recommendations and job leads.
PARADE Update: Getting Started: Sherri Thomas and Meghan Olesen
With nearly one in 10 Americans looking for work, the job search is tougher than ever. PARADE chose five unemployed people looking for work and paired each with a career counselor. Below is the first update from Sherri Thomas, Career Coaching 360 for the PARADE series "The Job Hunt".
"Getting Started: Sherri Thomas and Meghan Olesen "
Meghan Oleson and I had our initial consultation this week so that I could better understand her career history, goals and vision, as well as share my strengths as a career coach and areas of expertise. I'm impressed with Megan's young age (she's 30 years old) and her ability to successfully transition into a variety of job roles and industries including being an executive pastry chef, marketing specialist and entrepreneur.
She has many wonderful strengths and passions, plus a wide range of transferable skills that we can tap to help her reinvent her career!
The first question I asked Meghan (and all my clients) is how best I could help her.
Option A) Help her find a job RIGHT NOW.
Option B) Help her create a career vision, action plan and transition into a meaningful and inspiring career (this approach takes more time, thought and focus – but the result is having a thriving career with more options, more stability and more passion!)
Meghan chose Option B.
This means that over the next several weeks, I'll be giving her my exclusive steps to create her personal Career Success Blueprint™, as well as helping her create a simple but powerful career action plan that includes a job search strategy, networking techniques and a polished and professional resume to build a powerful personal brand, increase her marketability, and stand out from her competition.
After Meghan determined that this is the direction she wanted to go, then it was time for her first assignment – creating her personal Career Success Blueprint™. The first step is for Meghan to define her career vision. This includes three (3) key skills or responsibilities that Meghan wants to be known, recognized and paid for.
Envision yourself one year from now in a career that motivates and inspires you. What are you doing? What kind of responsibilities do you want to have? What kinds of projects and initiatives do you enjoy doing? What kinds of teams do you have a passion to lead? For her first assignment, Meghan is drawing a Venn diagram (three circles that connect to each other) and inside each circle she is writing one key skill or responsibility that she desires in her next career move.
With so many talents and strengths, I'm excited to see what she'll choose … 🙂


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Brewed in Argos, Greece by young entrepreneurs, ZEOS Beer will make its official Midwest debut at Kouzina 2016 at National Hellenic Museum in Chicago.
ZEOS Beer now available in the Midwest
Brewed in Greece, ZEOS Beer is the brainchild of young Greek entrepreneurs. They've melded their love for Greece and quality beer, with techniques of German- and Polish-trained brewmasters, to create a unique new offering infused with the essence of Greece. It's available in select areas of the U.S., and for the first time in the Chicagoland area through exclusive importer/distributor Casa Potosi.
A longing for home spurs an idea
Like many young Greeks, Christos Papadimas and his family moved to Canada with the hopes of finding more opportunities for the future. Christos missed Greece more than he imagined. He felt homesick for his village, Prosimny near Argos. He knew he couldn't stay away long.
Christos loves beer. In Canada, he discovered some fine beers. It gave him an idea. What if he could create a high-quality beer made with the finest ingredients, in his country of birth?
Greek beer brewed in Argos.
Greek entrepreneurial spirit
The well-received idea led to a partnership with renowned Vancouver brewmaster, David Wood, and brewery tech wizard Barry Murray. The trio collaborated on not just a new beer, but also the opening of ZEOS Brewery in Argos in 1998.
ZEOS Beer: infusing the essence of Greece
ZEOS set out to use the world's finest grains and hops, but didn't want to use just any water. They sought something that would infuse the beer with the very essence of Greece. The answer: sweet artesian water from the Peloponnese. Artesian water is naturally-filtered, and is free of contact with the air or other pollutants. This was the perfect ingredient to complete the creation of a 5-star quality bar.
ZEOS Beer soon became available on tap in bars and tavernas in resort areas and on the islands of Greece. Christos said it grew quickly in popularity.
"It wasn't long before people were asking us to bottle it, so they could enjoy it at home, too."
Brewing a growing business
With demand increasing exponentially, ZEOS had to grow. Christos tapped young Greek brewmaster Loukas Papaharalampous, fresh from brewmaster education by the finest crafters in Germany and Poland. They've been successful at home, and now ZEOS set its sights on international distribution.
They now brew and sell several products: ZEOS pilsner and Blue Mak lager (also known as Makedoniki Synthaghy). Their newest brew, Black Mak, is a unique beer for lovers of black weiss. ZEOS is making Greeks proud with its very own national beer.
Already capturing attention outside of Greece, ZEOS' quality has been recognized in international competitions.
Fate steps in
Joseph Neblosky de Ochoa of Casa Potosi, a Chicago-based importer and distributor of fine wine and spirits, happened to be in Greece a few summers ago, with his Greek-American wife and family. There, he discovered ZEOS Beer. Call it serendipity, call it fate.
"It was a standout; I was so impressed with the overall quality of the product and how unique it was, from the packaging, to the flavors. I loved it, and had to know more about this beer. I'd never heard of it before, and I knew right then I wanted to be the one to bring it to the States."
It took about 1-½ years, but Casa Potosi has brought ZEOS Beer to the Midwest region. Right now he's concentrating on the Midwest, though the beer also has distribution in California and Virginia.
"This is a microbeer, with limited quantity. It makes this beer even more special."
Starting with Greek communities and then expanding from there, Casa Potosi is introducing ZEOS, and will soon be bringing it to bars and restaurants near you.
"ZEOS presents a unique opportunity to teach people about Greece and how beer is brewed there. It's a great way to fuse different cultures, in getting other communities to try it. We see all the time how food is crossing borders and boundaries. Why not Greek beer?"
Blue Mak is first
In keeping with ZEOS' strategy for controlled growth to maintain quality standards, Casa Potosi will concentrate on Blue Mak, and then eventually bring in the others.
"Blue Mak is made with the stringent brewing standards of German-style lager. It's the taste of Blue Mak that has familiarity — it reminds you of Greece. It's a taste of Greece, a reminder of the beer you had at the beach. The taste is really superior to other Greek beers. Those that know lager will attest to it."
'From Our Casa to Your Kouzina'
Joseph and Casa Potosi will be serving up cold Blue Mak at Kouzina, on November 3, 2016 at National Hellenic Museum in Chicago. Be among the 1st to taste Greece's national beer, the product of the young entrepreneurial spirit we see flourishing in Greece right now.
Related: 'Kalofagas' Peter Minaki is Honorary Chair at Kouzina
Learn about ZEOS on their website. Contact Casa Potosi at 773.817.4543 or email.
WindyCity Greek is a media sponsor for Kouzina 2016
Updated: This event took place November 3, 2016

subset: commoncrawl


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Why It's Important to Update Your Flash Website
You only have to read the news to gather an understanding of how security is at the forefront of everyone's mind in regard to the digital world. A number of websites have come under attack, and those with little defence have fallen victim, often losing visitors and business as a result.
Evidently, search engines such as Google want to ensure the online world remains a safe environment for both webmasters, and its online visitors. As such, Google is aiming to end full support for Adobe's Flash software by the end of 2016, purely due to its popularity among cyber thieves who instil malicious code within Flash.
As a result, Flash will be turned off by default on a majority of websites, with only globally popular sites such as Twitch and Facebook having the setting switched on by default.
What Does This Mean for My Website?
For some companies, the news may not be a threat. However, for many others the results could be very detrimental if necessary updates aren't made.
While the option will remain for the user to turn flash on, it could mean that your bounce rate increases as a result. In the modern world, those who view websites expect information in a timely manner, and if there's a great deal of work involved to even view your website, it can mean that the visitor simply moves on to your competitors.
There is also the age of your website to consider. Some websites may only have flash elements, such as embedded videos, whereas others could have been constructed using Flash; never having been updated.
As such, a business could find that its online presence is deemed irrelevant if its website is not able to display its content in a user-friendly way.
Why Is Flash Still Used If It's Flawed?
In the early days of the Internet, Flash was welcomed with open arms, as it allowed a viewer to partake in a number of activities, such as watching videos and playing online games. However, as the online world developed, cyber criminals found that Flash had a number of security flaws, and as such, could be used to manipulate the online audience.
Google isn't the only recognised company to end support for Flash. Many people foresaw the decline of Flash when it wasn't supported on the iPhone, something that soon became a standard on iOS and Android devices alike. While there were certain third-party apps that allow for the viewing of Flash, at least on an Android device, they very rarely offered a pleasurable viewing experience.
As more and more security flaws rise to the surface, the online world is keen to stop any threats in its tracks, and the most sensible move in this regard is to eliminate the source of the problem.
Embrace The Benefits of Updating Your Website
While some may see the updating of a website as a hindrance, it can actually allow you to give your website that much-needed overhaul. As well as eliminating the Flash aspect, you can also ensure that the website is operating as it should. This means that your website can be viewed across all platforms, in a fast and responsive manner. It also means that all your SEO efforts will be updated, which can mean higher rankings for your website.


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Making a stand out game
September 15, 2009
At every modern video games show, attendees can be guaranteed that they will see plenty of what Peter Molyneux once described to me as "dark, metallic, underground blasty-blasty games".
As more and more shooters chase the holy grail of realism, they are tending to become more and more homogeneous.
But artists at the Texas-based studio Gearbox made the brave decision last year to ensure next month's Borderlands stands out from the crowd by using a distinctive art style.
Gearbox hopes that Borderlands will be the first game in a series, and that their gamble to produce an unusual art style will help separate the game in a crowded field.
Click below for Randy Pitchford's explanation of the changes, and what he is most proud of about Borderlands in part two of Screen Play's interview with the Gearbox President and CEO.
I understand the game is complete. What are you most happy with?
Oh man. Well, it feels really good to be done, but I think the single thing is in terms of how I typically think about a game: story, style and design, Borderlands is original. We've done a lot of games over the years and typically we will create something original on one point, like here's an original game design idea, or here's an interesting style, or here's a new way of storytelling. Borderlands is actually original on every level.
It's an original story with an original universe that we've thought through over so many years. And it has an art direction that is unique. Nothing else looks like it. It's completely original art direction and style.
And the game design as well is this genre blending that hasn't been done before anywhere. It's a big risk to invent on one vector and I'm proud that we've managed to bring something original on all three points and it all works and it's all great.
And so far it's universal. I just came directly to Australia from a show in Washington called PAX - the Penny Arcade Expo, there were 50,000 real gamers in attendance to the show and we won game of show. We were up against the sequels to games that inspired us, like one of my most anticipated games, Diablo III. They were nominated and we actually edged them out to win this award.
Would you agree that usually when there are big changes to a game midway through its development, it's a sign that there is a big problem?
No. I think there's a lot of good reasons why things happen.
So what was the story behind all the changes that were made to Borderlands last year?
The story behind that is insurgency.
After E3 of 2005 we were feeling really great about our game design and decided to invest more into it. Our game was more linear back then. We had just a single set of story missions and a very linear, almost first-person orientated kind of game play. We realized that it was working and a lot of fun so actually made the decision to extend the schedule and move the game to October 2009 so that we could invest in adding a new character class, a tank kind of character, a berserker, a big brick kind of a guy. And we wanted to make the world wider, more open, with a lot more freedom and choice and discovery, and we wanted to add a huge volume of optional missions that could extend the value that we are offering. To let you really feel that sense of discovery and choice as you are exploring the world.
The artists, though, were finished and thought 'well, that's all fine, but what the hell are we going to do?' A small group of them, without me knowing about it actually, kind of went back and looked at their original concept docs for the game and they decided that on their own they were going to make an attempt to try to render the concept art look in real time. So a few of them started working on this.
I got wind of it. I didn't know what they were doing, I just knew they were up to something. Someone said: 'Hey, have you seen what Karl is doing?' And I was like: 'No, is he not, like, doing what he is supposed to be doing?' I kind of got this sense that people were up to something. So I talked to them and they said: 'We've got this idea, but we don't want to show you yet because we're not there and if you see it yet you won't like it. Can we just try this?'
So I made a deal with those guys that I would give them another three weeks and they would be able to build a prototype and we would look at that prototype and make a decision. I remember going into the meeting when they brought in the prototype and before seeing it I was thinking: 'Why did I even let them go this far? Is it because I am afraid I'm going to crush their souls? Now they've spent even more time on it and I'm going to crush them even more. I've got to shut this down ..'
And then they showed me what they did and I was just blown away. They had made the game look like the concept art that we originally drew. They gave the game all this character and personality and attitude. And it was so different. Our game had looked like all the other games with a realistic style, but what they had done had brought a new life and a new character to it.
The first thought that struck me after I recovered from seeing this cool new look was, and you have probably experienced this too, you know when manufacturers make a concept car, there's awesome with the curves and the style, they are totally over the top, yet they've never actually built them. I've never actually driven one, you know. It seems like we were doing the same thing. The concept artists would exaggerate things and give it a lot of personality and just hope that some of that style comes through. But when a whole bunch of people get involved it gets distilled into something that's safe and looks like everything else that's out there. We were guilty of the same thing, but our artists weren't going to have it. They stood up on their own and they found a way to bring that concept art look into the real game. I wish I was one of the artists on the game and I wish that I was one of the artists who did it. I think we all owe them a debt now because they would brave enough to do it.
How risky was the art change in commercial terms? Is it riskier staying with an art style that is realistic and looks a lot like competitors games, or having something that looks very different?
I don't know yet. I can't tell you until we launch. But I can tell you that today I have noticed that after we made this decision it's got a huge amount of attention. A lot of people have noticed the game that never noticed it before. I think that's really important and that's really helping us.
On the other hand, I also know that there is a difference between those of us that are really paying attention to the industry and have our fingers on the pulse, and those that are just real customers in the real world. I know that our tastes are sometimes hard to measure so we'll have to see what happens when we launch the game.
So far the indications are great. We're getting a lot of great attention. We're hearing from the retailers that pre-sales are going through the roof. We're getting a lot of attention and coverage and buzz, more than we ever anticipated. Those signs are good, but we still need to test it in the marketplace before I can sit back and confidently answer that kind of question.
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Recent comments
- Cannon
- September 15, 2009
Any more pics laying around?....not that I mind looking at the ghetto booty girl with carpet burn on her elbows
- marissa
- September 15, 2009
Hmmm, I'm going to have to go looking for this after work, I like the sound of it. I love the sound of the art design, its a little paradoxical, but I think that being a little cartoon-y is more realistic than the realistic styles - with a cartoon-y style, your mind fills in the blanks, whereas any faults in a realist world stick out like a sore thumb, and shatter the whole illusion. (eg I was checking out Batman on Steam the other day, and when I saw the screenshot of Harley Quinn all I could think was that g-string must be giving her such a wedgie. And the muscles on those clowns? They're in a locked ward in a mental hospital, where do they get weights to get muscles that ripped?)
- Thom
- September 15, 2009
I think between this game and Aplha Protocol, both of which some out within a week of each other, I think there is a good chance I'm going to partake in a fatal 80hr gaming session.
Pray for me.
- Tim S
- September 15, 2009
A very rare event to happen within the walls of a developer indeed, and I'm glad it happened.
Appreciation of visuals is of-course dependant on personal taste, but from a design perspective I can fully appreciate that the art-direction matches the gameplay and game-world better now in its semi cell-shaded form and heavy line-art, it's part of the game's unique charm. I encountered Borderlands after the change and loved the line-art; the earlier prototypes were simply unremarkable.
Indeed it may divide gamers which is natural, but I'd like to think we as diverse people would encourage focussed styles and unique experiences, even if they aren't suited to our particular individual tastes, in order to prevent stagnation.
- barrymoves
- September 15, 2009
I like the artwork. And I agree that it will provide a difference between Borderlands and it's realistic trending competition. Looking forward to the Co-op skewed gameplay and am very interested in what DLC they will be coming out with. Beleive they are now working on DLC and should announce it soon after the game launches.
@ Jason
Formatting fail up there - needs more bold for your last question.
@ Marissa
I'm a little surprised that you didn't take umbrage at the plethora of bat gadgets in your quest for realism. Perhaps a little less analysis when you play games in future?
@ Thom
Good luck.
- blackwell
- September 15, 2009
@ marissa
someone on another forum I attend had an interesting theory about Harley Quinn's appearance in Arkham Asylum. Considering that her original costume (a checked cat suit)probably wouldn't have worked very well the artists must have decided to grunge up her appearance in order for her to look more suitable in the current environment.
Besides considering that she used to work there as an intern and helped her boss take over the asylum it must have also made sense for the artists to send up the 'hot nurse' look.
- September 15, 2009
@ marissa
The clowns in Arkham Asylum had only just arrived from Blackgate Prison as there was an incident. The actual psychotic inmates are all wasted and beastial, taking only one hit to knock down.
Also yes, the g-string on Harley looks like it is cutting off blood flow. They should have kept her in the red and black outfit.
- marissa
- September 15, 2009
@ barrymoves
huh? Isn't that the point of this blog? To discuss and analyse games and gaming in a (mostly) adult and rational way? If I wanted rabid fanbois and flamewars, I'd go elsewhere (or wait till Friday.)
Ah, prison abs makes more sense. I haven't actually played it, it not really being the type of game that appeals, but the comments of those Screenies who have made me wanna have a squiz.
- barrymoves
- September 15, 2009
@ Marissa
My point was that you'll probably get more out of a game if you look at it in the intended fashion (i.e. batman = comic book awesome). Over analysing why something seems so 'unrealistic' (correctly explained by OU818) in an unrealistic game setting seems pretty 'Fun Police' to me. But each to their own I suppose.
- Mr Ak
- September 15, 2009
@ Marissa
Yes. Well, that and bad puns, nerdy pop cultural references, etymological and epistomological arguments, in-jokes, cake decoration, AFL, initial puzzlement when DexX mentions about his wife's boyfriend, Marxism, Objectivism, Simpsons Sing-alongs, Firefly quotes and the occasional furious spat.
But yeah, I'm sure the analytical discussion of gaming fits in there somewhere.
(Personally, I come here for the cake decoration discussions.)
- death to nerds
- September 15, 2009
Wow, poor Marissa. Dare to criticise Batman and it's the end of days apparently.
On Borderlands; I tuned out yesterday when the phrase 'first person shooter' was used.
- marissa
- September 15, 2009
@ barrymoves
Maybe you read it backwards, Batman was my 'realist' example, not my cartoon-y one. Harley's one of my favourite characters, but I much prefer her as the slightly goofy red-n-black version, paradoxically the more realistic AA pic just doesn't ring as true. Whereas the 'ghetto booty girl' pic above takes just as many liberties with anatomical realities (if you had a waist that small, your diaphragm wouldn't be able to expand emough to fill your lungs with air, you'd suffocate), but as the style is a little more cartoon-y and artistic and less realistic, overall the effect is more believable.
PS Jason - is there a theme to this month's pics, perhaps? Not that I'm complaining :)
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Coleman and Dinah Greene Mystery #1
Cousins Coleman and Dinah Greene moved to New York City after college to make their mark on the art world, and they have—Coleman as the editor of an influential arts magazine, and Dinah as the owner of a print gallery in Greenwich Village. But challenges mount as Coleman discovers a staff writer selling story ideas to a competitor, while Dinah's Greene Gallery slips into the red. When billionaire Heyward Bain arrives announcing plans to fund a fine print museum, Coleman is intrigued and plans to publish an article about him, and Dinah hopes to sell him prints. Then, unexpectedly, swindlers invade the art world to grab some of Bain's money, and a print dealer dies under mysterious circumstances. Risking her own life, Coleman sets out to unravel the last deception threatening her, her friends, and the once-tranquil world of fine art prints.Reba White Williams explores the New York art scene with all the suspense of a well-written murder mystery. Restrike invites readers into the lives of the Greene cousins: Coleman and Dinah. Coleman is a journalist and owner of the ArtSmart magazine. She has a curious mind that really spurs the story's pace. Her cousin Dinah is married to investment banker, Jonathan Hathaway, and the owner of a print gallery. With both girls knee-deep in the art world, it's inevitable that the mysterious murder of a virtually unknown print dealer would attract their attention and have them searching until answers are found.
Restrike is a murder mystery that goes beyond suspense and thrill. Jimmy La Grange's death is the starting point of a chain reaction of events that may take readers by surprise, but will definitely intrigue. The connections between characters becomes a tangled web, deceit, betrayal, jealousy and secrets included. The story was a little slow going in the opening chapters, but once I acclimated to the terminology and really understood what was so significant about Jimmy's death, I felt the excitement start to bubble up. I wanted this crime solved just as much as Coleman and Dinah, even when it wasn't believed to be art related.
Williams's writing style is notable, as well. Restrike is written in third person with multiple perspectives. While Coleman and Dinah are our driven heroines, readers get to know their friends and enemies, too. There's a well rounded variety of characters, some you'll love and others you'll love to hate. I think it shows real talent that while presenting the perspective of many characters, even those under suspicion, Williams was able to keep the truth hidden from readers. While the ending wasn't outrageously shocking, I never would have guessed exactly 'whodunit'.
I am absolutely clueless about art, I didn't even know how wide the range of the art world extended. Williams made quite an impression on me in that regard, because Restrike not only takes readers deep into Coleman and Dinah's lives, but pretty much paints a perfect picture of what goes on in that world. I can say with absolute certainty that even if art isn't your forte, Restrike will be a very appealing read!
*ARC provided via JKS Communications in exchange for an honest review*
Publication Date: June 16, 2013
Publisher: Delos
Pages/Format: 350; Paperback, ebook


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172 attorneys from Holland & Hart LLP were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America© 2015, one of the legal profession's oldest and most-respected peer-review publications. Additionally, 17 Holland & Hart attorneys were given the distinction of being named the Best Lawyers® 2015 "Lawyer of the Year" in their respective markets and practices areas. Those named "Lawyer of the Year" include:
Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which almost 50,000 leading attorneys cast nearly five million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers "the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice."
U.S. News & World Report will publish the 2015 edition of The Best Lawyers in America on August 18. More than 250,000 copies of the standalone magazine will be distributed with leading publications including The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. A digital edition also will be available.
For a complete list of Holland & Hart attorneys included in The Best Lawyers in America© 2015, please click here.
Unless you are a current client of Holland & Hart LLP, please do not send any confidential information by email. If you are not a current client and send an email to an individual at Holland & Hart LLP, you acknowledge that we have no obligation to maintain the confidentiality of any information you submit to us, unless we have already agreed to represent you or we later agree to do so. Thus, we may represent a party adverse to you, even if the information you submit to us could be used against you in a matter, and even if you submitted it in a good faith effort to retain us.


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Dress with ruffles and balloon sleeves
Short dress with sheer detailing
Long metallic thread dress
Long dress with slit detail
Dress with ring on the neckline
Long ribbed dress
Short strappy dress
Strappy midi dress
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Bershka Beauty


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I want a day of sentiment, not profit
~Anna Jarvis
Anna, the founder of the concept of Mother's day, echoes the feelings of mothers around the world. Shared love, happiness and joy are what they wish for. These are things that money can't buy. And, yet, while we know that they don't want material things to know that they are loved, we still like to gift them those besides intangible ones such as our love and time on this day.
Abstract art, especially when bought with your mother in mind can be a perfect gift. The fad these days maybe gift certificates, spa trips and the like. But, you have got to agree that these are transient. A spa trip on a weekend, a dinner on a weekday at a hotel and your gifts are gone.
Abstract art oil paintings, on the other hand, will stand the test of time. If chosen with care to ensure that they match your mother's personality and her inherent likes, then an oil painting will brighten up her day considerably. If you don't really want to keep the gift a surprise, you could show her the collection of paintings in an online art gallery and have her choose the one she likes best.
Beautifully done abstract art will surely appeal to her and will adorn the walls of one of the rooms in her house – thus keeping your gift with her for years to come, at least till the next mother's day comes around.
If you do decide to gift her an oil painting, you might want to go the online route to make your purchase, since it is more convenient. But, ensure that you are buying the painting from a genuine online art gallery to avoid frauds.
View our online store now.


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How true is that phrase? Everyone has something to hide. Everyone has something they won't want others to know. Even I have things to hide. A million things. Certain things hidden can't be explained by reasons. It's hidden because it has too. People hide things for safety, happiness, pleasure, and lots more. Not everything should be known by everyone. Sometimes keeping it hidden is much better knowing that you might eventually gain from it.
May secrets be hidden, and hidden it shall stay, for as long as it has to.


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It's here, Valentine's Day is upon us so we wanted to give our loyal customers a little treat, and our lovely new ones too!!
As our Valentine's Day gift to you, here is a 10% off coupon code to use against our Designs For Living range sewing machines on our Home Sewing website.
Coupon Code: TOYOTA-LOVE Site: www.home-sewing.com
(valid from 14/02/13 to 28/02/13 especially for Valentine's)
Designs For Living (aka DFL) is Toyota's much loved stylish sewing machine range and so they became our perfect choice for our Valentine's offer to you, we'd love to be your cupid and help fix you up with your new match made in heaven. The concept allows you to not only choose the type of machine you require but also the design that best suits you!! Want to test the designs out and see how they look,which would suit your personality, room etc – no problem, just click here.
PLUS: Our Designs For Living machines come with 3 years warranty and free delivery for mainland UK (see more here). We also have a range of accessories to complement the machines that we recommend you have a look at, available here too.
With love from,
Your friends at Toyota Home Sewing x


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You have to have a valid membership to attend this event
You have to have a valid membership to attend this event
Glenn Younes Analyzes 2016-17 Wizards, Capitals
Glenn Younes shares his thoughts on the Wizards and Capitals, and he says the Wizards' success in the postseason may depend on their starters' regular-season workload.
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Glenn Younes says the Washington Capitals' early postseason exit had more to do with complacency and running into a red-hot Penguins team than it did with choking.
Capitals Exit Disappointing, But Not Embarrassing
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Glenn Younes discusses the Capitals' struggles against the Penguins in the Eastern Conference semifinals and dishes on Redskins tight end Jordan Reed's $50 million extension.
Why Can't Capitals Fans Have Nice Things?
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NBC Sports Network's Jeremy Roenick Picks Capitals To Beat Penguins In Seven Games
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Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom scored the decisive goal in the Capitals' 1-0 victory against the Flyers April 24, which clinched a series victory.
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This post was originally published in December 2016.
We can all agree that the best advocates for your product are people who have used and loved it.
If you're not leveraging advocacy for your online business, you're missing out on the most powerful growth driver available. (Tweet this!)
If you are, then you're probably doing it through one of these methods:
- Gathering reviews and ratings for your course, which can be displayed publicly.
- Incentivize word of mouth among your users. This can even include an affiliate program.
- Asking your users for testimonials and displaying them on your site as social proof.
What if I told you there is one extra way to leverage advocacy that most people don't use but allows you to directly generate more revenue from your existing base of loyal users?
If you're not jumping on your seat right now, I would recommend checking if you have a pulse.
By offering the ability to "Gift This Course" to your users, you allow them to directly purchase a product they love and give it to someone they care about.
Win-win… -win.
In this post, I'll show you the exact process you can follow to offer an automated "Gift This Course" option to your users with Teachable. I've even gone as far as to put it in an easy-to-follow course format and added downloadable templates you can use for the setup.
The tools you'll need
First off, let's go over all of the tools you'll need to create this automated workflow.
- Teachable (duh, right?)
- Google Forms to collect information from your users on your Teachable school.
- Google Sheets will serve as a repository for the data that will come from Teachable through the Google Form and be sent to your email marketing service.
- Zapier allows you to tie all these apps together to automate the whole process.
- An email marketing service to send emails to the recipients of the gift. This is optional, and I'll explain how to do it with one (MailChimp) or without it.
Your first step will be to set up the necessary accounts so you can use these services.
Please, don't let yourself be intimidated by the number of tools this involves. In the next section, I'll explain how it all works together.
How it all works
Before we dive into setting everything up, it's useful to get a holistic view of how the whole process looks like.
When offering your users the option to purchase a course as a gift, in essence, you're giving them the option to purchase a single-use coupon to your course, which they can send to someone else.
This flowchart shows the whole process we'll create on this post.
Pumped about getting started? (If you're not, I suspect you might have been sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor.)
Side note: I created a course called "Speak like a Venezuelan," which allows people to pretend they are advanced Spanish speakers by teaching them popular Venezuelan slang phrases - I think this would be an excellent gag/fun gift, so I'll use it as an example for this post.
Creating a "Gift This Course" course
All you need to do is create a new course on your Teachable school with messaging that relates to sharing value (i.e. purchasing your course to give as a gift.)
Protip: alternatively, you can just clone an existing course, modify the copy to "purchase this course as a gift" and delete all the existing lectures and sections in it. This will save you some time in terms of styling the course and creating its sales page.
This course will consist of a single section with one lecture, where you'll collect the gift recipient's contact information from your customer.
To collect the gift recipient's information, we'll use a Google Form which we'll embed in our lecture.
After creating a new Google Form, the first thing we need from them is their email address (required field) and make sure they use the same email address they used to purchase the course - this is critical to validate purchases, which we'll set up a little later.
Protip: add data validation to make sure your customers include a valid email address.
Next, we'll ask the customer to indicate whether they want to send the gift themselves or if they want us to send it (this should also be a required field.)
In this question, we'll add a condition. Here's why:
- If the customer just wants to send the gift by themselves, then all we need is their email address. This means we can end the form here.
- If the customer wants us to send the gift, we'll need to gather a bit more information. So we'll want to ask a couple more questions in the next section of the form.
Doing this in Google Forms is really simple. Just click on the three dots on the lower right corner of the question, select "Go to section based on answer," and assign an appropriate answer to each option.
To send a cool personalized email, we'll need the customer to fill out:
- Name (required)
- Gift recipient's name (required)
- Gift recipient's email address (required)
And that's it! Your Google Form is ready, now click on the "Send" button up top and get the form's embed link.
And paste that embed code into the lecture you previously created using a text box.
Protip: change the width and height parameters to 100% and 500px, respectively, to make the form adjust automatically to the size of the lecture window.
Now publish the lecture, add a price to the course (same as the price of the actual course) and publish it.
Time to play with data and spreadsheets (a phrase I say too often, I must admit.)
Setting up a Google Sheet as data repository
Using a spreadsheet will allow us to easily manage all the data needed for this workflow. Google Sheets is the easiest one to use since it easily syncs with Google Forms and Zapier.
You can easily create this spreadsheet from Google forms through the "Responses" tab.
Next, create a duplicate of the sheet, add the formula below to cell A2, and drag that formula right to the last data column and down to row 1001.
=Indirect("'Form Responses 1'!"&"R"&row(A2)&"C"&column(A2),false)
Rename this sheet to "Master" to differentiate it from the original one.
Next, generate 1,000 single-use codes for your actual course (how to do that here), and add them to a new sheet called "Single-use coupons" with a header in the first row.
Add a new sheet called "Purchases" and add the header "Purchases" to the first cell. We will not add anything to this sheet, as we will let it be automatically populated by Zapier with every purchase.
Now, add a column called "Single-use coupons" to the "Master" sheet and paste this formula in the second row of that column and drag it down to row number 1001:
=if(Master!B2="","",if(COUNTIF(Master!B$2:B2,B2)-COUNTIF(Purchases!A$2:A$1002,B2)<=0,Indirect("'Single-use coupons'!A"&row(G2),true),""))
This formula is your safety switch. It will prevent the addition of new coupons to the "Master" sheet if:
- The email from the form submission does not match the purchase email (i.e. if someone finds the link to your form and attempts to get free coupons)
- A customer attempts to submit the form more than once to get more than one coupon.
Annnnd, this is it for setting up your spreadsheet - it wasn't that hard, was it?
If you've gotten this far, you've managed to associate purchases, form submission, and single use coupons.
You're a boss.
Onward to the next step!
Setting up custom fields on your email marketing service
Again, if you don't use a service for email marketing, you can just use Zapier to send plain text emails. If that's your case, just click here to skip to the next step.
For this example, I'm using MailChimp, but the setup should be very similar to other services.
In MailChimp, go to Lists > Settings > List fields and *|MERGE|* tags
MailChimp has 3 default fields on a list: email, first name, and last name. We'll add 3 new ones:
- Is gift recipient? field - will allow you to differentiate what kind of subscriber it is.
- Gift sender's name field - will be used to customize the email text.
- Gift sender's email field - will allow you to associate gift receiver and sender.
- Single-use coupon field- which you'll send via email.
Now you're ready to start putting everything together :)
Getting everything to work together with Zapier
Zapier is one of my favorite tools out there. It allows users like you and me to integrate different web tools to automate tasks without needing to write any code.
How it works is very simple:
- You set up an app that will act as a trigger.
- The trigger app sends data to Zapier.
- Zapier sends that data to another app that will generate an action with this data.
A simple example of this is: A new customer purchased a course on your Teachable school, Zapier collects the transaction information and puts it in a new row on a specific Google Sheet (hint, this is what we're doing.)
In our case, we'll use Zapier to connect Teachable, Google Sheets, and MailChimp.
Connecting Teachable and Google Sheets
As we mentioned in the previous step, we want every purchase to be automatically added to the Google Sheet where the data from the Google Form is filled, since this will allow for a new single-use coupon to be associated with the purchase.
This is how you can set that up (and click here to get more information about integrating Teachable with Zapier.)
Go to Zapier and create a new zap called "Send Course Gift Purchases to Google Sheets."
Next, select Teachable as a trigger app and select "New enrollment" as the trigger.
At this point, if this is your first time using Zapier and Teachable together, you'll need to connect your Teachable account and test it.
Next, we'll setup a filter. This is needed to allow transactions from the "Gift This Course" course to go through this process.
Select your filter and only continue if "Course Name" contains the name of the course.
It's time for some action (seriously.) Select Google Sheets as your action app, choose "Create Spreadsheet Row" as the action, connect your account, and set it up as shown below.
To check that everything is working properly, go back to your spreadsheet and check that 2 new rows were added by Zapier on the "Purchases" shee
And, as expected, only 2 coupons showed up on the "Master" sheet.
Now go back and erase those test rows from the "Purchases" spreadsheet.
Sending coupons directly to the course buyer
For customers who just want to get the single-use coupon and send the gift themselves, we'll use a simple plain text email via to deliver it - no need for fancy HTML emails.
Again, we can solve this with Zapier.
Create a new zap called "Send coupon to buyer," choose Google Sheets as a trigger app, "Updated spreadsheet row" as an action, and the following setup.
We'll use a filter only to allow the workflow to continue if two conditions happen:
- The data in the coupon column exists.
- The buyer asked to be sent the coupon.
And we'll use Gmail to send an automated email.
When setting up the action, select the appropriate column from the spreadsheet to populate the email recipient field.
And the following setup for the email content.
Turn on this zap, and move on to the last step!
In the next section, I'll explain how to sent emails to gift recipients with plain text emails. If you're using an email marketing service, just click here to skip this section.
Sending emails to gift recipients - Option 1: Plain-text emails
If you don't use an email marketing service or just want to send plain-text emails to gift recipients, you can follow a similar process as in the previous step.
Create a new zap called "Send coupon to recipient," choose Google Sheets as a trigger app, "Updated spreadsheet row" as an action, and the following setup.
The following setup for the filter.
Choose Gmail to send emails, and use data from the appropriate column to populate the email recipient's field.
And this setup for the contents of that email.
If this is the method you chose to deliver emails, you've now completed the automated process. Click here to skip to the last section to test and see how this all looks at work.
Sending emails to gift recipients - Option 2: MailChimp
To send emails to gift recipients via MailChimp, we'll first need to add them as subscribers and then set up email automation within MailChimp.
To automatically add new subscribers to MailChimp, we'll add Zapier again.
Create a new zap called "Add gift recipient to MailChimp," choose Google Sheets as a trigger app, "Updated spreadsheet row" as an action, and the following setup.
Use the setup below for the filter.
Select MailChimp as an action app and add a new subscriber with the setup shown here.
Go to MailChimp, create a new automated workflow, select signups as a trigger, and set it up to start immediately.
Design the email to be sent via the automated workflow by using merge fields to customize the content and add the single use coupon.
Turn on your new workflow and get ready to test this bad boy.
Testing the automated process
To test, start by creating a 100% off coupon for your "Gift This Course" course, which you can use to start the process from the top and use your own email as both the sender and recipient.
If everything works properly, you should receive an email similar to this one.
How you can improve on this process
I created this post with the objective of setting up a baseline on how to accomplish offering courses as gifts via an automated process.
I only included one very basic customer-facing functionality:
- Allowing customers to choose whether to send the coupon codes themselves or automatically through your school.
Here are just a few things I think would be cool to add to all of this and that I encourage you to think about!
- Allowing customers to choose the date when they want the email to the gift recipient go out.
- Allowing customers to add custom messages to the automated email.
- Designing cool email templates for the automated emails that will deliver the gift.
Have other ideas? Would love to hear them in the comments!
Limitations (that I could find)
1 per course**
The automated process described above works for one course. If you wanted to offer several courses from your school as gifts, you'll have to recreate the process for each.**
1 purchase per email address
This process only works once per user account/email address - If a customer wants to purchase more than one course as a gift, they would need to check out with several email accounts. This is due to the safety trigger I included in the process that will prevent people from using access to the course/form to try to send more coupons than they should.
Obviously, this is not ideal, but I would think, in any case, you can just give those people the option to contact you directly to get more than one coupon.
X customers or less
I set up this automation process to work for up to 1,000 sales of your "Gift This Course" course; it could work for fewer customers if some of them attempt to submit the form more than once.
However, selling more than 1,000 of these is a good problem to have, right?
Did you find this useful? Want to see more content like this? Tell us!
Your feedback is very important to our content creation process.
If you found this useful (or didn't), found something I missed (I'm sure I did), think of something cool we could add to this process, want to see a similar post about another topic, or just want to say hi - pleeease add a comment below!
I'll personally read and answer every one.


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GameFAQs Help: Images (Maps and other graphics)
When should and shouldn't I use image files?
A picture is worth a thousand words. Literally. Image files convey a much smaller amount of information in a much larger size than plain text, and as such should only be used when text simply isn't a viable option.
Image files are best used for maps, diagrams, and large drawings that can't easily be duplicated in text. Image files shouldn't be used for small diagrams, text tables, or basically anything that can be duplicated in text with no loss of information.
What kinds of images are accepted on GameFAQs?
GameFAQs accepts maps (both world and smaller-scale, screenshot and hand-drawn), screenshots (containing important information and/or comments), diagrams (such as puzzle solutions), and image-based tables. Other image styles may be accepted, depending on the game.
What image file types are accepted on GameFAQs?
GameFAQs only posts the three Internet standard image types: JPEG, GIF, and PNG. You are free to submit files in almost any other format, however, as GameFAQs can transform the files for you.
When creating and submitting images, you should always submit them as lossy uncompressed (GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF) unless you are sure that it's the right format to use. See below for a better explanation of compression types.
What is lossy compression?
Be sure not to save the only copy of your image as a JPEG; once saved as JPEG, it cannot be converted back, and bad compression will make an otherwise good image unusable. If you're not sure, don't compress the file at all; save it in an uncompressed format (such as BMP) and let GameFAQs handle the rest.
What's the best program for creating images?
Paint, included with most Microsoft operating systems, is a not a good program to use for images of any complexity. Paint Shop Pro and PhotoShop are the most-used and comprehensive image programs out there. There are free options as well, the most popular and powerful of which is GIMP.
How do I submit images to GameFAQs?
You can submit and update your images the same way you would a FAQ. There's no difference in how the files are handled by GameFAQs.
Why is JPEG so evil and why shouldn't I use it?
JPEG works great at compressing complex images to a fraction of their original size. Complex images, like photographs, contain lots of bits indistinguishable to the naked eye that can be compressed.
However, JPEG should never, ever, ever, ever, ever be used with simple images. Simple images like small screenshots, maps, line art, text, charts, and diagrams not only compress terribly with JPEG, but also suffer from nasty compression artifacts.
Another important thing to note is that saving an image as JPEG is a one way conversion. The damage done to a simple image cannot be undone by simply then saving it as a PNG or GIF. If you do not have a copy of the original uncompressed source image, repairing the damage done can be a very time-consuming process.
Unless you've spent quite a long time working with image types, submitting your file completely uncompressed is the best way to go. GameFAQs will be more than happy to take your BMP, TIFF, PSP, or PhotoShop file and convert it into a web format for you.
What are some common problems to avoid while creating an image?
- Oversized Canvas: For the image canvas size, you don't want to have your image require a person using to have to scroll their browser, and remember, a lot of people are using mobile phones to browse. A size of 800x600 pixels is a good start, although your canvas may be larger or smaller depending on exactly what you're trying to do.
- Very large files: For the image file size, GameFAQs will rarely accept images in their final converted format over 350KB. A good line-drawn map, no matter how complex, will usually be under 50KB in size if created and converted properly.
- Pattern Fills and Fancy Graphics: These look nice, but greatly increase an image's size without adding a byte of actual content. Keep your images simple and to the point.
- "Actual Size": Making a map out of screenshots is a tradition as old as time itself, but there is nothing to be gained by having the map be the same size as all of the screenshots put together. You can almost always reduce the canvas size of an image without losing any significant detail.
- More Easily Done In Text: If a chart or graphic can be recreated in text, it generally should be. A 100KB image of nothing but text can often be submitted as a 5KB text file.
- Uncredited, Unannotated Images: GameFAQs will not accept images without any credit to the author or any annotation (i.e. just an image with no explanation, title, or references). A good image will stand on its own and require no additional explanation.