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Maypop Creative Studio

Strategy-first design thinking—for solopreneurs who are done duct-taping their tech. The newsletter that does what your tech said it would.

🛶 wrong question, every time

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ a She looks absolutely miserable. “The setup took me 3 days instead of an hour, and then finally, I got it all done and think it’s going to work! But now instead of actually running the thing, I’m again spending hours trying to figure out...
carolyn's feet in the hammock, in front of the treeline.

🛶 I use it. I'll say it.

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ The day has already been a clusterfuck. I’ve been ready to sign off since lunchtime. Thank god I can snag 10 minutes to myself, lazing in our backyard hammock, before the after-summer camp stampede begins. (Hanging this thing, by the way, is...

🛶 3 days off the grid

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ I’m writing this email on Tuesday, while my kids demolish the living room, knowing that by the time you read it I'll be in Shenandoah National Park with zero wifi and a brick for a cell phone. And I have two clients onboarding. Plus new...
Celebrity gif. Jennifer Lawrence grimaces in front of a microphone during a panel as if to say, "Yikes!"

🛶 The extrovert costume

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ People assume I'm an extrovert. (I'm not.) I'm a "loves people one-on-one, weird in groups, late-diagnosed-ADHD, can't always tell if I'm being too much or too quiet, need a post-socializing dissociation spell" kind of person. And on a very...

🛶 71% of your audience expects this

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ Thank you so much! I'm super appreciative of alllll of you who took my audience research survey. I'm overwhelmed at how many people were game! My next step is conducting more in-depth interviews (about 12). TBH this is something I recommend...
carolyn leasure, founder and creative director of Maypop Creative Studio, working with a client

🛶 What happens after the Yes

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ I know you've been in Beast Mode for yearrrsss. You built your site, wrote your copy, figured out your tech, made all of it work. And now…a teensy part of your can-do, very tired brain is thinking about handing some of it over to someone...

🛶 I evaluated 98 businesses in 1 week

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ 🤦🏻♀️ "I'm sooo sorry, my graphics are DIYed from like 5 years ago."🤦🏻♀️ "I don't have anything other than a couple headshots, is that ok?"🤦🏻♀️ "I spent too long down the DIY rabbit hole when I made these, and never had any real graphics. I'm...

🛶There's a secret Door #3

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ I got an inquiry recently from someone who wanted to work with me but thought her only two options were to keep DIYing her site… or book an $9K+ custom project. She had no idea there were three other ways to tackle it. Well, yeah - if those...

🛶 Don’t let your website get you sued

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ Hi there! I'm Michelle Wilson, a small business attorney who helps service providers and freelancers protect their business with practical legal solutions. And Carolyn has allowed me to take over her newsletter to share with you all about...

🛶 The freebie graveyard

͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ ͏ ­ There are a bajillion ways to get your name out there. Social media. Podcast guesting. Blogging. Networking. Door-to-door convos. (Kidding. Mostly.) But at some point, most business owners I talk to land on the same realization: they want a...