Jack Butcher is a designer, entrepreneur and the founder of Visualize Value – a content platform teaching people to communicate visually and build great online products.

Jack started off in his career as a graphic designer and after several spells in Creative Director roles in different agencies and startups, he set up his own agency business. After a while, the business started to take its toll on him so he decided to productise his skills in branding, design and strategy for a wider audience.

After growing a big audience on Twitter and Instagram with his signature VV graphics, he created two successful courses - How to Visualize Value, a playbook for creating meaningful visual communication; and Build Once Sell Twice, where he teaches his process for creating digital products and taking VV's revenue to $100K/month.

In this conversation we discuss

- The principles of design that separate forgettable brands from iconic ones
- How to productize your skills and standout in the new economy
- The curriculum building methods Jack has used for his successful courses

We also speak about the value of transparency in marketing and Jack even gives me a little coaching session as I discuss my challenges with running and scaling a content marketing agency. If you want to learn more about visual communication, or separate your income from your time, this won't disappoint.

Show Notes

• Jack wasn't a model student in school. How did he figure out what he really wanted to do in life and what was the starting point of his career in graphic design? [05:06]
• How do we strike a balance between exposure and experience? What does Jack have to say about these two concepts after working on different roles with a range of different clients through the years? [09:47]
• Jack shares the mindset and realization that drove him to starting his own business as opposed to working for a creative firm. [11:05]
• What is the value of good design? Jack weighs in on the form versus functionality argument and how an idea's velocity can be increased by good design. [12:48]
• How does communication design play a role in a brand’s stylistic decisions? [14:17]
• When working with clients, how does the idea of restraint give designers more space to create a better design? How can designers shift a client’s mindset from ‘we want you to do this’ to ‘let's listen to the experts'? [16:36]
• How important are ‘intangibles’ like relationships and goodwill when it comes to branding, whether it’s personal or for business? [18:57]
• How do we separate ourselves from others in a highly-competitive and efficiency-driven work sphere? Why is it important to see yourself as more than just an asset to a particular industry or company? [20:26]
• Jack divulges how the difficulty of letting go and the refusal to acknowledge the need for change slowed down his process of achieving his ideal agency model. [23:18]
• Everyone we work with will always have a different direction and a different process in solving their particular problems. How do we develop our skills and solve these problems at the same time? Where do we start when creating a process that works for everyone? [28:30]
• Why focusing on what we uniquely well is more effective than taking on a number of different tasks [30:27]
• When creating a course curriculum, there are three areas that you need to address: foundational knowledge, practical application, and psychological barriers. Where did Jack start in addressing all these things for his courses? [33:45]
• Jack explains the concept behind doing work that can be repurposed in different ways. Why is explaining the process of how we do things a valuable asset? [37:28]
• When talking about our process and our business, what are the things that we should protect? What do people want to learn from each other’s processes? [39:43]
• How does being transparent about your business and your failures help build a better relationship with your clients and customers? [41:50]
• How do you build a community that’s constantly engaged and interested in what you do?  [44:07]
• Closing statements [47:29] ‍
  

Resources
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🖥 Visualize Value

📄 Jack's Visualize Value Story

🐦 @jackbutcher

▶️Building a Digital Brand from $0 — $3,000/day

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