October 2, 2025 • 27 mins
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Ever notice how a new boss “fixes” a process that wasn’t broken—and six months later everyone is quietly doing it the old way again? That loop is costly for small businesses, and we sought a more effective approach. William Holsten, a business mistake prevention specialist, author, and former brand leader, will unpack why errors repeat and how to prevent them with simple, durable habits.
Holsten starts with the real first step after a leadership change: get out of the office and into your customers’ world. He lays out a practical script for face-to-face conversations that actually get the truth, plus ways to map the entire customer journey in a photo retail context—from file transfer and on-site kiosks to packaging, archival storage, and digital asset handling. From there, he breaks down his $10,000 mistake checklist: “no one actually needs this,” “death by assumption,” the “vanishing wallet” cash-flow squeeze, and “flying without a map.” Each comes with field-ready fixes: test-and-learn prototypes, quick price sensitivity checks, weekly cash forecasts with tripwires, and a one-page plan that nails proposition, differentiation, and unit economics.
Holsten also shares the origin and rebuild of PitchBurst, a dunk-tank alternative that delighted early users but failed on materials—until a full engineering rethink made it bulletproof. The lesson translates to imaging: validate not just demand but durability and workflow under real conditions. We explore using AI to cut through analysis paralysis, the value of mentors, experts, and naive observers, and a favorite tool he calls “uh-ohology”—learning from other people’s mistakes so you don’t pay the tuition yourself. Expect actionable tactics like pre-mortems, design thinking sprints, and daily “parachute checks” for backups, insurance, and lab mainte
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Hosted and produced by Gary Pageau
Edited by Olivia Pageau
Announcer: Erin Manning
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Erin Manning (00:02):
Welcome to the Dark Pixels Society Podcast, the
Photo Imaging Industry's leading news source.
The Dead Pixels Society Podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing, andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:17):
Hello, and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society
Podcast.
I'm your host, Gary Pageau.
Today we're joined by WilliamHolsten, who is
a Business Mistake PreventionSpecialist, Author and Mentor.
And William's coming to us fromDelaware.
Hello, William.
How are you
Hey Gary, happy to see you.
Thanks for having me on
Before we record it started, wewere just chatting and we went
(00:41):
down a few industry rat holes.
Um, you're not from theindustry, but you have a lot of
experience with mistakes.
How did your corporate careerstart before you got into being
an author and consultant?
Wiliam Holsten (00:53):
I was interested in college, in advertising and
communications, got my degree incommunications, and was hired
at an advertising agency on LongIsland.
And uh I was an ad writer and Idid some account work, and that
business was closing, and Inetworked to find the next job.
And it was as a a writer in theadvertising department of
(01:17):
Sterling Drug in New York.
Right.
And uh there I was writingpackaging copy and ads for the
global business of bare aspirinand Phillips, Milk and Magnesia,
and a whole bunch of thingslike that.
Uh so that that's how I gotinto the corporate world.
Lots of things evolved in the30.
(01:37):
I was they were there 35, 37years through acquisitions and
mergers and lots of things.
It led me to become uh amarketing brand manager on
Sterling's major brands, Bayeraspirin and things.
And then Bayer, the Germancompany, bought Sterling, and I
continued on in brand managementand later in innovation.
(01:58):
So it's a it's a weaving story.
I didn't have to look for jobs,but the jobs came to me because
of my skill set.
At that time, uh, Gary, I knowyour audience is really
interested in photography.
As you all know, Kodak boughtSterling Drug before Bayer did.
And actually, Bayer was a lateracquirer of the same assets of
(02:19):
the business.
And we talked before therecording, it's a long, long,
long story that's veryinteresting for another time.
Gary Pageau (02:26):
Yeah, that's for sure.
Yeah, the whole uh EastmanKodak buying Sterling Drug,
patent portfolio, and uh allthose kind of things, a whole
nother story, which is uh maybewe'll do a uh an after show
sometime or something like that.
So let's talk a little bitabout you know, your long career
business.
You know, when I talk to peoplewho've been in corporate
(02:47):
America for a long time, Ialways like to say they've seen
some things, right?
They've kind of seen thingsthat happen that that's
repetitive behavior that happensover and over again.
You know, mistakes and why isit then that people repeat
mistakes that happen in businessso often?
Wiliam Holsten (03:07):
Well, this applies to small businesses.
Oh, absolutely.
I know my focus is on smallbusinesses, but thinking back in
the corporate world, yeah,mistakes continue to happen
because of many factors.
One of them is seniorleadership turnover.
The next generation of leadersis hired, comes in, and they
say, Oh, the way it was done inthe past was wrong, we'll change
(03:30):
this.
And the long-term people, I wasalways one of those, can say,
Well, been down this roadbefore, but I'll give it my
best, and the result is oftenthe same.
These have to do withunderstanding customer
preferences, uh, understandingsupply chain things,
understanding competitivereactions.
Uh, there are patterns toobserve and learn from.
Gary Pageau (03:53):
So, yeah, we want to tell most about small
business because that's my myaudience primarily, but I think
what happens is, you know, a lotof the practices in big
business, big mistakes, are alsocan be done by small business,
right?
Same sort of thing, especiallywhen you run into things like
the mindset of, well, we'veeither always done it this way,
(04:13):
so we're not going to makechanges, or on the other thing
was, like you said, there's amanagement change or an
ownership change in a business,and they think, well, we want to
judge the entire process andinvent new things.
So let's take an example ofsomeone who let's say there is a
management change within abusiness.
What would be the things theyshould first look at when maybe
(04:36):
they want to improve things butnot make wholesale changes?
Wiliam Holsten (04:39):
My first thought on that is to uh immerse in the
customer experience.
Many times, especially smallbusinesses don't have a big
market research department.
Gary Pageau (04:51):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (04:52):
And they might make assumptions on what
customers think, what theirexperience is, how they in your
in the case of photography, howthey buy, where they buy, what
their experience expectationsare.
If you're new to a business andyou haven't gone and met 10, 20
customers face to face, right,and have a just a QA.
(05:13):
How's it going?
What do you love?
What do you wish for?
You're kind of blindingyourself to the possibilities.
This is true for somebodystarting a business, some for
somebody taking over a business.
Gary Pageau (05:25):
So when you're looking at things like what the
customer is telling you, right?
Let's say, for example, I'mtaking over a photo store and
I'm buying it from existingmanager and I want to meet some
of the regular users.
What are some typical questionsI would want to ask when I'm
not just looking for positivefeedback, right?
(05:46):
I'm not because becausetypically speaking, when people
do face-to-face research, thepeople who are being interviewed
really want to please thepeople.
So they maybe not be accurateor they lie if well because they
want to they want to be nice.
Wiliam Holsten (06:00):
Questions can include, now you won't hurt my
feelings.
I want blunt responses.
So you you set that up, butthen you ask, you can ask what's
wrong, and they may not go downthat path, but you can ask what
do you wish for?
Okay.
Uh in the last time, 10 timesyou came in this store, uh, you
experienced this, this, andthis.
(06:20):
Do you what would make thatexperience 10% better if we did
what you know uh for for youpersonally?
Gary Pageau (06:27):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (06:28):
And then there's a matter of uh uh asking the
customer, what kind of businessare you in?
Why do you come and buy here?
Right.
Can I come to your home or yourlab or your shop and see how
you use these products?
Where are they stored?
How do you open them?
How do you discard of use ifit's film canisters?
(06:48):
How do you control the digitalassets that you create with what
you buy here?
Understanding the entirejourney really informs you to
think how best to serve thatjourney, and then there's always
opportunities to improve andgive them something they didn't
ask for because you understandthe context.
Gary Pageau (07:09):
Yeah, that is one of the challenges I think when
people get into business, wherethey either are self-involved,
they get into it because theylike whatever it is, right?
They like coffee so they openup a coffee shop, they like
drinking beer so they open up abrewery, they like photography
so they open up a photo store.
Well, actually, I have one ofmy friends in the industry who
said to me once, nothing killsyour love of photography faster
(07:34):
than owning a camera store.
No, you get down to the themiddle growth.
Yeah, because there aredifferent skills other than the
passion in the business, right?
It it's I mean, generallythat's important, but there's
certain skills and things youneed to have to make the
businesses thrive.
Um, when you talk aboutmistakes people make, you
(07:56):
mentioned not knowing thecustomers.
What are some other mistakesthat people make in their
business?
Maybe after they've had it fora while, and they tend to just
be either complacent or theybecome just kind of burnt out.
Wiliam Holsten (08:08):
There's a whole list, and these are generic to
many small businesses.
I've seen some in my in mymentoring as a score mentor, uh,
but I've compiled a list andI'll I'll offer to your
listeners at the end of this.
Uh, I call it the $10,000mistake checklist.
It's a list of the the topeight things that continue to
(08:29):
happen here and there uh acrossbusinesses.
Number one is the no oneactually needs this syndrome.
This is where people uh getimmersed and impassioned about
an idea for a product, a servicethat they love so much and they
want to put it out there.
And they get it out there ifthey don't do appropriate
(08:52):
research and find out nobodywants this.
They're the only ones that loveit.
And an answer for that is to dosome early test and learn.
So you talk about it, youdescribe it, and you listen to
feedback so you can build andshape it to something people do
like.
Another common mistake is deathby assumption.
It's along the same lines thatuh you get out there and you
(09:14):
assumed that people would paythe extra 10% for a particular
item, or they would travel anextra two miles to get this
where a competitor down the roadhas it as well.
Um, if you make assumptions anddon't validate them, uh you can
be going down a path uh to hurtyour business.
Another, and this is verycommon to many businesses that
(09:37):
don't have a solid businessplan, it's I call it the
vanishing wallet trap.
And that's where your cash flowdries up before you're ready to
have enough revenue and marginsto sustain the business.
So suddenly you're three monthsinto a new business and and
you're at, and the answer onthat one is of course to do a
better business plan with cashflow um detailed assumptions and
(10:00):
adjust if things are after amonth or two areas.
Gary Pageau (10:03):
Right, because then because then they may wait too
long.
Yeah, that's right.
You know, at this point inthree months they should be here
and they're there, yeah, andthey don't know how to get from
here to there.
Wiliam Holsten (10:16):
What one more?
I have a title for it.
What's the title?
Uh, I call it flying without amap.
Gary Pageau (10:22):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (10:22):
But lots and lots of entrepreneurs I've seen
in my score mentoring don't havea business plan.
They know what they want to doand they go ahead and do it, and
they're trying it as theythey're building as they fly.
And my advice is always get avery basic build business plan.
And what is your proposition?
How do you differentiate?
What is the business model?
What do the financials looklike?
(10:43):
You can do all these exerciseson paper with even using the
Chat GPT to do some research foryou.
And then you can look at it inblack and white.
Does that make sense?
Gary Pageau (10:53):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (10:53):
And if it doesn't, you can adjust it
before you spend a penny.
Gary Pageau (10:57):
So, for the people who may not be aware, what is
SCORE mentoring?
Wiliam Holsten (11:01):
Thank you for asking.
SCORE is a nationalorganization, it's a business
affiliate of the Federal SmallBusiness Administration.
Uh, it's a network of 10,000volunteers like me that are
available to small businesses tomentor them.
Typically, it's on startup, orif it's on you're at the idea
phase and you want to prepare abusiness plan, or if you're a
(11:23):
small business and you've gotchallenges, you can ask a
mentor, how might I get out ofthis?
There's a website or somethingpeople can go to to.
Yes, it's score sco-re-dorg.
And if you go on to it, you canlearn all about the
organization.
But what to look for is theplace called Find a Mentor.
Okay, you will put in a littlebit about you and then they will
(11:45):
assign you somebody.
We as score mentors are allfree services, and we've got a
library of webinars we can sendyou, uh resources and templates.
But a lot of us, I'm one, I'vegot my long-term business
experience in a corporation andI've run my own aside gig.
We're gonna give you our bestopinions.
Gary Pageau (12:05):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (12:06):
Cool.
That sounds well.
I don't want to deviate intothe scorecast.
I just want to give you a note.
It's probably helpful ifsomebody is saying, gee, I feel
all alone here.
How am I going to get somebodyto talk to about this?
I'm certain that in our 10,000volunteers, some have run
photography-related businessesand would be more familiar than
I am.
Gary Pageau (12:26):
So getting back to your items that you were
listening before about wayspeople can run their business,
it seems to me like one of thecommon factors of those was a
lack of information, right?
Information that is, you know,they didn't under, you know,
didn't understand the market orthey didn't understand something
that was happening.
But what about the other waywhere people have too much
(12:50):
information and they can't acton an almost analysis by
paralysis?
Do you see that happen?
Yes, and I've been guilty ofthat myself.
Wiliam Holsten (12:57):
Uh trying trying to try to get things done, and
I'm not ready to pull thetrigger yet because I need to
know that much more.
And you slow down, andopportunities pass you by
because you you can't really uhact in a timely fashion to
capitalize on a marketopportunity.
I have found personally ChatGPTand some of the AI things,
Google searches help, but youcan say in a free Chat GPT
(13:23):
conversation, I've got these 15things and I'm trying to
accomplish this.
What are the one or two thingsI should pay attention to first?
And it's brilliant.
Watch out for mistakes becauseit's not perfect, but it can be
like a silent partner is goingto distill things for you and
suggest which one or two to payattention to first and why.
(13:45):
And another strength there isyou can go back and say, I don't
understand what you meant bynumber two.
Help me understand why that'simportant.
And you're not spending a dimeand you're getting good
pseudo-consulting advice.
Again, it's up to you to decideis it's smart or not.
Or uh one of the tools in thebook that I'll describe in a bit
(14:05):
is uh ask mentors, experts, ornaive observers.
Right.
Um, you can be out there, anduh, when I was in my side gig
business, which I'll describefor you as well, I felt all
alone.
Things were not going well, andI didn't know where to turn.
I wish I was smart enough tocall a score mentor or to reach
(14:26):
out to somebody who knew mybusiness that I could say, hey,
can I pick your brain for a sec?
Gary Pageau (14:30):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (14:31):
So, what was the side gig?
You can't jump it out there andnot say where it is.
I know it has nothing to dowith photography except we'd use
cameras to take pictures ofwhat we did wrong.
While I was still with my bigcorporation, uh my family asked
me to rent a dunk tank for amake-a-wish foundation carnival
in the hot summer of I think itwas 1999.
(14:53):
And we rented one and we'repreparing to go to help my
sister and her daughter makemoney for the charity.
And two weeks before, uh, therental company called me and
said, Listen, there's a drought.
We're not allowed to rent yousomething that's gonna take 500
gallons to fill.
So uh, do you want to tossacross or some other game?
And I said, No, no, it's gonnabe hot, I want water, I'll
(15:15):
figure this out.
My wife and I sat down at ourkitchen table and we sketched
out, we asked ourselvesquestions.
We said, How do we createsomething, fabricate something
that will deliver the waterexperience and the surprise
without involving 500 gallons?
And what we evolved became agame called, now called Pitch
Burst.
(15:35):
It was a uh 8x10 fiber of woodboard with a bar across, and on
the end was a basketball uhbasket with a water balloon in
it.
So somebody would throw theball, hit the target, and a
pivot would go and pop theballoon over the head of
somebody so water fell down onthem instead of them falling
(15:57):
into it.
We did it for this 95-degreevery humid day in August of
1999, and it was a fantastichit.
They made 500 bucks, and wewent home and said, Boy, that is
smart, that is fun.
I could make that a business.
And then people called andsaid, Where can I get that?
So we went down the path ofgetting a patent and with the
patent in hand, going to a bank,getting an SBA loan of almost
(16:22):
$100,000 that would financemarketing to the rental company
business and the fabrication ofour first hundred units.
We adjusted the design of itjust a little bit because ours
was so successful, and they weremade of wood uh with cheap
parts.
And uh it went into the rentalmarket uh in the next winter,
(16:44):
and we sold about 60 of them.
But when the weather got warmerand people began to rent them
out to their rental customers,the first calls were the way
they loved it.
Then the next calls were, oh,the screws came off, the wooden
parts broke, the adhesive logopanel is peeling off, it looks
like crap, I want my money back,or I want you to fix this.
(17:07):
So we sold 60 of these woodenunits in about three weeks of
the warm weather season.
We uh we used the word uh-oh,or there's worse words to say,
yeah.
We realized we were in troublebecause this is not sustainable.
We knew the experience waswonderful, but the the material
choices we made were bad.
We made all the extra parts anddid all the things and made
(17:29):
refunds where necessary.
Uh, we had spent all the moneyfrom our loan.
We stopped selling, we tookback and decomposed the last 40
units, and then we spent twoyears with more borrowing uh to
have an engineer redesign aforce out of steel.
And that's the fabricationlearning we had that product
(17:50):
pitchburst is still on saletoday.
We sold the patents a whileago, but it's it's the one that
became the bulletproof crowdD-lighter.
So our lessons from that are wedid a test market at that
carnival, so we knew theproposition was popular, but we
didn't do the materials testing.
We we did visit a couple ofrental stores to say, what do
(18:10):
you got?
And how would you use this?
And we only listened to what wewanted to hear.
Oh, we like that, we would buyit.
And I asked them, what happensif it breaks?
They said, if something breaksin a rental store, we fix it.
I said, good.
Uh and I never thought about itagain.
That wasn't true for the other999% of buyers.
When they paid me a thousandbucks, they want it to work, and
(18:31):
they get mad when it doesn't.
I don't blame them.
No.
So that business, we we hadthat game and and several others
over 10, 12 years when we ownedit and ran it.
We learned to understand thecustomers.
We learned to talk, and thecustomers were the middleman,
the rental companies.
So we wanted needed tounderstand their environment,
right?
How they handle and treat thesethings, and what it takes to
(18:53):
succeed there.
We had the pricing down, we hadeverything else.
Just for us, it was materialfit for purpose to make it.
That was my side gig while Iwas running uh brands full-time.
Gary Pageau (19:03):
Well, it sounds like that was actually quite
useful.
Were you able to translate anyof your experience from the
corporate gig over to the sidegig, or vice versa?
Were you able to bring anythingfrom the side hustle into your
corporate gig?
Wiliam Holsten (19:18):
Yes, yes, yes is the answer all three times.
I gave some thought.
Uh the book later is atranslation of much of that.
From the corporate world to theside gig, of course, I had my
MBA in marketing, so I was ableto brand things well, tell the
story well, get things pricedcorrectly.
I even know the the basics ofthe market research we should
(19:38):
have done, but didn't.
Gary Pageau (19:40):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (19:40):
From the side gig side, yes, a lot of times in
a corporate world, you thereare rules and regulations.
They want you to be creative,but you're constrained a lot by
the corporate processes andapproval levels.
I've said that if I used theengineering skills and quality
control skills I used in my gamebusiness, my drug company, um,
(20:04):
people would have died.
It would have been terrible.
By the way, that neverhappened.
There, there are there are lotsof people to protect us from
making mistakes.
But I also said if I had thecorporate structure and approval
processes and things in placein my small company, my side
gate, we would have never gotthe first product felt the gown
because of all the all the redtape and things.
(20:26):
So it it's a both and it was anenriching experience, sometimes
uncomfortable to be involvedin, right?
Uh, but but I learned a ton ofthings.
That actually directly led tome writing this book.
I worked for the company forthe next after that 20 years or
so, and I retired two, threeyears ago.
I finally got to sit down andthink what were the lessons
(20:47):
learned and how might this helpother people?
And it led to the creation ofthe book, and I'll name it now.
It's called Uh oh, How to AvoidUnintentional Blunders That
Derail Entrepreneurial Successand Goof Proof Your Business.
Gary Pageau (21:02):
Okay.
Wiliam Holsten (21:03):
And it's designed for small businesses
and startups and entrepreneurswho are going down the road I
did.
It includes, of course, thestory about the dunk tank and
all the kinds of things that wewent through, but the important
part are the 10 tools in thesecond half of the book, the how
not to uh things.
I applied uh in my day job forthe final 10, 12 years of my big
(21:26):
corporate life, I was leadingcreative workshops for problem
solving and new product ideageneration for consumer
healthcare products.
And we used tools that includeddesign thinking, included
pre-mortems, a whole lot ofother tools and creative problem
solving skill sets.
I've translated those into the10 tools in that book that
(21:50):
people, when they if they pickit up or they look at me online,
they can see these are thingsthat can help me avoid problems.
Okay.
Once the book was done, that'swhen I became the business
mistake prevention specialistbecause I didn't stop my
research there.
I've been digging and diggingto understand it's an art and a
science, what's behind slips andmistakes and things you forget.
(22:11):
And I boiled it down in thebook to uh it's really simple.
How you avoid mistakes is to bethink smartly and be more
aware.
It's as simple as that.
But that's not simple at all.
Right.
When you're running yourbusiness, it's like you're
draining the swamp with amillion alligators around,
you're too worried about yourcompetitors, your customers,
(22:32):
your cash flow, your business,all these things, and you're not
thinking, how do I avoid amistake?
Because that's part of theday-to-day.
Now, making mistakes is anexcellent way to learn.
And sometimes you're payingyour dues when you're new to a
business.
Right.
You're gonna learn from themanyway.
My teaching is about, yeah,some of that is necessary, and
you're gonna not know how toavoid everything, but some of
(22:56):
the bigger ones, not having abusiness plan, not really
understanding cost experience.
Many of those things they arepreventable if you just use your
capital.
Gary Pageau (23:06):
Right.
So what are some of the signssomeone would have that
something is a serious mistakeversus just a temporary hiccup?
Because what I see happen a lotis people tend to overlook a
major problem uh until it's toolate.
Wiliam Holsten (23:28):
It's true that you may not know something is a
major threat until it's toolate.
It's because things cascade andand compound.
Uh, you don't know that becauseyou forgot to lock your door
when you were closing up on aSaturday night, right?
That there could be a risk ofthreat, fire, somebody getting
into it that you don't want to,or uh the cash flow uh before.
Gary Pageau (23:53):
And that's a very typical thing, right?
Wiliam Holsten (23:54):
You you don't know that you oh oh oh crap, I'm
out of money.
We have to close, I don't knowwhat to do.
Gary Pageau (24:01):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (24:01):
Part of it, one of my tools that I actually,
it's one of my favorites, I callit uh-ohology.
It's learning from otherpeople's mistakes.
Okay.
Uh, it was Warren Buffett, he'squoted often as saying, it's
great to learn from mistakes,it's better to learn from other
people's mistakes.
Right.
I look the book has severalexamples of other people's
(24:24):
mistakes and learning from them.
The most dramatic one was askydiver in Pennsylvania years
ago, who was asked to film uhanother couple, a student and an
instructor, as they werejumping and opening their
parachutes.
So this guy, Ivan McGuire, uh,this is the years before GoPro
and even digital cameras, he gotuh film camera and scratched it
(24:47):
to himself.
Yeah, and they were all up at10,000 feet.
He uh they they were they gotthe okay from the pilots, ready
to go, thumbs up.
He jumps out, turns on thecamera, points it up, gives them
a thumbs up, they jump, theypull their ripcords, parachutes
open.
It was a beautiful, beautifulshot.
Then Ivan went for his ownripcord and only at that moment
(25:10):
realized that he had forgottenhis parachute.
It was about the same weight asthe parachute, and he got so
mixed up with getting ittechnically rated that he forgot
it.
He was an experienced guy.
How this happened, who knows?
He did fall to his death.
It's tragic.
Oh my god.
The example I use in my uhologydiscussion is yes, none of us,
(25:31):
or very few of us, areskydivers, I am not.
But what one thing in yourbusiness situation, if you ever
forgot it or neglected it, couldbe fatal or really damaging to
your business.
The not locking or not renewinginsurance, and then something
happens.
Uh, in in the photo business,you can all think of what would
be really terrible.
Gary Pageau (25:52):
Oh, yeah, just neglecting the order, not
maintaining your equipment.
Yeah.
Wiliam Holsten (25:56):
So so I've I've begun writing monthly.
My book has a bunch ofexamples, but each month I
publish uhology, the newsletter,it it highlights uh a new
example and some lessons you canyou can learn from it.
Gary Pageau (26:09):
Awesome.
Well, where can people go formore information about the book
and the newsletter and allthings William Holston?
Wiliam Holsten (26:17):
Well, but that it's it's my name.
My name is William.
It's my website, my name.com,William Holston, H-O-L-S-T-E-N
dot com.
And there you can findinformation about my teaching,
the book.
Uh, you can go to the resourcessection and find the uh oology
monthly news.
(26:38):
You can sign up for it.
And you can also, uh when youget to the landing page, look
for this $10,000 mistakechecklist.
It's uh the it describes alleight of the most often
entrepreneur blunders, and itincludes what is a mistake, why
does it hurt, and how do yougoofproof it?
What tools can help you avoidthose things?
(26:59):
We've talked about about fourof them.
There's four more, and there'smore coming, by the way.
Williamholston.com.
Gary Pageau (27:05):
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much,William, for your time and
expertise.
Really enjoyed theconversation, learned a few
things, and uh it was just kindof fun to uh hear how you were
able to turn a kind of side giginto a patented product.
I mean, that's a whole notherstory.
So thank you so much forsharing that.
Wiliam Holsten (27:24):
Thank you, guys.
Uh I appreciated the invitationto be here.
Erin Manning (27:27):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
www.theadpixelssociety.com.
Welcome to the Dark Pixels Society Podcast, the
Photo Imaging Industry's leading news source.
The Dead Pixels Society Podcastis brought to you by Mediaclip,
Advertek Printing, andIndependent Photo Imagers.
Gary Pageau (00:17):
Hello, and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society
Podcast.
I'm your host, Gary Pageau.
Today we're joined by WilliamHolsten, who is
a Business Mistake PreventionSpecialist, Author and Mentor.
And William's coming to us fromDelaware.
Hello, William.
How are you
Hey Gary, happy to see you.
Thanks for having me on
Before we record it started, wewere just chatting and we went
(00:41):
down a few industry rat holes.
Um, you're not from theindustry, but you have a lot of
experience with mistakes.
How did your corporate careerstart before you got into being
an author and consultant?
Wiliam Holsten (00:53):
I was interested in college, in advertising and
communications, got my degree incommunications, and was hired
at an advertising agency on LongIsland.
And uh I was an ad writer and Idid some account work, and that
business was closing, and Inetworked to find the next job.
And it was as a a writer in theadvertising department of
(01:17):
Sterling Drug in New York.
Right.
And uh there I was writingpackaging copy and ads for the
global business of bare aspirinand Phillips, Milk and Magnesia,
and a whole bunch of thingslike that.
Uh so that that's how I gotinto the corporate world.
Lots of things evolved in the30.
(01:37):
I was they were there 35, 37years through acquisitions and
mergers and lots of things.
It led me to become uh amarketing brand manager on
Sterling's major brands, Bayeraspirin and things.
And then Bayer, the Germancompany, bought Sterling, and I
continued on in brand managementand later in innovation.
(01:58):
So it's a it's a weaving story.
I didn't have to look for jobs,but the jobs came to me because
of my skill set.
At that time, uh, Gary, I knowyour audience is really
interested in photography.
As you all know, Kodak boughtSterling Drug before Bayer did.
And actually, Bayer was a lateracquirer of the same assets of
(02:19):
the business.
And we talked before therecording, it's a long, long,
long story that's veryinteresting for another time.
Gary Pageau (02:26):
Yeah, that's for sure.
Yeah, the whole uh EastmanKodak buying Sterling Drug,
patent portfolio, and uh allthose kind of things, a whole
nother story, which is uh maybewe'll do a uh an after show
sometime or something like that.
So let's talk a little bitabout you know, your long career
business.
You know, when I talk to peoplewho've been in corporate
(02:47):
America for a long time, Ialways like to say they've seen
some things, right?
They've kind of seen thingsthat happen that that's
repetitive behavior that happensover and over again.
You know, mistakes and why isit then that people repeat
mistakes that happen in businessso often?
Wiliam Holsten (03:07):
Well, this applies to small businesses.
Oh, absolutely.
I know my focus is on smallbusinesses, but thinking back in
the corporate world, yeah,mistakes continue to happen
because of many factors.
One of them is seniorleadership turnover.
The next generation of leadersis hired, comes in, and they
say, Oh, the way it was done inthe past was wrong, we'll change
(03:30):
this.
And the long-term people, I wasalways one of those, can say,
Well, been down this roadbefore, but I'll give it my
best, and the result is oftenthe same.
These have to do withunderstanding customer
preferences, uh, understandingsupply chain things,
understanding competitivereactions.
Uh, there are patterns toobserve and learn from.
Gary Pageau (03:53):
So, yeah, we want to tell most about small
business because that's my myaudience primarily, but I think
what happens is, you know, a lotof the practices in big
business, big mistakes, are alsocan be done by small business,
right?
Same sort of thing, especiallywhen you run into things like
the mindset of, well, we'veeither always done it this way,
(04:13):
so we're not going to makechanges, or on the other thing
was, like you said, there's amanagement change or an
ownership change in a business,and they think, well, we want to
judge the entire process andinvent new things.
So let's take an example ofsomeone who let's say there is a
management change within abusiness.
What would be the things theyshould first look at when maybe
(04:36):
they want to improve things butnot make wholesale changes?
Wiliam Holsten (04:39):
My first thought on that is to uh immerse in the
customer experience.
Many times, especially smallbusinesses don't have a big
market research department.
Gary Pageau (04:51):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (04:52):
And they might make assumptions on what
customers think, what theirexperience is, how they in your
in the case of photography, howthey buy, where they buy, what
their experience expectationsare.
If you're new to a business andyou haven't gone and met 10, 20
customers face to face, right,and have a just a QA.
(05:13):
How's it going?
What do you love?
What do you wish for?
You're kind of blindingyourself to the possibilities.
This is true for somebodystarting a business, some for
somebody taking over a business.
Gary Pageau (05:25):
So when you're looking at things like what the
customer is telling you, right?
Let's say, for example, I'mtaking over a photo store and
I'm buying it from existingmanager and I want to meet some
of the regular users.
What are some typical questionsI would want to ask when I'm
not just looking for positivefeedback, right?
(05:46):
I'm not because becausetypically speaking, when people
do face-to-face research, thepeople who are being interviewed
really want to please thepeople.
So they maybe not be accurateor they lie if well because they
want to they want to be nice.
Wiliam Holsten (06:00):
Questions can include, now you won't hurt my
feelings.
I want blunt responses.
So you you set that up, butthen you ask, you can ask what's
wrong, and they may not go downthat path, but you can ask what
do you wish for?
Okay.
Uh in the last time, 10 timesyou came in this store, uh, you
experienced this, this, andthis.
(06:20):
Do you what would make thatexperience 10% better if we did
what you know uh for for youpersonally?
Gary Pageau (06:27):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (06:28):
And then there's a matter of uh uh asking the
customer, what kind of businessare you in?
Why do you come and buy here?
Right.
Can I come to your home or yourlab or your shop and see how
you use these products?
Where are they stored?
How do you open them?
How do you discard of use ifit's film canisters?
(06:48):
How do you control the digitalassets that you create with what
you buy here?
Understanding the entirejourney really informs you to
think how best to serve thatjourney, and then there's always
opportunities to improve andgive them something they didn't
ask for because you understandthe context.
Gary Pageau (07:09):
Yeah, that is one of the challenges I think when
people get into business, wherethey either are self-involved,
they get into it because theylike whatever it is, right?
They like coffee so they openup a coffee shop, they like
drinking beer so they open up abrewery, they like photography
so they open up a photo store.
Well, actually, I have one ofmy friends in the industry who
said to me once, nothing killsyour love of photography faster
(07:34):
than owning a camera store.
No, you get down to the themiddle growth.
Yeah, because there aredifferent skills other than the
passion in the business, right?
It it's I mean, generallythat's important, but there's
certain skills and things youneed to have to make the
businesses thrive.
Um, when you talk aboutmistakes people make, you
(07:56):
mentioned not knowing thecustomers.
What are some other mistakesthat people make in their
business?
Maybe after they've had it fora while, and they tend to just
be either complacent or theybecome just kind of burnt out.
Wiliam Holsten (08:08):
There's a whole list, and these are generic to
many small businesses.
I've seen some in my in mymentoring as a score mentor, uh,
but I've compiled a list andI'll I'll offer to your
listeners at the end of this.
Uh, I call it the $10,000mistake checklist.
It's a list of the the topeight things that continue to
(08:29):
happen here and there uh acrossbusinesses.
Number one is the no oneactually needs this syndrome.
This is where people uh getimmersed and impassioned about
an idea for a product, a servicethat they love so much and they
want to put it out there.
And they get it out there ifthey don't do appropriate
(08:52):
research and find out nobodywants this.
They're the only ones that loveit.
And an answer for that is to dosome early test and learn.
So you talk about it, youdescribe it, and you listen to
feedback so you can build andshape it to something people do
like.
Another common mistake is deathby assumption.
It's along the same lines thatuh you get out there and you
(09:14):
assumed that people would paythe extra 10% for a particular
item, or they would travel anextra two miles to get this
where a competitor down the roadhas it as well.
Um, if you make assumptions anddon't validate them, uh you can
be going down a path uh to hurtyour business.
Another, and this is verycommon to many businesses that
(09:37):
don't have a solid businessplan, it's I call it the
vanishing wallet trap.
And that's where your cash flowdries up before you're ready to
have enough revenue and marginsto sustain the business.
So suddenly you're three monthsinto a new business and and
you're at, and the answer onthat one is of course to do a
better business plan with cashflow um detailed assumptions and
(10:00):
adjust if things are after amonth or two areas.
Gary Pageau (10:03):
Right, because then because then they may wait too
long.
Yeah, that's right.
You know, at this point inthree months they should be here
and they're there, yeah, andthey don't know how to get from
here to there.
Wiliam Holsten (10:16):
What one more?
I have a title for it.
What's the title?
Uh, I call it flying without amap.
Gary Pageau (10:22):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (10:22):
But lots and lots of entrepreneurs I've seen
in my score mentoring don't havea business plan.
They know what they want to doand they go ahead and do it, and
they're trying it as theythey're building as they fly.
And my advice is always get avery basic build business plan.
And what is your proposition?
How do you differentiate?
What is the business model?
What do the financials looklike?
(10:43):
You can do all these exerciseson paper with even using the
Chat GPT to do some research foryou.
And then you can look at it inblack and white.
Does that make sense?
Gary Pageau (10:53):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (10:53):
And if it doesn't, you can adjust it
before you spend a penny.
Gary Pageau (10:57):
So, for the people who may not be aware, what is
SCORE mentoring?
Wiliam Holsten (11:01):
Thank you for asking.
SCORE is a nationalorganization, it's a business
affiliate of the Federal SmallBusiness Administration.
Uh, it's a network of 10,000volunteers like me that are
available to small businesses tomentor them.
Typically, it's on startup, orif it's on you're at the idea
phase and you want to prepare abusiness plan, or if you're a
(11:23):
small business and you've gotchallenges, you can ask a
mentor, how might I get out ofthis?
There's a website or somethingpeople can go to to.
Yes, it's score sco-re-dorg.
And if you go on to it, you canlearn all about the
organization.
But what to look for is theplace called Find a Mentor.
Okay, you will put in a littlebit about you and then they will
(11:45):
assign you somebody.
We as score mentors are allfree services, and we've got a
library of webinars we can sendyou, uh resources and templates.
But a lot of us, I'm one, I'vegot my long-term business
experience in a corporation andI've run my own aside gig.
We're gonna give you our bestopinions.
Gary Pageau (12:05):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (12:06):
Cool.
That sounds well.
I don't want to deviate intothe scorecast.
I just want to give you a note.
It's probably helpful ifsomebody is saying, gee, I feel
all alone here.
How am I going to get somebodyto talk to about this?
I'm certain that in our 10,000volunteers, some have run
photography-related businessesand would be more familiar than
I am.
Gary Pageau (12:26):
So getting back to your items that you were
listening before about wayspeople can run their business,
it seems to me like one of thecommon factors of those was a
lack of information, right?
Information that is, you know,they didn't under, you know,
didn't understand the market orthey didn't understand something
that was happening.
But what about the other waywhere people have too much
(12:50):
information and they can't acton an almost analysis by
paralysis?
Do you see that happen?
Yes, and I've been guilty ofthat myself.
Wiliam Holsten (12:57):
Uh trying trying to try to get things done, and
I'm not ready to pull thetrigger yet because I need to
know that much more.
And you slow down, andopportunities pass you by
because you you can't really uhact in a timely fashion to
capitalize on a marketopportunity.
I have found personally ChatGPTand some of the AI things,
Google searches help, but youcan say in a free Chat GPT
(13:23):
conversation, I've got these 15things and I'm trying to
accomplish this.
What are the one or two thingsI should pay attention to first?
And it's brilliant.
Watch out for mistakes becauseit's not perfect, but it can be
like a silent partner is goingto distill things for you and
suggest which one or two to payattention to first and why.
(13:45):
And another strength there isyou can go back and say, I don't
understand what you meant bynumber two.
Help me understand why that'simportant.
And you're not spending a dimeand you're getting good
pseudo-consulting advice.
Again, it's up to you to decideis it's smart or not.
Or uh one of the tools in thebook that I'll describe in a bit
(14:05):
is uh ask mentors, experts, ornaive observers.
Right.
Um, you can be out there, anduh, when I was in my side gig
business, which I'll describefor you as well, I felt all
alone.
Things were not going well, andI didn't know where to turn.
I wish I was smart enough tocall a score mentor or to reach
(14:26):
out to somebody who knew mybusiness that I could say, hey,
can I pick your brain for a sec?
Gary Pageau (14:30):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (14:31):
So, what was the side gig?
You can't jump it out there andnot say where it is.
I know it has nothing to dowith photography except we'd use
cameras to take pictures ofwhat we did wrong.
While I was still with my bigcorporation, uh my family asked
me to rent a dunk tank for amake-a-wish foundation carnival
in the hot summer of I think itwas 1999.
(14:53):
And we rented one and we'repreparing to go to help my
sister and her daughter makemoney for the charity.
And two weeks before, uh, therental company called me and
said, Listen, there's a drought.
We're not allowed to rent yousomething that's gonna take 500
gallons to fill.
So uh, do you want to tossacross or some other game?
And I said, No, no, it's gonnabe hot, I want water, I'll
(15:15):
figure this out.
My wife and I sat down at ourkitchen table and we sketched
out, we asked ourselvesquestions.
We said, How do we createsomething, fabricate something
that will deliver the waterexperience and the surprise
without involving 500 gallons?
And what we evolved became agame called, now called Pitch
Burst.
(15:35):
It was a uh 8x10 fiber of woodboard with a bar across, and on
the end was a basketball uhbasket with a water balloon in
it.
So somebody would throw theball, hit the target, and a
pivot would go and pop theballoon over the head of
somebody so water fell down onthem instead of them falling
(15:57):
into it.
We did it for this 95-degreevery humid day in August of
1999, and it was a fantastichit.
They made 500 bucks, and wewent home and said, Boy, that is
smart, that is fun.
I could make that a business.
And then people called andsaid, Where can I get that?
So we went down the path ofgetting a patent and with the
patent in hand, going to a bank,getting an SBA loan of almost
(16:22):
$100,000 that would financemarketing to the rental company
business and the fabrication ofour first hundred units.
We adjusted the design of itjust a little bit because ours
was so successful, and they weremade of wood uh with cheap
parts.
And uh it went into the rentalmarket uh in the next winter,
(16:44):
and we sold about 60 of them.
But when the weather got warmerand people began to rent them
out to their rental customers,the first calls were the way
they loved it.
Then the next calls were, oh,the screws came off, the wooden
parts broke, the adhesive logopanel is peeling off, it looks
like crap, I want my money back,or I want you to fix this.
(17:07):
So we sold 60 of these woodenunits in about three weeks of
the warm weather season.
We uh we used the word uh-oh,or there's worse words to say,
yeah.
We realized we were in troublebecause this is not sustainable.
We knew the experience waswonderful, but the the material
choices we made were bad.
We made all the extra parts anddid all the things and made
(17:29):
refunds where necessary.
Uh, we had spent all the moneyfrom our loan.
We stopped selling, we tookback and decomposed the last 40
units, and then we spent twoyears with more borrowing uh to
have an engineer redesign aforce out of steel.
And that's the fabricationlearning we had that product
(17:50):
pitchburst is still on saletoday.
We sold the patents a whileago, but it's it's the one that
became the bulletproof crowdD-lighter.
So our lessons from that are wedid a test market at that
carnival, so we knew theproposition was popular, but we
didn't do the materials testing.
We we did visit a couple ofrental stores to say, what do
(18:10):
you got?
And how would you use this?
And we only listened to what wewanted to hear.
Oh, we like that, we would buyit.
And I asked them, what happensif it breaks?
They said, if something breaksin a rental store, we fix it.
I said, good.
Uh and I never thought about itagain.
That wasn't true for the other999% of buyers.
When they paid me a thousandbucks, they want it to work, and
(18:31):
they get mad when it doesn't.
I don't blame them.
No.
So that business, we we hadthat game and and several others
over 10, 12 years when we ownedit and ran it.
We learned to understand thecustomers.
We learned to talk, and thecustomers were the middleman,
the rental companies.
So we wanted needed tounderstand their environment,
right?
How they handle and treat thesethings, and what it takes to
(18:53):
succeed there.
We had the pricing down, we hadeverything else.
Just for us, it was materialfit for purpose to make it.
That was my side gig while Iwas running uh brands full-time.
Gary Pageau (19:03):
Well, it sounds like that was actually quite
useful.
Were you able to translate anyof your experience from the
corporate gig over to the sidegig, or vice versa?
Were you able to bring anythingfrom the side hustle into your
corporate gig?
Wiliam Holsten (19:18):
Yes, yes, yes is the answer all three times.
I gave some thought.
Uh the book later is atranslation of much of that.
From the corporate world to theside gig, of course, I had my
MBA in marketing, so I was ableto brand things well, tell the
story well, get things pricedcorrectly.
I even know the the basics ofthe market research we should
(19:38):
have done, but didn't.
Gary Pageau (19:40):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (19:40):
From the side gig side, yes, a lot of times in
a corporate world, you thereare rules and regulations.
They want you to be creative,but you're constrained a lot by
the corporate processes andapproval levels.
I've said that if I used theengineering skills and quality
control skills I used in my gamebusiness, my drug company, um,
(20:04):
people would have died.
It would have been terrible.
By the way, that neverhappened.
There, there are there are lotsof people to protect us from
making mistakes.
But I also said if I had thecorporate structure and approval
processes and things in placein my small company, my side
gate, we would have never gotthe first product felt the gown
because of all the all the redtape and things.
(20:26):
So it it's a both and it was anenriching experience, sometimes
uncomfortable to be involvedin, right?
Uh, but but I learned a ton ofthings.
That actually directly led tome writing this book.
I worked for the company forthe next after that 20 years or
so, and I retired two, threeyears ago.
I finally got to sit down andthink what were the lessons
(20:47):
learned and how might this helpother people?
And it led to the creation ofthe book, and I'll name it now.
It's called Uh oh, How to AvoidUnintentional Blunders That
Derail Entrepreneurial Successand Goof Proof Your Business.
Gary Pageau (21:02):
Okay.
Wiliam Holsten (21:03):
And it's designed for small businesses
and startups and entrepreneurswho are going down the road I
did.
It includes, of course, thestory about the dunk tank and
all the kinds of things that wewent through, but the important
part are the 10 tools in thesecond half of the book, the how
not to uh things.
I applied uh in my day job forthe final 10, 12 years of my big
(21:26):
corporate life, I was leadingcreative workshops for problem
solving and new product ideageneration for consumer
healthcare products.
And we used tools that includeddesign thinking, included
pre-mortems, a whole lot ofother tools and creative problem
solving skill sets.
I've translated those into the10 tools in that book that
(21:50):
people, when they if they pickit up or they look at me online,
they can see these are thingsthat can help me avoid problems.
Okay.
Once the book was done, that'swhen I became the business
mistake prevention specialistbecause I didn't stop my
research there.
I've been digging and diggingto understand it's an art and a
science, what's behind slips andmistakes and things you forget.
(22:11):
And I boiled it down in thebook to uh it's really simple.
How you avoid mistakes is to bethink smartly and be more
aware.
It's as simple as that.
But that's not simple at all.
Right.
When you're running yourbusiness, it's like you're
draining the swamp with amillion alligators around,
you're too worried about yourcompetitors, your customers,
(22:32):
your cash flow, your business,all these things, and you're not
thinking, how do I avoid amistake?
Because that's part of theday-to-day.
Now, making mistakes is anexcellent way to learn.
And sometimes you're payingyour dues when you're new to a
business.
Right.
You're gonna learn from themanyway.
My teaching is about, yeah,some of that is necessary, and
you're gonna not know how toavoid everything, but some of
(22:56):
the bigger ones, not having abusiness plan, not really
understanding cost experience.
Many of those things they arepreventable if you just use your
capital.
Gary Pageau (23:06):
Right.
So what are some of the signssomeone would have that
something is a serious mistakeversus just a temporary hiccup?
Because what I see happen a lotis people tend to overlook a
major problem uh until it's toolate.
Wiliam Holsten (23:28):
It's true that you may not know something is a
major threat until it's toolate.
It's because things cascade andand compound.
Uh, you don't know that becauseyou forgot to lock your door
when you were closing up on aSaturday night, right?
That there could be a risk ofthreat, fire, somebody getting
into it that you don't want to,or uh the cash flow uh before.
Gary Pageau (23:53):
And that's a very typical thing, right?
Wiliam Holsten (23:54):
You you don't know that you oh oh oh crap, I'm
out of money.
We have to close, I don't knowwhat to do.
Gary Pageau (24:01):
Right.
Wiliam Holsten (24:01):
Part of it, one of my tools that I actually,
it's one of my favorites, I callit uh-ohology.
It's learning from otherpeople's mistakes.
Okay.
Uh, it was Warren Buffett, he'squoted often as saying, it's
great to learn from mistakes,it's better to learn from other
people's mistakes.
Right.
I look the book has severalexamples of other people's
(24:24):
mistakes and learning from them.
The most dramatic one was askydiver in Pennsylvania years
ago, who was asked to film uhanother couple, a student and an
instructor, as they werejumping and opening their
parachutes.
So this guy, Ivan McGuire, uh,this is the years before GoPro
and even digital cameras, he gotuh film camera and scratched it
(24:47):
to himself.
Yeah, and they were all up at10,000 feet.
He uh they they were they gotthe okay from the pilots, ready
to go, thumbs up.
He jumps out, turns on thecamera, points it up, gives them
a thumbs up, they jump, theypull their ripcords, parachutes
open.
It was a beautiful, beautifulshot.
Then Ivan went for his ownripcord and only at that moment
(25:10):
realized that he had forgottenhis parachute.
It was about the same weight asthe parachute, and he got so
mixed up with getting ittechnically rated that he forgot
it.
He was an experienced guy.
How this happened, who knows?
He did fall to his death.
It's tragic.
Oh my god.
The example I use in my uhologydiscussion is yes, none of us,
(25:31):
or very few of us, areskydivers, I am not.
But what one thing in yourbusiness situation, if you ever
forgot it or neglected it, couldbe fatal or really damaging to
your business.
The not locking or not renewinginsurance, and then something
happens.
Uh, in in the photo business,you can all think of what would
be really terrible.
Gary Pageau (25:52):
Oh, yeah, just neglecting the order, not
maintaining your equipment.
Yeah.
Wiliam Holsten (25:56):
So so I've I've begun writing monthly.
My book has a bunch ofexamples, but each month I
publish uhology, the newsletter,it it highlights uh a new
example and some lessons you canyou can learn from it.
Gary Pageau (26:09):
Awesome.
Well, where can people go formore information about the book
and the newsletter and allthings William Holston?
Wiliam Holsten (26:17):
Well, but that it's it's my name.
My name is William.
It's my website, my name.com,William Holston, H-O-L-S-T-E-N
dot com.
And there you can findinformation about my teaching,
the book.
Uh, you can go to the resourcessection and find the uh oology
monthly news.
(26:38):
You can sign up for it.
And you can also, uh when youget to the landing page, look
for this $10,000 mistakechecklist.
It's uh the it describes alleight of the most often
entrepreneur blunders, and itincludes what is a mistake, why
does it hurt, and how do yougoofproof it?
What tools can help you avoidthose things?
(26:59):
We've talked about about fourof them.
There's four more, and there'smore coming, by the way.
Williamholston.com.
Gary Pageau (27:05):
Awesome.
Well, thank you so much,William, for your time and
expertise.
Really enjoyed theconversation, learned a few
things, and uh it was just kindof fun to uh hear how you were
able to turn a kind of side giginto a patented product.
I mean, that's a whole notherstory.
So thank you so much forsharing that.
Wiliam Holsten (27:24):
Thank you, guys.
Uh I appreciated the invitationto be here.
Erin Manning (27:27):
Thank you for listening to the Dead Pixels
Society podcast.
Read more great stories andsign up for the newsletter at
www.theadpixelssociety.com.
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