Yo! Podcast

Rogie King is a larger than life designer who rides the intersection of art and code. For decades he has carving up digital screens, producing the most delicious pixel treats. Each layered with subtle details and personality. We chat about his designer advocate role at Figma, what makes a good community, how to get started with your first Figma plugins, what he'd do if he took over Dribbble and we rank the all time horror film greats in a brand new intermission called Rogie's Fright Night.Watch the full interview on YouTube:https://yo.fm/rogieSponsor:A massive love-filled thanks to Webflow who encouraged me to go all-in on the video format. They are the full season 3 sponsor <3Chapters:(00:00) The Pixel King(01:10) The horse-headed crocodile(03:54) Moving to Salt Lake City(05:16) Sponsor: Webflow(06:20) Introvert Extrovert(08:26) Intermission: No Context(10:46) Scary Fast Figma(11:59) Designer Advocate?(18:59) Figma community(23:08) How to start a community(25:17) Who is doing community right?(27:11) Collecting Disney pins(28:40) Rob birding and nerding(31:05) Cameo: Yo! Grace Walker (S3E3)(31:15) How would you revive Dribbble?(35:35) Creating Figma plugins(45:22) Intermission: Overrated Underrated(47:34) Hunting and eating your own meat(53:10) The Sandwich Generation(60:01) Find your people(62:37) Where to follow Rogie(64:00) Bonus: Rogie's Fright Night

Dann Petty is a freelance designer, educator, event host and prolific maker with a big portfolio of side projects. His energy is infectious and you can just see he is having so much fun with his work. We chat about freelancing, what it takes to say yes or no to opportunities, his favorite client gift, the creative process behind his fun tech ads, and I put Dann on the spot to design a freelance portfolio from scratch. Watch the full interview on YouTube:https://yo.fm/dannSponsor:A massive love-filled thanks to Webflow who encouraged me to go all-in on the video format. They are the full season 3 sponsor <3Chapters:(00:00) Yo! Returns  (00:56) The Right Hander  (01:49) Intermission: No Context  (05:20) Design Full-Time P1(05:59) Sponsor: Webflow  (06:48) Design Full-Time P1(08:12) Creating Courses  (09:35) Rob from the Edit  (10:58) Yes or No  (12:41) Design Commercials  (16:40) One Page Love Sponsorships (18:15) Cameo: Yo! Rogie King (S3E2)  (18:46) Dreaming of Snow  (20:06) Dann's Inspiration  (21:09) Intermission: Overrated, Underrated  (22:57) YouTube vs Twitter  (26:54) Outsourcing Video  (28:32) Cameo: Yo! Grace Walker (S3E3)  (29:35) How to Design a Portfolio  (32:11) Anxiety  (34:07) "Can I get a health talk"  (34:56) How much is enough?  (37:43) Where to follow Dann  (38:47) Art is Hard.

Traf is a Canadian designer and digital craftsman, with an impressive portfolio of online creations. His journey skyrocketed in 2020 when his minimal iOS12 icon pack became a viral hit. He amassed a staggering six-figure sum in just six days, and has since raked in upwards of $400,000. Now paved with runway, Traf further leaned into his passions, collaborating on NFTs, forging innovative more digital products and more recently launched a course on how he builds with Framer. We rap about the the tech stack behind his online course, working solo and staying lean, his dedication to minimalism, creator mental health and why he's so bullish on the potential of Framer.

Matthew Smith (@whale) is a successful entrepreneur and product designer. He has worked with figures and organizations like Seth Godin, the Gates Foundation, and the US Postal Service. In 2014, he co-created Really Good Emails, which quickly became the world's premier source for email design inspiration. In 2021, driven by his pursuit of meaningful work, Smith co-founded Bunsen, a niche creative studio aiding science-oriented companies with strategy, branding, and messaging. We rap about our inherent desire to curate online inspiration, strategies for effective sales pitches to clients, and just how to find an industry you'll love working in.

Jorn van Dijk  is a Dutch designer, startup investor and CEO of the Framer website builder. After leaving his role as one of the early product designers at Facebook, he co-founded Framer in 2014, which was then a prototyping tool. Nine years and several strategic shifts later, Framer evolved into a robust website builder, earning admiration from top designers worldwide. We rap about the upcoming road to $100m revenue, explore their product roadmap, the potential impact of AI on the template building industry and just how Framer hype up a good product launch.

Michael Riddering AKA Ridd is an experienced designer who recently found huge success teaching online. After strategically providing a ton of free value across multiple networks, he launched his Figma Academy in 2022 earning over $300,000 in the first 4 months. This green-lit and helped boost his next startup Dive, an online learning platform with a world class team to help level up your design career. We rap about what it takes to stand out as a UX designer, how AI could assist online eduction and we get practical with a value-packed case study on how to plan, hype and launch a digital product if you have no audience.

Drew Wilson is an accomplished designer, developer and entrepreneur with a prolific portfolio of online projects. In 2014 he founded payment startup Plasso which was later acquired by GoDaddy. Drew now works on his new venture Logical to help startups visually build and launch web services. We rap about AI disrupting the film industry, surfing with beefy sharks, why Letter Banking closed down, film vs web, his passion project Ryte and exactly what angel investors are looking for in pitch decks.(01:17) Surfing or Legoland(02:36) Road trip across 48 United States(03:42) Sharks vs Orcas(05:34) Intermission: Overrated, Underrated(06:53) What is Logical all about?(12:04) How important is it to distill your idea down into a one liner for potential investors?(13:14) If you can’t narrow your idea to a tagline, is it fair to say you aren’t focused enough on a niche to launch?(14:18) What is essential to include in a deck for potential investors?  (16:47) Logical: will it cater for cached layers?(18:27) Logical: authentication types(19:37) Logical: team members(20:16) Logical: Any investors?(21:00) Intermission: No Context(22:05) Film vs web(23:13) If your Plasso exit was hypothetically 100x - what are you funding next?(26:15) Sonic movie success(27:22) Logan, one of his favourite movies(28:26) Early film projects(29:25) Is there an urge to fix something in film industry or do you want to make great stories?(31:20) Will AI disrupt film?    (36:00) Letter Banking: What happened?(38:35) Letter Banking:In hindsight do you think there were indicators?(39:40) Letter Banking: Could you not replace the Series A investor?(43:35) Letter Banking: What is the silver lining?(45:15) Is Logical a breath of fresh air after a banking startup?(47:37) Do you think startups are missing an opportunity for video to amplify their marketing efforts?(50:27) What is Ryte? Is it danger zone working dual with Logical?(55:14) Ryte: Are you breaking through some engineering feat that hasn't been built before?(55:40) Ryte: Do you build this to solve your own problems or to be acquired?(56:15) AI: What advice do you have for listeners scare of upcoming AI landscape?  

Dru Riley is the founder and editor of the successful Trends.vc newsletter. Boasting over 50,000 subscribers and 1,000 Pro members, Dru dedicates all his time to deliver highly informative reports to his growing community of business owners and marketers. We rap about the software he uses, growth vs retention, mental health, social media vs community, and what it takes to run a premium newsletter publication.

Danny Postma is a Dutch developer, maker and Landing Page specialist currently residing in Bali, Indonesia. In 2020 he paired his Landing Page expertise with a new passion for programming, to launch Headlime, an AI-powered headline generator for marketers. Fast forward a rollercoaster 7-months of working in public, with several product iterations, Danny sold Headlime for a USD 7-figures. Now financially independent, Danny spends his time building where his AI curiosity leads and has landed up working on StockAI.com and ProfilePicture.AI. We rap about AI trends, the shady lifetime deal black market, if dot com domains are worth the investment and the most common mistakes people are making with their Landing Pages. 

Matt D. Smith (@mds) is an exceptional UI designer with a prolific catalog of design-related side projects. His most recent offering is Shift Nudge, an online learning experience to master designing beautiful and accessible interfaces. We go  deep into course creation, the top 3 mistakes new UI designers are making, how he got his 3-letter Twitter handle and where we draw the line between copying a design and drawing inspiration.

Meagan and Andrew Couldwell are a designer/developer couple currently based in Los Angeles, California.Meagan, originally from Florida, is a seasoned designer having worked with the likes of Twitter, Campaign Monitor and other leading startups.Andrew, originally from Yorkshire, has also spent years in the game, leading the design of Adobe Portfolio and tasked to build the design systems for WeWork.Together they published the book 'Laying The Foundations', a comprehensive guide to understanding and implementing Design Systems.We have such a fun chat discussing book publishing, working with newborn twins, design inspiration from Disney, crafting color schemes, what makes a good boss, and even squeeze in a couples quiz right at the end:) 

Oliur is a designer, photographer, YouTuber and entrepreneur based in the UK. Having amassed over 100,000 followers on several different platforms, Oliur has become well known for his slick, minimal style. This clean aesthetic is also evident in his growing catalog of beautifully crafted digital and tangible products. We have a chilled convo about humble beginnings, creating freedom through products, his upcoming course, minimalism, and why it's important to re-invest in yourself. 

Derek Sivers is an author, musician and entrepreneur famously known for founding CD Baby. What started as a hobby, turned intro an independant music juggernaut helping over 150,000 musicians sell $100m worth of music. However after selling CD Baby for a healthy sum back in 2008, Derek decided to not let money dictate his path and started a trust where 5% of the trusts value would be paid out to him annually, with the rest ultimately going to charity. He went on to write the hit book 'Anything You Want' in 2011, a personal favorite of mine that helped motivate me take the leap to work on my side projects full time. Derek and I have an absolutely blast reminiscing about our most memorable years in music also covering creativity, essentialism, Hendrix vs Bowie, his disregard for analytics, how to stand out online in 2020 and his secret to replying to 6000 emails in 10 days. 

Jeff Sheldon is the owner, designer and driving force behind the brand, Ugmonk. From humble beginnings entering t-shirt design contests to raising over $400k on kickstarter for the Gather desk organizer, Ugmonk is no overnight success. Jeff has consistently been shipping meticulously crafted products for over a decade and in-turn amassed a huge loyal following. We chat about his blend of business and personal branding, minimalism, effective social media channels, how he avoids burnout, Philly Cheesesteaks and the magic number for free shipping in the US.

Adam Wathan is 1 part metalhead, 2 parts online education juggernaut. Over the past few years, Adam has distilled his obsessive development research into several online courses and books, achieving millions of Dollars in sales. We rap about SaaS vs once-off payments, Pantera vs Slayer, why he uses Gumroad, the advantage of multi-tier pricing and of course his rapidly growing CSS Framework, Tailwind CSS. 

Gilbert Pellegrom is a Scottish software engineer with an impressive resume working with the likes of WooCommerce, ThemeZilla, Dunked and now Delicious Brains. He is also a side-project heavyweight and the man behind the popular NivoSlider jQuery plugin used by thousands including Dell, AOL and eBay. Gilbert and I chat about nightmare NDA situations, the state of online privacy, Biffy Clyro and if all side-projects should be monetized.

Mubashar Iqbal - infamously known as Mubs - is one of the most prolific side-project builders online and even earned the prestigious Product Hunt "Maker of the Year" award. He currently boasts over 80 side-projects including the viral 'Will Robots Take my Job?' microsite - gaining more than 14 million views before it was acquired. We chat about immigrating to America, his love for football, partnership equity, building MVP's and how he keeps side-projects fun!

Steve Schoger is a Designer and Maker from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. His Refactoring UI book he co-wrote with Adam Wathan  was a massive success, so I try break down the full 18 month execution leading to launch. We also go deep discussing low self-esteem, reacting to pricing complaints, influential marketing channels and how he meticulously constructs those viral Design Tip Tweets.

Jason Schuller is a designer, maker and minimalist based in Seattle, Washington. His first success was with Press75, a WordPress theme shop that infamously sold $75 themes raking in millions of dollars over several years. However money is no driver for Jason, who sold the business to pursue stimulating side-projects like Leeflets, Droplets, Cinematico, RIVYT and even joined the team over at Plasso for while. Luckily for us Jason isn’t afraid to go deep. We talk about the moment everything changed, finding the right co-founder and the struggle of competing with previous monetary success.

Jess Eddy is US-born Product Designer currently working in Sydney, Australia. Jess is also a true Maker at heart with an impressive portfolio of diverse side-projects. We rap about the ice-cream industry, UX design, podcasts and the need for curation online.