The “Force” of Inspiration
Inspiration: a force or influence that inspires someone. Personally, I have rarely been inspired by a “force”, but the “I” in inspire is relevant. One can be inspired by money, though this is rarely the true case, inspired by love, by family or even by their own will to be successful. People have often been …
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6 Tips to an Effective Promotional Video
A compelling promotional video can move your audience to take action. Here are six things to consider before beginning your production. 1. Target Audience Who is your target audience and what do you want them to do. This is always a great place to start when you begin brainstorming with your team. 2. What’s The Message? Clarity of message …
Read More »How to Make LinkedIn Work for You
Whether you’re using LinkedIn as a way to find a new job, connect with decision makers to make a sale, or build your business’ presence, LinkedIn is a powerful tool that, when used correctly, can produce some excellent results. Below are a few easy steps you can take to make your LinkedIn profile POP and …
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An Early Career Story for Women’s History Month
As a successful woman in business I wanted to share a little story about my early career here in Sacramento for Women’s History Month. In 1968 I was the first female postal carrier at Sacramento’s Metro Station. That Post Office is now closed, but in 1968 it was the main hub. I started with the Post …
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Design Thinking – Making Connections Where Previously There Were None
Last week I found myself inside in a 10’X20’ windowless room. The walls were covered in post-it notes — each containing a thought, quote, or idea more intriguing than the next. We were looking for themes. Design Thinking – Making connections where previously there were none. We had just completed over 120 hours of ethnographic …
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Exploring the Web and Website Design
The internet is like a jungle. It’s a fascinating, living ecosystem that never stops growing and creates new lifeforms everyday through website design. Until this point, my background was mostly print design which is a similar environment but it lives by its own different rules. That’s why I’m looking at many of these web lifeforms …
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2016 – Will it be Your Best Year?
We think 2016 will be the best year ever for Uptown Studios. Here are a few of the observations from the Uptown Crew on what 2016 will bring… Small business will need to pay more attention to mobile marketing. If your website is not responsive in design (which means it is easy to view on …
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Challenge Yourself – Read Something New
How often do you read a recently published business journal article? Or the summary document of some new research? How often do you buy a magazine that isn’t part of your normal reading selection? How many of you have an agreement with your friends or colleagues to share interesting factoids/articles/stories with you? And you with them? Reading …
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Get the Website Security Blanket
At Uptown Studios, we love building websites on WordPress, with all of it’s flexibility and ability to grow and scale to any size – WordPress can handle almost anything you throw at it. Websites powered by WordPress only become insecure if they are allowed to be so, which means it’s critical to make sure you …
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Gift Giving Guide for the Change Makers
I LOVE giving gifts. All year round, I’m picking up gifts that I think would be great for people and either gifting them right away or saving them up for a birthday or special holiday. So, as you can imagine, December is a pretty exciting time for me. I get caught up in the excitement …
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Use Design Thinking to Find the Solution
Work-a-round (noun) is defined by Webster as: “a method for overcoming a problem or limitation in a program or system”. It is further defined in Wikipedia as: …”a bypass of a recognized problem in a system”. A workaround is typically a temporary fix that implies that a genuine solution to the problem is needed. But workarounds …
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Good design is Invisible
Good design is challenging to define. Bad design is impossible to ignore. Good design is often invisible. Bad design often stands out. As renowned designer, Dieter Rams said: “Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better.” I personally believe this is very well said and applies to all disciplines of design including …
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Doing Good is Good for the Soul
One of the things I like best about being a team member here at Uptown Studios is the opportunity to work with nonprofit organizations that are making our communities better every day. Last night my video team got to videotape an event at Mulvaney’s Building and Loan restaurant that benefitted Ronald McDonald House Charities. This …
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Leadership Sacramento Helps Team Set Goals
Leadership Sacramento is a program of the Metro Chamber that develops community-minded business and civic leaders of tomorrow through a year-long interactive program that provides a behind-the-scenes understanding of the issues that impact the region.
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5 Important Things On Your Website
We are always working with website owners to help them learn and understand some of the most important parts of their sites. We get similar questions pretty often and compiled a few important tips into this list.
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