Sometimes that can be super challenging and I’ve said “I have no idea how to do this but I know it can be done” on an almost daily basis. After more than ten years of continually figuring out the “how” side of that statement, I feel like my skills toolbox is in good shape and my brain has stayed relatively sharp (though tired at times!).

There are still so many things I need to learn, but challenging myself with each and every project has helped me remain confident that there’s a “how” for every situation – even if nobody has created one yet.

In an industry where things change very rapidly, grooming yourself to accept change, learn new things, and trust your reputation is what really keeps you relevant and moving in the right direction.

In what ways are you challenging yourself today?

The post The importance of being challenged appeared first on Yank On.

Yet when things are tough and we struggle, those times are when we grow the most. That’s when God teaches us and shapes us. Those are the times when we experience the often un-explainable things.

I’m not saying that if you feel comfortable you’re doing something wrong. Sometimes incorporating regular moments of putting-your-neck-on-the-line into your life can become somewhat normal and a comfort in itself. But comfort is not the goal.

The post Comfort Isn’t The Goal appeared first on Yank On.

My clients receive their invoices via email and are able to pay them online through the merchant provider of my choice which is currently PayPal. I get charged the regular PayPal rate of 2.9% + $.30 per transaction for credit card payments. In addition, FreshBooks has a really nice option that utilizes PayPal “Business Payments” for clients in the USA. If clients pay their invoice online with a PayPal eCheck (i.e. direct from a bank account) or PayPal balance, I only get charged $.50 for that transaction. For example, on a $3000 invoice, I get charged $.50 instead of $87.30. That’s a huge savings for me. It takes a bit longer for Business Payments to clear but the savings is worth it.

Well, this morning a recent “Business Payment” cleared my account and I logged into PayPal to transfer the money to my bank account. To my surprise, the payment was showing a fee of $80.05 (2.9% + $.30 of a $2750 invoice), not the usual $.50. I took a deep breath and started the process of contacting PayPal customer service and getting this thing resolved.

Here was the process of dealing with PayPal:

1) Filled out PayPal web form letting them know that I was incorrectly charged a percentage instead of the flat fee.

2) Ten minutes later I received a generic email outlining PayPal’s fee structure. At the end of the email it said “If these do not answer your question, please reply to this email with as much information as possible.” I then had to re-type the issue I was having in the email reply.

3) Another ten minutes later I received another email response from Trevor at PayPal: “I apologize for any confusion. Anytime you are sent money in return for goods or services there are fees applied to the transaction. In this case your client sent you a payment via eCheck and the $80.05 was the fee for this transaction.” However, I have successfully received many eCheck Business Payments and been charged only $.50. This email had a phone number on it so I called it.

4) After being on hold for at least 20 minutes, I was finally able to talk to a PayPal representative. After several minutes of explaining the issue, getting put on hold a few times, and then sensing her confusion as to why I was ever charged only $.50 per transaction in the first place, she transferred me to her manager.

5) The PayPal manager got on the phone, I again explained my situation, and the final response was basically this: FreshBooks was doing something “illegal”, PayPal finally caught on to the them, and the $.50 per eCheck transaction Business Payments was a thing of the past. He asked if I’d like to submit a complaint against FreshBooks. I said no since this was all hard for me to believe. FreshBooks has always been on top of the game when it comes to this stuff. I thanked him for the time, hung up the phone, and decided to call FreshBooks to at least let them know that the Business Payment option on invoices was no longer valid and they should remove it.

Here were my steps in dealing with FreshBooks:

1) I called their 1-800 number and was immediately greeted by Joele, one of their “support rockstars.” I started to explain the situation and the PayPal manager’s response, but she didn’t even need to hear the whole story. She mentioned that PayPal had done this to a few other FreshBooks customers recently and assured me that PayPal Business Payments through FreshBooks were completely legit. She said she’d call her contact person at PayPal and then call me back. I hung up the phone.

2) A few minutes later Joele called me back and informed me that PayPal had refunded the $80.05 fee. There was nothing that I needed to do other than to give her a call at her direct extension if this ever happened again. I thanked her, hung up the phone, and my love affair with FreshBooks was still burning strong.

A few observations about this experience:

• I am now testing out the FreshBooks Stripe integration for credit card payments as an alternative to PayPal. Their fees are pretty much identical and I’d prefer to use a service with better customer support.
• I will continue to enable PayPal Business Payments for clients to send eChecks if they prefer. However, if this ever happens again I will call FreshBooks (not PayPal) to get it resolved and will then disable the Business Payments altogether. PayPal will no longer be used for any sort of payment processing in my business.
• I am amazed that I was able to call FreshBooks, have the phone answered immediately, and the first person I talked to was the one who was able to fix the problem. She didn’t give me any sort of run-around or transfer me to a manager. She respected my time and fixed the problem herself.
• The fact that nobody at PayPal had ever heard of Business Payments was mind-boggling. They acted like I had pulled a fast one on them with my previous $.50 eCheck fees.

I’m posting this not as a “throw PayPal under the bus” blog post – I’m really not even mad at them (I had low expectations to begin with) – but merely as an observation of how varied customer support experiences can be. The difference was night and day.

Major thanks to Joele and FreshBooks. I was already a loyal customer and will continue to be one after this experience.

The post Terrible Customer Service and Amazing Customer Service All In The Same Morning appeared first on Yank On.

Lately I’ve been working on a few projects where I need to take a pre-designed PSD and build a custom WordPress theme from it. One big part of that is making sure that spacing, layout, and object sizes are consistent between the PSD and the theme. That means a lot of measuring.

One trick I’ve learned is to use the built-in Mac screenshot functionality. There’s no software to install or launch. Just click command + shift + 4 and then the pointer will turn into a cross-hair icon. Click and hold down the left mouse or trackpad button at one side of the object you wish to measure and then drag it across to the other side of that object. The numbers next to the cross-hair icon will then display the height and width (in that order) in pixels of the selected area. It’s that easy!

To save yourself from taking unnecessary screenshots, just click the escape button while you still have the left mouse button pressed down and the crosshair icon will disappear.

The post How To Measure Objects On Your Mac Screen Without Installing Any Software appeared first on Yank On.

For some crazy yet awesome reason Sony sent me one of their new go-anywhere HD video cameras, the HDR-AS15 Action Cam. I actually volunteered to receive it through their request on Klout, a website that measures influence and engagement across the different social media platforms. I’m not too big on keeping track of a score for these things – I like social media for the “social” aspect alone – but if you’re going to send me a $250+ camera to test and review, I’ll take it!

All that being said, I finally had a chance to put this camera to the test over Christmas. As you’ll see in the above footage (edited in iMovie), we captured some 120 fps slow motion footage of my brother-in-law and his chainsaw in the first part of the video. I really dig the wide-angle settings of the Action Cam and you’ll good demonstration of that in the very first clip. You can actually change the view from 120-degrees all the way up to 170-degrees.

The second part of the video is from an afternoon of tubing-on-the-ice-behind-the-four-wheeler at my parents’ house – one of our all-time favorite winter activities. The first few shots are from the head of my 5 year-old. Notice the part where she actually falls off and dives head-first into the snow. Hilarious. Eventually I strapped the camera onto my own head and had my dad really whip me around on the tube. The footage this camera captured pleasantly surprised me in how cool it looked.

This isn’t really a professional in-depth review but I do want to point out some of the good and bad of this camera:

Size of the Camera

This HD video camera is amazingly small. It literally fits in the palm of my hand. That obviously makes it very lightweight and portable which makes mounting this camera to your handlebars, helmet, or goggles no big deal. It makes sense why it’s so small since there is no viewfinder or screen. I was really impressed with the compact size of the Action Cam.

Recording Modes

The Action Cam is capable of shooting full 1080p HD video, and it also has other modes for 720p at 30fps, 720p at 120fps (again, awesome!), and a few other settings. The video above was recorded at 720p. It’s nice to have options.

Video Recording Quality

Overall I was impressed at what the Action Cam was able to capture with its Carl Zeiss lens. It’s winter in MN so the light isn’t the greatest these days and there are a lot of shadows, but I think that the footage turned out pretty good given that fact. I can’t wait for summer to try it out in full sunlight. I’ll also be curious to see the quality of footage underwater in one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes. There are a few up here with 20+ feet of clarity so underwater footage on one of those lake could be pretty spectacular.

There are a few spots in the above video where it seems like the footage gets a little muddy – especially when there is a ton of movement. However, I’m not totally sure if that’s the camera or if it’s the SD card that I am using. I hope to do more testing on this. Also, I wonder if shooting at 1080p might change that.

Finally, I was definitely impressed at how smooth and stable the footage I captured turned out. It seems like the Action Cam does a good job of capturing non-shaky video even if you’re bouncing all over the place on an inner-tube being pulled behind a four-wheeler.

Accessories

The Sony Action Cam came with a USB cable for charging and data transfer, a rechargeable battery, a water-proof case, and various other mounting accessories. It did not include the MicroSD card or a handle-bar mount. I’m hoping to pick up some sort of mount for my bike this spring.

One note about the water-proof case: It is nice and light and it includes a big, lockable record button on the back. This makes it easy to hit record while you’ve got the camera mounted.

WiFi Functionality

This particular model of Action Cam has built in WiFi which is pretty sweet. First, I can connect to the camera from my iPhone by logging on to the camera’s own WiFi network. I then downloaded an app that allows me to preview live video footage from the camera. It essentially acts as the viewfinder for the camera. It also allows you to change the settings of the camera which is nice if you’ve already got the camera mounted and don’t want to move it.

The WiFi functionality also allows you to transfer captured footage directly to your mobile device. This is really nice for verifying that you got the shots you wanted.

Input Locations

One great thing about the Action Cam is the fact that it includes an input for an external microphone. This is HUGE in my book! There’s so much video footage out there with crappy audio quality. Back when I did a lot of video blogging, the ability to use a lapel mic was a big deal to me and I’ve always had a preference for cameras that have this option. And the Action Cam is one of those cameras…

but…

…the location of the mic input on the Action Cam is on the BOTTOM. There is no way to mount this camera to a tripod or X-Shot and use the mic input. In fact, the Action Cam needs to be used inside of its waterproof case to even get mounted on a tripod, and then there’s even less of a chance of ever getting a mic hooked up to it. This is a major design flaw and I don’t see any way that I can use a mic with it unless Sony comes out with some sort of tripod mounting accessory that holds the sides of the camera or something. Very perplexing.

Overall Impression

I’d give this camera 8 out of 10 Yanks on the Yank scale. It’s not out-of-this-world amazing, but for around $250, the quality, size, features, and functionality is pretty awesome. Again, I’m excited to use this in the warmer months in the lakes and woods of this area. I might even get creative and invent my own tripod mount for it that allows me to use the mic input. I think it can be done.

Look for some more footage from me in the coming months, and thanks again to Sony for sending me an Action Cam to try out.

The post Four-Wheeler Tubing, Chainsaws, & A Review of The Sony Action Cam appeared first on Yank On.

Just wanted to share this Trampled By Turtles concert from Twin Cities Public Television that was broadcasted earlier this week. I love these guys. Great show.

The post Trampled By Turtles on The Lowertown Line appeared first on Yank On.

I’ve become a huge Mumford & Sons fan. Not only do I love their music, but I’m in complete amazement at lead singer Marcus Mumford’s ability to do a ton of things at once. Watch the above concert from Live on Letterman and you’ll see him sing, play guitar, play kick drum with his right foot, and play tambourine with his left foot…ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

I tried just playing guitar and a kick drum at the same time once and it was a disaster.

Later in the show Marcus sits down at an actual drum kit and proceeds to play those while singing. The man has serious skills.

The post Yank On: Marcus Mumford’s Musical Multitasking appeared first on Yank On.

My wife recently sent me a link to a post on Design Sponge regarding “The Fixer’s Manifesto,” written by the makers of Sugru (more about Sugru shortly…). She knows that I am a die-hard try-everything-you-can-to-fix-something-before-you-throw-it-away individual, and this list struck a chord with me.

I have a hard time throwing things away. I have no problem giving things away if they’re useful to someone else, but to accept that something is no longer useful and simply put it in the trash is hard for me.

For example, ten years ago my 5-disc Sony CD changer stopped working. Even back then, to go buy a new CD player was not terribly expensive. I couldn’t do it, though. I completely dismantled the thing and was able to fix the problem with tape, a q-tip, and hydrogen peroxide. Ten years later we are still using that same CD player.

At times the “fixer’s mentality” in me goes a little too far and I spend way more time than I should trying to fix the unfixable, but I figure at the end of the day the item will either be repaired or at the very least I’ll have learned something new. We just moved into a new (to us) house a few months ago and let’s just say I’ve already learned a ton about plumbing.

My favorite quote from The Fixer’s Manifesto is the opening line: “…everyday practical problem solving is the most beautiful form of creativity there is.” That is the bottom line for every successful entrepreneur and innovator. Find a problem, then fix it.

Back to Sugru: I had never heard of this company/product, but basically it’s a play-dough-like substance that allows a person to perform repairs that don’t fit the duct tape or super-glue bill. The best thing about the Sugru website is that they show a ton of examples of how people have used the product to fix various items.

What do you think: Are you a fixer?

The post Yank On: The Fixer’s Manifesto appeared first on Yank On.

I had to write a note in a Christmas card yesterday. The finished product looked like it was written by a heavily intoxicated right-handed person with a broken right hand. It was awful and I was hesitant to even put the card in the mail.

I’ve never had great penmanship, but I also realize that I never actually write anything anymore. I don’t journal – I blog. I don’t write letters – I email. I don’t even write a list when I go to the store – I use the Notes app on my iPhone.

The only thing I ever write out is my signature when I have to sign for a purchase by credit card.

It’s still very important for me to have decent penmanship and I can’t stand how unprofessional it looks when I do have to write the rare note or card. I’d like to see what I can do to improve. That primarily includes more practice.

A few questions for you:

Has anyone purchased the Evernote Smart Moleskine Notebook? I’m curious how well it would work to do a lot of my blogging in written format, scan the page(s), and then upload to Evernote which can then transcribe the text for indexing. Is that text exportable? I think writing on a regular basis would certainly help.

Does anyone have any recommendations on books, courses, or exercises to help improve penmanship? Maybe I just need to sit in with my kids during their reading/writing sessions (we homeschool). Seriously, my 7 year-old has better penmanship than I do.

Maybe I should have been a doctor?

The post Yank On: Penmanship in the Digital Age appeared first on Yank On.

No, the point of Yank On will be to house every random thought, interesting find, and recommendation that doesn’t make sense to post elsewhere. There’s no central niche topic that this site revolves around. My goal is not to generate a ton of traffic or make money. It’s strictly a platform for me to write and share. It gives me a little more space and flexibility to expand on topics than what I can communicate through Twitter or Facebook.

The other point is for me to write more and own my own content. In the past I’ve tried to use a Tumblr blog to accomplish what I’m trying to do here but I just never liked the format, the posting process, or the hoops that you have to jump through to set up an easy discussion platform. I recognize that Tumblr is a popular platform, but I’m so accustomed to WordPress and the fact that I can backup and store all of my own content that I decided to do a quick install for this site.

WordPress 3.5 was just released yesterday and I’m also wanting to take the new Twenty Twelve theme for a spin so that’s the theme I’m launching this blog on initially. It’ll look like a lot of other blogs but that’s okay since this one is not about a design or brand.

The initial list of topics in the site navigation can and will change as things take shape, but I just wanted to get a few in place regarding things I think I’ll be writing about. Who knows? Maybe this will become a food blog or a place to document my home-improvement projects. It could really be anything, and that’s what I like about it: It will evolve.

Thanks for checking out the new site and come back soon for a wide variety of topics and discussions from yours truly.

The post Yank On: WordPress, Tumblr, Opinions, and This Blog appeared first on Yank On.