Summary: In Episode 16 of the Together London Podcast, I talk to Laura Kalbag about being honest online, how being yourself improves client relationships, and why we should mentor people. Check out Laura's website, her upcoming Dare Conference talk, and follow her on twitter @laurakalbag. Listen to the podcast Download MP3 file, subscribe in iTunes, or subscribe for email updates. Read the transcript Jonathan Kahn: I'm speaking to Laura Kalbag, who's joining me from Brighton today. She's a designer, and she's excited by web design and development. She's actually been a freelancer for her whole professional life, which we're going to talk about today. I'm really excited that Laura's going to be joining us at the Dare Conference to talk about honesty. Laura, thanks so much for taking the time to join me today. Laura Kalbag: Thank you having me. Jonathan: Tell me about that. You've been a freelancer for your whole professional life, and on your website, you've written, "I work mostly with small businesses, startups and individuals, because I value close working relationships and informal processes." Why are those things important to you? Laura: Well, I find that when you work with very large companies, often you can get bogged down in their process and their way of doing things. You don't really get a look in. I think, as a professional and an expert in your field, you need to be able to tell them the right processes to do in terms of web design and other design. You need to tell them what's most appropriate and what will help them get the best out of their design work. I think it's very difficult to lead if you are being an employee essentially to a massive corporation. I really like working with smaller businesses, startups, and just individuals that are doing the right thing because it means that I know that what I'm doing will actually have a huge value to them. I know that I can tell them the right way of doing things and they're likely to go, "Right, OK. I'm happy to do that." It means that I can really focus on their business, and the best way to get good results for them so that they're not just paying me to do something that they'll half ignore and get rid of in the next few months. They're actually paying me to do something which could have a really big effect on their business. Jonathan: That's really interesting, because I think a lot of the time we feel like a company's trying to buy our services, and they don't really understand what we can do and how that fits in. We have this challenge about how do we slot into the company's way of working? What you're saying sounds more like you're trying to teach people what you know or teach people how to work versus necessarily solving all their problems for them. Laura: Yeah, I think it is part of our job. It's part of our job to be able to communicate these things as well, to be able to communicate why we want to do the things the way that we do them. I think that we can't expect clients to know everything from the beginning. We can't expect them to know the best way of doing everything. That's why they hire us. Otherwise, why would they bother? [laughs] Jonathan: How do you talk about that? You're quite clear about you feel like you need to be providing value to people, which is fantastic. How do you actually talk about what that value is to the people you work with? Laura: I like to tell them very honestly what I think I can do for them. I can tell them, "What will a good design actually change for you?" It's not necessarily about making a site beautiful. It's about making a site usable. It's about providing value to their users, which will then increase things like brand loyalty and stuff like that. It's linking all of those things together, always explaining the why behind the what. I think not enough people really do that. They don't actually justify what they're doing. If someone comes back to you and goes, "Why do you want to do it that why?
