The fifth of the seven interviews we recorded from the 2010 HOW Conference in Denver was with Dyana Valentine.

We went to Denver a day before the actual HOW Conference began, and ended up spending the day at the Creative Freelancer Conference across the street. I have to mention that we showed up a few minutes early – any stereotypes of freelancers being late were instantly blown out of the water, as the room was already filled – and we had to look around for an empty seat. I look at the table, and in front of me is a large stack of business cards and 1″ buttons with a logo I recognized. A logo I remember seeing on the website of our favorite guest, Steve Gordon (see the work on his site here).

A quick introduction, an hour or two of speakers, and Dyana took the stage and walked the room through creating a perfect elevator pitch for their business. That’s it, we knew Dyana needed to be on the show, and even with a full slate of five interviews already scheduled, we fit in another (next week’s story will be like déjà-vu if you want to know how this math adds up to the seven mentioned in the first sentence).

Dyana talks about these perfect pitches, helping creatives make their business thrive, and her favorite Scrabble word. And we’ll be back next week with another interview. Enjoy.

Bonus: Dyana has her session worksheets posted online to use for your own business here.

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The Reflex Blue Show

Hello. Click to make the comic embiggenable. Also, Tyke.

We’ve leaving before sunrise tomorrow for Denver, for HOW, HOW, and the proper HOW. Due to what we are confidently predicting to be a deluge of non-comic content in the coming week, I have acquiesced to Donovan’s demand of making the comics themselves smaller on the home page. We both agree that some of our content tends to bury itself beneath the comic posts and we want you to have access to all of the hotness.

Other solutions have been offered, but there’s more we’re planning to add to this site soon and it doesn’t make sense to redesign everything twice.

This is my first HOW Conference ever, and I am dealing with a level of excitement that’s been building for years. Years spent listening to literally everyone I know telling me how totally awesome they are. The venue, however, leaves me a little perplexed. Denver was the site of my first AIGA conference, and I feel more than a little like I’ve been there and done that. I am looking forward to seeing my friend the big giant blue bear, however. And, like it or not, the matching venues will make it easy for me to compare and contrast the two conferences. AIGA delivered one keynote speaker in an eyepatch and Mig Reyes into my life, so the bar is high, HOW. The bar is high.