Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Earl Varona. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Earl, thanks for joining us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?
I didn’t plan to be in business or even the creative field, but my circumstances led me down the path I’m currently on.
It all started when my parents started a limousine company in 2006 and needed to market their new business. My parents didn’t know what to do, so they asked me for help.
I didn’t know anything about creating or designing websites and marketing. I didn’t know where to start, and YouTube wasn’t popular then, or other video learning platforms I could watch.
It was very frustrating, time-consuming, and challenging because I wanted to help my parents. Still, I was alone to solve their problems, and none of my family or friends could help me.
So, I started with copying.
I looked at all the limousine companies’ websites I could find and started dissecting what they did to learn as much as I could.
Then, I went online to read countless blogs and forums and to the library to read books and magazines about website design and marketing.
It was grueling work. For several months, I crammed so much technical and philosophical information into my head that I applied it to building my parents’ website.
The website-building process was a complete mess, and most of my code didn’t work or at least created some problems I had to spend so much time fixing. The design software was complicated to learn, and my design skills were half terrible and half annoying. On top of that, my sales copy and content were confusing and borderline plagiarism.
Ultimately, the website was ugly and on the brink of crashing, but it was successful when we started getting leads that led to service reservations for my parents’ business.
Even though I wasn’t proud of how the website looked, I was gratified by the positive results when my parents started doing business with it.
This was the moment I knew I needed to pursue this interest because I could help many business owners, just like my parents, who don’t know anything about building a website or marketing their business.
I saw the potential of turning it into a career, but I knew I had some work to do, so I went back to school to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and improve my skillset.
This circumstance ultimately led me to start my own business in creative services and the gratifying act of helping business owners grow their businesses.
Earl, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am Earl, a multidisciplinary designer with a web development background specializing in website strategy and user experience design.
My core service is building highly effective websites for small to medium size businesses. What makes us unique is the strategic process we follow when building our websites, which makes our website highly effective. We use behavioral psychology and data to drive user engagement and conversion, as well as web technology and design to improve user experience and accessibility.
We’re most proud when we see our clients win. Their success is also our success. In business, nothing is more fulfilling than seeing the positive outcome of our hard work, primarily when we know it’s improving someone else’s life (for our clients and the customers they serve).
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Every few months, I find new resources that I wish I had known, so it’s hard to pinpoint a specific resource. However, the biggest thing I wish I had known was the right mindset for my creative journey.
I worked so hard in college that I came out on top of my class, received the highest design awards, and received compliments from my peers and professors. I felt like I was on top of the world and ready to compete against the best in the market.
However, not long after graduation, I realized I was wrong.
In college, we competed for grades, measured by the technical quality and aesthetic of our final projects. I was used to this, thinking my clients would love my work as long as I made technically correct and visually beautiful designs.
However, in the real world, clients care more about solving their business problems and less about how awesome your design looks.
Design is not a beauty contest but a communication tool to solve a problem.
I wish I had known this before because I was treating design like an art, which affected my ego and the quality of my work when my client disagreed.
Only when I realized that design is communication, when I started listening closely to my clients and paying attention to their goals and needs, did my work quality improve.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I’ve read many books and recommend most of them. However, if I pick the top 5 that significantly impacted my entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy, I would say the following:
1. Any Tony Robbins books and videos
2. Any Jim Rohn seminar videos
3. Any Seth Godin books
4. How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie
5. Start with Why – Simon Sinek
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.varonadesigns.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earlvarona
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/varonadesigns
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/earlvarona/
