Be intentional

Early in my first ever episode, I asked Lewis Howes a question I was genuinely wrestling with myself. When something you've made starts working, do you invest in better gear and a slicker production, or do you keep using the iPhone that got you there? I compared it to Wayne's World 2, where the show gets a corporate sponsor and loses its soul.

Bobby's contribution was "Party on, Woj." Lewis's answer surprised me.

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   Be intentional

   Every element should be there on purpose. People can feel the difference between designed and thrown together.

   "If Apple just threw things together on an iPhone, would you buy it? Are you so amazed of the intentional quality of thought they put into each element of the design of the phone..."

   Lewis HowesS01E01 Hear it 20:41

   > every beep i make is deliberate. except that one.

"I think being intentional and quality is more powerful than on your iPhone. Because I know sometimes I do it on my iPhone because it's just like I need to, last minute."

Then he brought up Apple. If Apple had just thrown things together on an iPhone, would you buy it? Or are you amazed by the thought they put into each element of the design?

Intentional doesn't mean glossy

In the same answer he said that if something looks polished, "then that's just who you are." And a few seconds later he gave me his test.

"I think it's just gotta be you. If it doesn't speak to who you are, if it doesn't say yes, that's that person, then it doesn't work."

And then: "if you're trying to be someone you're not through branding, [it] doesn't make sense. You can enhance who you are." So a phone video can be intentional, and a $40,000 brand refresh can be thrown together.

If you want to try Lewis's test, show your About page to someone who knows you well and ask if it sounds like you. If they laugh, you've got work to do.

I once spent an embarrassing amount of time on a robot. Our Kwasi mascot, Kwasibot, went through round after round of sketches with illustrator Anton Emdin, and the story of how that identity was born is still on our site. The tagline was "Websites for Robots and Humans". The poses, the expressions and even the finish on the metal were decided on purpose, because the robot had a job: making people ask why a web studio cared so much about search engines. Years later, when we dropped the surname and rebranded, we started from one sentence we could hold every decision against: a world where every brand's website is their most valuable business asset.

Say no on purpose

Lewis says no to a lot of people who want to come on his show, friends included (more on that in show you care). For a website, that's the page you don't publish, or the pop-up you decide against. Oli Gardner told me brand matters to Unbounce and they didn't want to help people build off brand overlays. Choosing what not to allow is a design decision too.

Design every moment, then check it's wanted

Lewis was planning a live event when we spoke, and he described asking himself how he could structure a book or an event so that every moment there's impact. He'd just been to the Olympics in Rio, where the Dutch team's house held a celebration for every medal winner at the end of the night. It gave him chills, and he decided to recreate that acknowledgement for his own speakers.

He called it stealing like an artist. He noticed how it made him feel, then borrowed it on purpose.

The other half of his approach keeps that from turning into indulgence. Before he builds anything, he checks whether people actually want it: offer it, take the money, then make it. His rule at 19:12 is blunt: "If they don't buy it, don't create it." His first course went to someone else's list with a PayPal link before a single lesson existed.

He even applied it to his calendar. "We create freedom in the structure," he told me, which for him meant scheduling the workout at 8am instead of promising himself he'd get to it.

Lewis spent the back half of our chat on the book he was writing, about dropping the masks he'd worn for years. It came out as The Mask of Masculinity, and it's his branding advice again: you can enhance who you are, but you can't fake it for long.

Lewis is still going on The School of Greatness, and the full written version of our chat is on kwasi.com.