203 - Jay Fanelli of The Cotton Bureau “Promotion Is Just As Important As The Product”

Jay Fanelli is a co-founder of The Cotton Bureau and shares with us his company’s unique business model as well as what designs he does and doesn’t allow to make it’s way on to their popular website. 

Talking Points you’ll hear on Episode 203
- The curation process of keeping their collection narrowly focused on today’s best graphic design trends.
- Allowing your business to find it’s own path in life and allowing to keep it evolving.
- A debate on the Threadless business model. 
- Respecting your users, customers and partners while allowing your business to grow and make money.
- Respecting the laws of supply and demand to keep growing but not burning out.
- United Pixel Workers and other projects that naturally evolved into the Cotton Bureau.
- Making strong relationships with other businesses that support your business.
- Focusing on doing one thing really well and not trying to catch every dime that comes your way.
- The backstory on “Blowing Up Overnight”.
- Using the Cotton Bureau as way to test your talents and get a taste of passive income.
- Focusing not on what your heroes are doing but what’s best for you.
- Mark presses Jay on making sure every designer walks away with some sort of reward for having a produced design.

The Circle of Trust (paid content)
- Jay shares with us some entries and cliches in their user submitted Hall of Shame.
- Designers who foolishly fight back and argue when their designs aren’t picked.
- The cold stone truth of commerce.
- How Jay takes time to give rejected designers advice on how they can improve their work.
- How marketing is just as important as the product.
- Dealing with copyright infringement and toeing that line.
- All the little steps along the way that make you better for the long haul and help you create what you’re meant to create