Current Focus: Personal Renaissance

Truths cannot be acquired from words out of other people’s mouths. Before Truths can be internalized, they must come from one’s own realizations and practices. Through a lifetime of personal practice, human beings are capable of revealing all of the secrets of the cosmic essence. You are your own best judge.  - Buddha 

I’ve always been fascinated about the full potential of the human body, mind, and spirit. Lately I have delved extra deep into an exploration of self in ways I never have before. It’s been an exciting journey of unknowing and discovering. I do frequent behavior experiments and emotional analyses on myself and annotate them in my journal. I’ve aptly titled it: My Study in Self: A deconstruction, analysis, and idealistic pursuit for full potential. 

Body – Healthy eating. Consistent exercise. Limiting alcohol. Limiting caffeine. Rise early. Challenging my body to explore its limits. Balance, flexibility, dexterity training.

Mind – I have rediscovered a zest for learning that I have not experienced since college. Overcoming fears. Surrounding myself with people that mesh well with my ideals and positive outlook on life. Having conversations that cut through the mess.

Spirit – Feeling connection with nature. Feeling compassion towards others. Disciplined meditation focus.  Feeling stillness.

Constantly learning. Constantly changing. Gaining a new understanding about my life’s work – and about the discipline being required of me to step into my life’s work.

Hire Me for Quick Consults

In an effort to effectively and fairly handle the “can I pick your brain” requests, I’m now doing hourly consults at my office. Some people prefer short term, 1-2 hour consults to help them make sure they’re on the right page, or to get some quick insight. If you’d like to meet for a few in the Conjunctured conference room to get feedback on your business or your next idea, I’ll gladly talk your ear off for the hour on the topic of your choice! Contact me via my form or email me (davidhwalker at gmail.com) for scheduling and rates.

Website Conversion Optimization Client Consult: I was hired recently for one hour to look through an entire website and give feedback on how to help convert more website visitors into online form submissions, newsletter sign ups, and blog subscribers.  Here’s the client testimonial from that consult:

“David gave me a ton of great ideas for transforming my website to generate more leads. He’s a great marketing thinker and easily and quickly translates that to the online world.”
Nell Edgington, President SocialVelocity

View list of my specialties

About 302designs
302 is on hold for a bit. This was a great passion of mine for some time, but I’m stepping back for a little while to gain some perspective. 302designs is an inspirational and positive-minded t-shirt company I co-founded while I was a sophomore in college (2004). I’ve stuck with it for the past several years and in mid 2007 quit my first salaried job out of school to run with it full-time. It’s probably the scariest decision I’ve ever made, but it’s something I really believe in. I’ve poured my heart into it to turn it into something I’m truly proud of—a business that not only reflects my professional values, but also my personal outlook on life. Sharing duties with financial and production guru, Abdon Nacif, we successfully sell online and in about 25 retail stores across the country, most notably in Whole Foods Market. 302 has been featured in the Austin American Statesman, Austin Business Journal, Austin Monthly Magazine, News 8 Austin, TreeHugger, and numerous online blogs.

About Conjunctured

Conjunctured is Austin’s first coworking space started in August 2008 and run by myself and three partners, Cesar Torres, John Erik Metcalf, and Dusty Reagan. Currently we are home to a strong community of entrepreneurs, freelancers, and telecommuters. We also host numerous educational events catered to the entrepreneur and tech community in Austin. Conjunctured has been featured in Mashable, TechCrunch, MSNBC, ZDnet, KXAN NBC, Austin American Statesman, Austin Business Journal, and numerous online blogs.

About Discover Clarity

Discover Clarity is a personal productivity coaching service I started up recently. Realizing early on my passion for doing, I’ve been forced to continually seek out new ways of improving my ability to do as much as possible, while still maintaining a sense of calm and harmony in my life. My fascination with teachings of zen simplicity and the power of the subconscious mind add to my influences on self-mastery.

With the customized program I’ve created, I share with you the secrets to tweaking your behaviors, methods, and tools in order to be a productive individual. I’ve spent years studying and learning how to apply personal productivity techniques. It’s completely changed my professional and personal lives — and now I’m ready to teach you everything I know.

Freelance Consulting Specialties

I’m always open for unique consulting projects, from a few hours of consulting to longer contract-based options.  Here are my specialties:

• Internet Marketing Consulting – general strategy on how best to use utilize the most appropriate internet marketing channels to build awareness and drive sales to your business.
• Website conversion optimization – I go through your entire website with your goals in mind (increase purchases, increase downloads, increase leads, increase blog subscribers, etc.) and offer you feedback to help your website convert more effectively. Often people have websites designed from a purely “design” perspective. This is one of the biggest mistakes people make. I’ve learned quite a bit running and optimizing call-to-action oriented websites (while still maintaining a nice aesthetic appeal) and would be happy to share that knowledge with you.

• Web development and web design strategy + project management – I’ve been involved on the development and design side of hundreds of websites. I can help you formulate a strategy for your website and be your on-call “tech guy” on your side as you’re deciding on domain purchasing, hosting options, website platforms (WordPress vs Joomla vs Drupal etc.), and how best to interface with your hired website design and development team. If you need recommendations on who the best developers and designers are, I can connect you with them. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to journey through the website building process. I’ll help ease your stresses and take care of it for you.

• E-commerce consulting – Through the build-out and management of my own e-commerce store, 302designs, I have become well versed on the in’s and out’s of e-commerce solutions (Magento, Zen Cart, Etsy, Paypal, Amazon, etc.). I can help guide you towards the best way to get your products for sale online. It’s a common problem for people to choose the wrong option for their type of business. I’ll save you time by sharing with you what I’ve learned from my own experience and from helping numerous individuals start selling online.
  • Maximize e-commerce sales conversions
  • Increase customer order size and repeat purchases
  • Help drive more qualified customers to your online store  (I have a number of trusted avenues that have proven successful over time)
  • Working with a warehouse fulfillment company that ships out your orders for you. What to look for in a fulfillment company and how best to structure your company to work seamlessly with them

• Search Engine Marketing Consulting – Get your website on the front page of Google through a variety of strategies I’ve used in the past growing my own companies. My experience is mainly with 302designs.com, of which I’ve gotten us to the front page of Google with these ultra competitive keyword phrases (note: rankings change frequently, so they may or not be the same at this point):
  • #1 for ‘artistic shirts’
  • #1 for ‘artistic clothing’
  • #4 for ‘unique clothing’
  • #1 & #2 for ‘unique organic t-shirts’
  • #6 & #7 for ‘organic t-shirts wholesale’
  • + numerous longtail keyword phrases.

• • I’ve also managed thousands of dollars worth of Google Ads, Facebook ads, and Blog Ads effectively promoting our products.
  • I’ve learned quite a bit about search engine marketing while growing my company, which is why I wanted to also help others grow their traffic and sales through similar techniques.

• Product sales & retail distribution
  • How to get your product in brick and mortar stores. Learn from my experience of getting 302designs products in 30+ retail stores, including 20 different Whole Foods Markets across the Southwest and Southern region.
  • Help you understand the workings of the Apparel and similar industries: product showrooms, sales reps, line sheets, building and maintaining wholesale relationships with store owners and buyers, and more

• Social media marketing Consulting – learn how to effectively use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging, and other social media channels to grow your presence. I’ll teach you the do’s, don’ts and the how’s.

My Ideal Client

Those that are curious, excited and passionate about finding new ways to grow their business. I enjoy working with seasoned professionals who need a no-nonsense, new perspective as well as beginners who are a bit intimidated or overwhelmed by technology, but realize the value it can play in their business.

I take on clients individually and also when a larger team is needed will transfer projects to Conjunctured, which (in addition to a coworking space) also operates as a marketing and technology agency. When projects are transferred to Conjunctured I generally serve as a project manager.