For those who feel lost…
For a long time, I felt lost. I felt like I was floating from hobby to hobby, trying to find my footing in a slippery world. I felt like I was yelling from the rooftops, just for people to tell me to “get down from there!”
Swing as hard as you can
We try to focus on everything: making good work, and making a lot of money, and treating our clients well, and finding work-life balance, and having a good brand. When we focus on all of it, we aren’t really swinging that hard at any of it.
Forgiveness as a strategy
Even though 99% of the people I talked to about my dreams were excited and supportive, all I could think about were the two people who weren’t supportive.
18 months…
Trust takes time to build with clients, especially as a freelancer. Early in your career, people hire you as a band-aid; someone to “patch up a hole in the business real quick.” Clients look for someone who seems like they can fix their problem, and who doesn’t cost too much, and they hire them.
You have to jump first
They were both selling their paintings for thousands and thousands of dollars. They both had commissions from wealthy buyers, and were working hard to keep up with demand. Every artist’s dream. So what changed?
10 things to do when work is slow
#4. Set up a one-day sprint work session. I’ve seen photographers do this. They’ll rent a studio for the day, and then sell 30-minute portrait sessions to their friends, family, and audience.
The Definitive Saturation.io Review
Saturation is a budgeting software—specifically for video productions. And it is genuinely...incredible.
“Artist Status”
"...once you start making things, once you take that leap, you have the same status as any other artist."
The magic of making $310 per month
Little things can add up over the course of a year. Especially if they’re mostly automated.
How to make porn: keep A/B testing
“What we know is that if you A-B test a website enough times, it will turn into a porn site."
Another reason to be a generalist (Feat. Teddy Roosevelt)
“Play hard while you play, but do not mistake it for work."
The art of abandoning your ideas
As a child you may have been way into dinosaurs or ballet or firetrucks or mermaids. You are probably not way into those things anymore. You quit them! You found other hobbies and interests that serve you much better now. Except maybe you haven’t touched those hobbies recently, either.
We don’t negotiate with terrorists
Good news: your mind is a master negotiator. The bad news? It’s only good at negotiating with you. You know what I’m talking about. You know the crafty promises it makes, when it convinces you to stay in bed for “just a few more minutes.”
What if it took less time?
You want to post consistent social content. But the last time you made a video, it took more than an hour. Posting content every day of the week would take up a whole workday. Obviously that’s not worth it.
Some more thoughts on ghosting
You got ghosted by a client again. Let’s talk about why that might have happened.
The poker table of dreams
So many people claim to have a dream, but they aren’t sitting at the table. They don’t have a chance to win, even by a stroke of luck or genius or happenstance.
Beat “the resistance”
As Steven Pressfield shares in “The War of Art,” there’s always so much resistance to doing creative work. The resistance shows up in cunning, crafty ways to block us from the creativity we so desire.
Views are down
How did you discover that views were down? Hopefully, by posting. I have a lot of respect for people who continue to put in the work, sharpen their sword, and stay in the game, even when the economy or the algorithm isn’t exactly in an optimal place.
My first book is finally here
Even after publishing over 700 articles on my website since 2018, writing 465 days in a row, and writing over a quarter of a million words…the resistance was still strong. The imposter syndrome was still there.