I’ve taken a number of paid online courses with video content. None of those videos come remotely close to the quality of editing and information available for free on YouTube. In fact, the most engaging and interesting content is available for free on social media. 

When I send an email blast, one of five things will happen. Four out of five of them are good.

Friction can be a good thing in sales, assuming you have a good product, because it forces the customer to think about you and to make a decision.

In my years producing commercials, I’ve been involved in countless creative builds. This required me to digest the brand, understand the product, learn the audience, and create something that speaks to all of that. Now, I do something way easier. 

“What we know is that if you A-B test a website enough times, it will turn into a porn site."

I’ve produced online courses for half a dozen different solo creators in the past. Full Time Filmmaker blows them out of the water. It has 10x more lessons than the biggest course I ever produced.

If you’re a freelancer or a creative, and you don’t know where to find new clients… I got you. Here’s a list of seven places you can find new clients.

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.

A few years ago I was in New York with friends, and they decided to see Hamilton on Broadway. They asked if I wanted to join. I said no. Why? Because Hamilton wasn’t cool to me.

You can either say “Well, I tried,” and accept the plausible deniability. It isn’t in your court anymore after all. Other people dropped the ball, yeah? It’s not on you, right? Or you can take radical responsibility.

Photographers and videographers (and all sorts of creative freelancers) spend tons of time tinkering with their portfolios, hoping that big brands will notice. What they don’t realize is that big brands are searching for something beyond just good work.

Have you touched a duck before? Have the majority of people touched ducks before? Then why do we say “get your ducks in a row” so often?

One of my videos is earning tens of thousands of views on Instagram. And counting. Amidst the scramble to respond to comments and messages, I’ve pulled a few lessons from this experience that I’d like to share.

Wherever the folks in your industry are spending time, you need to spend time there too. I’ll add, it doesn’t matter which end of the industry. Clients and colleagues are equally as important in the freelance game.

I barely believed it when I read it, but Barnes and Noble grew by 4% last year. They’re in pursuit of opening 30 new stores this year. Even in the shadow of Amazon, which offers every book cheaper and faster, Barnes and Noble is expanding.

On Instagram, you could get by with pretty visuals, even if they were devoid of opinion. This isn’t the case on Threads.

“Something that I learned very early on is the importance of separating person versus persona. When people who don't know me are criticizing me, they're criticizing my persona, not my person.”
–Olivia Rodrigo

Behind every piece of good marketing is a good cause. Even the most profitable companies in the world wrap their products in a “cause” that helps their customers.

My friend started a disc golf company that creates discs from 100% recycled material. Anyone who knows anything about plastics knows that this is a difficult thing to do. It’s a good thing my friend didn’t know anything about plastic.

“You’re better off with a great salesman and a mediocre product than with a masterpiece and a moron to sell it.”
–Herb Cohen