Have you ever heard the phrase, “The Cobbler’s kids have no shoes?” It perfectly encapsulates reality for so many of us who work with clients. We do AWESOME work for other people – but when it comes to our own assets, we fall flat. You see it with designers who haven’t put time into their own brand. Or copywriters who haven’t …
Education and access
I was talking with a soon-to-be college graduate this week, and we got on the topic of next steps after college. He saw that I took the startup path and joined as an early employee/cofounder right out of college, and had similar aspirations. The truth is, I took that path using the wrong decision criteria. First and foremost, I didn’t …
How to solve a puzzle
Ever since Mallory and I visited Joshua Tree back in November, we’ve gotten more interested in puzzles – and I’m talking about literal jigsaw puzzles. Over Christmas, we picked out a 1000-piece puzzle and were pretty quickly overwhelmed. When you first look at the box and you see the photo, you think, “Oh wow this is going to be fun!” …
Lessons Learned in 2019
For the past couple of years, I’ve published an annual “year in review” looking back on accomplishments of the year and goals for the next. To be honest, it’s a really great exercise to reflect on the past year – accomplishments, successful goals, failed goals, unforeseen opportunities…you get it. When you set goals for the year, and then 12 months …
Creators make things for others
Black Friday is happening (both before AND after Friday somehow), Cyber Monday is coming in hot, and my inbox is full of sales emails. I mean FULL of sales emails. And as someone who occasionally sells things, it really has me thinking a lot about consumption and my lifestyle and aspirations as a creator. An investor tweeted recently about that …
Are you willing to wait?
It’s hard to believe it’s already November! Only two months left in 2019. This is definitely the most comfortable fourth quarter I’ve had over the last three years. The current Unreal Collective Accelerator will wrap up in about three weeks, I’m recording the Linkedin Learning course I’ve been working on mid-November, Eric and I are months ahead of recording for …
Staging your vision for the client
Ever since my girlfriend became a Realtor in June, I’ve learned a LOT more about real estate than I ever expected. One of the most interesting parts of selling a home that I never thought about is “staging.” When you stage a home for sale, you fill it with furniture and trinkets to show what it could look like as …
Riding a bicycle in first gear
As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been doing a lot lately. Producing and premiering a film, launching the courses inside Freelancing School, producing a 2x weekly podcast, writing another course for Linkedin, and working on a second podcast (shhh)… It feels like a bit of a hamster wheel. I really like an analogy I heard recently, that flywheels start as hamster …
re-thinking risk
I was interviewed on The Video Community podcast recently, and the topic of risk came up. It comes up a lot in interviews with entrepreneurs, because starting your own business or working for yourself is risky. But is it? We’ve all been shown different paths. Growing up, going through college, or talking to a mentor…we are constantly being shown “the …
sell your first cup of coffee
I love new ideas. New ideas provide that beautiful breath of fresh air from whatever wall you’ve been banging your head into. A glimpse into a new world! I was sitting on a panel last week with Ryan McManus, the founder of SHARE. He told a story about one of his first business ventures — a coffee shop. He fell …
