In startup circles, there is a classic blog post by Mark Suster titled, “Invest in Lines, Not Dots.” Mark is a venture capitalist based in Los Angeles. His point is pretty simple to understand: When mapped on a graph measuring your company performance over time, a single data point doesn’t tell enough of a story for him to make an …
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 …
Loosen your grip
I was a really bad baseball player. I loved baseball, but as soon as kids got good enough to throw a curveball, it was all over for me. I haven’t really thought much about baseball in a long time, but someone brought up the idea of how you grip a bat and it got me thinking. As you get older, …
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 …
Being open before you’re stuck
I’ve had a lot of conversations lately with friends and clients about being at a fork in the road or transition point. Some of them aren’t even at the crossroads now, but looking down the road knowing that one will be coming. The question has generally been the same: “What path should I take?” The hardest time to make a …
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 …
Introducing Freelancing School
I never really intended to freelance. When I quit my job in early 2017, I just knew I wanted to be my own boss. I hated the feeling of being required to be at a certain place at a certain time to do work that I was assigned. One afternoon it became clear that the time had come: it was …
Using fear as a compass
A couple of weeks ago, I shared the story of how I accidentally produced a feature-length documentary this summer. This past week, that documentary aired to a sold out audience at the Film Festival of Columbus, following press from two of the largest business publications in town and a share from the Mayor himself. It was one of the most …
thinking long term
You may have heard of the idea of the “10-year overnight success.” It’s nearly cliché at this point, and yet, I don’t think it’s talked about enough. There is a lot of excitement around the beginnings of something. We are enchanted by the potential of a launch. Feeds are full of things that are new and trending. There aren’t a …
Making good introductions
One of my favorite things to do is introduce someone to someone else. It’s so powerful to bring two people together, knowing that they are going to hit it off and naturally find a way to collaborate. And besides the satisfaction of making a connection, it’s one of the best ways to strengthen your relationships. But so few people proactively …
