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 …
People invest in lines, not dots
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 …
