My friend Magda asks: When I blissfully escaped working in an office, I jumped into translation. But that’s not where my heart  is. I have been “secretly” designing for some time. Recently, I showed some of my work to someone and she wanted to buy them and she ordered for more.  I really want to try this out and I’m doing my best to make it work. My big question(…)

I once started listing all the things I needed to work on to become a rich-ass superstar freelancer. I ended up with a list of sixteen things. It was all brilliant stuff I got from books. “Change mix of agency versus direct clients.” “Expand client prospecting/more regular. Newsletter?” “Target copy-intensive verticals.” “More diligent about time-tracking,(…)

Almost never, of course. This is, after all, our living. But when you are deep into a courtship of a new client, someone with work and money, and you’ve shared ideas and your stars seemed aligned, but you need a little something to inch the ball over the goal line. You need to tip the(…)

As the story goes, writer Ernest Hemingway always started his day’s work by meticulously and thoughtfully sharpening seven No. 2 pencils. Choreographer Twyla Tharp says that she can unfailingly assure a productive day by waking at 5:30 am, putting on her workout clothes, and hailing a cab to the gym. Once she does that, all(…)

Don’t be a vendor. Be a peer.  A colleague. A co-conspirator. More money there. More respect. And also, more money. You may have to move up a notch in the client organization. Over the underlings. You are not fawning and begging and bargaining. That’s what suppliers do. Sell a little grander. Instead of delivering documents,(…)