This advice sounds a bit too clever, a bit too pat. And even worse, I think it comes from a lame movie from the 1980s.* But for us freelancers, it’s gold. When you talk with the CEO, or the Giant Creative Director, or the Division Manager Who Everyone Fears, you do it peer-to-peer, equal to equal. There is […]
I had this wrong for a long time. Until Derek Sivers set me straight. Persistence is not about continuously hammering at a rock hoping to break it. That’s just repetition. Persistence, for us freelancers, is more about continually experimenting, exploring, perfecting. It’s about trying all sorts of different ways to get that rock to break. There was a […]
From Matthew: “I work as a technology director at a large school system here in the East, but will be leaving soon to pursue a more travel-oriented career. It has all been in the works for months. Initially, I wanted to focus on technology in school building projects, which is something that I have experience in doing, […]
Yes. Specialists always do better. There is no debating this. I can’t think of any freelancer who made it big as a handyman. The world already has plenty of all-purpose copywriters, versatile translators, general web designers and utility infielders. Don’t jump into that haystack. You will be lost forever. It sounds paradoxical, but the longer your ‘list of services’, […]
This is a spooky phenomenon that I cannot explain. Don’t ask me what’s behind it, or how it works. But you can apparently invoke this to your advantage, almost at will. Let’s say your workload starts to slow down. Or you want to expand your stable of true fans. Or maybe you’re just itching for […]