We’ve all had needy clients who reach out too often with elementary questions. It’s mind-numbing.

Cheap doesn’t usually deliver on time, respond quickly, or have great ideas. Expensive does those things. 

If a client doesn’t know who you are, you have to do a lot of selling to win their business. There’s a better way.

Clients don’t care if your creative concept or campaign idea is the best idea in the world.

Do you ever wonder how photographers and videographers with half your talent are booking jobs twice as big as yours? Hint: It’s because they know how to pitch. 

Just now, I took a walk around the block to clear my head. On my walk, I witnessed two men in an argument about the ethics of their businesses.

 Leads can be anyone who can “hook you up with an opportunity that might lead to a paycheck” according to Jane Friedman in her book The Business of Being a Writer.

Selling consulting is hard. Selling strategy and knowledge and soft skills is not as easy as selling products or services. 

Sometimes I catch myself daydreaming about the perfect career. I imagine a time in my life when I’m only doing exactly what I want to be doing; a time when projects filter in for just the right rates at precisely the ideal times.

Behind every “how do I” question is a deeper question. Anytime someone asks “how do I…” and then follows it with something practical, like “find more clients?” or “grow my audience?” or “generate more profit?” there is one deeper question behind all of that. 

There are a few scenarios in which doing free work makes sense. Here they are. 

Anchoring isn’t just about price. It’s also about quality, speed, and status. Here’s how to do all four.

If you sell creative services, the first thing you have to do is turn your prospect into a buyer. Generally speaking, this is the easy part.

Last November I joined my friend Ben Gluntz on his podcast Created to Create. I hope you enjoy this one!

We all spend time going down rabbit holes. This is the experience of being on social media. Social media, however, is usually not very productive. 

Public speaking is like driving a car full of people. For the next few minutes, you’re going to take them somewhere. How you do it matters. 

When I was 21 years old, I found myself in Washington D.C. for a day alone. I wandered around, looked at some stuff, met a friend for lunch, and scalped a ticket to a baseball game. In the middle of it all, my father told me to meet a colleague of his who ran a recruiting firm. 

Can you call a business a success if it closes its doors? Can you say you are successful if your small business isn’t growing? If you have to shut down or sell or leave a business, can you really call that successful? 

I think you can. 

If you’re lucky, your clients understand about 10% of what you do. Most of them probably only understand about 5% of what you do. 

The things I’ve failed at in the past are better indicators of a future path than new things. If I’ve failed at them before, that means I’ve already gotten far enough to fail.