Today is my birthday. I want to recognize a few of the people who have made my 28th year on this planet even better. These people have inspired me to continue working to make the small corner of the world I’m in a better place.

If you’re an artist, and you chase hits, a solid fan base will elude you. Deep cuts are what build fan bases. For every reason inside a Marketing 101 textbook, deep cuts are what build fan bases. But don’t just trust some guy on the internet with a blog. Let’s look at what The Chainsmokers have to say, what Coldplay has done for two decade, and how Ikea built its fan base.

Because these are feelings you can only learn, not earn. No amount of money, or success, or fame will bring you the feelings you truly desire. Do you know how you learn gratitude? By saying thanks for the money you have now. Do you know how you learn peace? By letting go of specific outcomes, and accepting what you’ve been given now.

I delayed getting married for years, in part because I waned to get my career in order before I did. As Kanye once said, “Just wait ’til I get my money right.” We did. When my wife and I were getting pre-engagement counseling, and talking with friends about the matter, I realized there was a flip side of this coin. There can be great financial benefits to being married.

2022 is coming swiftly. In just a few days, 2021 will be history, and you’ll start to judge the outfits and decisions you deliberated on so heavily. Many people, myself included, are excited to start the new year by building a new habit. But when you stop to consider new habit goals taken on in past Januarys, you might get discouraged.

Today is Christmas. Christmas is culture. This tiny little day has so much culture stuffed inside of it, baked into it, and wrapped all around it. There’s a religious culture surrounding this day, and also an American culture altering it, and even specific ethnic cultures modifying that. And then there’s your family culture.

Some of my best blogs were written on my phone. The blogs that really boil down a concept to a concentrated, digestible metaphor were written on my phone.

I wish I read this book when I started my career. The way it simply explains a wide range of concepts would have helped me achieve success long before I learned the lessons the hard way. Donald Miller is an incredibly clear writer, making difficult concepts simple to understand.

Your pitch deck skills suck. That’s why you just googled “how to make clean, simple pitch decks,” or something to that effect. No need to be ashamed! You’ve come to the right place. I’m going to show you four key principles that will have you nailing your deck design every time.

“With this decreased friction, there are more mediocre brands than ever before. Brand equity is what separates a great brand from all the others. Showing up is no longer enough. Brands need to bring real value and connection to niche communities in order to last in the digital age.”

I think it really pays for us to pay each other when we encounter something that’s out of our wheelhouse. I’ve paid friends to help me design logos, build spreadsheet templates, and edit social content. But every once in a while, a little bit of research and elbow grease can get you some pretty cheap results.

The one who can reach out to one hundred, one thousand, or even ten thousand brands, paying no attention to the overwhelming majority of rejection, is the one who can grow their career at will.

People are always going to reject emerging platforms simply because they’re unfamiliar. They’ll try to make you feel stupid or juvenile for investing time and energy into new platforms. They’ll say that social media is just a bubble, and the bubble will burst soon. But here’s the thing: all great marketing exists within a bubble.

So you got ghosted. You made a connection, you hopped on a call, you sent over a quote–and got no answer. Your potential client vanished into thin air after you did all this work. It’s a bummer. But with the right mindset and the right strategy, ghosting can happen with less frequently and bother you less each time.

Photographers and videographers amaze me with how terrible they usually are at copywriting. The most common questions I get from visual artists are about copywriting. How do I write a good bio? How do I pitch my services? How do I describe what I do? I get it. Copywriting can be tough. But with a little thinking and a little guidance, you’ll be writing a killer bio in no time.

Clarity is so important in pitches, because your service is uncharted territory for the client. The reason they would hire someone like you is so you can bring new expertise that they don’t have. So when your pitch is unclear, it makes a foggy experience even more difficult to comprehend for your client.

If you have a big decision to make, write a list of pros and cons. Some people say not to write lists of pros and cons, because it’s too rigid of a rubric to judge important, flexible decisions. I disagree.

No one will teach us how to spend our vacation time. There’s no college class on how to have a restful Sunday. High schools don’t teach personal finance or taxes or time management.

Many freelancers start their careers the opposite way that Tesla did. They do projects for razor thin profit margins, convincing themselves that they’ll get more clients, make the process more efficient, and generate a lot of revenue that way. But they rarely do.

In advertising, unexpected things capture consumer attention. Expected things don’t capture consumer attention–they fall on deaf ears and glazed-over eyes. And somewhere in the middle of unexpected and expected, advertising is proven to be low-risk and effective.