I’ve taken a number of paid online courses with video content. None of those videos come remotely close to the quality of editing and information available for free on YouTube. In fact, the most engaging and interesting content is available for free on social media. 

As someone in high school in the late 2000s and early 2010s, I spent a microscopic amount of time actually reading classic novels, or watching award-winning movies, or seeing great paintings. 

In 1964, when the U.S. Surgeon General issued a warning about cigarette smoking, Bill Bernbach decided he wouldn’t be in that corner of the business anymore.

Recently, an artist told me about the freedom she feels when she commits to creating every day, even on days when she doesn’t feel like it. 

Every aspect of Martha Stewart’s life came together to make her empire possible: gardening, hosting, modeling, Wall Street, publishing.

You might have a few minutes to cram, or double check information, but the best thing you can do for yourself, with so little time left, is breathe. 

It’s exciting to find someone who speaks your language. It’s enticing to jump on board with a new style of thought. It’s tempting to synthesize methods from a number of great teachers, because we feel like we’re getting the best of all worlds. As someone who’s done it a lot, I know. 

In five two-minute rounds of Boggle, I scored 15 points. My wife scored 50. She crushes me (and most people) at this game. I knew this going in.

Creative development is one of those “budget black holes” in the production process. We don’t charge enough for it, clients don’t want to pay for it, and we spend way too much time doing it. 

When we see a goal fall out of consistency, we ghost the idea of it. We avoid questions about it and we avoid thinking about it because we feel guilty when we finally remember.

Giving up on your 2025 goals by the end of January is ridiculous. January represents a little more than 8% of the year.

For better and for worse, we extrapolate success from one area to another. 

If you don’t keep your finances organized, freelancing will challenge that. If you aren’t comfortable networking, pitching, or negotiating, freelancing will force you into uncomfortable situations.

When I send an email blast, one of five things will happen. Four out of five of them are good.

Friction can be a good thing in sales, assuming you have a good product, because it forces the customer to think about you and to make a decision.

We compare our work to our inspirations’. Naturally, we’re not as good. This leads us to believe that we might just be the worst version of whatever it is we’re doing. We definitely know we’re not the best.

“You will save yourself from yourself by learning to just state the number and shut up.”

The first challenge of writing is this: can you trim the weeds around the flowers?

A hard-and-fast daily creative deliverable for a short-term challenge works wonders.

We misunderstand how the creative process works. We hear stories of great artists creating in a flash during a lightning storm of inspiration, and think we just need to wait for the right moment to come to us.