“The people with the best self-control are typically the ones who need to use it the least.”

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

“One of the privileges given to those who've avoided dying young is the blessed right to grow old.”

The old saying goes, “Don’t believe everything you read.” This saying evolved to become “don’t believe everything you see on TikTok.” Now, we need to change it again: “don’t believe everything you see on AI.”

Is work-life balance the antithesis of greatness? Doesn’t it take a singular focus on one discipline to become world-class? 

Writing really isn’t about word-count or typing speed though, is it?

This is what I learned growing up just a chainlink fence away from a vicious Rottweiler named Rufus. 

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.

“You don't ‘own’ or control a community, and you don't necessarily build one. You participate or engage with one.”

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. 

Writing a good book isn’t just about writing the best possible sentence at every given moment.

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!

Bad guys in movies like to say “everyone has a price.” That there’s a financial figure, career aspiration, or deep desire that will get anyone to do anything. This may be true. But what if we raised our prices? 

It’s whiny to complain about having to sell our art. It comes from an entitled place, where we think we must be such geniuses that other people would be lucky to sell our work for us.

We hold ourselves to a higher productivity standard than machines. When we get tired, or emotionally exhausted, or lose focus, or when we can’t find any motivation, the tendency for ambitious people like us is to be hard on ourselves. Meanwhile, we expect the cars we drive to fail. 

It may not be the most technically efficient way to pay the least amount of money, but it has proven to be the most psychologically efficient. When people feel they are making progress, and can see the number of loans decreasing early on, they’re more motivated to keep going.

Everybody has two hands (at most). Everybody has 24 hours in the day. Everybody has to sleep and eat and breathe.