Trust
Many creatives are super concerned with trust. This can work against us. Being confident and answering questions directly and honestly builds trust. Using “salesy” and subjective language doesn’t build trust. To keep it simple, we make it simple. Making it simple for a customer is the complicated work that we do. Instead of me saying […]
Wolves at the door
A friend told me that his MO is dealing with the wolves at the door and he wanted to be motivated instead by cheering fans. I think it’s admirable to work for positivity. Part of that positivity is accepting the wolves. The wolves are there to help. With fear of risk, imposter syndrome, sunk-cost fallacy, […]
Let them find the exit
You walk in to a pizza place. The girl behind the counter says… “before we get started, there’s the exit. Feel free to leave at any time if you don’t want pizza from here. Do you want to leave? You decided to have pizza a little while ago. if it’s not still the best choice […]
Jellybeans out of nothing : Negotiating
Jellybeans is my way of thinking about total cost or benefit of something. It includes… Getting too much spring mix salad greens costs me jellybeans because i have to pay for them, load them out of the grocery store and into my house, into my fridge. Gotta move them around in my fridge. Stare at […]
Opportunity : Hope is power
I have a certain body shape that I’d like to attain by Sept 1. I don’t think it will happen at this point, yet I’m still trying… a little bit. I think with dedication to it this month, I could have gotten much closer by now. My main things are that I wanted to lose […]
Fail until it works. Don’t Incrementally improve
Lexus doesn’t build a subcompact economy hatchback, then slowly raise its price. We want to get somewhere bigger and feel good about it. We want to get there ASAP. We want to have fun in our lives. We want work to be a game. Many freelancers try to slowly raise their rates dollar by dollar […]
Things don’t look like they feel
I told my friend “I think your mom is abusive.” She said “It’s not that.” I googled “What are signs of abuse?” I went thru the list with her. The second one I mentioned she said she experienced with her mom, but it was justified in whatever way. The third one, she had also experienced. […]
Value Piles
We want ourselves and our people to be motivated to do big stuff. We want it to be a sustainable thing that everyone can commit to up front, so that we dive in with full gusto and potential. When we set objectives for a project, we want to make them as valuable as possible. When […]
That guy is getting screwed.
I’ve had people call me, consider booking me, I was the right one for the job. then instead hire someone based on one factor like price or costume or something else. Even if they got a lower price than I was charging, I knew they were getting ripped off. They weren’t getting the actual value […]
Serving VS Offering to Serve
we can fail. we can get rejected. My ferret dies. One friend says “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” What an offer! anything! Another friend shows up at my door with some mediocre home made mac and cheese – a few meals worth because he knows i won’t feel like dealing with […]
The blue-collar creative
Someone said they were a meat and potatoes vegan and that really worked for me. I got it. I like FOOD that’s vegan. Simple. Real. Delicious. It takes the magic and the whimsy out of vegan food. Instead of recreating nachos using jicama paste as cheese and reconstituted petroleum as sour cream, just gimme chips […]
Personal paradise
It can be surprising to find out that other people want different things from life. It can also be surprising to realize what is the dream life for us. Dream life is close When I started writing down what were the foundational things of the daily life, I put together a schedule for a day. […]