Category: Creator Confidential
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Good Writing Money, Bad Writing Money
If there’s anything I’ve learned in 15 years of writing, it’s that not all writing money is earned equally. There are such things as good writing money, and bad writing money. Here’s an idea of what they mean to me, and a guide to lessons I’ve learned, and how I’ll think about making money as…
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How to present your work so it gets the results it deserves
Good work absolutely does not just speak for itself. That’s why a piece of art is always accompanied by an artist statement, and each art show is accompanied by ephemera, an audio guide, or a curator. A staff member at a restaurant not only delivers the food, but explains the story behind a dish or…
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Inbounding
Is it better for you to find a new job and apply to it, or for a recruiter to come reach out to you? Is it better for you to find a new client and sell to them, or for a client to come find you? Is it better for you to reach out to…
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“Quarter million a year, and that don’t bounce”
That’s from “Untouchable,” when Pusha T talks about working as the president of Ye’s record label GOOD Music. His boast was in the salary he’d be earning working in a powerful role at a cutting edge record label, and not relying on the fickle income of music and the struggle of staying relevant in an…
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To all the dreams I dreamed before
When I look back at my teenage years, I think about how many opportunities I missed. Most of the time, I didn’t even hear about the opportunities or appreciate how important they were and how much they could change my life, so I didn’t develop my senses for it. The ones I did hear about,…
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How I write every day
As I’d written before, I’d been chugging along with my blog at the beginning of the year trying a very fixed weekly schedule and style guide. A day after the 100 Day Project started, I decided to try to write every day. When I’m busy, it just takes a couple of minutes and I basically…
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To bolster your confidence, work on your positioning
Yesterday I read something that connected a lot of dots for me, so much so that I wanted to share it the excerpts at my blog right away. For starters, there are two general hunches—or “myths”—that I’ve been trying to untangle and unpack amongst many others. The first is: Confidence, innate or manufactured, creates an…
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How to distribute your writing
A friend approached me a week ago or so with a really great long-form article he’d published. 3,000 words, really in-depth, oozing industry expertise. I wasn’t even part of the industry and I enjoyed it. He asked me for suggestions, and my main question was: What’s the plan for people finding this piece? Our minds…
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Executives who can execute
Some companies need their executives to merely make good decisions; they take in information, influence budgets, and hire. These same companies—usually huge ones with tens of thousands of employees—are the ones who max out their headcount and hire contingent workers and freelancers, agencies and services companies, and research companies, to actually do most of the…
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Why I stopped calling myself a “freelance writer”
Several years ago, the CEO of a prominent product development services company approached me to help out with copywriting and publicity. I had started my own editorial studio, Wonder Shuttle, and gave myself the job title of creative director. That didn’t matter much, because most of my network still knew me as a freelance writer.…