Practical posts about the creative life and work of writers who are serious about building their careers.

Understanding the Customer Journey (How to Charge More for Your Work, Pt. 2)

Understanding Your Customers' Journey is part 2 (of 3) of my How to Charge More for Your Work series. (Part 1 is here.) Today, we're going to work on understanding your customer's journey as it relates to finding you and buying your services.…
How to Charge More for Your Work

How To Charge More For Your Work

Do you ever see people who are doing "the same thing" as you, but somehow are living out a much more successful lifestyle? They seem less stressed. They charge more for their services, or products, and sell more of them too. How are they charging…
artist sitting on the street with paintings behind

My Favorite Hacks and Apps
for your Creative Career

After nearly two decades as a creative entrepreneur and writer, I've come to find some of the best hacks and apps for your creative career (including great tools, and software) that make my days run smoother. And when I find something great,…
artist sitting on the street with paintings behind

I’ll Do Well Anyway: How to Not Allow Failure to Define You

There's a blurry video from 1986 making its rounds on Instagram lately. ​Have you seen that old video clip of Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes interviewing Oprah? In December of '86 The Oprah Winfrey show had just launched and our beloved icon…
artist sitting on the street with paintings behind

The Magic Mindset to Selling Without Feeling Sleazy

Those words "sales" and "marketing" have often felt icky to me. Marketing definitely has a stigma caused by the incessant, bludgeoning advertising and empty promises that assail our modern lives. And sales? For me it's often had a sleazy,…
artist sitting on the street with paintings behind

Stop Worrying Whether You’re Enough.
Try These Two Things.

​There are two stickers in my office that I received at last year's Craft + Commerce conference which say, "Create Every Day" and "Teach Everything You Know." I find these two mottos so important to how we writers and creatives establish…
artist sitting on the street with paintings behind

What to Do When You Have to Wait for Success

In Seth Godin’s latest book What to Do When It’s Your Turn (and it’s always your turn) he talks about how the radical cultural and economic changes of the past 10-20 years have created room for a very different type of work to emerge.…
artist sitting on the street with paintings behind
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Why Branding is So Important for Writers and Creatives

One of the most common questions I get from writers and creatives is, "how can branding help me?" There are so many ways, but for brevity's sake let's just look at these few. But first, remember that great personal branding is all about knowing…
artist sitting on the street with paintings behind

Make Money from Your Art: The Ethos of the Starving Artist

There's this unspoken longsuffering ethos in the literary world that writers must suffer for their craft, always look at their work as inadequate; and be relentless in their pursuit of the grand art of it all. And the ultimate reward for this…