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How to Grow a Creative Business: 2 Lessons I Learned from Youth Baseball

0 comments Business Growth Strategies, creative business tips, creative entrepreneur advice, How to grow a creative business, how to grow a freelance business, small creative business growth

Somewhere along the way, this British transplant became a baseball mum (or “mom”). My youngest son joined a rec league a couple of years ago and loved it so much he tried out for the travel team. In our two years as a baseball family, I’ve learned a few things: Kids baseball is a really long game where not a lot happens. Suffering is a choice, so the quicker you get good with that, the better. Unless you’re an experienced…

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Strong Ties, Loose Connections, and the Power of Community

2 comments Community & Connection

I recently read a New York Magazine article about “loneliness influencers” who create content documenting their life without friends. On the one hand, I admired their transparency about the increasing isolation young people are experiencing. But mostly It made me wonder about what we’ve lost.  Because as a Gen X-er, I’ve straddled two very different words. Pre-internet involved landlines, Saturday afternoons “in town”, and the convoluted ritual of payphone calls and answering machine check-ins required for a rollicking night out…

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How to Stand Out as a Creative Entrepreneur: Point of View, Values, and Knowing When to Change Your Mind

0 comments Business Growth Strategies

I recently re-listened to a podcast conversation between Trevor Noah and Malcolm Gladwell, and it was so energizing I basically wanted to call someone and talk about it immediately. Already a huge fan of Trevor Noah’s intelligence, curiosity, and humor, I was pleasantly surprised to find I loved Gladwell just as much by the end. In their freewheeling, completely captivating conversation, they discussed Gladwell’s decision to fully rewrite—not merely update—his phenomenally successful 2000 book The Tipping Point for its 25th…

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Are you at an inflection point in your creative business?

0 comments Business development

Inflection points in a creative business or career are as inevitable as they can be difficult to navigate. Often accompanied by a unique blend of terror, fear, and potential, inflection points can be motivating at best and utterly paralyzing at worst. There are 101 (and then some) ways inflection points can show up in a creative business or career. Maybe: The way you’ve always gotten business is no longer working.  You’ve experienced a shift in your personal life e.g. a…

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3 ways to turn your website into your #1 sales tool (without an expensive re-brand!)

0 comments Business development, Website Strategy & Positioning

A couple of years ago, I started to get that professional itch. You know the one: you love what you do, but feel ready to up the ante a bit (or a lot). My immediate thought was “I need to re-brand.”  I started a Pinterest board of websites and brands I loved, started to think about who would do my branding (one of the perks of my job is I know the best creative talent). I thought about hiring a…

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What Today’s Creative Leaders Are Missing (Hint: It’s Not Talent)

0 comments Leadership Development

I remember being wheeled out of the hospital with my first baby in my arms thinking, surely they’re not going to let us just leave with him? After two nights in the hospital with this helpless infant, the idea of keeping him safe felt like a mission of overwhelming magnitude. As it turns out, my fear wasn’t unfounded — the first year following childbirth is statistically the most dangerous period for both the infant and the mother. And yet, once…

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Rocket fuel for your business 🚀: Finding the right community!

0 comments Business development, Business Growth Strategies

When I think back over nearly two decades 😲 of being a business owner, I realize one thing has been true in every stage: I’ve always achieved more, gained clarity on my value and offerings, made friends, and made more money when I’ve been part of a solid community of business owners. Over the past 15 years, I’ve participated in: A four-person accountability group that met monthly (come rain, shine, or snow) at a NYC diner to talk about business,…

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How to Build Confidence and Reduce Imposter Syndrome in Your Creative Career

0 comments Mindset

I recently had a huge realization about the clients I LOVE working with. They’re ambitious visionary creatives who’ve bumped up against an obstacle on the path to realizing their goals. Maybe it’s a knowledge gap, a confidence issue, or they just need a fully invested partner to help them figure out a way past, around, or over said obstacles.  These clients view me as a thought partner rather than teacher and challenge me to show up and do my best…

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3 ways to deliver an A+ client experience (and why it’s crucial to the success of your creative business)

0 comments Business Growth Strategies

Have you ever had a service experience that left you feeling misunderstood, uncared for, or downright mad? I know I have! From the physician who’s always running late to the waiter with an attitude, we’ve all experienced that disconnect between what we expected and what we got. Now think about a time you were surprised and delighted. I still remember picking up my car from an autobody shop right before vacation, only to find they’d washed and detailed it inside…

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Download your freelance hourly rate calculator!

0 comments Pricing, Pricing Creativity

Why does pricing get us so worked up? Because it’s hard, people! There are so many factors that go into coming up with a fee that feels good to you and your client, that it gets most of us a little bent out of shape at times. The complexity inherent in pricing creativity—and the belief that an hourly rate serves no one—is probably the reason that helping creatives get paid what they’re worth has been a theme for my entire…

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