It’s not about finding time, it’s about making time — Coming back from a few days off work, I had a lot on my plate. There was a writing piece that I wanted to finish up and I needed to check in with clients on deadlines. As I was opening up my inbox to see what my work load for…

A summary of Pivot by Jenny Blake, part 1: Plant. — Start by defining your values and goals in a positive way (what you want , not what you don’t want). Then you can evaluate opportunities through the lenses of values and goals. Map out your values , your must haves, then put it where you can see it for constant…

Plus a free template to help you plot your #goals — In the last couple years, I’ve moved from doing an annual business review to doing a quarterly review. Reflecting on my business growth and goals quarterly allows me to check where I am, stay responsive, and pivot my business as needed. …

Ditch the stress and frustration with this two-step system — Late payments create two problems for freelancers. If you rely on that money to pay your bills and a check is late, it impacts your cash flow. This creates stress and can lead to additional negative consequences, like late fees from bills that weren’t paid on time. The second problem…

Only when I stopped seeing busyness as a badge of honor, could I see — and meet — my needs Back in the days of my Blogger blog, my name read “Busy all the time.” I wore my busyness like a badge of honor, an in-joke with the other overworked…

Hint: it isn’t about being lucky — People often talk about creative luck, when what they mean is “evidence of hard work.” It’s not lucky that I had a pitch accepted or a story come out in a prestigious outlet. It’s the end result of the invisible work of writing. …

When a freelance relationship becomes unbalanced and the client drains your energy, it’s time to move on — I did the math recently. In 2021, I spent around 25 hours working for one of my clients. I spent probably half that much time (so another 12 hour) dealing with the underlying emotions of a relationship that was no longer feeling like a fit. Time spent unpacking why I…

Here’s a list of my hard nope’s — When you’re reading for lit mags, do you reject pieces when you don’t like the title? I definitely don’t reject pieces when I don’t like the title! I struggle to come up with titles myself. I notice the title when I’m opening the piece, but unless it stands out in…

Save time and reduce the stress of new client management — As a general rule, new clients ALWAYS take more time than existing once…in my experience, anywhere from 30 to 50 percent more time. Sometimes, that’s because a client gives a detailed style guide with formatting requests and do’s and don’ts, and you spend an extra hour checking your final draft…