How to Keep Your Business Up When You Feel Down
Self-employment has no shortage of ups and downs. When a well-paying client suddenly quits, or your marketing doesn't seem to be working, or your laptop goes kerflooey, it's easy to become discouraged. Especially when you work mostly solo, it can be a difficult task...
You Don’t Need Permission to Write and Publish What You Wish
When I first started coaching aspiring business owners, I quickly discovered that many of them were lacking a certain crucial element for their success. They were waiting for someone to give them permission to do all that they wanted to do. Happily, I am blessed with...
Don’t Give Up Marketing Before the Miracle
"It's just not working," my client said dejectedly. "I've been doing exactly what the experts say –- expanding my network, asking for referrals, following up, but I still have only a handful of clients. I'm thinking about giving up and getting a job." "When did you...
Three Good Paragraphs Can Make Your Day
Sometimes our expectations of ourselves as writers (whether we write to build business, express ourselves, or as a way to make a living) are way too high. It's good to hold aspirations to be a highly-skilled, prolific writer. But what's not good is when we allow our...
Life-in-a-Notebook Planning System
Clients and students often ask me, "C.J., you always seem to have a million things going on. How do you keep track of it all?" Their questions imply that they believe I am more organized, focused, or productive than the average bear. Personally, I'm not so sure that's...
I Was Interrupted While Writing This
Modern always-connected life wasn't designed for the professional or creative who needs to focus. It's almost as if there is an internet-based conspiracy to interfere with your most important work. Kate I. Foley, an impossibly-young fiction author and poet, captures...
Marketing the Real You
I often wonder how the practice began among self-employed professionals and creatives of pretending to be someone else in order to promote your business. You know what I'm talking about -- it's the marketing face, the selling voice, that you often put on in order to...
Breakdowns Can Lead to Breakthroughs
The worst thing that can happen when a self-employed professional or creative is working on an important project -- like a book, a course, a design, a website, or a report -- is a breakdown. An essential resource is suddenly unavailable. One of your key concepts turns...
Slay Your Productivity Dragons
They lie in wait for you when you least expect them -- the productivity dragons of fear, resistance and procrastination. Just when you think you've defeated them at last, they rear their ugly heads again. What's a self-employed professional or creative to do? First of...
Feeling Stopped? Spend Just Five Minutes
Do you ever find yourself feeling afraid, resistant, or just plain stuck about getting started on something you need to do? Of course you do. We all do. Whether it's not knowing how to begin, going out for a walk on a freezing morning, filing your income taxes, or...
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