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Talking Shrimp

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11 Ways To Get Paid To Write: Every type of writing gig I’ve ever been paid for (and one that paid ≈$zero).

16 Comments

“You have to be EL James or Colleen Hoover to make a decent living as a writer! Don’t even try! Get a real job!” Ever hear that? Ignore it. There are countless ways to get paid to write. To give you some ideas, I went all the way back to the early Nineties – the […]

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business, copywriting, email marketing, work entrepreneurs, marketing, success, TV, work, writing jobs

How To Charge What You’re Worth

68 Comments

I see a lot of blogs and Facebook conversations about “earning the income you deserve” and  “charging what you’re worth.”

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business, copywriting, entrepre-nerd-ville, marketing, rants, work

Make your name by doing the unsexy work. (AKA Puff Is Pissed, AKA Grownups Eating Ice Cream And Crying)

41 Comments

At the company off-site, they had tubs of ice cream waiting for us first thing in the morning. Breakfast of cry-babies.

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business, copywriting, creativity, entrepre-nerd-ville, success, work, writing

The F-word I don’t use (and maybe you shouldn’t, either)

8 Comments

“Are you a freelancer?” When someone asks that, I nod yes-ish and answer, “I have a copywriting business.” I’ll call myself a consultant, a professional copywriter, an independent contractor. I’ll say I’m for hire. A free agent. Available for projects. A business owner. But I don’t say “freelancer.” Why? Because it sounds poor. Poor, and […]

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business, copywriting, language, marketing, work, writing

Not every entrepreneur wants to change the world. Some of us just want to love what we do and never fly coach.

72 Comments

Should I be ashamed? Am I a freak? A grinch, a soulless beast, a Kardashian-hearted money grubber? I wonder that sometimes. Because here’s what I see: People in the online business world (life coaches, business coaches, healers, private chefs, virtual assistants, copywriters, dog psychics) who cater to other people in the online business world (other […]

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business, copywriting, marketing, work

Yes, it’s raining, humans are weird, and you can make a living telling us what we already know.

10 Comments

The other day, I was on my walk (fyi – when I say “a walk” it means just a putter around the neighborhood where I might stop into a clothing store and try on a top; when I say ​”my​ walk” it means a long one that counts as my workout for the day. A walk that must happen. Podcasts […]

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blogs and blogging, business, copywriting, creativity, work, writing

The three most boring words that come out of your mouth

40 Comments

Know what I need to do? Apparently, everything. Every time I open up 750words.com, which I use as my journal, I see that I accidentally skipped a few days. I broke my streak. And I invariably start with, “I need to write more.” And then, as I continue typing, the “I need to”s multiply like Gremlins when they get […]

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creativity, life and stuff, success, work, writing

I deserve to be lazy. But so what.

12 Comments

I’ve been very deserve-y since I got back from Europe. (Sorry for that sentence. “Since I got back from Europe” is a heinous thing to say. Makes me think of my first day at my private all-girls school in 9th grade. During lunch, one of the fanciest girls in the class — her last name was one […]

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business, creativity, life and stuff, my dad, work, writing my dad

The best Power Pose for work.

5 Comments

You’ve heard about power posing, right? Using your body language to generate confidence, calm, or sharpness in your brain? The Wonder Woman pose is the one you hear about most.⠀I’m sure it’s great before speaking on stage. Or walking into a negotiation. (Because a quivering lip does not back up “It’s my way or the […]

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business, copywriting, creativity, work, writing

What if it’s a “hell, maybe”?

39 Comments

“If it’s not a ‘hell yes’, it’s a ‘hell no!’” If you haven’t heard that expression, then you probably aren’t in contact with any coaches-slash-“lifestyle design” experts, or anyone who’s being coached and parrots everything they hear. And you probably don’t read any of the self-helpy or businessy blogs that I can’t help browsing every […]

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business, self-help-y stuff, work

Why I got fired, the sauerkruat smell, and how to be un-fire-able

3 Comments

If it’s 8am, I’m still sleeping. Go away. 9am? Still sleeping. Maybe even at 10. I’m not proud that I sleep so late, but I’m proud that I can. I’ve built a profitable business that lets me be the Queen of Snooze that I am. (So can you. More on that down the page.) Fun […]

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b-school, blogs and blogging, business, work

How to be disgustingly productive

43 Comments

A productivity workshop seemed like a silly idea for me. No, not because I’m so productive. I could win shiny gold medals for wasting time, if there were official world records. But there aren’t, because it’s a hard thing to measure: Is staring at Facebook for hours waiting for another like to show up wasting time? Is […]

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business, creativity, procrastination, self-improvement, work, writing

Be for the weirdos – and other lessons from a day with Seth Godin

30 Comments

I was so mad that Friday. At 6:40, I was hustling off to my 7pm House dance class, wearing my dowdy, full-length black down coat and all kinds of other thermal layers. I’d walked a block thinking, “Only for Cebo’s class do I go out in this cold.” Cebo is my teacher’s “dance name.” (All the […]

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business, creativity, entrepre-nerd-ville, work, writing

Remain an unshowered troll, or show your face? (The entrepreneur’s dilemma.)

11 Comments

I didn’t shower yesterday. Not for any reason except I kept getting sucked into a work or Facebook vortex every time I looked at the computer. And I kept looking just when I was about to shower. I went to bed feeling filmy. I actually love the shower. I don’t avoid it like my friend Victoria, who’s scared […]

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business, copywriting, entrepre-nerd-ville, work

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