I recently had an epiphany: the busier I am, the happier I am.

That’s not just because more work = more profit.  It’s because I’m slowly understanding an element of my own personality that I’ve never taken seriously.

I’m a lazy workaholic.

What I mean by that is:

• I multitask.
• I procrastinate.
• I love collaboration.
• I enjoy being involved in numerous projects.
• I respond best to a variety of ever-changing stimuli.
• I work best under pressure.

In other words, the more I’m doing — and the more different things I’m doing — the happier I am because I feel more active, engaged and fulfilled.  (I’m just habitually unable to get ahead of schedule.  Must have something to do with my undying love of naps…)

This is partly because I hold myself to a high standard.  I have great expectations for my own success, and I know I’m capable of accomplishing much more than I usually do.  When I don’t, I often feel like I’m wasting my own time and potential, and that causes me to re-evaluate, refocus and redefine what I’m really passionate about.

Granted, your work style may differ completely from mine.  You may be happiest when you only have one task to focus on — or even none.  But if you occasionally feel like you could (or should) be doing more, here are 3 ways I’ve found to keep myself more engaged, energized and focused on the sum total of my own life.

1.  Go Out of Your Way to Meet Interesting People.

In high school and college, everybody is interesting because everybody is new.  You’re still figuring out the “types” of people there are in the world, and because so many of your experiences are shared in groups (classmates, roommates, coworkers, family), the collective memories of your actions resonate big and loud in your subconscious.

And then you graduate, and you get a real job, and finding new stimuli becomes a chore.

These days, I freelance, which means I could go an entire week without interfacing with anyone other than my girlfriend and my dog.  Sure, there’s email, phone calls and Twitter.  But as someone who thrives in a group dynamic, I can’t feel entirely fulfilled when the only incoming stimuli I’m reacting to are pixels.

The fewer people I interact with on a daily basis, the more static and placid my own ideas become.  The fewer opportunities I have to learn, or be surprised, or challenged, or grow.

Find people who excite you.  Find people who motivate you.  Hell, find people who infuriate you.  Tackle them.  Stick to them.  Pick their brains.  Argue with them.  Find a common ground, or find that you have no common ground at all.

Try to understand each other.  Work together, or compete.  At the very least, drill deeply enough into who they are that you learn something about yourself in the process.  If you don’t seek out reasons to perpetually redefine yourself, you start to forget who you are.

2.  Make It a Goal to Experience Something New on a Daily Basis.

When we first adopted our dog, Rufus, I told Ann that I wanted to make sure he got to experience something new every day.  It could be a new kind of food, or a new toy, or a new route to walk or a new person to meet.  To me (and clearly as a projection of me), I felt like allowing Rufus to fall into a stale routine would rob him of the opportunity to experience as much life as possible, and that would make us pretty lousy dog parents (in my mind, anyway).

In the beginning, this was easy because everything was new to Rufus.  After two years, it’s a little harder to go out of his (and my) comfort zone, and not every day is as trailblazing as I’d like it to be.  But when I feel like I’m too tired or distracted to walk or play with Rufus, sometimes I remember my original goal and I think, “I have to have five minutes to show Rufus something new.”

And if I can make that kind of time for my dog, I can do the same for myself.  Right?

3.  Admit That Nothing Matters.

Last weekend, as I looked at my miles-long to-do list and tried to feel bad for being behind schedule, I realized something just as powerful as my passion for staying busy:

Ultimately, I really don’t care.

Things will get done, or they won’t.  I’ll succeed, or I’ll fail.  I’ll live a life, and eventually I’ll die, and whatever impact I’ve had or legacy I leave will be up to someone else to make sense of.  I can’t control that, and trying to is an exercise in futility and a waste of energy that could be better spent exploring and enjoying my life.

So why feel guilty?

This line of thought might seem counter-productive to my stated goal of living a more active and engaged life.  It may even seem nihilistic.  But, on the contrary, I find that it helps me avoid wasting time and energy on feeling frustrated or guilty for not living up to arbitrary benchmarks and judgments of success, including my own.

Life is short.  Or it’s long.  Or, if you’re lucky, it’s just long enough.

It’s up to each of us to find our own rhythm.  But I doubt I’ll find mine by running in place.

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Every Thursday at 8 PM EST, David Spinks and Lauren Fernandez host a Twitter chat called #u30pro.  Its focus is to create a network of young (aka “under-30″) professionals, but participants of all ages are invited to join the discussion and share their relevant wisdom.

Last week, the topic involved offices — namely, do we still need them?

With such a web-enabled modern workforce, is there still actual value in requiring people to work in one place for 40+ hours every week?

Making the Case for Tunnel Vision

As many #u30pro participants admitted, working from home exposes a person to daylong distractions (e.g., kids, pets, video games, running errands, taking a nap).  Wouldn’t being stuck at the office be more productive by default?

And yet, in an office, you’re still assaulted with distractions of a different stripe: questions, emergencies, small talk, meetings, upgrades, lunch breaks, coffee breaks, memos…

Is there really any difference?

Yes, But It’s All in Your Head

As I tweeted during #u30pro, an “office” is less important than “a place where you can focus and accomplish your goals.”

And, whether you work at home or in an office, that focus is ultimately up to you.

To help reduce the white noise that can distract you from your goals, consider these tips:

1. Shorter Emails, Less Often

Very few emails require immediate replies, and even fewer emails require long replies.  Check your email when you start work, after lunch, and before you end your day.  Send your replies immediately, but don’t check back in the interim (unless it’s an emergency).

Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, suggests doing even less.

2. “Got It.”

Two little words that can put an end to an otherwise endless chain of emails.  It lets the sender know a document or message was received without sparking an elaborate and pointless conversation.  (e.g., “I got your message — thanks for such a prompt reply!” ~ “No problem! Glad to know everything worked out.” ~ “Sure did!  If anything else comes up, I’ll let you know.” ~ “Please do!  Although I’ll be out of the office most of next week.” ~ “In that case, have a great vacation!” etc. etc. etc.)

Stop wasting everybody’s time.

“Got it.”

Onward.

3. Block out your time.

Accomplishing the first 3 items on your to-do list by 10 AM is nice, but if those last 2 items linger because you felt like you had time to kill, you’ll still end up working late.

Instead, try this: list every hour of your workday and assign 2 or 3 to-dos to get done in each hour (or , if a project is large or ongoing, in each block of time).

If you get that hour’s work done in less than an hour, congratulations: you’ve earned a break.  (Until next hour.)

Otherwise, even the shortest to-do list can remain undone if you confuse small tasks with the big picture.

4. Schedule “Me” Time, and Defend It Viciously.

If you need a coffee break at 10 and 2, take it.

If you need to surf Twitter between tasks because it helps your mind realign, do it.

And yes, naps are good.

Your work gets done because you’re good at what you do, not because you’re a machine.

5. Close Your Door.

If you have an office, you have the right to close the door.  If your coworkers keep interrupting you anyway, you have the right to lock it.  And if they keep knocking, you have the right to crawl out the window and work from the cafe down the street.

If you work in a cube, the same rules apply, but you may have to be more visually demonstrative.  If you’re not to be disturbed, hang up a sign that says so.  Or run police tape across your cube entrance.

And if all else fails, work with your brow furrowed or your tongue sticking out.  If you look like you’re working hard, other people are less likely to interrupt you.

6. Ignore Your Phone.

If it’s important, they’ll leave a message that you can check when you have time.

If it’s really important, they’ll call back.  (And yes, if the same person is frantically dialing you over and over, that’s a sure sign that something else is about to become more important than whatever you’re currently working on.)

7. Make It Hard to Navigate to Websites Where You Routinely Waste Time.

If you can’t watch one YouTube video without viewing three more, leave your speakers off.

If you can’t tear yourself away from Farmville, don’t bookmark Facebook.

The act of having to turn on your speakers, or to physically type in the address of a website you know you shouldn’t be going to, is a subconscious reminder that you have more important things to do.

8. I’m cutting this list short because you have more important things to do.

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The cheaper it is to create something, the easier it is to profit.

That’s common sense.  That’s business basics.  That’s logic.

So why, at a time when anyone can start a business or create and distribute media from scratch, do we still pursue venture capital and beg advertisers for sponsorships?

Because all of our business fantasies still resemble the sprawling romantic empires of the past, rather than the streamlined and self-sustaining models of the future.  We don’t just dream of succeeding; we dream of winning big.

And that means our dreams are hopelessly out of reach unless we know The Right People.

So let’s change that.

First, Let’s Pretend You’ll Never Be Worth Anything

Let’s start with your prized business idea.  You know, the one you’ve been nurturing for years… sharing in hushed tones, and only with the people you hope you can trust… paranoid that someone else might steal your genius out from under you and run off with it, making millions.

Now, pretend your idea is worthless.

Pretend no one would ever invest a dollar to help you get that company off the ground.

Pretend your entire business plan boils down to “I told you so.”

No investors.  No angels.  No grants.

Would you still do it?

Could you still do it?

(Would you want to?)

Artists: You Too.

Forget ads.

You don’t lay awake at night inventing stories in your head just so someone else can use them to sell laundry detergent.  You create stories because that’s what you do.

But you also have to eat.

Traditionally, that means sacrificing “objectionable” aspects of your creation (aka, “I don’t get it…”) so that a complete stranger will consider sponsoring it.  (“You have an amazing idea?  Great.  But can it sell cat food?”)

Fortunately, you now have choices.  You just have to be willing to work for yourself.

So if you’d rather spend your time creating instead of begging, here are five ways to fix (and fund) your own projects.

1. You Want to Fund an Iceberg? Monetize the Tip.

An iceberg is massive, but ships only see (and react to) the tiny portion that breaks the surface.  Instead of trying to mobilize the whole thing, just focus on the leading edge.

What single portion of your epic idea can you produce, promote and distribute right now?  Which element could force people to sit up and take notice, whether it was connected to a larger system or not?

Find a way to isolate and profitably market the leading edge of your idea and the vast mechanism behind it will eventually come into view.  But if you try to create it all at once, you’ll be overwhelmed, and you’ll never build up enough momentum to break the surface.

2. Think Small(er).

Sure, you can see yourself running a thousand person company.  But how many people do you need to get your idea off the ground?

Yes, you could direct an amazing film with a cast of hundreds.  But how few characters does your story need to still be told clearly?

Too many pieces and the picture falls apart;  too few and the idea can’t support itself.

Find the absolute bare minimum of resources you need to make something compelling.  Once you’ve done that, you can build out, which feels like success.  But starting big and scaling back feels like failure.  Better to cast yourself as the underdog than the target.

3. Crowdfund It.

Investors can provide you with significant funds and resources, but investors also expect to earn their money back, plus a profit.  When you take their money, the clock is ticking.  You’re judged at every step.

So why not get judged once, in advance, and earn small wagers with no strings attached?

That’s where crowdfunding services like Kickstarter and IndieGogo come in.  They let your audience donate to your project in advance. This not only provides you with starting capital, but also a clearer idea of how interested the public is in your work.  (Did you expect to raise $10,000 for a project, but you only raised $2,000?  There’s a lesson there.)

4. Let Your Audience Be Your Accountants.

You make products to benefit the customer.  You create art to entertain the audience.

So trust them with your ledger.

To crowdfund wisely, make your financial goals crystal clear: “I need X dollars to complete Project Z.”  Sympathetic audiences will respond, not just because they’re interested in the project, but because they can see just how close (or far) you are to your budgetary goals.

When your audience understands the direct impact their contribution will have on your bottom line, they’ll be more likely to invest in your plan — partially because you have a plan, and you aren’t afraid to share it.

And if you run into trouble, maybe they can help.  Because you’re all in it together.

5. Make Your Own Merchandise.

If you’re an artist, you probably dream of seeing your work taken seriously.  But you may also dream of seeing your work on TV screens and billboards, or on someone’s t-shirt, backpack or refrigerator magnet.  (There’s no shame in ancillaries.)

If one of your goals is to create work that becomes so iconic in the minds of its audience that they’ll voluntarily pay to wear / share / promote it, do them (and you) a favor: make it easy for them.

Characters.  Quotes.  Games.  Jokes.  Puzzles.  Apparel.  Toys.  Replicas.  The list goes on.  And no matter how obscure your project may seem, there’s a hook in there somewhere that fans could use as a visual calling card to identify themselves.

For example, you’ve probably seen a Hatchet Man car decal and never known what it meant.  Or a Homestar Runner laptop skin, a Diesel Sweeties in-joke t-shirt or an Achewood shotglass, which are some of the creative ways the Brothers Chaps, Richard Stevens and Chris Onstad have been self-funding their respective web media for years.

So instead of trying to shoehorn your ideas into someone else’s ad spend, focus on selling your work your way.  License your creations.  Produce your own merchandise.  Provide tangible goods that your audience can choose to purchase, thereby helping you continue to create the work they already enjoy.

One Last Kick in the Ass

In the history of humanity, we’ve never had this kind of universal access to knowledge, resources, communication, distribution and technology.

If you have an idea, you can start a company.

If you have a story, you can change the world.

Go ahead.  Dream big.

But it all has to start somewhere.

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Last year, I blogged my own 2 cents about How to Run a Successful Coffee Shop, based on my experiences as a regular patron thereof.  (As a freelancer, I spend most days working via laptop at one of many local cafes.)

That post continues to drive traffic to my blog even today — presumably from aspiring coffee shop owners who are trying to boost business and increase sales.  Realizing this, I thought I’d follow up by getting some extra advice from people who actually run cafes for a living.

Thanks to some folks on Twitter (who suggested their own favorite cafes), plus the advice of the owners and baristas at several cafes I personally frequent, here are some business tips from actual cafe owners.  (Note: Each respondent was asked the same 3 questions, for the sake of simplicity.)

What do you wish someone had told you before you opened your current cafe?

“Have more cash in the beginning.  It takes time to build your customer base.”
– Bob Fish, CEO and co-founder of BIGGBY Coffee / @biggbybob / Biggby on Facebook

“I knew this, but thought I could ‘beat’ it: don’t get in bed with your contractor.  Or, like I did, let my lover lead the project.  What a disaster.”
– Bee, owner of Beezy’s Cafe (Ypsilanti, MI) / Beezy’s on Facebook

“We wish we’d known that to succeed in providing top quality coffee, we would need to locate in an area with an open mind towards food in general (e.g. The Strip District).  In our location, we need to serve the stupid drinks and have a lot of options for kids.  We spend a ton on training in coffee, but all that knowledge is useful to maybe only 10-15% of our customers.  The other 85% want dessert drinks.”
– Rich Westerfield, owner of Aldo Coffee (Pittsburgh, PA) / @aldocoffee / Aldo on Facebook

“We have gotten to the point where we have more structure within the cafe by implementing policies and making sure everyone adheres to them.  However, I wish someone had told us that is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for smooth transition during growth.”
– Sunni Gilliam, owner of Teavolve (Baltimore, MD) / @teavolve / Teavolve on Facebook

“I wish someone had warned me that the business would consume my life because I care about it so much.  I need to remember to make more time for family / friends.”
– Jessica Obst, owner, Cafe Latte’da (Baltimore, MD) / @lattedafells / Latte’da on Facebook

“In a small, independent coffee shop, the regulars feel a sense of ownership — maybe more so than the staff.  It’s important to respect that this place was ‘theirs’ before you got there and it will still be theirs when you leave.”
– Ashlene, barista, Cafe Latte’da (Baltimore, MD) / @lattedafells / Latte’da on Facebook

“I wish someone had encouraged me to make sure absolutely everything was organized before I got started. Shopping lists, a system to pay bills and record other expenses, where/how to file past reports, etc. Now that I’ve been half-assing it for the last 4 years, trying to tackle the problem of organization is extremely overwhelming.”
– Victoria Dilliott, owner of Affogato (Pittsburgh, PA) / @affogato / Affogato on Facebook

Marketing, service or quality: which do you feel is the key to a profitable cafe?

“You cannot separate these into “the key”; small business means that you will wear many hats.  In my old restaurant days we used to say I am the chief, cook, and bottle washer.  This is why many turn to a franchise (which typically has templated marketing and quality, so that you can work on execution of service).”
– Bob Fish, CEO and co-founder of BIGGBY Coffee / @biggbybob / Biggby on Facebook

“They’re not mutually exclusive by any means.  They have to work synergistically.   My staff giving great service is part of marketing, which is part of quality, which is all service.  The key for us is being able to define parts that matter most and really broadcasting it.”
– Bee, owner of Beezy’s Cafe (Ypsilanti, MI) / Beezy’s on Facebook

“Coffee is pretty much a three block business.  People won’t walk farther than that.  So you’re either part of that neighborhood scene or you’re a destination people will drive to because of something unique that has little to do with ambience. Usually it’s coffee, but could be pastries or food.  It’s not couches or wireless.

As far as marketing goes, word of mouth is still king. This is a business where you’re lucky to have an average sale as high as $4.00.  To buy a $250 ad means you’d need to sell $750-$1000 in goods for it to be worthwhile.  That’s 175-250 cups of coffee.  And that doesn’t happen from an ad. If we were to buy ads, they’d absolutely be for catering.  That’s where the highest profit margins are.  And we’re the best at it in the city.

Other than some laptop warriors and a handful of certified coffee geeks, nobody really pays attention to Twitter or Facebook sites for coffeeshops.  Of the 1180 Twitter followers we have, maybe 25 are regular customers.  Half are from other coffeeshops around the world.”
– Rich Westerfield, owner of Aldo Coffee (Pittsburgh, PA) / @aldocoffee / Aldo on Facebook

“Each element is essential to a profitable cafe.  However, if I must choose just one, it would be service.  The marketing will come through positive word of mouth.  This isn’t to say that the quality of the product can be poor, but it doesn’t have to be ‘mind blowing.’  With the economy right now, customers want to know that they are being appreciated for choosing your cafe to spend their time and especially their money.”
– Sunni Gilliam, co-owner of Teavolve (Baltimore, MD) / @teavolve / Teavolve on Facebook

“I don’t think I can separate quality product and excellent customer service.  My business depends on word of mouth and the cafe’s reputation in the neighborhood.  To maintain that reputation, I need to make sure I’m consistently making a quality product, and that the coffee shop staff are friendly to my customers.”
– Jessica Obst, owner, Cafe Latte’da (Baltimore, MD) / @lattedafells / Latte’da on Facebook

“As a barista, I like to think that I deliver the kind of service that keeps people coming back to the store, and that I make a pretty good cappuccino; but I know that without Jessica’s awesome homemade treats we would not be so highly regarded.”
– Ashlene, barista, Cafe Latte’da (Baltimore, MD) / @lattedafells / Latte’da on Facebook

“I think service is the most important, but seconded VERY closely by quality. Without a good product, people won’t come back, but the first impressions from customer service employees have an even more immediate effect.”
– Victoria Dilliott, owner of Affogato (Pittsburgh, PA) / @affogato / Affogato on Facebook

What’s one recent mistake you made that you’d like to help others avoid?

“A mistake that I think many café owners make is to try and follow or emulate the market leader.  I don’t think it is wise to try to chase them; rather it’s more important to develop your own identity.”
– Bob Fish, CEO and co-founder of BIGGBY Coffee / @biggbybob / Biggby on Facebook

“Keeping underperformers.  Just don’t do it.”
– Bee, owner of Beezy’s Cafe (Ypsilanti, MI) / Beezy’s on Facebook

“The biggest mistake we’ve made in the past year was taking on some staff who were solid employees (good cleaners, showed up on time, etc.) but lousy baristas.  We lost customers due to poor drink quality. And we lost them to a café up the street that totally sucks, but the perception is that we’re “the expensive guys”, so a bad drink here is unforgivable.”
– Rich Westerfield, owner of Aldo Coffee (Pittsburgh, PA) / @aldocoffee / Aldo on Facebook

“Always have reserve funds for the ‘rainy days.’  When we had 2 major snowstorms this past season, it affected the entire service industry.  Many restaurants were forced to shut their doors or cut the staff.  We were not prepared to lose thousands of dollars in sales during Christmas weekend, nor were we prepared to lose thousands of dollars in food.  (We had several holiday parties booked and ordered accordingly.)  We were fortunate to be able to weather the storm; however, we still are not where we need to be financially. ”
– Sunni Gilliam, co-owner of Teavolve (Baltimore, MD) / @teavolve / Teavolve on Facebook

“I am there to meet the needs of the neighborhood and I need to take criticism without feeling hurt.  It’s hard not to take criticism personally when the business is my ‘baby,’ but I am trying to listen to all suggestions now with an open mind.”
– Jessica Obst, owner, Cafe Latte’da (Baltimore, MD) / @lattedafells / Latte’da on Facebook

“Same as Jess: trying to not take things personally if someone doesn’t like the way I make something.  The beauty of working here instead of Starbucks is, there is no manual saying that every product is made the exact same way.  As long as we have the ingredients and I’m confident I can make it the way the customer wants, I’ll try my best to make it happen.”
– Ashlene, barista, Cafe Latte’da (Baltimore, MD) / @lattedafells / Latte’da on Facebook

“Do NOT keep employees on just because they’ve been there for a long time.  If there’s any lack of respect to the manager or establishment, it only fosters bad blood and shows itself in the quality of service, too.”
– Victoria Dilliott, owner of Affogato (Pittsburgh, PA) / @affogato / Affogato on Facebook

Agree?  Disagree?  Have another tip to share?  Leave your own stories in the comments.

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Writing a blog in the hopes that you’ll get noticed — or hired — is extremely passive-aggressive.

Most people who’ve made money have made it by pursuing it.  Therefore, they respect what they recognize, which is a desire to achieve.  So, by pursuing work and striving to get their attention, your actions resonate with them.

Meanwhile, posting amazing free content to your blog on a daily basis, and then hoping someone will someday think, “Gee, I wonder what he’d do if I paid him,” is the antithesis of go-getter moxie.

Consider the guy who claimed to land a job by manipulating Google.  He didn’t just get hired because he was creative; he got hired because he got noticed.

He could have also written a blog post about how great he was, and then hoped that his six art directors of choice would find that post while Googling, read it, realize he was a genius and call him for an interview.

But that would have been stupid.  And desperate.  And passive.  And failed.

Stop being all of those things.

Does That Mean I Should Self-Promote Endlessly?

No.  No it does not.

Look at that Google guy again.  Did he spam the world with his joblessness?  No.  He targeted six art directors he knew he’d like to work for, and he got his message in front of them.

That’s the other difference between being aggressive and being passive-aggressive: identifying the target.

If you believe in yourself, then you’ll be confident in walking your message directly to the right person’s doorstep.*

If you don’t, you’ll spraypaint your desires all over the web, in the hopes that someone — anyone — will notice you, and take pity on you, and drag you home to their quonset hut to nurse you back to health.

Do you want a specific result, or any result?

Skip the hut, and find the right doorstep.

The 5-Step Process to Get Hired Using Social Media

1.  Know what you want to get paid for.

2.  Do that work for free.  (This is called practice.)

3.  Become better at doing it for free than the people who currently get paid to do it.

4.  Figure out who pays people to do it, and show them what you do.

5.  Tell them how much you’ll do it for.

Repeat steps 1-5 until you find yourself gainfully employed.

But Wait!  There’s a Bonus Step!

6.  Write a book about how you landed your dream job using social media — and sell it.

Wasn’t that easy?

*Not someone’s face, mind you.  Their doorstep.  And recognize when you’ve been ignored vs. when you’ve been invited in.  Adults respond to confidence; teenage girls respond to bravado.  Unless you want to be employed by a teenage girl, understand the tonal difference in your delivery.

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I never accomplish everything I’d like to get done.  And, as a freelancer, I have no one to blame but myself.  I don’t have coworkers and bosses reminding me daily about deadlines like a 9-to-5 employee does.

Therefore, if I starve to death, that’s my fault — and I don’t like starving.

But I have a solution.

Over the past month, I conducted an experiment that was intended to improve not only my productivity, but the productivity of several other Baltimore-based freelancers.  And, after only four weeks, its benefits have already outweighed our initial expectations.

Here’s what we did, and how it might also help you.

The Premise:

For me, any tasks that don’t literally pay the bills are “optional,” AKA “whenever,” AKA “probably never.”

But I also know that I work best under pressure.  So it was time to invent some.

To do that, I approached several local freelancers and pitched them on a simple idea:

Let’s be accountable to each other.

The Process:

Each week, I met face-to-face with my freelance peers, one-on-one.  We’d discuss our business goals, our “must-do” work, and then identify any optional tasks we’d like to accomplish in the next week.

Then, each of us would then make a list of our own goals for the week, as well as the other person’s goals.  One week later, we’d meet again and see how we did.  (And if anyone needed a reminder, a nudge or a mid-week check-in, we could DM each other on Twitter and keep the ball rolling.)

Since the only penalty for not accomplishing our own goals would be the embarrassment of inventing excuses meant to convince a near-stranger that we were busier than expected, I presumed the absurd guilt involved in such an exchange would keep the participants honest (and motivated).  After all, why lie to someone who isn’t affected either way?

And I was right.  But, along the way, we all learned something else completely unexpected.

The Participants:

Initially, I only wanted one partner for this experiment.  I figured one hourly meeting was all the time I could spare.

But when four different freelancers took me up on my offer, I decided to involve all of them, but still meet them one-on-one.  That way, I could compare and contrast each person’s challenges and workflow, while mine would (presumably) remain constant.

My collaborators in this experiment were:

• Katrina Wagner, graphic designer ( @graphicbeans )
• Nicholas Critelli, photographer ( @critelliphoto )
• Molly White, social media consultant ( @mollywhite )
• Daniel Waldman, marketing / PR consultant ( @danieldubya )

We’re all self-employed, we all battle periods of distraction and aimlessness, and we live our days sandwiched between the rush of deadlines and our own long-term life goals.  We’re busy, but we each needed a voluntary reason to stay focused.

So we started relying on each other to keep ourselves honest.

How It Went:

In my very first meeting, Katrina laid out 5 goals she wanted to accomplish in the following week.  That number was arbitrary; some people only committed to one goal a week, others to more, but no week’s total was ever more than 6.

NOTE: Since I was meeting with people 4 times each week, I kept my own stated goals consistent from person to person.  Otherwise, I’d be making myself responsible for 20 different goals each week, and I’d fail spectacularly.

The first week, I accomplished everything on my list.  My fellow freelancers performed nearly as well, with only a few missed goals in total.

However, the following week, each of us hit a stumbling block.

Personally, I over-committed myself when compared to the amount of free time I ended up having (because I was traveling for 5 days that week).  Others had unexpected family commitments, client complications or new business opportunities that required more time than they’d anticipated.

This setback was actually a bonus, because it prompted each of us to think more critically about how many “minor” tasks we could realistically expect to accomplish alongside our recurring obligations.

Each of us continued to experience our own peaks and valleys of productivity over the following weeks, but we made a point of meeting (or calling) weekly to stay in touch, even if we were slightly off target.  (That way, even if we fell short, we had to own up to it.)

What We Learned:

In the end, I accomplished 11 tasks that I probably would not have completed otherwise.  These ranged from the mundane (backing up old projects stored on my various hard drives) to the opportunistic (getting a month ahead on client blog posts).

Surprisingly (and somewhat embarrassingly), the tasks I tackled took far less time to complete than I’d originally expected.  (One dreaded task took four whole minutes to complete.)   Once I realized this, I felt like an idiot for having postponed so many of them for so long.

For me, the biggest tangible benefit came in the last week, when I finally created my own a daily work schedule.  To do this, I listed:

• my hourly client obligations for each month.
• any recurring tasks (i.e., “editing video,” even if the hours differ monthly)
• any recurring personal tasks (writing this blog, walking the dog, etc.)

Then I broke my week down to hourly blocks and scheduled ample time for each task.

The results stunned me.

I discovered that I have more than enough time to accomplish everything on my list each week.  In fact, if I stick to the schedule I’ve created, I’d even have free time every day.

So where had I been going wrong?

Simple: misunderstanding my time was causing my to mismanage my time, and that drove me into the arms of distraction.

Until this week, I’d been tackling new tasks as they came up, or delaying them under the presumption that I’d have “more time later.”  But once I plotted my obligations against my available time, everything fell into place with time to spare.

And yet, the most interesting benefit of this exercise had nothing to do with efficiency.

What We Were Surprised to Learn:

Along the way, each of us learned a lot about one another’s businesses — and our own.

Hearing someone else’s challenges, exploring their solutions and offering our own suggestions all combined to get each of us thinking differently about how we solve our own problems.

For example, Nicholas told me about his complex system for backing up client files.  I mentioned some of his observations to Katrina, who (coincidentally) had experienced a computer crash the week our experiment started.  She thought her own system for backing up files could use some improvement.  I related both of these anecdotes to Molly, who suggested Katrina should try a service called Dropbox.  I passed that information along to Katrina and Nicholas, and now all four of us are using it.

And while that exchange may not have crossed anything off anyone’s to-do list, it’s information and experience that we wouldn’t have shared if we hadn’t sat down to discuss our businesses with like-minded strangers in the first place.

Summary:

Based on my wrap-up discussions with each of my collaborators, here’s what we’ve taken away from this experience:

–  We each accomplished tasks over the past month that we would have ignored otherwise.

–  We learned while discussing our businesses, and got valuable feedback on our choices.

–  We enjoyed offering helpful suggestions based on our own “outsider” perspectives.

–  We’ve each begun thinking about our businesses in new ways.

–  We have a better understanding of our priorities, and a clearer idea of where our time is spent (or wasted).

Moving forward, we now intend to meet monthly, as a group, and continue to share our observations and solicit each other’s advice.  We’ll also be sharing a web-based project management system, where everyone can post his or her weekly goals and check in to see how everyone else is doing.

And if one of us is falling behind, now we have four people to help pull us ahead.

So… who’s keeping you honest?

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When you freelance for a living, your goal is simple: make as much money as you can without going insane.

That insanity comes from being overworked, underpaid or searching fruitlessly for reliable sources of income.  And while each of those is a problem unto itself, they all share a common cause:

You can’t succeed if you don’t have enough time.

As a freelancer, how you manage your time is more important than any other aspect of your business — more than your actual skills, your contacts or your rates.  We all start each day with the same 24 hours, and the better you are at maximizing your time, the more likely you are to dine on something other than Ramen.

Which is why you occasionally need to turn down bad jobs in order to have the time and energy to expend on the good jobs.

Our Logo Is a Giant Red Flag, and… Wait… Why Are You Running Away?

When your income isn’t guaranteed, saying “no” can be scary.  If you pass up a dubious job, there’s no guarantee that a better one will present itself before your rent is due.

On the other hand, if you’re saddled with time-consuming work that’s creatively unsatisfying and emotionally draining, you won’t be able to land the better jobs because

• you won’t have the time
• you won’t have the resources, and
• you won’t have the portfolio that attracts the worthwhile clients

Thus, by accepting the questionable jobs that help you pay the bills now, you may be discounting yourself from the dream jobs that help you define your career later.

Solution?

Define your career daily, starting now.  Because the standards you hold yourself to today — or the concessions you’re willing to make — will be the standards and concessions that future clients will expect from you tomorrow.

To help you follow your instincts and find your comfort zone, feel free to filter your new business opportunities against this handy common sense checklist.

10 Reasons to Say “No” to a Client

• A proposed deadline leaves no room for error.
• You’d need to outsource work for which you have no trustworthy contacts.
• You’re unfamiliar with the required tools, but think you could “learn on the fly”.
• The proposed budget for the entire project is less than your equivalent day rate.
• Despite your fees for additional revisions, their review process is never-ending.
• As proposed, the finished product would never be included in your portfolio.
• Your expenses, rental fees, licensing fees, etc., would exceed your profits.
• People you trust have had vocally negative experiences with them.
• Their projects tend to exceed their initially-proposed scope.
• Your creativity would be limited to pushing buttons.

I realize that some of the above don’t actually seem like detriments.

For example, you may view a client who perpetually requests reams of revisions as a cash cow, because your cash register dings every time they want to change the font (again)…

… but if you end up half-assing someone else’s project because your attention is being continually diverted by a client who can always afford to dither, you’ll never be able to focus on the projects that could be done right the first time.

Or, you may be thrilled to land easy work that requires zero creativity on your part…

… but your portfolio will pay the price, and your dream clients are unlikely to be impressed by your template-deploying skillz.

Obviously, your own criteria may differ from mine.  In fact, the most universally relevant advice I can offer you is this:

Be sure you have some job-evaluating criteria in place — whether it’s mine, yours or this guy’s — before you start saying “yes” to every job you stumble across.  Otherwise, you’ll end up saying “no” to the ones you really want, because you’ll be stuck in Yes Man’s Land.

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There was a small tsunami on Twitter yesterday that had nothing to do with Chilean earthquakes and everything to do with Chris Brogan‘s wallet.  In a nutshell, Brogan stated (somewhat quietly) that he charges $22,000 for a day of his time, and THE INTERNET EXPLODED IN A BALL OF SPITE.

Responses from the Twitterverse ranged from awe to derision.

Some people were mystified that one man could charge so much for what they consider to be so little work.  Others immediately began scheming to calculate how they could escalate their own rates into the $20K per day range, because if there’s one thing social media loves, it’s imitation.

Personally, I see the public’s collective recoil as proof that no one truly believes anybody can make money online without first selling their soul to an affiliate program.  Any evidence to the contrary simply blows our synapses.

But lost in this mix of sticker shock and vitriol were some key truths, which Chris touched on in a follow-up blog post, including:

• Chris doesn’t always work for a full day, so he doesn’t always bill for a full day.
• Chris gives away huge amounts of his own knowledge for free on a daily basis.
• Chris purposely prices himself in a range that discourages half-assed clients.

In short, Chris doesn’t always expect to make $22,000 a day, but he certainly doesn’t turn it down either.

And why should he?

Chris knows a thing or two about the Internet.  He speaks and writes in a manner that people enjoy.  And he brings a unique mix of personality, experience and analysis to the table, which enables him to price his services as a luxury rather than a commodity.

If a company were to pay Chris $22K, and then they turned around and invested his insights to the tune of $22M in profit, we’d all agree that the company had made a shrewd investment.

So why are we so aghast at the fact that these numbers exist?

Because none of us thought they were plausible — at least, not for us.

Fear and Loathing in Social Media

Let’s face it: you have no idea what you actually know about social media, and you certainly don’t know if you know more than the next girl.  The only thing you’re sure of is that you know something, and you never really know what that something is actually worth.

Then Chris Brogan comes along and tells you what he believes he’s worth, and you panic because you never would have assigned that kind of value to yourself.

Why not?

Probably because you don’t believe your insights are worth $22,000 to anybody, much less for a single day of your time.  Hell, you barely have any practical social media (or marketing, or business) experience to begin with.  You have 400 Twitter followers and you wet yourself every time you get retweeted; $22,000 is like space money in your world.

So here’s a tip: stop hating Chris, stop hating yourself, and stop hating the newly-distinguished class separation between you.  It is what it is, and resenting the successes of others sure as hell doesn’t vindicate your own lack thereof.

Yes, when it comes to the group hug that is social media, we’re “all in this together.”   But some of us are waaaaaaaaaay more “in this” than others.  Some of us really are worth a few hundred dollars a day, or a few thousand, or a day rate that far exceeds whatever you spent on your five years (and counting) of community college.  So relax.

But this doesn’t mean that you’re worth nothing, either.

So how do you find the happy medium?

Here are 6 tips to help you stomach the reality of determining your own self-worth.

1.  Admit what you do and don’t actually know.

This is the hardest part because human beings are horrible at honest self-evaluations.  But, what the hell: try.

Sure, you don’t know everything about social media (or whatever field you’re in), but you do know something.  Identify your areas of expertise.  Are you strong on the social side but weak on the tech?  Can you manage an existing strategy but not implement one from scratch?  Are you a LinkedIn wizard and a Facebook rube?

Summarize your strengths and weaknesses.  That way, when someone asks, “So, what do you have to offer?” you’ll have an answer that doesn’t involve lies, borrowed anecdotes and desperate obfuscations.

2.  How much experience do you have… and with whom?

If you just started tweeting yesterday, your insights are not worth $22, much less $22,000.  We’re all in competition with each other, and since our competing knowledge is always The Great Unknown, our work experience becomes a concrete qualifier that separates the know-hows from the guess-hows.

Who have you worked with?  What did you do for them?  How successful were you?  What did you learn in the process?

What proof of your ability to make someone else’s business more profitable and efficient can you provide?

(Hint: If you’re stretching the truth to answer this question, cut your rates in half and remove the word “thought leader” from your Twitter bio.)

3.  How hard are you willing to work?

You may not have astounding insights or jaw-dropping work experience, but there’s one intangible that can’t be ignored: you’ll work your ass off in order to get the job done.  Any job.  Multiple jobs, if necessary.  You’re dedicated to success and you’ll work day and night to achieve the desired results.

When you put it like that, I can see why your rates may be higher than your contemporaries: because your clients know they can rely on you.  Or take advantage of you.  Or both.  But however it shakes out, you’ll know you did your best — and you’ll charge for it.

4.  How hard do you want to work?

We could all be busting our asses for 60 hours a week and changing the world left and right, but life is short and we’re tired, selfish, American Idol-addicted individuals.  We’re fragile; we need breaks.

So we price ourselves higher than we need to because we want to work less than we have to.

Chris Brogan doesn’t want to work 60 hour weeks.  At his rates, he doesn’t need to; he just needs 2 or 3 clients a month to meet him halfway and he’d be living quite comfortably.

5.  Price yourself into the ballpark of the clientele you can best serve.

Chris Brogan’s rates mean his clients are self-selecting.  He doesn’t want to spin his wheels with companies who aren’t capable of asking $22,000 questions, because he can’t provide those companies with the kinds of answers that will send his CV into the stratosphere.

But there’s a catch: at those rates, people expect results.  They’re hiring a miracle worker, or renting time with an exotic shaman.  If you can’t provide the kinds of insights that make your client’s competitors envious of your relationship, you have no business pricing yourself in that range.

All the same, if you price yourself too low, no one will hire you.  People pay for the illusion of success, and if your rates say “will work for food,” you’ll starve to death.  It’s fine to work for charity, but don’t price yourself like one or you’ll need their help to feed your family.

6.  Everything you do is worth something; charge accordingly.

Stepping away from Chris Brogan for a moment, there’s another social media guru you can compare your rates to: Mack Collier.

Here’s a guy who unabashedly lists his price range for a wide array of services, from original content creation to audits of your existing social media strategy.  Notice that his prices truly are a range, in both his actual rates and in the type of work he does.  No matter what kinds of client Mack attracts, he offers “something for everyone” — which means he’s also likely to remain consistently employed.

What types of services can you offer?  Can those services be bundled?  Is there a sliding scale based on time constraints and degree of difficulty?

Even the priciest retailers have a bargain bin, because they don’t want anyone to leave without buying something.

A Final Word on Not Crying Yourself to Sleep in the Corner

No, you’re not Chris Brogan.  Nor are you a person who earns even more than Chris Brogan does.  (Yes, they’re out there, and if you knew what they charged, your bladder would never recover.)

Valuing yourself according to other people’s self-estimations is the easiest way to drive yourself crazy.  But valuing yourself according to your own self-estimation is the easiest way to go hungry, because you never truly understand what your assets are actually worth to the people who don’t know what you know.

You wouldn’t pay somebody $5 to change your oil because you know how to do it yourself; I don’t, so I’m willing to pay $30 if it gets done fast and well.

Is your knowledge worth $30 to someone who doesn’t know what you know?

Is it worth $300?  $3,000?  $30,000?

The sky’s the limit, as long as you bring your own plane.

But if someone ends up paying you $30,000 to do nothing, they’re going to have to pay Chris Brogan a hell of a lot more than $30,000 to fix it — and then we’ll really start feeling some sticker shock.

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Let’s say it’s snowing, and you want to clear a path from your door to the street.  You have a few options.  If it’s just a dusting, you might sweep it all away with a broom.  If it’s a heavier snow, you might need a shovel.  And if it’s a blizzard, you may need to borrow your neighbor’s snowblower.

What you wouldn’t do is use every tool in your garage, plus whatever you can find in your neighbor’s house, plus the services of a professional snow removal agency.  That’s overkill, and it’s a waste of your time, money and effort.

So why do so many people do the same thing with social media?

Because they don’t have a goal.

Hammering in the Dark: Social Media Without the Strategy

Twitter is a tool.  Facebook is a tool.  YouTube, Flickr, Gatsby, Buzz… the list gets longer every day.

Like any tools, these social media services only make sense when they’re used to accomplish a specific goal.  So before you start building profiles on a dozen different social media sites, ask yourself:

Why am I doing this?

Why are you about to expend your own time, effort and resources (much less someone else’s) mastering the use of a handful of web services?

This isn’t a trick question; it’s a necessity.  And everyone’s answer will be different.

For example, your goal might be…

• Selling your work
• Marketing your services
• Finding a full-time job
• Networking with your peers
• Researching new initiatives
• Raising awareness of your brand
• Asserting your individual personality
• Learning how the tools themselves work

Like the tools in any toolbox, social media tools only become relevant when they’re applied to the tasks that help us achieve our goals.  Until then, you’re just hammering in the dark.

Great, I Have a Goal… Now What?

Once you articulate your goal, you can decide what steps are necessary to accomplish it.  And once you know the steps, you can choose the right tools for each job.

Your choice of tools will depend on your circumstances.  For example:

• How would your use of Twitter change if your goal was sales, not brand-building?
• Would a strict focus on networking change the kinds of photos you upload to Flickr?
• If you’re actively seeking freelance work, is your time better spent on YouTube or Facebook?

Again, there’s no “right” answer, just better and worse answers.  Your time is precious, and the less time you spend spinning your wheels aimlessly, the more time you can invest in actions that matter.

You can always make a smoothie with a hammer, but it’s going to take awhile.

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These days, everyone is desperate to be recognized as an expert.  But you don’t actually need to be an expert to get paid, and paid well.

You just need to be “above average.”

Keep It Simple, (for the) Stupid

In order to make a living, you only need one thing: the ability to solve someone else’s problem.

People are always willing to pay for what they don’t know how to (or can’t, or aren’t willing to) do for themselves.  Where we, the solution providers, often miscalculate is in figuring out how much other people actually do know.

Here’s a hint: it’s (almost) always less than you think.

At the annual PodCamp Pittsburgh “un-conference,” we offer hourlong workshops on all aspects of social media.  Without fail, the sessions we list as “Advanced” inevitably attract audiences who only have a passing familiarity with the topic, while the “Basic” sessions are full of people who’ve barely turned on a computer.

This is because all of us — instructors and pupils — overestimate the public’s actual level of capability.

The Ever-Dwindling Audience for Expertise

Who needs help in life?  Everyone.

Who has problems that “experts” in that field would classify as “entry-level” problems?  Everyone.

Who has problems that “experts” would be hard-pressed to find answers to?  Very few.

Think of the audience for your expertise as a pyramid:

• The base is comprised of people who know absolutely nothing about the topic at hand, except that they have a problem which needs to be solved (by someone else).
• At the peak are the experts who possess answers to most of the known problems.
• You’re somewhere in the middle.  But don’t worry; so is (almost) everyone else.

Thus, in order to get paid, you never need to be at the peak.  You just need to be one step above the base.  Even someone at the next-to-entry-level of topical knowledge can make a living providing solutions to the entry-level audience immediately below her.

So why does everyone so desperately claw at imaginary titles like “expert” and “guru” when all they need to be is “above average”?

Because we’re all too conceited to admit how little we actually know.

Paying God Makes Me an Angel, Doesn’t It?

There’s a bit of dialogue in the underrated film Max, in which a doctor asks his ill friend’s wife why he hasn’t come in for a diagnosis.  The wife replies, “You don’t charge enough.”

No one wants to pay for solutions from someone who’s “above average” when they could pay more for solutions from an expert.  Never mind that the solutions would be identical; being advised by an expert allows you to believe your problems are worthy of “expert attention.”

Experts are never just selling answers; they’re convincing other people that their problems are special.

But What If You Actually ARE an Expert?

There’s a difference between knowing enough about a topic to be instructive to those who don’t know much, and knowing so much about a topic that you become valuable to nearly everyone in that particular field.

If that’s you, congratulations: you can now charge like you mean it.  But you also need to be able to back up your fees with proof of relevance, or your expertise will be exposed as an illusion by the people who hold you to elevated standards.  (No wonder there’s such a premium on actual expertise, and so much perpetuated misinformation about what results should constitute “success.”)

Not sure if you’re an expert, or honest enough to admit that you’re “just” above average?  Never fear: there are always going to be more entry-level problems in the world than expert-level problems, because there will always be more entry-level people creating problems in the first place.  As an above-average solution provider, you’ll never have a shortage of work.  And by declaring yourself as such, you can avoid being saddled with the incredible responsibilities allocated to real experts.

After all, if you’re too lazy to develop actual expertise but you’d still like to charge for it, god forbid someone take you seriously enough to give you the keys to their important machinery.

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