Freelancing

Monday Spark: Tips on creativity from John Cleese.

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john cleese on creativityThe video below is an edited version of a longer talk on creativity, given by John Cleese in Belgium. (Remember John Cleese from Monty Python and Faulty Towers?)

Pretty much everything he talks about applies to freelancers like us. Yes, what we do is creative!

I absolutely agree with him about “sleeping on” a problem. I have had the same experience many times. I’m struggling with something in the evening, sleep on it, and then find the answer to the problem is easy to see when I get up the next morning.

But most of all, I like what he said about carving out some space and time…a place where you can be creative. It’s hard or even impossible to be creative when you are being interrupted or distracted.

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Is there a market for more social media experts?

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nick usborne social mediaEvery week I seem to find an article, post or tweet that mocks social media experts.

Granted, most of these pieces are written by social media gurus themselves, who are anxious to separate themselves from this influx of new competitors.

As I say in the video below, there are two sides to this story.

Yes, in one respect these gurus are right. A lot of people claim to be experts, based only on their own, personal familiarity with various social media sites.

But they are also wrong, because there are also plenty of other people who are taking the trouble to dig deeper and learn the skills of true social media marketers.

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Monday Spark: If you had one shot or one opportunity…

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one shot or one opportunityLook, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

These are the opening lines of Eminem’s song, Lose Yourself. You can watch the video of this song below. As you will see, I chose a version that includes the lyrics, so you can read along as he raps.

I don’t listen to a lot of rap, but when I like it, I like it a lot. For me, good rap is poetry turned up loud.

In this song, Eminem talks about how sometimes life hands you an opportunity that is within your grasp now…but will be gone tomorrow.

As a freelancer, you’ll experience these opportunities.

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What have you done to promote your freelance business today?

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marketing your freelance businessToo many freelancers, particularly those who have just started out, think that promoting their business is something that needs to be done occasionally.

Not so.

Promoting and marketing your business is something you should be doing on a daily basis.

Every day? Yes, even if it’s something small.

If you are wondering what you could do on a daily basis, I have compiled a suggestion list for you. It is divided into 3 sections – Push, Pull & Engage.

Push marketing is when you deliberately get in front of a prospect and pitch your services.

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The most powerful sales approach of all can be found in our craving for certainty.

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brain's need for certaintyTo put it at its simplest, our brains have a smart side and an incredibly dumb side.

What’s scary is that the dumb side has way too much influence over the decisions we make. This is particularly true when it comes to our hopes for the future.

To illustrate what I mean, let’s look at an example.

Imagine two experts, both of whom are going to give us some advice on how to lose weight. Specifically, they are going to tell us how to lose 10 lbs over the course of the next 30 days.

The first expert is a doctor and researcher who has been studying weight loss for 30 years.

He talks about the multiple influences involved – genetics, food choices, exercise, family dynamics, mental health, work stresses, time of year and so on. He explains the complexity of weight loss and how one plan might work for one person, but not for another.

He makes some general recommendations, but again qualifies his advice by pointing out the multiple variables involved.

Now for our second expert. He may be a doctor, or not. It doesn’t really matter.

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Monday Spark: Remember the very best work you have done.

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first prize for good workWe all of us suffer from self-doubt from time to time. We have good days and not so good days. Days when we think we can conquer the universe, and days when we feel we’re not even worthy to get paid for the work we do.

Welcome to the life of a freelancer!

Hopefully you have more up days than down days.

For when you do have the occasional down day, here is something I do to snap myself out of it.

I think back to some work I did that was really good. Maybe it performed incredibly well. Maybe I was just particularly proud of what I created. Either way…

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