Yeah, I know it sounds a little crazy, but go with me here. Imagine you're a tree, any kind, your choice.

Imagine your roots go down deep and wide into the soil, taking what nutrients you need. The strong wood of your trunk and branches support you in the strongest of storms, reaching up into the sky towards the sunlight. Your leaves emerge every spring to magically create life from sunlight and air. You exhale what other organisms need to thrive.

Your roots are self-love. No one would accuse a tree of being greedy or needy by taking the nutrients it needs to thrive. Because it's a live tree, it deserves to be granted what it needs. So you deserve to take care of yourself, and love yourself as if your life depended on it, because it does.

Your trunk and branches are gratitude. Without the strength of gratitude, you'd blow over in the first testing storm. Gratitude makes you resilient to temporary hardships, such as what we're facing now during a pandemic.

Your leaves are your creative expression. You inhale what's around you, and create magic and life out of thin air. Creativity is how you get what's inside of you to the outside. And how you process what comes inside from the outside.

Without all three parts, the tree would die. No roots, no water, no nutrients? Dead tree. No structure to keep the tree upright and the nutrients flowing? Dead tree. No leaves? Dead tree.

Without all three parts of you, self-love, gratitude, and creativity you may not die, but you won't thrive as you should.

Take a moment and consider how you treat yourself, how you interact with the world, and how you express yourself. If it's not self-love, gratitude and creativity, you're missing some amazing clarity and vitality.

If you need help with any of these three things, please let me know. I'm glad to be of service to you. I have enough good juju to share.

Thanks for reading!
​—Cami

Give yourself an hour and listen to this, right up to the end of Liz Gilbert's wisdom. Take notes, then give yourself time and permission to absorb it. If you're feeling really generous and loving toward yourself, implement the practice of self-love like Liz does.

https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_it_s_ok_to_feel_overwhelmed_here_s_what_to_do_next/discussion

(Last year, I had the distinct pleasure of hugging Liz. She was flying past, out of the hotel, suitcase wheeling behind her, when I called out "Liz!!" She stopped and said she was in a hurry, to which I replied, "That's ok, I just wanted to say thanks and give you a hug." Which I did.)

Thanks for reading!
​—Cami

I can't imagine there's a human on the planet who hasn't been affected by The Great Pause of 2020. People keep talking about things getting back to normal. But this time, this pause, has changed us. For me, it's made me even more grateful for the life I am able to live. Grateful for my good health. Grateful for my 82-year-0ld mom's relatively good health. Grateful that we have enough money in the bank to go to the grocery store and buy food. I remember a time growing up, when we didn't have half as much. And yet we were grateful.

For now, our bills are paid, but nothing is being taken for granted. Hubby's job is not set in stone, and if that goes, we'll need to seriously readjust. But we've decided not to stress about it just yet. We cannot control a single aspect of that, so we're just going to clench financially, and relax in every other aspect. Let's figure out a way to enjoy this pause, this time, and reflect on what our new normal is going to be.

My day-to-day schedule hasn't changed much. I still do coaching via Zoom, as I have for years. I just do more things by Zoom than I did before, including hanging out with friends. Oh yeah, and I'm grateful for tech. If this had been a few decades ago, we'd be screwed. Or unemployed. Or both.

But I'm here to tell you that what you're feeling—whatever you're feeling—is ok to feel! People who embrace all the emotions they're feeling when they arise are much better off down the road than those who suppress what they think of as negative emotions. Grant yourself the gift of feeling all the feels, no matter what they are. Grief, helplessness, overwhelm, peace, silliness, anger—take the time, roll in it for a bit. Let it out! Create art. Dance. Sing. Play. Laugh. Cry. It's all part of the experience of being a human. And denying what you're feeling, or trying to twist a negative thought into something positive when it's not, or feeling guilty when you do feel like throwing something, doesn't do you any favors. Trust me, I'm an expert on how bottling up emotions can affect you.

If you feel like launching an entirely new business, great! Do it! If you feel like binge-watching The Witcher, great! Do it! Yesterday I had plans to work on a new website I plan to launch soon. Instead I cleaned and reorganized the pantry. And I have no guilt over it!

I'm allowing myself time to heal from the trauma that is happening all around us. I'm allowing the Great Pause to provide time for the self-care and introspection.

I am here to help you through this time as well. If you just can't afford it right now, no problem. Maybe we can work out a trade. Or maybe you can pay it forward when this is all over. If you want to pay what you can, that's ok too. I want to be able to help people get through this mess.

Please reach out to me and tell me how can I be of service to you.

A great big juicy good-juju-filled hug to you!
​—Cami

While some may disagree, your beliefs really do create your reality. I'll explain.

If you believe the world is a dangerous place, and that it's populated with people who are out to get you, that is what you will see. As you interact with the world, you will consistently notice evidence to support your belief that you're in some kind of danger.

If you see yourself as a victim, constantly being attacked—socially, online, verbally—(and not brave enough to confront your perceived perpetrator [ahem, you know who you are]), then THAT is YOUR world as YOU have defined it.

If you believe that the world is neither good nor bad, populated with people who are going about their business, doing their thing, THAT is the evidence you'll find in the world around you.

However, if you believe the word is inherently good, filled with love and light, bravery and beauty, you will consistently find the evidence to support that belief.

The thing is… your view of the world is a direct reflection of what's going on inside you. A positive dose of self-love and good juju will have you finding all that is good with the world, and overlooking what it's lacking.

Ergo, your beliefs create your world. So why not create something wonderful?!

Thanks for reading!
​—Cami

Be mindful.
Be present and in the moment.
Practice gratitude every day.
Tap your inner creativity.
Truly love yourself.
​
You've heard that doing all these things will bring you happiness and wealth and peace of mind. But how the hell do you accomplish any of that? Go on some kind of expensive sabbatical? Have decades of coaching with an Eastern guru? How can you shift your way of being enough without losing yourself, your time, and all your money?

Those were my questions exactly!

​What went through my mind every time I saw headlines involving this kind of inner work: 5 minutes to meditate? Do I have to do this every day? Consciously commit to being present and in the moment? What does that even mean? Be mindful? I tried that last week and it didn't really do anything. Practice gratitude? Sure I'm grateful, and isn't once a week enough? 

What if you could have a way to accomplish all these things that didn't take years, and that didn't break your bank?

Come experience just a taste of what this is all about. I know you're curious; I was.

You're invited to a free video call, this Saturday at 11:11 a.m. CST. Find out what I'm gushing about. You have nothing to lose. There are only 10 spots left on the call, so if you want in, don't wait to sign up!

What do you say, will you join me?

Well, I survived the intense 100-day coaching sprint. Actually, I can say that I thrived in it. What a life-changing gift to myself! (If you're interested, you can email me.)  I flexed and strengthened my creative muscles, I grew my capacity to love myself and others, and I now live in gratitude daily. These are the key ingredients to living an abundant life!

I'm still working on defining, at least a little more clearly, what my new coaching offerings look like, but they'll be based here, in abundance.

You're invited to join me in living a life of abundance. If you'd like my assistance getting there, I'm all in. Let's go!

Thanks for reading! Good juju to you!
—Cami

If you've spent any time with me in the last three months, you know that I'm in the midst of receiving an intense 100-day coaching experience. It started in October, and will finish up mid-January. I get deep, intensive coaching for an hour or two (sometimes more) every single day for 100 days straight. See what I mean? Intense, right?!

Today is day 82 in the process (which is a pretty number for me; it looks like sunshine on dark wood, but that's something else entirely). Day 82 means I'm just a few weeks away from offering you something else, something more important and more effective than I have ever offered before in my coaching.

Through the coaching I've received, I now understand why I didn't have the income I wanted, why I wasn't attracting the clients I needed, and what exactly was stopping me from achieving the success I wanted. I finally understand that those things were not the problems, they were the symptoms!

If you're feeling stuck where you are, like you know there's something more, something better for you, stay tuned! Some incredible offerings are just around the corner. 

In the meantime, make a list of all the ways you'd like your business (and your life) to improve and have it ready for our first coaching session. If you're half as excited as I am, then you are ready to learn how to not just survive, but to truly thrive! 

Thanks for reading! Good juju to you!
—Cami  =)

I called this week, at least in my head, "The Gauntlet." I challenged my limits, both physically and mentally. No, I didn't run a 5K (ha, me, run?!). 

I did however, give six different talks over the course of four days, and three of them were brand new talks I had never given before. See, a while back, I submitted six ideas to Global Entrepreneurship Week, thinking they'd only choose about half. Nope, they accepted all of them. (That'll teach me.)

I absolutely loved giving all of these talks, without exception. I felt like I was giving my entrepreneurship community here in KC a massive leg-up with the stuff that I've had to learn the hard way (which seems to be the way I learn everything). What I didn't expect was how physically tired I would be at the end of the week.

I'm guessing that happened because I gave each talk my all. I brought my best, brightest, smartest version of myself to each, and gave every person in the audience my full attention. Given the opportunity to do it all over, I wouldn't change a single thing. Giving talks is my calling. It feels like this is what I was programmed to do. Giving talks and doing coaching feels almost as effortless as breathing to me. Until afterwards, when I need a nap to recharge.

I am exceedingly grateful to the staff at KCSourceLink who organized the event, and for choosing my talks. This week-long event is not simple or easy to pull off. Kudos for doing it well, and with smiles all around, from the tech people who helped connect laptops to screens, to the folks answering questions in the hall, to the volunteers directing people up and down stairs. A special thank you to the kind soul who found my laptop charging cord and turned it in to lost and found—bless you!

A great big congrats to all the people who attended #GEWKC—it's one hell of a brave and awesome commitment to show yourself and the world you're committed to doing something new, and that you're willing to invest in yourself and your own education to help you reach your goals. I wish you the best of luck, the smoothest of paths, and everything you deserve.

Finally, thank you to everyone who attended my sessions. Your questions, comments and contributions made the talks more valuable for everyone in the room. It wouldn't have been the same without each of you!

For those who missed out, and are seeking answers to seemingly daunting questions about your entrepreneurial endeavors, reach out and let me know how I can be of service to you. If I'm not the one who can help you, perhaps I know someone who can.

Thanks for reading, and good juju to you until our paths cross again!
—Cami

So many times I've seen people (figuratively) shoot themselves in the foot when they whip out the "I deserve it" attitude. No matter your upbringing, your income level, your accomplishments, or anything else you feel you're entitled to, stop feeling like you deserve anything special. 

Now, I'm not saying you don't deserve anything special. Just the opposite, actually. But by having the mentality that the world owes you something will only bring you disappointment and grief.

"But Cami, if I'm not supposed to feel special, but you're saying I am special, what the hell am I supposed to feel?" I'm glad you asked, friend.

What emotion can serve you far better? Well, what is the opposite of feeling entitled? Ponder that one a minute. What's the opposite of that expectation that things will go your way, or that whatever you have just isn't good enough and you deserve more or better?

The answer, friend, is gratitude! You cannot hold entitlement and gratitude in your heart at the same time! Think about that, really pause and think. If you're in a state of constant thankfulness of all you've experienced, all you've done, and all you have, how can you possibly think you deserve MORE?!

I invite you to pause for a moment, every morning and remind yourself of three things for which you are grateful. They may even be small things, like knowing you can have a nice hot cup of coffee in the morning. Or big things, like waking up, surviving the night. Or massive things, like gratitude you were made with a functioning brain that's gotten you this far in life—that's freaking amazing!

Doing this first thing in the morning gives you another gift, besides just what feeling gratitude can do for you. It also alters your brain chemistry so you notice more things for which you can be grateful! It sets up a potential chain reaction of good juju!

​Another instance of good juju for the win!

Thanks for reading! Good juju to you!
​—Cami  =)

Sometimes it feels like a shot in the dark, just guessing what you should charge for your creative services.

There is a method I use that starts with your cost of business and builds from there. "But Cami, what is my cost of business?" I'm so glad you asked!  =)  It's the minimum amount you can bring in and still stay in business. It doesn't include anything extra, like vacation or savings; it's just the minimum.

I'm doing a webinar this week that starts with cost of business, then will go into more detail, helping you figure out what you should charge. (And, I might add, it's super reasonably priced at only $20!) 

We'll also explore whether you should be charging hourly or by the project (there are huge benefits to both; you just need to know when to use one over the other); what a PITA fee is and if/when you should use it; and how to negotiate a rate that you and your client can both live with. It's me, so you know I'll include even more tips.
​
Please join me Friday, September 13 at 11:30 a.m. EDT (8:30 a.m. PDT)?

Next week, I leave for a little vacation. It's a follow-up from a vacation I took last year to meet my half-brother for the first time.

Wait, what? I know, it sounds weird to me too. 

See, last summer I found out that I have another half-brother. And a half-sister. The news was just a bit life-changing. Um… yeah, you could call it that. It took a few months of reading others' stories on a DNA surprise Facebook group to get through all the emotions and process them all. Somedays I wouldn't feel anything. Some days I felt everything, all at the same time.

Without going into the minutiae, I'm glad I know about them, and glad I'm meeting them. My new half-brother is cool as is his wife. Their kids, my niblings, are really cool too.

I'm very excited that my half-sister is coming to meet Mom and me for the first time this August.

If you take a DNA test, beware. You may not be related to the people you thought you were, or more people than you thought you were. 

But your family, the ones you love to claim, be they related to you or not, are the ones that really matter.

Thanks for reading and good juju to you!
—Cami

My friend and I were eating brunch this past Sunday at a restaurant on Mass Street in Lawrence, KS. The weather was close to 70°F — a first for the year — so we sat outside. The tables were tiny and very close together. That's ok, it's part of the charm of Mass Street.

A man sits down at the table next to us and proceeds to have a very loud, detailed, lengthy phone conversation. I've seen this happen in movies, but this was an in-person first. We got to hear about someone maybe named Carol, and how she's pretty, even though she's overweight. And about how he's very excited that he gets to move back to Lawrence after 34 years, can you imagine? And about how at church, the most amazing, coincidence happened.

After about five minutes of this, we were thinking, how can this man be so oblivious to his volume, to his rudeness?  By this time, I was frustrated, and about to get pissy. I could barely hear my friend's voice over this man's!

I didn't want to be super rude, but I needed him to know how inconsiderate his behavior was. So I turned in my chair to face him directly and made eye contact. He smiled and looked away, and kept talking. I maintained eye contact and smiled slightly. He smiled and looked away again. But he got the message and finished the call.

When he put the phone away, I said thank you, smiled, and turned back to face my lunch. The man apologized and tried to engage us in conversation, to which I replied the minimum number of words I could without being snotty. When we finished, I said to the man, "good luck to you, sir."

What could have been a really ugly situation was avoided, and all parties walked away unscathed.

Remember, we're not judged on what goes on in our heads (thank heavens), but by our words and our actions. Try to make yours count in the plus column.

Thanks for reading. Good juju to you!
—Cami  =)

This Friday, March 29, I'll be part of The Freelance Exchange's event, Freelance Focus. I'm super excited about it! It's basically everything my coaching clients get over 6 weeks mashed into a 3-hour workshop. So it'll be like drinking from a fire hose! It's presented by myself and a four other expert panelists, copywriter Julie Cortés, social media expert Alexis Ceule, content expert Ben James, and photographer Matt Nichols.

I'm hoping attendees will get a sense of all the moving parts they need to be aware of as a freelance business owner. Sure, big stuff like contracts, ideal clients, and pricing will be covered, but small stuff too, like loneliness, your elevator pitch, and the tone of the words on your website.

So you know how I said my November had a super busy week? I come back from the Revolve Conference late Tuesday night. Then, first thing Wednesday morning, I'm kicking off an even busier rest-of-the week for Global Entrepreneurship Week here in KC. This is a week-long series of courses, classes, talks & workshops for entrepreneurs; there are 170 events that week! Did I mention that they're all FREE and open to the public? Yep, kinda crazy, I know!

The Freelance Exchange (FX) will be well represented that week! Here are some other FX members' talks: 

• FX founder and all-around bad ass Julie Cortés will explain what you need to know about starting your own small biz or side-gig in Solopreneurship 101.
• Monday at 2 pm, FX member and UX expert Sally Holman-Hebert will share What is UX, and Why Do I Need It?
• Tuesday at noon, social media expert and social media director Alexis Ceule will give Social Media Tips and Tricks for Solopreneurs.
• Wednesday at 10 am, I'm giving a talk called Provide a Service? Learn How to Get Clients to Love You. 
• Wednesday at 2 pm, I'm on a panel and we'll be talking about Need Marketing Help? What to Expect When Hiring Professional Freelancers.
• Thursday at noon, I'll be giving a talk called DIY Branding for (Scrappy) Entrepreneurs. Attendees will get my handy-dandy checklist for all the things that make up a brand, with advice for things they can do themselves (yes, there are some things) and what they should leave to the professionals.
• Thursday night from 5-7 pm, there's a happy hour that FX is throwing, that's also free and open to the public (drinks on you, snacks on FX). 
• Thursday at 6pm, FX founder and all-around bad ass Julie Cortés is at it again in a panel discussion, The Gig Economy Revisited: Failure, Corporate Life & Hustle.
• Friday at 10 am, visuals expert and FX vice president Jason Dailey will share The Value and Versatility of Quality Visuals.
  
• Friday at noon, FX member and illustrator Ben Lee will share how to make your passion into a business in his talk, Chase Your Passion.

​I really hope you can make it to one (or all?) of the GEW events. See you there, I'll save a hug for you!
—Cami

In just a few weeks, I'll have one of busiest weeks of the year. It starts November 10…

Again this year, I'm attending the Revolve Conference in Charleston, SC. Last year, I spoke about resolving conflicts. This year, I'm just attending and I cannot freaking wait! I'm headed there Saturday, November 10th, two days before the conference even starts. That's because Charleston is that awesome. The people, the food—oh lordy, the food!—the history… it's one of my all-time favorite places. (If you're headed there too, please let me know! It's so much fun to go exploring with others!)

The conference starts on Monday, the 12th and some of my absolute favorite speakers will be there, some of whom I am even privileged enough to call friends. Jim Krause (what new ways to conjure creativity will he teach?), Ilise Benun (great marketing tips incoming, my pencil is ready!), Von Glitschka (who always brings something cool & mind-blowing to share), Sabine Lenz (what wonderful new print techniques has she discovered?), Meena Kothandaraman (I can't wait to hear what this brilliant woman has to share!), and Stefan Mumaw (will his presentation make me cry again?).

There are speakers who aren't on my radar yet, but after reading what their topics are, you can bet I'll be in their session, pencil ready. Knowing how rich the content was last year, yeah, I'm excited.

If you've ever been to a HOW Design Live conference, you know kinda what to expect. And you know some conferences can be more than the sum of its parts—even magical at times. That's Revolve—real world info with a huge dose of creativity and a dash of serendipity—but smaller, more intimate, more approachable. Certainly more affordable! If Revolve isn't on your radar yet, it is now. 

See you there? I'll save a hug for you!
—Cami

Sometimes you teach best what you most need to learn. That's me. Right now. Guilty as charged. And I need your help. Yep, you, the one reading this right now.

My business coach, Minette Riordan, tasked me a while back with upgrading my online marketing game by writing blog posts every week. Just one a week. Seems easy enough. I said yes, but I've fallen off the proverbial wagon. It's easy to say that life got in the way. But the truth is that putting my thoughts into words and then putting those words into my blog doesn't come effortlessly to me. That, and I just fell out of the habit of writing every week.

I know that I can't be top-of-mind if I'm not at least committing myself to one teeny blog post a week. That's where you come in.

If you've read this far, I'd like you to comment below with just one word. Can be anything you want. Something that'll make me smile. Some word that I have to look up. Any word.

My theory is that I just need to know that someone is reading this and that it's worthwhile for me to keep plugging along.

…and GO!

—Cami

No wonder it made a whooshing sound!

I've also read several books—some of them even non-fiction!  =)  The most recent one was When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink. He was a keynote at the HOW Design Conference I attended in May (sorry [not sorry] I keep mentioning it—yes, it's that good!).

The major takeaways from his talk, and from his book, include recognizing when your peak times are, and when your slump times are, and working accordingly. The timing didn't surprise me, but the severity of the slump, across all of humanity, did. (Seriously, don't have any surgeries mid-afternoon if you value your life.) Toward the end of the book, the author also mentions something that really resonated with me… and it's about beginnings. In a nutshell, "start right, start again, start together."

What Daniel Pink goes on to explain about "start right" is that when you start something affects the entire success your endeavor, from a project, to a career, to your life. For example, did you enter the job market during an economic slump? The effects of that may follow you your entire career. Most of the time, we have zero control over this. The good news is that this effect can fade over time.

He explains "start again" as the timing of starting over. From the first day of the year (new year's resolutions), to the first day of the week, choosing a day that's memorable to you and beginning again works. Totally makes sense, right?

The last one, "start together" is the one that really sunk in. Whether it's a workout routine, a business, a marriage, or a movement, you have more chance at success if you start something monumental with someone else. This effect does not fade over time. This is the one that you have the most control over, and can impact your success the longest, even decades down the road.

Start right, start again, start together.

My June this year did make a whooshing sound as it flew past, but today is July 1st, and that means that I can start again. Sure it's an arbitrary day, but it's a beginning. So I'm announcing the whooshing sound is now me beginning again! 

I've spoken to several people recently who have made, or will soon make, the jump to working freelance full time. My advice to you is this… to pick a day that's memorable to you, the first of the month, the anniversary of you graduating, whatever… (start again) then assemble a group (or even just one other person), who can be your partner in this endeavor… (start together), and BEGIN.

Thanks for reading. Good juju to you!  =)
—Cami

p.s. If you want my help to move from working full-time for someone else, to working full-time for yourself, please let me know. I've done it successfully, twice. I can help.

Yeah, I hadn't either. I came across an article back in early 2000s explaining synaesthesia. Boy was I surprised that not everyone experienced colors and textures and whatnot when they thought of letters. "You know, M is blue and shiny, K is red and rough…?" I got some strange looks when I started talking about it. Turns out, scientists have known about it for a really long time, but it fell out of common knowledge. (If you're curious and want to learn more, I recommend a book called Wednesday is Indigo Blue as a good technical starting place.) 

Turns out that for synaesthetes (people who experience synaesthesia), it's very common to have more than one kind. I have grapheme → color + texture + location (+ personality but just for numbers, go figure). It means I perceive colors and textures with each letter. As do days of the week, and months of the year. And they all have a spacial location in my mind's eye. I hadn't met anyone else with synaesthesia until the spring of 2011.

Back in 2011, as a HOW Design speaker I was also asked to review portfolios. I know I looked at several people's work, but I can't remember any. Just Rebekah Paulovich, and her work involving her own form of synaesthesia. Rebekah is also a synaesthete; she sees sound. Technically, it's sound → color + shape synaesthesia, but she has several kinds. Her work still blows my mind!

Rebekah is an amazing artist (seriously if you didn't click on that link up there, do it now, I'll wait), and since 2011 I had sent her a few messages asking how that project was coming along. She sent a message letting me know she was also in Boston for this year's HOW. We crossed paths on the same day that I pitched my coaching to 3,000 designers from HOW's main stage. She literally found me in a hallway full of people — again, how serendipitous, as with all things HOW-related — and we left to grab a coffee and catch up.

On the way to coffee, Rebekah told me an incredibly inspiring story of her life during the past 7 years since I'd seen her. (Her story is seriously amazing, and will come later, I promise.) Oh, and with true HOW serendipitous magic, the total for our coffee was $4.26 — not only her birthday, but also the birthday of the guy who rang us up!

​One of the delightful outcomes of the coffee meetup…?

Because both our alphabets are also spacial in nature, this has the potential to be a VERY different kind of book. Rebekah's alphabet appears in her mind's eye as a stepped series moving from upper left to lower right. Mine is all around me, as if I was standing inside a typewriter ball in an old Selectric typewriter. We'll see how well each translates to a 2-dimensional plane.

There's loads more teasing to come as our book unfolds — literally! Ha!

Thanks for reading! Good juju to you! =)
​—Cami

In my last post I talked about my spur-of-the-moment pitch onstage at HOW. Here's what it looked like from the audience.
​What do you think? After hearing this, would you "buy what I'm selling"?

Thanks to Ally for catching this one from the front row.

Here's a link to the spark session in its entirety. I come in at about the 15-minute mark.
I feel like I'm still catching up with myself. But big—really big, scary, fun, amazing—things are in the works. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading. Good juju to you!  =)

—Cami

I had no idea what to expect. I was only 3 years out of school, having received my BFA in graphic design/illustration in 1991. I met David Carson, Kit Hinrichs, McRay Magleby, Charles Anderson, and the like. I had no idea who they were! My education focused on art history, not design history, so I didn't recognize their names or their faces. 

Another name I had never heard of was Gordon MacKenzie, the closing keynote speaker. Back then, we sat at round tables and were actually served lunch at the closing keynote! This was before Gordon wrote Orbiting the Giant Hairball (which I strongly recommend you read, if you haven't already), and his session was called "Achieving and Maintaining Creativity Within a Bureaucracy." ("Orbiting the Giant Hairball" is a better title, don't you think?) There weren't any slides in this talk. Behind him on stage were instead sixteen numbered posters with curious little drawings on them. He told us he had tried unsuccessfully to put them into some kind of sequential order, and asked us to just call out the numbers of the drawings that interested us, so he could tell us that story. When he was finished with each story, he'd say, "Next number." These stories became part his Orbiting book as chapters.

Several stories in and I fell in love… with the format, with the stories, with the unique, vulnerable, amazing human being up on stage. I decided I'd call out a number… "Thirteen!" Card number thirteen had the word "courage" on it. (Being a Leo, that word came up often for me; I have always been drawn to the word.)

Unlike the other stories, this time he said, "Who said number thirteen?" My face reddened, and slowly, I raised my hand. He pulled an envelope off the back of card number thirteen, came down from the stage, and made his way through the hundreds (thousands?) of designers, toward me. My heart raced, my mouth dried up, all eyes were on either me or Gordon. When he finally reached me, he opened the envelope, pulled out a $50 bill and handed it to me. 

"Never be afraid to single yourself out again."

My eyes bulged, my jaw dropped. I didn't know what to think, or what to say.

"Next number." 

After the stories were finished, I stormed the podium. I can't remember what exactly Gordon and I said to each other, but we ended up crying and laughing and hugging — we bonded. This changed my life. (I'd like to tell you that it happened overnight; it didn't.) I still have that $50 bill.

Fast-forward to this year's HOW Design Live — also in Boston, also in May. Tuesday afternoon's Spark was session with Marta Stiglin was called "Shameless Self-Promotion." She had us pair up and practice our pitches with each other. When we "bought" what our partner was pitching, we were instructed to stand up. I've been working with my business coach on perfecting mine, so I felt I was pretty ready; my pitch partner stood up right away. Then Marta asked for a volunteer to pitch to the entire audience.

I think I channeled Gordon for a few seconds there, because my hand shot up and "Meee!" came out of my mouth (at least I think that's what I shouted). I think I was as stunned as the people around me. Marta chose me and I sprinted toward the stage. I'd never pitched to an audience of 3,000 people before! Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous, but I was seriously out of breath (I don't run — ever)! Marta told the audience to hold up their phone flashlights when they "bought" what I was pitching. There was a moment of slight panic after my first pitch — there were no lights! No one "bought" it. And again, as if channeling Gordon, I started over. I said the same thing, but in plainer language. From my heart instead of my head. Suddenly there were hundreds of lights shining my way. I was SO inspired! ​

Ok, not really summer camp. I'm off to the HOW Design Conference, this year in Boston. I try to go every year. Thankfully, now that I'm a HOW Ambassador, it's been every year for a while. The first one I attended (back in 1994!) changed my life, lit me on fire. I had no idea what I didn't know! 

You've probably asked, "How do I find the right clients?" I've asked myself this same question a hundred times.

This past weekend I had an epiphany. It's so simple, but I realized that not everyone knows this.

The question, "How do I find the right clients?" is NOT the question you should be asking. Not at first, anyway. Because having success with your freelance business is rarely just about finding the right clients.

Announcing that "finding the right client" is the only thing your business needs for success is like deciding to buy a house without doing your research. Then just driving along, seeing a pretty house, and deciding that's the one without knowing the really important answers… Like the asking price… Like what shape the foundation is in… Like what the neighborhood is like, school district, average utility bills, annual taxes… You get the idea.

I'm convinced it's about everything BUT finding the right clients. ​

Well, speaking of connection, my phone crashed and died this weekend. Poor thing, three years old and worked hard from day one! It just kept restarting. Wandering forever in a startup loop. I know I've felt that way before. Have you? 

The replacement phone is scheduled to arrive Tuesday (thankfully I've got full coverage on my phone), and I'm feeling a bit out of sync and unconnected. How will I ever get all my contacts re-entered if they weren't backed up? I'll find out soon. 

Offline, I did organize my recipes (finally), so there's a plus side to not going through my usual morning routine of playing Boggle online while I finish my chai latte. I'm wondering what other things I could accomplish if I bust out of my usual routine.

On a client-management-related note, I think I finally got through to my client today. The changes Mary* requested were precise design changes that unfortunately didn't help the design at all (she's not a designer). At first, I was so frustrated with her changes, I started to write an email explaining each of my design decisions. Then I remembered to put myself firmly into Mary's shoes. Her objective is the same as mine—to make the project awesome. So I wrote her a note to remind her of the big picture instead…

"If you give me specific art direction changes instead of the 'why' involved with what you want changed, I’m stuck between doing exactly what you’ve asked, or doing what looks and reads best."

I asked Mary to look over my changes and let me know if she felt the changes were still necessary. If she had still requested her changes, I would have done them. But at least she knows she can trust me to do what's best for the project, and that there's not a big ego involved. I think we've connected more firmly because of my push back. I'm not just an order taker—I'm her partner in making her projects awesome!

She actually apologized (not my intention, but welcome nonetheless) and agreed to give me her reasons for her changes and let me decide how best to get the project there.

So win-win. Except for my poor old phone. 

Thanks for reading. Good juju to you!  =)
—Cami

*Of course that's not her real name.

Last week I was asked to speak to the Kansas City chapter of the ASMP, along with Jason Dailey, The Freelance Exchange's vice president. The talk was mainly about benefits of joining, but in explaining the value of the group, the discussion went much deeper into what we, as humans need at a base level and are lacking by spending so much time glued to our electronic devices.

Connection.

Networking (I originally typed newtworking… ha! That's something completely different!) doesn't have to be seen as negative. How many times have you heard that networking is crucial to your career? Of course it is! How many times have you really worked your network in the past year? I thought so. Networking is really about connection. Making real and honest connections with other fellow humans. That's it. But, if it's still kind of *bleh* in your head, let's appease the left brain by analyzing word network.

​NET:
noun—an open meshed fabric used to contain
verb—to contain 
adjective—what remains after deductions

View your friends, peers, and acquaintances as your open-meshed fabric—your safety net—with each strand representing an individual. The knots are the connections you’ve cultivated with them. Your network contains your friends, peers and acquaintances. To grow your business, you can tap the connections in your net. If you lose everything, what remains is your network. If you need a resource (job-related or otherwise), you reach out to your net.

WORK:
noun—exertion, effort directed to produce something
verb—to do work; to produce something

You can’t have a network without the work part of it. You just can’t need something and have it magically appear. Yes, it takes effort, but that effort can be fun when you’ve made real connections with people.

NETWORK:
noun—an association of individuals having a common interest, formed to provide mutual assistance, helpful information, etc.

With every new person you meet in the industry, try to make a genuine connection—not just asking about occupation, and in what city they live. Ask what they really enjoy about their current role, what they like helping people with, what they're interests are outside of a "job." If you really connect, you will remember each person individually. If time doesn’t permit a lengthy connection, jot down on their business card “loves cars,” or “collects shoes,” “really into sports.” Anything—even if it’s “shared Lyft to airport”—that helps you remember the individual and the connection you've made.

After the birth of our first child, I had the luxury to quit my full-time job and only do 5-10 hours of freelance work per week. Then my husband lost his job when I was expecting our second child less than two years later, and it was necessary for me to support the family (and pay for our cobra insurance—yikes!) while he job-hunted. I sent out a call for help to my network for freelance work. Any work. Nothing was too menial. 

What happened? I got work. I got a lot of work. I went from working 5-10 hours a week to 30-40 hours a week. We made it six months on just my freelance work, thanks to my network!! And my husband got a job just a few days before our second child was born. Whew!

See, it's about making connections that can benefit you down the road. So when you see the word networking, replace it with connecting and you'll feel the difference. And probably attend more networking events!

“We human beings are social beings.

​We come into the world as the result of others’ actions. We survive here in dependence on others. Whether we like it or not, there is hardly a moment of our lives when we do not benefit from others’ activities. For this reason, it is hardly surprising that most of our happiness arises in the context of our relationships with others.” --The Dalai Lama 

Thanks for reading. Good juju to you! =)

—Cami

p.s. Just as you can call on your network in times of need, remember to be a support to others as well. How can I help you?