When To Stop Giving It Away

March 24, 2010 by 3 Comments

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Considering that I maintain a how-to blog with no membership fees, donation links, or advertising, you must assume that I love giving it all away. And to some extent, you would be correct. I love how this blog has helped me build up a professional platform. I love how it’s allowed me to connect with fellow freelancers. And, bottom line? I love helping people out.

But lately, two factors have led me to question where I should draw the line when in comes to “free”:

1. The launching of my coaching practice, the eventual success of which relies upon the assumption that people will actually pay me money for my expertise and professional guidance.

2. Repeated questions from newbies that lead me to believe that they haven’t even tried doing their homework. Forget thorough research. A quick search of my blog would have yielded them the desired results! Am I hurting wannabe freelancers by giving them the easy answers?

So how do I know when to provide free advice, when to direct people to my blog, and when to simply say, “Here’s my coaching fee!”?

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Career Coaching for Word Nerds: And We Have Liftoff…

March 12, 2010 by 2 Comments

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You guys! Two weeks ago, I announced the launch of my career coaching practice, Career Coaching for Word Nerds. To kick things off, I held a contest here on my blog, so that two lucky readers could win a month’s worth of career coaching, completely gratis.

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Contest: Career Coaching for Word Nerds

February 24, 2010 by 18 Comments

For quite some time now, I’ve been working toward opening my own private career coaching practice. The idea sprouted after about two years of full-time freelancing — due to all the e-mails I was receiving from young up-and-comers looking for advice — and, when the economy eventually went south, it just seemed like common sense to figure out new and interesting ways to diversify. The publishing landscape was changing, and it was time to look to the future, and to figure out how I might fit into an industry that was in flux.

Now, with exams and teleclasses behind me, and with seemingly more and more people floundering every day — wanting a change and not knowing what change to make, or how to go about making it — it seems about time to get this party started.

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Link Love: September 25

September 25, 2009 by Leave a Comment

What a week. I made headway on my book proposal and started my career coaching certification program. And this weekend, I’m visiting the last huge chunk of wineries in NJ for my regional magazine piece. I feel pooped, but it’s a good kind of pooped. What helped and inspired me along the way? Check it:

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Following Multiple Paths

January 27, 2009 by 1 Comment

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Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth.

– Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”

…

Earlier today, I posted on my personal blog about the fear of missing out on alternate lives due to the decisions I make.

I waxed eloquent (I hope) on how worried I am that, because of ways in which I’ve settled in and settled down, there are no more surprises around the bend.

Funny that the same neuroticism doesn’t plague the way I approach my career.

At least not anymore.

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