Odds & Ends

Bob Eckstein/John Kascht copyright © 2008

• Poll results; Thank you to all who participated on the Freelancer's Lament poll...More than half of the voters make a living freelancing...the numbers showed there's just as many freelancers now as before with just as many in the business longer than twenty years as there are rookies....and most people enjoy being a freelancing and want to continue.

• The joke for the above cartoon is from John Kascht whose work will be on display Sept. 4th to Oct 4th in POLITICS 08 at the Society of Illustration. 

• Get Known Now is doing workshops on how to lead workshops. Mostly for coaches, therapists, creative teachers (i.e. voice teachers) and the like. 

Interview With Career Expert Lee Silber

Continuing on the theme of time management, Freelancer's Lament went straight to the man, Lee Silber, best-selling author of numerous books (including audio and "mini-books" meant to sent by email) and life planners. I actually have three of his books in my house and highly recommend them to anyone serious about becoming as proficient and efficient as humanly possible. If we were all married to Lee our careers would be soaring. Since that's not possible this informative interview will have to do.

Freelancer's Lament: Lee, welcome and thank you for letting us pick your brain. Could you please first describe what you do?
Lee Silber: I offer creative solutions for every kind of business problem. I also specialize in helping creative, right-brain thinkers master the left-brain aspects of their business—time management, accounting, planning, promotion, and organizing.

FL: How did you get involved in this business?
LS: I come from a long line of successful entrepreneurs and grew up surrounded by people who worked for themselves. In fact, I opened my first business when I was eleven years-old. I went to my neighbors and offered to repaint and renumber their mailboxes for a fee. Not a bad gig for a summer "job." When I was old enough I moved to Maui and started a design company and was a wholesaler of art supplies. I then turned my passion for surfing into retail stores when my brothers and I opened a chain of surf shops in San Diego. As if this story isn't long enough already, I took everything I knew about business and combined it with my background in the creative arts (I attended art school at night while running my retail business) and wrote a series of books for creative people for Random House. All this led me to what I do today—helping others who want to start and succeed in their own business—[which is the focus of his new book, Rock To Riches: Build Your Business The Rock and Roll Way].

FL: You've produced a regular library of books on personal management; Time Management For The Creative Person, Self-Promotion For The Creative Person, and Organizing From The Right Side of the Brain. What is the function of these books and what will Lamenting readers learn from them?
LS: The thesis behind all of my books is this: We should focus on our strengths—our natural way of doing things—rather than dwell on our weaknesses. This is especially true of most freelancers who tend to be more right-brained—risk-takers, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants, divergent thinkers. The problem is we live in a left-brain world where we are forced to focus, play it safe, plan, and be neat and orderly. While these are worthy traits, it may be that no matter how hard a person tries, they will never understand tax code or put everything away at the end of the day. So, why not leave things out that you are still working on if it helps you avoid procrastinating and allows you to juggle ten things at once? Why not turn your day-to-day business plan into a slide show you watch on your computer featuring images, target numbers, and key words? That's why the creative person series of books are so popular. They don't try to change people, but make them better versions of themselves.

FL: What is the biggest reason freelancers are unable to sustain their business?
LS: Small business is about the small things. It may not seem like a big thing to let your marketing efforts go when things are going good. But marketing—just a little every day—has to be on your daily things-to-do list no matter what. It may seem like a small thing when you have a couple of slow paying clients. But it's a big deal when all of a sudden you have your own bills to pay but don't have the money. When you own a freelance business chances are you wear many hats and always have a lot to do. It's also likely a lot of the things you have to do take up most of your time. Don't let the small stuff get in the way of the things that have the potential to make a big impact—proposals, pitches, projects—even if they don't pay off now, you have to get them done.

FL: If you were to provide a punch list for freelancers, what are three tips you would pass along to them?
LS: 1. The new way to land big business is to team up with other freelancers. You can either work together or refer business back and forth, but this is the way to build your business quickly.

2. Get a mentor that has been there, done that, and has all the knowledge you don't. Whether you turn to the Service Core Of Retired Executives (SCORE) or someone in your community, this is your shortcut to business success.

3. The difference between a hobby and a business is your level of commitment. No matter how hard you think you are trying, you can always do more.

FL: What's your mantra?
LS: Do the right thing. This will mean different things to different people, but when you always do the right thing, you don't have guilt, worry, or repercussions.

FL: You have a new book coming out...
LS: If you have ever felt business books were boring (I know I did) and wished you could learn everything there was to know about being an entrepreneur in a quick and interesting way? I know, that's what I thought, too. That's why I wrote Rock To Riches: Build Your Business The Rock and Roll Way. I use rock stars as examples of how to do everything from manage your money to market your business. It's fun to read and readers will learn a lot about rock AND everything about business. It's coming out this fall from Capital Books.

Freelancing Tips 102

So where do you get the time–the time to promote, create, cultivate, circulate, get your face onto My Space, Facebook everyone you ever glanced at, and still write a book? 

You can save time by trying to crack the freelancer's worst addiction, monitoring your rankings (I'm guilty myself and plan to finally practice what I preach.). 

Take a break from the Amazon.com rankings, TitleZ, your sitemeter, your blog's google numbers and anything else out there constantly judging us. As a surly bar-b-que chef down in New Orleans once said, "If you're lookin', you're not cookin'."

For more on this subject, see the NY Times article Clearing Up a Blurry Work Life by the blogger of Lifehacker, which you may find helpful. 

Freelancing Tips 101

The above cartoon sums up best why it's still better to freelance (Can you spot the 7 things wrong with that picture?). Here's my little advice;

1) Don't be a dreamer. Anyone who tells you to "$@%& them! Start your own magazine" is an idiot. We've all heard those who tell us to follow our dreams and let nothing get in our way..."Self publish your novel...start your own TV show...blah, blah, blah...[followed by]...that's what I did!" Usually by people blessed with connections through family or lovers and not dealing with the day-to-day pressure of making a living. Sure they're living a dream and as George Carlin said, "That's what dreaming is. Open your eyes." One needs the support of established places to make a serious dent. Yes, self-publish your book, film a show for YouTube, whatever...but as a stepping stone and calling card only to then shop it around to agents, publishing houses, etc. You will have to play my their rules, but it's their stadium. Self-publishing, etc. is keeping the game in your backyard. Yeah, it's your rules but nobody watching. You need clout to get on The Daily Show. Where are you keeping 80,000 copies of Getting Rich With Nobody's Help For Dummies?  Plus, there IS a stigma doing it alone that will keep away reviewers and press. It's all unfortunate, but that's the story. I have this argument all the time with those who believe in the DIY route but the numbers simply don't compare. Get an agent, agent gets you a house or studio, house or studio gets you a publicist and all along the way...

2) Be nice. Return phone calls, answer emails, be a good friend, date co-workers (that's right), and don't burn bridges – every connection is an opportunity and, for better or worse, everyone crosses your path again (or talking bad or good about you somewhere). You're like a restaurant, it's word of mouth. At a time when art directors, editors, etc. never have to hire a stranger because everyone knows some freelance whatever looking for work you cannot afford to be difficult. They want to work with people who are nice and...

3) Efficient. Too many think it's best they continue working their assignment into a masterpiece, even if that means missing their deadline. Believe me, every publishing boss, curator, art director or whatever is less concerned to what awards your piece may win and just wants their weekend to begin without a hitch. And the less problems you present to them, the less questions you have, and most important, how timely you finish, the better. Calling every two hours and bombarding their inbox with minutia is not professional. 

I'm not accusing anyone of having their head in the clouds or not being nice or efficient, but if I was to think of the three mistakes I see within my particular (and, no doubt, bias) circle these would be it.

4) Create a brand name. Number one thing but last here since you all know it already. Whether you're saying outrageous things, creating marvelous work, inflect an accent, having photos posted with the right people or naked with the wrong people, and/or anything that makes you colorful, it's all branding. Starting with baby steps; creating an immensely popular blog. I recommend three sites; Creative Writing and Blog Tips, seohorror.com for blog branding in layman's terms, and Get Known Now, insider strategies that make you a household name.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

Saving Your Career

I find the biggest problem among freelancers is being aware of the volume their counterparts are cranking out. Above is a job I just did for Trader Monthly. They do a cool back page parody thing, which did actually do a pretty good job with. I was asked to do CEOs as superheros (and of course, superheros are on everyone's minds this summer with Ironman, Batman and Superman coming soon. Plus CEOs love being portrayed as celebrities.). Anyway, the point is I was given two weeks to complete this but if I'm going to realistically make a living doing this (freelancing on my own) I need to impose my own deadline based on how much I was getting paid. I was also juggling multiple writing assignments, working on my next book, a handful of other illustration jobs, my usual 10 cartoon submissions (every week) to The New Yorker and the below painting (which is half way done). 

I'm not trying to impress. Just sharing a reminder to invest only as much time on a job as it deserves. Besides, this is common workload for the better known freelancers (and the above job is nothing to write home about – as I said, it was a rush job). But this is the number one reason I see many other freelancers not breaking in, because they're not producing fast enough. There is no time to noodle or tackle writer's block. My friend Lenore Skenazy is a humor columnist for the New York Sun who comes up with new ideas, non-stop, starting and finishing them in the same day (and her articles are hysterical). To further illustrate, this piece here she wrote in one day. That's where the bar is and believe me, neither of us are rolling in dough.

One exception of my "time-based-on-pay" rule (like I made it up. That's just it. The whole world, except us, freelancers, is using this business model. So why do we ignore it?) is the painting below for a charity group, The Lacawac Sanctuary (wonderful people but just a very difficult task to paint 30 or so animals – they don't sit still). I'm more than half way done with the 3 feet museum mural and let it be said here it will be my last illustration as I will probably kill myself when it's done. 

Here's a close-up. And here's hoping we all get our ducks in a row.

What Color Is Your Parachute?!? How 'bout – My Parachute Didn't Even Open!!!

Remember that book, What Color Is Your Parachute? Actually, it never went away. The best-selling career book of all time is still coming out with new editions, hand-holding newbies in the job market, helping them decide what vocations best suits them. But I'm not sure anyone in this economy has the luxury of 'finding themselves'...or maybe that's exactly the wrong attitude. Maybe it is time to experiment in the same way an argument can be made that the only chance for the survival of publications is for them to expand off of loans, doing the opposite of the logical, a la George Costanza, and take a chance by improving their product to create some separation from what one can find on the web. (Traditional newspapers must demonstrate that web new sources can't keep up.)

Speaking to struggling freelancers, of course the first step is to arm yourself with all the news in your field. This is not an obvious comment – I, myself, for years cruised in auto-pilot as a freelancer not getting caught up in every development or even feeling compelled to. But's it's kinda all hands on deck right now. Many or most of the readers of Freelancer's Lament rely on publications as one of their main sources of income and one of the best and latest article on the subject comes from The Nation by Eric Alterman. The comments also, to a lesser extent, provide some insight.

Before continuing with more productive dialogue on the subject, I ask you to please participate in the Freelancer's Lament polls on the right.

Return From Brimfield

LAKE WALLENPAUPACK, PENNSYLVANIA – Back home the finds of the week have already found a home. (Above birdhouse. Asking $12, talked down to $10.)


2) Bottle-opener. Asked for $25, got for $20. Tammy said face really scared her and would not allow to put in kitchen. Buried now in basement. (Those are crate labels Modge-podged to the steps going down.)


3) Bucket for $5 – not even worth mentioning. Oops, just did. (Cool squirrel, right?)


4) Have no idea why I bought this green piece of wood. $20 down the drain. It was the drain floor to a row boat. Couldn't find a better place to put it so I nailed it to the side of the garage for reasons even I don't understand.


5) As if my office wasn't pretentious enough, I got those two black gauges. "Sorry, I have no need for a Volt-meter...$20, sorry, no...$15? What part of 'I don't know what a volt meter is' don't you understand?...$10...um, no, no, thanks...$5?! OK!" Never before has an office had so much work done to it and so little work done in it.


6 & 7) Guy wanted $40 for the pair of cast iron pieces. On the right is a match stick holder (one container for new, one for used matches). He said the snowman was one of a kind. When I returned the next day there was an identical one in the same place (I paid $5 and he was asking for $15 from passerbys.).


8) $20 for the pie case. Good illustration of my gullibility. Guy at outside flea market promised I'd see many inside Brimfield for double the price. Never saw another, not even sure this is a pie case.


9) Tammy got this set for $70 and I believe it involved some monkey business as she thought she was getting quotes for pairs of pins. She said she needed them for an "art project." And I needed that funnel cake for political reasons.

Speaking of half-truths, one piece of crap that didn't make it on the trip home was a painting supposedly "owned by Charlie Sheen" and "thrown out of his home on the objections of his then wife, Denise Richards." I wanted to buy it if the guy could find a bag to carry it in as I didn't want to be seen with it. But the guy wouldn't go lower then $50 while Tammy threatened divorce. It was a large acrylic painting of the American flag. The lines and edges were all crooked. In the foreground was a naked woman with spiked hair and huge Tome Rider like body proportions placing her hands together in prayer. I will never own the world's most beautiful painting in my life...but this was my chance to own the ugliest.