Freelancing is much more than getting paid to do what you’re good at.

You’re also a marketer, business manager, and maybe even an accountant, all at the same time.

As a freelancer, you’re running the show. Knowing how to manage your time and money becomes even more important so that you can focus on what matters: your work.

But you can’t forget about all of the other (not-so-fun) stuff if you want to have a successful freelance business.

We want to help you get to the next level.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with AND CO, an invoicing, contracts, and payments app for freelancers and independent contractors to create a FREE all-encompassing guide for hacking your freelance business: Hacking Independence.

Want to know how to grow your audience and your business? Hacking Independence is full of tips and tricks on how you can test and prioritize strategies that will make a real difference in your business.

Whether you call yourself a designer, coder, copywriter, photographer — you’re an entrepreneur. It’s time to start embracing that role. It’s time to start treating your freelancing as a scalable business. Growth hacking is your ticket to get there, and we’ve got the perfect guide to get you started.

If you’re ready to start growing your business, this book is for you.

Download the free ebook ➡️

Welcome to the glamourous life of being a founder — a life where you’re the first to be blamed and last to be paid, first in the office and last one out. It’s pretty amazing though isn’t it?

To help you out, here are three time management tips that can help you navigate the life of a first-time entrepreneur. Two of these tips are from hustle-gurus while the third is my own practice. Let’s get started!

Work Smarter Not Harder

If you haven’t heard about Tim Ferriss’ “4 Hour Work Week”, it’s revolutionary. In his 4 Hour Work Week book, he introduces the D.E.A.L.

Definition: Replace self-defeating assumptions.

Elimination: Forget time management; learn to ignore the unimportant.

Automation: Learn to put cash flow on autopilot.

Liberation: Create freedom of location

Tim’s strategies make me look at my time as an investment. You only have a certain amount of time capital to spend each day, so you can use his D.E.A.L model as a due-diligence tool to decide, if I can be outsourced or automated it, or if that task is worthy of an investment of your time.

His D.E.A.L model has been working more for me as my business has grown, but at the early stages you have to do everything regardless of the available time capital.

Get. Shit. Done.

The other hustle guru is Gary Vaynerchuk and he’s got a very simple time management strategy, “You are one-hundred-f*****g percent in charge of your life. Stop f*****g b******g!”

Some people may not like his style but if you know Gary V, you know his videos saying “I don’t have time is not an excuse” or “If you have a full-time job, you are not an entrepreneur” or “Your time is the one thing you control.” Basically, stop complaining about not being able to manage your time and just make it work. Cut out anything that’s not your business and hustle your f******g ass off.

Find Your Groove

There are a ton of time-management “experts” who make YouTube videos, write books, etc. proclaiming that they have the answer for time management and how effective their method is.

After watching and reading loads of different expert opinions, I’ve come to the conclusion that not a single expert can accurately tell YOU how to manage your time.

They’re fantastic motivators with great strategies and ideas, but at the end of the day, YOU need to do what keeps you healthy, hungry, and hustlin’. Try a bunch of different things, and as some random millennial once said, “You do you.”

If you’ve got some strategies that are working for you, let’s connect! I’d love to hear them.

“Don’t find customers for your product. Find products for your customers.”
 — Seth Godin

There’s a scene in Objectified in which a team of industrial designers is shown designing garden shears. Two or three New York MFA-types stand around a conference table discussing a prototype: where on the hand the shears will create friction, whether the grip is comfortable enough, whether the angle of the shears is correct and so on. That the delicate hands of an industrial designer are different from the callused hands of the average landscaper doesn’t seem to occur to them. Between them, they form a consensus and a new prototype is drawn up.

This is often about as thorough as design research gets. It’s no surprise then that most people end up skipping the research phase entirely. “Vision” is channeled, as is the maxim, “we only make products for ourselves.” This is one of the reasons why so many products fail to resonate. They’re created with a hypothetical customer or with no customer at all.

Designers, developers and product managers are often shielded by their clients from the realities of the market. In fact, it’s possible to have a fairly successful career without having to experience any real market pressure at all. As a result, many end up engaging in product development for its own sake. If you’re reading this, you’re likely one of those people. I was too.

It took quitting my job, founding my own company, and getting knocked around a bunch to finally find myself in alignment with the demands of real people. I’m still working on it. While my products pay the rent, I draw a salary that is less than the average Creative Director. But I also work less. And that’s great.

In this short essay, I’ll be walking you through a method, pioneered by Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman, for making sure that you’re building products that real people want. You’ll learn how to find customers, analyze their pains, write a pitch using their language and create a feedback loop to keep you in lockstep. Each section will be accompanied by a case study where we’ll explore how I’ve used these methods to create Extra, my new social media automation app.

Building products for its own sake can be rewarding. But if you’re looking to build something that’ll help you pay the rent, this method will get you closer to doing just that. If you’re a designer without the ability to write backend code, or you’re a product manager without the ability to contribute design or development, this method will help you avoid spending a bunch of time and money on something that nobody wants.

This method is not a sure-thing, but it is, I believe, as close as you can get without a big research budget. The alternative is trial-and-error, a method so expensive that it can only be espoused by venture capitalists.

Before we begin, the point of all of this, the TLDR of the entire piece, is that only an evidence-based understanding of your customer can temper the confirmation bias of product development. You really have no idea whether you’ve got something until somebody gives you money for it. And well-wishers and lookyloos will only intensify the optimistic self deception that often characterizes the decision to start something new. Careful that you aren’t wasting time on a hope and a prayer, okay?

Prospecting for Pain 🤘

Every product begins with a hunch. Treat your hunch like a hypothesis and don’t get carried away with it. Don’t confuse it with divine inspiration or get unnecessarily attached to it. Product ideas, for our purposes, aren’t as important as you think. What’s important is finding a customer.

As a general rule, if you think that your hunch is going to take you toward a consumer rather than business focused product, or, if you’re not a member of the product’s target market, it may best for you to wait for your next idea. Consumer focused businesses, especially those intended for an unfamiliar target market, are hard — really hard — and may not be worth pursuing. Consider yourself warned.

Now, your hunch, or hypothesis, likely has a customer or user associated with it, so your first step is going to be to find out where that customer hangs out on the internet. Check the obvious places like Reddit and Quora but also make sure to trawl relevant message boards, user-submitted review websites, support forums, Facebook groups and Slack channels. You’re looking for unmediated, honest conversations between distinctly targetable individuals.

Once you’ve found one of these places, your next step is going to be to identify and document “customer pains.” Open up a spreadsheet and start searching for conversations that are relevant to your hypothesis.

If you’re building a software product, start by looking for threads that begin with “how do I do X?” or “What do you use in order to do Y?” Follow where these discussions lead you, researching as much as you can about the products and solutions recommended.

If you’re developing an information product, such as an online course or an eBook, these questions (and their corresponding answers) should form the foundation of your offering.

Copy and paste anything that’s relevant to your hypothesis into your spreadsheet. Cast a wide net and don’t editorialize, you’ll be using your customer’s language to create a pitch later on.

You’ll notice as you go that certain questions or complaints are repeated over and over again. For whatever reason, people often use message boards to ask questions which could just as easily be solved with a Google search. Their repetition is a sign that you’re onto something.

Once you’ve collected a good amount of discussion, you’ll want to drill into it to find patterns. Highlight any particularly visceral language. Humans have a tendency to get expressive when they really mean something.

If your hunch is viable, you’ll see patterns emerge that outline a hypothetical product. If you don’t, and the information seems too disparate or vague, consider your hypothesis bunk, and repeat this process when you come up with something new.

Case Study: Searching for the Pain of Social Media Professionals

For Extra, our new social media automation tool, I started this process by combing through Quora and Reddit’s /socialmedia community. By looking for discussions of social media professionals’ automation toolsets, I quickly discovered a number of customer pains.

Here’s just a few:

• Social media professionals do not have the time to create an editorial calendar, or a broader marketing strategy, because they’re constantly having to generate new content.
• New founders are struggling to get visitors to their site through their social media channels because organic reach is plummeting.
• Founders are struggling to find the money or the time to hire an intern to manage their social media accounts for them.
• Content marketers are struggling to maintain quality given their exhausting editorial schedules.
• CMOs see the value of content in their back catalogue of content but don’t know what to do with it.
• Solo marketers are struggling to maintain a consistent multi-platform presence.
• CMOs are struggling to evaluate the ROI of their content marketing efforts.

I also discovered a number of products related to these pains. By branching out and researching what people had to say about them, I found myself on a website wholly dedicated to user submitted reviews of social media tools. There I discovered a glut of information about the user experience shortcomings of these products (which I further explored by watching video reviews). Slowly, the idea for Extra began to emerge. I felt like I was ready to write a pitch.

Writing a pitch 🤓

Once you’ve amassed a good amount of research, you may feel like it’s time to start building. Not so fast. Your next step is going to be to write a pitch using the language that you mined in the research phase.

The format that I use to create pitches, which was, again, created by Amy Hoy and Alex Hillman, looks something like this:

1. evoke the pain(s)
2. imagine the dream
3. introduce the fix

While writing your pitch, you’ll want to actively demonstrate your understanding of your reader/customer. One of the easiest ways to do this is by making a point of using the pronoun “you.” This can feel awkward at first, but it’s important to make a habit of it. If you follow the pain-dream-fix format, but fail to use “you” language throughout, you’re unlikely to write something all that convincing. Writing a pitch is an exercise in empathy. Focus on who you’re writing for and imagine you’re speaking directly to them.

Begin your pitch by evoking the pain(s) that you uncovered in the research phase. In a bullet pointed list, demonstrate your understanding of these pains by using your customer’s language to describe it. Copy and paste key words and phrases from your research into your list to make it more convincing. The more visceral, evocative and concrete your customer’s language, the better it is to be included in your pitch. Three to five bullet points is best.

Next, tell us how your customer’s quality of life would be improved if those pains were relieved. Beginning with the clause “what if,” describe this future in a bullet pointed list. This is the dream section, and it functions by demonstrating to your customer the benefits of your product before you’ve even introduced it.

Finally, introduce your product (known as “the fix”). Describe what it does and how it does it. Speak, once again, to the pains uncovered in the first section. Finish off by giving us a place to leave our email address and an idea of what we should expect from you in the coming months. Consider squashing any residual doubts in a frequently asked questions section underneath.

The structure of this type of pitch is formulaic, but it works. Don’t feel pressure to imitate it exactly, as robotic copywriting runs the risk of sounding like a late night fitness infomercial. Hide the seams of the pitch in healthy, well written paragraphs. The more conversational your writing, the better it’ll sound.

Case Study: Writing Extra’s Pitch

I’m not embarrassed to say that writing the pitch for Extra took several weeks. My research uncovered almost two dozen pain points from around 60 different discussion threads. My “dream” material consisted of about ten bullet points but kept changing because I couldn’t quite make up my mind about which pains were the most valuable (I went back to the message boards a few times before I finally settled).

I also struggled with the desire to editorialize on customer pain. People can sound crude on message boards and it’s easy to find yourself editing out the most evocative parts of their language. But that would be a mistake. How the customer expresses themselves is just as important as what they express themselves about. Look no further than the rhetoric of Donald Trump to understand how crude language often trumps (har!) semantic language when we’re trying to persuade.

After five different versions, I finally settled on what you see on extra.ai. There’s still work to do. My pitch doesn’t adequately “hide the seams” of the format and it’s a little long. But it captures my target customers’ pain well.

Show your work 💎

Now it’s time to get your pitch in front of your customer. Go back to the message boards that you mined for research and introduce yourself. Introduce the product and the pitch and ask for feedback. Incorporate that feedback.

If everything checks out, and the reception is positive, you’re finally ready to start building. Start small. If you’ve done the research, coming up with an MVP shouldn’t be all that difficult. Focus on solving the most important pains first and let the rest follow.

You can further validate your idea by taking pre-orders and by doing one-on-one interviews with subscribers as they trickle in. Resist the urge to show your pitch to your friends if they’re not also your target customer. It’s easy to muddy the water with good intentions.

Build a feedback loop with your new found community of customers by being as transparent as you can throughout the build process: show off your design work, discuss how you’re funding the project, and make product discussions publicly available. Transparency builds trust and generates buy-in. It’ll pay off when you’re finally ready to kick things live.

Case Study: Keeping Extra’s Audience Engaged

Our medium term strategy for Extra is to focus on small to medium sized startups. To that end, we’ve circulated Extra as far and as wide as we’ve been able to within our networks.

We’ve collected a lot of feedback from on one-on-one interviews with founders. Some are managing social media incredibly well. Others are searching for ways to make it work. These interviews have provided us with some pretty incredible insight into the mindset of our customer. We’ve realized, for example, that despite there being a glut of material on social media marketing, no body really knows what the hell they’re doing.

We’ve also been making our product discussions publicly available on YouTube. Good transparency content is catnip for SaaS founders. Reception has been a little underwhelming so far, but we think we’re on the right track. Behemoth posts like this one (and the one you’re reading) have brought in a good amount of sign ups. We know that we’ve hit a vein because people keep offering us money.

Extra’s landing page is one of the simplest that I’ve ever put together. It is this way because how it looks doesn’t really matter. What matters is the pitch — whether I’ve done my research and created a product in response to a legitimate customer concern. If that’s the case, it doesn’t really matter what it looks like. This is a big step for me. I’ve spent the last ten years chasing pixel perfection. In fact, I’ve spent the last ten years torturing myself with the details of products that have never seen the light of day.

Launching a product can be terrifying. But it’s especially terrifying if you’ve designed and developed the product in isolation. It becomes a matter of ego: whether you’re a visionary or an idiot, a far-seer or a fool. But by bringing people in earlier, and making them a part of the process, you can avoid feeling as if your credibility hangs in the balance. You can avoid torturing yourself with details that only you care about. When you really know who you’re building for, and you know what they want, it’s far easier to ship, and to ship something desirable.

In client services, success often means effectively managing the expectations of your clients. It means making sure that they’re always aware of what’s coming next so that there are no surprises. It’s not about selling them on your work, but about helping them to figure out what it is that they want so that you can provide it to them. It’s the same with product development. As Seth Godin writes, “Don’t find customers for your product. Find products for your customers.”

Special thanks to our friends Liam Sarsfield and Matthew Lehner at Extra for contributing this article to our Medium. It originally appeared here.

Sign up for Extra early access here.

I was in a marketing workshop recently and the presenter asked the room if anyone actually thought of themselves as a “brand.”

😳

I hesitated. My inner thoughts went something like this:

“I mean…yeah. I’m supposed to say yes, right? I’ve taught personal branding workshops all over the world. I’ve built a lot of my career on my personal brand. I sell personal branding to other people.”

But no one raised their hand.

I didn’t want to be the only one to do so.

So I stayed quiet. And then I started wondering what a personal brand actually means.

To me, personal branding is how you got from A to B, maybe even A to Z.

It’s the thoughts, words, and feelings that come up when someone sees or mentions your name.

It’s the relatable story of your life that you are passionate about sharing with others.

It’s not a brand. It’s just who you are and why you are that way.

“Personal branding” is a terrible term.

It’s intimidating. It’s corporate. It’s de-personalized. But it doesn’t actually have to be this way.

The problem with the concept of personal branding is that people think that they can step right up and receive their personal brand from a workshop, online course, or blog post.

Nice try, kids.

Personal branding takes time. You need to self-reflect, commit to communicating what you’ve learned, and share that over and over again as you learn and grow as a person.

Let’s say you’re a freelance designer living in Austin, Texas. You differentiate yourself from other designers in the area by selling yourself as a “process-oriented and innovative visual designer with a specialty in designing for real estate.” You can’t just show up to an interview with that on a piece of paper. You need proof.

You have to have a portfolio of work in the real estate space. You need testimonials from previous clients that speak to your organization and adherence to a process. You definitely need to come with ideas on how you can innovate for your next client to get the gig.

But how do you collect all of that stuff and tie it all together cohesively?

I’d like to introduce you to Hannah Morgan.

She’s a personal branding expert and career innovator with a strategy for developing and refining your personal brand.

In partnership with about.me and Skillshare, she created an awesome 30-minute tutorial on how to create a bio that reflects who you are, what you do, and where you want to go.

Here are my favorite tips from her process that I think will help you see building a personal brand as something you can start doing today.

1. Discover: Reflect on your passion, skills, expertise, and impact.

Hannah’s Skillshare class comes with a really simple worksheet of questions that will push you to think about these four areas of your story. The questions will help you narrow in on how you can and want to make a difference based on your skills, passion, and expertise.

This four step reflection process will help you really define what’s important to you in all aspects of what you do and what you want to be known for. Be honest in this reflection. Think about what you’ve done well, and not so well. Dream big.

2. Craft: Communicate who you are.

You know what you like to do, what you’re good at (and not so good at), what sets you apart, and what you want to do with all of that — so let’s put it into a cohesive message.

If you can’t communicate your personal mission, whether it’s to get your first freelance gig, your side hustle, or a pitch to get that promotion at work, you won’t get anywhere.

You need to be able to concisely put into words your goals and why you’re the best person to accomplish those goals. Hannah helps you by giving you three ways of communicating all of this: the summary, the social media bio, and the pitch. All three will come in handy as you’re trying to get people to trust and respect you, in any aspect of life and work.

3. Share: Take action and put yourself in front of the people who care.

You’ve done all this work, now what?

It’s time to identify where to actually put yourself online.

One of mine (and Hannah’s) favorite tricks is to put the most important information about yourself in your email signature. Once you’ve created an about.me page, you can actually get a simple and free email signature to add to the end of every email you send. It keeps your email signature short (no one wants to see four inches of text, quotes, pictures, and links) and directs people to a place where they can learn more about you.

Learn more about getting your about.me email signature ➡️

It’s also smart to keep it simple.

Don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to showcase your newfound personal brand on every single social channel out there. Stick to one or two that you enjoy using. If you’re having fun with it and being authentic, the fans, followers, or whoever you want to come, will come.

Personal branding doesn’t have to be scary. It doesn’t have to feel authentic, or as if you’re trying to be a brand. It’s much bigger than your Instagram handle or what your website looks like. Personal branding is a great exercise in self-reflection and self-awareness.

Are you ready to dive in?

Take Hannah’s FREE Skillshare class today. It takes just 30 minutes.

I’d also link to your side hustle in your Spotlight or in your social links so more people can see it! Hope this helps.

Freelancers are often troubled with explaining the most diverse experience through the smallest window. Your career headline has to be all-encompassing in the least amount of characters. It’s a difficult ask, but once solid, it can lead to an array of opportunities that grow your network.

When you work for yourself, being able to showcase your skill set is half the battle and it starts with your career headline. A few key factors can make for a captivating social profile and the world of difference when it’s time to find new opportunities. Let’s explore some examples of quality career headlines and what you can learn from each.

Your headline on about.me

Melissa Brown — Product Marketing Manager, about.me

Melissa, a product marketing specialist based in Lisbon, used her professional bio space to share an expanded look at her personality. Since she is traveling around as a nomad, the map pin (which presumably updates as she packs and ships off to her next location) allows prospective partners to know where she is at a given moment. Additionally, her use of emojis is a friendly and visual way to break up the content.

Matthew Bateman — Seattle-Based Consultant

Matthew is a one-sentence wonder. Notice how straightforward yet compelling his opening sentence is–it tells you everything you need to know off the bat, but also engages the reader. You want to learn more. As he continues his bio, the information moves from direct to whimsy. His last sentence gives you a glimpse of his sense of humor, infusing personality into the bio.

A bonus perk: The hire button is a very easy way for interested partners to immediately ping him. Confidence is key when you’re self-employed, and leading with strong language is a bold move that will undoubtedly pay off for him.

Your LinkedIn headline

When you have an abundance of examples to share, it can be hard trying to fit them into a LinkedIn headline. Here are some sample introductory headers to get you started:

Tom Goodwin — EVP, Head of Innovation at Zenith Media

Tom Goodwin is a leading executive in the land of media agencies. He focuses on pushing innovation forward for Zenith Media. Outside of his role at Zenith, he’s done many things that have created such a massive following. Above you can see how he organizes his work experience to showcase in the career headline. Starting with his day-to-day position, Tom then highlights a relevant achievement on LinkedIn and his other roles that he entertains.

Dennis Williams II — Head of Content Marketing at Redbooth

I opted to lead with a recent achievement of my own, followed by my profession and other initiatives on the side that further my expertise. My focus is in content marketing and even though the arrangement of my career headline may change given the platform, I always focus on credible achievements and my current role that validates my professional knowledge.

Your Twitter bio

Twitter is inevitably a place where content is much more conversational. Although tweets have a limited character count, Twitter bios surprisingly provide more room to write compared to other platforms. With the space for a strong professional summary and the ability to tag other profiles that you’ve included, Twitter makes for a great platform for personal branding.

Dara Oke — Program Manager, Microsoft

Dara takes full advantage of her Twitter bio, adding color and value to the top of her profile which clearly paints a vivid picture of her professional credibility. She entertains many endeavors and that is often hard to package as a freelancer or entrepreneur. She’s used Twitter to mention her other initiatives as well as link to other platforms across the internet. If you’re looking to revamp your Twitter bio, start by studying hers.

Chris Mohney — Editor in Chief, Culture Trip

Chris’s expertise holds true value in the diversity of his experiences. With that, Twitter acts as a great platform to showcase his diverse background. For someone who works in editorial and content, recognizing the variety of audiences and brands he’s had experience with represents his brand extremely well. In addition, Twitter strategically places your portfolio right under your humble bragging, which is a great way to carry the conversation forward.

So, what have we learned from these fantastic examples?

Pro-tip #1: Don’t reinvent the wheel

A great way to gather inspiration for your career headline is to take a look at the frontrunners in your industry. How are they positioning their career stories and their talents? Even if your job experience isn’t at the same threshold, you can get a good amount of direction from those that you aspire to be. Such research is a crucial step when it comes to the common hurdle all freelancers come across — defining your headline when you wear many hats.

More often than not, a freelancer has had many jobs and worn many hats. (The proactive freelancer app AND CO has dubbed these types, “Slash Workers.”) There is an immense value in this diverse background of experiences and though it may seem like an impossible task to qualify the many hats you’ve worn, it can also grant you a positive upside.

Are you a part-time contributor? Do you get invited to speaking engagements? Are you a part-time advisor? Organizing this information is important to how you’re received. It’s best to prioritize the biggest achievements that align with your professional objectives. Don’t list irrelevant experiences, rather focus on past gigs or notable awards that help position you the right way.

Pro-Tip #2: Know what makes you unique

The differentiating factor exists in focusing on what sets you apart and how your skill set and experience adds value to potential clients. Not only does this make you more memorable and always top of mind, but it also opens the floor for deeper dialogue and gives you the opportunity to elaborate further on the different things that you do.

1. Define what value you provide to others. Why do you do that sets you apart? Whether it’s a service or a title, find a way to tell the narrative with a clear objective. Background experience that sets you apart is vital when it comes to crafting a career headline or professional description.
2. The second step is about telling your above answers in a clear and concise way. In many ways this is your elevator speech. The goal here is to showcase your value in words that others can easily digest. Here, it’s important to think about what your clients will understand and how they can see immediately what you bring to the table.

Pro-tip #3: Avoid buzzwords

Crafting your LinkedIn headline or Medium byline is a chance to stand out from the crowd. In an effort to sound like the perfect candidate, many people overuse buzzwords. Aside from distracting opportunities from the important achievements of yours, you also blend into the other millions of working professionals in the LinkedIn universe.

Avoid common jargon when describing yourself and instead focus on the unique aspects of your achievements and experiences. Both in your career headline and professional summary, use concrete words that are actionable and accurately depict the relevant information that positions you as credible and capable.

A summary of your professional career is becoming more common as candidates want to paint a narrative to their experience while giving more insight to why it can serve potential clients or employers. This is an opportunity to expound upon the same intent you had in crafting your header.

Highlight your achievements and allow your work and personality to breathe through your summary. Don’t be afraid to use media to tell this story. Link to any awards you’ve won, projects that legitimize your skill set, or other examples of your work online.

Mastering the career headline that best describes you is a result of periodically adjusting the achievements and experiences that you’re proud of. With the tips above, crafting the right headline can do wonders for your brand and start the conversations that lead to endless opportunities.

This article was contributed on behalf of AND CO, a proactive app for helping you manage your freelance business from proposal to payment. For more insights, visit AND CO’s Hustle&Co blog and follow them on Twitter @andco.

While she may be full-time Director of Emerging Technology at the SAS Institute, where she can geek out all day long, Tamara has also built an engaged following for the writing she does on the side.

How has she found a way to blend her passion with her profession, you ask? Read on to find out.

Don’t forget to check out her page and attend her upcoming event with a click on her Spotlight.

Tell us a little about yourself. How would you introduce yourself to a stranger?

I think my Twitter bio captures it the best: “Just livin’ my best life in a geek’s paradise.” I’m proud to be a geek myself, but I abhor “geek speak.” One of my favorite Einstein quotes is: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” I’ve used this quote to drive my communication, both professionally and personally.

Interestingly enough, I receive regular feedback, mostly from strangers, thanking me for my non-geek speak style.

You work full time as the Director of Emerging Technologies for a thought leadership team. What were the major career benchmarks that led you to where you are now?

I love my job, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that my entire 30+ year high-tech trek has brought me to this point. My journey began with Digital Equipment Corporation (some of you will remember DEC), and ever since then, I’ve worked for software consultancies and vendors, as well as one non-profit in a technical lead role.

While my consultant years exposed me to a wide variety of customers, business problems, and solutions, it was my product management years that prepared me best for my current role. Being a product manager was challenging, political, and exciting, but more importantly, it stretched my thinking and my patience. This was the job that put hair on my chest.

Alongside your full-time career, you write and speak quite frequently on emerging tech. Would you say that this is an extension of what you do for work or a passion?

Yes. And yes. I feel doubly blessed that I get paid to speak and write what I’m wildly passionate about. One of my current hot topics is the Internet of Things (IoT).

Professionally, the challenge is to bring clarity and sanity to this large, wieldy discussion. Personally, I’m living IoT day in and day out as I convert my “dumb” home into a smart home — with the help of Alexa, of course.

As you can probably guess, my personal passion has fueled my professional discussion around IoT.

Think back to the first few pieces you published, or the first few times you spoke publicly on the topic of emerging tech. What was your mindset? How did that develop into becoming a thought leader?

Oh, my! I was extremely nervous when I first got started as a thought leader. I had written a lot before, and I had no problem speaking in front of an audience, but this was different.

The two challenges I faced were:

1. Developing a voice and point of view
2. Filtering out the hype that comes with emerging tech.

If I was going to be a “talking head,” I wanted my voice to be original, authentic, and thought-provoking, and when appropriate, somewhat controversial.

Also, the emerging tech field is always expanding and contracting with new ideas, products, and technologies. It’s easy to get caught up in the swirl of it all. My high-tech background has helped me stay focused on what’s important.

You’ve developed quite a following for your writing side-gig of over 3K people. How do you develop your content?

There are three questions/criteria I consider:

1. What’s my level of interest or passion in this topic? If it’s low, I tend to pass because I don’t want to get into the business of faking passion in my writing.
2. What kind of feedback or response have I received on this topic? I pay attention to how people respond to what I’ve written (or spoken). I want to understand what resonates with folks — positively or negatively — and then build on that momentum. If it’s a topic I’ve never discussed, I just consider it a test.
3. What’s my motivation for writing about this topic? If it’s to help others in some way, I will proceed. If it’s self-serving or selfish, I save that discussion for friends and family.

When it comes to your personal brand, how would you like to be perceived? What specific steps are you taking to ensure that happens on and offline?

What I value most is honesty, humility, and gratitude. In fact, I have three daily tasks to keep these values front and center in all that I do online and off.

What are my specific tasks?

Each day, I have to identify one act of honesty, one act of humility, and one act of gratitude that I did that day. Some days I accomplish all three tasks, but there are days when I’m 0 for 3.

Professionally, I want to be perceived as a trusted advisor. To me, that means being an intellectual expert in my domain areas, but more importantly, it means being a respectful, decent human being when I share my expertise and experience.

We noticed you have an about.me page + domain. How does this support your personal branding goals?

This is my second round with about.me. I created my first page 4–5 years ago, and it served me well for a year.

Then I decided to make my personal blog the center of action for my personal brand. I did that for a few years, then decided at the end of 2016 to shut down my blog (again) and set up a shorter, new-&-improved about.me page.

I’ve had my tamaradull.com domain for over a decade and have always used it for my blogs, but I like that it’s now pointing to my about.me page. It gives visitors a quick snapshot of who the professional version of me is. It’s perfect.

As an evangelist with a strong personal brand, what’s your current highest priority goal when it comes to conversations around emerging tech?

Building on what I said earlier, my #1 priority has always been to make the complex simple. I apply the Grandmother Test to everything I do: If I can explain this rather complicated and sometimes boring concept to my grandmother — and she gets it — then I’ve succeeded. It’s okay if Grandma isn’t interested in the topic, but if she understands it and she didn’t become overwhelmed in the process, I’m a very happy granddaughter.

For others who are interested in technology, which trends would you recommend looking out for? Which ones are you tuned into?

It’s all about the Internet of Things (IoT), baby. Granted, you may not call it IoT. You may call it your smart home or your Fitbit or your connected car, but fundamentally, it’s about IoT.

But it’s not just about the technology. Two of my hot buttons when talking about IoT are privacy and security. I realize these are two yawner discussions, but with all these “Things” making our lives easier, we can’t ignore how invasive they are and will be as we speed ahead to a global, connected world. The Internet of Things is both cool and creepy.

Enjoy the cool, but please pay attention to the creepy.

Discover how about.me can help side hustlers, like you. 🚀

Melissa Brown is a Product Marketing Manager at about.me. She is currently traveling the world for a year while working out of quirky coffee shops and co-working spaces.

When you think of millennials, do you think of “side hustles?” I sure do.

I find that the majority of my peers are involved in some sort of side gig to bring in extra cash or expand their skill set.

I’m no exception — I’ve worked on side hustles both while in school and while working full-time jobs.

Many people think that side hustles can do damage to your school or work performance due to their time requirements; however, if you manage your time effectively, only benefits result. While side hustling in college, I still managed to get on the dean’s list and, while building a business alongside my full-time job, I was recognized for multiple quarterly achievements.

Meet more side hustlers on about.me ➡️

Here are my 3 tips to managing your side hustle alongside a full time job:

1. Start a side hustle that allows for flexibility.

While brainstorming ideas of what side hustle you want to pursue, ensure that the hours and time requirements are flexible. You don’t want to do something that requires you to be somewhere during the day when you have school or work to focus on. Instead, think of a side hustle that can be worked on on your own time, like after work or on the weekends.

For example, one side hustle I am currently working on is a product called the Handy Pillow. The Handy Pillow literally turns your hand into a pillow so that you can sleep anywhere, anytime, making it a great alternative to a neck pillow. As this is a product business, my business partner, Seth King and I were able to keep our full-time jobs while working by night and during the weekend hours to launch the product (which is now available via Kickstarter!).

2. Know when to say “no”

When I first started out side hustling, it was hard for me to understand when to say “no.”

If you’re in the middle of a big launch for something you’re working on at work, and your business partner wants to spend the day discussing marketing strategies, don’t be afraid to give them a flat-out “no.”

Whether it’s work or school, everyone experiences busy weeks and slow weeks. If it’s a slow week, dive into your side hustle. If it’s a busy week, don’t be afraid to take a breather.

3. Above all, learn something

No matter what side hustle you pursue, you’re going to have to make sacrifices.

You might miss out on the occasional hiking trip or the season premier of “Better Call Saul”. As such, make sure that your side hustle benefits you, not only financially, but also by enhancing your knowledge. You’ll be able to use that knowledge and experience to be more effective in both in your 9–5 and during the inevitable next side hustle you undertake.

Griffin Sinn is a serial entrepreneur who has launched multiple physical product businesses under his company, Checkmate Ventures. His most recent company, Handy Pillow, which he’s been working on for the past year with co-founder Seth King, was just launched via Kickstarter. Outside of Checkmate Ventures, Griffin loves to play tennis, travel, and to broker website businesses through another one of his companies, Apex Brokerage.

Sure, a side hustle can mean bringing in some extra cash. But it’s really so, so much more.

So, what is a side hustle?

A side hustle refers to a project you pursue in addition to your 9-to-5 job. A side hustle allows you to push the boundaries in terms of what you can do.

What would you hustle for?

Is there something that you’re so intrigued by that you can’t stop imagining what it’d be like to really explore that interest? How can you hone your skills and share this passion while growing an audience?

Maybe it’s time to find out.

Here are five tips to help you launch and grow your side hustle. Already hustlin’? Find out how your about.me page can help you.

1.Build a reputation by showcasing your side hustle

First thing’s first: don’t hide your side hustle! Be proud and show it off.

Use your page to introduce yourself.

With a domain, like yourname.me, and your page you can look professional and introduce yourself when it comes to your 9-to-5. You should also use your page to promote your side hustle so your audience can start associating you with that arena.

Your about.me page helps you make a name for yourself outside of your normal job.

2. Centralize your online presence

As a side hustler, there’s no doubt that you have a lot of moving parts. You need a central hub that grows as you grow. about.me is that place.

Use your page to link to the project you’re focused on at any time with your Spotlight. Add social links to your page so that people can find you where you’re most active online. Link out to past projects in your bio.

Let your page be the one spot where people go to learn more about you and everything that you do.

3. Easily bridge the gap between your personal and professional self

Your about.me page has no rules.

Add some personality to your page so that your audience can really get a feel for who you are. This is especially important if potential clients are going to come to your page. They are going to work with you, so they need to get to know you.

Your page is the best place to share your story and express yourself, whatever that means to you. Dive into your professional background, but don’t forget to share your love of jazz, desserts, or excessive emoji usage. 😉

4. Highlight your background and expertise

You have a story, so share it! People are curious about where you’ve been and what you’ve done. They want to know about that one time you spent a semester in college as a bartender.

In addition to your ‘Work’ and ‘Education’ fields, use your bio to craft a story about your background and expertise.

Not sure what to write for your bio? We got you covered. Try our Bio Writer to help you get started.

5. Make it easy for people to learn about you and your side hustle

Do you have trouble choosing one place to point people to online when they ask what you do? You shouldn’t.

about.me makes it easy for people to learn more about you because everything about you is at their fingertips.

Think of it as a choose your own adventure book, but on your page. After someone comes to you page after seeing it in your Twitter bio or as your email signature, they can choose which pieces of your story they want to explore.

Max Lapointe had heard it too.

But his success as a creative freelancer has proven that this particular piece of advice should be taken with a grain of salt.

As someone who was always willing to say yes and learn on the go, Max has attracted global freelancing opportunities in film, photography, and cinematography. In this interview, Max shares his secret for staying relevant in the eyes of clients and agencies, plus his top tips for succeeding as a creative freelancer. Don’t forget to check out his page and watch his videos.

How did you start your career as a freelance producer, director and cinematographer?

I graduated from Montreal’s Dawson College in professional photography in 2009.

After spending 5 years as a Photo Assistant, especially in the fashion & commercial industry, I stumbled upon a peculiar Serbian ex-pat who would soon become my mentor. Luka had had a very successful career as a cinematographer in Europe and was developing new film & cinema ventures in Montreal when we crossed paths in 2010.

I came onboard one of his projects, not having a very concrete idea what being a cinematographer was at that time. Now, while I had some knowledge and considerations for aesthetics, the learning curve was steep on the technical side: within a week we had developed a stereoscopic time-lapse rig for a National Film Board 3D documentary he was working on, tested 3D rigs with the then very heavy and cumbersome Red ONE cameras and made a whole bunch of pre-production related tasks that fast-tracked my apprenticeship.

The documentary shoot went well so Luka referred me for a music video gig he had lined-up and couldn’t make time for. All of a sudden I found myself managing a crew of 10 on a budget of $20,000 for a 2-day shoot, still not knowing my hand from my foot on set, but learning quickly.

At the end of the 2 days, after 36+ hours of intense work and intuitive decision making, I came home and had an epiphany. I was going to work in the film industry and make my way up the ladder, no matter what. Such an amazing job and creation experience was worth all the risks and gradually making the transition from a photographer to a cinematographer.

Now that’s no small feat to make the switch on a whim like that. Soon enough you confront the reality of having a new network to build, a ton of knowledge to acquire, a gazillion mistakes to make before you can get comfortable. It also meant the scale of production I would tackle in my beginnings would be very small and DIY. Then, I gained knowledge as a director of photography, I lined up gigs, and soon enough, I realized that within a year, I’ve produced, directed, shot, edited, colorized and delivered a string of projects.

To make a long story short, this unbeaten path made me appreciate the benefits of producing, directing & shooting my own projects as it kept my vision intact and ensured unity from “ideation” to creation.

What’s your favorite type of film/project and why?

I’d say fiction shorts & features. It’s not every day you get to create a universe, develop characters with lives, inner struggles and obstacles to overcome. Maintaining the delicate osmosis between themes, tone, what is being said and shown or not, tension and rhythm, all while keeping your audience engaged is what truly consecrates cinema as the 7th art and makes film-making all the more inspiring and worthwhile as an artistic endeavor.

What’s the biggest source of inspiration that drives your creativity?

The Internet is an endless source of inspiration: your co-workers’ work, Vimeo Staff Picks, A & B-List festival picks for fiction, music videos, and fashion films are also always a sure shot to get your creativity jump-started.

Who are some of the key influencers of your work?

In fiction, definitely Abbas Kiarostami, Andrei Tarkovsky, Fellini, Antonioni, Kieslowski, Hanneke, Roy Andersen, Bela Tarr (for his phenomenal cinematographic sensitivity), and Hayao Miyazaki (for his capacity to create universes, his strong female leads and extraordinary soundtracks)…there are so many!

In documentary film-making, Quebecois Cinema Direct pioneers such as Pierre Perrault & Michel Brault

For music videos, Hiro Murrai, Emily Kay Bock, Luke Gilford, Anton Corbin and Spike Jonze, CANADA

For fashion, Gordon Von Steiner & Marc Gomez del Moral

Why do you love what you do?

Where to begin? Creation as a job never feels like work, ever. Even if it involves making pick-ups in a 10-ton truck, waiting for sunrise by a freezing cold winter morning, editing until sunrise, or pitching my ideas and making myself vulnerable in front of agency creatives and clients.

Freedom of being my own boss. And sleeping in on a Monday if I feel like it.

Working in this field also allows me to merge talents and combine key people in very interesting ways. These people eventually become my friends & a new-found family, on top of teaching me a trick or two…or a million!

Traveling … if my heart desires it, I have a job where it’s relatively easy to go halfway around the world for a project. I spent less than a month at home ever since the beginning of 2016 and it’s a thrilling sensation to always be on the move.

I could go on forever about the benefits & perks!

As you travel all over the world for work, what are some challenges you’ve faced and how did you overcome them?

The language barrier is obviously obstacle #1, but that also depends on where you are. I remember landing in China in 2011 for a month-long residency in Beijing feeling completely disoriented and isolated, like a 4-year-old child, as nobody spoke a word of English and a simple trip to Chaochangdi (a few kilometers away from my apartment) could turn into a very real headache.

The key is not to let it get to you.

Put a smile on and get ready to have to pantomime your needs and wants to bewildered locals. In my experience, it works every time and helps in creating very interesting bonds with locals.

What’s your greatest achievement so far?

It’s currently in the making! I’m working as a cinematographer on my first American feature film which is expected to enter its first phase of production in June 2017.

What are the most important steps you took to build your successful career as a freelancer?

Ever since I was in school, people kept drilling in our heads that we need to find a niche and stick to it. Hone a more specific craft rather than going broad at large.

My personal experience has been diametrically opposed to that idea.

I’m an avid shooter and always found that sticking to “what I knew” or “what I was good at” was the best way to render myself irrelevant and obsolete sooner than needed. What is good for fiction has its applications in a documentary. What works in making a music video can definitely be applied to fashion films.

It’s important to have the guts to go head first into uncharted waters and be willing to learn from there.

Years later, one of the recurrent reason why I get to work with other agencies, clients and directors, and continue upping the scale of the projects I work on, is because they think of me as polyvalent and eclectic.

Other than that, I think it can be crudely put this way: “Be tight.” In your quality standards, in communicating with your crew, in your expectations and the projects you deliver. Apply this very simple concept vertically to everything that you do and people will respect you and hire you for it. It’ll become a standard for your collaborators, crew members and clients as well.

Could you share 3 key tips for others who hope to take a similar path?

We could go on forever, as far as advice is concerned. But simply put, I can’t stress this enough:

1. Inspire yourself every day.
2. Keep track of your ideas and processes. Document everything that you do, make notes, and keep a journal.
3. Become a facilitator in other people’s lives. This is more of a general philosophy and approach to society. Think of it as enabling Occam’s Razor in the positive spectrum of “life.”

For instance, step out of bed happy and grateful in the morning. Find qualities in people that think differently than you do, that strike you as antagonists. More likely than not, these people will sense your openness to their difference and respect you for it. Genuinely love people and go towards them, shake their hands, use their names, and take interest in their lives. Hand out favors and give a helping hand without counting. Have others benefit from your knowledge, connections, resources.

Put even simpler: Be an agent of everything positive in this world. Life will unfold before you and make you better as you go. You’ll attract people and circumstances that are in tune with what you project.

But hey, maybe you think this is wishful thinking that’s not anchored in everyone’s reality; fine by me. Don’t take my word for it, but before giving up on the idea, how about giving it a shot and seeing where that takes you?

Melissa Brown is a Product Marketing Manager at about.me. She is currently traveling the world for a year while working out of quirky coffee shops and co-working spaces.