Unemployable: Advice For Freelancers And Entrepreneurs

In just over a decade, WordPress has become the most popular content management system on the web. And as with any hugely popular open source movement, there are plenty of for-profit companies providing premium themes, plugins, hosting, and support. Is it too late for you to get involved? Evidence suggests the contrary — that WordPress... Listen to episode

As you likely know, crowdfunding is a way to raise money for a project or venture by pulling contributions from a large number of people, usually online. In 2015 alone, crowdfunding generated an estimated over $34 billion (USD) worldwide. You may not know, however, that the first instance of online crowdfunding dates way back to... Listen to episode

Startup, raise money, cash out, repeat. That s the narrative that Silicon Valley feeds you. Problem is, that approach is not only statistically rare, it s rarely successful. Most venture-backed companies fail, plain and simple. On the other hand, we have the narrative of the typical small business owner. Long hours for long years in order to... Listen to episode

Of all the components of a holistic online marketing strategy, search engine optimization ("SEO") seems to mystify many the most. And it's true that years back, the key to ranking well in Google was a form of dark art. That's changed in recent years. Google's algorithm has gotten smarter, and is more distinctly tuned in... Listen to episode

As the leader of a virtual company of over 65 people located around the world, I wouldn t have it any other way. Of course, I had a lot of help from my partners getting to this point over the last 6 years. Nowadays, you have publications like the Harvard Business Review talking about virtual teams... Listen to episode

We re all familiar with the stereotyping of Millennials. Like my own once-denigrated Generation X, "these kids today" are lazy and entitled, right? From my experience with the young people I know and work with, I m not buying it. And even if there s some truth to the generalization, a guy like Ryan Holiday blows that perception... Listen to episode

Entrepreneurs and independent business people are always working on the next thing, often on the side while we maintain our current income. And as your mind begins to see the world in a more entrepreneurial way, you ll spot opportunity everywhere. A good problem to have, right? But we know that pure economic opportunity and even... Listen to episode

Henry Rollins is an actor, author, spoken-word artist, and musician. You likely know him as the iconic lead singer of seminal punk band Black Flag, which kicked off his enduring career. You might not think of Rollins as an entrepreneur, but that s how Henry thinks of himself. He s always gotten things done by personally making... Listen to episode

Whenever we get a heavy snow in Boulder and I share a photo of my buried patio, you ll see an ornate, flame-carved fire pit in the shot (filled with snow, naturally). It s a custom design crafted out of recycled propane tanks by artist John T. Unger. As someone else who took to blogging in the... Listen to episode

Jadah Sellner and her husband had a simple dream to own their own business while spending as much time as possible with their young daughter. The couple s child center on the Hawaiian island of Kauai seemed ideal … until it wasn t. From there, Jadah started a parenting blog. But it was the day that... Listen to episode

When it comes to creating digital products, software, ebooks, and online courses are what come to mind. But have you ever considered turning how you do what you do for clients into a product? That s what Annie Cushing did. And while she thought it might cannibalize her data consulting and training business, instead it saved... Listen to episode

There are a lot of artistically-inclined people in the world of freelancing and creative entrepreneurship. Writers and designers come immediately to mind. Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void is certainly an example of a literal entrepreneurial artist. He started out 20 years ago doodling cartoons on the back of business cards. Now he has a thriving... Listen to episode

A month or so ago, we discussed the idea that entrepreneurs may have to be a little crazy to succeed. That perhaps the ability to execute on innovative ideas might come from a mental illness or psychological baggage that is turned into a positive. And yes, emerging research suggests that many entrepreneurs leverage what would... Listen to episode

On Unemployable, we talk a lot about leveraging virtual teams and collaboration in order to achieve more. And we talk about building an audience that allows you build a bigger business than you could otherwise. After all, as my friend Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void says, Meaning scales, people don t. In contrast, there s the macho... Listen to episode

Today we re talking to Rand Fishkin, founder and Wizard of Moz. Confident, successful, and the person you want to be like some day … right? Well, yes. But what you ll hear is not some tale of a superman that you couldn t possibly emulate. Instead, you ll hear about hard work, lucky breaks, even occasional cluelessness …... Listen to episode

The other day I was listening to the classic alternative channel on SiriusXM. Message of Love by the Pretenders was on. In the song, Chrissie Hynde sings: We are all of us in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars. Wait a minute … didn t Oscar Wilde say that in the... Listen to episode

Do you believe we were all born to do a certain type of work? More importantly, do you feel you re doing what you were born to do? I spent the first 27 years of my life with no feeling of purpose whatsoever. I went to law school after college because I had an aptitude for... Listen to episode

Have you seen the film The Big Short? It s about the investor bets made against the U.S. housing market due to negligence and fraud involving mortgage-backed securities, which ultimately led to the Great Recession that began in December of 2007. At the time, Jordan Harbinger was a young Wall Street attorney at a high-flying firm... Listen to episode

As we ve discussed before on the show, everyone at every level usually has a side hustle going on. It s the process by which we leverage what we re doing now to do the next, bigger, and more gratifying thing. Sometimes the signals are clear that the side project is ready to become the main thing (or... Listen to episode

It s an amazing time to be a solopreneur. Affordable technology plus the reach of the Internet allows for outsized profits by a company of one. And yet, the true power of the company of one is in the network that surrounds it. Avoiding collaboration and virtual team building is not only shortsighted, it can be... Listen to episode