How to Handle Crisis Response as a Small Business

“Please don’t be mad at meeeee!” she said, holding yet another rat in her small, tanned hands. It was my senior year of college, and my soft-hearted roommate had had yet another run-in at the pet store. Specifically: another trip to Petco for rat food had caused her to discover yet another under-loved rat she simply had to bring home. (At […]

How to Rebrand Like a Beast

It won’t surprise you to know that I came out of the womb noisy. I arrived on this green Earth apparently screaming that I wasn’t ultra fond of being touched (these days I’m more chill, but I am incredibly ticklish), and intensely eager to look at/babble at everything. From an early age I was terrifying my parents with my unbridled extroversion. […]

Getting Comfortable with Shameless Self-promotion [Plus an Ad Teardown]

It probably won’t surprise you to know that as a kid, I loved to perform. Chorus and dance recitals. Fall festivals. Spring musicals. Variety shows. Christmas pageants. You name it — if it meant being onstage under the spotlight, I was first in line to audition. (Granted, I was never very good. But rest assured: if there […]

How to Solve the Pricing Debate

One of my favorite ways to drive my friend Margo absolutely bonkers is to disagree with her on fundamental business principles. (Shout out to all my fellow entrepreneurs who squabble strategy with their business besties on Voxer. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.) It’s fun not only because Margo’s voice goes up a full […]

How to Rescue Creative Failures: Our Embarrassing Stories

There’s a Hunter S. Thompson quote I was obsessed with in college that I still think about once a month or so: “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, […]

How to Scale Without Really Trying

There comes a time in every entrepreneur’s life when they turn around, look upon their business, and say: “Eff this.” “I’m working too hard, for too little.” “I’m overwhelmed, stressed out, constantly buried under deliverables and that’s no way to live life!” And so, especially in the case of creative service providers, we decide to […]