All posts in the ‘ Self Awareness Tools ’ Category

The fear of missing out leads a lot of creators to sign bad contracts.

I know, because I’ve talked to a lot of smart, curious, professional creators who’ve signed bad contracts. And I know that signing those contracts had very little to do with how smart the creators were and just about everything to do with the fear of missing out.… Read More

Last week at HOW Design Live I was lucky enough to see Dr.Brené Brown speak.

This was A Big Deal for me.

I’ve been fangirling over Dr. Brown’s work since I discovered it about a year and a half ago. I was so excited to see her speak I forgot to tell friends I was going to the conference because I was speaking.

I … Read More

I was talking to a friend last week about her freelance career. She’d accomplished a lot recently, but kept poo-pooing the value of the work she’d done: it wasn’t exciting or lucrative, it was “just” work. I reminded her that all work was important when building a business and warned her against indulging in negative talk about her accomplishments.

Later that night my wife asked … Read More

If just hearing the word “negotiation” makes your stomach hurt, if the idea of conflict makes you tense, if your first reaction to the idea of negotiating anything is to break out in a cold sweat of anxiety, friend, modern science has the cure for you!

This curative has been proven to boost your confidence and dissolve your fears. Tasks that seemed impossible prior to … Read More

If you want to be a better negotiator, you need to train.

You need to exercise your negotiation muscles regularly, executing each exercise with proper form and control. When you first start you can improve very quickly, but you shouldn’t expect mind-blowing results overnight.

Here’s one exercise you can try at home to build muscle and fight the dreaded anxiety of conflict.… Read More

People waste a ridiculous amount of time worrying about power in negotiations.

They worry about having it, or getting it or stopping others from taking it. They invest precious time trying to figure out how best to prove their power, like where to sit in the room or who gets to talk first.

The problem with wasting your time like this is that you put … Read More

You can’t control a number of things in a negotiation. You can’t control if a negotiation will happen. You can’t control what the other side will want from you. And you can’t control how you’ll feel about a negotiation.

But there is a lot you can control and influence in the negotiation.

If you only focus on what you can’t control you will have frustrating … Read More

I think I was 12 when I first learned the phrase “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“So you like, wish things into being? Like you think about them and then they happen?”

I thought it was made up gobbelty gook that only crazy people would believe.

Turns out, I’m wrong.

… Read More