Season 2

EP 100: Benchmark numbers can be simultaneously arbitrary while also holding significant personal meaning, and today is such a day! We are celebrating episode 100 of this podcast and I have all of you to thank. Beyond that...

EP 99: What meals are considered business meals? Do they apply to me and what do I have to do proactively to take advantage of the meal deduction? In this episode, I'll note what IRS code 274 states about meal …

EP 98: What is the home office deduction? Who qualifies for it? Can employees take advantage of this, or is it only for freelancers and self-employed business owners? How do I calculate it and how much can I save? In …

EP 97: Sometimes the days go by so fast, you don't even realize a new month has hit the calendar. Well in this episode, I'm going to highlight the fact that it is December and we are just a few …

EP 96: I believe the practice of gratitude, can truly transform one's approach to life. It has the power to snuff out jealousy, resentment, frustration, and entitlement. There are so many things I am personally grateful fo...

EP 95: For every truism in any industry, there is an equal myth as well. At the very least, certain statements or narratives need to be qualified and given context. In today's episode, I'll discuss 5 narratives about being ...

EP 94: Black Friday sales are probably hitting your inbox right about.....yesterday! And while there are some really good savings to be had on new gear, I want to also highlight some areas that maybe don't get as much love …

EP 93: While we creatives study and work on our craft with a great deal of passion, it does not make us impervious to the occasional cognitive bias. As the saying goes, we don't know what we don't know. And …

EP 92: Quick update: The Federal student loan relief application is now live on the student aid website! The application takes just a few minutes to fill out. Applications will be accepted throughout the entirety of 2023, ...

EP 91: The fear of losing clients can be very strong, particularly when starting out in one's career. We often see these situations from a very scarce-minded lens, leading us to negotiate without a strong footing or backbone...

EP 90: The cost of poor communication with colleagues, leads, and clients can be severe. It can lead to missed opportunities, severed relationships, and tarnished reputations. Likewise, the benefits of really good communica...

Happy International Podcast Day! We are celebrating our 89th episode with a tribute to some amazing other podcasters out there who continue to inspire in the business and creative spaces. There are so many fantastic hosts w...

EP 88: Consciously or unconsciously, we are all playing the game of debt in our day-to-day lives. We tell ourselves many narratives to justify our investments, big or small. "This is good debt", "Everyone uses it", and "I'...

EP 87: Student loan relief is on the way. Whether you love it or hate it; the fact remains that it will be taking place and knowing your situation can help you build a brighter future. In this episode, I'll …

EP 86: Sometimes it feels like we have to choose between niching down and diversifying to maximize our results, but truly I don't see them as mutually exclusive. With sweeping layoffs and hiring freezes around the country, I...

EP 85: We've all been told that doing the free job is destructive to our career and the industry we're in. "Value yourself", "Know your worth", and "Set the bar high" are all narratives we've heard, and maybe even told …

EP 84: Every once in a while, there pops up a fork in the road, where one side leads toward full-time employment and the other side leads to full-time self-employment. Whether we're in college about to embark on the profess...

EP 83: Instagram has long been the most preferred and efficient way for photographers to display their work to the masses. However, the platform continues to evolve and favor video content over still photography, leaving man...

EP 82: For years, I have felt that the best lightroom updates went unnoticed, because the ones that were noticeable, were either disruptive or unnecessary to my workflow. Recently though, we received a couple of features th...

EP 81: What do you send in when a new lead asks for your pricing? Are you sending them an estimate or are you sending them a quote? What are the differences, and does it really even matter? In this …

EP 80: Building a recession-proof business is no easy task, but it might be near impossible to accomplish with a brittle mindset and spirit The life of a freelancer can be filled with many pitfalls along the way, and the …

EP 79: As visual creatives, it's important to grasp the responsibilities and roles of your creative team for optimizing your projects as best you can. As human beings, it's even more important to have empathy for the people ...

EP 78: Budgeting has a dirty feel to it doesn't it? It makes you feel like you did something wrong or that you're in a timeout corner at school. The reality is budgeting do not have to come with shame …

EP 77: DBA's, also known as Doing Business As, can be a brand-building decision for your business, but is it all that it's cracked up to be? What is it and why do people get them? Support the show

EP 76: A bill has passed in the state of New York that impacts freelancers in a great way! One of the struggles of being a freelancer is collecting timely payments from clients, and this Act aims to hold companies …

EP 75: Congratulations college graduates, it is your time to shine! The road ahead promises many great adventures and obstacles that will both challenge and inspire you as you begin your autonomous lifestyle. One such adven...

EP 74: One of the common traps I find freelancers fall into is they price themselves without taking into account the intellectual property they inherently possess. In my opinion, this makes us laborers, not creatives, and it...

EP 73: I'm not sure if there is an easy way to reconcile the conundrum of prioritizing both creativity and income. If you ask 100 creatives, you may get 100 different answers. Either way, it is a struggle for most …

EP 72: The longer I've freelanced, the more common I've seen this occurrence among industry colleagues. Their clients, my clients, your clients, have seemingly run into a snag, and payment for your services, low and behold...

EP 71: After working exclusively with DSLRs for the past decade, I've finally accommodated mirrorless camera bodies in my workflow. Even though I may be late to the game on this, I'm providing my first impressions on the fe...

EP 70: Facing 8.5% inflation rates is no easy pill to swallow. Regardless of how we got here, we have our own choices to make to combat these stealth taxes as best as we can. In this episode, I'll talk …

EP 69: We constantly fill out forms that require a Tax ID, whether it's for business, for banking, or for taxes. The question is whether or not there is a better and safer alternative to putting our social security number …

EP 68: We are continuing our investigation on quarterly estimated payments for 1099 creatives, and in this episode, we break down simple ways to calculate what you owe in taxes, and how to pay. https://www.irs.gov/payments Su...

EP 67: Freelancing and full-time employment vary in a number of different ways, and one of the most important differences to note is how you manage your taxes. While employees have taxes withheld, freelancers do not. In th...

EP 66: The debate between prime lenses and zoom lenses can be both sensible and fickle at the same time. Each photographer has his/her own vision, and not every scenario calls for a universal standard. But it does seem as …

EP 65: We've all been told, that it takes money, to make money. And while some facets of that may ring true, it might not be a universal truth, nor might it be a valid self-narrative for any entrepreneur to …

EP 64: Copyright law is extensive and occasionally difficult to wrap one's head around. There are progressively more and more scenarios that dilute the waters we swim in as creators in a digital sharing era. But a basic gra...

EP 63: Identifying potential points of failure can be just as critical to success as developing great work. It's not a matter of if, but when a mistake is made or a piece of gear is broken, and it is …

EP 62: The benefits to owning gear are numerous, but it is not without challenges either. Not every small business owner has the funds to drop down a large lump sum of money to acquire the tools needed to do …

EP 61: Conduct is just as important to your branding as your style, your creativity, and your hustle. It is not about what you think your brand should be, but rather how the customer, client, or colleague experiences your b...

EP 60: Working photographers are not always guaranteed safe haven from accidents, theft, or damage. Some might even say, these possibilities simply come with the territory. In this episode, I talk about how playing solid ...

EP 59: Oh the aches and pains of learning on the fly. These hardships are both excruciating reminders of what could have been, as well as the perfect lessons to guide us on our path forward. In this episode, I'll …

EP 58: With the label of "visual creator" or "visual storyteller" being so broad, it covers a number of sins like photo manipulation and influencing a scene. But when you cross over to photojournalism, the emphasis on truth...

"If you know your costs, you have key information that's going to fund many of your decisions going forward; you can build confidence in your pricing, you have more strength in your negotiations, you have more justification, to walk away …

"This law should not impact your overall business, unless you're conducting under the table transactions on the reg, which I've already mentioned, is not so legal, the IRS law states that you have to report all income for your business."

💯 💯 💯 "Identify what is important to you, and occasionally prioritize that over what might be urgent to you."