​The 1% own more than 40% of the world’s wealth.

The accumulation of assets in the hands of the few erodes democracy, as societal power becomes concentrated in the hands of a few.

Knowing this, anything we can do to support small businesses will not just help those entrepreneurs survive, but will support more democracy, creativity, and true livelihood in the world.

Similarly, the 1% most famous people own a huge share of the consumer’s attention.
Influencers like Gary Vaynurchuk, Marie Forleo, Brene Brown, Joe Dispenza, and other celebrities own a disproportionate amount of our content consumption time.

​The accumulation of attention in the hands of a few will erode the diversity of creativity, true livelihood, and authentic business... 

(originally written in 2018, updated for 2020.)

One of the best ways to gain new clients and opportunities is to reconnect with your network: your colleagues, past clients, those friends you’ve been out of touch with, or people who have inquired about your services.

Your friends and family probably don’t remember what your business is really about. Even if they understand what you do and who your ideal clients are, they don’t think about it often enough to be able to refer business to you.

Keeping in touch with your network can result in new clients.

The problem is that when you reconnect with a specific agenda in mind, it can feel “off” to the other person, and it probably feels awkward to you too.

​I recently received an email that demonstrates this exactly…

Within the first year of my business, I reached a monthly sales revenue of $10,000 and by the third year, my revenue was $350,000. As a solopreneur, mostly selling my own online courses.

Back then, it was all thanks to affiliate marketing. (Some people call it JV or joint venture, strategic alliances, or referral partnerships. These days, it’s often called influencer marketing.)

Yet, after a few years, I was speaking out against affiliate marketing.

In this blog post, I’ll explain why I got disillusioned by the method that made me so much money, and why, in the past few years, I’ve come to a more moderate position.

In business, I’ve been learning the importance of not worrying about making “a good first impression."

For example, this may be the first blog post you’ve read from me. Maybe it’s making a poor first impression on you… should I be afraid of losing you as a potential reader?

If I allowed that fear, I would probably not write or publish… there are too many people I could disappoint, readers I could "lose", reviews that could “devastate” my business… if I don't make a good first impression.

There’s a fallacy of thinking here: