Earning "Enough"
Paul Jarvis
Paul Jarvis has shown people how to kick ass at the intersection of creativity and commerce since 1999. The hardest-working creative you’ll ever meet, Paul is a designer, author, teacher, software creator, and podcaster.
I have been a big fan of Paul Jarvis’ for a long time. I read most of what he writes in his Sunday Dispatches, am a graduate of his Creative Class course, and recommend his book Everything I Know, which is one of the most accessible, down-to-earth business books you’ll ever read, to everybody.
I even mention the book in my “best of the best” list of small business resources, which you can access here for free (no email address required).
One of the things I love about Paul is that, despite his massive success—he has almost 30,000 email subscribers, can name Danielle LaPorte, Mercedez-Benz, and Microsoft as previous clients, and has been featured in Fast Company, CNBC, Forbes, Newsweek, BuzzFeed, LifeHacker, and more—he remains utterly committed to showing up as himself (Costco sweatpants and all), and being as transparent as possible about everything that he does and thinks about in his business.
I’m so excited to share this interview with you, because I know you’ll get a TON of value from it.
In this Episode You Will Learn:
How Paul got started as a web designer
How he managed to completely change his target audience, without skipping a beat
His best piece of marketing advice for freelancers everywhere
Why it’s not enough to be a good writer, designer, or developer, and what else you need to think about
How he comes up with ideas for articles and paid products
To what he attributes the success of his most popular book
Why he’s not interested in earning a million bucks
What he did to find out exactly what his subscribers wanted
The problem with curated photos on social media
Why he doesn’t care about growing his followers or his mailing list
Why he doesn’t keep secrets in his business
How he writes so much, so often, and gets past negative self-talk
How he breaks down projects to make them less overwhelming
The dangers of leveraging scarcity, and why it leads to bad decisions
How he managed to transition from web design to creating products and writing books
What keeps him accountable when it comes to writing his weekly newsletter
FOLLOW PAUL:
Subscribe to Paul’s Sunday Dispatches
Paul on Instagram- @pjrvs
Paul on Twitter – @pjrvs
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
“Do What You Say You’re Going To Do” article
The Creative Class, a freelance movement (and course) for creative entrepreneurs
Everything I Know book, an infinitely flexible template for adventure for creative freelancers