How to Communicate Calmly

  1. Default to Asynchronous.
  2. Default to 1-to-1. (i.e. Default to zero cc’s on emails. Default to email, not Slack.)
  3. Before hitting Send on an email, ask yourself:
    – “What questions might they ask when they receive my email?”
    – “How can I more-clearly state this?”
    – “Is this email even necessary to send?”
  4. Always look 1 week ahead, anticipate customer questions, & communicate what you are (and aren’t) going to do before it happens.
  5. Eliminate surprises.

Additional Ideas to Build a Calmer Company:

Never Respond to RFPs & Custom Proposal Requests

Y’all who work at normal 9-5 jobs don’t need to deal with the B.S. that is an RFP process (or rather you get paid to deal with it).

But us freelancers gotta deal with a whole big bag of schtuff when it comes to custom proposals.

Here’s my quick-and-dirty RFP filtering process that I use every time.

(It’s about a minute read.)

Enjoy!
Toby

#business #smallbusiness #lifehacks #innovation #entrepreneurship #strategy #productivity #personaldevelopment #emotionalintelligence #culture #consultants #freelancers #contracts #freelancing

Continue Reading Never Respond to RFPs & Custom Proposal Requests

An Alternative to Elon Musk

As I drudge myself out of bed for yet another war with monotony, a battle with my fat-old-man eating habits, a valiant clash with against my child’s militant stand against doing their homework, and an overall feeling of blech due to our country’s unsteady Coronovirus response, I discovered this article and quote lionizing a quote Elon Musk gave to TED in 2017: “If you’re not progressing, you’re regressing; so, keep moving forward.” BLECH! Thankfully, we have an alternative to Musk’s medicine.

Continue Reading An Alternative to Elon Musk

Remote Work Resources

Coronavirus has forced us into a reality where our friends who are fortunate enough to have jobs, are forced to adapt to the new world of remote work. Thankfully, there’s tons of remote work tools & resources out there. I’ve compiled some of those tools & resources here.

Continue Reading Remote Work Resources