Observations and Inferences

Surprise: I'm leaving New York! I'm in the process of packing up my whole life (again) and moving down to the Washington, DC area. This transition has me thinking a lot about coping with change, or the idea of being in-between.

We've been talking a lot about this at Pretty Decent this month, mainly because it's a question so many people struggle with. When we're in-between, in the messy middle, it can get real anxious real fast.

After all, if you're always waiting for the next thing to happen, you inevitably start sweating a little wondering when it'll arrive (or how it'll feel when it finally does).

When it comes to coping with change, or being comfortable in-between, to me it becomes a question about tension.

What do we do with the tension that comes up when we're in-between big life changes?

The feeling I've had for the past few weeks is almost like the moment right before a big sneeze. My body feels taught, rigid — like it's waiting for something that hasn't happened yet, but ...

Earlier this week I sent out a poll on Instagram. 129 of you answered. Of those who answered, 73% of you said you want to be self-employed. You mentioned things like wanting freedom, independence and control over your schedule.⁣
⁣
What's more: A whopping 98% of you agreed with the idea that "I have to learn to manage myself if I want to be my own boss."⁣
⁣
When I asked what the challenges were with doing that, the answers rolled in for nearly 24 hours straight. The most frequent responses? Motivation, discipline and "knowing where to start."⁣
⁣
So let me do what I do best: Give you a place to start.⁣
⁣
It starts with an offer. It starts with knowing what you want to give to the world. How you want to help people. ⁣
⁣
The trick is not just offering something — most of us spend our whole life offering things to people, be it love, admiration, labor, etc. The trick is to offer something that is scaleable.⁣
⁣
Being scaleable means it's a product or service (or "productized service") that can be easily...