The Major Money Mistakes I Made in a Decade of Freelancing
#1: Not paying myself first.
The taboo around discussing money runs deep: It’s hard to have open conversations about earnings, even with close friends or co-workers, when you’ve always been told it was crass, gauche, or nosy to want to know what people around you were making.
But why should your livelihood be a guessing game? In an age where people share the most intimate details of their lives on Instagram Stories, money seems to be one of the final frontiers. I get it: It can be uncomfortable to discover we’re not making enough or we’re falling into rookie money mistakes and faulty mindsets, but we can’t afford polite conversation.
When it comes to money, we have to have open, professional discussions because I believe we thrive as a result of our community, not in spite of it.
Let me be clear — I’m really fucking good at what I do. I build brands. I’m a surgeon and CIA operative when it comes to your customer. And I’ve spent decades telling stories professionally. I have the expertise, experience, and case studies to prove my salt. And while I have a degree in finance and worked at JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, up until a few years ago, I was a hot mess when it came to money.
