by Jenn | May 7, 2021 | Mindset, Small Business
Asian American freelancers face a unique set of challenges that, while not exclusive to Asian Americans, tend to occur in our community at a higher frequency because many of us are immigrants and/or the children of immigrants and because of racial triangulation, aka...
by Jenn | Jul 24, 2020 | Mindset, Small Business
A few weeks ago, I cold-messaged one of my favorite Asian American authors (who happens to be a Nebula award finalist) to ask if she would like to be on my podcast. My podcast with 598 downloads ever. You know what? She said yes. I also put out a call on Twitter for...
by Jenn | Jul 17, 2020 | Mindset, Small Business
I recently looked in my 2016 planner (good thing I never throw these things awaaaaay) and found a diagram I’d drawn at the very beginning of my freelance journey. [image description: A grid with two rows and two columns. The columns are labeled “low risk” and “high...
by Jenn | Nov 22, 2019 | Mindset, Small Business
We’ve been in the death throes of potty training our three year old for the last 300 years months. Only recently did things finally start to click. It just dawned on me that learning to deposit metabolic waste in a designated receptacle is a lot like learning how to...
by Jenn | Nov 8, 2019 | Mindset, Small Business
This week, with absolutely no warm-up or training, I ran a mile in under ten minutes. Which I’m sure is nothing to all you dedicated marathoners, but it was a big deal to me considering the last time I ran a mile was in 8th grade and I’m pretty sure my time was...
by Jenn | Aug 16, 2019 | Mindset, Small Business
Let’s talk about rejection, baby. Back in 2017, I applied for an internship with a local branding and design studio that was famous for doing great work and building authentic community. I wore my 8-month-old baby to the group interview (they were cool with it)...
by Jenn | May 30, 2019 | Mindset, Small Business
During my graduate program and my first year of teaching, I was something of an overachiever. I stubbornly wrote all of my curriculum from scratch and diligently checked all the boxes on my lesson plans. Differentiated instruction, formative assessment, IEP...
by Jenn | May 6, 2019 | Mindset, Small Business
Every year at the beginning of May, my social media timeline politely reminds me of the four days it took to birth my son. It is both mildly amusing and slightly traumatic to see the progression of photos from cheerfully optimistic to desperately stressed out. Every...
by Jenn | Jul 18, 2018 | Mindset, Small Business
When I was in college, I made a list of qualities I wanted and didn’t want in a spouse. One thing on the dislike list was heavy metal music, to the great amusement of my now-husband, who enjoys a wide range of music including, yes, some heavy metal. Fortunately,...
by Jenn | Jun 4, 2018 | Mindset, Small Business
I’ve been a digital entrepreneur for almost 20 years. (I’m 31.) I recently rediscovered my ancient Neopets account. There lies the earliest known evidence of my digital entrepreneurship. (I designed logos and banner images for guilds and shop pages in...
by Jenn | Apr 3, 2018 | Mindset, Small Business
When I started my own business, I set myself 3 simple and relatively modest goals: Work 15-20 focused hours per week. (i.e. not while trying to juggle a small child) Replace my teaching salary. (I didn’t think to specify pre- or post-tax, but it gave me a...
by Jenn | Jan 30, 2018 | Mindset, Small Business
For me, finding freelance clients is a lot like dating, except I have a much better success record with finding clients than I did with dating. Before I met Science Guy, I was positive that every person I dated was going to be my husband. I still have a tendency to do...
