AnywhereMan

Taking vacation when you no longer have paid vacation days can be tough. However, this summer I’ve taken off more time than I have in my previous three summers as a freelancer. I also feel like I’ve gotten more work done than the previous three. Here are a few thoughts as to why I feel things have worked out this way.

How has your summer been? What did you do with any time you might have taken off?

I’m spending the week in Colorado and devoting a few hours each morning to getting work done. So far so good, and here’s an update.

I might just stay here.

I purchased this LL Bean backpack (“Quad Pack“) a few weeks ago so that I can easily carry all of my work stuff (MacBook, notebooks, cords, equipment, etc) as I bike back and forth between home and my coworking space. I had read the reviews ahead of time and knew it was a good pack, but I was still surprised at how well-made and handy it really is. It really makes me feel like I’ve attained a true portable office.

No affiliate profits to be made for me on this review; just a nice comfy backpack for which I was happy to pay full price.

I’ve been using LogMeIn for years and it’s always been a dependable, useful app. The company I used to work for had it installed on all of our remote web servers. I still use it to log into my Windows machine at home for testing. I’ve also experienced moments/relief as expressed in their new commercial.

Seth Godin with some good inspiring words, as usual. Everything that this guy says relates back to the initial Purple Cow idea of “being remarkable.”

Thanks to @davepeckens for the find.

It snows in Minnesota. That’s a given.

But sometimes it snows a lot.

A few weeks ago it snowed a ton in the Twin Cities. In fact, you may have noticed the stadium of a certain professional football team collapsing (like the team itself). Heavy snow equals lots of shoveling, driving and parking nightmares, and general grumpiness all around.

However, as displayed in the above video, you’ll see that some folks used the mass blanketing of snow to have some serious fun. Legal? No. Awesome? Absolutely.

The point of it all is that I love when people turn something that is normally an annoyance into something that is awesome and even fun.

If you can do this for your clients, you’ll succeed. If you can build your business around turning annoyances in to awesome, you’ll eventually make sales.

As a freelancer, the work you do and the projects you take on set expectations for future work. If you have a defined “ideal project” profile, try to stick to it as much as you can. If there’s a direction you’d like to go with your career, take on projects that push you in that specific direction.

Ready to get “undressed” for success?

Lisa Kanarek’s new book, “Working Naked” (affiliate link), can help you do just that. Lisa shares a ton of great tips for all aspects of a career built around working from home. She packages it all in an easy-to-ready format (think Seth Godin: quick bursts of excellent information).

Also, check out Lisa’s site/blog: WorkingNaked.com. You may recognize her name from an interview I did with her earlier this year. She IS America’s Work-From-Home expert!

We’ve got the new coworking space set up, online, furnished, and just about ready for members. Here is a quick tour of the actual space. It’s about the size of a modest coffee shop, and it has capacity for about 12-14 members at any given time. We’ve even got the name and branding just about ready to go: CommonSpace.

I’m very excited to see coworking in Grand Rapids, MN becoming a reality. I haven’t used my home office in over a week and I honestly haven’t missed it. I’ve still got most of the flexibility I have when working from home (other than working in my PJs), but I’m in an environment that is a bit more social. Right now just two of us are using it as things get rolling, so the social aspect should only get better.

Things are rolling right along with the plan to open a coworking space in the modest town of Grand Rapids, MN. Coworking has become a common thing in large metro areas, but it’s just as relevant (if not more so) for smaller communities like this one.

In today’s video I talk about where things are at and where they’re headed with the new space. Some folks have already committed to utilizing the space and I think it’ll really get going once the space is open.

See Part One of the Journey to Coworking