Welcome to In The Boat With Ben
“In the boat” is a phrase I use to describe the people in my life who are directly impacted by the choices I make for my freelance business (or any other choices for that matter). For you it may be your partner, children, parents or other live-in relatives, or even your pet turtle… For me those people are Rachel, my wife, and our five young boys. As someone who is balancing family life with a creative pursuit, I have come to realize the value of connecting with others and sharing the experiences of those who are walking a similar road, which is why I am here… to create a space where we can walk this road together, ask questions, challenge and encourage one another and share our stories.
7 Steps for Setting A New Course
A time comes for all when a new course must be set in our creative and business pursuits. It could be a new passion, a better job opportunity or it could even be that where you are now is no longer livable. The way that you go about setting yourself and the people in...
The Myth of Multitasking and How To Pay-Off “Project Debt”
The To-do list It's a new week and there is that to-do list staring me down again. I've done a fantastic job of breaking it down into categories and further down into tasks so that I actually have some action items. I've put times and deadlines and I've even numbered...
Getting Off of the Feast or Famine Carousel
The Feast or Famine Cycle Feast or famine is a cycle with which I am all too familiar. The oscillation between having plenty of resources and digging through couch cushions for spare change is a common experience for many freelancers and entrepreneurs. I told myself...
My Super Hero Brand and My Secret Identity
Writing About Ben... Here We Go One of the most difficult pieces of content I have tried to produce on my web site is my personal bio. My wife is a writer, has worked for years in journalism and has spent years shaping her creative writing craft, and even she has a...
10 Practices for Staying Productive While Pursuing Your Dream
I Broke My Toys On Purpose I was one of those kids who liked to take things apart to see how they worked. Over the years I destroyed a number of perfectly functioning toys. Eventually, I started paying attention to what I was doing and could sometimes reconstruct the...
Getting Over the Reality Beat-Down and Reclaiming Our Big Dreams
A Houseboat with Amenities When I was a kid, we took a trip out to Lake Powell to spend the weekend with my uncle and some of his friends on his houseboat. It was a blast. There was camping, swimming, speed-boating, jet-skiing, and rafting. I had such a great time...
Self Care Week Recap
Sleep Didn't do so well here... Out of seven days I only got sufficient sleep one of those days. Boy did I feel it. This week was a bit of a blur. Diet Although I didn't even open the MyFitnessPal app once, I did manage to eat healthy homemade meals most of this week,...
Resting on Purpose
A Built-In Vacation This challenge actually falls on a good week. It's spring break and we are taking it easy, spending some time together as a family, and I will be working on an art project that I've been looking forward to diving into. In some ways the break will...
Productivity and Taking Care of You: An Experiment
Ask the Internet Last week I posted a question on reddit.com asking, 'Freelancers with kids... what are some of the struggles you experience working as a freelancer with a family that depends on you?' One of the most common answers, and the one with the most upvotes,...
Lifeless Branches of My Musical Tree
Old Friend and Fond Memories I recently had a conversation with a friend about something that has been troubling me lately. I love writing, composing and performing music, but it looks so much different these days than it did when I was a younger man. This friend used...
The Wonder AND the Work
A Musical Heritage I come from a musical family. Both my mom and dad, and many of my uncles play and sing. My brother and I both inherited the itch to play and write and sing. One day, when I was a kid, my mom brought me over to the stereo, put in a cassette tape, and...
Just Five More Minutes?!
The Interruption I'm working on something. I'm under deadline. I've worked into the "neutral zone" where anything can happen and I wasn't prepared for nap-time to be over and then suddenly I hear it... "Daaddaayy! Daaddaayy!" I just need five more minutes... pretend...
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Here’s what you can expect from this newsletter:
Weekly updates including the following information:
-Things I am learning and fun projects I am working on
-Valuable resources I have found for learning and design
-Updates about new products and projects
-Stories about personal experiences that stem from my creative pursuits
-Anything else I feel might be of value