A happy few people find themselves in situations where they become successful, never having to open their mouths about what they do. I know they exist, I just don't know any personally.

They don't exist.

This is true if you're working for yourself or for someone else: The work does not "speak for itself." You have to speak for the work.

How is my sincere desire to help offensive?

This statement rubs me the wrong way, a little bit. (And I'm not saying you're offensive, at all.) I believe that you want to help, but you want to do it via people hiring you, right? Those are two different goals, and I think it's important to be up front about that. Not that I think this is how you personally approach things, but I would be taken aback if someone approached me to tell me what was wrong with me and how they could fix it. I would be less taken aback if I learned about some service I could purchase, and then decided it would be useful for me to spend my money on.

This statement rubs me the wrong way, a little bit. (And I'm not saying you're offensive, at all.)

No offense taken, I'm truly grateful for the conversation.

I believe that you want to help, but you want to do it via people hiring you, right? Those are two different goals, and I think it's important to be up front about that.

Very true. It's a key point for the kind of work that I do that many people think I should just do it because I can. That I should wait for people to come to me. Sadly, that just doesn't work enough to pay my rent.

My hairdresser loves his work, but no one gets offended when he asks who does your hair and offers to make a space in his calendar.

When I was at Loyola, one of the biggest struggles my colleagues came up against was not doubting their abilities but being terrified of actually asking for money for their work. "It's God's work." I heard that all the time.

If this were logical, shouldn't everyone work for free?

Not that I think this is how you personally approach things, but I would be taken aback if someone approached me to tell me what was wrong with me and how they could fix it.

This my biggest, BIGGEST challenge. I have never, ever presumed to tell anyone what is wrong with them. In fact, a huge bit of what I do is to help people see that there really ISN'T anything wrong with them!

Yet, people accuse me of trying to read their minds, or psychoanalyze them. The number of times people have told me how much they don't believe in therapy and then go on to tell me their entire life story? I can't even count.

I don't want to come over all Rodney Dangerfield, but sometimes the disrespect really burns.

Then again, it is mediated by the people who tell me that I've saved their marriage, their job, their sanity, etc.

I would be less taken aback if I learned about some service I could purchase, and then decided it would be useful for me to spend my money on.

Here is where I need the most help!

How would you want to learn about a service like mine? What would you need to know about it to be able to make that decision?

The answers to those two questions would be a huge help to me.

I guess it depends on what your service actually is. For therapy, I start with the list of providers my insurance covers. When I was looking for a job coach type thing, I asked my grad school career person.

My hairdresser loves his work, but no one gets offended when he asks who does your hair and offers to make a space in his calendar.

I would be. My hair may not be much, but I wouldn't want some stranger implying that I need immediate help.

Like Jesse, I would first look at what my insurance offers. Insurance questions aside, I would be looking for someone who had success with my particular issues. I would ask friends and look at websites that have ratings. I might look for someone who had written about the issues in a way that appealed to me.

Okay. So I upgraded my laptop, which meant my ancient version of Adobe Creative Suites no longer worked. But I dawdled dealing with it, so by the time I realized I needed to buy, they were out of donations of the suites. Okay, I still qualified for four individual products this fiscal year. So I tried to piece out what I really needed, and I bought InDesign, Photoshop, Audition, and Premiere. Waffled over getting Acrobat instead, but I checked to see if I coud create .pdfs straight from InDesign. I could. So good. Can't get Premiere working, but that's probably something funky with the install. So I got InDesign going and did my newsletter. And....then I realized I could only do the conversion to .pdfs straight from InDesign because I had Acrobat. Which, having always had suites before, I never noticed.

So. I ordered the special products version of the web suites, which includes Acrobat, and also some other things I'd missed, like Illustrator, but not some of the other things I still wish I had (next fiscal year, I guess). It's coming. In the meanwhile, I asked the print shop, could they print straight from InDesign. Sure, they said, send it along.

I sent it along. Today I get email back from them saying, hey, we tried to print your InDesign file but it said we needed plugins. Could you send a .pdf?

Argh.

I would just print it myself, except I sent my large format (admittedly non-working) printer to this year's electronics recycling event, on the premise that I had worked out a new deal with the print shop to do it through them.

So! Does anybody have both InDesign and Acrobat and could convert a 11x17 page newsletter file for me? It should be a one-time deal, by the next time the newsletter rolls around, I should have all my equipment.

Can you download the Creative Suite trial version?

Like Jesse, I would first look at what my insurance offers. Insurance questions aside, I would be looking for someone who had success with my particular issues. I would ask friends and look at websites that have ratings. I might look for someone who had written about the issues in a way that appealed to me.

Yeah. The insurance thing is an issue. Not as often as I was afraid it might, but it is a limitation. I had really good reasons for going that way...reasons I stand by. Still, it's a thing.

I really wish that folks would tell each other the things they say to me! Again, it seems to be an issue of not wanting to talk about getting better. Frustrating.

Writing, I need to get better with. I get good feedback on my writing style, but I don't do it often enough...or in the right places.

Help! Will likely xpost to Natter - I'm putting together these slides for the recycled glass Mardi Gras beads and I'd really like to have watermark images of bottles on one half and recycled glass beads on the other. Don't want to just gank people's photos, don't know if this qualifies for Creative Commons since I could win some money from it and/or eventually make money. Anyone got good and preferably free sources for stock photos, and/or guidance on the Creative Commons thing?

Many thanks...

For Creative Commons, try:

Wikimedia Commons: [link]

Flickr Search (option to specify license type): [link]

Check the license on each photo -- generally people will specify whether you can use it for commercial purposes.

You rock Dana, thank you!