I've mentioned a couple times that I'm currently unemployed/have been unemployed since October. By that, of course, I mean that I'm not currently holding down a "day job", an 8-5 position like I'm used to working during the days. I still do plenty of things, "night jobs" or "side jobs" or whatever you want to call them, and usually I work on those during the day, as well--anything from teaching, to DJing, to event organizing, to writing and editing, to marketing stuff.

I have no problem with freelancing as a career option, and I know plenty of people who do it successfully. In fact, I'd love to reach a point sometime where I am able to be self-employed in a consultant/freelance way. My only problem with freelancing right now is that I don't have the knowledge (or, in some cases, the excess of skills) to make it work full-time for me. Right now, I'm not sure how I can turn my professional hobbies into a plain ol' profession. This especially applies to event organizing, which is the avenue I'd most like to pursue right now. I have all sorts of questions--how do I establish myself? How do I get word out about what I do? And, even if/once I pull a gig or two, how do I price myself? These are all things that can usually be answered with experience in similar roles, which is something else I haven't been able to find much of. Strangely enough, I feel that I am a pretty dang good event organizer, with very strong ideas at the very least, but all my experience has been in "non-professional" (meaning, not with any sort of firm or professional clients) settings.

I'd love to hear how others approach this freelance "problem", or what other resources you would recommend when pursuing self-employment. I have a feeling my friend Carl and all the rest of that lifestyle design community would have plenty to say on the subject, but I'm curious as to what others have to say, too.

I've been teaching dance classes a fair amount lately, especially since I'm teaching this month's series classes with Yossef. One thing I've found is that my rapport with Yossef and the students is a lot different than my rapport when I'm teaching with Reuel.
In general, Reuel is very much a do-er; he likes to have the students "crash and burn" after little explanation, so that they can get the feeling of the move/technique/dance in their bodies and muscle memories. I find that when I'm teaching with him, I'm free to talk much more, because he will make sure that they get enough repetitions in to really nail something down.
By contrast, when I'm teaching with Yossef, we both tend to default towards talking/explaining, so I find myself flipping sides, trying to make sure the students get enough reps in to physically understand what we're trying to teach, and to make sure their muscles don't get cold waiting for us to finish talking :)
I noticed this past weekend that Steven Mitchell tends to not explain at all, instead preferring the students to watch him demonstrate it, then do it themselves (or something close). This is an approach that I think I fall into when I'm teaching by myself--still explaining more so than, say, Steven, but much more of a show-then-do than anything else.
Ideally, I try to balance all three of these approaches when I'm teaching, and I think a good teaching pair can do this while letting each individual stick to more of their strengths. Obviously, each of these things have their benefits, too--a visual learner will not pick things up the same way a student who is kinesthetically inclined will.

Which approach do you prefer, whether teaching or learning? Do you find that you default to one, and which is it? Is your natural teaching method one other than the ones I've listed? I'd love to hear you