Marketing and branding is an inevitable part of your freelance business. For a marketing person, this is the fun part. For everyone else, this is the part that’s most likely delayed (or never done at all), and thus is a missed opportunity to promote yourself and your business.

I am an inside sales representative for a medical device company. I work hard to build relationships over the phone to sell and consult on products. When I was hired, the president specifically told me this was not a telemarketing job. Recently, I caught the president introducing our team as “the telemarketers.” Is this a sign I should go back to school asap or find another job?

In the last 50 years, higher education’s customer base has become decidedly more female. In 1967, 40 percent of college students were women. By 2014, it was 56 percent. The U.S. Department of Education projects that will climb to 59 percent by 2025.

But the people responsible for delivering those educations are still overwhelmingly male.

The intersection of parenthood, motherhood particularly, and the workplace is not a space without landmines. Next time you’re at a party, ask who has it tougher — then, run.

While reproductive technologies have given women and families more control and additional tools, having it all still seems a far leap. Treatments are expensive (most insurance plans won’t cover much), time-consuming and not always effective. Meanwhile, workplace politics have been slow to shift and accommodate a growing number of working moms.

Public speaking routinely tops the list of common phobias. Butterflies in the stomach, sweaty palms, anxiety are all typical manifestations of the discomfort, which is often much less noticeable to the audience than to the one doing the speaking. However, unlike being trapped in a dark room with snakes, glossophobia (fear of public speaking) affects the ability to do something much more common.

Freelance burnout hits the best of us; I don’t think I know one freelancer who at some point thought to him or herself, “Well shoot, this just isn’t working anymore,” when they hit those crossroads. Trust your instinct and, at the end of the day, do what’s best for you and your business by adding more flow to the freelance hustle.