Teach a new dog old tricks

by Dale Davidson March 18, 2026

I switched projects and agencies this year.

The new agency, or at least, the group within the agency I work with, is a few steps behind in terms of using some software packages (JIRA and Tableau).

For example, JIRA is a task/project management tool for software developers. My new group just started with it.

I started implementing some basic but useful features I learned on my previous project and now I look super smart.

At some point you're going to be in the game long enough to use your experience to very quickly improve things for new clients.

This is an advantage you should leverage. Getting a quick win on a new project helps you establish a good reputation early on, which gives you more autonomy and credibility.

You can make a whole 1099 career teaching a new dog old tricks.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.