Not just a little harder. Systemically harder. Margins are thinner. Expectations are higher. Competitors are hungrier – and cheaper. The platforms have changed, the buyers have changed, and the old ways of selling expertise just aren’t cutting it anymore.

So if you’ve felt like you’re swimming in a red ocean, trying to charge decent fees while a thousand “agencies” undercut you from a laptop and a Wi-Fi signal, you’re not imagining things.

The game has changed. This article is about how you adapt – or get left behind.