Creative Career Building for Artists & Writers

Writers, artists, & creative professionals:

Build a creative life you love

Writers, artists, & creative professionals:

Don't settle for just surviving

LET'S GET STARTED

Organize your life around your most important creative work, instead of jamming it in around everything else.

Get that work seen. Find clients and customers. Build a following. Build your impact.

Leverage your creative powers to custom-build a sustainable career with your work at the heart of it.

LET'S GET STARTED

People taking control of their careers with Autonomous Creative

I got my online sales page set up, and I made my first online sale to a complete stranger. That was very exciting!

Authentic Visibility has definitely been what I was looking for the past 2 years.

Jeannie Seidel,
Artist

AV Alum

I hit my Kickstarter funding goal for my new tabletop role-playing game, Raccoon Sky Pirates, in just 8 hours...
...and ended up bringing in almost 4x my original goal!

Chris Sellers,
Game designer

CFW + AV Alum

I was able to more than double my prices and book MORE than before!

I went from my courses being a side-hustle to making more than 75% of my income from them within 5 months.

Annette Tomei,
Food and drinks educator

CFW + AV Alum

People taking control of their careers with Autonomous Creative

I got my online sales page set up, and I made my first online sale to a complete stranger. That was very exciting!

Authentic Visibility has definitely been what I was looking for the past 2 years.

Jeannie Seidel,
Artist

AV Alum

I hit my Kickstarter funding goal for my new tabletop role-playing game, Raccoon Sky Pirates, in just 8 hours...
...and ended up bringing in almost 4x my original goal!

Chris Sellers,
Game designer

CFW + AV Alum

I was able to more than double my prices and book MORE than before!

I went from my courses being a side-hustle to making more than 75% of my income from them within 5 months.

Annette Tomei,
Food and drinks educator

CFW + AV Alum

Put your creative work at the center of your life and career

If this idea excites you, yet makes you nervous, join the club.

The most difficult part of leveling up your creative career isn't making the work.

It isn't the marketing or business skill set.

It's the constant need to maintain belief in yourself.

Your art and creative work deserve attention. Your attention, and the world's attention.

You can't—or, more to the point, you won't—carve out the time for your work if you don't believe it deserves equal space in comparison to your spouse's 9-5.

You can't attract attention for your work if you don't believe it deserves attention. You'll sabotage yourself every step of the way.

And if at this moment you feel like a fraud, it's not your fault.

Society feeds us a line that success in creative careers is ruled by meritocracy, and advancement is awarded only via Deus ex Machina.

Therefore: If you're not succeeding, you're just not good enough. Back to the drawing board!

It's a brutal Catch-22.

You need self-belief in order to take action and do what's needed for your creative career.

You will struggle with self-belief unless you're magically deemed worthy by gatekeepers (publishers, agents, Instagram, gallerists, you name it). (And then you’ll still struggle.)

But here's the thing: It's all a smokescreen.

At Autonomous Creative, we know your work is NOT a pastime.

It’s not a hobby. And it's not optional.

We believe in the transformative power of creative work—not only in the individual life of the artist, but in culture and society at large.

You believe in this power, too. The fact that you've remained committed to your creative endeavors for so long is all the proof you need.

Commitment to this belief is a prerequisite for building a creative life you love.

Commitment to this belief is not enough.

You can act your way into a new way of thinking.

You can't think your way into a new way of acting.

It's time for courage before confidence.

Our Programs

Make friends with your creative work

No matter how much your creative endeavors mean to you, if you've ever found yourself in the middle of a big project, tears in your eyes, thinking, "this just isn't sustainable," your relationship (with your creative work) is in trouble.

People who continue down this path, trying to force the work to happen, and to will the money to roll in, more often than not, end up burnt out and broke.

In our programs, The Creative Focus Workshop and Authentic Visibility, you'll peel away the "Shoulds" and build your future based on what's best for you, your work, and your self-defined highest priorities.

Finish the work

Get it seen

The Creative Focus Workshop

Get your creative projects finished without killing yourself in the process.

Focus and finish

Authentic Visibility

Build a following—and your revenue—with ethical, aligned marketing.

Find my fans

Finish the work

The Creative Focus Workshop

Get your creative projects finished without killing yourself in the process.

Focus and finish

Get it seen

Authentic Visibility

Build a following—and your revenue—with ethical, aligned marketing.

Find my fans

Real creatives, real transformations

I look back and I realize that my God, I was working so differently six months ago.

There are things I do and tools I have that make every day really, really much better. And that turns into a good week, and that turns into a good six week sprint, and that eventually turns into a finished film.

You're going to see your life being transformed.

André Hedetoft,
Film director

CFW Alum

This is rewiring my brain so that when I hear marketing, or if I'm trying to sell something, it doesn't feel icky.

I'm showing up authentically, and I'm finding people who not only want to buy my stuff, they need my stuff in order to get to the next step in their goals.

Rachel Ober,
Software engineer

CFW + AV Alum

When I tried marketing in the past, it felt separate: I make the thing and then I market it. But Authentic Visibility connects marketing to who you are as a creative person — that just makes it all different. It just makes it feel better.

For an independent creative person that does probably have a pretty great sense of who they are and what they want to be doing, connecting marketing to that feels like the secret sauce.

Erik Loyer,
Software artist

CFW + AV Alum

Real creatives, real transformations

I look back and I realize that my God, I was working so differently six months ago.

You're going to see your life being transformed.

André Hedetoft,
Film director

CFW Alum

This is rewiring my brain so that when I hear marketing, or if I'm trying to sell something, it doesn't feel icky.

I'm showing up authentically, and I'm finding people who not only want to buy my stuff, they need my stuff in order to get to the next step in their goals.

Rachel Ober,
Software engineer

CFW + AV Alum

For an independent creative person that does probably have a pretty great sense of who they are and what they want to be doing, connecting marketing to that feels like the secret sauce.

Erik Loyer,
Software artist

CFW + AV Alum

Get hooked up with behind the scenes insights from working creatives

The Autonomous Creative Podcast

Discover the truth of what it takes to be a professional creative and build a life around creative work

What does it take to become a successful writer or artist?

Go behind the scenes with amazing professional creatives in a wide variety of fields to find out what, exactly, it took for them to be able to quit the day job and build a creative career fully committed to the work they're most passionate about.

As a creative yourself, you know that whenever two artists or writers get together, inevitably the conversation turns to, “No, but seriously, how do you do it?”

This show is that conversation. And you’re invited.

Subscribe and listen on the go

The Autonomous Creative Podcast

Discover the truth of what it takes to be a professional creative and build a life around creative work

What does it take to become a successful writer or artist?

Why we do what we do

Investing your time to creative work is your right.

I’m Jessica Abel. I’ve worked as a creative professional for 30 years (as a cartoonist, author, teacher, and coach). I know all too well the challenges of inventing a satisfying and sustainable creative life while I live it.

With the Autonomous Creative team, we help mid-career creative pros build inspiring, financially & emotionally sustainable creative careers. Rooted in their values and their creative expertise. Built around the demands of their disciplines.

Every successful creative builds a totally bespoke life and career. Our mission is for each member of our community to reach their own unique definition of success.