podcast
The Autonomous Creative
how do they really do it?
So, are you just supposed to quit your day job? How do you actually make a living? Where do paying fans magically materialize from? Join Jessica Abel as she dives deep into the reality of life as a creative pro — the stuff no professional practice class ever really prepares you for.
Featuring cartoonists, writers, podcasters, small-press publishers, and creative professionals such as Oliver Burkeman, Alison Bechdel, Tom Hart, Alexander Chee, Gene Luen Yang, C. Spike Trotman, Tomm Moore, and many more. Listen, learn, and collaborate with us to make something great.
Host Jessica Abel is a cartoonist, author, and business coach for creatives, and the founder of the Creative Focus Workshop. She helps accomplished creative professionals finish their most important work and build expertise-based businesses that generate reliable income without consuming their creative life.
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There's no magic creative career fairy
You've got the creative skills, and you've got the ideas. How do you translate that into actually building a sustainable career?
Enter The Autonomous Creative: A talk show where we dive deep into the unseen reality of what it means to be a professional creative and to build a life around creative work.
Featuring
- Alison Bechdel
- Tom Hart
- Alexander Chee
- Austin Kleon
- Oliver Burkeman
- Sarah Firth
- Sarah Von Bargen
- Gene Luen Yang
- And many more!
— Crowdcast user APetty
"Such an informative and enriching conversation!"
All Podcast Episodes and Show Notes
Kickstarting strange and amazing comics (and making a living!), with C. Spike Trotman
Listen to the episode: Cartoonist and publisher Spike Trotman publishes books she considers “strange and amazing.” Her company Iron Circus specializes in “underrepresented voices, underrepresented themes, stuff that has not got a big audience quite frankly or a lot of people catering to it right now.” Sounds like a recipe for struggle. Yet they’re KILLING…
Envy as a virtue: How to turn your greenest eyed demon into a tool for success, with Lisa Frühbeis
Listen to the episode: Cartoonist and graphic recorder Lisa Frühbeis has made bold moves that have led to an incredibly rapid career trajectory in the last few years, starting with pitching a comic strip to a newspaper straight out of school…and then parlaying the end of that strip into a book deal, and then much…
Navigating the midlife pivot to a creative career, with Martha Rich
Listen to the episode: Martha Rich is commercial and fine artist who took a long and circuitous route through many day jobs (Workman’s comp insurance. Hotel front desk clerk. Repo woman?) to pivot to an art career at the age of 37. Now Martha makes a full-time living as an artist making work that brings…
Why being a multi-passionate creative is your strength, with Sarah Firth
Listen to the episode: “What theories about myself and my creativity am I willing to test? Am I willing to fail?” Sarah Firth is an awesome cartoonist and graphic recorder, among many other things. Sarah takes a bit of a mad scientist approach to her creative life. She embraces experimentation and testing to try to…
How to make a career out of art, with Tom Hart
Listen to the episode: It’s no secret—building a career with your creative practice is difficult. But for those of us who value autonomy, freedom, and making room for passion (and who doesn’t??) building a career out of art can feel like a necessity. My guest for this episode of The Autonomous Creative, Tom Hart, is…
When to quit your day job (or when not to!), with Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson
Listen to the episode: Quitting your day job — That’s billed as the final frontier for artists. Proof of success. And if someone tells you not to? Generally an insult. But the reality of being a successful creative professional isn’t so black and white. Quitting your day job is a laudable goal (by all means,…
How to finish writing your novel: don’t write for free, with Alexander Chee
Listen to the episode: If you haven’t finished writing your novel yet, you could lay the blame on any of a myriad of reasons. You’ve got too many commitments, your day job or freelance work sucks up all your time, you’ve got kids, a spouse, friends (never mind your own physical and mental health) competing…