Blog
Articles on finishing self-generated work and building expertise-based creative businesses, with the Creative Engine, Ground Truth, and Capacity frameworks.
Get Paid
Speaking
Dynamic talks and workshops on the two things creative professionals struggle with most: finishing their work and getting paid for it I’m Jessica Abel, author, cartoonist, and business coach for creative professionals.Since 2006 I’ve delivered keynote talks and hands-on workshops at conferences, universities, accelerators, and corporate events for groups of 4 to 400. My talks focus on two things creative professionals struggle with most: finishing the self-generated work that’s most important, and building expertise-based businesses that generate reliable income without consuming their creative life. The connective tissue between both is capacity – specifically, the capacity crunch that keeps talented people stuck, reactive, and working nights and weekends no matter how great their work is. I think of my audience as…
What is the Ground Truth Framework?
WHAT IS THE GROUND TRUTH FRAMEWORK? You’re not asking too much. It’s not too much to want a creative business that feels fulfilling and funds the life you want to live. All you want is for your creative work to be what your professional life is organized around. Not the thing you squeeze in around everything else. Not the thing you’re building toward someday. The thing. The work that defines you, pays you, and takes up the space it deserves. That’s not asking too much. But your business needs to be built to deliver it. For some people that means building a business that funds and protects a practice that stays separate. For others it means putting the practice itself…
Get Paid
You’re brilliant at what you do. …And yet you still don’t feel financially secure unless you’re working non-stop. Creative pros fall into one of two camps, and switch from time to time: Your schedule is jammed with clients, projects. Or you’ve got a demanding day job and you’re treating your business like a side-hustle. You’re making money, but if you try to add one more thing you’re going to crack. Of course the inspiring projects that got you into this in the first place keep getting pushed back. The way you make money is inconsistent, so you feel nervous about your finances most of the time. You teach workshops, you’ve created a few products, maybe published a book. You’ve done…
The Monkey and the Monument
Most creative projects fail because we work on what we know how to do, not what determines success. Here’s how to put your ideas through a viability test.
Why you can’t commit to one idea
Struggling to commit to one idea? The problem is asking one idea to do too many incompatible jobs. Here’s how to evaluate ideas more clearly.
Leaving the teaching treadmill to become a poetry publication coach: Finding a sustainable path as a working poet
For years, award-winning poet Radha Marcum had been searching for a way to bring together her creative work and her income-generating work. Like many experienced creative professionals, she found herself split between two worlds—trying to maintain her artistic practice while cobbling together teaching and workshops (and copywriting gigs to boot!) to pay the bills. That changed when she developed a premium coaching practice helping poets develop publication-ready books. Within weeks of a small, targeted launch, she reported: “I got four clients right out of the gate. I’ve more than met my financial goals.” Each of those four clients brought in revenue comparable to teaching an entire class in the past. That kind of income can actually support her life and…