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Articles on finishing self-generated work and building expertise-based creative businesses, with the Creative Engine, Ground Truth, and Capacity frameworks.
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How to build an ethical business that honors your core values
In this article, you’ll get an activity that will show you how to use your core values to build an ethical business that can help make the world a better place. Yes, seriously. Obviously, in this big crazy world, there is a lot that’s out of your control. We all make compromises, a lot of them. We all have to grapple with adverse circumstances (and often actual adversaries). In order avoid feeling like you’re continually failing, it’s crucial to acknowledge that there are things you can’t fix on your own. (And in parallel, of course, to contribute in any way you can to collective action for change.) However. There are also so many ways you do have control over your…
Values List | Operationalize your core values to build a more ethical creative business
Core Values List Get clear on your core values so you can put them into action in your creative business Click Here to make your own copy of the values list Ready for the next step? Click here to head back to the activity. Abundance Accountability Acceptance Accessibility Accuracy Achievement Activeness Adventurousness Affection Altruism Ambition Approachability Assertiveness Attention to detail Balance Beauty Being the best Belonging Boldness Bravery Calmness Capability Carefulness Caringness Challenge Change-making Charity Cheerfulness Clarity Clear-mindedness Collaboration Comfort Commitment Communication Community Compassion Competitiveness Connection Consistency Contentment Continuous Improvement Contribution Control Cooperation Correctness Courage Courtesy Craftiness Craftsmanship Creativity Credibility Customer-centricity Curiosity Daring Decisiveness Democraticness Dedication Dependability Determination Devoutness Dignity Diligence Directness Discipline Discovery Discretion Diversity Dreaming Drive Duty Dynamism…
From riding the rollercoaster to piloting the plane—how one artist brought joy and financial stability back to her business
Listen to Rauni’s story in her own words: Update 2025: Three years after beginning to transform her business, Rauni Higson has been awarded an MBE for services to Silversmithing, creates commissioned pieces for royalty, and takes climbing trips between major projects—all while earning more than ever from doing less. “I feel like a grub that has turned into a dragonfly,” she says. Business transformation isn’t instant—it comes from laying the right foundation and then committing to building on it, even through self-doubt and ups and downs. When we first interviewed Rauni in 2022, she had just established her new business model. She was seeing early success, but the real power of the changes she made would unfold over the next…
Sewist overcomes burnout to stitch together a stronger business model
Listen to Martha’s story in her own words: Production sewing coach, Marty Remsen felt like no matter how much effort she put into her business, she wasn’t seeing tangible results, and started to wonder if maybe she should get a “real” job. She already had a vision for where she wanted her business to go, but needed help getting there. Discover how the Autonomous Creative Incubator helped Marty… Marty Remsen was burnt out. She was part-owner of a successful bike bag company where she did production sewing, but the work was repetitive and, frankly, had gotten boring. In contrast to the exciting early days of growing the company and working through production challenges, now, she felt the energy was much…
Frustrated filmmaker overcomes a crisis of confidence to find rapid success
Listen to Avantika’s story in her own words: As an accomplished filmmaker, Avantika Hari Agrawal has always been full of ideas. She enjoyed the creativity, opportunity, and potential that came with being a successful filmmaker partnering with Netflix and others. But the reality of the filmmaker life meant her dream projects getting stuck in “development hell,” where she faced unending rewrites and second guessing, feeling herself lose the ability to drive the narrative. Her show was getting lost in the corporate shuffle. Avantika loved the creative part of filmmaking, but it was becoming increasingly more challenging because of external pressures. That, in turn, caused her to start feeling self-doubt: Am I good enough? Have I done enough? Am I able…
Finding the Venn diagram of the work that pays well and the work you want to do
Listen to Stephanie’s story in her own words: After studying illustration in school, Stephanie Shafer stumbled into working as an art director. Although the job paid well, Stephanie felt frustrated and creatively blocked. “I took that job, but the whole time I felt like I was spending a lot of time making things that nobody was seeing. There was this end result that people were looking at, but there was just so much work put into it. [The company] hired me because they wanted somebody who was more creative to invigorate the publication and add more interest. But I was never allowed to actually do creative things. So it felt like I was just putting all this effort into doing…
Announcing 12 new sustainable creative businesses: Time to celebrate! 🎉
I’m so incredibly proud to introduce you to the inaugural cohort of the Autonomous Creative Incubator! We’ve all been working so hard for this day 🐣 Six short months ago, these awesome creatives committed to launching new businesses. Why did they take this major step? Because they all needed to create time, freedom, and autonomy in their lives. I mean, don’t we all? But it turns out, the way that actually happens in reality is by redesigning what we do for a living to bring in a lot more money with a lot less effort and time. That well-resourced time means freedom and the white space we need to take care of ourselves and also make the creative work we…