Celebrating 6 new creative businesses!🎉🙌
The Autonomous Creative Incubator
Listen to more inspiring stories from ACI Alumni
I’m so incredibly proud to introduce you second cohort of the Autonomous Creative Incubator!
We’ve all been working so hard for this day, and it feels incredible to be helping launch these new businesses into the world!
Six short months ago, these awesome creatives committed to building new businesses.
Why did they take this huge step?
Because they all needed to create time, freedom, and autonomy in their lives.
I mean, don’t we all?
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 dream of. That’s what each of these people have begun to make happen in their own lives.
☆ It feels slightly magical! ☆
Help us celebrate by checking out what they’re up to!
And if you find that their work is just what you need, this is your chance to get in on the ground floor with them!
Celebrating 6 new creative businesses
Story Coaching with Henrike Dijkstra
Story coach Henrike Dijkstra is a comic artist who teaches storytelling and how to turn those stories into the creative projects of your dreams.
Do you have a story to tell that’s begging to come out in some creative form? But do you have trouble with getting it onto paper in a way that feels deliberate and finished? Does your story feel messy? Is it collecting dust on a shelf somewhere?
Whether it’s through art or prose, you have a unique opportunity with every piece or art or writing to touch your audience’s lives.
In Story Coaching, Henrike will help you create a strong, structured outline that’s full of meaning for your audience and that will prepare you (and fire you up!) to create your story-project in the medium of your choice.
Find out more at https://pencilsandstories.com/storycoaching
Curating Grief Coaching with Charlene Lam
Certified Grief Coach and Curator Charlene Lam believes we are ALL curators after a loved one dies. She helps people to deal with physical and emotional “stuff” after the death of a loved one, using the lens of curating.
Whether you’re feeling burdened by responsibilities, weighed down by unprocessed grief or exhausted by family conflict, the Curating Grief coaching package is the creative way to navigate these challenges so you can feel connected with your loved one and move forward with living your own fullest life. Originally from NYC, Charlene is based in Lisbon, Portugal and works with clients worldwide.
Find out more at https://www.charlenelam.com/creative-grief-coaching/
Clarity Interview with Braeden Doane
Braeden Doane is a multimedia producer who builds communal spaces for creative play and meaningful connection.
Are you grappling with how to talk about your work? Do you slip into a pit of self-loathing as the blinking cursor taunts you from atop the blank page? Come be a guest on Braeden’s imaginary podcast!
Two decades of audio interviewing have well-tuned their ears to conversations that connect people with themselves.
They’ll use their radio hosting expertise to help you clarify and distill how you talk about your work. During a one-hour recorded call, they’ll ask you lots of questions and then transcribe the audio. Two days later, you’ll receive a text summary of your responses—a written document describing what you do in your own words.
No need to start from scratch the next time you write your bio. Join Braeden in the studio and tell them what you’re working on! They can’t wait to hear all about it.
Find out more at landlineradio.com
Slay Mail by Alana Cymerman
Writer and director Alana Cymerman helps creatives turn their newsletters into effective marketing tools and works of art.
Express your creativity and originality through unusual and unique emails that make your audience think, laugh, and feel, all while helping to instill your values into your brand narrative.
Find out more at https://cymermade.com/slay-mail
A Theater-Going Habit: Newsletter and Community by Katie O’Neill
Audience outreach consultant Katie O’Neill is a costume-designer-turned-theater-fan-finder who brings fun new folks to shows and fun new shows to folks.
Katie believes everyone is an expert audience member. She gathers all expert opinions on theater-going and other forms of live performance. Sold out shows are more fun for everyone involved. Let’s fill the seats and the lobby with a lively crowd.
Every week, she picks a few shows currently playing and streaming, shares ticket prices and deals, audience experiences, and insider insights.
She wants to know: What would get you in the door to this show? Who would you bring? Are you coming back?
The newsletter is free. Sometimes the tickets are free!
Get the newsletter here: https://theatergoinghabit.substack.com/
Book coaching and story strategy for BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ writers with Thien-Kim Lam
Writer and book coach Thien-Kim Lam smashes stereotypes and finds happy endings.
Stop explaining what it’s like to be YOU in your book. You’re proud to be Asian, Black, Latinx, (i.e. not the status quo). Why should your book be any different? It’s time for you to tell your story.
As a twice-published Vietnamese American author, Thien-Kim understands what it’s like to doubt her true voice and shake free of the white gaze. She’s learned how to push through it and you can too.
Yes, you will hold your finished book in your hands. You don’t have to do it alone with Thien-Kim as your book coach.
The world needs your story because representation matters.
YOU matter.
Find out more at https://thienkimlam.com/book-coaching/
Be as proud of your business as you are of your creative work
The Autonomous Creative Incubator Program
Let's explore how we can help you develop your profitable and sustainable creative service business.
Click below to submit a super-quick application — It includes only the necessary information to see whether I can truly be of help on your journey.
Submitting an application implies absolutely no obligation to join the Incubator. If you think the Incubator might be for you, you owe it to yourself to find out!
Start getting paid like the expert you are within six months
The Autonomous Creative Incubator
The Incubator is the artist-centered program where self-employed creatives design a sustainable, profitable business rooted in their creative expertise.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 24, 2023
What happens when you design a creative business on purpose?
Find out directly from our students!
“By the end of the year, I should be able to pull in enough to run the house on just my money.”
“I was feeling very guilty about not being able to bring in what I felt was really just my market rate. I'm not even asking for a lot. I just wanted to be paid for the skills that I had. And even that was not happening.
Now I'm at a place where I can very easily see that by the end of the year, I should be able to pull in enough to run the house on just my money.”
Avantika Hari-Agrawal
Filmmaker and marketing strategist
From $10,400 in 2021 to $24,000 in 2022. And the year isn't over yet.
“In 2021 I booked somewhere around $10,400 in portraits. This year I'm in the $24,000 range. And it's only the end of August, so who knows what the end of the year will bring.
I have a plan for my business now and that sense of... control isn't the right word, because control feels really tight, but a command of this information that I can use to make better choices, use to make better decisions, use to create strategies.”
Sarah Marie Lacy
Artist and portrait painter
From needing help with studio rent to fully funded through the end of the year
“My studio rent will be paid right through the end of this year, which is just mind blowing for me. I have gone from this slightly humiliating position of having to ask my husband, can you put money in my business account because I have to pay my studio rent? To that business account actually having funds coming directly from my clients. That's never been the case for me before, so it feels really good. I'm finally growing up, making a living.”
Deirdre Colgan Jones
Artist, mother, and coach
“By the end of the year, I should be able to pull in enough to run the house on just my money.”
“I was feeling very guilty about not being able to bring in what I felt was really just my market rate. I'm not even asking for a lot. I just wanted to be paid for the skills that I had. And even that was not happening.
Now I'm at a place where I can very easily see that by the end of the year, I should be able to pull in enough to run the house on just my money.”
Avantika Hari-Agrawal
Filmmaker and marketing strategist
From $10,400 in 2021 to $24,000 in 2022. And the year isn't over yet.
“In 2021 I booked somewhere around $10,400 in portraits. This year I'm in the $24,000 range. And it's only the end of August, so who knows what the end of the year will bring.
I have a plan for my business now and that sense of... control isn't the right word, because control feels really tight, but a command of this information that I can use to make better choices, use to make better decisions, use to create strategies.”
Sarah Marie Lacy
Artist and portrait painter
From needing help with studio rent to fully funded through the end of the year
“My studio rent will be paid right through the end of this year, which is just mind blowing for me. I have gone from this slightly humiliating position of having to ask my husband, can you put money in my business account because I have to pay my studio rent? To that business account actually having funds coming directly from my clients. That's never been the case for me before, so it feels really good. I'm finally growing up, making a living.”