Course/Group Coaching Program:
The Creative Focus Workshop
The Creative Focus Workshop is the only program specifically designed to help serious creative people level up and put the work that really matters to them at the core of how they live their lives.
The CFW is a step-by-step course that is hosted in the midst of a robust, active accountability community of other committed, serious creatives, The Autonomous Creative Collective.
The tools you'll learn in the CFW combined with an engaged community who really get what you struggle with is a magic combination that will guide and support you through overcoming perfectionism, taking control of your insane to-do list, finding time in your week for your most important creative work, saying NO to putting other people’s priorities before your own… all without blowing up the rest of your life!
My artistic life has changed 100%. I am no longer afraid. Instead, I wake up looking forward to starting my creative day.
The prioritizing tools I learned help me sort my thoughts– so I know what to do when I start feeling overwhelmed by my ideas and aspirations.
Lisa Frühbeis,
Cartoonist and Graphic Recorder
CFW Alum
CFW was truly one of the best things I have ever done for my creative career.
I had to dig deep to discover what I wanted. Working on my current project, I feel like I have given myself permission to focus instead of feeling overwhelmed with all the shiny artistic possibilities.
Tabitha Orr,
Artist
CFW Alum
The CFW course and the ACC, which is a living laboratory populated with fellow creatives on similar journeys, helped me overhaul my processes, streamline habits, and overcome those sticking-points to find the focus and support to make consistent, weekly progress toward my goals.
Emmeline Dobson,
Animator and Illustrator
CFW Alum
My artistic life has changed 100%. I am no longer afraid. Instead, I wake up looking forward to starting my creative day.
The prioritizing tools I learned help me sort my thoughts– so I know what to do when I start feeling overwhelmed by my ideas and aspirations.
Lisa Frühbeis,
Cartoonist and Graphic Recorder
CFW Alum
CFW was truly one of the best things I have ever done for my creative career.
I had to dig deep to discover what I wanted. Working on my current project, I feel like I have given myself permission to focus instead of feeling overwhelmed with all the shiny artistic possibilities.
Tabitha Orr,
Artist
CFW Alum
The CFW course and the ACC, which is a living laboratory populated with fellow creatives on similar journeys, helped me overhaul my processes, streamline habits, and overcome those sticking-points to find the focus and support to make consistent, weekly progress toward my goals.
Emmeline Dobson,
Animator and Illustrator
CFW Alum
Course/Group Coaching Program:
Authentic Visibility
The difference between the creative who grows a thriving audience for their work and the one who never makes a splash is one thing: Action.
Authentic Visibility is a 6-month program for creatives who (think they) hate marketing. Our approach is aligned with the concerns of artists and creatives, not B-school bros and Instagram influencers.
You’ll learn simple, clear methods to build a relationship with a passionate audience using empathy and creativity, in full alignment with your ethics and values, and clear self-defined boundaries to protect your safety.
This program is designed to be simple and fast, and to give you a strong mastery of the basics. You can learn and implement at your own place, so that you never fall into the overwhelm trap. And you’ll be able to get answers to all your questions from a community of creatives in every discipline and field who are doing the work with you.
And, if you're still struggling overcoming perfectionism, taking control of your insane to-do list, finding time in your week for your most important creative work, saying NO to putting other people’s priorities before your own, the CFW and AV are available as a bundle!
I recognized that I hadn’t made the commitment to come up with the content. So it was a reality check for me.
But it helped me recognize that content is essential toward building an audience and that, if I'm going to do this, I have to make that commitment, and find a way to fit that into my life.
Chris Sellers,
Game Designer
CFW + AV Alum
I no longer cringe when someone (absolutely anyone) says that they had a look on my website. That’s massive and totally new. Also, they seem universally impressed now, which is cool.
This is about me feeling comfortable being myself, but really it’s about finding a way to express myself and talk about my work without feeling like a massive phoney.
Rauni Higson,
Silversmith
AV Alum
I've always been really bad at promoting myself, at setting any boundaries about the work that I'm making for other people, and setting how much I'll get paid.
Now I say, I'm going to make this and I'm going to promote this. Because this is now what I do. And you might like it. You might not, but I'm making it anyway.
Penny Sharp,
Artist
CFW + AV Alum
Group Coaching Program:
The Autonomous Creative Incubator Program
Start getting paid like the expert you are in under six months
The Incubator is the artist-centered program where self-employed creatives design a sustainable, profitable business rooted in their creative expertise.
The Incubator is designed to short-circuit perfectionism and procrastination, and deliver results with no fluff.
You don’t have to wade through hours and hours of videos to find what you need.
There's no physics textbook of arcane charts and formulas to memorize.
Your needs and your questions form the foundation of what we implement, so that this program is perfectly suited to get your business off the ground in a matter of weeks.
Our next cohort will be in Spring 2023!
We’d love to discover whether we’d be a good fit to work together. Please fill in an application to get on the waitlist!
As creatives, we don't get to have the conversations that we would like to as frequently as we would like to. People outside the creative world do not have the same problems that we do.
They just don't. It's a fact, and it's just nice to be part of a community that relates and understands and is totally going through the same things that you are.
Avantika Hari-Agrawal,
Filmmaker and marketing strategist
ACI Alum
I had tried to join other groups that ended up being a lot of hobbyists, and then you're kind of like an accidental mentor. So I didn’t really get anything out of it. …Being able to have conversations with other people who are your peers, in terms of their level of expertise and craft—even if they're not in the exact same field—is really important and also hard to find.
Stephanie Shafer,
Illustrator
ACI Alum
This is the most extraordinary class I have ever been part of. I'm not a joiner. I'm a great teacher. I make other people join. I suck at it when it's me. To be this involved, to have connected with so many people, has just never happened before. Ever. Not college. Not anything after.
I was like, why are people always going on about a cohort? Who the f— cares? I get it now.
Victoria Lansford,
Visual artist, educator, and author
ACI Alum
I recognized that I hadn’t made the commitment to come up with the content. So it was a reality check for me.
But it helped me recognize that content is essential toward building an audience and that, if I'm going to do this, I have to make that commitment, and find a way to fit that into my life.
Chris Sellers,
Game Designer
CFW + AV Alum
I no longer cringe when someone (absolutely anyone) says that they had a look on my website. That’s massive and totally new. Also, they seem universally impressed now, which is cool.
This is about me feeling comfortable being myself, but really it’s about finding a way to express myself and talk about my work without feeling like a massive phoney.
Rauni Higson,
Silversmith
AV Alum
I've always been really bad at promoting myself, at setting any boundaries about the work that I'm making for other people, and setting how much I'll get paid.
Now I say, I'm going to make this and I'm going to promote this. Because this is now what I do. And you might like it. You might not, but I'm making it anyway.
Penny Sharp,
Artist
CFW + AV Alum
Which course should you start with?
The Creative Focus Workshop (CFW) is designed to do two things: get the creatively-stuck, unstuck...
...and put the miserably overscheduled in charge of their focus and calendar.
The CFW will increase your creative "productivity."
Scare quotes intentional...productivity technically means cramming more stuff into the same amount of time. We don't play that.
We advocate for conscious choice and doing the right things, while saying no to the wrong things. That's more like...efficiency. But that word is tainted, too.
So let's go with "we do more YES and less NO."
- The CFW will give you a glorious sense of control over your life and choices.
- It will make you feel like you know WTF you're trying to do when you sit down to try to get your creative work happening.
At a high level, the Creative Focus Workshop is a course that teaches "executive function."
(Executive function: "The mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully." — Harvard Center on the Developing Child)
Since it's very hard to self-direct your future without strong executive function, the CFW is usually the best starting point for anyone feeling the need to be better able to get the right things finished.
I can get things done!
...but no one ever hears about it.
Authentic Visibility exists to help working creatives get more attention for and make more money with their creative work...without stooping to grody bro-marketer tactics and desperate appeals.
If you're able to get things done, when you decide to do them, but your work is flying under the radar, AV is for you, and you should start there.
- In Authentic Visibility you'll learn to talk about your work in a way that compels attention from the right people.
- You'll navigate the ecosystem of actions that lead to your work being seen and having an impact.
- You'll develop marketing assets and a plan for building audience and gaining clients.
We do all this on the deeply-rooted base of your values, how you want to show up in the world, and your authentic voice.
At a high level, AV is where you'll take control of the public side of your work, and start to feel joy in connecting with readers, viewers, clients, and customers.
Do you need both?
Start with the Authentic Visibility free class: How to Get People Wildly Obsessed With Your Work, and click through to the full information page about Authentic Visibility.
From that page, you have access to a package deal where you can save an additional $100 on the Creative Focus Workshop, when you sign up for both courses!