Blog
Articles on finishing self-generated work and building expertise-based creative businesses, with the Creative Engine, Ground Truth, and Capacity frameworks.
not-testimonial
How to build a self-sustaining creative practice without forced-march “productivity” culture
Listen to the episode: “My goal isn’t to win the hours. I want to be present.” Shelley Evans When a “good career” starts to feel like a bad relationship, walking away is just the start. After you escape the grind, you realize the grind is YOU, and the work has just begun. Shelley and Matt share how crisis-mode and productivity hacks kept them reactive—and what changed when they chose a self‑sustaining creative practice over the fool’s gold of trying to do it all, all at once. In this open, honest discussion, we look at why mainstream productivity culture fails creative people—and what actually works instead. Shelley describes realizing her Hollywood career was akin to an “abusive spouse”. After she chose…
Celebrating 6 new creative businesses!🎉🙌
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…
How being brave just ONCE brought forth a world of opportunities, and kickstarted a dream creative career
If you have big dreams of starting a creative career… If you can imagine making something awesome and ambitious… …then you can also imagine screwing it all up, being found out as a loser and a fraud, being banned from all future creative career options and endeavors, and being sent to the corner to think about your life choices. That’s impostor syndrome. You’d be shocked at the people who struggle with impostor syndrome. It’s basically almost everyone. I’ve definitely felt it (“Oh crap, I am not department chair material! What the hell am I doing? I will be found out and fired and my family will starve because I’m a fraud!”). It comes from caring deeply about your work, and admiring…
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…
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…
Coping With Staying at Home: How to Survive—and Thrive—While Under Quarantine
The Autonomous Creative Collective is the community of current students and alumni of the Creative Focus Workshop. Coping With Staying at Home: Wisdom from a 25-year vet of social distancing and sheltering at home If there’s anyone I trust to know something real and reliable about surviving, and thriving while trying to cope with staying at home under quarantine, it’s Jennie Spotila. Jennie has the chronic illness myalgic encephalomyelitis, which has led to her being disabled and mostly house-bound for 25 years. She’s writing a book, is an active advocate for people with ME and ME research, and is a consistently-supportive bright and shining star in the Creative Focus community. (Jennie and I have been working together for several years…