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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.
the autonomous creative
How to find (and actually talk to) your ideal clients, with Sarah Marie Lacy
Listen to the episode: That’s been a huge thing of just letting myself have that identity of “I am an artist.” This is a real job. This is actual work. I am allowed to make money. I am allowed to succeed and thrive at this, and I refuse to make myself small anymore. Sarah Marie Lacy When painter Sarah Marie Lacy decided to double down on portrait commissions as her primary source of income, she was severely undercharging for her work, but had no idea what her prices should be, or who would possibly pay those much-higher prices. Now? Sarah has a six-month waiting list, regularly rubs elbows with CEOs and ambassadors, and is a member of the most exclusive…
How to stop waiting for permission to be a professional creative, with filmmaker Henry Thong
Listen to the episode: “I’m an all or nothing person. So when I get that resistance…it’s like a stubborn trigger in me that gets triggered and I’m like, you know what? I’m gonna use the frustration that I feel that people aren’t seeing what I’m seeing, or the resistance that I’m getting. I’m gonna use that as motivation to get it done.” HENRY THONG On this episode, I’m joined by award-winning documentary filmmaker Henry Thong for a conversation about courage before confidence. Henry’s entire career is arguably based on his willingness to get out there before he’s “ready.” He began his freelance career right out of high school, skipping film school altogether. He moved from Australia to NY, without a…
How to handle your creative business finances—even if you’re “not a math person,” with Shawn Fink
Listen to the episode: Do the thing. You might not be ready. It might not be ready. But put it out there anyway… …because that’s the only way you’re gonna know. SHAWN FINK On this episode, I’m joined by fellow business strategist and courage coach, Shawn Fink, for a wide-ranging and empathetic conversation about the math you need to take control of your creative business. Shawn explains the importance of releasing your fears around business math, and having the courage to achieve your revenue goals. And I reveal how simple math can help you diagnose and close an income gap, design your business, and set yourself up for success. We know business math can be scary, especially for creatives, but…
Are you exploiting yourself and your own creative labor? with Tara McMullin
Listen to the episode: Labor exploitation is labor exploitation, whether it happens in the non-profit world or the for-profit world. Or in the home-work world, or the educational world. It’s all still labor exploitation. And I believe very strongly that whether we’re talking about goal setting, or we’re talking about business models, or we’re talking about any of these things, that the most fundamental thing is that organizations, businesses, institutions, need to be set up in a way in which the people doing the labor are not exploited. Systems in which the people doing the labor are taken care of. That to me must be the starting point for any organization, for-profit, or non-profit. Tara mcmullin “Self-actualization is not more…
Life is more than an endless slog of tasks, with Sarah Von Bargen
Listen to the episode: “Truly, until I was like, oh god, like 34, I was working two jobs to make ends meet. I was teaching and then I was also like tutoring on the side……or I was teaching full-time plus like publishing a new blog post. And I just sort of realized like if I want my life to feel like anything other than just a slog of task after task, after duty, after duty, I really need to treat enjoyment with the same seriousness that I treat having a dentist appointment.” SARAH VON BARGEN Sarah Von Bargen was a highly productive blogger for 14 years, showed up constantly on Instagram, and had years of success on Pinterest. Sarah also…
Embracing your limits in order to find creative freedom and fulfillment, with Oliver Burkeman
Listen to the episode: There’s no alternative here. It’s absolutely inevitable that things that matter will be being neglected while you do other things. And this is just built into the condition of being a finite human who will always have more goals, ambitions, demands, felt obligations…always have more of those than can be met. There is no escaping that. And in that inevitability and that inescapability there is a kind of freedom, right? Because it’s like—nobody’s getting outta that situation, so you can stop struggling to do it. You can stop trying to get on top of everything, because it’s definitely never happening. Oliver Burkeman NYT bestselling author Oliver Burkeman has more than a decade of experience discussing topics…
Discovering your creative system (and the perpetual motion machine), with Austin Kleon
Listen to the episode: “If I’d waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started ‘being creative,’ well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.” AUSTIN KLEON, STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of a trilogy of books about creativity in the digital age: Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going. Before all of that, he’d been a librarian, a web designer, and an advertising copywriter. Discover Austin’s path to becoming a famous author, how he successfully…