The Autonomous Creative
What does it take to become a successful writer or artist? Go behind the scenes with amazing professional creatives in a wide variety of fields to find out what, exactly, it took for them to be able to quit the day job and build a creative career fully committed to the work they're most passionate about. As a creative yourself, you know that whenever two artists or writers get together, inevitably the conversation turns to, “No, but seriously, how do you do it?” This show is that conversation. And you’re invited.
Episodes
“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...
What happens when you follow your curiosity down an unexpected rabbit hole…and it leads to massive business success? Marie Poulin started as a freelance designer, but her obsession with systems thinking and digital organization evolved into something much bigger. In this candid conversation, she reveals how a side project teaching Notion exploded into a thriving business, and the hard choices and major pivots it took to get there. ...
What happens to your business when you take an extended break from social media? Will it fall apart? Wither on the vine?
What if the answer is…not much?
Meg Casebolt is an SEO expert and the founder of Love at First Search, an agency that helps online businesses get found in search results, and to turn new readers into leads, subscribers and sales.
Meg’s business used to be super active on social media, until a few years ...
Do you struggle to figure out how to price your work so that it’s actually profitable for you…and then to actually say that price out loud, without mumbling or undercutting yourself?
Do you find yourself rushing to offer a discount BEFORE anyone even asks?
On this episode, I’m joined by Rauni Higson, one of Britain’s leading silversmiths. When I first met Rauni, she was chronically undercharging for her work, experiencing majo...
Samantha Clark is an award-winning artist and lauded author who recently transitioned from an academic career to creative coaching. After a year of hitting her income goals and filling her roster with clients, Sam hit a revenue ceiling.
Sam realized she needed to earn more—a lot more. Especially if she wanted to build up her savings and plan for retirement. But she didn’t know how to increase her revenue without increasing her...
If you have a brain that doesn’t work the way it seems like everyone else’s does, or at least the way people tell you it should, that can be challenging. But can it also be a source of strength.
On this episode of the Autonomous Creative, we're talking about neurodiversity and how to identify the tools you need to move from intention to action. I’m joined by Emily Zilber, a curator with twenty years of professional experience ...
Gabriela Pereira, my friend and the founder of DIY MFA, interviews me about creative flow. I share my strategies for building focus and reducing decision fatigue, and we do a major deep dive into one of my favorite topics: how to end the never-ending cycle of burnout and design a sustainable creative career.
More from the episode
- Tips for transforming your creative practice into a habit you don't have to think about ...
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 club in Ottawa. In this super-actionable conversation, Sa...
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 back-up plan, and parlayed his personal success into a full-time job as ...
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, ...
“Self-actualization is not more important than feeding yourself.”
In this episode, Tara McMullin helps us understand why solving for your needs first is essential to running any creative business (with your humanity intact).
Tara is a writer, podcaster, and producer who used to be a business strategist (among many other things). But in late 2021, she pivoted to focus on her creative work. On this episode, w...
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 ran several online courses where she helped thousands of people learn to make small, but significant changes to improve their lives.
Using a strategic approach to happiness, Sarah recently mapped out a huge transformation in her own life, pivoting from online internet personality to dig...
NYT bestselling author Oliver Burkeman has more than a decade of experience discussing topics like productivity, procrastination, and anxiety in his column for The Guardian newspaper, This Column Will Change Your Life. On this episode, Oliver talks about his game-changing new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals, his career path, how he came into the role of productivity expert, and the freedom of what he calls “a...
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 navigated that pivot, and the vast web of influences that inspire his creative work and daily life.
...
Alison Bechdel is an award-winning cartoonist best known for her long-running comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, and her autobiographical graphic novel-turned-play, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Discover the inspiration behind Alison’s most recent book, The Secret to to Superhuman Strength, how she’s learning to create healthy relationships with both her work and the humans in her life, and the impact of scarcity on her creative...
Breaking into a creative field, whether you choose to be self-employed or not, can really leave you feeling like you're up the creek without a paddle. Who are you supposed to talk to, and when? Also, where do you find them? What are you supposed to do in the meantime until things...happen? And once you start doing that thing, how you do know when to stop?
We talked about it all at this panel discussion I moderated with three d...
Gene Luen Yang is a prolific cartoonist whose personal work is deeply rooted in the Chinese-American experience. He’s best known for his original graphic novel American Born Chinese, and his work with franchise stories such as Superman and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Hear how Gene went from being a computer engineer and high school teacher to full-time cartoonist and recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant.
More from the episode
Tomm Moore is an award-winning animator and director, and the co-founder of Cartoon Saloon animation studio in Kilkenny, Ireland. His notable work includes Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea, and the Secret of Kells, a trilogy of films based on Irish folklore. Discover how Tomm and his partners built Cartoon Saloon from scratch, without any prior business knowledge, in the small city where they grew up.
More from the ep...
Josh O’Neill is a comics writer and editor, and co-owner of the Philadelphia-based publishing company, Beehive Books. Using Kickstarter, Josh and his business partner Maëlle Doliveux, publish books and literary objects too risky for traditional publishers. Josh shares what inspired him to pursue publishing, and how crowdfunding allows Beehive to create art that’s for and by their community.
More from the episode
- Josh ex...
In 2016, Jenna Weiss-Berman quit her job and decided to launch her own podcast company a month before her first child was born. It was an almost immediate success, and Pineapple Street Studios never took an outside investment. Jenna explains what prompted her risky career leap, and how she taught herself to run a business—on her own terms.
More from the episode…
- Jenna explains how she got her start in the podcasting ind...
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