For creative iconoclasts who want to pay their bills AND do the work they love, get insights, ideas, and next steps from a graphic novelist, author, & business coach. Find out how to build a balanced and productive creative life, and to thrive financially with simple, sustainable business foundations—without creative compromise.
What you learned in 3rd grade that could actually change your life
Your creative endeavors, broadly speaking, bring all kinds of important benefits to your life.
Your creative business, however, has a single MOST important job: Getting you paid, and paid well enough that you are not scrambling and struggling.
What, specifically, does that mean for you?
And how can you take charge of making sure you bring in the money you need?
um…it involves a little MATH.
I know when I mention math, creatives of all kinds tend to tune out.
Mention business math?
Less tuning out…
…more running away (screaming).
But this week on the podcast, we bring hope for the non-numerate artists.
In this episode of The Autonomous Creative, I’m joined by business strategist and courage coach Shawn Fink for a wide-ranging and empathetic conversation about the math you need to stop aiming for the absolute bare-minimum and start making the money you need.
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, and design your business for success.
How I must look to you right now:
But before you make like the see-no-evil monkey 🙈 : we’re not talking balance sheets, amortization, depreciation, or fixed costs.
We’re talkin’ a little 3rd-grade multiplication and division—which will reveal the strategic decisions that you need to make in order to build a sustainable creative business.
When I say simple math, I mean it!
It’s our mission to make this as painless as possible for you, because getting comfy with your math is transformational! It’s how you go from never feeling confident you’re going to scrape by this month, and being able to relax into a sense of security that you’ve got what you need.
In related news:
Coming very soon, the next enrollment for the Autonomous Creative Incubator!
The Incubator is the artist-centered coaching program where self-employed creatives design a sustainable, profitable business rooted in their creative expertise.
In the Incubator, you can start getting paid like the expert you are in under six months.
Over the next few weeks, you’ll get valuable resources (like the Cyclical Burnout article I shared with you last week). You’ll also have live opportunities to get feedback from me directly on your business and next steps so that you can keep moving, whether or not you join the Incubator.
Applications will open March 15, and the next cohort will begin on April 1.
(Of course, if you have questions about the Incubator now, please hit reply and ask!)
This is your opportunity to let me know whether you want to hear about building your creative business this month, or not. I want to respect your preferences!
It’s going to be a great month! I can’t wait.
Warmly,
Jessica
Autonomous Creative
With Jessica Abel
For creative iconoclasts who want to pay their bills AND do the work they love, get insights, ideas, and next steps from a graphic novelist, author, & business coach. Find out how to build a balanced and productive creative life, and to thrive financially with simple, sustainable business foundations—without creative compromise.
So, as of writing this email, my time tracking tells me that since January 12 I’ve spent 143 hours and 10 minutes on revising the Creative Focus Workshop. That feels like an undercount, TBH. I’ve also shut down several sources of revenue for Autonomous Creative, most notably, an entire program, Authentic Visibility. The numbers are not looking good. And just in the last 3 weeks, I’ve spent close to $5000, said goodbye to my longest serving team member (good luck, Lou! 😢), hired a whole new...
Got 5 minutes to play around with me? I’ve put together a tiny treasure hunt for you full of old, slightly embarrassing photos, art, and ephemera from my cartoonist past for you to discover. For example: Want to see me drunk in a bar in Tijuana with semi-famous cartoonists in 1999? Oh yes you do. These photos have never before been on the internets! No joke: I had to literally scan small rectangles of paper to make this for you. my weapon of choice in the 1990s Also: unpublished work! Comic...
Once, when I told her to empty the dishwasher, my daughter’s face clouded into a scowl. But it wasn’t simply that she didn’t want to empty the dishwasher. No, she told me that she had been just about to get up and empty the dishwasher on her own. As soon as I told her to do it, I stole the virtue of doing it solo, and I robbed her of her agency. And now, she wanted to sit down and NEVER empty the dishwasher. Sound familiar? Yeah, me too. But wait, there’s more: The other day, a friend said,...