What if there was a way to grow your audience or broaden your reach without hustling on social media? What if you could focus on fostering a handful of really close relationships with people who understood and appreciated your work, and then in turn, spent their own time working to promote that work and get it out to a curated audience of people interested in possibly purchasing that work? Does it sound too good to be true? Well, this week on the podcast, we talk about a possible business model that can do just these things. But it also gets talked down upon a lot in the industry because of what you might have to give up in order to enjoy it…

My chat this week with Virgil Ortiz is packed with insights. From pragmatic business advice, like protecting your intellectual property, to the less tangible topics of manifestation and trusting that things have a way of working out. The history of clay for the Cochiti people and how Virgil’s work, truly almost accidentally and yet oh so beautifully connects generations of storytellers is nothing less than astonishing.

“There’s only so much people can show you until you actually go and do it and fail and practice and practice until you get it….” This week on the podcast, I virtually sit down with Yairs Abraham who started his self-taught pottery journey in Buenos Aires, then moved to New Zealand, and now is potting away in his home studio in what spare time a baby and full-time job allows. But here’s the catch… he prefers it that way. And if his fantastically designed website is any indication, he’s definitely found the right solution for himself!

This week, my conversation with Page Kelly of Zephyr Valley Ceramics twists and turns, much like her career paths. A self-proclaimed “late bloomer,” there is this stunning moment in this conversation at about the 46-ish minute marker when Page discusses the narrative body of work she is currently producing, where I hear literally every experience she has had in the last 2 decades - inside and outside of working in clay - come together. It’s an encouraging moment, especially for those of us that feel like we are getting started in this beautiful journey a bit… well, later than others. Note: There is a tiny bit of adult language in the latter half of this episode, so if you are listening around kiddos are in a community setting, you might want to choose to pop on some headphones.

For all of you out there who have been listening to the podcast and thinking, “It’s too late for me to make a career move… I’m too far into this corporate job with the 401ks and the healthcare and all the stuff…” Well, this episode, my friends, is for you. Rebecca of GravesCo sheds light on the decades of experience she had before she “magically”created an “overnight success.” We also nerd out a bit on the way spreadsheets allow us to make creative decisions and I for one, am not so subtly vying for a spot as a new biz-bestie with the powerhouse woman. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to go from a solo maker to the leader of a team, you aren’t going to want to miss this episode.

Ceramics is not exactly an easily mobile art form. And depending on what you are making, it can take up a fair bit of space. So what the heck do you do when you move to New York City, but you know you are only going to be there for 2-4 years? And yet, you are fresh in the beginning stages of getting your business off the ground? Well, that’s exactly what Alex Olson is working on figuring out and this week we’re talking all about it, along with the reality of trying to build new healthy routines - both physically to ensure the longevity of working in clay, and mentally, when leaving in as busy of a place as NYC - that keep us inspired for the long game of making a living from the things we make.

In order to have kept my small business afloat for the last 12+ years, I had to learn a LOT of other skills that have absolutely nothing to do with crafting a photo. In fact, as you’ve heard from many past guests here on the podcast, once you go full-time with your craft, more often than not, you aren’t spending 100% of your time IN that craft. Instead, there’s admin and website updates and taxes and paperwork and customer service and…. Well, the list goes on, but I think you get the idea. To make a living from the things we make, there are a lot of skills required. But where the heck can you learn some of these skills? Well, for me, it was through in-person conferences. But thanks to the demands a global pandemic put on the world, all of those in-person conferences have realized they can provide these important resources to a heck of a lot more makers throughout the world if they hold a virtual conference. And starting in 2023, a brand new virtual summit is arriving. This week on the podcast, I’m chatting with the creator of Ceramicon. Elisabeth Young’s dream for Ceramicon is to offer an accessible way for people to learn multiple pottery techniques and business strategies from the artists they love and I’ll be joining the 17 other makers and small business owners, sharing some of our hard earned lessons in the pursuit of making a living from the things we make.

How often do you find yourself listening to another maker or hearing about another artist’s story to get to where they are now and saying, “Well that worked for them but I…” But I’m not in my 20s. But I’m married. But I have a dog, but I… It can be really easy for any of us (myself included) to come up with all the reasons we can not do something. Until, you hear about someone who, even with all of those things, is doing the thing. This week on the podcast I’m chatting with Ido Ferber who has picked up and moved to Tokyo in order to studio ceramics. No, not directly from undergrad. And no, not even by himself. Ido and his wife, who is a maker in who own right, have both moved abroad to figure out how to make a living from the things they make.

The irony of publishing this episode on Black Friday isn't lost on me. But here's the thing: Your emails are NOT the same as the big box stores. At least, not if you are actually (regularly) engaging with the people who have trusted you enough to give you their email address... The true irony is that oftentimes, thanks to our nerves around feeling like we might be spamming people, we wind up only emailing them when we have a shop update or an announcement about a market or show.

But what feels more spammy? Only hearing from someone when they want you to buy something or consistently learning more about an artistic process and the artist behind the pieces on a regular basis, that then culminates in the opportunity to purchase that work? On this week's solo episode, I'm dispelling some of the common myths about email marketing and how popping into your subscribers inbox is not the same as the big box stores sending endless emails to all of us this weekend.

Dream with me for a minute - What if instead of stressing out over figuring out everything, you simply take the next step? This week on the podcast, I’m interviewing Horacio Casillas, who is currently a resident at Companion Gallery. And he’s spending this unique time as a resident artist doing just that - taking the time to slow down and think. He doesn’t have the next 5 years of life already plotted out and ticking off the to-do list towards whatever crazy goal that demands to push harder and wake up earlier and grind. Instead (despite giving himself set work hours), he’s allowing himself to reflect and make at a pace that leaves space for new ideas. And as soon as you see his unique style of work, no doubt, you might be a bit more convinced (like me) that there’s something to be said for a bit of slowness in our lives…

You’ve just walked into a new gallery exhibition, and immediately you start thinking about the artist who created these amazing works in front of you. You dream of working in the arts and what that would be like. But have you ever thought about all the other ways you could also work in the arts? To put on that one exhibit there is also a gallery, and thus, a gallery owner (not to mention gallery employees), there’s potentially a marketing company that helps the gallery spread the word on new features, there might be writers and art critics that write reviews, and there may have even been a curator pulling all of these various pieces and people together. So, when we really get to thinking about it, there are a lot of ways to make a living working in the arts. And, as you are about to hear from this week’s guest, perhaps, if your goal has been to make an impact - to raise awareness around important social issues - well… maybe making the art isn’t always the fastest or biggest or most direct way to make that impact…

Should I sell online? Or should I sell at in-person markets? Should I accept wholesale? Should I teach? These are just a handful of the myriad of questions we makers often ask ourselves when trying to figure out how the heck to get our small businesses off the ground. But it’s hard to know what the right choice is for yourself until you try many of these things. And when I say try, I don’t necessarily mean just throwing up a table at one in-person market, where it rains on one day of the weekend, or maybe the hosts of the market don’t do as much marketing beforehand and the turn out was bad, so now you’ve decided that in-person markets are crap and you’re never do one again… No, often times we have to try all of these different routes to supporting our craft a couple of times, or maybe, if you’re like today’s podcast guest… 22 times. That’s right, twenty two.

Pricing your art… It’s part math, part alchemy, and a whole lot of emotion. It should just be simple math, but somehow it's never that simple. On today's solo episode I dig into the differences between cost-based pricing and value-based pricing (and why the second one is so important specifically for artists). Of course, as is true with most things in life - The topic is a bit more complex than we would probably prefer.If you are looking for more support and help in navigating the complex questions we all have to answer in order to even try to make a living from the things we make, come check out the conversations happening inside of The Community - where makers from all over the world, newbies and makers a few decades into their career, are problem-solving together in order to figure out how the heck to take this shared dream of all of ours - to make a living from the things we make - from dream to reality. Learn more at: https://www.makersplaybook.com/community/

Most of us dream about quitting our full-time jobs in order to do what we love. In fact, that might just be why you are listening to this very podcast. But what if, instead of thinking of your full-time job as the thing holding you back from being creative, you approached it from the perspective of the thing that allows you to be creative. Maybe not necessarily while doing that job (although this week’s guest one could argue gets to do that too), but thanks to the reliability of that job - you get to make whatever you want to make. Whatever you are most curious about. Without worrying about whether or not you can sell it…

How many of us feel like we need to have every single detail figured out before we start something? I know I sure do. If this is your first podcast episode, you will soon figure out, I am awfully (obsessively) Type A for being a creative. And while at times that has served me really well in systematizing processes and being organized in order to use my time efficiently, at other times… it’s slowed me down. Analyzing every pro & con to every website platform out there for months and months before just simply starting the darn thing! Sound familiar? It can be scary to start, so I think (at least it’s true for me) we give ourselves a false feeling of security by analyzing things until their final breath, thinking we can solve every possible problem that might come up before we even start. When, in reality, you just have to start in order to figure it all out. At least, that was the case for this week’s podcast guest, Juliette Davin.Juliette is one of the founding members of our online membership, The Community - where makers from all over the world are joining together to have meaningful conversations around many of the questions that plague us all - Etsy vs. your own website, how to start an email list, managing Instagram without loosing your sanity, how to price your work, and so much more!

Today on the podcast, I’m discussing one of my favorite, most insightful, yet most difficult to stick to topics… growing slowly. If I could do it all over again, and go back 12 years in time, the one thing I would do differently would be to actually hold onto the work outside of starting my own business longer. I was in such a rush to feel the false legitimacy of being “full-time” that I missed out on the benefits (and support) that was possible when you weren’t only relying on your craft to pay the bills. This week’s podcast guest has strategic patience about growing his ceramics studio which is deeply refreshing.

There are two very exciting things happening on the podcast this week! #1 - I’m excited to announce that for the first time since starting this podcast, we have a bit more support to help me get new episodes out into your headphones! For the next couple of months, the one and only Amaco is sponsoring the Maker’s Photography Styling System! And I couldn’t be more grateful & excited. #2 - This week’s interview with Ben Carter is actually Part 2! Part 1 can be found over on Ben’s show, Tales of a Red Clay Rambler. But you can really listen to them in whatever order you want, so don’t stress :)

Why do you want to have 10,000 followers on Instagram? What will that do for you? Or rather… what do you think that will do? Today’s world is full of encouragement to grow - have more followers, make more content, do more, diversify income streams - do more and grow, grow, GROW! But have you ever stopped to ask yourself, “Why?” On this week’s episode, host Rebecca Ickes Carra sheds a bit of light on the Myth of Growth and how it might not solve the problems we think it will (it could in fact create more problems. Or at least create a deep feeling of burnout…). Encouraging us all to think critically, she also discusses the ways we can approach growth strategically in order to build the lives of our dreams.

On today’s episode, Tom Kemp manages to hold space for both a deeply philosophical conversation while at the same time providing pragmatic advice for all of us working to figure out how the heck to make a living from the things we make. I personally, have never connected much with the philosophy and the “what is art?” conversations that often spring up, but when married side-by-side with the realistic, and the pragmatic - the benefits of things like social media for artists to test out ideas in the marketplace alongside the difficult slog that is practicing a craft and teaching your body how to physically do something new in order to express that “what is art” idea? Now that is a conversation I could have had last twice as long as this interview.You’ve heard us talk a lot about Instagram here on the podcast in the last few weeks and it seems on continuous best-practice, how to succeed & grow on social media that every maker - whether side-hustler or full-timer - has said is rooted in consistency. Consistently showing up. But I know a lot of times consistency is hard if you don’t have a way to create photos and videos that you are actually proud of.

Is the thing you are dreaming of doing actually going to provide you with the life you are dreaming of having? On today’s episode, I sit down with Becca Otis (yes, from Wheeltalk Podcast!) to dispel some of the myths behind a lot of goals we self-employed artists often set. Dream of owning your own studio & hosting classes, she’s done it. Dream of selling your work to make a living, she’s done it. Want big-name brands to contract you for elusive wholesale work? That’s how Becca actually started her business! And now… she’s intentionally working in someone else’s pottery business instead.