Sometimes our journeys ebb and flow, twist and turn, and then go full circle in ways we don’t expect.  Creative business is like that— it can be a very winding road. But oh the places we’ll go!

I’ve heard my friend and groundbreaking copywriter, Ashlyn Carter (of Ashlyn Writes) say more than once that starting a creative business is like a weird psychological experiment we perform on ourselves, and it so is.

Over the last 4-ish weeks, I have gutted my business.  I mean ripped this baby down to studs.  I asked really hard questions and got 100x more honest with myself.

Here’s the deal: It’s not about what I could do well.  I basically have a hat rack for business roles and ideas I’ve tried on in response to that question.

Branding-Content-Graphic Design-Coaching-Strategy-Art Classes-Flodesk Tutorials-VIP Days-10 month Web Design projects: check, check, check. Any one of these could be a viable business.

It’s not even about what would sell and pay my bills, on its own at least. Sales and finances are pretty essential, but if making a livable income was to be my main measure of success, I might as well go job hunting and work for someone else.

It’s not about chasing down the latest trends that the business gurus say are non-negotiable in order to crush 7 figures in 2022.  Posting 2-3x a day on TikTok, I’m looking at you.

After I shredded all the program/services, redid my website and updated the domain, I returned to the promise I made myself in a dark room grappling with the early days of a brain injury that cost me livelihood in 2018.

I decided then if I ever were to build anything again, it would have to be something I love more than everything I’ve lost.

It was in that dark place, I fought back with encouragement.  I went and found every creator doing the things I wished I could be doing and started encouraging them like it was an Olympic sport.  Like my life depended on it.  Because in those early days, it pretty much did.

As I have gotten brutally honest about what I love most and how I can serve you the best… everything changed.

There’s a difference between your skills, the things you can do well, and the center of what you are supposed to do, the best gift you have to offer to the world around you.

So, it is my pleasure to welcome you to From the Studio Floor, a space to find encouragement for the very winding-beautiful-challenging-stretching road of creative life and business.

This isn’t a standard business blog.  Rather, this is an invitation to journey together.

I’m writing and painting full time, building a fine art studio and artful business resource shop for creatives virtually from scratch.

I want to build this with you, to pull back the curtains on a travelogue of the creative life.  Part pigment and page and stories from the studio, part writing to create pauses for your soul to breathe, part resilience, artful resources, and tips to help your creative business grow.

The name From the Studio Floor comes from the fact I often sit on the floor when I think and write and research.  The studio floor isn’t where wadded-up ideas go to die, it’s where my creativity comes most fully alive.

My deepest hope is I can create a space that does the same thing for you.