The Maker's Playbook

Send us Fan Mail We are back! Season 3 of the Maker’s Playbook podcast kicks off with Adam Field! In this episode, Adam and I dig into how he managed to say yes to a multi-year residency program at the Archie Bray with 2 kiddos in tow, how he integrates social media into his studio practice, and the vulnerability it takes to change the style of our work when also making a living from that work. Th...

Send us Fan Mail It’s taken me longer than expected to finish writing this episode. But I suppose that should come as no surprise given the constant influx of world news being thrown at us. At times like this, just like in 2020 and so many other moments of social awakening in the last few years, our work as artists can feel disconnected with the immediate needs of the world. On this week’s solo ep...

Send us Fan Mail Do you think of the word “business” as a dirty word? Does the idea of starting a business seem like the last thing that might bring about the change we so desperately need in the world? Could a business possibly do as much good for our communities as a non-profit organization? Well, this week’s podcast guest is building a business on their terms. And it’s one creating quite an imp...

Send us Fan Mail Burnout - If it wasn’t a word in your vocabulary before 2020, it probably is now. It’s a topic talked about a lot in the land of the self-employed and generally, the tactics for avoiding it are always given by someone who’s just recently, slowly, crawling out of it. But don’t worry - Nicole Dacey and I aren’t going to give you any of those tactics you’ve heard a million times. No,...

Send us Fan Mail What if you set up your life around one non-negotiable? How would that inform the decisions you make every day? How would that change your day-to-day schedule - where you live, what you choose to do for work (if it’s outside of the non-negotiable), how you commute… all of it. Maybe it’s a radical idea, but when I heard today’s podcast guest, Mike Tavares, describe this decision it...

Send us Fan Mail What’s the through-line for everyone thinking about going full-time with their art? Or even for those who are already full-time and self-employed? No matter what, aside from a slightly obsessive passion for our craft the big elephant in the room for us all is Risk. And today’s podcast guest stared risk in the face and said yes anyway. She said yes to moving cross country and yes t...

Send us Fan Mail Our first ever panel is on the podcast this week! I’m chatting with not one, but two of the founding members of the Village Potters Clay Center in Asheville, North Carolina - a brilliant community studio that clearly has cracked the code on not only helping potters and artists push themselves creatively but also in creating sustainable partnerships and viable businesses. So basica...

Send us Fan Mail The Big Announcement: We've added ONE MORE Free Webinar about the 4 Most Common Instagram Photography Mistakes (and how to avoid them. Yes, even with your cell phone). Click here to reserve your seat for this LIVE class on January 26th at 2:30pm CST. Today, my photography tips come directly from a recent email conversation I was having with another maker about how things “sho...

Send us Fan Mail Photography can be overwhelming if you don’t have an efficient system for it. But it is possible to have an efficient system for it! And if you don’t believe on that - because you’ve been totally exhausted and frustrated by the google search results so far... Well, I’ve asked a few past students to share their experiences today on the podcast. If you are a maker looking to create...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever thought, "If I only had a larger Instagram following then..." But have you thought about what it would really take to do that? How many hours it would take to create the content to grow that audience? There's no one that knows that reality much better than the one and only Curt Hammerly of Hammerly Ceramics. And as Curt mentioned at the end, crucial to...

Send us Fan Mail Our final new interview episode before a little holiday and end-of-year break is an insightful one. So often all of us can feel like we're behind... As if we could be so much farther along with our making practices or small business had we only known 10 years ago that this is what we were going to want to do. But what if all those disparate life experiences are actually creat...

Send us Fan Mail I've heard it said more than once by makers of many kinds: Being a self-employed artist isn't a job you turn off. It's more a way of life. There are certain choices we can make that can make life more stressful or more in tune with the kind of business (and making practice!) we want to have. This approach to building a life came up once again in my conversation this...

Send us Fan Mail It's the holiday season and makers around the world are hustling to get their listings online and take advantage of increased sales during this time of year. But what if your sales aren't going as planned? What if you haven't sold as much as you'd hoped? What if you haven't sold ANYTHING? What does it all mean? On this solo episode of the podcast, I'm...

Send us Fan Mail Is there a singular aspect of your craft that you love above every other step of the process? For the ceramicists that are listening, there are SO many steps to our process! Making clay, building or throwing, trimming, glazing, firing... And there's seemingly endless options within any given one of those steps. How are we supposed to become proficient in all of these things?!...

Send us Fan Mail When I first started this podcast I wanted to make sure that we had a diverse breadth of stories. In fact, it was paramount to the focus of what this podcast would be. I was looking out onto the internet for how other ceramicists and makers made a living from the things they make, and all I really saw was one example - people hustling on Instagram to grow an audience, push that au...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever thought to yourself, "well, if I had that many followers, than I could sell more and quit my full-time job. Getting more followers is the solution to all my small business dreams!" Or perhaps, you've been watching a bit of TV and thought, “Well, if I was on the Great Pottery Throw Down, I could quickly increase my audience size, sell loads of pots, qui...

Send us Fan Mail So often I hear makers talk about what they “should” be doing. How they “should” start posting on Instagram or “should” sell at markets, or “should” sell online. But how many of us have stopped to consider what we prefer? What suits us the best? What is the route in business that is most natural to our personalities and our personal lives? Greta Michelle is crafting a business tha...

Send us Fan Mail Season 2 is here! We are kicking things off with the one and only Sunshine Cobb. Sunshine and I dig right into it from the beginning. From sharing, oversharing, and the importance of boundaries as makers and educators, to diversifying income streams, to deciding what you are willing to give up to make these crazy full-time artist lives of ours work. We talk about moving cross coun...

Send us Fan Mail We're taking a quick Season 1 break here on the podcast. New episodes will be coming back at the start of October, but in the meantime, enjoy the top 4 most played episodes since the start of 2021! In the meantime, be sure you don't miss out on our free monthly photography tips! Click here to download our At-Home Photography Cheat Sheet and be added to our insider's...

Send us Fan Mail We're taking a quick Season 1 break here on the podcast. New episodes will be coming back at the start of October, but in the meantime, enjoy the top 4 most played episodes since the start of 2021! In the meantime, be sure you don't miss out on our free monthly photography tips! Click here to download our At-Home Photography Cheat Sheet and be added to our insider's...

Send us Fan Mail We're taking a quick Season 1 break here on the podcast. New episodes will be coming back at the start of October, but in the meantime, enjoy the top 4 most played episodes since the start of 2021! In the meantime, be sure you don't miss out on our free monthly photography tips! Click here to download our At-Home Photography Cheat Sheet and be added to our insider's...

Send us Fan Mail We're taking a quick Season 1 break here on the podcast. New episodes will be coming back at the start of October, but in the meantime, enjoy the top 4 most-played episodes since the start of 2021! In the meantime, be sure you don't miss out on our free monthly photography tips! Click here to download our At-Home Photography Cheat Sheet and be added to our insider's...

Send us Fan Mail Having it all…. Doing it all… it’s the elusive dream. And while I don't think I'm actually doing it all, running 2 photography studios, starting a podcast, and launching an online course all while moving and starting one of the busiest wedding seasons in the history of events, is a lot to manage. In this week's episode I'm sharing the hard-earned tools & tr...

Send us Fan Mail This week I’m chatting with Tamara Bryan, who you might know on Instagram as Tamara B Pottery. Tamara studied pottery in college and has been working out of her home studio on and off for the past 20 years. I say on and off because as the primary care giver for her kiddos, while it may look to some that Tamara had the freedoms of a full-time potter, living the dream, the reality f...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome back to another episode of the Maker’s Playbook! If you’ve been following along real-time, you know this episode is launching a couple of days later than usual, because my friends… woof! It’s August, and I’m still a wedding photographer… life is a weeeee bit crazy. This week, I’m sharing an incredibly candid conversation I had with Katie Meili, who is a resident potter at...