Starving Artist No More: Recent Episodes
Jennifer Jill Araya
Starving Artist No More is a source of hope, ideas, and possibility for creative entrepreneurs who want more from their businesses than constant hustle and a mindset of scarcity. You can build a creative business that meets your needs, and I'm excited to help you get there.
What habits do you have? What are the things that you do automatically, on a regular basis? When we talk about habits, often the first place we think of is at bad habits we have – smoking, doomscrolling social media, staying up too late. But today, I want to talk about good habits. Epictetus, a Roman Stoic philosopher, wrote that “if you want to do something, make a habit of it.” So what are the habits that we want? What are the things we want to do, and how can we make those things habitual in our creative lives? Today, let’s figure that out together. Let’s look at the making of a habit.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How to determine what habits will help you in your creative work and in the "business" side of your business.
- Why starting small matters when you are figuring out what new habits you want and where you will start.
- How to use a four-step process to successfully create new habits that you'll actually be able to stick with.
- Why knowing what will "trigger" your habit to happen is important.
- What "habit stacking" is and how to use it.
- What fun has to do with habits.
- Why Supportive Habits can help you be your best artistic self.
In this episode, I reference this article from Daily Stoic, and I reference the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
In almost every artistic training program the world over, regardless of the specific creative discipline, the pursuit of perfection is a driving factor in the training. I spent hours in the practice room during my conservatory training practicing the same passages over and over to get closer to that ever-elusive “perfect” ideal. Lessons and masterclasses were fine-tuned examinations of the details of technique, always in search of a better, cleaner, “more perfect” sound. There is a lot in that mindset that is commendable and valuable, but in my work with artist business owners, I see too many creatives willing to die in that pursuit of perfection. They are allowing perfect to be the enemy of good. Don’t let yourself fall into that trap. Let go of perfection and focus on your progress.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Where perfection can be helpful and useful to you, and where it can hold you back.
- How to use a focus on progress to improve the "business" side of your business.
- Why worrying about perfection can hamper your creativity.
- What Supportive Habits have to do with your progress and growth as an artist.
- How to change your mindset around both perfection and progress to help you thrive in your work life and your personal life.
In this episode, I reference this article by Austin Kleon, plus several books:
- Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- The Money Book by Joseph D'Agnese and Denise Kiernan
- Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
I also reference a previous episode of this podcast: Episode 016: The Six Components of a Thriving Creative Business,
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
I have a bit of a controversial thought to share: Hustling isn't a good thing. Allow me to explain why I say that. Hustling is all about working harder than everyone else and doing everything imaginable to get the job or gig or project or whatever. It's about sacrificing everything else on the altar of getting ahead. Hustling is what the "starving artist" mindset is all about, and you all know that I despise that mindset. Yes, as creative entrepreneurs, we do absolutely need to work hard. But working hard ALL THE TIME -- aka hustling -- is the opposite of helpful. Frankly, I hate hustling. Our best creative ideas come to us when we're allowing our mind the freedom to rest and be still. Creativity doesn't thrive when you're stressed and tired and frazzled and ... well ... starving. Yes, work hard, but work hard with balance and calm and intention. Work smarter, not harder. Today, we’re going to discuss how you can say no to the hustle.
In this episode, you will learn:
- What it means to hustle, and why hustling isn’t a good thing.
- How to reject the many negative aspects of hustle culture.
- Why the mindset you hold while you seek to grow your business will have long-term implications.
- How to let go of the guilt you feel when you’re not working.
- What strategies you can use to tackle your overwhelming task list and busy daily schedule.
- Why it’s important to prioritize your health and well-being.
- How saying no to the hustle can make a positive difference in your creative work and in your personal life.
In this episode, I mention that the Taming the Muse Group Workshop is getting underway in one week, on July 19, 2023. Registration is now open, and a few spots are still available. for the summer cohort of my group workshop. The workshop begins on July 19, 2023 and will meet weekly through the end of September.
I reference the Merriam-Webster definition for "hustle," and I mention two research articles regarding workplace well-being:
- Remote Workers Feel Productive but Also Guilty
- Impact of Workplace Stress
I also mention the book "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less" by Greg McKeown.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
This episode is originally being released on July 3, 2023, meaning that as I’m recording this, it’s the midpoint of the calendar year. Recently, on The Half Marathoner substack (which is an awesome newsletter if you’re a runner, like me), Terrell Johnson wrote, "This time of the year … has always felt like second base to me. As if you’re on a baseball diamond, running the bases, and you’re about to touch second; you’re at the farthest point from where you started — home — but you’re also half way to getting back there again." What a powerful image. You’re halfway through the journey that’s called 2023. We’re as far as we can get from the holiday season that always marks the delineation between calendar years, but we’re also halfway to getting back there.
This time of year is when business owners and leaders the world over are reviewing their plans for 2023, determining how things have been going so far, and making any needed changes. They’re taking time to figure out how they want to run the other two “bases” that are left in 2023.
What about you? Are you going to take some time over the next week or so to look back over the past six months and make plans for the coming six months? A lot of the creative entrepreneurs I work with struggle with the planning part of being an entrepreneur. So today I’m going to give you an exercise I think will help you wrap your brain around doing that deep planning work that’s necessary to allow your business to thrive. We’re going to talk about how to use your regret and your imagination to make future-shaped decisions.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why strategic planning within your creative business is worthwhile.
- How your past regrets can be an important motivator in the present.
- How you can use your imagination to ensure that you’re making the best decisions you can.
- What role your aversion to regret can play to help you overcome your fear of change.
- How to make decisions about your creative work that you will be proud of for years to come.
In this episode, I share three pieces of exciting news in the Starving Artist No More community:
- Dream Big Workshop - This is a completely free, no-strings-attached 2-hour workshop on goal setting for creative entrepreneurs. July 5, 2023, from 7-9pm ET.
- Taming the Muse Group Workshop - Registration is now open for the summer cohort of my group workshop. The workshop begins on July 19, 2023 and will meet weekly through the end of September.
- Muse Scholarship - The Muse Scholarship will be granted to two creative entrepreneurs and will cover 75% of the registration cost for the Summer 2023 cohort of the Taming the Muse Group Workshop. Scholarship applications are due 11:59pm ET on Sunday, July 9, 2023.
I quote briefly from a recent edition of The Half Marathoner newsletter by Terrell Johnson, and I mention the book "The Power of Regret" by Daniel Pink. I also reference previous episodes of this podcast:
- 017: What You Can Control
- 018: Purpose and Flexibility (Goal Setting for Creatives, Part 1 of 2)
- 019: SMART Creativity (Goal Setting for Creatives, Part 2 of 2)
- 025: Make Your Own Luck
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
Funny story. I’ve had this topic, being a good boss, on my list of upcoming podcast episodes for months. Literally. For week after week after week, I’ve had this episode marked down as the next episode I was going to write and record for this podcast. And I kept pushing it back. I kept saying to myself, “No, I want to talk about this other thing this week. This other topic is more on my mind.” And so this episode, the one you’re listening to right now, kept getting shoved to the back burner. Finally, after months of doing this, I asked myself, why I was doing this? Why was I refusing to work on this episode, even though I knew I wanted to have an episode about being a good boss? The answer: because of all of the topics I’ve discussed in the past 28 epidodes of this podcast, this is probably the area where I personally struggle most. So, more than anything else I’ve ever talked about here before, today’s episode is for me. We’re going to talk about what it means to be a good boss, when you’re your own boss. Today’s episode is going to look at how to have a good boss as a creative entrepreneur, which begins with being a good boss.
In this episode, you will learn:
- What honesty has to do with being a good boss to yourself.
- How you can use knowledge about your strengths and weaknesses to thrive in your creative work.
- What it means to check in with yourself and your artistic business.
- Why allowing time and resources for ongoing growth is an essential part of caring for your creative self.
- How to use your passion to determine what projects are the right fit for you and your business.
- What it means to accept work that matches your capacity as an artist.
In this episode, I share three pieces of exciting news in the Starving Artist No More community:
- Dream Big Workshop - This is a completely free, no-strings-attached 2-hour workshop on goal setting for creative entrepreneurs. July 5, 2023, from 7-9pm ET.
- Taming the Muse Group Workshop - Registration is now open for the summer cohort of my group workshop. The workshop begins on July 19, 2023 and will meet weekly through the end of September.
- Muse Scholarship - The Muse Scholarship will be granted to two creative entrepreneurs and will cover 75% of the registration cost for the Summer 2023 cohort of the Taming the Muse Group Workshop. Scholarship applications are due 11:59pm ET on Sunday, July 9, 2023.
I also reference previous episodes of this podcast:
- 007: Working in Your Creative & Financial Sweet Spot
- 016: The Six Components of a Thriving Creative Business
- 022: Outsourcing for Creatives
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
The life of a creative entrepreneur is one of gig work. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “gig economy.” For workers in many industry, this gig economy is a totally new thing. In decades past, engineers and computer programmers used to always work as employees of a company. They didn’t have to jump from project to project on their own. My grandfather worked for the same textile manufacturing company his entire working career. He even lived in a town built by and named after that company! But that has never been the case for creative entrepreneurs. Even Shakespeare had to continually be writing new plays, hoping that his next project would be as successful as the last. Paganini had to keep writing music and playing concerts in new places. Picasso had to keep painting more paintings. But no creative lands every gig every time. Sometimes, we don’t get the gig, or the release flops, or no one buys. When Moby-Dick flopped upon its release, Herman Melville immediately stopped attempting to write big, ambitious books, and not long after, he eventually stopped writing forever. Melville’s reaction to “not getting the gig” was to allow the rejection and disappointment to swallow him to the point that he left his creative industry. I don’t want that for you. I want you to have a thriving, satisfying, delightful creative business and creative career for years to come. So today, we’re going to talk about how to handle the rejection that is part and parcel of living and working as an artist. Let’s figure out what to do when you don’t get the gig.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why it’s important to process your feelings of disappointment after a rejection.
- How to find joy in the process of auditioning or submitting yourself for consideration.
- What a few other prominent creatives have done when they faced the reality of not getting the gig.
- What action steps you can take to make sure that you’re giving yourself the best chance of getting the next gig.
- How to adjust your work in the short term so that you can get the kind of work you want in the long term.
In this episode, I mention that registration is now open for the summer 2023 session of my Taming the Muse Group Workshop. I discuss Giannis Antetokounmpo's answer during a press conference on April 26, 2023, and I mention Episode 8 of the Crafting Audiobooks podcast. I consider a recent interview with writing coach Dan Blank and author Janae Marks, and I refer to Mo Willems' appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. I also reference one previous episode of this podcast: 016: The Six Components of a Thriving Creative Business.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
The feast or famine cycle is a vicious thing. If you’re not familiar with that term, “feast or famine” refers to the awful roller-coaster-like situation when your business vacillates between months with tons of work, and tons of income, to months with almost no work and almost no income. There’s no doubt about it: riding the feast or famine roller coaster is an awful place to be. But you, my dear friend, are not helpless. You can do something about it. You can take steps to get off that roller coaster and find a place of more peace and stability in your work schedule and in your business income. And networking – reaching out to your peers and colleagues within your creative industry – is a perfect place to start. Let’s look at how you can network for feast, not famine.
In this episode, you will learn:
- What role your mindset plays in making networking easy (or not).
- How sharing your experience as a creative entrepreneur can help you and those around you.
- Why developing a relationship with an accountability partner or accountability group can be one of the most important business decisions you ever make.
- What factors to consider when you’re looking for that accountability partner or group.
- Why being kind matters in business (and in life).
In this episode, I mention that registration is now open for the summer 2023 session of my Taming the Muse Group Workshop. I refer to the Merriam-Webster definitions of "marketing" and "networking," and the Wikipedia definition of "accountability partner." I also reference two previous episodes of this podcast:
- 016: The Six Components of a Thriving Creative Business
- 026: Marketing for Feast, Not Famine.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
The feast or famine cycle is the bane of every creative business and every creative entrepreneur I know. “Feast or famine cycle” refers to the stomach-dropping ride that you experience when your business flip flops from months with so much work you can’t handle it and stress out like crazy (even if the resulting payday is pretty nice) – these are the feast months – and then careens down into months where your schedule is empty and you feel like you’re never going to work again and you’re terrified that your career is over and you have no idea how you’re going to pay any of your bills because you aren’t doing any work, which means you aren’t making any money – these are the famine months. And I’ll bet that, as you read these last few sentences, you were able to think back to months you’ve had in the past year or so that were both famine months and feast months. Riding the feast or famine roller coaster is common enough to be almost universal among creative entrepreneurs. And it is terrifying. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to spend your creative life on that roller coaster. You can get off. And getting off starts when you intentionally market for feast, not famine.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Why marketing is essential for all artists, and is not something that means you’ve “sold out.”
- What vital role an audience plays in your creative process.
- How to figure out the right marketing strategy for you and your business.
- What to look for in the careers of your peers and colleagues to help you in your own artistic career.
- Why consistent action is essential within your business marketing plan.
- How to use your marketing strategy to step off the “feast or famine” roller coaster.
In this episode, I mention that registration is now open for the summer 2023 session of my Taming the Muse Group Workshop, and I reference one previous episode of this podcast: 007: Working in Your Creative & Financial Sweet Spot.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
*Episode 1 of 4 in the Time & Income Series***
If you are a creative entrepreneur, your time is the product you are selling. Automating, systematizing, outsourcing, and hiring will only get you so far. When someone hires me to play a concert, there is no getting around the need for ME (not someone else) to spend time practicing and rehearsing and performing. If a publisher hires me to narrate an audiobook, they expect to hear MY voice on the files I submit, meaning I have to be the one sitting in front of the mic, putting in the hours to record that audiobook. Time and income are directly related for creative entrepreneurs. But once you have sold all of the time that you can reasonably sell, how do you keep your business growing? How can you increase your income? We’re going to dig into that conundrum today.
In this episode, you will learn
- Why time & income are connected for creative entrepreneurs, and what practical implications that has for your work and your business.
- How Paying Yourself Firstcan help your business income be a well-managed resource, meaning you'll feel like you have more money.
- Why you should focus your work in your Creative & Financial Sweet Spot, and how that will gradually increase your income.
- What Asynchronous Income is, and how it can be a game-changer for creative entrepreneurs.
This is the first episode in the 4-part Time & Income Series. The next three episodes in the series will be released over the coming three weeks, with new episodes released every Tuesday.
In this episode, I reference Cal Newport's excellent book Deep Work.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
What are you thankful for? And how does your attitude about those things influence your life and work as a creative entrepreneur? An attitude of gratitude is more than just catchy phrasing. It is a real and powerful way for artists to carry the joy of their best creative experiences with them long term, regardless of the current circumstances. A mindset of gratitude can completely change your perspective on your life and work as a creative.
In this episode, you will learn
- How to use the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon to start a positive feedback loop in your work (and yes, I explain what the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon is!).
- How to combat negativity bias so that difficult creative experiences don't tear you down.
- Why a regular gratitude practice can help you in your journey as a creative entrepreneur, and how to incorporate that regular gratitude practice into your work.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
What does it mean to be a creative entrepreneur, to be both a creative AND an entrepreneur? Today, we're going to dig into that concept using the "YES AND" principle from improv. Being both a creative and an entrepreneur means that you are an artist, a creative – you are committed to the creative process – AND you are willing to help your creative process grow by doing what is necessary to make your creative business work. YES. AND.
In this episode, you will learn
- Ways to help yourself accept the label of an entrepreneur, in addition to your identity as an artist
- What it means to look at your work from an entrepreneurial perspective, and why that is NOT a bad thing!
- How your work can be made richer by the inclusion of an entrepreneurial perspective
In this episode, I quote from the introduction to Stephen King's short story collection Everything's Eventual and from the blog article "What sells books, and why should you care?" by Catherine Baab-Muguira. Baab-Muguira also wrote the book Poe for Your Problems, which I narrated in 2021 for Hachette Audio. It's a delightful book, and I highly recommend it!
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
Your beliefs about what is possible for you and your business will be the limiting factor in how your business grows. If you don’t believe it’s possible to have all your needs met by your business, then you won’t be able to recognize the opportunities you have to make that happen. Building a fulfilling business starts by believing it’s possible to do so.
In this episode, we will discuss
- What mental models are, and how your mental model about your business impact the business you are able to create.
- Why the "starving artist" stereotype is so harmful, and how to change your thinking about.
- How cultivating a mindset of abundance and discarding a mindset of scarcity could be the defining change that allows you to grow your business into something that truly supports you and meets your needs.
A full transcript of this episode can be found here. Full transcripts of every episode will always be available at the Starving Artist No More Blog.
Thank you for listening. Please feel free to reach out to me at www.StarvingArtistNoMore.com, with any questions, comments, or feedback. I'd love to hear from you.
For a full transcript of this episode, visit www.starvingartistnomore.com/blog/podcast-welcome
Being a creative entrepreneur is hard. The messages we hear from the world around us tells us that creative industries are environments of scarcity, where hundreds of people are all competing for the same projects and positions. We’re told that only one in a million “creative hopefuls” will ever make it to “successful creative entrepreneur.” And yet, creatives persist. The grit of creative entrepreneurs is unmatched! But figuring out how to grow a creative business is a tricky thing. So much of what’s out there about how to build a successful business doesn’t work for a creative business. Creative businesses require a different structure than traditional business, and traditional business advice simply doesn’t work for creatives. Addressing that gap is the purpose of this podcast. If you’re a creative entrepreneur who wants to grow your creative business in a sustainable way, you’ve come to the right place.
Welcome to the Starving Artist No More podcast, where creative entrepreneurs can find the business coaching they need to build a creative business that fulfills them personally, creatively, and financially. This trailer gives you a taste of what to expect in coming episodes. Visit StarvingArtistNoMore.com for a full transcript of all future episodes.