On today’s show I’m talking with Mishell Leong , a children’s artist located in Singapore. She started her professional career as an accountant, spent some time in the restaurant industry, traveled a bit, overcame physical ailments and started a family before coming to the realization that she could actually paint! In the interview we talk a lot about how Mishell worked through internal and external resistance as she embarked on her journey to becoming an artist. She also talks through the resea...
Jul 21, 2016•33 min•Season 1Ep. 88
Today’s interview begins a new segment dedicated to those who have gone through a major career shift at some point in their lives. I’m kicking it off with Stephanie Washburn who is a tattoo artist in Roseville, California. However, what makes Steph's story so interesting is that she didn’t start pursuing art until she was almost 40 and found her way into the tattoo industry after that. In the interview we talk about why she left her corporate nonprofit job of nearly 20 years and how she and her ...
Jul 14, 2016•46 min•Season 1Ep. 87
Today’s show is the first in a segment dedicated to those who create with uncommon or interesting materials and as soon as I landed on this theme, I knew I needed to reach out to today’s guest. Katie J. Evans of Hart Variations is a jewelry designer who uses things like butterfly wings, snake skin sheds, bones, entire insects, and feathers to create really stunning and unique pieces. In the interview, we talk about how her materials are ethically and legally sourced, which is a process I wasn't ...
Jun 30, 2016•47 min•Season 1Ep. 85
On today's mini episode, I'm announcing some big career changes that have been taking shape behind the scenes. I'm also talking about how those changes will affect certain aspects of my business like this podcast, my e-courses and consulting offerings, and the freelance work I'll be doing. You can find the full episode + show notes at creatingyourownpath.com .
Jun 23, 2016•7 min•Season 1Ep. 84
Today’s interview brings me to Common Space here in Sacramento, California to interview photographer William Thompson . Until recently, I actually had no idea that William had a day job. Because his photos are so stunning, I pretty much assumed he made a living taking them. However, he doesn’t—at least not yet. He’s got a full-time job working in the banking industry and hopes to one day turn his side hustle into his main hustle. It was great talking to William because I think he’s currently in ...
Jun 16, 2016•21 min•Season 1Ep. 82
I came across Shannon Washington’s work thanks to an article on Refinery29, in which they named her a "Next Gen CEO." She’s a self-proclaimed multi-hyphenate creative who currently works at live media company, INVNT, and runs the travel and lifestyle publication, Parlour Magazine. In the interview, we talk about how Shannon has become someone who both loves stretching herself to learn new skills and someone who knows when to delegate. She also chats about the mindset shift that allowed her to vi...
Jun 09, 2016•51 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Today’s guest is a good one you guys! I’ve been following the career of Christine Amorose since I stumbled upon her blog C’est Christine about five years ago. She has not only filled the last six years with amazing travel experiences, but she’s also landed jobs with incredible companies (she currently works for Vimeo ) and worked on really cool projects on the side. In the interview we talk about how she carves out time for her creative side hustles and why schedules and lists are key. We also d...
Jun 02, 2016•35 min•Season 1Ep. 80
Today’s guest is author Karan Bajaj . He’s written three books while being employed by various large companies and is currently the CMO of a startup. When he reached out to me, I immediately knew he needed to come on the show because he’s been able to pursue both corporate work and his worked as a published author by taking sabbaticals. I was incredibly curious to see how he's made it all work. In the episode we chat about his 4-1-4 rule (4 years working, 1 year off, 4 years working, etc.), whic...
May 26, 2016•34 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Today, I’m chatting with the very talented Trisha Hughes of the food blog Eat Your Beets . Not only is Trisha food blogger, but she’s also become an incredible resource for those who want to learn more about the art of food photography. In the interview, we talk about how she got started as a blogger and why food photography did not come as naturally to her in the beginning as she had hoped. She also goes into the reason she decided to teach others how to photograph food (rather than follow the ...
Apr 21, 2016•34 min•Season 1Ep. 78
Today’s episode brings me to Common Space here in Sacramento, which is a rentable space for events, photoshoots and other fun things, to chat with writer and photographer Ashlee Gadd. Ashlee is the founder of Coffee + Crumbs —a collaborative blog about motherhood—and she was kind enough to help me continue my segment on those who teach their craft to others. Recently, she and the team at Coffee + Crumbs launched a writing workshop that looked incredible! So, I knew I wanted to catch up with her ...
Apr 14, 2016•22 min•Season 1Ep. 77
Today’s episode is the first in a new series focused on those who teach their craft to others and it brought me to the studio of Jen Hewett in San Francisco a few weeks ago. Jen is an illustrator, printmaker and surface designer who has been teaching block printing to others over the last several years and she has just recently transitioned to working on her art full time. I was, of course, curious to see how adding the element of teaching to her business model made that transition possible. In ...
Apr 07, 2016•31 min•Season 1Ep. 76
Today’s Tuesday Tips + Tricks episode is sponsored by Melissa Camilleri of Compliment and the 21-Day Insta-Course . If you listened to episode 72, which was the first episode in this sponsored series, you may remember Melissa as my guest interviewer. As I mentioned on that show, she was actually one of my very first guests on the show in Season 1 and since that first interview she’s been growing her brand in other ways by teaching business owners how to share their story on Instagram through The...
Apr 05, 2016•30 min•Season 1Ep. 75
I reached out to Amy Stringer-Mowat of AHeirloom back in 2014 after winning one of their Instagram contests and told her I had big plans to take my show on the road and interview her in Brooklyn in 2015. As most of you probably know, Brooklyn did not make the cut during last year’s travels. Luckily, she was kind enough to hop on Skype to chat with me remotely after all this time! A Heirloom creates beautiful home goods like cutting boards, cake stands and more—and they design, manufacture and sh...
Mar 31, 2016•39 min•Season 1Ep. 74
Today’s episode is the third installment of the segment dedicated to those making physical products for a living and it brought me to Benjamins Shoes here in Sacramento to chat with Benjamin, himself! I’ve followed his work for a while now and have been really inspired by both his work and his story. In the interview he talks about how NOT winning a start-up business contest actually lead him to a preferable outcome, which I thought was a great lesson for all of us out there who are worried abou...
Mar 24, 2016•33 min•Season 1Ep. 73
Today's Tuesday Tips & Tricks episode is sponsored by me and my e-course Perfecting Your Pitch ! Perfecting Your Pitch , which starts on April 4, 2016, is designed to help fellow business owners understand the basics of reaching out to media. The three-week course covers topics like which media outlets to pitch, how to find and properly reach out to media contacts, press release basics, maintaining relationships with the media and much more. My friend Melissa Camilleri of Compliment (a recen...
Mar 22, 2016•21 min•Season 1Ep. 72
Today's episode brings me to the Oakland studio of woodworker and designer, Melanie Abrantes . Melanie has built a career around making and designing beautiful home goods out of different types of wood and cork. In the interview she talks about her transition from studying product design in school to landing graphic design jobs after graduation and, eventually, finding her way back to product design with her current work. We also go into her connection to her materials, why focus is such a cruci...
Mar 17, 2016•36 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Welcome to CYOP Season 3! I'm very excited to kick off this new season with a four-interview series focused on those who are making physical products for a living. Sarah Perez of Electric Sun Creatives is my first guest and I had an opportunity to chat with her in her beautiful studio at the Warehouse Artist Lofts here in Sacramento, California. If you're not familiar with Sarah's work, she makes really striking wall hangings and mobiles using found driftwood (along with other wood products) and...
Mar 10, 2016•27 min•Season 1Ep. 70
Today I'm sharing details about what you can expect from Season 3 of the Creating Your Own Path podcast. In the episode, I chat about the future of my CYOP Road Trip shenanigans, some small (but important) changes to the content that will be coming your way and the new sponsorship opportunities I'll be introducing this year. You can find the full episode + show notes at creatingyourownpath.com ....
Feb 16, 2016•7 min•Season 1Ep. 69
Today I’m chatting with Simone Anne , a professional photographer and avid traveler based out of Berkeley, California. She’s very talented and offers up insight beyond her years. Truly—some of the things she says in this episode had me thinking deep thoughts about the meaning behind my work. In the interview Simone and I talk about how she got started with photography at a fairly young age, why traveling makes her better at her job and what made her decide to pursue hobbies that have absolutely ...
Dec 17, 2015•39 min•Season 1Ep. 68
Today’s show brings me to Berkeley, California to chat with Lisa Jackson of Good on Paper . As a stationery and print goods designer, Lisa creates both ready-made collections for companies like Tiny Prints and Wedding Paper Divas and does a ton of custom work for freelance clients. What you might not know about Lisa, however, is that she has a full-time job with an environmental consulting firm and she’s a self-taught designer. In the interview we chat about why Lisa has kept her full-time gig e...
Dec 15, 2015•33 min•Season 1Ep. 67
Today’s show brings to the home of Natalie Davis of the leather goods brand, Canoe , to chat about her career path, the growth she’s seen with her leatherworking business over the years and the magical land in which she creates—Austin, Texas. If you happen upon Natalie’s website, you may not realize that she also helps her husband with his business venture—a butcher shop and restaurant in Austin—and that up until recently, she was also a design professor. In the interview, we dive into all of he...
Dec 10, 2015•36 min•Season 1Ep. 66
Today's show brings me to Austin, Texas to visit with artist, designer and maker Jen Moulton who creates everything from jewelry to leather goods to ceramics out of her home studio. Of course, I’ve been following her journey for some time and when I started to notice a shift in her work and the way she was approaching her art, I knew I needed to sit down and talk with her. In the interview we cover her journey from having a "real job" to being a full-time artist, how she’s shifting her business ...
Dec 03, 2015•36 min•Season 1Ep. 65
Today’s show brings me to East Nashville to chat with Graffiti and Fine Artist Troy Duff . He’s a Nashville native who has created an incredible career around his art, but he’s also worked as a model and actor—he was actually part of that iPod silhouette advertising campaign several years ago—and he created his own clothing line as well. In the interview, we talk about why Troy made the move back to Nashville after his time in Los Angeles, what it was like getting into the graffiti art scene wit...
Nov 24, 2015•49 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Today’s show brings me to The Goat Farm Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia to chat with Chuck Reece—Editor & Chief of The Bitter Southerner . If you’re not familiar with the storytelling platform, not to worry. Chuck and I talk a lot about the website and how it’s evolving during in the interview. We also chat about some of the misconceptions about the South that seem to pop up time and time again, how Chuck and his team are working to keep The Bitter Southerner up and running, why he thinks th...
Nov 19, 2015•45 min•Season 1Ep. 63
Today's show brings me to the Atlanta home of Stephanie Duncan, the creator of Her New Tribe . She’s a freelance writer, stylist and art director whose work is focused primarily on the fashion industry. I met Stephanie thanks to the work we’ve done with the online lifestyle publication Clementine Daily and I was immediately drawn to her style and fascinated with how she’s building a career for herself. There’s a lot of talk in the news lately about social media and whether or not it represents r...
Nov 12, 2015•20 min•Season 1Ep. 62
Today’s show is a good one, you guys. After leaving Philadelphia I headed for Greenville, South, Carolina. The city is not only incredibly charming, but it’s also home to the studio of Fine Artist Emily Jeffords . Like me, many of you may be familiar with her work thanks to her blog and social media presence and it was so exciting to meet her, tour her beautiful space and chat about her career. In the interview we cover Emily’s tips for easing into a creative career, her thoughts on collaboratin...
Nov 05, 2015•30 min•Season 1Ep. 61
Today's show brings me to the Philadelphia floral design studio of Sullivan Owen . There’s no doubt that Sullivan is incredibly talented in the realm of floral design, but her business sense is what truly reeled me in as we were chatting. During the interview, we cover her start in retail design and visual merchandising and how planning her own wedding turned her on to floral design. We also talk at length about the importance of innovation in creative work, the dangerous temptation of creating ...
Oct 29, 2015•59 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Today’s episode brings me to Philadelphia to the family home of pastry chef and food writer Klancy Miller to talk about everything from Klancy's professional training as a pastry chef to the lost art of informational interviews. In the interview, we cover her long journey to becoming a food writer and the process behind her forthcoming book titled, Cooking Solo: The Joy of Cooking for Yourself . I loved that she decided to tackle such a fun and interesting take on cooking, because I’ve just expe...
Oct 22, 2015•45 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Today's show brings me to the Burlington, Vermont hot shop (or blown glass factory) of AO Glass . Rich Arentzen is the owner and general manager of AO Glass and has been in the glass blowing industry for decades. During the interview, I learned more about how he got started as a glass blower and just how winding his career path has been. We also talked a lot about the importance of reaching out to others—even if it’s a little scary—and why craft, community, collaboration and financial sustainabi...
Oct 15, 2015•36 min•Season 1Ep. 58
I’m pretty excited to share today’s episode, because it brings me to the lovely home of Grace Bonney and Julia Turshen in upstate New York. I’ve been following Grace’s work with Design Sponge for a long time and have come to truly appreciate Julia’s work as a food writer along the way. Of course it was wonderful to meet the two of them in person and in the interview we actually talk a lot about the wonders of the internet and how important it is to use it as a tool to connect with others face-to...
Oct 08, 2015•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 57
