Send us a text As makers transitioning from hobby to business, we often forget the most powerful perk of self-employment: you're the boss who makes the rules, not just the employee doing all the work. What if setting clear boundaries, creating a sustainable schedule, and giving yourself permission to evolve creatively are actually your responsibilities as a good boss to yourself? As Amy Brummond shares her journey of artistic evolution, we see how honoring her creative restlessness not only...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Most of us dream of turning our craft into a thriving business, but what happens when achieving "the dream" — the large following, sold-out shop updates, and steady sales — still doesn't translate into a sustainable living? When former full-time potter Megan Sward faced this reality, she discovered that the gap between making work you love and building a viable business involves far more than just mastering your craft. What if the key to longevity isn't just ab...
Feb 14, 2025•2 hr 44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text There is an underlying current of anxiety about keeping up with the latest trends and strategies, especially when it comes to running your business online (and even more especially when it comes to social media). But what if the real secret to success isn't about chasing every new thing, but rather embracing the "boring" parts of business? Trying every new trending strategy often leads to scattered efforts and minimal results, not to mention most definitely leads to...
Feb 07, 2025•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text When I last spoke with Sarah Wells Rolland, The Village Potters in Asheville, North Carolina was 13 years into it’s incredible, communal existence. And frankly (at least from my perspective) was a well oiled machine. With a residency program, community classes, a gallery, and 17 kilns it wasn’t on my short list wondering “gee, I wonder where they are now?” That is, until Hurricane Helene hit. And absolutely everything changed. Introducing: Where are They Now? A new series on The M...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text The ways in which our decisions in life are so interconnected it feels endless. The same is equally true in business, especially a ceramics business. And there's no way you stay in business, as a fully self-employed household with kiddos, while offering a $20 mug without thinking through all of that interconnectedness. My chat with Isaac Shue on this week's episode perfectly highlights how every step of our making process can also inform the endless steps of our small bu...
Jan 17, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text When it comes to the topic of money, for many of us, it stirs up less than happy feelings. But in many ways, money is just data. Yes, it has an outsized effect on our lives and the decisions we do (or can) make, and that’s annoying as stepping on Legos. But, as much as we can feel a variety of emotions around money, finances are actually just neutral data points for us to track, recognize, and use to make decisions. In this conversation with part-time potter and full-time finance ...
Jan 10, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text I had thought this solo episode would be some nice big grandiose end of year recap for you. I also, had intended it to actually air in 2024, but alas… here we are, kicking off 2025 with it. The plan was lists of what worked and what didn’t in our ceramics business this year and a nice, reflected wrap-it-all-up and make-it-make-sense so you can apply the lessons we learned to your own life in whatever way works for you. The kind of thing you perhaps have come to expect from these L...
Jan 03, 2025•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text A self-described “failed production potter” Sue McLeod still very much makes her living from ceramics. Yet, she doesn’t make her living from actually making pots… As is true with any industry, we often forget just how many different supporting and tangentially related sub-topics and professions there are available to us. And, at least for me, when we start to see those, a whole myriad of options opens up to how we just might make this crazy dream - of making a living from the thin...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Described as the most supportive guy on the internet by numerous people, today’s interview with Bill Schwenzer feels long overdue. Better known as Aliveguy Pottery, we talk about his career transition from corporate quality control to clay, his commitment to thoughtful encouragement online and his unique approach to delayed gratification all while continuing to push himself outside of his comfort zone and not get too bogged down in analyzing. Resources in this Episode: Bill's...
Dec 06, 2024•2 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text I reached out to chat with Stanley after seeing his “Thoughts and Prayers” series - a powerful body of work creating strong visuals on the actual effects of a bullet striking a form. A series, he actually made more than a year ago. And yet, only recently an d quite suddenly, has gotten quite a lot of recognition. We talk about how the series came about and what’s happened in the year since, as well as the time he’s taking to figure out the next steps, instead of letting the intern...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text If you weren’t learning how to carve intricate designs in sourdough bread in 2020, odds are, you might have been learning how to make pottery. And while this is true for today’s guest, Tim Clark, that wasn’t all. Tim also was learning how to make pottery and navigate the rest of life after a spontaneous tear of the retina left him half blind. There seems to be quite the thru line for many of us finding pottery as a therapeutic thing, but Tim has taken this one step farther, in sta...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text How do you stay okay even when it doesn't feel like your business isn't going well? Because while we might feel pulled to log the long hours and push ourselves to "work harder" to "grind it out," in reality, we can't really come up with new, interesting, creative solutions when we're exhausted or stressed or frankly, freaking out. As foolish as it might feel to get up and go for a walk instead of "being productive" it might also be...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text We're quickly approaching 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 talking about 2 words that get a bad reputation in the arts - sales & marke...
Oct 25, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Do you ever think about what happened BEFORE the Instagram photos? Or BEFORE your favorite potter hit 25 thousand followers? Off and on, many people will talk about the real-life vs. Instagram life, and there are plenty of hilarious memes floating around the internet about them, but I’d wager a bet that while many of us (myself included) are scrolling through IG, we are never actively reminding ourselves of what that maker’s life looked like before that photo… The years of saving ...
Oct 18, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Our work as artists can feel disconnected with the immediate needs of the world. On this week’s solo episode, I’m peeling back the curtain on how I process that for myself. Alongside my originally planned episode of discussing a few of the various business models you can choose in order to create a business that serves your life and not the other way around. Listen to The Launch series by clicking here. If you're looking for a group of welcoming and supportive colleagues, fel...
Oct 11, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text How do you go from a farm with a woodfire kiln and two potters to an industrial warehouse that already feels too small? Vision. And a bit of luck. At least, that's what worked for Alex Matisse, founder of the one and only Eastfork Pottery. On this episode, Alex shares insights into the pros and cons of growing such a large, successful business and how taking the time to get clear on a vision is the lynchpin of it all. At the time of this replay, Asheville, North Carolina (whe...
Oct 04, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text We’re taking a quick season break but in the meantime, enjoy this chat from way back in Season 1 that I had with Katie Meili. We chat about the difficulties of mental health and how it feels when life takes unexpected turns that throw you off a path everyone else around you is on, the silver linings that brought us to clay, and the importance of having a community that supports and pushes us as artists. Additional Resources since this episode first aired: Listen to the follow-up c...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Leap and you’ll learn to fly… The key to success is action… The best way to predict the future is to create it… How many of these tropes have you heard? They are usually associated with that scary first step of making a change in your life to go after something you are dreaming about. And while yes, sure, there is often a moment where, regardless of preparation or planning, making a big change feels scary and you just have to finally do the darn thing - at the same time, there are...
Sep 20, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep 138•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Thinking about becoming a full time artist is a dream that lingers in the back of many people’s minds. And my assumption is, whenever any of us are dreaming about a change, we mostly think that if we took this leap, if we didn’t have to be bothered with showing up to an office for someone else Monday through Friday, we’d have more time to do the thing we love - to make. But is that what the change is really like? Is selling your work after you do take that leap to be a full time a...
Sep 06, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep 137•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text So what does it mean if the work we’re making isn’t as impermanent as we think? Does it have to be in order to have value? Is there still value when it breaks? Today, I’m thrilled to partner with the one and only Metropolitan Museum of Art to feature an episode from their own podcast - Immaterial: 5,000 Years of Art, One Material at a Time . Each episode examines a material of art - like clay, stone, or even trash and what they can reveal about history and humanity. On today'...
Aug 30, 2024•50 min•Ep 136•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text As I reflected on what we're doing differently for this market season compared to last year's, I realized a trend that I've also seen after teaching over 200 makers inside our MPSS photography course and journeying along side nearly 100 makers inside of The Community for the past 3 years. And while I don't really believe in magic silver bullets to assured success, this one trait just might be the determining factor from those that do continue to find success vs...
Aug 24, 2024•46 min•Ep 135•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text What does it even mean to “ be an artist?” Does it mean you are making work you like to make? Is that art? Does it mean someone else considers you to be whatever their definition of “artist” is? Does it mean not having another job? Or can you be an artist and do something else? Does doing something else actually better allow you to be an artist? Putting it more succinctly, how do you become an artist? On today’s episode I virtually sit down with Isaac Scott, one of NCECA’s 2024 Em...
Aug 09, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep 134•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text If you’re side-hustling your ceramics, are you anxiously awaiting the day you can quit the day job? But what if the day job was actually providing you with the chance to learn to be better at your craft? And no, I’m not talking about a job associated with what you make. I mean a day job totally different than what you dream about making, a job in an office, in a “traditional” employment structure, absolutely not at all associated with the art world. What if that job was actually h...
Aug 02, 2024•2 hr 45 min•Ep 133•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Do you ever think about completely changing your life? Like literally, everything - Your job, where you live, what your day to day looks like, maybe even your identity in a way… Or maybe you have done that already, and you are living the dream you had 5 or 10 years ago, but now, as it turns out, it’s not actually the dream? Just even thinking about saying that out loud feels crazy because you worked so hard to get where you are right now. How could you ever change that? Why would ...
Jul 26, 2024•2 hr 36 min•Ep 132•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text I thought John & I were going to talk mostly about burnout. How it “happened” to him, how he got through it, and perhaps, what he’s doing differently now. But (perhaps rather obviously) it can’t really be broken down that simply. Instead, John and I wound up not only talking about burnout, but also the pursuit of the impossible perfect cylinder, the responsibility we all have to educate others on what we do while also hopefully exciting them, and particularly the realities of ...
Jul 12, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep 131•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text In an internet world where there are seemingly endless “educators” available to learn from, what actually qualifies someone to teach a skill? Is it a traditional piece of paper, or diploma, saying that some institution has decided you can? Is it the number of years you’ve been doing the thing? Frankly, there’s really not a fixed formula we can say where x+ y = qualified educator! However, during this chat with Ian Childers, a potter who, as often happens, fell into education by ne...
Jul 05, 2024•2 hr 48 min•Ep 130•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text There’s a new social media app in the virtual neighborhood. Will it solve all the frustrations we artists have? Maybe. Maybe not… In this week’s solo episode, I dive into all things social media marketing, why a new app probably won’t solve your problems (but it could!), and why maybe it’s a good thing that it’s hard to get attention on the internet. Plus how everything is changing and yet, nothing is changing. Always. I swear it makes sense once you give a listen. Need help telli...
Jun 28, 2024•44 min•Ep 129•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text A rare non-potter conversation today on the podcast with Dave Conrey, graphic designer turned email newsletter educator. We talk about the realities of making art and trying to sell that art, approaches to marketing our work without needing to be a part of the hustle-bro culture, and eventually get around to the notion that really piqued my interest when I first met Dave online - committing to one project and one project only for a set period of time in order to focus. It’s a rare...
Jun 14, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 128•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text We’re back for part two! In this continued conversation with Joy Hanford - a Midwest gal, much like myself, who now lives in Portugal - we get into the topics of the complexities of learning about and navigating bureaucracies in other countries, art as a form of grieving and processing world events like the lockdown and the experience of a global pandemic in another country, starting a business amidst covid, and most of all, defining success for ourselves. Yes, it’s a heavy one my...
Jun 07, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Ep 127•Transcript available on Metacast Send us a text Living abroad. Sometimes, it sounds like the solution to all of my problems. All I need to do is choose a country with national healthcare and town with relatively low cost of living, and TA DA! Making a living from the things we make is solved, right? Right? It can look incredibly romantic online - strolling through tiny streets seemingly too small for cars, surrounded by historic architecture and the depths of tradition for a craft we all love. But how does it actually work ? Is...
May 24, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Ep 126•Transcript available on Metacast 
