When's the last time you engaged in a creative project and let yourself be fully immersed in the experience? No expectations, no "right or wrong," no guilt or shame.

Maybe it's been a while. Maybe it's hard to remember. Maybe it's Maybelline. 💋

Or, maybe you have so many other obligations and responsibilities that creative projects get pushed until "someday." That happens to us, too.

What is one creative passion you'd love to start or do more often? And, what's stopping you?

We'll share first. Then, it'll be your turn, if you want. 😊

We would love to make a feature film together. Ideally, we'd like to make many feature films. But, as we've mentioned before, making films takes time and money. We have limited time and money.

However, we've found that leaning into our skills and interests to support ourselves financially allows us to make progress toward our film goals faster and enjoy the work more along the way. Here's what we mean.

Using our strengths.

We're using Matt's skills in web-design and education to make money with client work. And, we're using our previous experience in organizing educational events for film festivals to create an online film summit. Because we have these skills and experiences already, there's less of a barrier to get started.

There's another layer to it, though. Simply choosing to do work we're good at doesn't make it better or easier. It's HOW we do the work that makes the difference.

Web Design

The traditional style of doing web design work for clients involves unpaid proposals, multiple meetings, email threads that are hard to organize, projects that change scope, updating quotes, etc.

These administrative-type tasks reduce our income, energy and motivation, enjoyment, flexibility, and ability to travel. This doesn't mean web design work can't be done the traditional way, but that we prefer to do it differently.

Instead, Matt's Joy model (that we mentioned last week) allows Matt to provide website design and training as a productized service, asynchronously communicate with clients, do the work on his schedule, and get paid up front.

This way, we...

• get paid for the hours Matt works
• have more energy and motivation
• enjoy the process more
• have a flexible schedule
• can work from anywhere

Film Education

Likewise, traditional film education options, like attending film school or film festivals, require tuition or paid admission, travel expenses, and often teach common topics like how to fundraise, strategies to hire cast and crew, camera techniques, editing tips, how to submit your film to film festivals, etc.

Then, there's the YouTube movement of film education, which is heavily focused on topics like gear/software reviews and cinematography (at least currently).

Outside film school, film festivals, or YouTube, an educational event for filmmakers that's made the traditional way would likely be held in person at a conference center, charge ticket prices in the hundreds or more, and offer multiple days of workshops, panels, and social mixers. The content would likely include similar topics as mentioned above.

These styles of education involve a significant upfront investment, in-person attendance, requiring attendees to pay, and focusing on popular filmmaking topics. Again, this doesn't mean that teaching filmmaking can't be done the traditional way, but that we prefer to do it differently.

Instead, we are trying to create a shorter, interactive online event for independent filmmakers that offers free or "pay what you can" ticket pricing, uses sponsors with similar values for funding, and focuses on values-driven storytelling, inclusivity, and sustainable practices. It’s not just about learning filmmaking skills—it’s about aligning those skills with a purpose-driven lifestyle and creating a supportive community around shared goals.

This way, we...

• get funding for our time with sponsors
• keep upfront investments low without a physical location
• can host the event from anywhere and invite attendees and presenters from around the world
• welcome any aspiring filmmaker to attend regardless of their ability to pay
• encourage discussion and community building around the human-centered approach to filmmaking
• find a group of people with similar values without using social media

Not one-size-fits-all.

To be fair, even with all this talk about doing things differently, we don't pretend we have it all figured out. It is a motivator for us to critically think about how things are normally done in order to decide if they will work well for us.

And, we don't expect every person who wants to make a film to be willing to or able to fund their first film the same way we are. It's only one example.

We just hope that by sharing our example, it can inspire you to think creatively about how you could use your own unique skills and interests to give yourself more financial freedom to pursue your creative passions.

We're just one example. Here's another.

For some brainstorming inspiration, let's practice with an example of how someone else could use their skills and interests to fuel their creative passion. Full disclosure: it's a hypothetical story, but is based on our friend who is an exceptional violinist and parent.

Violin

For someone who has skills in playing violin, parenting, and patience and also has interests in music theory, child development, and child education, becoming a violin teacher or coach for kids may feel like a natural fit.

The traditional way to teach violin would likely be include recurring, one-on-one lessons that are held in person with each student.

Teaching in this way means the violin instructor and students are tied to a specific location and schedule. Individual lessons would be more expensive because the student is paying for the instructor's time, and the instructor can only teach a limited number of students concurrently.

We imagine this could be a valid, successful way to teach violin.

And, we're interested in imagining what teaching violin could look like if someone did it differently than the traditional way.

Let's brainstorm. Instead, the instructor could...

• teach lessons virtually, one-on-one or in groups
• teach asynchronously (students record their practice and questions; instructor responds with feedback and guidance)
• offer online courses for beginners or common lessons
• create digital products to support students' at-home practice
• create educational content on YouTube

This way, the instructor could...

• have location freedom — live anywhere, reduce commute time and expense
• have a flexible schedule — work when it's more convenient for them, have more availability to be with family, ability to take breaks without pausing all income
• offer a range of price points for services — e.g., content for awareness and trust building (free), courses and digital products (low), asynchronous training (moderate), synchronous group lessons (high), and synchronous one-on-one lessons (highest)
• teach more students overall, with some income being more "passive"

Not all of these ideas would be "better" for everyone, but the important thing is not to assume that in-person, one-on-one lessons are the best or only way to teach violin.

We would encourage this hypothetical violin instructor to explore other options and evaluate how doing it differently may impact their lifestyle.

• Do they want to be able to work from anywhere?
• Or maybe at night when their child is sleeping?
• Would it be helpful if their income wasn't solely tied to the number of hours they work?
• Would they feel more accomplished or impactful if they could support more future violinists?

Now it's your turn to share—again, only if you want.

What is one creative passion you'd love to start or do more often? And, what's stopping you?

What skills or interests could you lean into to help you make it happen?

How could you use a different model, like asynchronous work or online education, to allow your skills to give you more time, location, and financial freedom?

Let us know. We'd be happy to brainstorm with you.

Take care,
A Creative Duo