The Maker's Playbook
A podcast where we talk all about what it's really like to make a living from the things you make. Featuring candid interviews with other ceramicists and makers, as well as helpful business tips to make your side-hustle into a life-giving, viable business.
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Ep 716: Taking My Own Advice
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>For fifteen years, the first piece of advice out of my mouth to anyone asking about self-employment has been the same: keep the outside income as long as you possibly can. And for fifteen years, I wasn't doing it.</p><p>Until now.</p><p>In this solo episode, I'm sharing a significant personal update — what led me to take an outside job after fifteen years of running my own businesses, what burnout actually feels like versus just being really tired, and the surprising freedom that comes from detaching your creativity from your ab...
Ep 715: Get Specific, Create Demand with Taylor Friese of Maker Bakery
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>Most of us have been told — implicitly or explicitly — that success as a maker means growth: more followers, more orders, more revenue. But what if the real question isn't how big can this get, but what do I actually want from this? Taylor Friese of Maker Bakery built a waitlist that stretches years into the future not by chasing a bigger audience, but by getting radically clear about who she makes work for and why — and letting that clarity do the marketing for her. And when you get clear on what you actually want —...
Ep 714: How to Make Confident Business Decisions in Your Art Business (or side-hustle)
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>If you've ever Googled "how to price my art" or "how to grow a creative business" hoping someone would just hand you the right answer — this episode is for you. Rebecca digs into why making confident business decisions as an artist or maker isn't about finding the perfect formula. It's about treating your art business like a science experiment: forming a hypothesis, testing it, analyzing what actually happens, and adjusting from there. Whether you're a full-time maker relying on your craft sales to pay the bills, or a side-hustle artist still holding onto th...
Ep 713: “Overnight Success” with Aaron Raymond of Redacted Ceramics
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>Most of us assume that building a creative business takes years of groundwork before the work can speak for itself — but what happens when the work takes off before you've had time to figure out the business? Aaron Raymond of Redacted Ceramics went from renting a wheel for a week to running a full-time pottery business in under two years, and his story raises a quiet but important question: does the conventional wisdom about "paying your dues" actually hold up? As Aaron shares, a clear creative vision — one rooted in the Portuguese tile work...
Ep 712: Monetizing Our Hobbies with Matt Robinson
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>As makers with hobbies turned side-hustles, many of us get wrapped up in the ultimate goal and dream of quitting our day jobs to pursue pottery full time—but what if that pressure to monetize everything is actually stealing the joy from the very thing we fell in love with? Matt Robinson's experience first burning out on wedding photography taught him that the freedom to experiment, fail, and follow creative whims only exists when your livelihood isn't riding on what you make. Through six years of pottery alongside a flexible full-time job, Matt ha...
Ep 711: Part Two - "Where are they now?" Two Years Later with Hope Limyansky
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>When you see someone juggling multiple jobs in their creative field, it's easy to assume it's because none of them could fully support them on their own—but what if having options is actually the most strategic business decision you could make? What happens when you intentionally build each avenue to be viable as a standalone career, then choose to keep them all anyway? In Part Two of this “Where are they now?” interview, Hope shares why she brought each of her four ceramic-related jobs to the cusp of full-time viability before deciding that s...
Ep 710: "Where are they now?" Two Years Later with Hope Limyansky
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>So many of us carry the weight of what we thought our creative careers were supposed to look like—especially when formal education told us exactly what success should be. What happens when you realize that the dream you've been chasing (full-time solo artist, full-time influencer, the one perfect job) isn't actually what you want anymore? As Hope Limyanksy shares her journey from trying to fit into expected molds to embracing four different ceramic-related jobs, we discover that sometimes the path to sustainable creative work means giving different parts of yourself to different pl...
Ep 709: The Truth About Growing Your Creative Business in 2026
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>We're bombarded with messages telling us we're missing some secret key to business success—especially at the start of a new year—but here's the truth: </p><p>There's nothing fundamentally new about running a successful business, no matter what year it is. <b>What if the real problem isn't that you're lacking some proprietary system or special knowledge, but that you've been convinced you need to keep searching for answers instead of trusting what you already know?</b> The basics of business haven't changed in decades: tell people your work exists, get bette...
Ep 708: Craft as Community - 75 years of Haystack
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>For many makers, opportunities to focus solely on creative exploration—without the pressure to produce work for sale or prove our worth through finished pieces—feel impossibly rare or reserved for those along a traditional academic path. When you discovered your craft later in life, already juggling mortgages and responsibilities you can't simply walk away from, where do you turn for intentional study and community that actually fits your reality? Craft schools exist outside traditional academia, offering experiences from weekend workshops to multi-week residencies that welcome makers at every stage—and in celebration of Hay...
Ep 707: Scaling a Pottery Business with Sarah Wolf (Part Two!)
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>Building a team is one thing—but how do you actually run a production ceramics studio day-to-day without losing the handmade quality that makes your work special?</p><p>In this second part of my conversation with Sarah Wolf of Wolf Ceramics, we dig into the operational realities of running an eight-person studio. Sarah breaks down weekly production rhythms, why cross-training her team across multiple tasks creates both flexibility and ownership, and the strategic decision to invest in a jigger jolly. We explore her approach to balancing 80% direct-to-consumer sales with custom restaurant orders, th...
