The Maker's Playbook

Jan 24 2025 153 ep. 59 mins 18
The Maker's Playbook Podcast artwork

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.

  Arts  Business  Education
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Ep 609: Where are They Now? - Restarting through Trauma with Sarah Wells Rolland

Jan 24 2025 79 mins  
Send us a textWhen 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?” Tha

Ep 608: The $20 Mug with Isaac Shue

Jan 17 2025 79 mins  
Send us a textThe 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 pe

EP 607: Financial Systems with Seanin Rosario

Jan 10 2025 87 mins  
Send us a textWhen 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

Ep 606: Not your usual year end recap {The Launch}

Jan 03 2025 22 mins  
Send us a textI 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

Ep 605: Finding Your Niche with Sue McLeod

Dec 20 2024 75 mins  
Send us a textA 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

Ep 604: Working with Intention with Bill Schwenzer of Aliveguy Pottery

Dec 06 2024 94 mins  
Send us a textDescribed 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

Ep 603: Receiving Delayed Attention with Stanley Tong

Nov 15 2024 70 mins  
Send us a textI 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 and quite suddenly, has gotten quite a lot of recognition. We talk about how the series came about and what’s

Ep 602: The Catharsis of Supporting Others with Tim Clark

Nov 08 2024 85 mins  
Send us a textIf 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 q

Ep 601: Staying Okay (even when your business isn’t) with Clare Barboza of Poppy Bee Surfaces

Nov 01 2024 77 mins  
Send us a textHow 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

{Replay} Ep 206: Why Your Sales Results have Nothing to do with the Value of Your Work

Oct 25 2024 41 mins  
Send us a textWe'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,