Most of the rejection you've gotten, you handed to yourself. Before anybody else had the chance.

Alice Lemée is a writer, creator coach, and the mind behind Creator Gravity. She got rejected from every writing fellowship she applied to, decided that if nobody was going to hire her she'd hire herself, and turned $1.93 on Medium into a six-figure ghostwriting business writing for big creators and seven-figure entrepreneurs. Then she burned out and walked away from her biggest client. This conversation is about what it takes to stop waiting for permission and start acting like the person you're trying to become.

Jacob is a director and the founder of Wild Combination, the production company behind dance films you've probably scrolled past without knowing who made them. He's spent years making personal work nobody paid him to make, and this conversation gets into why he keeps doing it anyway, even when it doesn't pay the bills.

We get into what winning actually looks like when there's no finish line. The unfair playing field built into this industry, time, money, and who you know mattering as much as talent. Why making unpaid personal work is sometimes just a way of processing something you haven't fully named yet. And the moment Jacob handed me back my own advice, on mic, before I'd fully earned the right to say it again. He also gets honest about how becoming a dad reordered everything he thought he knew about ambition, more than any day on set ever did. This one goes further than we planned. Come ready to take some notes.

Mat Zucker spent twenty years writing briefs for Ogilvy and R/GA. He knew exactly how to build a brand. He just didn't do it for himself until year four of his own podcast.

We get into what the agency world teaches you that going solo never will, the actual tactics that moved the number for his show (and the ones that bombed), and the creative philosophy that keeps him saying yes to new projects without burning everything else down. Also: the 10-3-1 Rule for finding a place to live, a grief song, and why done usually beats perfect.

Most creatives I know are great at what they do. The problem isn't talent. It's that nobody knows they exist.

That's the through line of this conversation with Marissa Pane, founder of Pane Marketing, brand and content strategist, and someone who has spent years helping purpose-driven small businesses get seen and heard by the right people.

Join Jason Murray, Creative Director and lifelong maker, as he dives deep into the art and business of creativity. This episode explores the power of ownership, the process of building your own IP, and what it really takes to grow a creator business in today’s world. Whether you’re a designer, filmmaker, or entrepreneur, you’ll find insights and inspiration to turn your ideas into assets.