Episode 12: Instagram Burnout, Pricing and Creative Pressure

In this episode of The Creative Couch, I respond to three thoughtful creative dilemmas from Dana, Lou and Alan – exploring the frustration of Instagram, the fear around raising prices, and the pressure of making the most of a creative opportunity.

Dana runs a small creative business making lino prints inspired by coastal architecture and tide lines, and once found Instagram a really supportive place to share her work. But as the platform has changed, her reach has dropped, growth has stalled, and the pressure to keep up with reels, trends and constant posting has started to take over. What once felt like connection now feels like performance, leaving her questioning both her work and her place on the platform. How do you continue using Instagram without letting it drain your energy or define your sense of progress?

Lou has been running creative workshops that are gaining momentum, with returning participants and fuller classes, but financially things aren’t adding up. After factoring in travel, materials and venue commissions, she’s barely paying herself, yet feels nervous about raising her prices in case it puts people off or disrupts the growth she’s seeing. When is the right time to increase your prices, and how do you do it without losing the people who already support you?

Alan has rebuilt his creative practice later in life and is now developing his work through printmaking, selling at markets and running workshops. He’s recently been accepted onto an artist residency, giving him two weeks of dedicated time and space to make work. But instead of feeling free, he feels torn between planning too rigidly and risking failure, or going in unprepared and wasting the opportunity. How do you approach something like this without turning it into a test, and how do you balance structure with spontaneity?

In this episode, I explore:

• Why your relationship with Instagram matters more than the algorithm
 • How expectations around visibility and growth can quietly drain your energy
 • The difference between being busy and being financially sustainable
 • Why underpricing often comes from fear rather than strategy
 • How to approach opportunities without turning them into something to get “right”
 • Why structure and spontaneity aren’t opposites, and how they can support each other

Each dilemma is explored with both emotional insight and practical steps you can try in your own creative life.

If you have a creative dilemma you’d like me to explore, please email me at:

thecreativecouchpod@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Creative Couch. I'm Sam Marshall, artist and creative coach. This is a podcast for anyone navigating the ups and downs of a creative life. Each week I respond to three real creative dilemmas sent in by listeners, exploring both the emotional side of what you're experiencing and some practical ways to move forward. And from time to time I'll also be joined by other artists to talk about their creative life, their practice, their challenges, and what keeps them going. Just a short note before we start today's podcast, I realised after I recorded the episode that I had recorded it on my computer audio rather than my fancy microphone. So apologies that the sound quality isn't as good as normal. I could record the whole podcast again, but to be honest, I can't be bothered. So apologies uh for the less than perfect sound on this one, this episode. Thanks, guys. Hello and welcome to the Creative Couch. So it's Monday here, it's bank holiday Monday here in the UK, and it's one of those sort of quiet, gentle, slow days. The weather's just grey, it's just slightly cool, and it just feels quite quiet. In a nice way, in a nice way. Marple and I are very much enjoying this Sunday. This Monday. I keep thinking it's Sunday. It's not, it's Monday. And um, yeah, I do I do enjoy bank holidays, especially when I'm not and I've got nothing planned, which which I mostly don't. It's mostly just a normal working day for me, which it is today. So um, yeah, lots of things going on here at Holly Tree headquarters. The new studio is coming along really nicely. We're we're in the process of, when I say we, I mean me, I'm in the process of redesigning my garden uh to accommodate um my car. There's been all sorts of issues this week uh with uh neighbours and parking, as a few of you have already um uh heard in my stories, but anyway, we're not gonna dwell on that, we're gonna move swiftly on. Quite a lot of this weekend has been spent in tears. Um and then I went to do a talk in Bedford and uh at the Higgins Gallery, I did a talk and I did a workshop and a book signing. Um, even though I think three hours before that I was in floods of tears, not knowing if I could make it. Anyway, it's all okay. We have resolved everything. Um, and um yeah, but it does mean there's going to be more changes here afoot. So uh if you've been to my studio before, then if you're gonna visit in the future, then then there's gonna be some changes, let me tell you. Anyway, anyway, moving on. So thank you to everybody who sent in a dilemma this week. I've had some beautiful dilemmas in, um, which is wonderful, but do send them in if you've got anything you'd like me to answer or anything you'd like me to just take a look at and give my thoughts, then send them in to the creative couch pod at gmail.com. And the exciting thing now is that I'm beginning to introduce um other artists. So this Friday I'm gonna have a conversation with my dear friend Laura, Laura Smith. Um, she's gonna come on the pod, so she will be the uh guest artist on the podcast next week for you. So we're gonna change things up, we're gonna stick to the dilemmas. Obviously, that's gonna be the backbone of the podcast. But then from time to time, I'll be inviting other creatives in to have a chat with me and to talk about their creative life. So can't wait to see Laura. What a wonderful painter she is, what a wonderful friend. I feel very, very lucky to have Laura in my life. Anyway, so let's move on to the questions today. So today I am answering Dana's question, I'm answering Lou's question, second one from Lou, and I'm answering Alan's question. So it's the first time I've had a um a question in from a map, so that's very exciting. So the first question is from Lou. No, it's not, sorry, it's from Dana. And Dana and I have been in touch quite a few times on Instagram, and uh she was asking me a few questions last week, and I said, Why don't you just send this dilemma in? It'll be really helpful. So she sent it in and she's phrased it really well. So, and I think a lot of you will be interested in what Dana's got to say here. So, Dana makes small lino prints based on coastal architecture and tide lines. Um, and she's been active on Instagram for she says around 10 years, and she describes how Instagram used to feel like a really supportive space. She said she'd share a new print, often something quiet and observational, um, like a row of slightly wonky beach huts on the edge of a harbour wall, and people would respond. She said there were conversations, a sense of connection, and it felt like something was slowly building around her work. But over the past few years, she says it's changed quite dramatically. She mentions that she can spend hours carving and printing something quite intricate, photographing it carefully, sharing it, and it feels like it disappears almost immediately. She talks that she talks about that slightly flat feeling of putting something out into the world and hearing nothing back. At the same time, she also feels pressure to keep up with everything Instagram seems to want now: reels, hooks, posting more often, different trends, and she finds that instead of making her work, she's thinking about how to present it and whether she's presenting it in the right way to reach the right people. Um and she also something she also mentioned something quite telling, which is that she started second-guessing the work itself, seeing other artists grow or gain attention has made her wonder whether what she's making, these quite subtle slow prints of tide marks and coastal spaces, isn't just enough anymore. So she also feels caught in that tension of not enjoying Instagram in the way she used to, but also feeling like she can't step away from it because she runs a small business and it feels like such an important way of being seen. So brilliant question. Well, well, so so well written and so well put together, Dana. Um, but I think underneath all of this, the question really is how can how can you keep using Instagram as a to as a tool without it draining your energy or affecting how you feel about your work? So I think there's two things happening here. Let's dig into the emotional layer. I think that Instagram has changed. I mean, that is undeniable. Um, it doesn't behave in the way it used to, and it's much harder now to get that steady kind of reassuring feedback. But I think another thing that's changed is your your relationship to Instagram has changed because I think it's by the sounds of it, it's become not a place where you just share your work, it's where you're where it's become a place for you, Dana, whereby you're looking for a result. And I think that's one of the key things that I really sort of saw in your dilemma. And those things feel completely completely different because when you're waiting for a result or watching for a result, every post or reel or carousel or whatever it is carries weight, and you spend hours carving your blocks, photographing your blocks, and instead of that being the satisfying part, you're thinking ahead to the reaction that's gonna come or the result that's gonna come from when you pop that on Instagram. So it's not about the sharing now, it's about the result. And when you when it doesn't land in the way that you hoped, you feel discouraged and you start second guessing your work. You're like, well, if I didn't get X amount of likes, then maybe this work isn't any good, and maybe I shouldn't be doing this kind of stuff because nobody likes it, so therefore, your all of your worth and all of your um you know self-esteem is caught up in the algorithm of whether people like it, and so I think it's it you feel like I think you feel like a little bit like you're being left behind because you'll start looking at other people because you're you're already looking at Instagram in a negative way. So what you're doing is though you're automatically searching for people who are in the same name as you but who you think are doing really well, you know, and that's when the the comparison starts in and you start measuring yourself against other people. Um, but I think the most important thing to remember here is that Instagram is not a reliable system, it's not a reliable system, it's not built to give you consistent feedback or reward you in a particular way, and I think there's an expectation that comes from Instagram because we've all it's so embedded within our life, and it's like what it should do, what it's supposed to do. But the thing is, and and the difficult thing to accept here is that Instagram is a free platform. Instagram doesn't owe you anything, it's not like you're paying hundreds of pounds a year to use Instagram. I mean, I pay for my blue tick, I'm I'm meta-verified, which I pay that because for some reason I think it's gonna help me getting hacked. So I pay for that little blue tick. That blue that blue tick has got nothing to do with my account being big. Some people say, oh, you've got I've got a blue tick, oh Sam must be really successful. It's nothing to do with that. You pay for those blue ticks. You've been able to pay for those blue ticks for years, and as soon as that became available, I was like, Yep, sign me up because if that gives me some security against being hacked, then I'll have it. So I think I pay £20 a month for that. So in a way, I am paying a little bit for Instagram, but mostly most people who use Instagram aren't paying for it, and so you know, to then expect it to behave in the way that you want it is it's it's kind of you're you're fighting a losing battle there, really. Um you know, it doesn't owe you reach or visibility, um, but what it does do is it offers you access, and that's the thing, it offers you a uh a way to get your work seen. And I think as soon as you start changing your attitudes towards Instagram and letting go of the idea that it should reward you, I think you'll get your footing back because I feel at the moment you're trying to win Instagram and you're not gonna win. You're not gonna win. I mean, I guess you could you could say winning Instagram is maybe a real going viral or something like that. But we've seen from the you know a couple of episodes back. Go and listen to the the episode um when uh I can't remember what her name was now. Anyway, I've gone blank. Um one of what a listener wrote in about going viral, and she was finding it, she found it absolutely paralysing. You know, I think trying to reframe your attitude towards Instagram will be really, really helpful. You know, Instagram is a fully free platform. You know, I know lots and lots of people who kind of moan about Instagram, but they've made hundreds and thousands of pounds from Instagram, you know. I mean, it's a it's a it's a complex one, isn't it? And I I I hear you, I hear you that you know it isn't like it used to be. But I mean myself, I I I just I really enjoy Instagram. I always have. I treat it very lightheartedly. I love making the content I do. I hardly ever look at the likes. I always I always don't I always don't hide I always don't hide. I never hide my likes, I never do any of that kind of stuff because I want I think it's important that you know that people see like a platform like my like mine. I've got quite a big following. Some of my um some of my stuff gets lots of likes, some of it doesn't. That's fine. I I don't feel any less of an artist just because one of my posts doesn't get that many likes. I feel quite secure in myself with with you know, and I've worked hard to get there, but I don't I I very rarely check any of the analytics because I'm not that interested. I'm actually not that interested. I I do it, I put it up there, and I think Instagram is a great way for me to connect with like-minded people and I treat it like that, and I think that's what's kept my sanity with it. You know, I love I do love it, I love that space, it's enabled me to meet amazing people, it's transformed my life in so many ways, and I'm grateful for that, but I'm not going to um I'm not gonna get so involved with the numbers that it starts to drag me down, but that's a decision I've made, and I think I I have a healthy relationship to Instagram in that way. So I think it's not about you trying to fix Instagram, I think it's about how you relate to it. So that's what I mean. I I feel like I have a good healthy relationship with Instagram, and it doesn't bog me down, and it doesn't um you know, I don't get myself tied up in the numbers. I mean, I don't even know what I don't even know what reach really means to be honest when people talk about reach. Oh my goodness, the reach. I'm like, what's what's I'm not really sure what that means. I just keep posting posting things that I want to post, and uh I really enjoy it. I really enjoy putting together stuff and and seeing what happens and seeing the you know the comments that I get back and the reaction that I get back. So yeah, so let's think about shifting the way that you relate to it. And I think bearing in mind what I've just said about how I feel about Instagram, I know really clearly what I want from it, and I know what it is for me. For me, it's a place to communicate, it's a it's a place to talk about my ideas, it's a it's a place to get have lovely conversations. Um, so you need to decide what it is for you. Is it a place to share your presence? Is it a place to share your process? Is it a place for you to point people towards your shop or your newsletter? And I think that's enough. It doesn't have to carry your whole business. I mean, Instagram is just one tool that I use in my business. You know, I've got a big, big uh newsletter, I've got lots of subscribers, you know. I've kind of built it up over the years, so I do feel you know, if Instagram did suddenly go down, I would have all those subscribers that I've got. Um to email, you know, I've got that's that's the security I have. I've got lots of contacts, I've made lots of contacts throughout the years. Um, I mean, I'm not on any other platforms, I just don't have the time or the headspace to be on any other of the other platforms, and that's the decision that I made. I mean, it could be that you wanted to maybe invest a little bit more time in some other platforms, but I think you know, don't make Instagram your whole plat your whole business, you know, have other ways of marketing. Think about building your newsletter up, think about other ways to get your content out there. And I think then the second thing is expect inconsistency. Some posts will land, some won't. And that is okay. Treat it as a treat it as just a bit of light-hearted fun. Just treat it with curiosity. Oh, I'm gonna do this. Let's, you know, let's let's see how this does. If if that's important to you, if the numbers and stuff are important to you. But I think if you expect inconsistency, then it becomes a lot easier. It becomes a lot easier. And I would always say post more, just post more, don't think about it, don't overthink about it. I can sit there with my phone and come up with a post in half an hour, and I don't overthink it, I just write it down, da la poof, out it goes. I don't really care what time I post it, I'm not bothered about that kind of stuff. If I've got something to say, I I'll say it. If I haven't got something to say on that day, then I won't say it. Sometimes I have a backlog of things that I want to say. I mean, I'm I'm not strategic when it comes to Instagram at all, and I think that's probably helped me. I'm slightly ignorant, but I do enjoy it. I do enjoy it, and I think I'm able to enjoy it because my relationship to it comes from a healthy place. Um, so I think also let's step out of performance mode. So notice when you're making decisions of will this do well? How should I do this differently? Should I probably should I do a dance, or should I, because of that person said that I should do a dance because that's what's trending now? You know, don't do that if you don't feel right about doing a dance. I don't think dancing is a thing now, is it? You're not supposed to dance, but um, you know, just gently come back to do I want to share this? Do it is this is this is this is what I want to share, is this what I want to do? Is this what I want to talk about? You know? Um and again, that then my next thing is don't don't try not to allow those influences, influence, try not to allow those ideas around what you should and shouldn't do affect you too much. Just do what you want to do, just do what you want to do. You can choose a way of working for Instagram that suits you. And if you don't want to be on, if you don't want to do the new trend, don't do the new trend. If it doesn't feel right to you. I've had creatives come to me and say, I feel like I should talk to the camera like you do, Sam. And I was like, Well, do you want to? And they said, No, absolutely not. I would absolutely hate it. I said, Well, why do it then? I do it because I enjoy doing it, and it's something that I don't find difficult. But if I if that wasn't in my personality and I didn't think that I'd want to do it, I wouldn't do it. Don't do it. Find a way to make it work for you. Um, and I think don't use Instagram to validate your worth of your worth and your growth. You know, separate yourself from that. Try and separate yourself from using Instagram as a as a way to measure your progress. Oh, the more followers I have, the more successful I am. That's not true. That's just not true. The more followers I have, the more sales I might I might make. Again, that's just not true. You can have, I don't know, uh, 800 followers on Instagram and be really successful at your business because those 800 followers are the ones who are engaged, they know you, they trust you, and they will buy everything that you put out. You could have 80 million thousand followers on Instagram, but you don't have a core of engaged people who will buy your work. More followers does not mean more success or more sales. It doesn't, it's not as obvious as that. It doesn't follow that very simple trajectory. So don't use the follower count or the reach or whatever it is that you you're using as a measure of your success and how how your work's blind. Um because okay, I was gonna say, I forgot what I was gonna say. I think Instagram has changed, but it isn't broken, it's just your relationship with it, I think, needs to change. So try and stop it from validating your work and use it in the way that feels right for you. Look after the followers you've already got, look after the followers you've already got. Don't try not to use more followers as a sense of worth and just you know, look and look after the followers you you have got. You know, they're people, you know. You might have you might think you've got a small following of 800 people, but that's eight, that's 800 people. Think about 800 people being outside your house now. That's a lot of people, you know. I mean, I've got lots and lots of followers, and I can guarantee look at how many people look at my stories. It's a tiny, tiny fraction of the numbers that I've got. Tiny, tiny fraction. Okay. So again, numbers doesn't uh equate to success. It's irrelevant, but it's not irrelevant. I'm not saying it's irrelevant, I'm just saying it it doesn't necessarily correlate. It doesn't, it doesn't mean more, you know what I mean. I'm rambling now. Um, but look after the followers that you've already got. Um, and I think you'll start to enjoy it again, Dana. I think you'll start to enjoy it. Okay, homework. Try three small shifts, shifts. Post and step away. Share one piece of work that you care about, and then just don't check it for the rest of the day. Just share it and and and leave it. And I know the traditional advice is to share the piece of work and then spend half an hour Instagram liking and commenting on other people's posts. But in a way, I think that's just feeding your anxiety at the moment. Post what you want to post, say what you want to say, and just step away from it. I think write your own Instagram role or decide, you know, write a sentence of what Instagram means for you. So it could be something like, um, let's think about this. I use Instagram to share my prints and to show people what I'm making, something like that, which just gives you that core sentence just to keep coming back to, okay? Just keep coming, you keep coming back to that sentence. And then I think also clean up your feed if there are people on there who are making you feel insecure about your work, or they're not making you feel good about your work. And it could be that they're lovely people, but every single time you see a post of theirs and you look at how many likes they've got or how many followers you you've they've got, and it makes you it starts to gnaw at you, then just unfollow them or mute them or do whatever you have to do to remove them from your feed, just clean up your feed and make it work for you so that and I I wouldn't I'm not necessarily advising that to everybody because I don't think sometimes that quite cutthroat method works. I think it's important that we are surrounded by people who uh sometimes you know I think comparison can be healthy, but I think for you at the moment, Dana, you're feeling so low about everything that actually I Think you know, maybe a couple of months where you just slim down your your feed, you curate your feed. I think it'll probably put you in a much healthier space. So I hope that's helpful. I think Instagram will keep on changing. It will keep on changing. It's not gonna do, you know, you might find that even in three or four years people will be saying, Oh, I wish it was like it was in 2026. You know, I mean, it's it changes all the time. But that doesn't mean to say that we have to fight against it. It's not something that you're gonna win. It's just about accepting it, accept the inconsistency, have fun with it, just treat it as a a part of your business, not all of your business, and then I think you'll be in a much better space with it. Okay, I hope that's I hope that helps. Um I've got loads more to say about Instagram, but I I won't I won't have this whole podcast about Instagram. Okay, right. So thanks for that, Dana. That was brilliant. Um next uh dilemma. This is from Lou. So Lou has uh has written in before. Lou is one of my creatives, and Lou's got this question, which I think is a great question. Lou's been running workshops for a while and is now starting to see some real positive momentum. Her classes are filling up more consistent consistently, she's which she has returning participants and things are beginning to feel really established. So from the outside, it looks like things are going really well, but behind the scenes there's a bit of a problem. Lou says that her workshops are priced quite low compared to others, and once she factors in travel, materials, and the commission taken by venues, she's not really paying herself a proper wage. So, although the workshops are working financially, they are not sustainable. She is very aware of this, um, but she's hesitant to raise her prices because she's worried that if she increases them, she might lose participants, especially those who have been coming back regularly, or that um, and also she's worried that the numbers might drop and the momentum she's built could stall. At the same time, she recognises that no sustainable business can keep operating like this on the long in the long term. So I think so. Uh Lou's question really is this When is the right time to raise your prices? How do you do it without losing the people who already support you? Okay, thanks for that, Lou. Uh great question. I think you already know the answer. I think you already know the answer to this, Lou, and you know what you need to do. But I'm going to answer your question because I think that you need to hear it, and I think that hopefully this will give you the confidence to do exactly this. Okay. So I've just gone through this. So a couple of months ago, I decided to raise my prices. I knew that the prices that I was offering for my coaching, for my workshops, needed to rise to reflect who I am now, where I am in my career. When I first started off, my online workshops, it was about four years ago, um, probably five years ago, similarly with my coaching. And in that time, you know, my business has expanded, I have expanded, not physically, but you know, my business has taken off. I'm I know a lot more, I'm much more skilled than I was back then. And you know, times have changed, all prices have gone up. We need to reflect the society that we're living in. So I made that decision that I was going to put my prices up. Um, and it wasn't an easy decision for me either. You know, I went through all the worries that you were going through, Lou, as well. But I knew for me uh it was really important, and it's been seamless. It's been absolutely seamless. It hasn't put people off coming to me for wanting coaching. Um, it hasn't stopped my workshops being um, you know, people booking on my workshops. It hasn't all it's done is made me feel much more valued and it has given me uh, you know, it I feel like I'm I'm being true to myself, to you know, to the to the artist, to the educator that that I am now. Right, so I think what you're can what you're describing here, Lou, is hesitation. I don't think you're confused. I think you know that you need to raise your prices. It's just you're just hesitating because you're overthinking, which I know you're prone to. Um you you know that the numbers at the moment don't work, and you know that you're not paying yourself properly, and you know that it's not sustainable, but there's that fear sitting underneath it of what if I raise my prices and the people won't come? You know, will I lose the very thing that is just beginning to work? And that's a really human place to be, you know, especially when something has just taken taken off, but it feels really fragile, and I think what you're doing, Lou, is you're treating your prices as something that keeps people comfortable instead of thinking about how it sustains your business. Those things don't always align. You know, I think if your pricing is too low, what you're doing is quietly absorbing the cost of yourself. I wrote that really clearly on my notes. You're just absorbing the cost of yourself. You're covering travel materials and the venue and all of that, but you're but you, Lou, aren't being paid for it. So that's then gonna affect the way that you experience the workshop. It's gonna take out the enjoyment from it because underneath it is a slight feeling of, oh god, I'm doing all this, I'm exhausted, I'm not even getting paid properly for this, you know, given the fact that I've had to drive there in my van, I've had to stay overnight, all of that kind of stuff. So it isn't really a question of when, it's it's more it's more it's more about deciding that you're ready to take your work seriously as a business. It's trying to remove the emotional aspect of this and the anxiety around the what ifs, and think I'm worth this. Look at all the years of teaching experience you've got, Lou. Look at all the years of teaching, you know, look of all the years of outdoor work you've done, look at you've got such a history with this. It's just about you being confident and trusting that you have you're worth all of this, okay, you're worth it, and thinking about it as your business moving forward. It's not sustainable, you're gonna get burnt out, you're gonna get resentful. Those prices need to go up, okay? But you need to do it in a way that makes you comfortable because when I was reviewing my prices, I was doing all sorts, I was getting in different uh advice from other people, and I was looking at you know other people's pricing, and I was like, you know, I was sometimes it was like, well, charge this. I was like, I can't charge that, that was crazy to charge that. I had to kind of look at my figures and look at everything that goes into my business and think, right, that is the place where I feel comfortable. I don't feel comfortable there, but I feel comfortable here. So it's about you deciding, you know, how much your prices should will increase to make sure that you're getting paid, but also to make sure that you're not feeling uncomfortable charging that amount of money, okay. So it we'll we'll we'll have a chat about this next time I see you, Lou. But but but in the meantime, let's let's let's really think seriously about this. And by the next time we meet, I hope that some plans have been put in place. Because I think like practical side, let's talk about the practical side. Um, so before thinking about what people will pay, you need to get really clear what you need. So the travel materials, venue, your time and planning, and then ask what do I need to charge to make this feel fair? Okay, so not generous, not reasonable, but fair, fair. Again, that's goes back to what I just said a minute ago. You know, I didn't feel comfortable with this over here, really high, but I felt comfortable here. Okay, and I those of you on YouTube you can't see me waving my hands around. That is one thing that I've noticed actually. When I look back on my videos that I do of myself, I realize how um expressive I am with my hands. I never realized that before. Okay, uh, the number two you do have to accept that some people will drop away. People will drop away, and that's that's the bit that you're trying to avoid. But it's an important shift because you might lose a few people, but you don't need everyone. The thing is, if you raise your prices, those people who you've lost, they will be more, you will hopefully be uh still retain quite a few people, and they're paying more, so in the long run, you'll be better off. So you just need enough people at the right price, okay? Um, and you'll enjoy it more, Lou. You'll enjoy it more, much more if you feel like you're being rewarded properly for your talent and for your time and for your you know, your knowledge. Um so and then value obviously value the people who stay. Your your returning participants are not just there because it's cheap, they're there because they value what you what you offer, and those people will stay, even with the price increases. Okay. Um, the fourth one I wrote here was do it in a clean way. So you don't need to over-explain or apologize, you can simply say from this date, my workshop prices will be increasing to uh reflect the cost of materials and running the sessions, and that's enough. You don't need to say, Oh goodness, I'm really sorry, you know, whole paragraph about while you're doing this. You just need to state it and that's it. And and most people will accept that. Most people will accept that. Um, and I think you the next thing is I know this is going on for quite a while. Um, think long term, not short term. So right now you're protecting attendance, but you need to be thinking about this in the long term. This is something that you I know you want to do in the long term. You've got to keep to you've got to keep moving your business forward. You you've if you continue to undercharge, you're going to burn yourself out, you're going to resent it, or you might even stop together altogether. Okay. So this is protecting yourself in the long term. Right, homework. Work out your true baseline price, calculate what you need to charge for a workshop and pay your to pay yourself firmly, fairly, sorry, and write that. Write that down. Even if it feels uncomfortable, write it down. That's the baseline, okay? Choose a new price and a start date. We we can talk about this on the next session, and then communicate it clearly. Just a simple, you know, a simple line, whatever. Um, you don't even, I know that you you you know, you get hired to do separate workshops, etc. etc. And you know, you just need to say to the next venue, this is what I charge. Yeah, this is what I charge. And and don't don't apologize for it. Just go in there, this is what I charge, well done. Okay. Great question, Lou. Thank you for that. Okay, moving on. Alan. So Alan writes to me from New Zealand. So he said that um he grew up in East London, studied art in the 90s, but wasn't able to continue, and over time his creative practice faded out. He's now based in New Zealand where he and he and his wife run a business delivering science shows in schools. Very interesting. So creativity is still very much part of his life, but in a different form. A few years ago he did a woodworking course using hand tools, and from that a new art practice started to emerge. Since then, he's gradually building things back up again, selling at local markets, sharing a store with his wife, running some jelly printing workshops, and those went really well. So there's a real sense of momentum here, what from Alan from what Alan tells me. Um, but alongside that, there's been a few knockbacks, not getting into certain markets and events, and he describes quite carefully how he now approaches applications with backup plans almost to protect himself from that feeling of being derailed. Um, but this is the crux of it. So recently he's accepted, he's been accepted onto a residency at Driving Creek Railway and Potteries in New Zealand, where they have a small space, small studio space for two weeks to focus on making work in a beautiful environment. But his dilemma is this: do I go in with a clear plan and try to realise the project I proposed, or do I take materials and work more intuitively and see what happens? Um, Alan writes that he's worried that if he plans too rigidly, he'll feel like he's failed if it doesn't work out, or that it might block something more spontaneous. But at the same time, he's also worried that if he doesn't plan enough, he'll sit there trying things that don't go anywhere. So he's caught between structure and freedom and not wanting to get it wrong. Right. Okay, so what really struck me with this, um, Alan, if we're looking at the emotional layer, is the level of caution running underneath everything that you're saying. There's a real sense that you're trying to protect yourself from something, and I think you're trying to protect yourself from failing, um, from disappointment, for fear that feeling of being knocked out, you knocked back, you know, because that that part where you talk about the fact that you didn't get into the certain markets, I feel like that obviously really stung for you because there's been some momentum, and then you got rejected from some of these markets, and you've obviously, you know, that's obviously hit your confidence. Um but it I I sort of feel like the way that you're talking about the residency, you're almost approaching it um like something that might go wrong rather than something that you'll get something from the experience of. So you're already approaching it with scepticism and worry and cautiousness. Um and there's an element of risk in this, you know, if I plan it, I might fail. If I don't plan, I might waste it. So both of those scenarios have risk attached to it, and both of those scenarios have a sense of failure attached to it, and that's quite a pressured place to start from. So I would like you to reframe how you're thinking about this residency, because this residency isn't a test. They've looked at your work, they've looked at your application, they've welcomed you in. It's not something that you're going to pass and fail. And this lovely two weeks of protected time whereby you can make your work in a way that your normal life doesn't allow I think you can enter into it with a real feeling of optimism rather than cautiousness and anxiety. Try and think, I'm going to enjoy this. You know, I'm going to enjoy this. These people who've said yes to my proposal, they have trust in me that they like the direction that my work is going and what I have proposed. Therefore, it's a safe space for me to enter and to just to see what happens. So instead of thinking, do I go with the flow? I think how can I create a structure that supports spontaneity? So I think it's almost like allowing yourself to do the but do both. So I do think you should go in there with the with the structure that you proposed. You know, you you've said that this is, I mean, I don't know your proposal, but it sounds like you went in saying in the residency, I'm going to do this. So you've got to anchor yourself in the project. You've got to anchor yourself with what you wrote because you wrote that for a reason. Um you know, let that be your starting point. Let that be your starting point. And I think rather than thinking about it as a two-week chunk, think about it in phases. So I always look about, you know, when we used to do projects with my um B Tech students when I used to work at the Brit School, you know, the BTEC projects were I don't know, sometimes they were like 10 weeks long, and that there would always be sort of, you know, the first two weeks would be kind of experimentation, gathering, testing ideas, and then you would go into the kind of developing something more focused, and then the final bit would be resolving it. So I would look at that these two weeks and have that kind of structure. So the first bit is gathering, researching, you know, testing out things, then you move into a more of a focus page phase, and then towards the end of the second week, you work into kind of resolving or finishing it. So break the whole two weeks down into chunks. I think that gives you a sense of uh direction without locking you in. Um, and I think absolutely prepare your materials, but don't prepare your outcome. So take all the materials that you want to work confidently and um creatively, but don't try not to have an idea what's going to come with it. Try and just go in there with a spirit of curiosity, like I've said, and and and see what happens, just see what happens when you get there. Um, and I think again, like I said to Dana and Lou, you know, expect things to go wrong. Expect, you know, like with Lou, people are gonna people some if you put your prices up, some people will drop off with Instagram. You're gonna lose followers, you're not gonna get loads of followers, some posts might work, some some posts might not work. Um, with you, expect that some pieces of work might not go anywhere. Well, that's part of it, isn't it? Often the things that fail teach us the most, so you know, expect that that something that you make on one day might not work, but it might lead to something else, and that's what uh this lovely um this lovely time in the on the residency will will enable you to um to achieve. Um, and also you're going somewhere new for a reason. You get it's it sounds amazing. I've looked it up. This place looks incredible. You know, let the environment shift what you make, you know. See what happens when you go out into the space. You know, it might be that you maybe part of your proposal involves the actual location, it probably does. You know, let that filter in, let see what happens when you're in that work. One of my creatives, Emily, um, just did a residency in Wales. And I mean, the whole experience for her being part of that environment shifted her work enormously. You know, all of the work that she made over those few weeks was about this amazing space in Wales. So, you know, let that be a part of what it is that you're working on. So I think in summary, you don't need to choose between structure and freedom, you just need a light structure that allows freedom to happen. So thinking about not thinking about am I going to get it right or am I going to get it wrong, just be there and have a loose kind of structure and be curious about what emerges. Okay, so homework. I think before you go, write down three. I suggest sorry, I don't say write down the first bit is writing something down. Oh god, I'm tired. It's been a been it's been a weekend. Um, right, I think write down a loose intention. Write down a few lines about what you would like to explore while while you're there. I think that would be really helpful for you. And then break your time into phases, like I just suggested. And then I wrote this down, but I'm not I am no, I think it's a good one. Decide what success means to you because I think it could be I I showed up every day and made work, not something like I produced something finished or I produce something that's good. I think let's try and yeah, try and take the pressure off the outcome again. Try and kind of um see it as I've got a hair in my eye. Sorry, try and see it as the process rather than the outcome. And I God, I feel like I'm constantly banging on about that, but you know, go there, enjoy it, don't put too ex too much expectations on the finished result. No matter what, the time that you spend there will be valuable, you will gain something from it. I think you you just need to try and accept that at the moment what's happening is that you're approaching it in the spirit of failure and with with cautiousness around what might go wrong. Okay, so I think just just just accept that that's where you are at the moment, but that doesn't have to be where you are when you go. You know, you can take on board what we've just talked about, and hopefully you'll be in a different mindset to when you do go on this residency. Um, and I hope it goes really well for you, Alan. It it looks fantastic. Well, thank you for that. Thank you for sending those dilemmas in, guys. So, as I said, next week we'll have the lovely Laura Smith with me. We'll be chatting about all things creative. Not quite sure how I'm going to structure it yet. I'm having a think about it. I will get a structure, but um there will be we will there will be a um there will be a plan behind the chat. It won't just be Laura and I chatting. I mean, I'm I'm sure you would find that interesting, even if just Laura and I having a chat about everyday life, but there will be um a loose kind of structure. I've just got to figure out what that will be. So that will be next week's podcast. So that'll be lovely Laura and I uh chatting, um chatting on Zoom. Anyway, my lovelies, thank you again for. Writing in. Please do do what you need to do in terms of like, review, share, tell people about the podcast. That'd be great. And um yeah. It's now quarter past three. I've got a session at four. What can I do in the next three quarters of an hour? I think I might go and do some gardening. I feel like I need to get up and out of the studio and uh stretch my legs. I've had a Japanese lesson today, which went actually really well today, which was quite surprising. Mupple's here, she's on my lap. Those of you on on Zoom. Yes, she is looking gorgeous. Alright, lovelies, listen, take care, and um I look forward to seeing you soon. Let's hit let's hit stop marks.