Welcome to The Loaf - making money & business more approachable for creatives & freelancers
Good morning 👻
Back with another variation of the Starving Artist design and this week, there are 2 crewnecks available:
A new, free piece of merch every Saturday through the end of the year
Subscriber-only access
Everyone has an opinion about niches, but this is one of the best I've read.
The best way to develop unique knowledge is by putting maximum effort into exploring your obsession.
For example, there are a million “productivity experts” and books on building better habits. But James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, stands head and shoulders above the rest.
Why?
Because his obsession with habits led him on a unique journey all his own. And out of that journey came unique knowledge like Habit Stacking, Plateau of Latent Potential, The 3 layers of Behavioral Change, and more.
I shared all of the tools that I use to run my freelance design & writing business and included some helpful calculators & resources. A few of my favorites:
I alluded to the idea of creating a grant program a few newsletters ago, and now I have some exciting updates 🎉
After talking with some tax people and a few friends, I've decided to go the route of creating my own non-profit organization to house the grant program and future charitable efforts.
I started the 501(c)(3) application process this past week and I'm going to document the journey of getting it up & running because I think it'd be educational and hopefully act as a blueprint for anyone who wants to start their own in the future.
I'm going to have a video next week explaining more of the idea and how I plan for it to work, but as a refresher:
The plan is to grant no-strings-attached, $250-$2,000 gifts to work on a creative project, buy equipment, rent studio time, afford a course, learn a skill, whatever it may be related to someone's creative journey
I believe that financial pressure & anxiety holds a lot of people back from making it as a full-time creative, so the Grant Program will be an easy way for someone to apply and get funding for their ideas or passions.
Some people have asked me to make the free giveaways available for purchase afterwards, so I'm releasing the Starving Artist designs (hopefully) next week and all profits are going to be used to fund the Grant Program.
I'm excited to go down this path and start something new. I have no idea if it'll succeed or completely fall apart, but I'm going to share updates along the way and try my best to make an impact in the creative community.
💰 What investing in yourself and your business really looks like
🎓 How to apply for student loan forgiveness
🎨 10 design tips for non-designers
👀 YouTube announces UX/UI design updates
🤮 Photoshop to start charging for color usage
🎥 Watch: How Dream grew a faceless personal brand
✍🏼 Freelance Finds: How to spot a freelance job scam
Keep creating,
Treyton DeVore
