For multi-passionate creatives who are done asking for permission.
The world never told you that you were allowed to pursue independence and can focus on more than one creative pursuit.
Not your first boss or the system you’ve been quietly feeding for years. Not the well-meaning people in your life who’ve watched you make things, but filed you neatly under a single label because you’re easier to understand when they can put you in a box.
This is for the person who is a little scared but a lot ready. It’s for the ones making sacrifices; real ones that cost, because independence is beautiful but never free, and these are the things I talk about most:
☞ The Creative’s Dilemma
We were told creative work wasn’t a real career. Most of us believed it just enough to let it slow us down. This is where we talk about that — the fear, the flinch, the days where making feels easy and selling feels impossible, and everything in between.
☞ Bulletproof Independence and Sovereignty
No more giving away our customers and income to platforms that would just as soon sacrifice our data to their shareholder’s needs than help us grow. Let’s talk about the tools, technology, and hard-won shortcuts I’ve learned the hard way, and build something nobody can take away from you.
☞ Building Fearlessly in Public
I’m building Lost Mixtape in real time and you’re coming with me. The wins, the wrong turns, the numbers, the decisions I’m not sure about yet. No highlight reel. Just the work.
So, if you’re looking for proof that creative freedom is possible, and is delivered honestly by someone still inside their own projects, and willing to share the dark corners alongside the bright sunshine, that’s what this is.
Pull up a chair.
I’m Dave Conrey
I’ve spent over thirty years as an artist and art director, which sounds impressive until you realize I spent a big chunk of it designing pages for a corporate machine bent on robbing me of all my creativity. My job was to design the pages that the publishers couldn’t sell as advertising, and would tell me to back off whenever I tried making anything interesting.
Now I’m and unapologetic, multi-passionate creative: clothing brand, newsletter, art projects, illustration, writing, digital collage, all of it simultaneously.
People who haven’t taken the time to understand me call me an artist. I let him have it, but art is what I do, not who I am.
If someone asks for clarity, I’ll tell them, but I’ve stopped apologizing for being more than one thing, and this is where I talk about all of it.
Becoming a Member?
Becoming a paid member gets you insider status: The real numbers behind the brand, the platform decisions I’m making in real time before I know how they turn out, the tactical deep-dives into the tools and software I use to build Lost Mixtape from the ground up. You’re supporting the work from the sofa in the studio.
The story stays free. Always. But if you want to be in the room where it’s happening, that’s what the membership is for.
Just Be Here
Free or paid, it’s ok either way. The most important thing is to subscribe because you don’t want to miss out on the next post, which could be the one that helps change your life.
It could happen; if it does, I’d like to make it happen together. I’m also on YouTube, but I spend most of my time on Substack Notes, where you can send me a direct message at any time.
I’m sure I’ll see you around somewhere.
