Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Maker Division
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting before you're ready | Episode 01 | 08 May 2026 | 01:09:53 | |
Welcome to the first episode of the Maker Division podcast. Ben Burns and Stephanie Owens decided to start a podcast on Friday and hit record on Tuesday — which makes "starting before you're ready" the only honest topic for episode one. In this conversation, they get into why creatives stall out: the baggage we drag into new projects, the fear of being seen, the websites that don't need to exist yet, the capabilities decks that don't get sent, and the "good idea fairy" that inflates every project until it dies in the personal projects inbox. They share what's held them back personally — from cruel YouTube comments to expertise becoming a curse — and the actionable shifts that helped them ship anyway. What we cover:
Mentioned in this episode:
If you've been sitting on a project, a portfolio, or a piece of content waiting until it's ready — this one's for you. | |||
| Some creative work sells itself. Some needs a story | Ep 03 | 10 Jul 2026 | 00:43:50 | |
Not every project needs a case study or a cap deck. Some of your best work just needs to be seen. Ben and Steph break down the three ways creatives show their work to clients: the lookbook, the capabilities deck, and the case study. When each one wins, when it costs you the job, and why it all comes down to who's hiring you and what they're really buying. Two very different careers, one shared conclusion: there's no single right way to do this. You just need the work to prove it. Off-Season, our 8-week summer accountability cohort, is open now. Doors close July 11, cohort runs July 22 to September 9. → makerdivision.com/off-season | |||
| The Solo Studio | Ep 02 | 23 Jun 2026 | 00:50:12 | |
FREE WORKSHOP: Design Your Lookbook https://makerdivision.myflodesk.com/lookbook This episode is brought to you by Maker Division, our community for creatives building real businesses around their craft.
This one's a little rambly on purpose. Ben and Steph are both running their own solo studios right now and figuring this out in real time, so you're getting two creatives thinking out loud, changing their minds, and pulling from recent examples in their own careers. If you've ever felt like your personal work matters less than your client work, this episode is for you. You'll hear us get into:
Chapters
Mentioned in this episode | |||
| Why it's so hard to create | Ep04 | 28 Jul 2026 | 00:48:06 | |
Creatives go into business to create... and then resist creating unless somebody else is paying for it. Ben and Stephanie get into why. They break the resistance into four camps: the ROI camp who won't spend an unbillable hour, the identity camp who don't see themselves as artists, the people for whom making is genuinely painful, and the perfectionists sitting on an idea they're too scared to ruin. Then they hand over the receipts. The internship Ben landed with a portfolio he faked overnight. The Chewbacca illustration that turned into Star Wars, Marvel, and DC licensing deals. Five figure lettering work that started with free online workshops taken for no reason at all. The honest answer to "how do you know it will work" is that you don't. The alternative is a sure zero. Maker Division is coursework, coaching, and community for creatives building a business around their craft. Get on the newsletter at makerdivision.com. Everything about this fall, including our Vegas retreat on scaling your studio beyond clients, goes there first. | |||
| You Don’t Need a Big Audience to Run a Retreat | Ep 06 | 14 Aug 2026 | 00:42:44 | |
You don’t need a huge audience — or a famous name — to create an in-person experience people will value. In this episode, Steph and Ben pull back the curtain on planning profitable, small-group retreats and workshops for creatives. They share what they learned from Maker Division’s Las Vegas events, why intimate gatherings can be more transformative than large conferences, and how a retreat can become another income stream for your Solo Studio. They also get honest about the work involved: choosing the right location, setting attendance thresholds, vetting participants, designing an experience around what people actually need — and preparing for those last-minute food allergies. In this episode: • Why five to twenty attendees may be the ideal retreat size • How to validate an event with a small audience • Retreats versus conferences — and what each does best • How to make a small event financially viable • Why teaching should be 20% delivery and 80% support • How to lead a workshop without positioning yourself as a guru • Turning your existing creative skills into an in-person experience • Starting small, learning from the first event, and improving as you go
Interested in joining Maker Division’s next Las Vegas retreat? [https://www.makerdivision.com/m/maker-vegas] Learn more about the Solo Studio: | |||
| The Niching Advice That’s Hurting Creatives | Ep 05 | 07 Aug 2026 | 01:04:16 | |
Should every creative pick a niche — or has that advice done more harm than good? In this episode, Steph and Ben put their decade-plus experience helping creatives build and grow their practices on the record. They break down the important differences between specializing, niching, and positioning — and explain why treating them as interchangeable can lead to what they call the “niching nightmare.” They also share their own experiences falling into profitable niches, why they eventually chose to leave them, and how niching can pull creatives away from the craft they originally loved. | |||