“How will I know when to take my ideas from exploration to the execution phase?” – Nikkita Cohoon

Jessica Craddock:  This week, I'm talking with Nikkita Cohoon. She's a multimedia artist who makes vibrant artwork with lots of mark making that feels like a chatty conversation.

And today we're really digging into the question, what happens when I'm at a process in my business where I just need to go inward. I need to winter. I need to explore some ideas, give myself some time. And when do I know it's the right time to move out of that and into the execution of these ideas. How do I use my own intuition and knowing to be able to make those choices and know which way the right way is to go next.

If you're someone who loves this inner reflection period, and you can kind of tend to get stuck in it or get overwhelmed with ideas, this is the episode for you. So, with that, let's get into it.

Jessica Craddock: Hi Nikita.

Nikkita Cohoon: Hi, Jessica.

Jessica Craddock: How are you doing today?

Nikkita Cohoon: I'm doing well, especially 'cause I get to be with you today. I haven't, we haven't gotten to chat in a little while.

Jessica Craddock: It has been a minute and I have missed you, so thank you for doing this with me. Okay, so we wanna talk a little bit about how you are starting to claim artist again instead of just designer, not just designer, but separating the two terms, is I think how you described it. Where I'm a designer or I'm an artist, but they aren't necessarily the same thing. But how you're starting to explore how they are. Tell me a little bit about what's going on.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah, I stopped taking clients for my brand design business in the fall, um, which was a big shift for me. I started my business in 2013 and it's always been some form of freelance, then moving into my own studio working with clients one-on-one, and really expressing their visual brand identity. And all along I was creating for myself, but that was kind of the end of it. It was a personal practice.

And so during that time, I often led with the role of designer because I was serving other clients first, and that felt really good. It still informed my creative practice and really inspired it as well. There's a lot of creative collaboration that happens, and then my own work is impacted in wonderful ways because of that. But I started full-time working for someone else in the fall outside of my business for the first time since 2012 maybe, so it was just one too many containers. So, now my day job is creative but not visually creative. And that means I can get creative inspiration and little sparks during the day, but I'm not visually expressing that for someone else, and I get to keep that for myself.

 It feels really freeing and exciting and it also takes some pressure off of what does that look like on the day to day. If it's just for me, I don't have to have that. I can just show up, and it can shift. And that's how I am anyway when I talk about the difference between routine and ritual. Routine is something you have to do or that you build in and it has to happen and get checked off. Whereas ritual is something, it may happen daily, but it's something that feels really aligned and good for you. So, I'm constantly reinventing there that means that even though I've had that designer hat on and I still considered myself an artist, even things that I would create, I'd be like, well, that's more of a design.

I do surface pattern design as well. So it has that in the name, and sometimes people will consider that or they say it's commercial. So it's not art, but we know it's all art. It's just

Jessica Craddock: Yeah.

Nikkita Cohoon: the way it comes through, and I'm really stepping into that in this season.

Jessica Craddock: I love it. Um, Nikkita actually, was it a couple of years ago? It must have been because it was for Anchored Artist, and it's called Consistent Income now. It's been that way for a while. So she came in and did a masterclass called Routine to Ritual, Creating Daily Energetic Practices.

And it was so good, and I loved it. And it's actually, stored in The Artist Market Treasury. If you have access to that, you should go watch it after you listen to this interview because you're really gonna enjoy it. Nikkita's really great at many things, but one of those things is breaking down the ideas that she was just talking about, the rituals versus routine and how do we find more of those rituals that energize us. And I love it.

So now you said you're kind of working on finding freedom in your own creative rituals, but also knowing when to dig in a little bit more and make it not just for yourself, but something that you might share or when to go bigger. And knowing when to take action on all those ideas and when is the time to get out of winter and maybe into spring.

Let's dig into that, shall we?

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah, let's do it. 'cause I can feel it. It's on the horizon, right? Um, even February. From January. It's February as we're talking and there's a different shift. I'm in the Midwest. January is so gray, and you can see here I have so much sun in my studio today and that would not have been the case even a week ago.

So there's just a palpable shift of Absolutely. It's still cold. There's still those. Lots of quiet moments, but spring is on the horizon even if we have to wait a little bit for it, we're aware of it. It's in the periphery.

Jessica Craddock: I like to talk to my clients. Sometimes we get into it and sometimes it kind of gets shifted to this side about seasons. About seasons of energy, and you're talking about as they relate to the actual outdoor season. And I think that there's a lot to that. Sometimes. No, not sometimes, all the time for me winter feels, I wanna go in. I wanna explore my ideas. I wanna do less. I wanna be more in tune with whatever's going on for me. And I, I feel like that's what you're describing. What are you exploring?

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah. You know, it's, it's an interesting season, winter. I am an idea person, and I can get really stuck in my head. And I like the winter season, both the real one and just like in that cycle, you're in

creatively of that permission to just stay there, go inward. Be with it. And it's interesting, even this Sunday, I had all these ideas of things I wanted to do. I wanted to write my newsletter. I have one lingering client project that I was like, well, I should work on that. I could open my sketchbook. And I sat with those feelings for hours and knew all these things I could, I could sense it, but I was like, no, I'm not. I'm wintering. I read my book and I stayed still. Um, by the end of the day, I had opened my sketchbook.

January I decided I was gonna come back to a daily creative practice, but it wasn't January 1st. It was like January 31st. So for the whole month I knew you're coming to that, you're coming to that when you feel called in this time you can explore what that looks like. Um, so not that daily practice right away, but this past week that's returned. So that's the one thing I've been holding to. And then the rest I can just notice and be aware of. And I like my sketchbook practice even for noting some of those things of I felt I should do this or I wanted to do that.

Julia Cameron, one of my favorite writers who, the author of the Artist Way, she encourages writers to write a certain amount of time or a certain, like have a certain practice each day. And she always encourages that you, like, she'll do a page limit, for example, and you don't necessarily go beyond the three pages for your morning pages. She talks to writers about how it's better to stop when you still have that sense of potency that you could keep going because it really charges when you come back to the page the next day. And so I like that balance of, you know, not just going completely, still taking some action, but also having that constraint of knowing when to stop and leaving yourself little breadcrumbs for when you return the next time. So I've been enjoying kind of noting things along the way and journaling my way even through some of my visual stuff, whether it's in the sketchbook or with a notebook by the side of like saving, saving those little clues.

[00:09:12] When you create rituals that can become routines, the easier their routine, the more likely your are to do the ritual.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah, I love that. I hadn't heard that from her. In my mind it's just three pages stop. But, I do that for myself as well, whether it's through my journal or even I text myself notes all the time. It's my own little breadcrumbs, like, oh, don't I I don't wanna forget this yet. And I'm not gonna sit down and take action on it, or write on it, or whatever it is, but breadcrumbs. And it makes it so easy to get restarted again, and that has so much value in it because when you create rituals that can become routines, the easier their routine, the more you're gonna do the ritual.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah. Again, I come back to that idea of containers and constraints. They are so powerful for artists. We think, eight hours of studio time in a clean, fresh studio sounds so alluring, but sometimes it's really intimidating. So when we these little containers or constraints, they're really comforting, and they, they create that scaffolding for us. The other thing I've been doing since I've been working a lot with collage in my sketchbook is I have this little box of scraps and I tend to try not, if I'm cutting something up, I leave at least a little bit of that for the next time.

And so then there's that through line the next day of I can pick up this scrap that, yesterday I cut out the leaf. Today it's the shape that was left behind. And so again, it's so conversational for me of like continuing that conversation and that through line from day to day.

Jessica Craddock: You made me wanna go leave myself breadcrumbs everywhere on purpose now. I'm gonna have to do that. Okay, so when you're talking about these breadcrumbs and these containers and constraints, you're saying, I want to keep digging in. I wanna keep taking action on them, but how do I know when they be need to become more? Right? I know you're here because one, I invited you and two, you're hoping for me to give you a couple of answers. But sometimes I like the answers that come from within you and you just need to talk them through with somebody in order to find them.

Nikkita Cohoon: I'm a big verbal processor, so I'm always here for that.

Jessica Craddock: So I kind of feel like that may be where we're going here. So in this practice, how will you know if it needs to become something more or if the routine of leaving yourself a breadcrumb and writing or drawing every day is still the thing that is needed.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah, I think for a while it's gonna be the thing that it's needed. I'm really still pretty fresh into this daily practice, and so I'd like to get at least a good 30 days of finding my stride there. But I think those breadcrumbs, if I am diligent about at least. Making those notes that I'm gonna start to get nudges enough that I'll know, okay, now this, this container's too small for you. What does it look like to go a little bit larger? And I think too, I'm keeping visual clues of, I have the big 18 by 24 news print pad. I have the new watercolor pad, and I'm not gonna hide them away. They'll be present and not to overwhelm me, but just so that, you know, they're, they're companions in the studio. They're there waiting for me.

On the business side of things, I have this weekly newsletter that I've started and similarly, I would say in the past couple months, I've been challenging myself to show up close to on a weekly basis. This time it was, eight or nine days, but it was also one of my best, like one of my favorite ones that I've written so far.

Having those constraints but knowing when to break them, knowing, okay, you need an extra couple days and that's okay. But even when I started that list, I'm on Substack where you have the option to have a private tier for people that upgrade. And I know that I wanna do that at some point, create this community where we can continue some of these conversations that aren't just the public newsletter that anyone can stumble on. Because, in those private containers, there's an intimacy you can't always have with something that's completely public. So, I'm headed there, and when I get into just planning mode, I'm like, well, that'll be natural in the spring.

And that's the other thing is sometimes you can push it too soon. And so I'm gonna have to feel out if that's too soon, or if I need to allow this season to kind of extend longer.

Jessica Craddock: Right. So you said nudges. What do your nudges look like? How do you feel them? See them, hear them? How do they manifest to know, I am getting nudges for you.

Nikkita Cohoon: I think it's, it's, always listening. It's that internal monologue, which I, I've heard there are people that don't have that, but there's always a voice track in my head or a word track ideas, especially being aware of ones that come up again and again. One of the common ways is regular journaling. I don't journal as much in the winter, in the literal winter because my hands are too cold, and I'm lazy. Not lazy, but I, I'm allowing myself the full stillness. So I might jot things down here and there I might type things, which is very anti Julia Cameron morning pages. She says they're never to be typed, but if I need to. Um.

Jessica Craddock: gotta do.

Nikkita Cohoon: It can be through journaling. I, I like voice notes. Um, I use Voxer and note to myself. I have an Apple watch now, so I like going semi unplugged on walks, but just record voice notes on my watch if things come to me. And then again, actually during the creative process, if I don't write it directly on the sketchbook page, I might have a post-it and stick it there, or put a little title at the bottom of some of the nudges or notes that I had along the way.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, so let's just make sure I'm tracking here. Your nudges come in the form of as you are walking, drawing, writing, they're a little idea that pops in and you record them somewhere. Is that so far good.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah,

Jessica Craddock: Okay. Aren't you getting those all the time?

Nikkita Cohoon: Yes.

[00:15:34] Know the signs for when the time is right for you to take action on your ideas.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, so then when do you say, I need to listen to this one. I need to plan it.

Nikkita Cohoon: A couple ways. One is if anyone has done morning pages or regular, regularly journaled, you're probably, you've noticed we can be pretty repetitive with ourselves. Things that we think are new ideas, when you look back on what you've journaled, you'll see common themes again and again. So even though it feels new on Tuesday, it was probably there several weeks ago on that Thursday. It's always interesting when you think you've had a new idea and then you realize, no, I've had this idea 20 times before. And so that's a time to pay attention.

Jessica Craddock: Yeah. Okay. So when they start getting repetitive.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah, and I'm also very much a gut person of, even if it might be the first time something's occurred to me, if I feel it in my body and it just won't go away, I'll act on that, even if it's not something that has come up before. And I'm very much the type of person too, that once I'm on that track, I'll forget that it was this brand new idea or that it didn't have all this history to it because I just put all that momentum and weighed into it.

Jessica Craddock: Okay, so let's say for a second you've told me just now that you wanna make sure you have at least 30 days of ritual routine. Which word are we using? Ritual. Ritual as a routine under your belt. Before any of these nudges can start to take any form. What would you do if A, they started coming hard and fast and you could feel it in your gut tomorrow?

B, well, I guess I know the answer to that one. They didn't come. You just keep doing what you're doing. What if they started coming tomorrow? What are you gonna do?

Nikkita Cohoon: I think tomorrow would be too soon. So I would get out my trusty bullet journal and put it in my for later list so that it felt contained, but not something I'm gonna take action on right away. But if it was not the full 30 days, but a couple weeks, if my gut is pulling me that strong, I'm probably gonna go for it.

<< COMMERCIAL BREAK >>

Jessica Craddock:  We recorded this episode in the winter, but now we're moving into spring. And with that, I bet a lot of you are doing the same with your business. Maybe you just spent some time quote-unquote hibernating, and you have all of these things that you want to bring to the world, but you're not quite sure where to start.

If that's the case, I want to make sure you know about a program I will be running shortly. It's lean and mean, and it's called the Money Now for Artists Bootcamp. In just one month, we're going to take you from, I don't know where to start, to building a small, but mighty audience full of the right connections, those people who are going to want your art. Creating an identity for that art, even if there's a lot of competition in your space. And starting to treat the work you're doing like a business, so it can pay you like a business.

You're not going to get a bunch of fluff here. This is the most actionable, what do I do next step-by-step program that I have ever built, and I'm incredibly proud of it. And, if that sounds like exactly what you're looking for. Go check it out in the show notes. Now let's get back to that conversation.

<< END OF COMMERCIAL >>

Jessica Craddock: Okay, let's circle back. We are claiming artist again. Designer can be a part of that. We're finding freedom, knowing when to dig in, when to take action.

I feel like you have a pretty strong intuition and sense of knowing of that already, but when I asked you earlier, where are you gonna get stuck, you said, knowing when to dig in. You feel, as you've described, that you have a process for knowing when to dig in where do you feel like you're not confident in that intuition?

Nikkita Cohoon: It's more like the business side of things of once it's time to actually put it out there, to market it, to show up, to like proclaim this thing is going to exist, and I'm gonna do it. For example, in the past I've had ideas like that, and I put it out there. And knowing when it comes to sharing your work, people have to see things a lot of times before it gains traction because it can be kind of noisy it. And if you're someone like me who goes quiet for long periods of time, people have to get used to hearing from you again A lot of times if something like that happens, I'll just be like, oh, that was the sign. It wasn't the right season for this, and I'll just go quiet. Sometimes on occasion that might be the right thing, but it also just might be that time of this is the time to get louder to actually talk about it because you're not actually helping the people that need to hear about this hear about it because you decided that one time you mentioned it wasn't enough. So.

Jessica Craddock: Yes. Okay, so the question really is not. When to dig in and not even when to market it, but when I'm marketing it, how do I know if I should get louder or if I should go back into my hibernating hole?

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah, I think it, it's even, it's a step before that of if I have followed that nudge, trusting that initial nudge instead of course correcting and going back, but, and I think this next time it'll be different. It, it really will be like a matter of when is the right time for this. If you think about building an audience, my audience is used to hearing from me more about design. So I do have that question of how long do they need to see me in this container, just showing up and sharing from that place. And then say, okay, come along with me. Like, do they need a full year of that? Is a few months going to be enough time? And if it's just a few people ready to come along to the ride, like how do you stay in that too and be okay about it?

Jessica Craddock: Well, first of all. From my understanding, you predict that the container will be something along the lines of creating creative rituals is that correct? Let's, let's backtrack for a minute. If you had to predict what the thing you are going to want to market is, is that your art or is that some sort of container for creative rituals?

Nikkita Cohoon: Both, I think, but it may be the creative rituals first. I feel like

Jessica Craddock: You know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna scratch that question. Let's, actually scratch because it doesn't matter. It really doesn't. This whole time you have shown up as Nikkita. You have shared, I like routine, I like creativity, I like rituals. I care about living in tune with my intuition and the seasons of my life. Your art is gonna be about that. A container that you're teaching lessons about those things is gonna be about that. The label that you put on yourself is designer, but you're not just designer, you're also artist. You're also intuitive. You're also someone who cares about all of those things. Like that is you, and the way that I have experienced you in the past has not been, I am a designer. What logo do you want? Right?

Nikkita Cohoon: Very true. What we were just talking about with journaling of those nudges. Like it feels, this idea feels new to me again, but like you said, we had this conversation two years ago, and it mattered to me then as well. So it is, it's a season of rediscovering that, but I think too, acknowledging that it has been here all along.

So it's gonna feel probably natural and even I'm getting the nudge right now that it's probably coming sooner than I would plan for myself if I'm really open to it.

Jessica Craddock: So. I don't think it's a question of how long do they have to hear from me in this way. You are still showing up in all of those ways.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: You're still emailing, hibernating hole?

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah, I think it, it's even, it's a step before that of. Once I, if I have followed that nudge, trusting that initial nudge instead of course correcting and going back, but, and I think this next time it'll be different. It, it really will be like a matter of when is the right time for this. If you think about building an audience, my audience is used to hearing from me more about design, so I do have that question of how long do they need to see me in this container, just showing up and sharing from that place.

And then say, okay, come along with me. Like, do they need a full year of that? Is a few months going to be enough time? And if it's just a few people ready to come along to the ride, like how do you stay in that too and be okay about it?

Jessica Craddock: Well, first of all. From my understanding, you predict that the container will be something along the lines of creating creative rituals slash hmm. Is that correct? Let's, let's backtrack for a minute. If you had to predict. What the thing you are going to want to market is, is that your art or is that some sort of container for creative rituals?

Nikkita Cohoon: Both, I think, but it may be the creative rituals. First, I feel like

Jessica Craddock: You know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna scratch that question. Let's, actually scratch because it doesn't matter. It really doesn't. This whole time you have shown up as Nikkita you have shared. I like routine, I like creativity, I like rituals. I care about living in tune with my intuition and the seasons of my life.

Your art is gonna be about that. A container that you're teaching lessons about those things is gonna be about that. The label that you put on yourself is designer, but you're not just designer, you're also artist. You're also intuitive. You're also someone who cares about all of those things. Like that is you, and the way that I have experienced you in the past has not been, I am a designer. What logo do you want? Right?

Nikkita Cohoon: Very true. And like we were just talking about with journaling of those nudges. Like it feels, this idea feels new to me again, but like you said, we had this conversation two years ago and it mattered to me then as well. So, it's a season of rediscovering that, but I think too, acknowledging that it has been there, here all along.

So it's gonna feel probably natural, and I'm getting the nudge right now that it's probably coming sooner than I would plan for myself if I'm really open to it.

Jessica Craddock: Just a thought, I don't think it's a question of how long do they have to hear from me in this way. You are still showing up in all of those ways.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: You're still emailing, you're still, remind me of the name of the writing platform you're using.

Nikkita Cohoon: Substack.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. I don't know. I don't know what Substack is. I’ll be perfectly honest right now.

Nikkita Cohoon: It doesn't matter.

Jessica Craddock: You're still using Substack to write emails. So you are not completely hiding. You are just taking time to figure out what's the thing I want to promote, which is different than being around. So then the question maybe is not how do I know this is the right thing to promote or when do I know when to quit promoting it? But, more along the lines of what you said, which was, how do I trust myself and let it take shape organically? The idea has come to you, whatever the idea is, like you said, multiple times, it's coming back for a reason.

So then what? Then what's the problem? We know we're trusting ourself, we're listening to our idea. We're going forward. Where does the problem occur?

[00:29:12] Figure out what you would do in the worst-case scenario.

Nikkita Cohoon: I think it's just, I think committing to showing up, I think it's the energy of like, there's always that fear. Many people have that fear of, well, what if I do go all in and only three people sign

Jessica Craddock: Everyone has fear.

Nikkita Cohoon: And so I think it's also about what can I offer and still show up wholeheartedly, even if it's those three people, instead of just saying, I won't do this if it's only three people.

Jessica Craddock: One of the things I like to do is really dig in worst case scenario, which sounds disturbing, but it actually turns out to be very freeing. If you offered a thing, and only three people bought it, maybe that's not worst case scenario. Maybe worst case scenario is no one buys it. Then what?

Nikkita Cohoon: I mean, that was the case for me over the summer with an idea I had. And in that time it, it worked out just fine because I found I didn't have the right presence and energy with other life things. So I know that sometimes that worst case scenario works out to the better for everyone. It just wasn't the right time. And those ideas ended up coming through in a different way. So, I guess that's just a reminder of it, it doesn't matter. It's okay.

Jessica Craddock: You maybe needed to experience it not happening in that way, so it could continue to take form to its newest way.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: I have taught the same thing in my community. I've changed the name of it, but I've taught the same things for like four years now. The way that I teach it, the container that I teach it in, evolve evolve but they only evolve because of whatever happens at the start. So, I teach something, I learn, yes, people resonate with the idea, but they don't quite know how to execute part of it. So then I change how I present it a little bit. It's the same thing. But it just keeps evolving and evolving and evolving and evolving and getting better and better and better.

It can't evolve and get better until it has been put into the world.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah.

[00:31:32] Sometimes negative things need to happen for us to grow.

Jessica Craddock: Even if nobody bought it, you still had to take the time to think through, what is the thing I'm providing? What does it look like? How do I wanna do it? And then you've got information and yeah, sometimes that feels sucky. In the moment, but like you just illustrated, you can always look back and go, that needed to happen for me to get to here, and that needed to happen to get to here, and that needed to happen to get to here.

It's that journey everyone's always talking about of this has to happen in order to get here, here, here, here, here. And now I'm here, but now I'm here is never the final place. You know? It just keeps going.

Nikkita Cohoon: It does.

Jessica Craddock: And I think everyone's trying to get to the final, now I'm here, and it just doesn't really exist as far as I've experienced.

Nikkita Cohoon: Well, and it would be boring. We can see that in our creative practices more readily. We're not trying to create the same painting or drawing every time, and I far more enjoy the process than I care about the final outcome. Which is why I haven't been creating any type of collections or works for sale recently because that's been enough at in the last couple years. But I guess for business, we think we have to have it all figured out. Are we go, we're going a certain place and even.

You know, at first, thinking about the fact that I was talking about this with you two years ago, I'm like, oh, oh no. I need something new to say, or I won't know. But it's like, no, it's the things we care about. And there's still people out there that need to hear it and like you said, we can shift how we deliver it or fine tune. And that's why I'm drawn to a community as well. I very much like responding to the moment. When I taught a live workshop two weeks ago, I thought they wanted demos and they wanted to see how I did a specific thing, but all they really wanted was the time and space and the curated materials to have this exploration together. And I was able to adjust in the moment, and it was really helpful to get that real time feedback and see what people resonated with and to recognize the things that mattered most to me and propel me forward to the next thing. So.

[00:33:43] Putting something out there to get feedback is sometimes a necessity.

Jessica Craddock: Do you know human design?

Excuse Yes,

Nikkita Cohoon: A little bit.

Jessica Craddock: Do you know if you're a responder?

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah, I am.

Jessica Craddock: I thought so.

I am too. I don't know what the percentages are, but I feel like a lot of people are. But in order to move forward, we have to put it out there to get a response that we can respond to, which sounds weird, but it's something like.

The other day I asked my daughter, Hey, it's snowing outside, but my friend just invited me over or us over. What do you think? I don't know if I wanna go. And she goes, oh, I wanna go. I wanna go. I wanna go. And then in that moment, her response to my question made me go, I really don't wanna go It is snowing.

I'm sorry, I just bait and switched you. But we're not gonna go. But I wouldn't have known that. I wouldn't have been able to know that had I not put it out there to be responded to. And so I think a big part of your process of getting to whatever the next is is having that feedback.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: So I think in that way, knowing that can be really helpful for you. Because instead of thinking about it as business, and it has to reach X goal, you change the goal to, here's my idea, I'm gonna trust it. And in order to find out what I need to know about it, I'm going to put it out there so I can get responses, so I can respond in turn. And that is the purpose of sharing it, and it becomes part of a creative practice. Business can be, depending on how you do it, a creative practice. And then I think it would be so much more fun if we think about it that way.

Nikkita Cohoon: I agree.

Jessica Craddock: Okay,

now I'm excited see your ideas.

Nikkita Cohoon: I'm excited too.

Jessica Craddock: You don't have to do them yet, and you may not even have to yet, but when you, you're going to share them because it is creative of you.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yes. Business is a creative act.

Jessica Craddock: Okay. Let's see. Recap conversation. We started out, I'm gonna be an artist. I'm gonna do these creative practices. I'm gonna listen for nudges. When the time is right. When is the time right? You tell me. I know the answer, but you tell me.

Nikkita Cohoon: When I'm feeling the nudge.

Jessica Craddock: When you're feeling well, you're always feeling the nudge. So

Nikkita Cohoon: really strong call.

Jessica Craddock: A really strong call that keeps coming back.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah.

Jessica Craddock: Do we still want to give ourself that constraint of 30 days? I'm okay if you do. I just want to know.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yes, but less.

Jessica Craddock: Okay.

Nikkita Cohoon: But I can give myself my solo practice for 30 days. That's been like the generous gift of making the space for that.

Jessica Craddock: I had a mentor once, who didn't consider herself created, well, maybe she did. She wouldn't call herself a creative, but in order to find her ideas for her business, she would do something like, one of those fill in the blank coloring pages or, you know, something really simple but like meditative, similar to what you're describing, my own personal practice.

For her it wasn't creating something from scratch, but that doesn't matter. But as she was doing that, her best ideas would always come in, so she would flip the page over. Her name was Amber, Annette, and write all of her ideas. And by the time she was done with this multi-day coloring page project, she had like a full idea.

It was done, complete, had come through, was ready to go. Or had had lots of ideas, but she was pretty good at deciphering which ones to use. And I think even giving yourself this time to say no, I'm not doing anything for my business to make money from it. I'm having my solo practice, is still part of the business. , I'm seeing it more as like a, from start to finish, this is my business routine. I give myself this solo practice time. The ideas come in. I start knowing more and more and more, which nudges are the ones I'm ready to follow. And then I can put it out there to be responded to, so I can respond to it, so I can continue evolving the idea that keeps coming back over and over and over.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah. I think for me it's that refilling the well time. I remember from our conversation a couple years ago, I had my Routine to Ritual Framework and it was root, ritual, and reveal. And then as we were talking, we were like, oh, there's a fourth. It's rest and restoration. And I've been thinking about that a lot of. Not only was it something we discovered together, but it's actually become a very intentional part. It was unwritten before, and so I've been in that place and it's been helpful just to know that and know that it is part of the cycle and to know what's coming next and being ready to recognize the shift.

Jessica Craddock: I actually forgot that, but this is a nice illustration of what we're talking about. I teach my clients in month cycles. So it's get out there and be seen and have your ideas and play with them. And then it's nurture and like the creation process and la la, la. We don't have to get into it too much. And then it's sales, but then. I kept feeling like this, I'm not ready to start back over yet. Like there needs to be a period in there. And so now I teach four month rotations, and the last one is wrap up, rest, reflect. Do whatever you need to do to go inward so you have the energy go back outward.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah. And for me it's a little bit of like finding my path and discovering what my ideas were before because I have had sort of this punctuated couple of years where I'm giving to lots of different places. And so sometimes those are just kind of resting. And I know they're there, but I have to kind of unearth them again.

So it's been also this season of unearthing and so it's not even necessarily new ideas, it's just that uncovering a little bit.

Jessica Craddock: If you want, after this is done, you may or may not, I don't know, have access to the workshop that you taught for me. You might just want to listen to it. I know you know the gist of it, but what did I say? What was I thinking about? What were my ideas? What did I or come up with, to put it in the, the spinning head container of things so it can spit back out what's important.

Nikkita Cohoon: Yeah, I actually, I watched it in, I think it was October, because I was talking about it again. And I was like, oh, I said that. It's always, it's fun to see and it was a fun conversation. So I hope people that have your Treasury will join us in it, because you always bring the goodness.

Jessica Craddock: So, I am going to include, I asked you where you wanted people to go and it was, to get your emails in Substack. So, if they're looking for you on Substack, what's your name?

Nikkita Cohoon: They can just go to my website, Ritual Morning Studio.com and click over from

Jessica Craddock: I'm going to include a link to it in this episode so people can go straight there. But I so enjoyed talking to you.

Nikkita Cohoon: I enjoyed talking to you always. It's

Jessica Craddock: Let's do it more often, not just when we hop on a phone call.

Nikkita Cohoon: That sounds good.

Jessica Craddock: Good. Okay, Bye.

Nikkita Cohoon: Bye.

<< CLOSING >>

Jessica Craddock:  Don’t you just love Nikkita? Isn't she great. If you love her as much as I do, you probably want to go grab, if you don't already have it, The Artist's Market Co Treasury. Again, I'll put that in the link in the show notes. It's jam packed full of guest classes that I've posted in my group and templates and different freebies I've given out over the years, all in one nice little package for $27.

But, if the Money Now Bootcamp is something that you have been considering, when you join, email me. I'll put my email in the show notes as well. And let me know that you listened to this episode, and I will send you the Treasury with Nikkita's masterclass in it for free as a bonus and a thank you for listening.

Thank you so much for being here. Talk to you next time.