Sometimes the best creative advice sounds deceptively simple: just make the thing.
TLDR
- Portfolio careers in creative fields thrive on saying yes to multiple disciplines rather than choosing one lane
- Waiting for permission or perfect conditions kills more creative projects than lack of talent ever will
- Sustainable creative work requires cobbling together income streams from teaching, performance, grants, and direct audience support
The Maximalist Approach
I’ve always been suspicious of the advice to “pick one thing and master it.” Sure, that works for some people, but what about those of us who see connections everywhere? Alicia Jo Rabins embodies what I call creative maximalism, weaving music, writing, film, and spiritual teaching into something that shouldn’t work but absolutely does.
Her career spans biblical feminist folk songs, independent filmmaking, and memoir writing. Most career counselors would probably have an anxiety attack looking at her resume. But here’s what’s brilliant about it: each creative strand feeds the others. Her Torah teaching informs her songwriting, which influences her storytelling, which shapes her film work.
Making Without Permission
The phrase “making without permission” hits different when you’re staring at a blank document at 2 AM, wondering if your weird creative project matters to anyone. Tools like AI fiction writing platforms are democratizing the creation process even further, though nothing replaces that initial spark of human weirdness.
Rabins didn’t wait for Hollywood to greenlight her Bernie Madoff film. She made it on a shoestring budget because the story demanded to exist. There’s something almost rebellious about this approach. Actually, scratch that, there’s something completely rebellious about it.
The Economics of Creative Chaos
Let’s talk money because rent doesn’t pay itself with artistic vision alone. Portfolio careers require what I think of as “creative accounting” in the best sense:
- Teaching workshops and classes
- Performance income from multiple disciplines
- Grant writing (an art form unto itself)
- Direct audience support through platforms and donations
Modern creators can also leverage AI image generation tools for visual content and publishing platforms to reach readers directly. The infrastructure for independent creation has never been stronger.
Trust the Mess
The early stages of any creative project feel like controlled chaos. Rabins talks about trusting instinct during generation and separating that wild, messy phase from the more analytical editing process. This resonates deeply because I’ve killed too many good ideas by editing while creating.
Maybe the secret isn’t having permission or perfect conditions. Maybe it’s simply returning to the practice of making, again and again, until the work finds its way into the world.