Are you a creative in a 9-5 job or life transition?
JOIN US for 2 events next week (IRL in SF & virtual)!
How is it already May 21st? It seems like just yesterday we were compiling events for May.
How is your month going? May-hem 🤪, or blooming vibes 🌸?
For me, I’ve been feeling a bit all over the place (like I’m balancing on one leg most of the time), but with grand pauses of gratitude for the abundance around me. Mostly, I’m just figuring things out!
Aren’t we all?
2 Events for my Creative 9-5-ers!
This month in the SF Bay Area has been so sunny: blue skies, searingly-hot concrete, blooming wildflowers, and beach days. In parallel, we’ve enjoyed bringing sunshine into this community in our own way.
May Possibilities Club (5/12) was a blast (take it from attendees Dan and Nicole)!
We’ve also been collaborating with fellow creatives, including pianist, composer, and creative coach Rebecca Hass, who shared her wisdom on “How to Come Back to Your Creative Self” in our publication last week. Her 8 questions for creative self-reflection were a huge hit. Check out the piece here!
The fun doesn’t end there, though. We have 2 more events in May, so come find us!
May 28: “Futures of Creativity” (Adobe SF)
Join for “Futures of Creativity,” a candid, evening panel exploring how multi-hyphenate creatives have navigated multi-passionate career paths, and how you might think differently about your own creative trajectory. Expect a chat about: pivots, entrepreneurship, non-linear career paths, design, creativity, and stories of personal identity and evolution.
This event is hosted by Service Design Network, Women in Innovation, & Adobe, and moderated by Emery Tran. And, my kick-ass co-panelists are: Kathy Wang, Tina Yip, and Gayatri Gaekwad!
Details:
📅 May 28 | 5:30–7:30pm PST
📍 Adobe San Francisco (601 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94103)
🎟️ RSVP here!
May 29: “Community Coffee Chat with Emery Tran and Prerana Gurubasavaraj” (Substack Live)
Come hang at our monthly Community Coffee Chat (casual conversations featuring members of this community)! This month, we are yapping about how to navigate a high-stress 9-5 job while simultaneously pursuing your creative dreams. How do we manage our time, define success on our own terms, avoid burnout, and find joy in it all?
Join me, Emery Tran, and Prerana Gurubasavaraj for a “messy middle” lunch-time conversation on how we navigate our 9-5 careers and our creative endeavors, especially when we love them both!
About my coffee chat guests:
Emery is a UX designer, community builder, and creator behind From Remey: A Voice Journal, a podcast and blog documenting her evolving career, creative pursuits, and life in transition. She began her career in the art world, working with internationally renowned artists including Betye Saar, as well as curators from institutions like LACMA and MoMA, before transitioning into design. Outside of her full-time work, she helps foster creative community in San Francisco through events, collaborations, and conversations that bring people together.
Prerana is a regulatory affairs manager who guides digital health products, including software and AI-powered tools to-market, safely and responsibly. She's worked in the space since 2018 and sees it shaping the future of healthcare. Outside her 9-5, she's the creator and storyteller behind @dessertdigestplus, a space documenting recipes, cultural traditions, beauty, and the everyday rhythms of life in Orange County. “It’s a creative outlet that's grown alongside my career.” Prerana also works in real estate, guiding family and friends through one of the biggest decisions of their lives: buying or selling a home.
Details:
📅 May 29 | 12:30–1pm PST
📍 Your Substack app or web browser
🎟️ Add the event to your calendar!
Alrighty, creative friends…hope to see y’all next week!
With zeal and gratitude for this creative life,
Vanessa Li
P.S. Here are some reminders on how to make the most of this community!
Join our subscribers-only community chat - Think of it as a friendly group chat to hang out with fellow multi-passionate creatives and converse about all things worth dreaming about. The chat has been live since January and folks have connected through sharing creative rituals, advice on business/life dilemmas, book recs, physical and digital resources, and also cat pics. 😺
Check out our Creative Journey Library - People are always coming to us for book recs on how to design their life (a.k.a., how to do more art, ignite their creative joys, start a dream project, tap into their inspiration, live more fully), so…we’ve compiled a list! If you decide to dig into one of our recs, or have titles to add, we’d love to hear about it!
Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn - We share daily creative and life tid-bits there, plus business musings. And, fun things like giveaways!
Browse our Creative Spaces Map - This is our dynamic, open-source map of creative spaces, studios, and hideaways across North America. It is curated from our editorial adventures as well as reader submissions, and designed for you to get into the community and co-work, make stuff, and experience creative adventures! We have a ton of spaces in our backlog waiting to be added to the map, but please send us more (it might just be the kick in the booty we need!).
These sounds awesome.
A bunch of us feel stuck in a stressful 9-5 jobs and often a creative outlet can do wonders for us and our outlook