September Letter from the Editor: Finding Balance as a Creative
📣 Announcing Possibilities Club Field Trips!, a YouTube channel 🤭, September milestones, & pondering what “Out of Office” 🏖️ looks like as a creative
Hi, it’s Vanessa!
I realize I’m sending out our Sept letter on Oct 1(…eek!), but better late than never, right? So, without further ado…
Lately, I’ve been asking myself this question: What does being “Out of Office” look like as a creative?
Because…everyday, I find myself in an endless loop:
✍️ writing
💡 ideating
🎥 filming
🤝 launching collaborations
📅 planning events
🎟️ attending events
💳 paying bills
📝 white-boarding
📲 posting on social media
📧 sending emails
🌱 creating new offerings
🔄 pivoting
✅ populating to-dos
📥 responding to inbounds
🛠️ learning new tools
the list goes on…
As inspiring as it is, my inner artist uses up every byte of my brain power.
Even while walking my dog, I am narrating paragraph-long voice notes 📝 to myself about my next story, event, or post.
I am either alchemizing new inspiration into a tangible idea, or teasing apart the logistics of an existing outline.
☀️ Every morning starts at 8am and ends half past midnight: nearly every microsecond of the day filled with a cerebral frenzy of starry, world-building visions.
Even when my body is perusing the grocery aisle, my mind is working: producing and editing new creative works like its life depends on it.
And, I guess it does.
So, what does it mean for a creative entrepreneur (someone who utilizes their artistic skills and creative gifts to make a living) to be “Out of Office”?
I don’t have an answer yet, but I’d love your ideas!
Hit reply and let me know →
And, with that…
Welcome to October!
Where has this year gone?? (Seriously.)
If you haven’t taken the time to reflect on the year so far, here’s your invite to have a little chat with 2025.
In what ways has this year been easy?
In what ways has it been hard?
How can the next three months serve you?
Is there an intention you set in January that could use some TLC? 💕
At Tomatokind
…we have been honoring the ebb and flow of fall.
🍁 Here’s some business milestones from September →
We launched Possibilities Club Field Trips! — monthly group hikes designed to inspire curious conversation and connect creatives in the great outdoors. Each field trip is co-led by me and a creative guest, and the first one is November 15th with Magali Mathieu, a startup founder-turned-vitality coach. Sign-ups go live on October 16th!
🎤 I was a featured speaker at the Pay Yourself Summit (Sept 15–21) — a virtual conference for creative entrepreneurs navigating money and artistry. In my conversation with host Terry Ramsey, we discussed one of the biggest themes of my life: finding the courage to be seen.
📚 “Literary-moon” arrived in your inboxes, a week-long series interviewing the creatives and artists who contributed to the magic of my recent wedding festivities. These stories featured: Maria-Joy (curator of our wedding gift hampers), Jeremiah de Rozario (my favorite indie singer-songwriter), Arnold Heiden (DJ and founder of Circle Of Artists), Jasmin Schuler (San Francisco-based wedding photographer), and an homage to Chinese restaurants (in celebration of my entrepreneurial lineage and Chinese wedding traditions).
👭 We joined a 3-month Artist’s Way cohort hosted by That Art Party’s Naomi Fierro Peña, which was the exact community of feminine creatives we needed to close out a restless summer season.
🎬 And, Tomatokind’s YouTube channel went live (Sept 28)! This will expand our literary community into visual storytelling and documentary-style productions (and test our filmmaking learning curve 😬). Subscribe to catch our first series!
And to all the new readers who joined us in September: Welcome 💌 !
Thank you for bringing your energy, creativity, and stories to this corner of the internet.
Beyond Business…
September was rich with personal milestones and reflections too:
I wrapped up 2 multi-month containers with brilliant coaches (and friends) in my world: creative coach Diana Davis, and career coach Karen Dalfrey.
Travel-wise, my partner and I had to pivot some BIG plans due to some confusing legal messaging around the Trump administration’s new H1-B visa fee; but, in light of it all, the event presented a practice ground for self-examination and growth (more on that in a future post).
That same week, we picked up pickleball for the first time at our (bustling) neighborhood court, and dusted off our tennis rackets as well.
My Reading List: I sped through Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert ✨ this Sept (filled to the brim with creative wisdom), and am making my way through Magdalena by Wade Davis 🇨🇴 (a captivating diary of Colombia’s complex past, present, and future) and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 🌿 (an important historical and botanical lens).
I’m also looking forward to SF’s Litquake Festival (happening all October long)…particularly Lit Crawl (Oct 25). Let me know if you’re planning on joining any events (maybe I’ll host a meet-up! 📖😉).
Coming Up!
The TLDR of what we’re cooking up this fall 🥧:
Sign-ups for November’s Possibilities Club Field Trip (featuring creative guest Magali Mathieu, a startup founder-turned-vitality coach) go live on October 16th!
Planning is also underway for a very exciting Obituary Slam event with Tips from Dead People’s Mary McGreevey (think: an evening of storytelling and your favorite plus ones — except, they have to be dead💀🙊).
We will be covering more creative events as well (e.g., interviews with artist vendors at illustration and design expos).
And, I’ll be giving it my all in prep for the hard launch of Tomatokind’s Youtube channel (with our first video series launching in Nov). Give us a follow?
And, as always, a LOT more creative entrepreneur interviews will be coming to your inbox 😉.
That’s pretty much it! At least until I take on more spontaneous new projects…
See you on the next page 🫶.
With zeal and gratitude for this creative life,
Vanessa Li
