Come on backstage

Art, expression & connection when the world is full of horrors

Dear ones,

I’m creating some things that are starting to feel like an exciting balm during some really dark times.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing the vision and emerging form of a new offering I’m cooking up. If you want to read about it, you can sign up for the interest list.

If you’ve been here a while, you know my work has pivoted in the last two years. From a pretty established coach & teacher. And now: writer, performer, comedian. contemplative bard, room-lubricator, whatever-this-is.

My Artist era.

I’ve been touring and performing my show AND retreating into creative caves a lot (and flailing about in a particularly demanding season of care work).

There are things I’m working on and working out about what I’m building, where I’m headed, how I want to develop my craft, share my gifts and contribute to communities.

I WANT TO TAKE YOU ALONG FOR THE RIDE.

I’m starting an online community hub to share and play with the works-in-progress. Mine & yours.

If you’ve been on the internet a while, you’ll probably recognize a marketing & service model we might call: “I built this expertise, got these results, now let me show you how.”

I’m going to try something we might call “I haven’t done it yet, want to watch me try, fly, stumble and fumble? Wanna watch me lean into the places where I feel embarrassed, out of my depth, and like a cringy newb? Wanna borrow my courage, grow a network of rad weirdos who are down to take each other’s art and dreams very seriously? Wanna watch me try not to take myself too seriously while I also try to find just the right acupuncture points to direct my needle for cultural care and change? Wanna see how I approach developing a business model from the ground up, centring art, people and creative aliveness?”

It’s called the Backstage Pass.

Think reality show meets creative community meets relational resource sharing experiment.

It’s a space where I share what I’m building—while I’m building it. And what I’m shedding, healing, wrestling with and trying. The creative work. The inner work. The business and platform building. The risks. The things I feel fear around that I judge myself for feeling fear around, because I wish I were more evolved than that or something. The ways I’m hard on myself. The ways I grant myself grace. The brilliance I have and the capacity I’ve developed. The gunk I unearthed from my unconscious during my last therapy session, or when I took a bunch of mushrooms. The decisions and rationale, and how they’re unfolding, which are often shared after the fact, when they can be turned into a tidy, teachable moment. But, we’re not here to learn from others’ glow-up stories; we’re here to learn together through honest works-in-progress and making.

It’s not just where you get to be voyeuristic about my stuff, it’s where you lean into creative longings, risks, and new edges of self-expression. A place to create connections, borrow courage and receive inspiration for your own community contributions.

I’m not doing a big launchy launch with a branded sales page, etc., because I want to invite my keen peers, the people who want to see how the sausage is made at the very beginning.

Meta-Backstage. Including how I’m thinking about developing this very offer so it’s seeded in a relational field.

This is the back door invitation. The soft launch and gentle entry. (Wait, were those anal jokes?) If you don’t roll with offside humour, you probably shouldn’t come inside. hayo!

The tagline, after all, is…

I’ll show you mine. You show me yours.

Here’s some of what I’ll be sharing about in the coming weeks, if you’re interested or just nosy, get on the list.

→ The recent breakthrough I’ve had about my ambivalent relationship with visibility, platform growth, the internet, and what I actually want to grow. I’ll give you some behind-the-scenes snippets of a new show/project I’m working on (hint: there may be wigs and absurdity).

→ Why I closed up shop and walked away from a thriving coaching career. (During a talk-back at a show recently, someone asked me if it was because of how weird the self-help and coaching industry has become. I have things to say.)

→ The inner work I’ve been doing around attachment, desire, eros, some resistance and freeze patterns, what’s been happening as they thaw and why I want a closed (read: not all over the internet) community to talk and play in together.

→ How I’m approaching building a business model that offers me stability AND room to play, the very big things I want to do while being very very bad at estimating the amount of time, energy and capacity they’ll actually take to pull off and what I think might help keep it enlivening WHILE being a busy mom and active community member.

→ What I’m learning about taking creative risks in midlife—when there’s more to lose and more to gain, as well as what I’ve found helpful and what really dries up the proverbial pussy (or boner, all proverbial (and literal) genitals welcome).

→ The relational and community threads I want to weave through everything I’m building because we’re all watching the way very powerful people are causing immeasurable harm, right?

If none of this interests you, all good, I’ll be back in this space soon with some other musings. If your curiosity is piqued, raise your hand with your sweet, sweet email, and I’ll be in touch soon!

Be loving out there! Take breaks from the scroll and hug people and animals and get your feet on the Earth, or touch grass or whatever the kids are saying these days.

With Love,
Che