E92: How to Build a Sustainable Creative Business: Resilience & Systems

This co‑hosted conversation between Kaylie Edwards and Delores Naskrent lifts the veil on what it really takes to build a sustainable creative business. 

Instead of quick hacks and generic advice, they unpack the quiet, behind‑the‑scenes work that actually makes a difference—like cultivating resilience, refining your craft through deliberate practice, embracing experimentation, and putting systems in place to reduce decision fatigue. 

You’ll hear stories about failed products, pivoting when things don’t work, and the importance of knowing your “why.” 

Kaylie shares how visible tasks and Google Tasks reminders keep her on track, while Delores recalls lessons learned from in‑person shows and recycling unsold art. 

Together they emphasise community, accountability and a growth mindset as essential ingredients for creative longevity.

Key Takeaways:
• Resilience over talent: Creative success depends more on the ability to bounce back and adapt than on innate talent.
• Deliberate practice matters: Improvement comes from reflection, refinement and learning—simply repeating the same actions doesn’t lead to growth.
• Systems free you up: Templates, checklists and visible tasks reduce cognitive load and make it easier to stay consistent.
• Embrace experimentation: Treat every launch as data. Learn from what doesn’t sell and adjust instead of striving for perfection.
• Find your audience: Sometimes the problem isn’t your product but where or to whom you’re marketing it; adjust your environment.
• Accountability & community: Having people to check in with, whether through membership communities or co‑working sessions, helps you follow through.

If this episode resonates, hit play and listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts. 

If you’re loving Creative Juggle Joy, consider supporting the show and joining our community of creative jugglers at buzzsprout.com/2397445/support. Your support helps us keep sharing honest conversations and encouragement for artists, makers and digital creators.

Transcript

Kaylie Edwards (2): [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome back to the Creative Juggle Joy. I'm Kaylie. 

Delores Naskrent: And I'm Delores. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): And today's episode is one I think is really needed, because we're not talking about tips, we're not talking about hacks. We're talking about what this actually looks like behind the scenes. 

Delores Naskrent: Yep, the part that no one really shares.

The bits that aren't shiny, but are absolutely essential, the things that are quietly happening in the background. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yeah, the myth of just keep going. I feel like one thing we hear all the time is, "Just keep going." And while that's technically true, it's also not the full picture, because how you keep going matters.

Delores Naskrent: Exactly. There's a difference between continuing and continuing with intention. [00:01:00] Because if you're just repeating the same actions over and over without reflection, you can really stay stuck for a long time. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yeah. This actually links to research. I know, me and my research. You and research. There's a concept called deliberate practice.

Delores Naskrent: Ooh. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Where improvement only happens when you're actively reflecting, adjusting, and refining what you're doing, not just repeating it. So it's not, "I've been posting for two years," it's, "Have I been learning for two years?" If you're doing the exact same thing over and over it, and not actually learning from it it's not gonna help you.

And I think this is where something really important comes in, and that's resilience and determination. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Because- 

Delores Naskrent: I like that ... 

Kaylie Edwards (2): because honestly, this isn't easy. 

Delores Naskrent: No. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): And I've seen so many creatives quit, like so many quit. Not because they weren't talented, but because they didn't have the ability to [00:02:00] bounce back.

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. That's a really important distinction, really. I love the word resilience. I think that's perfect for how you really need to be. 'Cause talent might get you started, but resilience is what's gonna keep you in the game long enough to see the results. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Exactly. And I- I'll be honest, I've pivoted multiple times.

I had a candle business, then digital product for mums, then print on demand roughly around the same time, and then now this business. And none of that was straight line. It was a lot of, "This isn't working. What do I need to change?" And not, "This isn't working, I'll stop." 'Cause I had to find a way.

I just, I couldn't work for somebody else with the circumstances I have. 

Delores Naskrent: And that willingness to adapt is something I've seen over decades of teaching artists.

The ones who [00:03:00] continue experimenting and continue learning and adjusting, just like you said, pivoting, they're the ones who built who end up building something really sustainable. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): And this is actually lines up with the research around growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. Studies show that people who believe their skills can improve are far more likely to persist through challenges and ultimately succeed.

Whereas if you believe, "I'm just not good at this," you're far more likely to stop. Like how I am with maths, because I've got that in my head. I'm not good at it. I don't have the willingness to learn, but that's the only thing I do. But the real problem is the lack of direction.

I think another big thing, and I see this all the time, is creatives not actually knowing where they're going. No clear goal, no direction, so when something doesn't work, they just drift. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. It's like trying to navigate [00:04:00] without a map. You might be moving, and you might be improving, but you're not really moving towards anything.

Kaylie Edwards (2): Exactly. A- and I've had this myself. If I don't have my goals visible, if I don't have that internal compass of what am I actually building here, I can very easily fall into busy work and not get anything progressive done. 

Delores Naskrent: So what does that look like for you, like practically? Can you describe or tell everybody how do you bring yourself back when you feel that drift happening?

Kaylie Edwards (2): Honestly, a few things. I keep my tasks visible. As I said in a previous episode, I use Google Tasks pinned in my browser, and I have reminders on my phone. So I have to keep seeing them pop up, and I can see what's overdue and what's pending, so there's no hiding from it. But more importantly, I come back to what actually moves my business forward.

[00:05:00] What is my goal? What is my ultimate goal for my business? What do I want to achieve? And I have to keep reminding myself of it, and what's my why? Always come back to your why you're doing this. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Not what feels productive. 

Delores Naskrent: I like that. I think that ties beautifully into systems, which you have helped me become a lot better at because systems remove that constant painful decision-making that you have to make all the time.

It creates that real sense of, what's the word for it? Stability, I think, like being stable. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yeah. Which is funny because I have a full template for your newsletters- ... but I never created one for myself. 

Delores Naskrent: That's so funny. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): And I literally only did it today. 

Delores Naskrent: Good. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Which, i- it's something

'Cause I do it all the time, but because I do it all the time for you, I then, because this is what we've had a previous episode on, is I push things [00:06:00] forward because I haven't got the deadlines I didn't have the accountability there to do my own business. 

Delores Naskrent: Right. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): So I would put things off.

So instead of doing weekly newsletters like I'm supposed to do, it gets pushed because I've got other tasks I need to get done, but ... And then I sat down and created a master template for myself to be able to do it quicker. And I did it today, and I was like, "Why the hell have I not done this sooner?"

It creates a system, and you follow it. Yeah. And you can be more consistent when you have it. 

Delores Naskrent: Absolutely. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): So yeah. I think a lot of creatives resist systems because they feel restrictive as well, but actually they're freeing because instead of reinventing the wheel every week, you're building something repeatable.

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): And there's also research showing that reducing cognitive load improves consistency. So basically, when you have systems, you're not constantly using mental energy to decide what to do next, which means you're moving, and you're more likely to follow [00:07:00] through. 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah, I think we also need to talk about that invisible work because so much of building a creative business is not really visible externally.

Kaylie Edwards (2): Oh, yeah, 100%. This is the stuff that no one sees: learning the marketing, testing the products, building email lists, setting up the systems, and then refining offers. And this is where people often think it's not working, but actually they're just in the building phase. Yeah. I've definitely been there.

I'm still in there. But where it feels like you're doing so much work, but you're not seeing the results yet, and that's where resilience comes back in again because you have to trust that what you're building will compound over time and you will make improvements. 

Delores Naskrent: I 100% agree with you, and I think that one of the healthiest shifts is moving away from perfection to a little bit of [00:08:00] experimentation.

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yes. Yes. And instead of, "This has to work," it becomes, "What can I learn from this?" Because if something doesn't sell, that's data. That's not failure. There's a reason why, and you just need to kinda have that experimentation hat on. Pretend to be a mad scientist. God. Just, try and figure it out.

Be like Einstein, or what was the guy with the light bulb? Thomas Edison. Yeah. Yeah. Be like him. It took... I don't know if it's true, but it's sometimes it was 100 times until he actually got the light bulb- Yeah ... 'cause he had to keep experimenting. Get, it kept not working, and he failed and failed, but he kept learning from it, and that's what you need to do in your business.

Delores Naskrent: Absolutely.

Yeah. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Do you find that with your students as well, that shift from fear to curiosity? 

Delores Naskrent: Yeah. And I find that when that shift actually happens for them, everything changes. They stop second-guessing and [00:09:00] hesitating, and they start creating a lot more consistently.

I can remember this stage very clearly in a very concrete way, and I'll give you a really good example of this. We were selling at in-person shows, so we had product, and my artwork was on the product. Some product did not sell, Kaylie. Some did not sell. But, we had these magnets, and we were dry mounting the artwork onto the wooden backing that had the magnet on it.

And at the end of certain shows, Che would just pull a bunch of the ones that weren't selling, and we literally had a bin of what we called recycling, and in there would be, a dozen of one artwork of mine, and it just didn't sell. So we learned from that, and when we recycled it, we would peel off that artwork and throw it in the bin.

That was it for that artwork, and it never saw the light of day [00:10:00] again, but we tried something different, something slightly different, maybe a different quote on it, and you were always learning from it. We were literally looking at the data in a sort of a- indirect way. No maths, but- ... I knew that bin had certain types of artwork in it, and so that's what I would do, is I would look at what didn't sell and I would know what was selling because it was still on the shelves.

So you shift from that fear of trying out something new to being more curious about, "Okay, that didn't sell. I wonder why?" And you try something different. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yeah. And, as people say, success leaves clues. And the... You just have to experiment and really look at it okay, why is...

Look at it from your audience's perspective, and this is backed by research on on it- what's it called? Iterative learning. [00:11:00] 

Delores Naskrent: Iterative, yeah. Iterative learning. Yeah. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): I'm dyslexic, so- Okay ... give me a break. Small experiments plus feedback loops. So it leads to faster progress than trying to get everything perfect up front.

So what you do it's in, in marketing we, we call it minimal viable product. So get it up. Even if it's not perfect, get it up and ask questions. Ask people questions. Ask your audience questions, potential customers. Ask them how they feel about it, the feedback that you get, then you can improve it.

Yeah. Get it out there. Just get it out there. 

Delores Naskrent: Exactly. That's exactly what that process was all about, putting it out there and our answers came very easily. If it didn't sell, nobody wanted it. So it was pretty clear. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yeah. That's the thing with it in person as well, is- Yeah ... it could just be that you were in, just wasn't right for that audience that you were selling to.

Yeah. I [00:12:00] did it with my candles. I was just in the wrong marketplace for my candles because I was in more of a deprived area. Yeah. So Most people couldn't afford it or they had the mindset of a budget mindset. So they, my candles were a luxury item, so they didn't want to buy or they couldn't buy.

So if I'd gone, I think it was, like, five miles down the road to a more affluent area, I would've sold. 

Delores Naskrent: Exactly. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): But it was getting there. That was my issue because i'm still learning to drive now. It's just data and you need to really have a look at the audience that you're selling to as well.

Sometimes it, it could just be that, yes, you like your art, but you need to just find your audience. 

Delores Naskrent: Yes. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): I think one final piece that really ties all this together is accountability. Because even when you know what to do, it's very easy to drift and- Sometimes having that accountability and just people to, to ask you questions.

Ask other people questions. 

Delores Naskrent: Absolutely. [00:13:00] I think a lot of us are working alone.

We don't have the external deadlines, so we have nobody that we're checking in with. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yeah, exactly, and I've done this myself, where I say, "I'm launching this on this date," or, "I'm gonna do my newsletter this week."

And then three days later has gone by and I still haven't. And then client work comes in and then I push it and push it again. So some things that help. Having a community. Have an accountability partner. Breaking tasks down into smaller steps. Making your tasks visible daily. Setting realistic timelines and be an experimenter.

Be a mad scientist. Yeah. Figure out what's wrong. 

Delores Naskrent: Yes. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): And if you're listening to this and thinking, "I know what I need to do, I'm just not doing it consistently," then that's exactly why I built the membership, the Spellweaver Creative Hub, because it's not just about learning, it's about [00:14:00] implementation.

You get monthly workshops, seasonal focuses, co-working sessions, accountability, and a community area space that actually helps you follow through as well. So if you can't get me via email, you'll probably be able to get me in the community as well. 

Delores Naskrent: Perfect. And I wanna also say that if you're finding that your challenge is more on the creative side, like developing your skills and maybe building products, then the Thriving Artist membership, that might be where you wanna hang out.

We do weekly Thrive meetings. We've got lots of classes. There's tons of creative development, and a really great community. I really love the community,

you're really supported on that side of the business as well. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yeah, and that's what I'm basing my community off of that I'm building.

Because I've got to see how amazing and successful Delores' community has been and how she helps her students. So if there's one thing to take from this episode, [00:15:00] it's that building a sustainable creative business isn't about doing more, it's about continuing with intention. 

Delores Naskrent: And resilience. Be resilient.

Be curious, and try to get support any way that you can. 

Kaylie Edwards (2): Yeah. And until next time, keep creating, keep juggling, and most importantly, keep finding joy in the process.