You’re a Creative With No Work. What Now?
If you’re a freelance creative professional then there’s a good chance that 2025 has sucked. It’s been a terrible year for anyone who makes a living through their creativity. A confluence of factors - the rise of AI, global economic uncertainty and a vague, ill-defined sense that what used to work no longer does - has left huge swathes of the creative workforce wondering where the fuck their next rent cheque or mortgage payment is coming from. So egregious has this downturn been that it’s become a headline topic; a ‘crisis’ in the Guardian, a ‘meltdown’ in the New York Times.
I’ve become aware of it in my own work too. While there have been fewer workshop bookings as HR departments become more focused on drafting P45’s than on inspiring their teams, enquiries for 1 to 1 coaching have increased dramatically. People are being engulfed by the chaos and wondering what on earth to do next.
How do you repackage yourself when the role you’ve done for the last 15 years no longer exists? How do you stop your self-esteem haemorrhaging away to nothing if you can no longer do the thing that defined you? And how do you stay creative when your head is full of woe?