Monday Meeting

In this episode, host Kendall Hotchkiss interviews motion designer and illustrator Reece Parker on intuitive creativity, building a personal brand, and thriving as a human artist in the AI era after a decade of solo freelancing.

This episode covers:

• The eras of a freelance career: Reece breaks down ten years of solo work into distinct growth phases—learning the tools, shaping market perception, figuring out business, and the current era of resilience and "art over commerce." Each era required a different mindset shift.
• Working intuitively as a creative identity: Practical tips for recognizing intuitive moments and protecting time for them.
• Showing up authentically on social media: Why offering vulnerability outward is what brings community back in.
• Positioning a portfolio site to speak past peers: Why he invested a year and serious money into a developer-built site with capability decks and process decks designed to win direct clients—and how it changed his business overnight.
• Mantras for dry spells: "It's not personal, it's business." Manifesting positive energy instead of waking up scared. Why packing your schedule to feel valuable eventually catches up with you.
• Freelance platforms vs. networking: When platforms actually work versus the slow-game alternative of networking.
• The human option in the AI era: Why being clearly the craft-forward, human choice is now an easier and more meaningful position to occupy, and why the clients chasing the cheapest AI option were never the ones you wanted anyway.
  

Upcoming Events:

• Game Night: Wednesday, April 29th
• Next Monday (May 4th): Open discussion hosted by Jen Van Horn
• Looking for community members interested in hosting!

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

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• 
  
• Reece’s Instagram
• Reece’s Website

In this guest episode, host Kendall Hotchkiss chats with Audrey Havey — graphic designer, art director, motion designer, illustrator, YouTuber, and co-founder of the newly launched creative studio Sword and Shield — covering studio launches, content creation, personal style, and the value of art school.

This episode covers:

• Launching Sword and Shield: How Audrey and her husband planned a studio launch months in advance.
• Commissioning frame-by-frame animation: What their process looked like working with an external animator, from brief to final delivery, and how they tried to be the "dream client."
• YouTube content creation: How Audrey's video workflow evolved over time, and why she stepped away from the channel — temporarily.
• Brand deals with Rive and School of Motion: How those collaborations came about organically, and what she got out of them beyond the paycheck.
• LinkedIn without overthinking it: Audrey's low-pressure approach to social media and why personal work has driven most of her client relationships.
• Developing a personal style: Why it took until after college for Audrey to understand her own visual identity — and how she knows when something is distinctly hers.
• What art school actually teaches you: The case for soft skills over technical training, and what online learning can and can't replicate.
• Sword and Shield's vision: The studio's philosophy on craft, client work, and a longer-term project Audrey hints at but doesn't fully reveal.

Upcoming Events:

• Game night: Wednesday, April 29th (Discord)
• Next week's guest: Reece Parker!

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

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• 
  
• Audrey's YouTube Channel
• Audrey's Website
• Sword and Shield Studio

In this open discussion episode, host Kendall Hotchkiss leads a hands-on social media workshop, fielding community questions and sharing practical strategies. Topics range from promoting free tools to crafting hooks, storytelling techniques, and platform-specific tactics for motion designers.

This episode covers:

• Promoting free tools and work-in-progress content: Rather than only announcing a tool at launch with a single video, sharing the development journey—snags, workarounds, and behind-the-scenes moments—builds anticipation and a stronger audience connection.
• Platform strategy for niche audiences: Different platforms serve different purposes—Reddit and LinkedIn tend to perform well for technical tool creators, while Instagram favors short-form and quick cuts, YouTube rewards vlog-style depth, and TikTok skews toward meme and humor content.
• Documenting process after the fact: For creators who struggle to post while in the middle of a project, it's entirely valid to open old project files, film a quick walkthrough, and frame it as a case study or retrospective.
• Posting for availability without sounding desperate: Framing availability as "booking for next month" rather than "available now" signals that you're still in demand.
• The chocolate-covered almond hook framework: Effective posts use a compelling hook (the "chocolate") to draw people in, paired with genuinely useful substance (the "almond") to retain them. The three copywriting questions—Can I visualize it? Can I falsify it? Could nobody else write this?—help ensure posts feel specific, authentic, and not interchangeable with AI-generated content.
• Storytelling structure for social posts: Short-form storytelling follows a simple beginning-middle-end arc—even a monthly recap carousel ("here's what I did, here's what I learned, here's what's next") qualifies. The three-panel problem/solution/outcome format and writing as if addressing a specific person (a mentor, a son, a Girl Scout troop) help ground posts in a specific perspective and avoid generic-feeling copy.
• Consistency over frequency: Posting once or twice a week with focused, high-quality content outperforms daily posting of filler. Engaging on other people's posts, reposting with commentary, and showing up in comments all count as social media presence—useful for staying visible without burning out on original content creation.
• LinkedIn profile and banner optimization: The LinkedIn banner is an underused piece of real estate where freelancers can embed their elevator pitch or positioning statement.

Upcoming Events/Schedule:

• Gartic Phone Game Night on Wednesday, April 29th (details in Discord)
• Next Monday: Kendall interviews YouTube content creator Audrey Havey

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Monday Meeting Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
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• 
  
• Shannon Mckinstrie
• Creator Science Episode about Chocolate Covered Almonds
• Copywriting Questions
• LinkedIn Tips with Jasmin Alic

In this open discussion episode, host Kendall Hotchkiss facilitates a conversation about social media strategy, platform algorithms, client acquisition, and staying authentically human in an AI-saturated landscape.

This episode covers:

• Meaningful engagement over passive liking: Substantive comments beat emoji reactions for both algorithm visibility and real relationship-building. Setting a 20–30 minute timer prevents social media from becoming a time sink.
• The four A's of social media posting: Motion Hatch's framework — Awareness, Attraction, Action, and Advocacy — structures content variety across promoting others, sharing process, availability callouts, and community engagement. Haley's free Social Media Guide is worth grabbing (link in the show notes)
• AI for lead scraping, not content writing: Local AI agents can scan platforms for job posts and collaboration opportunities and surface them in a spreadsheet, saving hours of scrolling while keeping outreach personal.
• Platform algorithms are not one-size-fits-all: LinkedIn penalizes over-posting, Twitter/X rewards volume, and YouTube Shorts audiences are distinct enough from long-form viewers that separate channels are recommended.
• Know who you're actually marketing to: Most motion designers end up marketing to peers rather than clients. The content, tone, and platform should shift depending on which audience you're trying to reach.
• Automate payment chasing: Invoicing platforms send automatic payment reminders and can escalate to legal language after repeated non-response — removing a major mental load for freelancers.
• Show your face, or find a workaround: Imperfect, human content outperforms polished output right now. Camera-shy creators can use voiceover, carousels, B-roll, or animated photos to stay visible without going fully on-camera to boost engagement.
• Beat posting paralysis with constraints: Time limits, daily challenges, and monthly content batching all help override perfectionism and keep the posting muscle active.

Upcoming Events/Schedule:

• Game Night on Wednesday, April 29th

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Monday Meeting Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
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• 
  
• Hayley’s FREE Social Media Guide
• $1.80 Strategy by GaryVee
• Kendall’s YouTube

In this open discussion episode, host Jen Van Horn facilitates conversations about technical workflows, education platforms, and professional organization practices within the motion design community.

This episode covers:

• Contra platform for freelancing: Commission-free alternative to platforms to Upwork that's gaining traction for motion design work, including interactive sports graphics for NBA broadcasts and March Madness using Rive.
• Rive's growth and applications: The tool has evolved significantly with full scripting capabilities and multiple runtime environments, making it viable for web, mobile apps, Unity games, and interactive broadcast graphics—positioning itself as "the new Flash."
• Overlord workflow integration: Battleaxe's subscription-based tool enables seamless transfer between Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma, and After Effects while maintaining editable text and shape layers, though gradient handling remains imperfect.
• School of Motion's subscription model: The shift to all-access passes provides better value for students taking multiple classes and companies purchasing team slots.
• Project organization best practices: Color-coding systems for layers, markers, and timelines save significant time in collaborative environments; treating every project as if another person will work on it prevents future workflow bottlenecks.
• The importance of keyboard shortcuts: Mastering hotkeys and custom workflows dramatically increases efficiency—editors working entirely from keyboard without mouse contact demonstrate the extreme end of optimization.
• Storytelling over technical skills: As AI tools improve at composition, motion designers' value increasingly lies in editorial sense, timing, tension-building, and emotion—skills that complement rather than compete with automation.

Upcoming Events:

• Gartic Phone Game Night is scheduled for TONIGHT! (Mar 25th) 
• No meeting Monday, March 30th 
• Next month: Kendall will be hosting -stay tuned for the theme!

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Monday Meeting Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
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• 
  
• Color Palette Cinema instagram
• Color Theory Book: "If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling"
• Universal Audio

This episode continues March's focus on branding and marketing strategy, with host Lee Smalt chats with Mary Hawkins about her journey as a NYC-based art director and animator.

This episode covers:

• Career evolution and intentional pivoting: After decades of broadcast and network work for clients including MTV and Food Network, a deliberate shift toward nonprofit and non-fiction documentary animation reflected a desire for more meaningful, durable work over high-volume commercial projects.
• The "art director" title debate: The group explored how titles like art director, creative director, and generalist often fail to capture what motion designers actually do, and how the right title can open or close doors depending on the client.
• Process as strategy: Thorough pre-production — including mood boards, decks, and research — isn't just organization; it enables the right creative conversations with clients and keeps complex projects coherent from brief to delivery.
• Unconventional research methods: For a documentary project tied to Back to the Future, digging through physical record crates for period-accurate visual artifacts produced more authentic reference material than standard Pinterest or stock-image research.
• Personal work as a portfolio strategy: Passion projects like Love Letters for the Subway — a short film about NYC's subway lines — consistently generated inbound client interest, reinforcing that showing the work you want to do attracts the projects you actually want.
• Animation's role in documentary filmmaking: When archival footage doesn't exist, animation provides narrative coverage that's both flexible and stylistically distinctive, as demonstrated across multiple documentary projects.
• Real-world impact of design work: A water safety campaign for Rising Tide Effect — including subway, ferry, and bus ads — contributed to zero drowning deaths at New York City beaches in its first year.
• Personality as a differentiator: At a senior career stage, leading with who you are — not just what you can do — increasingly drives meaningful project inquiries, especially for clients seeking a long-term creative collaborator.

Upcoming Events:

• Next Monday, March 23rd: Open Discussion episode
• Game Night: Gartic Phone on Wednesday, March 25th
• No episode Monday, March 30th

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Monday Meeting Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
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• 
  
• Mary's LinkedIn
• Portfolio
• Company
• Love Letters From The Subway

In this episode, host Lee Smalt welcomes Ashton Hauff, co-founder of Bismarck-based branding studio The Good Kids, for a conversation on brand strategy and its role in the creative process.

This episode covers:

• Strategy as the foundation for creative work: Building a strategy phase into every project — before any visual work begins — gives both the creative team and the client a shared vocabulary and a clear framework for decision-making, reducing subjective disagreements and last-minute surprises.
• The "Slingshot Method": The Good Kids structures their process in three phases — strategy, creative, and activation — with strategy serving as the launch point that makes everything downstream smoother and more intentional.
• Four pillars of brand strategy: A thorough strategy examines the company, its customers, its competition, and the broader cultural context, ultimately distilling those findings into a singular brand idea and an emotionally compelling brand story.
• Distinguishing brand strategy from marketing strategy: Brand strategy defines who you are, what you believe, and how you look and sound; marketing strategy builds on that foundation to determine where and how you show up to reach your audience.
• Clients want to be passengers, not drivers: Most clients want confidence in the process more than control over it. A structured strategy phase helps clients trust the creative team to lead, while still feeling involved and heard throughout.
• Handling pushback on strategy: Rather than selling strategy as a separate service, bundling it into core packages reduces friction. When clients push back, asking about their business goals and long-term investment in things like signage or websites often helps illustrate why upfront strategy saves money down the road.
• Knowing when to walk away: Maintaining an internal red flag list helps identify difficult client relationships early. For borderline situations, adding a percentage to the project bid can offset the extra friction — but some clients simply aren't the right fit.
• Applying your own process to yourself: Using the same strategy frameworks on your own business — even if it takes longer to prioritize — leads to clearer positioning and stronger client alignment over time.

Upcoming Events/Schedule:

• Game night was postponed — a new date will be announced in the Monday Meeting Discord
• Next week's guest: New York-based art director Mary Hawkins, continuing the conversation on strategy and visual branding

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Monday Meeting Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
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• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MondayMeeting Newsletter⁠⁠
• 
  
• Ashton’s LinkedIn
• The Good Kids

In this episode, host Lee Smalt leads an open conversation on branding and marketing strategy.

This episode covers:

• Starting with strategy before branding: Before investing time in logos, fonts, or website platforms, freelancers benefit from answering foundational questions about who they serve, what problems they solve, and why they do what they do — a step many creatives skip when entering freelance work.
• Defining your "why": Revisiting your core purpose regularly helps clarify which clients and projects to pursue. Completing a brand discovery questionnaire at least twice a year can surface insights that feel redundant but reveal deeper clarity with each pass.
• Niching by client personality, not just industry: Your target market doesn't have to be defined by a vertical like fintech or healthcare — it can be defined by the type of people you want to work with, such as those who are collaborative, appreciative, and reliable.
• Qualifying leads with intention: Rather than broadcasting availability on LinkedIn, focusing on building genuine relationships with people at target studios — starting with peers and working up — tends to yield stronger results than cold applications.
• Authenticity over polish in self-promotion: Showing your face, sharing your process, and being genuinely enthusiastic about your work outperforms highly produced content. Audiences and clients can sense when enthusiasm is real versus performed.
• Networking as a long-term practice: Consistent, low-pressure outreach — commenting on posts, sending connection requests with personal notes, attending speed networking events — builds visibility over time and is more effective than sporadic high-effort pushes.
• Overcoming executive dysfunction and inertia: Breaking strategy tasks into smaller steps and using body-doubling or co-working sessions can help creatives who struggle to start, especially when facing something as broad and open-ended as defining a personal brand.

Upcoming Events/Schedule:

• TONIGHT (march 4th) Community Game Night (Gartic Phone) at 6 PM Pacific / 7 PM Mountain / 9 PM Eastern — details in the Monday Meeting Discord
• "March of Robots" drawing challenge running throughout March — jump in anytime, no daily commitment required
• Next week's guest: Ashton Hauff, CEO of The Good Kids (Bismarck marketing company) — discussing her approach to strategy

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

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• Lee’s Brand Discovery Form
• March of Robots Drawing Challenge
• Austin Saylor’s 200K Program

In this themed discussion episode, host Jen Van Horn leads a wide-ranging conversation about defining "good taste" in the creative industry.

This episode covers:

• "Good taste" as a buzzword: The phrase has become overused and under-defined, leaving emerging artists frustrated with no clear benchmark to work toward — especially as it increasingly comes up in conversations about standing out from AI.
• Taste is subjective and cyclical: What's considered good taste today was often criticized or rejected in the past, from the Impressionists to flashy gradients finding their way into major brand campaigns. Taste shifts constantly and no single standard holds forever.
• Taste vs. experience: Rather than an innate quality, taste is better understood as accumulated experience — the ability to discern, articulate, and connect creative decisions to context and audience over time.
• Soul over technical perfection: Technical correctness gets work into consideration, but distinctiveness and personal voice are what make it stand out. Pursuing perfection at the expense of finishing and sharing work can actively hold artists back.
• Don't chase trends: By the time you arrive at a trend, it's already moved on. Learning from trends is valuable, but building a point of view is more sustainable than following someone else's agenda.
• Good taste in client work is a conversation: In freelance and client contexts, taste is less about personal aesthetic and more about listening carefully, mirroring client language, and aligning creative vision with their goals through the discovery process -but also recognizing when you’re not the right fit!
• Artist vs. designer distinction: Personal artistic expression and client work operate by different rules. When working for a client, the job is to solve their problem — separating that from personal art practice is a healthy and necessary boundary.

Upcoming Events/Schedule:

• Next week: Open discussion on branding and marketing strategies, hosted by Lee Smalt
• Game night: March 4th (Gartic Phone)

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

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• “Good Taste” LinkedIn Discussion

In this open discussion episode, the Monday Meeting team discuss pricing negotiations, client communication, testimonials, and building a focused freelance business.

This episode covers:

• Pricing confidence and boundaries: Never undercut yourself—costs you money to take less money, with emphasis on qualifying leads upfront and establishing clear rate anchors that filter inappropriate clients
• Discovery call essentials: Always discuss budget during the first call to avoid sticker shock, using casual approaches like "let's talk about the budget” while building relationship rapport
• Contract protection strategies: Beyond legal documents, relationships matter most—implement 50-25-25 payment structures, rush fees, scope change fees, and revision limits to protect your business
• Testimonial best practices: Write testimonials for clients first to activate reciprocity bias, request specific feedback areas (technical skills, communication, project management) rather than generic praise, and follow up within days of project completion
• Focus over breadth: Select maximum three specialized pillars (like character design, 2D animation, game development) rather than marketing yourself as a generalist—word of mouth within focused sectors compounds faster
• Portfolio clarity: Avoid creative industry jargon like "keyframe ninja" or "rockstar"—clients need concrete understanding of what you deliver and how it solves their business problems

Upcoming Events:

• Game Night scheduled for March 4th at 6PM Pacific
• Next week's episode will feature a themed discussion (theme TBD)

Visit MondayMeeting.org for this episode and other conversations from the motion design community!

SHOW NOTES:

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• Open Pixel Studios Price Calculator
• Get Wright On It Price Guide
• Tiny Testimonials
• Jen’s Testimonial Page
• Alignable