Sometimes the most meaningful parts of our creative journey are the detours — the moments when we think we've failed or lost our way, only to realize we've discovered something new. Like a labyrinth, life guides us toward the next best thing, often better than we could have imagined.

In this episode, host Ekaterina (Kat) Popova sits down with Nishant Jain, also known as The Sneaky Artist, to talk about curiosity, permission, and finding beauty in the everyday. Nishant shares how writer's block led him to a thriving art practice, how he built a loyal global community through Substack, and why keeping secrets and creating privately can reignite your passion.

If you've ever questioned your creative direction or struggled to share your art meaningfully in the digital age, this conversation will remind you that detours are destiny — and that creativity doesn't have to be loud to be powerful.

Nishant Jain is an artist, writer, and podcaster known as The Sneaky Artist. He sketches people and places in public spaces, capturing the quiet poetry of daily life. A former engineer and scientist, Nishant left academia to pursue storytelling full-time. His new book, Make Sneaky Art, invites readers to build a joyful sketchbook habit rooted in curiosity and play.

• Book Tour → The (Sneaky) Book Tour

• Buy the Book → Make Sneaky Art

• Follow Nishant → SneakyArt Substack

• How creative detours become the path to purpose

• Reframing failure through curiosity and exploration

• Balancing art-making with building a creative business

• Why keeping a "secret sketchbook" protects your voice

• Building authentic connection through storytelling

Welcome to the Jungle — Josh Brown's immersive exhibition — opens in New York City this November.

For two days only, canvases pulse with color, hidden gazes peek from the leaves, and the city transforms into something wild, alive, and untamed.

📍 147 Broome St, NYC 🗓️ November 14–16

Join Josh Brown's studio list at joshbrownart.com for RSVP access, collector previews, and behind-the-scenes as the jungle comes to life.

Interested in sponsoring The Create! Podcast or advertising with Create! Magazine? Contact [email protected] for information and options.

Ekaterina Popova is an artist, certified master coach, and founder of Create! Magazine and Create U. Through her podcast and platforms, she helps artists and visionaries build joyful, sustainable careers on their own terms.

• Explore: createmagazine.co

• Learn: www.createu.co

• Read: Create! Substack https://createmagazine.substack.com

• Follow: @katerinaspopova @createmagazine

Hello, beautiful souls. Welcome back to The Create! Podcast with me, your host, Kat. In today's episode, I'm diving into a topic that's been deeply present in my own creative journey — the sneaky ways our ego can sabotage our growth and how to shift it.

Our ego often shows up in disguise: through comparison, fear, doubt, or even the desire to "grow too fast." It's that part of us that tells us we need a certain number to feel safe or successful, that we "should be further ahead," or that our current progress isn't enough. I'll share how these patterns have shown up in my own business and art career — and the lessons I learned while reclaiming gratitude, trust, and presence in the process.

Then, I'll be answering your amazing questions from our Create! community over at @createmagazine broadcast channel, including:

• How to handle taxes or debt while starting your creative business

• What to do during slower art seasons and how to prepare for them

• How to navigate criticism from friends or other artists

• And how to start attracting more collectors and buyers on social media

Before we dive in, a quick reminder that enrollment is now open for my live coaching program, The Art of Money — a six-week experience designed to help you release money blocks, rewrite your money story, and step into a new level of abundance and confidence as a creative entrepreneur. We begin November 4, and I would love to guide you through this next chapter.

👉 Join here: www.thecreatecollective.com/money

You can also explore Create! Magazine, discover featured artists, and stay inspired at www.createmagazine.co

If this episode resonates, share it with a creative friend, tag me on Instagram @katerinaspopova, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new release.

Thank you so much for tuning in — I'm so grateful for you. If this episode resonates, please leave us a review on iTunes, it means the world! 

In this episode, host Ekaterina Popova talks with coach and author Emily Williams, founder of I Heart My Life and creator of the I Heart Money Method. Emily shares how belief fuels action, how to move through comparison and setbacks, and how simple micro upgrades can shift your relationship with abundance. This is a grounded conversation for artists and creative entrepreneurs who want growth without burnout.

How to generate belief before results Practical ways to move through fear, doubt, and comparison Micro upgrades that shift money mindset without overspending Turning setbacks into leadership and service Blending simple strategy with mindset for sustainable growth

Join Art of Money Coaching with Kat → https://thecreatecollective.com/money Create! Magazine → https://www.createmagazine.com Ekaterina Popova on Instagram → @katerinaspopova Create! Magazine on Instagram → @createmagazine Emily Williams Website → https://www.iheartmylife.com Emily on Instagram → @emilywilliams The I Heart My Life Show Podcast → Listen on Apple Podcasts

Hello, beautiful friends. It's spooky season, with cold mornings, hot coffee, and time to face the real ghosts that haunt artists and creative entrepreneurs: scarcity, unworthiness, dabbling, and fear of expansion.

In this episode, we walk room by room through the haunted house of money. Kat shares practical tools, mindset reframes, and nervous system rituals to help you release fear, build self-trust, and transform your financial story into fertile ground for growth.

Nothing is wasted. Even past mistakes can become compost for future abundance.

• The ghost of scarcity and how to feel safe in success

• The phantom of unworthiness that hides behind perfectionism

• The spirit of dabbling and how to replace distraction with devotion

• The fear of expansion and how to stay grounded while growing

• Practical rituals for safety, clarity, and abundance

• Stop letting money anxiety control your art practice

• Reconnect with your creativity as a source of abundance

• Learn how to regulate your nervous system when success feels scary

• Feel empowered to charge your worth and grow sustainably

If you're ready to heal your relationship with money, worth, and abundance, join Kat's live group program:

👉 The Art of Money: A Six-Week Coaching Program for Artists and Creatives

Inside this experience, you will:

• Identify and release money blocks and old stories

• Build financial safety and self-trust

• Create practical structure for your creative income

• Learn tools to manage and grow your money with ease

Program runs November through December. Spaces are limited.

🌐 Create! Magazine — Read new artist features, open calls, and creative career articles. 📚 Create! U Courses — Explore micro-courses for artists and creative entrepreneurs. 💌 Subscribe to Create! Dispatch on Substack — Weekly essays, artist spotlights, and creative business advice. 🎨 Follow Kat on Instagram — Daily art, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes updates.

This episode is for educational and coaching purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Always consult a licensed professional for personalized guidance.

In this week's episode, Kat is joined by Chelsey Pippin Mizzi, author of The Shadow Path, to explore how shadow work can deepen your creative process and bring more honesty and depth into your art. Together, they discuss how the parts of ourselves we often avoid might hold the key to the work we're truly meant to make.

Discover gentle, practical ways to meet your shadow through tarot, dream journaling, and ritual—and learn how to see this work as a safe retreat rather than a confrontation.

• What shadow work is and what it isn't

• How to meet and name your shadow with curiosity and compassion

• The creative power of what's hidden: why your "shadow" often holds your best ideas

• A gentle 10-week structure for working through The Shadow Path

• How shadow work can help you reconnect with authenticity, depth, and creative flow

• One simple daily practice to begin integrating your shadow today

• The Shadow Path by Chelsey Pippin Mizzi

• Tarot for Creativity and The Tarot Spreads Yearbook by Chelsey Pippin Mizzi

• Tarot for Change by Jessica Dore

• The Artist's Way and The Listening Path by Julia Cameron

• The Artemisian — an educator and writer guiding inner work through archetypal studies and Jungian psychology, offering structured yet intuitive frameworks and tools for personal growth

• Jungian Online courses on self-portraiture and shadow work

• Upcoming Dark Shadow, Golden Shadow by Shannon of The Tarot Diagnosis

• Chelsey's website: tarotforcreativity.com

• Substack: The Shuffle

• Instagram: @pipcardstarot

This episode is brought to you by Create! Magazine, your destination for contemporary art, inspiration, and opportunity.

✨ Open Call: The Spirit World is now live! Submit your work to be part of our upcoming curated virtual exhibition and printed catalog exploring the mystical, spiritual, and uncanny. Deadline: October 31, 2025 👉 Submit your art at createmagazine.co/call-for-art

• Explore Create! Magazine: createmagazine.co

• Read our Substack: createmagazine.substack.com

• Join our learning platform: createu.co

• Follow Kat on Instagram: @katerinaspopova

• Follow Create! Magazine: @createmagazine

Welcome back to the Create Podcast. Just in time for the fall season, I am joined by Pam Grossman, a writer, curator, teacher, and practicing witch whose work beautifully bridges creativity, culture, and magic.

Pam is the host of The Witch Wave podcast (called "the Terry Gross of witches" by Vulture), the author of Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power, and co-editor of Taschen's Witchcraft volume in the Library of Esoterica series. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, TIME, and more. She has also organized exhibitions such as Language of the Birds: Occult and Art at NYU and spoken at institutions including MoMA and Columbia University.

Her brand-new book, Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity (Penguin Life & Hay House UK, October 14, 2025), is a guide to connecting with the creative force through ritual, history, and practice. It explores how artists and visionaries such as Hilma af Klint, David Bowie, Octavia E. Butler, and Leonora Carrington have used magic as part of their creative process, and how you can do the same in your own life.

• Pam's creative roots and how she began merging her artistic and magical practices

• Misconceptions about witchcraft and how the archetype of the witch has evolved

• How Magic Maker links art and magic, showing that creativity itself can be a spiritual practice

• Practical rituals to protect your studio time and invite inspiration, from lighting candles to leaving offerings or simply asking for guidance

• The idea of "low frequency" and "high frequency" desires in art and business, and how to balance material needs with higher intentions

• Pam's experiences speaking at institutions like MoMA and casting a love spell on stage at Carnegie Hall with Jinkx Monsoon

• The role of research, fascination, and intuition when writing a book

• Artists who inspire her including Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Hilma af Klint, Max Ernst, and Kurt Seligmann

Books by Pam Grossman

• Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity (Penguin Life & Hay House UK, 2025) → Pre-order here

• Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic, and Power (Simon & Schuster, 2019)

• What Is a Witch (Tin Can Forest Press, 2016)

• Witchcraft (Taschen's Library of Esoterica series, co-edited with Jessica Hundley, 2020)

Podcast

• The Witch Wave – Pam's long-running podcast on art, culture, and magic

Exhibitions and Projects

• Language of the Birds: Occult and Art (NYU, 2016) → languageofthebirds.org

• Art of the Occult by S. Elizabeth (recommended resource)

• The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986)

Artists Mentioned Hilma af Klint David Bowie Octavia E. Butler Leonora Carrington Remedios Varo Max Ernst Kurt Seligmann

We are now accepting submissions for our fall curated exhibition and catalog: The Spirit World. This virtual show explores the mystical, eerie, and uncanny, making it the perfect theme for the season.

Deadline: October 31, 2025

What selected artists receive: inclusion in the curated online exhibition, a feature in the professionally designed print and digital catalog, a blog post on Create! Magazine, and a spotlight across our international platforms.

👉 Apply now at createmagazine.co

In this episode, I (host Ekaterina Popova) dive into what I call The 2025 Creator Stack for Artists. These are the four simple tools you need to build trust, grow your audience, and create consistent income without burning out.

We are in what I call a trust recession. Algorithms keep changing, AI noise is everywhere, and collectors are more selective than ever. That does not mean your art business has to suffer. I am sharing what has been working for me this year, the lessons I have learned, and how you can lean into connection, trust, and real growth.

🎉 Special Announcement Create! Magazine is celebrating its ninth anniversary. To mark the occasion, we have opened our Call for Art for Issue #54, our anniversary edition. Selected artists will be featured in print and digital editions, on our blog, and across our social platforms.

The deadline to apply is September 30, 2025. Submit your work here: www.createmagazine.co/call-for-art

🎙 What You'll Hear in This Episode

I share what the trust recession means for artists and why it can actually be an opportunity.

I break down the four pillars of the Creator Stack, including community platforms, email lists, AI workflows, and simple sales systems that support growth without leading to burnout.

You will also hear how I have been using these tools in my own practice and how you can adapt them to fit your creative business.

🌐 Connect + Explore

Create! Magazine → www.createmagazine.com Create U Courses → www.createu.co Instagram → @createmagazine | @katerinaspopova Substack → createmagazine.substack.com

Are people still buying art? The answer is yes. But how you talk about your work, connect with collectors, and navigate uncertainty can make all the difference.

In this episode of The Create! Podcast, host Ekaterina Popova sits down with gallerist, author, and art advocate Liz Lidgett to discuss her upcoming book Art for Everyone, how to make art conversations more accessible, and the principles that keep artists and entrepreneurs resilient through shifting times.

Liz shares powerful insights on:

• Why collectors are still buying and how to build trust in today's market

• Simple, accessible ways to talk about your art without overcomplicating it

• The key role consistency, systems, and flexibility play in long-term success

• How to stay authentic and connected while showing up online and in person

This conversation is packed with practical wisdom and encouragement for artists and entrepreneurs ready to thrive in today's art world.

• Pre-order Liz's book Art for Everyone: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Art-for-Everyone/Liz-Lidgett/9781668078709

• Collect art: www.lizlidgett.com

• Submit your work to Create! Magazine: www.createmagazine.co/call-for-art

• Explore on-demand courses at Create U: www.createu.co

• Read more stories, tips, and interviews: createmagazine.substack.com

• Connect with us on Instagram: @createmagazine

In this special solo episode, I, Ekaterina Popova, share important updates about the future of the podcast, the magazine, and our community.

What began back in 2018 as Art & Cocktails has now grown into more than 400 episodes featuring painters, sculptors, writers, mystics, musicians, and healers. After all these years, it is time for the next chapter.

I am bringing the podcast back under the Create! Podcast name, and this shift reflects my broader vision of uniting the magazine, the membership, and the podcast under one roof. For me, this is about simplicity, synergy, and building a stronger creative home for artists, writers, entrepreneurs, and seekers of all kinds.

In this episode, I share the journey from Art & Cocktails to Create Magazine and now back to Create. I explain why simplifying brands makes creative work stronger, how this rebrand will make resources and community more accessible, what the future of our membership will look like as it evolves into the Create Collective, and why this is not an ending but a natural expansion.

Whether you have been here since the beginning or you are tuning in for the first time, this episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at the heart of Create and where we are heading together.

Explore Create Magazine's Substack: createmagazine.substack.com Learn more about open calls and membership: createmagazine.com

In this episode, I, Kat Popova, founder and editor of Create! Magazine and certified master coach, share practical ways for artists and creatives to strengthen their money and success mindset, even during uncertain times. You will learn how to release what is outside your control, rewrite limiting beliefs, focus on your desires and goals, and take small but powerful actions toward the future you want to create.

Connect with us: Instagram: @createmagazine Resources: www.createmagazine.co