048 - Guarding Your Creative Life w/ Kate Thompson

This week Brad is sitting down with Kate Thompson for a conversation about creativity, parenthood, burnout, ambition, and the discipline of protecting the parts of yourself that make meaningful work possible in the first place.

Over the last several years, we’ve watched Kate intentionally refine her work and her business, but what surprised us most in this conversation wasn’t hearing about “leveling up” or entering the "luxury market"... it was hearing what happened underneath all of it.

Kate shares openly about navigating postpartum depression during the pandemic, learning to detach her self-worth from success, and the tiny daily habits that slowly helped her rebuild her creativity, confidence, and joy.

We also explore:

• her background in speech pathology and linguistics
• working alongside her sister at Palindrome Creative Co.
• creating personal work in seasons of limitation
• simplifying her business and refining her editing process
• why curation matters
• and how learning to quiet outside noise helped her trust her own artistic voice again
  

This episode was so special and is a refreshing and honest look at what it takes to sustain a creative life over the long haul.

In This Episode

• Protecting your creativity in a noisy industry
• Tiny habits, self-care, and rebuilding after burnout
• Motherhood, surrender, and creative ambition
• Detaching self-worth from success
• The role of personal work and bookmaking
• Learning to trust your artistic intuition
• Simplifying your business and editing process
• Working in both weddings and commercial photography
• Creating meaningful work in real-life seasons
  

Quote Worth Remembering

“I had to create this fortress to protect my internal fire of inspiration. I had to redefine what success looked like for me. And for a while, success just meant staying inspired.”  

Books Mentioned

• North Woods — Daniel Mason
• I Cheerfully Refuse — Leif Enger
  

Connect with Kate

Kate Thompson Weddings
Palindrome Creative Co.

Connect with Brad & Jen

Join Purpose & Profit – A Roadmap to 10k Weddings
Apply for the Mastermind Program

Instagram: @bradandjeneducation @bradandjen