Common Shapes

Explore how personal essays blend the personal, poetic, and political to inspire authentic expression. Discover the power of personal storytelling as a tool for social connection and resistance. Learn practical tips for sharing your narrative while navigating fear and societal expectations. Hear about stepping away from social media to focus on meaningful writing. This engaging discussion encourages you to embrace your life story as a political voice, paving the way for a more connected community.

Welcome to season two of Common Shapes! Since last season, I took a big step in my life and logged out of Instagram for good.So in this episode, I’m going to share why I left and how I did it. Not from a place of knowing-it-all, but by asking the question, “what does it actually mean to be done with social media?”I hope this episode inspires you to take supportive steps that are right for you. Tune in to learn about—What it’s like to leave InstagramThe portal of the validation loopA big business success moment since leavingIs Substack social media?Weaving the personal, poetic & politicalLinksGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondaySign up for my Skillshare class, Success on SubstackListen to Off the Grid podcast — especially the 5-step Plan to Leave Social Media & this conversation with Melissa WordFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

Making this podcast brought me into a business ecosystem crisis. Very little of my output changed, but my inner understanding of my work needed to shift.So in today’s episode, I’m sharing how my job description has changed since I launched this show. And I’m exploring how shifting your job description can transform your relationship to your work.Tune in to learn about—How to discover what you’re devoted toWhat are the themes of your jobWhat is not your jobHow to write your job descriptionAligning your job with your values & interestsWhat’s next for Common Shapes podcastLinksGet my mini-workshop Your Everchanging JobBook a Creative Advising SessionsGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondayFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes🔶 Interested in finding out more about placing an ad for next season? Fill out this form! 

Your offer ecosystem is how your creative offerings branch out of your artistry, fit together in the world, increase your income, and expand your reach.In this episode, I share how I’ve crafted my offer ecosystem over the past decade, and I tell you the stories of how a few of my offers have evolved and even ended.Tune in to learn about—What an offer ecosystem isMy favorite ways to get ideas for your offer ecosystemHow to choose a container for an offerWhy one-on-one work can be a great place to startCharging for your offeringsLinksLearn more about Teaching As A PracticeGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondayFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

Teaching online classes is how I’ve made the majority of my income since 2017. And it is a great joy of my career to have had such amazing, invested, weird, inspirational students.In this episode, I’m going to share my approach to creating an online class by walking us through how I teach my class A Quilt Is Something Human.I hope that this inspires you to become the teacher that you are meant to be. Grab a pen & paper, then tune in to learn about—How to decide what to teachReasons to teach onlinePricing your online class5 reasons the world needs your online classSome of my favorite tech for selling online classesLinksLearn more about Teaching As A PracticeGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondayLearn about Melissa Word’s class Grief ThreadsFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

This week on Common Shapes podcast, I’m joined by my internet friend Anna Fusco to discuss dedicating your life to art.Anna is an artist, writer, deep thinker, question asker and truth teller. Her practice consists of writing her Substack newsletter and making drawings.Together we talk about our daily list practice, creating a gallery show, the challenges of pricing your work, and what it means to be a full-time artist.Tune in to learn about—The List aka Project MiracleMaking art & having art showsPricing your workNewsletters & SubstackHow to get started as a self-employed artistLinksMake Miracles in Forty Days by Melody BeattieVisit Anna’s poster shop, Lord CowboySubscribe to Anna’s Substack newsletter, UnsupervisedFollow Anna on InstagramGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondayFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

I think the great fear of most creative people is that we’ll run out of ideas and not know what to do next.I come up against this time and time again in my own work, so I’ve developed a series of practices for releasing fear, removing blocks, returning to center, and discovering what’s next.Tune in to this episode to learn my six favorite tools for when I don’t know what to do, including—Morning pages & artist datesMovementPhoning a friendSetting up an easy practiceList-makingRecovery & spiritual practiceAfter you listen, go get my free Creative Ideation Portal, and join me in dreaming up what’s next for you and your work.LinksGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondayGet Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s WayFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

This week on Common Shapes podcast, I’m sharing the mic with my friend Tamara Santibañez for a conversation about oral histories, tattooing, freelancing, and art as activism.Tamara is an interdisciplinary artist and oral historian living and working in Brooklyn. Their work is rooted in storytelling and the visual language of identity construction, exploring subcultural semiotics and the meanings we make from bodily adornment.Tune in to hear us discuss—Tamara’s studio practiceOral histories & oral traditionsTattooing as liberation workHow to balance many projects as a freelancerMaking time for movement workCoalitions & political responsibilityThe different feelings/functions/forms of Instagram vs SubstackLinks—Visit Tamara’s websiteFollow Tamara on InstagramSubscribe to Tamara’s SubstackGet Tamara’s book, Could This Be Magic? Tattooing as Liberation WorkGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondayFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

This week on Common Shapes, I share four practices for checking in with your creative pace — internal seasons, intuitive sharing, weather systems, and the earning pathway.This episode feels like an updated version of How to Not Always Be Working, and I hope it serves your practice, your pace, and your deepest alignment.Listen in to learn—Why lists are how I orient myself in my lifeHow to identify & live by your internal seasonsWhat it means to share intuitivelyHow to cultivate your earning pathwayWhy it’s so important to find your own paceAfter you listen, go get my free Creative Ideation Portal, and join me in making our art and pacing ourselves.LinksGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondayTake my class, Organizing A DayFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapes

This week I’m welcoming Common Shapes’ very first guest, Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo.Lukaza (they/them/Lukaza) an artist, abolitionist, educator, storyteller, cultural worker and person of multitudes. Through a practice based in the printed multiple, community-based work and installation building, they invite the viewer to recall and share their own lived narratives, offering power and weight to the creation of a larger dialogue around the telling of B.I.Q.T.P.O.C. (Black, Indigenous, queer, trans, people of color) stories.Listen in to hear us discuss—The web shape for creative workHow to craft a studio practiceClaiming our work as our main income streamHow to weave your values and your activism into your sharing practicesThe radical history of newslettersLinksGet the Creative Ideation PortalSign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday MondayFind all these links & more at codycookparrott.com/commonshapesMore from LukazaVisit Lukaza’s websiteFollow Lukaza on InstagramSubscribe to ROOTS WEBS NETS BRANCHES BULLETIN BOARDS