E52 Transcript
If you’re anything like me, you’ve already noticed that we’ve officially entered “planning season.”
Everybody’s talking about 2026 goals and strategies and vision boards… and five-year plans that look suspiciously like someone else’s life.
But here’s something I’ll bet you knew already: creative people don’t plan like corporations.
We just don’t.
Our work runs on energy, not spreadsheets.
So, for December, I’m doing something different.
Today I’m starting a five-part year-end series designed specifically for fabric creatives, sewists, designers, makers — people who plan with their hands as much as their heads.
Here’s how the month is going to flow:
Part 1 — Plan for the new year
Part 2 — Review the old year
Part 3 — Spot the win you should carry forward
Part 4 — Celebrate your consistency
Part 5 — Clear physical and mental space for 2026
All simple. All realistic. All maker-friendly.
Because this isn’t the kind of planning where you map out twelve giant goals and hope for the best.
This is maker-planning — practical, flexible, and rooted in real creative life.
And inside The Maker’s Path Membership, we’re walking through these steps together all month long — slowly, step-by-step, in a way that actually fits your energy and your schedule.
So today, we’re starting with Part 1 of the series: How to plan 2026 like a maker.
I’m going to walk you through:
• what maker-planning actually looks like,
• how to avoid overwhelming, corporate-style goal setting,
• how to pick one or two doable focuses for the year,
• how to match your goals to your actual capacity (not your fantasy capacity),
• and why planning feels different when you’re creative.
Are you ready? Well okay then — let’s get into it.
So let’s start with the obvious:
creatives do not plan the way corporations or large companies plan.
We never have, and we never will — because our work doesn’t move in straight lines.
We work in seasons… in energy waves… in curiosity spikes…
We work in deadlines, in an “oh wow, that idea just hit me,” and in “I suddenly need a nap more than I need a spreadsheet” kinda way.
Which means traditional planning — the business-school kind — doesn’t necessarily fit us.
Corporate-style planning assumes:
• every week looks pretty much the same,
• timelines are rigid,
• creativity shows up on command,
• and somehow you’re supposed to run on the same energy in February that you had in early January.
That’s not how studio life works. At least mine doesn’t most of the time.
I come from corporate training so I can wrestle it into submission every now and then, but as a rule Makers plan differently because we create differently.
Let’s talk about what that looks like in practice.
Planning like a corporation looks like:
• rigid timelines
• arbitrary calendar deadlines
• ignoring your actual energy
• forcing yourself to stay on track even when the track itself needs adjusting
That’s how you burn out by March.
Planning like a maker looks like:
• planning with your real life in mind, not your fantasy life
• choosing fewer focuses, not more
• building in downtime, recovery time, thinking time, and project time
• leaving space for inspiration and problem-solving
• making room for experiments
• honoring the season you’re actually in, not the one the calendar says you “should” be in
Let me give you something you can write down right now, because this shifts everything:
“You don’t need more goals. You need better ones.”
Fewer, smaller, and aligned with how you actually work.
Let me say that again — because it’s probably the opposite of what your brain was fed on social media this week:
You do not need a bigger goal or a bigger to-do list or a more organized list.
You need a clearer priority list that matches your personal creative flow.
One or two strong, meaningful focuses will move you farther than ten half-baked projects ever will.
A practical place to start (and you can do this right now) is to ask yourself these two questions:
1. What are the 1 or 2 things I actually want to be known for in 2026?
Not the whole menu — just the core of what you want to build.
2. What can my real life reasonably support next year?
Not your ideal life. Not if everything goes perfectly life.
Not your “if I had more time” life.
Your real, Tuesday-afternoon, dishes-in-the-sink, kids-or-grandkids-or-appointments life.
These two answers create your entire planning foundation.
And once you build from reality — not fantasy — everything gets easier.
So once you know what you want to be known for — those one or two main focuses — the next step is the part most creatives skip:
Step 1 - Start with your actual capacity, not your goals.
Because here’s the trick:
you can’t plan a year until you understand the space you actually have to work with.
And by space, I mean three things: mental space, clock space aka time, and physical bodily energy space. It goes without saying you probably have already considered studio space.
Fabric creatives, especially, tend to underestimate those first three.
We underestimate how long projects take…and how much mental bandwidth is required.
We underestimate how much energy “showing up” actually takes…
And we absolutely underestimate how many life responsibilities get in the way — appointments, family, work, church, holidays, fatigue, health, the random weeks where you look up and think, “How is it Thursday already?”
So before you dream up your 2026 goals, you need to look honestly at what your year can hold.
And here are a few questions to help you get started — if you’re listening with a notebook, this is the part to jot down:
First, what months, weeks, or parts of the year are automatically busy for you?
Everyone has them.
For some it’s spring. For some it’s summer travel. For some it’s holiday shows or life responsibilities that always land in the same season.
Busy months don’t disappear just because we write goals.
Put your vacations and family activities and other non-negotiable responsibilities on the calendar first.
Second, what do you already know will require time or energy next year?
This includes anything that didn’t make that first list - classes you want to teach or take, shows you want to apply for, kids’ school schedules, health appointments, caregiving, travel, seasonal burnout — name it now so you can plan around it later. If you know you lose 4 to 6 hours a week due to health challenges, plan for it now. If you’re a primary caregiver and that role takes a certain number of hours a day, write that down and plan around it not against it.
Third, what kind of creative energy do you have right now?
This one is huge.
Are you in a start-phase where everything feels exciting?
A finish-phase where you want to complete things that are already in motion?
A teaching/learning-phase where you want to be around other people and are trying to gain inspiration?
Or a making-phase where you just want your hands on the work?
Your future plan needs to match the kind of creative energy you actually have — not the kind you wish you had.
And finally, what three things do you absolutely want to protect next year?
Rest days?
Studio time?
Family time?
Your energy in general?
A particular project?
Write down two or three.
When you know what you want to protect, your priorities become crystal clear very quickly.
If you want a community that will help you map capacity first, I’ve got one.
Before we touch goals, projects, or plans, we look at the actual year in front of us and what you can realistically carry.
It shapes every single decision afterward.
If you want help building your 2026 plan the same way — practically, calmly, and creatively – join us.
Once you have a clear sense of your actual capacity — what your year can hold, what your energy looks like, and what needs protecting — then you can move into Step 2:
Choose one or two anchors for 2026.
Not ten goals. Not a vision board the size of a dining table. Just… one or two anchors.
Anchors are the things you return to all year long.
They’re not tasks. They’re not resolutions.
They’re directional guides that keep you from drifting in 47 different directions at once.
Here’s what good creative anchors can look like:
“Build a cohesive body of work with no more than 20 pieces.”
Not “make art every day.” Not “build a portfolio.” That’s too vague. This is one clear, achievable outcome.
“Develop my signature style.”
This one isn’t about output — it’s about identity, exploration, and clarity. You know you’re close when, if someone asks “What do you make?” you can answer without fumbling.
This is a personal one for me. “Teach consistently at the guild.”
This kind of anchor is predictable, steady, and community-minded. Just be specific about what “consistently” means to you and how you’ll know you did it.
“Sell monthly instead of randomly.”
This shifts your business rhythm without overwhelming you. It might be a single piece, a certain number of pieces, or a dollar figure. Setting it monthly helps with rhythm — just remember to work around the months you already know are packed.
“Create two new income streams — one online, one in person.”
That’s a balance that keeps your business diversified. I’m a firm believer in multiple streams of income — what I call a portfolio career — so that if one is lean, the others can help carry it.
Anchors work because they create clarity.
They keep you from chasing every idea that pops into your head.
They cut down the overwhelm because everything else either supports the anchor… or it doesn’t.
They also help your energy stay o rganized.
When you know your anchors for the year, you know instantly which opportunities belong — and which ones don’t.
And one of the easiest ways to choose your anchors is to ask yourself two simple questions.
What do you want more of?
More quiet time? More learning? More studio hours? More sales? More joy?
Wanting more of something is a signal that your creativity is already leaning that way.
Anchors built on desire — not obligation — are much easier to sustain. You might look back on 2025 and recall what worked, what you enjoyed, what you want more of.
What do you want to stop chasing — what do you want less of?
This is a big one.
Maybe it’s something that drains you.
Maybe it’s social media pressure.
Maybe it’s someone else’s idea of success.
Letting go creates space for something steadier, healthier, and more aligned.
Your anchors don’t have to be flashy.
They just need to be true to you.
If you can be honest about those two questions, your 2026 anchors will usually reveal themselves — with that quiet, “Oh… of course,” kind of feeling.
You’ll know you’ve chosen the right anchors when everything else starts to make a little more sense — the yeses, the nos, the opportunities you want to lean toward.
And once those anchors are clear, Step 3 is simple:
Make goals aimed at those anchors that actually fit your real life — not the imaginary version of your life we tend to want.
Here’s the key to success:
the plan should fit your life; your life should not contort to fit your plan.
Fabric creatives especially need goals that respect reality — your timelines, your studio setup, your budget, your energy, your seasons, and your responsibilities.
We’re working in rhythms, not spreadsheets.
So instead of asking, “What’s everything I want to do next year?”
I want you to try considering this:
Pick one project you can actually finish!
Not twelve quilts.
Not a brand-new clothing line.
Just one thing — one project you can take from idea to done without burning yourself down to the studs. Just pick one. It doesn’t even have to be “the right one.”
Trust me, when you get that one done, the other ones will be right there waiting their turn.
Choose one business task you can actually sustain!
Monthly sales? A quarterly market? One class each season?
Consistency comes from choosing something that fits your bandwidth, not something that looks impressive on paper. Whatever it is, make it small enough you can sustain it.
Adopt one new practice that actually fits your personality!
Not someone else’s routine.
Not the trend of the week.
Something that feels natural for you — whether that’s a weekly studio hour, batching work once a month, or scheduling one “admin morning” so you stop doing it at 10 PM on a random Tuesday.
When your goals fit your real life, they become doable.
And when they’re doable, they become repeatable.
And that’s when things start to build.
Once you know your capacity, and you’ve chosen your anchors, and you’ve built maybe 2 goals that actually fit your real life…
the last piece is Step 4 - create a planning system you can actually use.
Most traditional planning methods fall apart for us because they’re built for corporate environments — not people who work with creative ideas, color, intuition, and shifting energy.
We need something visual.
Something flexible.
Something we can touch, move around, and come back to and tweak after a long week.
So here are a few maker-friendly tools you might take for a test drive — and remember, these are suggestions, not rules.
Think of this like a salad bar: take what works, leave what doesn’t, mix and match until it feels right. But do feel free to try a new ingredient just to find out about it.
Whiteboards are perfect for big-picture thinking. You can erase, move things around, scribble, re-organize — all without the pressure of “getting it right.”
Sticky notes let your ideas stay fluid. When your plan changes (and trust me, it will), you just pick up a note and move it instead of starting over.
Perhaps a combo is more your style. One of my favorites is a big, dry-erase wall calendar with sticky notes!
Or maybe you’re the paper planner kind of person. Use what works for you!
Now as far as your time goes, you might try Batching. Do similar tasks together so your brain doesn’t have to jump between “creative mode” and “admin mode” then back again.
It saves energy.
Or perhaps Time blocks. Some creatives use the two hours on, two hours off blocking method. Some use 50 minutes with a 10-minute break. Whatever works for you. I set a timer to keep me on track.
You might try weekly resets. Take a quiet moment each week to look at what actually happened, what needs adjusting, and what the next right step is.
Quarterly check-ins are also helpful. Not a full review. Just a conversation with yourself:
“Is this still working? Is this still the direction I want?” What’s the progress look like over the last three months?
Quarterly gives you enough time to see real patterns, without letting the whole year slip by.
Planning doesn’t have to be pretty.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.
It doesn’t have to be something you execute flawlessly.
It just needs to be visible, it needs to be flexible, and it needs to be easy to use.
That’s it.
If you build a system and use tools you can actually live with — instead of a system you feel guilty about ignoring or worse, can’t sustain — that’s when planning starts working for you, not against you.
You don’t need a rigid, color-coded, indexed, 47-page plan.
You need something that actually works with the way you create.
Start with your capacity — the real space you have next year, not the imaginary version of your life.
Choose one or two things to focus on — the things that will keep you pointed in the right direction, even in the messy weeks.
Set goals that match your actual life — not goals you hope you’ll magically have energy for.
And build a planning system that’s simple, visible, flexible, and easy to follow.
If you do just those four things, you’ll be miles ahead of where most people land on January 1.
And inside The Maker’s Path, we’re applying all of this step-by-step all month long.
Not a giant overhaul.
Not an all-day planning marathon.
Just small, doable pieces — together — so you’re not planning 2026 alone.
If you want my help building your plan, go to www.virginialeighstudio.com/themakerspath. I’ll put the link is in the show notes.
Before January hits, I encourage you to sketch the year ahead in pencil — not pen.
It doesn’t have to be perfect.
It just needs to point you in the right direction.
And next week, in Part 2 of this series, we’re going to look back at 2025 together — not through numbers and spreadsheets, but through the things your year was actually trying to tell you.
What worked, what needs to be retired, and where you should double down in 2026.
It’s one of my favorite episodes of the series, and it will set you up beautifully for the new year.
I’ll see you next week.
